Key Truth: God compassionately restores us when we go astray and draws even the most unlikely people to Himself in Christ.

Introduction:

What did you do when you sinned this past week?
How is that affecting your love for God and your neighbors?

God Restores Jonah

Jonah 3:1-3

“God forgets, and never holds the thing against you. Think of how wonderful are the implications of that one fact for your life. God simply does not hold grudges against people who humble themselves and ask his forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Men have a much greater problem forgiving and forgetting than does God. You may discover that you have a very difficult time forgetting your mistakes of the past. But God does not have that kind of trouble.”

Palmer Robertson, Jonah: A Study in Compassion

How has God warned you about your sin?
Are you listening to His gracious warning?

God’s Mission to Nineveh

Jonah 3:3-5

“If the principle behind Jonah’s restoration is God’s overarching sovereign grace, then the principle which lies behind the events which were to follow in Nineveh was this: God intends to bring life out of death. . . . Fruitful evangelism is the result of this death-producing-life principle. It is when we come to share spiritually – and on occasions physically – in Christ’s death (cf. Phil. 3:10) that his power is demonstrated in our weakness, and others are drawn to him.”

Sinclair Ferguson, Man Overboard!: The Story of Jonah

Do you believe the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?
If so, do you live as though the Gospel is a treasure worth sharing with others?

“As long as you have breath in your lungs and a beating heart, you have another chance. . . . No matter how great the sin, the grace of God is greater. I know it may sound strange, but in an ironic and yet glorious way, your sin magnifies the grace of God. Sin is great; grace is greater still. It may be hard to get our minds around that truth, but that’s because it’s hard for us to grasp the power, love, and magnitude of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So here is something even greater to understand. Indeed, your sin may magnify the grace of God, but your repentance and turning away from sin magnify it even more.”

Anthony J. Carter, Running from Mercy: Jonah and the Surprising Story of God’s Unstoppable Grace

Application:

Jonah 3:1-5 teaches us that 

- God compassionately restores us to Himself when we go astray

- God compassionately draws even the most unlikely people to Himself

- God restores and draws us to Himself so that He might use us to draw others to Himself

Benediction

Jude 20-25