[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's words you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: The movie Catch Me if you can is based on the true story of a guy named Frank Abagnell Jr. And some of you may have seen the movie before. There's even a TV show about him and even some books that have been written about this man.
Basically, how to put it, was quite the adventurous guy from the age of 16 to 21. So adventurous that he posed and pretended to be a lawyer, a doctor and a pilot. Yes, you heard that right. He defrauded a bunch of people and pretended to be a doctor and a pilot. In fact, he was so good at pretending to be a doctor that they ended up making him like, lead over the whole emergency room area at that age. And what kind of led him into wanting to do this? This was his reasoning. He said, you know, I was working with my dad selling newspapers, and I thought, you know, I know I'm young, but I could do so much more than this. So he decided to pose as a pilot and a doctor. And so what ended up happening with his life, if you've watched it before, he basically spent life on the run for those years, trying to stay one day, one step ahead, away from the feds. But just like God, of course, caught up with Jonah, the feds ended up catching up with Frank and arrested him. And so you would think, like, all right, this guy's getting arrested for costing some people their lives. Possibly. When this guy's getting arrested for defrauding people millions of dollars, you're looking at like, what, a 25, 30, 40 year sentence?
But he actually ended up only being in prison for two years. And so you might think, well, why in the world was this guy, you know, given such a low sentence? Well, while he was in prison, the government thought about all the things that he was able to do at such a young age. And they basically said, this guy can be very useful to us. So what we're going to do is help ourselves by getting him to help us find people like Frank.
We're gonna use Frank to help us, like, go into the mind of what it's like to be someone that takes from people or commits massive fraud, and so he ends up working for the government. Now, I know Wikipedia is not like your Encyclopedia Britannica in kids. It's not the best place to get your real history facts. But I did think this was really interesting as we read this sentence, the very first sentence from Wikipedia, about the description of this man.
This is like the most redeemable sentence I've ever heard. And it just screams redemption, because the two polar opposite things that are mentioned in this description of this man.
Frank William Abagnale Jr. Born April 27, 1948, is an American security consultant, author, and convicted felon who committed frauds that mainly targeted individuals and small businesses. Wow.
Like, when you read about his life and what he did and you even read that, the first thing that I think of, especially as we dig into this text as we continue our series on Jonah, is aren't we all glad that God gives us second chances?
And especially, I think, for all of us, we kind of go through life with what I call like a rear view mirror mindset where we think, man, if I could just go back to college, I would do so many things different.
Maybe for some of you as parents, and you're now a grandparent, and you think, man, I wish I would have raised my kids different, or I wish I would have not taken this job or taken that one. And we spend so much time thinking in that way that we forget what Jonah 3:1 says when it says this. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
And if that phrase sounds familiar to you, it should, because in chapter one, this is what it said. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, but what did he do? God said, go. And he said no.
He said no. So much so that instead of going 500 miles the right way, he does what we all at times do in our disobedience. Get a little creative and go 2000 miles the opposite direction.
Yes, it would be easier to go the 500, but man, the lengths we go to to not do what God sometimes calls us to do.
Again, aren't we grateful that we serve a God that gives us those second chances?
As I was reading this this morning, I kept thinking, man, we focus so much on what we call the call, and we should.
But at the same time, this is an example that we serve a God that doesn't just call us, but he also calls us back and gives us that second chance.
But what I want you all to notice about the second chance is this. If you look at the very end of verse two, he said, arise, Go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. The message that I tell you, notice he doesn't give him the details.
Keep in mind, this text was not, like, live tweeted.
This is Jonah later on kind of telling what the experiences were. And so if that's the case that we know it to be, he's gonna highlight what really stuck out to him. And here's what he's saying. God's telling me to go to the place I ran away from, and I don't know how it's gonna work out.
He doesn't give him, like, a peek into the future. Like, man, there's gonna be a massive revival when you get there.
He says, just go and notice where he tells him to go. He tells him to go to the exact place he ran away from. And I don't know if y'all have noticed this before, but doesn't God do that a lot? The very place we said no to is the very place he sometimes still wants us to go to.
Why is that? Like, why God, would you do that with Jonah?
And why would you do that with me? Make me do something that I don't want to do, that I wouldn't enjoy doing? Oh, don't get me wrong. I believe in your purposes. I just don't want to do that.
I was kind of thinking of it almost like, with kids.
Maybe you've been in a situation before where you've been, like, Walmart in the produce section, and they pitch a fit and start throwing, like, a temper tantrum. And you're looking at them and you don't even look up, but you kind of, like, feel the people looking at you. And you're trying to think about, how, in your mind, do you handle this in a public way? And you're thinking, all right, what do I do? Do I even address it? Do I talk about it? Do I ignore it?
But then you also think about, well, what do I say right now? And you kind of might be tempted to think, you know, could we just, like, chalk this up to, like, an irreconcilable difference? Like, you go your way, I'll go mine. We'll pretend it never happened. But we can't do that, right? Because we know that, what, it's not for their good to do that.
And what I'm saying is with God and his purposes. Like, Jonah's like, I don't wanna go. He's like, well, okay, I know you don't wanna go, but you're still gonna have to face Nineveh. We're still gonna have to face something that we're not really fond of.
Your plan might be different, but my purpose is always gonna stay the same. So I need you to go.
And so he goes.
But notice how it says that. He goes. It says to arise and go.
Now. If you read this in the Hebrew, it's a very important phrase because what it really means is go now.
Kwamuluk means like, go immediately. Go now. Stop what you're doing, drop everything and go.
Well, why so insistent? Well, the same reason Jonah struggles with the call and the challenge to go, just like we all do, is we know something about ourselves, right? If we don't do it when, now, more than likely we're not going to do it. It's kind of like we'll talk with people sometimes, and you've maybe been there like I have. Hey, let's get lunch. But if I don't put it in my phone immediately, we're probably not going to do it.
To act immediately on that obedience, I want you right now to think of somebody that maybe popped in your mind this morning that you've been very concerned about.
Maybe for some of you, it's somebody that you've been thinking about even over the past week.
You thought, man, I wonder what's going on with them. I've been kind of concerned about them. And you don't even know what it is. Like, it's one of those. Like, something might be off or maybe not. I just. They keep popping into my mind. Maybe for some of you, it's somebody that you've seen missing from here.
You haven't seen them in our connect groups, you haven't seen them in Bible class, and you're starting to wonder, I hope they're okay.
I want you to think about that person. And as you think about that person, here's what I want you to do right now.
I want you to write down the name of that person on your phone, maybe in your notes, maybe on a piece of paper you have in front of you. And as you're thinking about that person, I'll give you this example. I don't know if you guys have heard a lesson like I did years ago, where somebody was talking about the importance of if somebody pops in your mind, like, what if you just. For, like, A week or two reached out to that person the moment they popped into your mind.
And so I listened to that. I thought, well, okay, well, I'll give it a try. You know, the moment someone pops into my mind, I'll send them a text or give them a call.
The two that really stick out the most.
The first one, I sent a text to him, and I just said, hey, man, just want to check in, see how things were going.
And then the text I got back said, hey, man, did someone tell you to contact me?
You know, how'd you know I was. What I was going? I'm like, no. No one said anything.
Like, I just, you know, wanted to reach out. The second one was a college student from our campus ministry. I reached out to said, hey, just want to check in on you and see how you're doing. And the text back was, hey, did my mom or dad tell you to text me?
I want you to think of somebody that has popped into your mind. And here's what I want us to do. I want us to pray about that person you're gonna reach out to, and I want you to reach out to them today to text them, to call them. And here's what I want us to pray. I wanna pray about them and whatever they're going through, whatever they're facing, dealing with, and pray for their hearts.
And I also wanna pray for ours, too. Now, you might think this is kind of coming out of left field. Well, as we're gonna get into in just a second with Jonah, we're going to see that in moments where we think, well, this will be awkward. This will be weird. That's almost the point.
God's like, I don't need your perfect presentation.
The power is not in what you put together. The power is not in what you prepare. The power is in the word. We use power like it's an adjective to describe the Bible. In God's word, it is power.
And so I want us to pray for those people, and I want to pray for ourselves. And in those conversations that we'll have today, let's pray, God, we all have different people that maybe stay on our hearts and minds.
Maybe they popped into our mind this morning, and maybe we've thought like we all have is, I wonder how they're doing. And we kind of maybe move on.
Lord, be with us as we reach out to that person or those people.
And, Lord, we pray for whatever it is they're dealing with, the struggle that they're facing, the burden that they're having to bear. That we maybe have no clue about.
Lord, help us to be gracious and merciful in that. But Lord, also pray for us that we will also learn what our job is to do, which is to be your hands and to be your feet, as we say, but to really serve them and to love them.
And we pray for us in those conversations that there will be open doors and that we will believe it. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
So Jonah did arise immediately. He went to Nineveh. According to the word of the Lord, Nineveh was exceedingly great. Well, how great? If you remember from. From a few weeks ago, we talked about that the metroplex, which was like the main city part, it would have taken three days to walk across. And this city was so great that the 120,000 people that we believed to be in it, it was surrounded by these walls that we said that had chariots that could ride side by side by side, three side by side, all around the city. And that's how thick the walls were, y'all. This was a very impressive city. But here's the challenge. Jonah doesn't like them. They don't like Jonah. It would have been like a Jew during World War II going to Berlin and preaching. Like, that's the kind of vibe that he's having to deal with. But he still goes. And this is what he said in his sermon.
He called out and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Now, I want to ask you for a second, and you can be honest. It won't hurt my feelings or Brandon's. How many of y'all would love an eight word sermon? One week. Okay. Oh, okay. I see a few hands. Thank you for your honesty this morning. Anthony Grayson said, you know, I know it's in the Hebrew. It's five words. I picked the five word one. So anyway, you might choose the five word sermon, but eight words.
And when you first read this, it might be easy to read it like, you know, yet 40 days, Nineveh shall be overthrown. Come on, guys. But most scholars agree that when he says what he says, he's not, like, very gracious and excited about it. It's more like, you had 40 days and Nebuchadnezzar shall be overthrown. Like, when you tell your kid that maybe picked on the other kid or was fussing with their sibling, and you're like, go hug and tell your sister you love them. And they're like, love you. And then they walk away. No. Look them in the eye, right? Give Them a real hug and look them in the eye and tell them that's kind of how he is notice in what he says. There is no how, there is no like, what to do next.
In fact, the wording is so strong that the word overthrown in the Hebrew, there is the same word used in Genesis 19 that was used of Sodom and Gomorrah. When he says overthrown, that's what he says. So he's going in there with very, very like, strong, harsh, uncaring, disconnected terms.
And I don't want to spoil what's next. I think a lot of us know what's about to take place. But I want to stop here for a second and think about this very minimal, unimpressive, disconnected sermon.
And also us think about that one person we have in mind that we've been thinking about, praying for had on our hearts.
And we have said, well, I haven't, you know, talked to them because I don't know what to say. And people are not changed by what you and I say.
It's not by something our flesh and our mind and our own abilities can put together that's going to fix the situation.
Number one, that's not our job. That's God's job.
We don't save people, we serve them.
We can't rescue people, but we can relate to them.
We do have a job that we're gonna get to in a second. But I don't know about you, but when you hear things like John 1, I'll give you an example. John 1 and verse 12 says this. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. So those that he's received, those that became children of God, how did they do it?
It was not by blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of a man, but it was of God.
Then if you get to John chapter 6, it says in verse 37, all that the Father gives me, come to me. Whoever comes to me, I'll never cast out. Then in verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up.
He's saying, listen, give me the opportunities. Put the people before me and let the Word do its work. Now, you might hear that. And if you're like me, that sounds really good. And I do believe in that.
But sometimes it's so mysterious. It's almost like, how does that work? And I like it, and I agree with it. And it also is a little bit refreshing. And also makes me relax a little bit that it's not, you know, I can't change them. And maybe that's part of the problem. We've almost given ourselves too much credit.
And if you think about it, it is insulting to think that we are the answer to someone else's problems.
We're not.
He is.
And so he's saying, listen, I'm the one that's going to do this. And I've heard before that evangelism is basically a conversation between two very awkward people.
I couldn't agree with that more.
So when you hear that, you think, okay, that does make me relax a little bit. But here's what I want us to know. We still have a responsibility, and it's this. That the word can't get out to places where we haven't shared it.
A few months ago, my oldest son, Cruz, and I got to go on a mission trip to Peru with several families here at Madison. It was an amazing experience for he and I and our church family and loved it so much. And before we went to Peru, and keep in mind they speak Spanish I had taken a few classes on my phone. Babbel.
And it didn't land, evidently. And I get there, and it's almost like, you know, when you're cramming for a test and you try to remember everything, that was basically me.
And so I didn't know many words. In fact, it was so bad that one time we were sitting at this church, and this couple that was visiting the church shows up. And I thought I was being helpful, and I was going to introduce myself, and I was trying to ask what their names were.
And in Spanish, there's something that you can say, something with a male or female, you know, you can say it either way. Evidently, Cruz says, dad, you just told that man you loved him from a female perspective. I was like, oh, man. You know, so that's when you just walk away, right? You can't do anything with that. But so I say all that to say is, I think it's the third day of the mission trip, and Cruz and I get matched up with a preacher at one of the local churches. And before we go, he asks me, he says, hey, do you know Spanish? And I said a little bit. Should have said a little bit. Because I should have said three words. I know three words. Hola, gracias. De nada. Like, those are the ones that I know. And I'm not good with the gender stuff, like which one to use.
And when I said, I know a little Bit he goes, oh, good. And I was like, oh, no.
And so we go and start knocking doors and we have with us these little pieces of paper that have the invite of the gospel meeting and the things that we're doing with the kids that week. And when we first go. So he's handling most of the conversation. It's one of those, if you've ever been in one before, you're kind of like.
And you're just watching it take place. And then he points to you. And then I show him the flyer and then I read basically what's on the flyer. And then I pray and then he interprets the prayer. That's kind of what we had been doing.
And then we get here, okay. And I put this picture up here for several reasons. One of those is to show you what a normal area in Lima, Peru, looks like. The steps and the steepness of that was unbelievable. And it felt steeper in person than that. And there were all these homes that were built into literally the cliffs. If you've been there before, you know what I'm talking about. But I'll go ahead and tell you. Part of the reason why I took this picture is I wanted to capture what you see on the right, which is a zoomed in version where you see a woman with several buckets of water and she's washing clothes in all these different buckets.
So we're walking up the steps and the preacher from Peru says something, I don't know what he says to this lady.
And then he looks at me and goes, brother.
I was like, hola.
And he then said, could you share a word with her?
And I guess because of in that moment, I thought of the only word I knew in Spanish. But then I thought, all right, my norm, you know, usually what I do in a situation like this, I might start in like John 10 and talk about how Jesus is the door. The door to what? Well, he's the shepherd that when you go out there, you know you're taken care of. And that's what I usually started with. But you know how sometimes in your mind you think something in your mouth, something else is said. That's what happened. I was thinking John 10 and I don't know why. I was like, tell her to turn her Bible to John 4. And he's like, juan Quatro. I'm like, no, no, not John 4. And I'm like, now is she going to think? I mean, it's about a lady that has had a five husband. Is she thinking like, I don't know. Like, she doesn't know what. I don't know what she knows or doesn't know. And then I'm thinking, John 4. Like, why would you pick that? You've never picked John 4. And then I'm like, okay. And John 4 is long, okay?
And as I read a verse and then he interprets, I read a verse and he interprets, so it's even longer. And the whole time I'm thinking, come on, man. Like, why did you pick that one?
Like, what is she gonna think?
And I got done reading it, and while I was reading it, she's closing her eyes towards the end. And then she says something in Spanish to him.
And what she said to him is what he said back to me. And he said, she wants you to read that part again about living water.
And so I went back and I reread that text.
You know, I know we all have, you know, those thoughts in our mind of how everything should go. And maybe even you script it out like I've done in my mind.
99% of Ministry for all of us cannot be and should not be scripted.
We're all going to come in contact with moments where we don't maybe know what to say. Or maybe we thought we knew what to say, but that person needed something so much different.
You know, that was one of those moments where I felt like God was like, see, this has nothing to do with your presentation. In fact, Brandon and I would probably agree that there have been so many times where there have been lessons that I was like, oh, what in the world, man? That was not. I didn't feel good about that direction, whatever it was. And then you hear someone say, I really needed that. You're like, wow, okay.
It's not about us. It's not about our presentation. The power is not in the person presenting. The power is in the Word. We just gotta get it in front of them.
That's what he said in the Fish, remember? He didn't say, salvation belongs to me.
He said, salvation belongs to the Lord. Our objective is to get them in the presence of the Word and let the Word do the work. And notice what the text says in verse five. 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, the Word reached the king of Nineveh. He arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Some people believe that the 120,000 people that are in Nineveh, that very Likely, and very possibly this is the greatest revival of all time from a eight word sermon.
But you might even dig into that in a little bit and think, well, how would that change them?
And then we start to learn that God is not limited by anything.
A little bit of a backstory of the people of Assyria and the Ninevites.
The Ninevites and the Assyrians worshiped a false pagan God named Dagon. And Dagon was a pagan God that had pagan practices that they celebrated with him. And there was a pagan temple where they would go and worship him. And he was a fish God.
And according to their tradition, get this, there would be a man that would walk out of a fish and share with them a message.
Now what Brandon shared with us last week, which I thought was so interesting, is a lot of times the way we tell Jonah's narrative is that he was spit out right in Nineveh and there he is. Well, the more we look at it, he was more than likely spit out in Joppa because he still had that three day journey to make.
And here's what's interesting about Joppa. Guess where the pagan temple to Dagon was. It was in Joppa.
And so word very likely got out to all the people in the Ninevites about this man that came from a fish.
Now the reason I want to point that out, we can never limit what God can use to bring other people to him.
If he can use a pagan God, a pagan practice where there's a pagan temple, what I'm saying is he can use anything and notice what happened with them. It wasn't one of those things. I was like, I kind of believe in that. Notice what the verse said? The people of Nineveh believed God. It didn't say they believed in God, they believed God. There's a big difference between the two of those. The Bible even says the demons believe and shudder like they believe in Him.
But there's a big difference in us believing in him and believing Him.
For instance, you might believe that he can forgive them.
But I don't know if I could believe God that He would forgive me.
Oh, I could believe that he answers their prayers because they have so much to celebrate at and about and things are going well for them.
So I can believe he answers their prayers, but it's hard for me to believe that he can answer mine.
I mean, I can believe, you know, cause I've read certain things in the Old and New Testament that God can use anything to bring people to Him. But not here, not there, not in this, y'all, they believed God, not just in him. And so because of that, what happened, there was a fast.
They believed so much so that they covered themselves in sackcloth. Sackcloth was the ripped pieces of clothing they would put on themselves that would represent how their own hearts were ripped. They called on God in prayer. They turned from their wicked ways. And did you notice how the leader of Nineveh, the king, he stepped down from his own throne and so he issued this proclamation and published it all throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles.
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink, but let man and beast both be covered in sackcloth. So they're putting sackcloth on the men and women and on the animals. But don't miss this. They're getting the animals to fast now. You think that's random? What did the cows do? Like? They didn't do this.
Well, one of the things scholars point out is that he's trying to create an atmosphere of repentance.
See, because if you don't feed a cow, you know what a cow does, like, they let you know, right, that they're hungry.
So it's a whole town, 120,000 people, not counting cows, that are crying out. And it is a loud atmosphere of crying.
That's how dedicated they are.
All from an eight word sermon that came from a guy out of a fish.
Think about the massive shift in this group of people.
These were the people that buried people up to their necks in the sand.
They stacked dead bodies at the entrances of cities. They skinned the men, women and the children and put their skins over the walls of the cities.
That's this group of people that boasted in how mighty they were in their wealth and their military power. Now they're being mighty in all the right things, humility and repentance.
When we talked about Zacchaeus a few weeks ago, we had talked about how a lot of times we can be mighty in one area of life but not another.
You know, maybe you're very mighty in the youth group, but not as mighty at school. Or maybe for us, we're mighty at work, but we're not at home.
And maybe for us this morning, we need to make that choice. To be mighty in our humility, to be mighty enough to repent, to turn from what we've done, to ask for help if the people of Nineveh are willing to do that.
What does it come down to? I think it comes down to what we said earlier. Do you Believe in God or do you believe God?
Do you believe in God or do you believe God? And look at their response. They said, well, who knows? You know, God may turn and relent from his fierce anger, so we might not perish.
And as I was reading this, I kept thinking, maybe trying to think, what would Jonah think? Or what would I think? And when they're ripping their clothes and they're crying out, part of me might say, well, maybe give them some time to see if this is real.
And said, when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them. And he did not do it. They repented. And it says, God relented.
Don't underestimate what God can do in someone else's heart. You know, I've heard before that when you're really, really down and really, really discouraged, there's only way, one way to go up, right? And so maybe what we've been doing is giving ourselves too much credit and not giving enough credit to God and what he can do.
But also, I don't want us to miss this either, that when.
I'll even tell you, weeks ago, when I was getting ready to kind of organize what I might talk about, I kept thinking, all right, Jonah 3 is about Nineveh's change.
But the more I got into it, to me I was like, maybe this is more about Jonah's change. That it's not necessarily, yes, Nineveh is going to repent. But I think by verse one saying, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. It's saying the same thing, right, that you've received, I want you to give it to other people too.
Frank Abagnale, in his biography, when he was kind of looking back over his life, he said this. He said, steven Spielberg made a wonderful film, but I've done nothing greater, nothing more rewarding, nothing more worthwhile, nothing that's brought more peace, joy, happiness, or more content of my life than simply being a good husband, a good father, and what I strive to be every day of my life, a great daddy.
It's very interesting that that was coming from the guy that thought he could pose as a lawyer, a doctor and a pilot from the age of 16 to 21.
And now the humility in his tone has drastically changed.
Aren't we all grateful that we serve a God that gives us second chances, that we all, if you think about it, have a mess up again story.
And as you think about yours, and maybe You've done what I've done, where you just, like, live in that rearview mirror.
Maybe you think about the sentence of his life that is described in Wikipedia. You know, he was an author, he was a security consultant and a convicted felon. You piece all those things together, but doesn't it feel like those certain voices are louder than the other ones, the negative ones?
And you wonder, can this be redeemed? And I want to remind you what we said in the very beginning. Yes, but you can't do that on your own. So maybe for some of you, what you need to do is to come forward this morning or to walk to one of these exits to find a shepherd to pray with.
Maybe for some of you, what it is, is that you've been mighty in one thing, but not in another thing. And you know the need for humility and repentance, you just haven't done it yet.
Maybe for some of you, what we need to specifically pray for as a group is you have a person in your life that you're really concerned about and you're about to reach out to them, and, you know, it's heavy.
Why not let's all pray together for that person?
Maybe you're here and you've never given your life to Christ.
We're going to talk about in a few weeks how this is a beautiful parallel between the gospel of Jesus Christ. We see amazing mirror examples in the life of Jonah and the life of Jesus.
So maybe you've never given your life to Christ. You've never gone into the water. Maybe you need to make that decision to go into the water, come out brand new, have his Holy Spirit living within you, forgiving you of all of your sins. And so whatever it is that you have a need of today, maybe it's encouragement and support from our church family, or maybe it's just to give your life to Christ. We would love to help you and encourage you in either of those while we stand and sing the song.
