This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:09] Forty days in America will be overthrown. That good guys get a man down. It's a coffee, let's do it. You realize that's the message that Jonah preached in the city of Minova. Just one phrase like that. Open your Bible to Jonah 3. And I want you to see that just from Jonah going around the city saying that one phrase, which in my opinion would be one of the worst sermons in the history of the world, if that's always said.

[00:00:43] So I'm gonna say a little bit more than that.

[00:00:47] That just that one phrase. And God does this massive work of revival in the city of Nineveh. Finally, in the book of Jonah in Chapter three this morning, we get to the city of Minova and we get to see what we've been waiting to see, which is this massive turning from evil to God. And it's amazing that God does this because Jonah, we know already know, doesn't want to go. And now the message that he gives is so terrible. It's just a lame sermon. Look at look at this with me, Jonah. Chapter three, verses one through ten. Follow along with me as I read it says, Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah. The second time saying, Arise, Goeden, Enova, that great city and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Minova according to the word of the Lord. Now, Minova was an exceedingly great city. Three days journey and breadth, Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out. Here's a sermon yet 40 days and then of shall overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. And the word reached the king of Nineveh. And he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through an Enova by the decree of the King and his nobles. Let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God that everyone turned from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

[00:02:59] And when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them. And he did not do it.

[00:03:13] This is an amazing story. I mean, we have a city here that is known for its violence. That's even how they describe themselves. I mean, it's just a people that was known for the torture, the brutality, the way they would treat their enemies, the way they would even treat one another, just known to be a bad city of people. And we see from the top down to the bottom. A massive turn of repentance from the king, it says from the greatest all the way down to the least it to the animals are put non sackcloth and repenting and turning to God. And God says, I'm not going to judge this city because of their repent. It's not so amazing that it causes a lot of people to wonder how could these things be? How could something that awesome even happen? And so when we read this chapter, if you were to read the commentaries on and if you were to listen to sermons on June three, there's a lot of people throwing their guesses. They're kind of conjecture as to why such a massive work of repentance happened, like they're trying to explain it. In fact, one of the most famous stories about a great fish besides the book of Jonah in the Bible is the story Moby Dick. Anybody ever heard of that story before? And in in Moby Dick, when they're on the boat being attacked by the by the mighty whale.

[00:04:36] The guy there's a preacher on the boat and he preaches a sermon. And guess what book? The Bible. He preaches from an Moby Dick. Anybody have a guess? Jonah. And he does a great job. Like so many preachers of talking about so many details and completely missing the point of what is happening. Let me just give you a little bit of that sermon. It's a little longer than Jonah's sermon. It's as shipmates. This book containing only four chapters, four yarns is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the scriptures. I mean, this guy knows that a preacher.

[00:05:11] Yet what depths of soul Jonah's deep sea lines sound. What a pregnant lesson to us is this prophet.

[00:05:19] What a noble thing is that canticle in the fish's belly. How below? Like an boisterously grand. We feel the flood surging over us. We sound with him to the kelpie bottom of the waters. Seaweed and all the slime of the sea is about us.

[00:05:35] But what is this lesson that the book of Jonah teaches? That's a great summary of all I've read about the book of Jonah right there. Like a lot of cool imagery, like, whoa, we're down there with seaweed. Wow. This book, like, is pregnant with truth. We're saying all this interesting, that kind of stuff. But what are we really even learning? I mean, when a guy goes on and makes a bunch of points that I don't see in the book of Jonah, so I want to just encourage you. Why did this massive work of repentance happen? OK, let's just stick with what the text says. Let's not add our own ideas. One thing I think is clear is that it didn't happen because of Jonah. Jonah didn't want to be there. We're going to get to Chapter four next week if you come back. Jonah is not happy that these people repent and they're not going to be judged. And I think he's not even really trying too hard with this sermon. Are you kidding me? With this sermon right here. Forty days overthrown. And you can just see him walking through the streets, just shouting, 42 hours overthrown. And it's not because of anything compelling that he says. I mean, the fact that you're going to be destroyed in 40 days is a compelling idea, but he doesn't seem to explain it. There's no commentary here. Like with many other words, Jonah, explain to them who God was and how he could save them. It just seems like he's shouting something. And for some reason, these people, they respond. Why? Well, let's go back to verse two here, where God's giving now, Jonah, the command to go to Nunavut for the second time and it says, arise, Goeden, Enova, that great city. Now, that's a key phrase there. OK.

[00:07:06] And it's clear that the Minova is maybe the biggest city in the world at this time. It's hard to say exactly how big it is, and it's hard to say how big that would be in comparison, like with the population of the world then in comparison with the population of the world. Now, a couple of details it does give us. If you look at verse three, it says Three days journey in breadth. So there's even a lot of debate about what that phrase means. But the basic idea, it seems like, is that it might take you three days just to walk around the walls of this city. And a lot of people would say that might be about a 60 mile long wall that is brewing in this city in. So it's just trying to say the immensity of the size of the city. If you go down to the end of chapter four, verse eleven. God says that there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left. So a hundred and twenty thousand, maybe small children who cannot even tell you what which way is right and which way is left. And so they start to make estimates from. There, if you got one hundred and twenty thousand kids. Well, how many then would that mean? The whole population is of the city and people might estimate like around six hundred thousand people living in the city of minivan's. So it gives us a very clear idea. Then, Jonah, three, that this is a massive a great city. It says we're talking about a lot of people. This is not a small group of people. Right. We got excited about 13 people profess in repentance and faith here this morning. There was a lot of excitement in the room. This is talking about perhaps six hundred thousand people repenting of their sins.

[00:08:48] Just a massive amount.

[00:08:50] And notice how it says go to that great city. Right. And then verse three, it says. So Jonah arose. This time he actually does what God says he the second time around. And he went and Enova and according to the word of the Lord, he's now obeying what God told him to do. And then it throws in this interesting thought right here. Now, Minova was an exceedingly great city. Now I got that. You already told me it was a great city, but now it adds the word exceedingly. And if you look there, there's a little note in your if you got the ESV translation or maybe whatever translation you got, there's a little footnote. Number one, if you look down in the Hebrew, how it reads here is it's a great city to God. So, yeah. Describe for us a massive city of people. But here, I think the idea's a little inspired footnote here is that this is a great city and I don't think it's just referring to the size of the city because the word here in Hebrew is L.O. Heem. Anybody ever that heard that word before Elohim. What does that mean? That's that's whose name is reference to God.

[00:09:53] So I think it's saying God thought this was a great city.

[00:09:57] Not even that he was impressed by it. But there were many people in this city. Therefore, God had compassion on them. Therefore, God's heart went out to them. Therefore, God sent his prophet to perhaps the biggest and most violent city in the world at that time, because the where there are more people, God will have more compassion, because when God looks at centers, his desire is what for sinners? What have we learned here at this church that God wants to what he wants to save people? That judgment is coming. Here's the message.

[00:10:31] Forty days in Innova will be overthrown. But we tell you that message and that's not the point.

[00:10:37] God takes no delight in the death of wicked people in violent people meeting violent ends. That does not bring God pleasure. Here's what God pleases to do to save sinners and draw them into relationship with himself. That's what he wants to do. So let's just get this clear. Why did a massive revival of repentance happen in Geneva?

[00:10:58] Because God wanted it to. That's why. Because it was God's desire.

[00:11:03] You don't get distracted by all of the details. Don't get distracted by this disobedient prophet Jonah and his lame sermon. Let's see what's going on. God has compassion for the city of Nienaber. It's great to him. He feels a strong desire for the people to be safe there in that city. Do you know that about God? And here's what's amazing. There's there's two people that repent. There's two people that turn it to different groups. One is the people of Minova. Look at verse eight here. The king calls in his decree that's published throughout the land in the middle of verse eight. He says let everyone turn from his evil way. And then specifically, he knows that they are a violent people. That was the sin that Nanva was known for. So he says, let everyone turn, OK? That's the Hebrew word. Shoeb would be a great word. S h U.B. Shoeb. It's like what you do down to Ruby's. You shooby do down to Ruby's. You turn from where you're going and you head to Ruby's. That's the Hebrew word right here. Shupe it's used over a thousand times in the Old Testament is Shupe U-turn so that he's the king is saying let everyone turn and then but look what he says in verse nine. Who knows. God may Shoeb. If we Shoeb then God my Shoeb. And then we'll be doing a little shooby dooby. That's what the king saying here. God may turn and then it says and relent. Neckar, the word to be sorry about your sin, the word to repent. Hey, if we turn, God might turn. Now, who knows where the king got this idea? Who knows how the people of Minova started talking about this. It doesn't say anything like Jonah was telling them to repent of their sins. We don't see that in his compelling, boring sermon. That's one that's one sentence long here. Right. So but the king and the people, they've got this start. I don't know how they get it, but it's a God given thought that if we turn from our sins, maybe God will turn and he'll be sorry. He'll change his mind, he'll think differently and he'll turn from his fierce anger. So God's going to Shoeb. He's going to need a calm and he's gonna Shoeb again. And then it verse 10. It says, when God saw what they did, how they shoot from their evil way, God Shuba of the disaster that he was gonna bring about Parmer. So not just the people repent, God, then relents of the judgment. He's going to do. Here's good news here this morning. Any person here who repents of their sin, if you turn from your evil ways, God will relent of judgment coming upon you. And he will forgive you for your sin. Doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. God wants to forgive sinners who come to him genuine sorrow and turning from their sin. They will always be forgiven. You don't believe me? Go to Jeremiah, Chapter 18. Look at this. Here's God speaking on this directly. We're in the minor prophet of Jonah. Go back to the left a little bit to one of the major prophets, Jeremiah, Chapter 18, a prophet to God's own people, the nation of Israel. Jonas, go into a foreign people to a foreign city in Geneva. Well, here's the prophet Jeremiah, who was sent to God's own people and to God's own people. Listen to the prophet Jeremiah when he came to them and told them to repent. No, they did not, unfortunately, and they were destroyed. And look at how God sets it up in Jeremiah, 18, who uses an analogy, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord arise and go down to the Potter's House. We've got a potter working with some clay, crafting some objects here and there. I will let you hear my words. So I went down to the Potter's House and there he is working at his wheel. He's crafting pots and things with clay, making some things for noble purposes, some for dishonorable purposes. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand. And so he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do. And the word of the Lord came to me o house of Israel, can I not do with you, as this Potter has done? Declares the Lord behold, like clay in the Potter's hand. So are you in my hand? Oh, House of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it. And if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And then any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it. If it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. And then it goes on to apply that specifically to Israel that, hey, I might have promised you good, but now you're doing evil. So turn or I'm going to judge you. I mean, do you realize what God says there? If you turn from your sin? All turned from my judgment. But if you continue in your sin, even if I've said some good things will happen to you, if you go into sin, then judgment is going to come upon you. I mean, here's God saying and this is great. This isn't about the city of nanva. This isn't about the people of Israel. This is about any nation. It says here. People like us here in America today, if you turn from your sin, all turn from the judgment that is coming upon you. Let's get it down like this. Four point number one. Here's the principle. If you repent, then God relents. If you repent, then God relents. When you come to God and you turn from your sin, you express your sadness and sorrow about the sin that you've done in the past and you commit to no longer practicing that sin in the future. He will not judge you for that sin. That's what he says right there. I mean, this is encouraging news for people like us here in America in the year 2015, because I don't think God is planning on blessing us. We've talked about that over the last few weeks here at this church. I mean, clearly, our nation had more of a foundation, of a belief in God back in the past than it does right now. I was get that privilege of speaking to our kids who were here at the Happy Bible Club on Wednesday night while all the home fellowship groups were going on. And we talked about we looked at the dollar bill, a very effective prop. If you're ever gonna speak to kids, just give them money and you have their attention. Who wants a dollar? And everybody's paying attention to the message all of sudden. And we hand out the dollar and we're making some points. And it shocks the kids. Some of these kids were shocked to see that on the back of the one dollar bill on American currency. Guess what? It says four simple words right there in God We Trust.

[00:17:42] Can't really say that about our nation anymore, can we?

[00:17:46] I mean, how long is it going to continue to be on the dollar bill where it says in God we trust here in these United States of America? So we've turned the wrong way. And here's some good news from Jeremiah, Chapter 18 versus seven and eight.

[00:17:59] For you this morning, this should fuel your prayer for our nation. This should inspire you that there is hope for us, that if this nation, even where we're at right here today, if we will repent of our sins, then God will relent of judgment coming upon America. Does that sound good to anybody right there that give you hope? It's not over yet. The last page has not been written. The store, the credits aren't roll in, my friends. We can still do something about this country that we love, that we live in called America. And we could see a great revival of repentance here in our day. That's what I'm rooting for. That's what I'm praying for. In fact, we've been saying a little bit about Revive America. We've been encouraging people to pray about it. And I wonder how much of us even think our prayers could make a difference or something could happen in our nation. Or if we have such little faith in the Almighty God in his desire to save that, we don't really think there's hope for America. I mean, how much have you been praying for our nation while we're going through a series called God Revive America? I mean, look what he did for the city of Knin of Up Liquidy did.

[00:19:05] For the city of Minova.

[00:19:08] Six hundred thousand people may be turning from their sin and not being judged.

[00:19:16] What could he do for America?

[00:19:18] What could he do through people like us? We got a prophet who only throws out one line maybe who doesn't even really want to be there. I want to be in America. I want to be right here right now. I want to be here with you. And I'm asking God to use us to do a great work of revival. Are we asking him to do something awesome?

[00:19:34] Have you. Have you been inspired to pray more for our nation as we think about this? You know, one thing I can tell that we're really worked up about here in America is abortion. Anybody here worked up about abortion. I'm worked up about it, man. I see that every day on my feet were selling body parts. In America, a government funded operation is selling body parts in America. That makes me furious. Does that make anybody else furious? I mean, you want to talk about repenting of violence, about repenting of abortion. How I mean, how many millions of babies have been killed who can't understand their right hand from their left hand? I get upset about that. But you know what? I wonder if Christians prayed for their nation as much as they complained about people committing abortion in our nation. Like for everybody who's going off on Planned Parenthood, who's getting down on their knees and praying for those people to repent of their sins.

[00:20:30] Good first Timothy chapter to look at it with me first, Timothy. Chapter two, and you'll see here that it talks about the kind of prayers that you and I should be praying. Hopefully, you know, this passage. And it's going to mention some specific people that you and I should be praying for if we care about our country at all. And we want to see God relent of the judgment that is surely coming upon us for our sin like abortion here in America. And then we need to pray. And here's how we're commanded to pray. Here's how Paul instructs Timothy to do it. We read this on Scripture of the Day this week. Maybe some of you guys read this with us. We were reading through First Timothy, and it said this on Tuesday morning when I read it, Chapter two. First of all, then I urged that supplications prayers, intercessions and Thanksgivings be made for all peoples. We're praying for all of the people. And then I mentioned some specific people for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good. It's good to pray like this. It's good to pray for all people, specifically for our governing authorities.

[00:21:39] And it's pleasing in the sight of God, our savior and God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God wants to save all the invites. He wants to save all the Americans. Here's the heart of God to save people. So why aren't we asking him to do it even more than we are right now?

[00:21:59] And it mentioned specifically. There were supposed to pray for who? For kings and kings.

[00:22:06] Do we have a king here in America? No, we don't. Right. That's why we had the Revolutionary War. Right. We've got a guy that we could recognize. That's the leader of our nation. Sometimes he seems to act like a king. To some of us. Right. He seems to act independently of the checks and balances. I mean, if there was as much prayer for Barack Obama as I see, talk about him on my Facebook news feed.

[00:22:32] And I wonder where America would be at.

[00:22:35] If every time somebody complained about our president of these United States, they prayed for his soul. A lot of debate about the election that's coming up. Anybody paying attention to all the the Donald Trump ness that's going on in America right now? Who's going to run against Hillary? Man, when I think about the next presidential election before I despair for my nation. The thing that I should do is I should go to God in prayer. Who's that leader? What if that person experienced a revival? What if they did create something like the king does here? I mean, I guarantee you the king of Minerva was a wicked man. I mean, to rule the people of violence, you probably had to be a violent man yourself. I don't think he was some saint. I don't think he was coming from the right wing, if you know what I mean. And he shares a decree that there is going to be repentance and what a repentance it is when you turn back to Minova with me and Jonah, Chapter three.

[00:23:33] I mean, we're talking about getting out sackcloth. I mean, this this course kind of sac that you would wear, this uncomfortable garment that you would put on to express your morning, to express your sorrow were throwing up ashes. Nobody. No kids, no animals. Nobody is tasting anything. I mean, we are going all out expressing outwardly a sorrow that apparently came from the inside to leave our scene behind. And it comes from the top down. It comes from the king declaring it out to the people. A published decree like a new law of the land, like an amendment to the Constitution, like a new declaration or bill of Rights that would be made where he says, everybody, the law of this land in this city right now is we're all going to stop what we're doing and we're gonna get sorry about our sin and we're going to turn because who knows, maybe God will turn to and he'll give us a chance, like a genuine brokenness overseen coming from the top of the nation. Do we have faith that something like that could happen in America? Like when I mentioned the name Barack Obama, like him declaring a national day of repentance. Do you have faith that something can do that? That that's something that could happen? Because if you don't if that rubs you the wrong way, if you can't see that happening, then your focus is on man and not on God.

[00:25:01] Because I guarantee you, God did something here in the king of minivan's heart that nobody saw coming. Nobody, sock'em.

[00:25:09] It's not about the rulers of our nation that their hearts are like water in the hands of the Lord, right? He directs them wherever he pleases. Now we're talking to the guy who's really in charge of America. When we pray to God and we ask him to work through our leaders and in our nation, can you imagine that? Sound great. Could you even imagine what that would be like, a national day of repentance? You know, we got national days for everything now. Have you noticed this? You can't go a week in this country without somebody being like. Well, today's National Ice Cream Day. You guys notice this? Like a couple weeks ago, somebody came up and they were like, I was really disappointed. The ice cream truck wasn't here today because this is National Ice Cream Day. And I'm like, where did this come from? Like, who did? Who's over there making up national dates? Apparently Friday was National Hot Dog Day. Does anybody know about this? If you if you go on social media, it's like every day now is a national day of something. Yesterday was the National Day of Dancing. That's what it was. I hope you celebrate it. You know, it was the National Day of Dancing. Can you imagine if all of a sudden it was like nobody go to work?

[00:26:15] Like, everybody, stop what you're doing.

[00:26:18] And go put on sackcloth and ashes. I mean, go confess your sins to God. Turn from your evil ways like a whole day where America shut down. Top to bottom to repent of our sins.

[00:26:33] And isn't that what we need?

[00:26:35] Who's praying for that day, who's praying for a national day of repentance, that God would look at America and he would see us as a great nation, or we could talk about how great we are. Listen to any speech about our country and the word gradle. Be in there a few times. But no, like we're great to God. Like, God has compassion on us because of our sin. He sees how harassed and helplessly we are like sheep without a shepherd and his heart goes out to us, his heart hurts for us. And God's desire for our nation is for people to be saved. And I want to be a part of that. I want to pray for God to save people.

[00:27:12] Anybody with me on this? We got to pray for a revival in our nation and if we repent, then God will relent. There is still hope for America because there is hope in God, our savior. If he could do this and Minova, what can he do here with us? So let's ask him to do something.

[00:27:30] Let's pray big things. And if you've never heard that we've had him for a long time, haven't we, our president, Barack Obama. You've never really prayed for him to repent of his sins. Today is your day to confess your sin of not praying for your leader and to ask God to give him a turning.

[00:27:49] Joint decree from from our president and Congress that today will be in these United States of America, a national day of repentance. That would be amazing. Let's pray that God will turn many hearts to him. And then you'll see here in verse five something amazing that happens.

[00:28:07] It says in verse five of Jonah three. And the people believed in who does it say they believe their shout shouted out, if you're with me. Who did they believe? Wow. I thought Jonah was the one who had to get an end of a all these chapters about getting Jonah there. Right. Forty days overthrown, 40 days overthrown. And it's like the people don't even notice.

[00:28:29] Jonah, do you see that? It's like there's no more talk about Jonah in the rest of the chapter. Nobody's like, wow, this guy Jonah really blew my mind. It's like they believed who.

[00:28:41] It was like, oh, OK. Forty days overthrown. What's this guy talking about? And like a side discussion begins and it gets up to the king and it spreads everywhere. And like nobody's even paying attention to Jonah anymore because it's about God.

[00:28:53] I mean, you when you read about the book of Jonah, you read some interesting things, like one of the big theories about why there is such a massive revival of repentance is that when Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and nights, the digestive juices of the fish bleached him white, like some kind of freaky looking out by, you know, kind of a man walking spit up by a great fish and and probably multiple people saw him when he got vomited out of the great fish's mouth. They were on the beach just relaxing. And here came a prophet sailing out of the great vomit of the great fish. And the word begins to spread.

[00:29:33] And as Jonah came in, now the city of Minova, it's actually named after new new, right? Well, there were the city of Mnet Nimrod and New New is the Akkadian word for.

[00:29:43] Wait for it, my friends. Guess what, fish. And in the city of Minova, they worship the God, Dega, Dagon, who's half fish and half man. OK. So we've got this bleached white prophet just spit out of the belly of the great fish coming into the city of the fish, preaching to the people who worship the God who's half men in fish. And that's why they listen is because of the powerful, compelling presentation of the messenger and how he is just bleached white. Still probably got some of the seaweed on him as he's walking down the street, not having seen a shower or anything like that. And the people can smell him coming down and they flee from their sins. That's how it reads. And some of the commentaries like people turned because it was just overwhelming the miracle of what happened in the great fish. I want you to notice that we've moved on from the fish. He wasn't mentioned in the entire chapter, my friends. Yeah, it's man trying to explain something that you can't explain that supernatural.

[00:30:45] OK. The people believed who who did the people believe, who was talking to them, who got their attention? Who drew their hearts? Who turned them around?

[00:30:55] God did a work of salvation in the city of Minable. Let's not give the glory to the worst prophet ever named Jonah or let the great fish steal the show anymore. This is God. And that's what the people have never got right away. God is angry with us for our sins. And there was a conviction and they turned from their sin and they threw themselves on the mercy of God. And God was merciful to them. They turned and God turned.

[00:31:25] That's what happened here. And this is really important for us. That it's not about the messenger. Let's just make that very clear, OK?

[00:31:34] If you're the one that's told to give the word of the Lord and you've all been told to give the word of the Lord, we're gonna get to that in a second. If you're the one who's been told to give the word of the Lord, let's just make it very clear. It's not about you.

[00:31:46] It's not about you. And some of you guys are gonna take that different ways. Tell me you guys are gonna think that somehow your compelling presentation, the way that you put it, your unique slant on things. The look that you bring to it. Right. The way that you relate to people. Right. The fact that you struggle with the same thing they do that somehow what's going to win these people? And you start to think that maybe you're a little bit a part of the work of salvation that God is doing. That's the way some of you might be tempted to think and let the messenger get in the middle of what God's doing with the people. Another way that some of you will play the messenger card is you'll be like, well, I'm not really called to be one of those messengers.

[00:32:26] I'll see. God did the work. It's almost like he doesn't even need me, so I'll just fade into the background and never talk to anybody about it because I'm not really one of those people.

[00:32:34] There's no such thing as a Christian who's not a messenger of the good news of Jesus Christ. Can I get a man from anybody on that? Everybody here is an ambassador to America. In the name of Jesus Christ. Let's go to Luke 24. Let's go to Luke 24. And let's see what our message is that we're supposed to be spreading, that we've been sent. We know our great mission that we have is to go and make disciples. But what does that look like? What's the content that we're supposed to be saying to people? OK, we've got a much better message than 40 days overthrown. OK, listen to the message that you and I are told to give. We know the great commission. Hopefully we know it, Matthew, 28, 18 to 20, where it says that we're supposed to go and make disciples of all nations. Well, here's another way to say the same command in the Gospel of Luke. Another version of the great commission, Luke, 24, verse 46. Start with me here. Jesus is showing them from the Old Testament all these things about them. And in verse 45, he's opening their mind to understand the scriptures. And then he says this here's his charge before he ascends into heaven. Here's his last charge to his disciples in the Gospel of Luke. Thus it is written. Jesus said to them, does it is written that the Christ should suffer?

[00:33:52] And on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things.

[00:34:07] And behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Luke. Twenty four forty six says that. Hey, here's what it's written. The Christ is going to suffer and die. And on the third day he will rise again. What do we call that around here at CompassHB Bible Church. What we call that as a gospel. That's a good news.

[00:34:30] Here's the good news. Jesus is God. He died for your sins and rose again. That's the gospel. And we're supposed to go in. He's sending us out to be witnesses of this, to tell the world this, to go and make disciples of all nations. And here's what we're supposed to say. Repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus name to all nations.

[00:34:51] Now, I don't know why Jonah said what he said or how much he really said his heart definitely wasn't into the message. We're gonna find out in Chapter four. But here's why. What Jonah said worked with the people of Minova because it's what God told him to set. When you say what God says, it will be effective. It will never return void. We need to say what God says we're supposed to say when we spread his message and the word that he uses all over the place that we don't use that much today is repentance. OK. This is the word that he uses. Repentance and here were in the New Testament and we're being told to go and spread repentance. And the word here is Metanoia. So when we translate that the Hebrew of the Old Testament, when the Greeks translated the Hebrew of the Old Testament into the Greek translation of it, we call that the Septuagint. Maybe you've heard of that before. They translated the Old Testament. And there is that word, Shoeb appear in all over the place. They take that word Shoeb in the Hebrew and in the Greek. They turn it into metanoia, which is this military kind of word that you would use. It does mean an about face. That's what it would mean. It would mean a 180 degree turn around. It's two words put together. That means like a change of mind is the idea.

[00:36:13] It's getting back to this idea of turning the main message that we're supposed to be spreading among America, that somehow the people of Minova got, whether Jonah said it or not, is turn from your sins to God. That's the message we're supposed to be given. If you turn, he forgives.

[00:36:30] If you repent, he relents. That's the message. Repentance and forgiveness of sins. It says preach proclaimed in Jesus name to all nations.

[00:36:41] Now, if you read through the New Testament, you will see that this crazy man, John the Baptist, showed up eating locusts and wild honey. OK. Just an interesting guy wearing a belt of leather, very fashion forward for his day. And he came and he raised a ruckus. And what is the main thing that John the Baptist told people to do? Say it like you mean it. What is the main thing you told them to do? Then this guy, who's he? He's not even worthy to untie his sandals. This greater teacher starts to show up and he starts to do all these miracles and massive crowds are following him. And what's the main thing? The first word it says in Matthew 417 or mark one 14 to 15 when he talks about Jesus coming on the scene and preach. And what's the main thing he's calling them to do? You could say it with a little more enthusiasm we're building. You notice my voice is going up. Your voices can come up. Right. Then we get to the first church first the day the church begins acts. Chapter two, the first sermon.

[00:37:37] Peter preaches that you guys kill Jesus. But God rose him from the dead and their cut to their heart. They're convicted and they say, what shall we do? And the first word coming out of the apostles, Peter's mouth is. That's what he tells them to do.

[00:37:53] So who have you told the repent in your life?

[00:37:56] Who have you said that they need to repent of their sins? Because nobody's getting saved if nobody's repentant. And if you're not spreading the word repentance, then how are people gonna turn from their sins?

[00:38:07] We've changed the message. Do you get that we've changed the message. We've said, ask Jesus into your heart. That's what we said. We've said accept Christ. That's what we've said. We've changed the message and here's the thing. We don't have the authority to change the message.

[00:38:21] We don't get to decide what we say. We say what God says. That's where the power comes from. People believe him, not us.

[00:38:30] OK, that's point number two.

[00:38:31] Let's put it down like this.

[00:38:33] You need to say what God says to say, say what God says to say and word that everybody needs to have at the front of your vocabulary is this word repentance. There should never be a day that goes by that you don't talk to someone about repentance of their sin or tell someone how you turned from your sin. You can ask people if they're a Christian or not. And you can get all kinds of very interesting answers these days because there's all kinds of definitions that people have in their minds of what it means to be a Christian. But when you say to somebody, when did you repent of your sins, you start dealing with a level of clarity that a lot of people go into church right now, don't have the very helpful word.

[00:39:16] That's probably why it's throughout the entire Bible. We need more people to Shoeb. We need more people to metanoia. We need an about face, a complete redirection from sin to God. It's called repentance.

[00:39:31] We need to define it. I mean, basically, the more I talk to people about God and as a pastor, I get the awesome privilege of seeing a lot of people get saved. The more I talk to people about God, actually, the more simpler it gets. And I'm convinced that anybody here could help someone become a Christian if you've got the Holy Spirit, if you know the scripture. It's as simple as explaining to someone what the gospel is, what repentance is and what faith is. If you can explain those three words, you can help someone do them.

[00:40:00] See? And you've got to know repentance. You got to be talking about it.

[00:40:05] We're going to revival and we're not telling these young people about repentance. We can get as excited as we want. Nothing's going to happen if they stay in their sin.

[00:40:13] God's not relenting if they're not repenting.

[00:40:17] We can do all we want here at this church, we can get floats in the Fourth of July parade. We can hand out free ice cream. We can do all kinds of great things. We can get to love each other. We don't talk about repentance. People don't turn from their sin. And there's nothing happened in here at this church.

[00:40:30] God acts 26, 20, acts 26, 20 when Paul's on trial. And he's asked to to summarize his whole life. He has to give a defense for why he's an apostle of Jesus Christ for one of the Senate ones. One of the Paul took this this commission very seriously. He literally tried to go everywhere, telling people of all different nations and all kinds of different cities. The gospel message. And that they should respond with repentance and faith, that if they repented of their sins, God would forgive them of their sins. And he tells his story of conversion in here and Acts 26, how Jesus came to him on that road and how Jesus redirected him and turned him around. And then he says this. Max, 26, Berton's verse 19. Look at it with me, x 26, verse 19, therefore o King Agrippa. I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Well, what was he supposed to do? I declared first to those in Damascus. Versity I was in, then in Jerusalem, then throughout all the region of Judea and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

[00:41:45] Here's what I thought it was to be a Christian. Here's what I set out to do. I started in the city I was in. Then I went to another city. Then I went to a region. Then I just started going anywhere that I could. And I told him to repent. What does that mean? It means I turned to God. What does it look like? It looks like a new practice of righteousness, of living for God in your life that you prove by your what? Your deeds. We've got professions of faith. That's awesome. What we're looking for is practices of faith. You see the difference there. Anybody can say they're repenting. Who's proving it? By the new life that they're now living. By the real change that comes from the inside out. That we can see in the redirection of their entire social structure, their entire time management, their entire hearts desires are now made new by Jesus Christ because they've been turned around.

[00:42:33] That's what he says you've got to do here.

[00:42:35] So no wonder we're having a rough time in America. No wonder the churches are getting weaker these days and looking more and more like the world because we've lost the main word that we're supposed to be leading with in our gospel response. Repent is what we're supposed to be saying.

[00:42:51] So we need to tell as many people as we possibly can to repent. I want to challenge every single one of us here. We had homework last week and a lot of you guys did the homework. I just got to thank you guys. I had so many storms come into my inbox this week. I had more e-mail this week than in my entire life. I've you sent me an e-mail. I'm sorry. I felt way behind. I was reading all these awesome psalms that people were sending me. It was amazing. It was Psalms all over Facebook. Anybody see a few songs on Facebook for people here in the churches praising the Lord out there in public? It was great. We were worshiping the Lord for our own salvation. Here's the word. Now we need to spread to other people for their salvation. Repent. Who are you going to tell to repent this week? And you don't need to do it with a sign. And you don't need to do it with a frown. You don't need to be mean about it. That's the stigma that the word repentance has gotten. But we can be smiling, happy, friendly. You better repent kind of people. That's where we can be here at this church. Turner burn with a smile. That's what we're doing here every single Sunday. OK, Turner tournament with free ice cream. Right to cool you off as you think about the coming fire. Right? I mean, that that's basically it's basically kind of the kind of thing we're doing. OK.

[00:43:59] You got a fun start with your family. Start with your closest friends. End up talking to complete strangers. Maybe some of us will go across the world together encouraging people to repent.

[00:44:09] Our Web team came to me this week and they said we're going to start doing something. They were geeking out. You know how the Web guys are. Right. They were geeking out. Some of my good friends who run our Web site, some of the people who just they serve by running the Web site here at this church. They said, we're going to start taking snippets of your sermon and we're gonna start translating them into foreign languages. And we got people who will start to put little art on my. When the words come on the screen, what do we call that? When you can read it while it's going. Yeah, exactly.

[00:44:38] Subtitles We're going to put those in different languages on our sermons.

[00:44:42] We're going to start putting repent in Chinese, in Japanese, in Spanish. And we're gonna try to start spreading some of these videos, a good two to three minute video on what repentance is. Here's what repentance is in Japan or in in Mexico. Wherever you're watching this right now, repentance means you are going the wrong way. You were going into sin and you weren't living for yourself. And God turns you around and you start living for him. You leave behind your old life and you have a new life now where you want to follow God with all of your heart. And that's what repentance is. It's a Derat, drastic life change that happens from the inside out, as God redirects you. That's what it is in every single language, to every single nation all across the world world. The most important thing that we could be talking about is not abortion or not what President Obama did this last week that we didn't like know the word that we need to be talking about, that we need to be known for is repentance happy face emoji. That's what we need to be known for.

[00:45:40] We need to get it out there.

[00:45:43] I mean, it's as simple as this, Jonah calms. He gives his message 40 days and you will be overthrown. And the people believed.

[00:45:52] Who who did they hear in the message? And they heard it. Maybe people can't hear him because we're not using the heavily language, my friends. We're not using his word, whether it's Shoeb or Metanoia or a pet for us or however you say it and all the languages that we're gonna try to put it out on the Internet.

[00:46:10] OK.

[00:46:12] It's the same idea. It's God's word, you turn. You go the opposite direction. Look at Second Corinthians, Chapter five. Here's what's really encouraging to me. OK, here, here's how. Here's what gives me the strength to keep coming up here and preaching to you guys. Here's what gives me the strength. When I'm out there going door to door in the neighborhoods here in Huntington Beach or even when I'm having a meeting with somebody that goes here to the church in my office, I get nervous. I don't know if you guys ever get nervous until you guys have a fear of public speaking or anything like that. I do. OK. I mean, sometimes I'm even talking to people one on one and my palms start to get sweaty.

[00:46:51] Sometimes we're going out to evangelize and I start to feel like this little chill down my back. This little this little feeling of discomfort as I'm setting out to talk to who knows who.

[00:47:01] About the gospel of Jesus Christ. Anybody else ever get a little bit nervous about it, saying, you know what really encourages me? I'm just the messenger. I don't have to make up the message.

[00:47:11] It's not even necessarily how I deliver the message. I just got to say what God said to say. That's all I got to do.

[00:47:19] And if I keep saying what God tells me to say, he's gonna do something and I'm going to have front row seats to watch what he's doing. I had some people here at our church in my office this week, some people I've gotten to know even over years. Right. And they are Christians. They are professing believers in Jesus Christ. And there's something I believe strongly about both of these individuals that I've gotten to know and really care for over years of talking with them. They don't want to go to hell.

[00:47:48] I believe that about them. I believe it.

[00:47:51] But the truth is, these people have a consistent pattern of sin in their life that they cannot stop to save their life.

[00:48:00] That's the true.

[00:48:02] And we talked about it, we've been talking about it for years together, we've been talking about this same sin that keeps on happening.

[00:48:12] And I had to say to them. And I felt nervous and I did not feel good about it at all. But I knew it was what was God said. And I had to say to them, no one born of God continues in sin.

[00:48:25] No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. And I even put it like this. Hey, I know you guys. I genuinely believe you don't want to go to hell, but from the continual sin in your life, you're still going there.

[00:48:40] They had to see that.

[00:48:42] And I had to call people to repent. You can profess it all you want. Where is your practice? I don't care how much you know or how many people you think that you've told or how you could bring out an impressive spiritual resume. I'm sure we've got some people who could drop some impressive things that they've done for the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are still practicing sin as the direction of your life, even if you've cut out a few of the sins, but there's some sin that still defines who you are, then you need to repent.

[00:49:13] The Bible says you got to turn from it. That's the message that we have.

[00:49:18] I don't get to change it. I don't get I don't get to decide if I'm going to say it to so-and-so, whether I'm feeling like it or not. I just have to say what God said. Look at SEC Corinthians, chapter five, verse 20. Here's how it puts it. Here's the call that for all of us says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. We are official representatives of Jesus God making his appeal through us.

[00:49:45] God is literally going to reach out to people, speak to people, draw people through me and through you so that when they believe we're not going to say they believed you.

[00:49:55] If somebody's response to this sermon and repents here this morning, we're not going to say they believed all they believed, Bobby. No, we're gonna say they believed who they believed God, because he's the one making his appeal through us. What a great joy it is to know, though, I might be nervous and weak and hesitant and stumbling over my words if I'm saying what God says.

[00:50:15] He's speaking through me and you know that God is telling us to say repentance. And so it says this. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Get right in your relationship with God. Turn from the way you're living right now, from your sin to God. We call them to repent for our sake. He made him to be sin. Who knew no sin. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. It's not rocket science. What happened in Jonah? Chapter three more people heard the word of the Lord and they responded in repentance. If we tell more people to repent, we will see God save more people. It's that simple.

[00:51:01] So who are you going to tell this week?

[00:51:03] Who are you going to talk to knowing that it's God speaking through you, knowing that that's clearly the word that he wants us to use. We should be waking up. I'm praying for a big thing that God's going to revive America. But here's what I can do about it.

[00:51:17] I'm looking for my next repentance conversation. That's what I'm looking for. Maybe you started out with a testimony of telling how you how God turned your life around. Maybe you just ask a question like, do you know what repentance means? Or or when did you repent? When would you say that happened to you? You just throw it out like a question. You don't have to Bible thump anybody. That's not what I'm saying. But we do need to repeat what God says. We should say so he can speak through us. I want to encourage everybody here. Make it a goal this week. I'm going to talk about repentance with somebody. I'm going to pass on this revival of repentance that I see going all the way back to the city of Minova. A God turned from his judgment because people turned from their sin. I'm gonna be praying for that in America and I'm looking for my next conversation that I can have about it. And you might just even see God work right in front of your eyes, my friend. You might be like, wow. God used me, I would have never seen it coming. That's how it works, because they believe him, not you. You know what I want. The thing that it doesn't tell me that I want to know is not all this. The digestive juices of the great fish kind of his stuff or not.

[00:52:23] How long was the wall in the city of knid of other thing that I want to know is what happened in Denver 40 days later. That's what I want to know. When the city of Minova woke up with their sackcloth on, took their dog out for a walk and their dogs wearing a little sackcloth shirt down the street. Right. Hungry little dog. Right. And they look up and it's a beautiful day in Geneva and the sun has still risen. I think God has given them another chance. Who gets to experience that you've got to deal with your scent. It's heavy, it's intense. You've got to turn from all of it. But then guess what you get. You get to live. That's what you get. You get to look up and not be afraid that the sky is falling.

[00:53:10] You get to know that there will never be any condemnation for you. In Jesus Christ. And you will become one of the banner wavers. One of the flag bearers, one of those who carry the name of the save. One of his official ambassadors to planet Earth, to America will be you saved by Jesus Christ, anybody here love Jesus or dying on the cross for their sins? You know, we're called to turn from our sin, but someone still had to be judged for our sin into fact, someone had to become a substitute in our place.

[00:53:44] And there was only one kind of substitute that would really work, a 100 percent righteous substitute.

[00:53:51] Someone who had never sent. Who could take the punishment for all of your sin. And he came down willingly from heaven. And he sacrificed himself completely. The scene has already been paid for my friends. So why would we still live in it? Why would we not turn from it even here right now?

[00:54:12] Today, we're gonna take a time of communion, not right now in time of communion, where everybody gets a little little bit of juice and a little piece of bread. And it's symbolic. What it represents is the blood of Jesus Christ. The one hundred percent pure righteousness of Christ that was poured out to pay for all of your sins, the body that was sacrificed on the cross so that you could know forgiveness so that you will never know judgment. Jesus went through it for you. That's the good news. And what a mockery it would be. What a tragedy it would be for us to take this bread and to drink this cup and act like we remember the death of Jesus Christ while we're still walking in the sense that he died for, say.

[00:54:56] If there is no repentance, there is no love for Jesus Christ. There is no praise of him. That's why we say when we take this communion, if you are practicing sin in your life, I would encourage you not to take this communion because that would actually be an insult to the sacrifice of Christ. The point of it was that it would wash us from our sins and give us this hope of living now in a new way by his power, not ours. So if you're in sin, I would encourage you don't don't take this. But if you have repented of your sin. And let's remember who made it possible.

[00:55:30] And let's give him the glory and let's carry his name, repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be preached to all nations in his name. That's whose name we carry, the name of Jesus Christ. So where the ushers are going to come forward and they're going to give you these elements and then we'll take them all together.

[00:55:46] Let me pray for us. We thank you so much that you've talked to us. The word that you wanted us to know, you've told us, first of all, the good news that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one who came to suffer on that cross to take the place, our place on that cross and to die for our sin. And he rose again on the third day, defeating, defeating sin and death and Satan once and for all. And now he offers us a new life. And God, you tell us to repent. You can't do it, our own strength can't make ourselves better people. But by the power of Jesus Christ, through faith in his name, we can leave behind our old life of sin and we can turn to you. And so now we give all the glory to Jesus Christ and we remember him here this morning. God, let us be his ambassadors. Let us be those who carry his name here in our city of Huntington Beach, our county of Orange in our in our country of America. God. Let us lift high, the name of Jesus Christ is the one way by which men can be saved. And let us encourage many other people to hear the good news that he died to pay for all of their sin and that call them to the response of repentance. God, I just pray for the soul. That's way down right now for the soul that is burdened by the conviction of their own sin. The Holy Spirit is is making it clear to them that they are still in their sin even as we speak. And I pray that they will maybe let these elements pass about communion, but that they'll receive the real thing, that they'll put their faith. In the death of Jesus for their son. And the fact that he rose again to give them new life and that they will pray to you right now. God, we don't have sackcloth here. We don't have ashes. But that they would have genuine sorrow over their sin in their hearts, that they might even weep in their brokenness. They would come to you and they would repent. And God, we ask that even this morning you would relent of your judgment upon someone here. And that you would forgive them for all of their sins. You would separate them from their sin as far as the east is from the West, that you would look at their crimson stain of guilt and shame and that you would wash it. Why does snow God? Please turn people to yourself here now in this service, in this nation, like you did in the city of none of a God, we believe in you. We believe that you are a great God to save. And we ask you to do so in Jesus name. Amen.