(Slide 1) On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. A UC player named Roy Riegels, who was their center, recovered a fumble for California and in the confusion of evading some of the Georgia Tech tacklers, started running sixty-five yards… in the wrong direction. Just before Riegels was about to score for Georgia Tech one of his own teammates tackled him landing on the one yard line.
As half-time came to an end everyone but Riegels got up to leave the locker room. He didn’t budge. Reportedly he said to his coach, “Coach, I can’t do it. I’ve ruined you, I’ve ruined myself, I’ve ruined the University of California. I couldn’t face that crowd to save my life.” To which the coach replied, "Roy, get up and go back out there — the game is only half over."
(Sources: Dr. Reed Lessing. © 2010 by Creative Communications for the Parish. creativecommunications.com; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Riegels)
If you were the coach of that team, what would you have done? Benched him for poor play or to collect himself? Or would you have kept him in the game reminding him that the game was only half over?
If you have been Riegels, what would you have done? Decided to stay in the locker room and give up? Reject the coach’s words as mere platitudes? Or would you believe him and get up and go play the second half? (Which he did with distinction losing to Tech 8 to 7.)
Riegels went on to serve our nation during World War 2 in the Army Air Corp, owned his own company, coached football at the High School level and also coached Cal at one point. He died in 1993 at the age of 84.
Would he have accomplished any of these things if he would have given up that day?
One of the greatest challenges to faith is the feeling that with one mistake we are no longer useful to or cared for by God.
That is not true.
“Now pastor,” you may want to argue this morning, “this is true. There are pastors who no longer pastor because they had an affair or had money problems or just were not called to the ministry. And pastor there are people I know because of divorce or law breaking who are not in church any more.”
Okay, you have a point. But has God really given up on them? No he has not. God still loves them deeply and still has a place for them to serve Him though it may not be in the same place or position as it once was. And sometimes, sometimes it is.
I remind us this morning that the game is only half over! Christ has not yet returned, the final judgment has yet to take place. And until it does, those who have failed are not fully disqualified!
We learn this in our main text for this morning, Jonah 3:1-4
“Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message of judgment I have given you.”
This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” (NLT)
(Slide 2) I hope you caught the questions for this week that were placed in the opening slide prior to worship last week. But if you did not here they are again:
1. What does it mean for my life that “the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time”?
2. Do you think Jonah willingly went to Nineveh?
3. What do you think of his sermon? Where is the Law? Where is the Gospel?
(Source: By Dr. Reed Lessing. © 2010 by Creative Communications for the Parish. creativecommunications.com)
(Slide 2a) The first question captured my attention and is the focus for this morning’s message:
1. What does it mean for my life that “the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time?”
For Jonah, the game was only half over! God tells him, “The team that started the game is starting the second half.”
All is not lost with God!
Disobedience to God’s ways, what the Bible calls sin, is forgivable! If it was not, then we would not be here and there would be no Easter! And Jonah would have drowned!
What does it mean for us that “the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time?” Take a moment and write down what you think that it means.
In the context of Jonah’s story I think that when we read “the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time” it means for us the following:
(Slide 3)
It means that He gives us second chances!
Right now, I am reading Geoffrey Peret’s biography of Ulysses S Grant.
Grant, who was West Point educated, resigned his commission with a great sense of failure and frustration in 1854 and experienced one business failure after another.
Then came April 1861 and the Civil War and soon Grant began to pursue re-entry into the Army seeking to command a unit after a 7 year absence. He met with repeated failure to get back in until circumstances were such that he did get a unit to command. He got a second chance. The military and historical implications of his second chance are well documented.
“But, Jim, history lesson aside, I know people, Christians and non-Christians, who have not gotten a second chance with their kids, their spouses, their work, even in their church.” Why not?
It’s a good question.
The first question that comes to my mind is ‘Do they want a second chance and are they willing to do what it takes to get a second chance?”
This might seem a bit unfair to say, but sometimes people want a second chance without taking some necessary steps to prove they want one. Or they play games to try and get their way without seriously considering what getting a second chance might require.
For example, what about a spouse who is unfaithful and who wants to get back with their spouse and family? There is a trust issue here that needs to be addressed first. And if there is not a willingness to trust, at least right away, by the affected persons, then a second chance seems pretty remote for a while.
Perhaps a time apart is necessary for both parties to address issues and choices that have to be addressed before any second chances are given. And maybe during this interim period the person seeking the second chance has to prove a desire to do what is necessary for a second chance to be given.
“But Pastor, our text for today is not about marital infidelity. It’s about a guy who ran from God, was thrown overboard, swallowed by a fish for a few days, and then thrown up on some beach. There’s a big difference here!”
Okay, how much a difference? Maybe some difference, but second chances with God are about addressing our disobedient choices; whether that is running away from God’s call or marital infidelity.
I know that there is a belief out there that getting a second chance should be simple and quick. (And there is also the belief that one strike and you’re out!) But sometimes the circumstances dictate otherwise.
Disobedience sometimes has serious consequences to it that require a little more time and accountability before a second chance is granted. When I think of some second chances that have been given to others, I recall that they had to be truly sorry for what they had said or done and that they had to spend sometime dealing with the causes of their disobedience. They also had to deal with the broken trust that came along with it.
Jonah’s disobedience seems minor, like running from the call to ministry, (not really an unserious thing however), instead of something of a serious choice to truly break God’s command for holy living. Yet the Lord called to Him a second time. He gave him a second chance.
But, Jonah had to spend sometime in an environment, a period of time because of his disobedience before God gave Him a second call, a second chance.
Now, it could have taken a few days for Jonah to get back on his feet after his interesting underwater journey. But there seems to be no hesitation when God calls him to go to Nineveh.
And that is so important to remember, when God calls to us a second time, we go, we obey!
Now Jonah had a decision to make. Would he finally go to Nineveh, or balk again?
He goes. He proclaims God’s message to a group of people who are under God’s condemnation.
So Jonah’s little journey is a serious matter. His disobedience puts them at risk.
But God does not abandon Jonah. He sticks with him. He calls to him a second time and He gives Jonah a second chance.
This time Jonah takes it! And he goes to proclaim God’s message.
The result is wonderful!
I think about a friend of mine, who once was a pastor. He had to resign because of a choice he made.
I had known him in college and by the time we reconnected 10 years later, he had left the ministry.
He was offered a second chance to return because another jurisdiction wanted him to come there to plant a new church.
But he had to face a reinstatement process where we were and I remember it being hard for him to face it.
Eventually, he did, was reinstated, moved to a new area and planted a church… that failed. Eventually he and his wife divorced and he remarried.
I think that God was grieved by all of this.
I also think that God has not given up on my friend and though he may never return to the ministry, he can still come home to God.
(Slide 4) Here are the questions for you to write down in preparation for next week’s message:
Read Jonah 3:5-10.
1. How did repentance affect the daily lives of the Ninevites?
2. What effect does repentance have upon my life?
3. What is God’s attitude regarding repentance? (v.10)
(Sources: Dr. Reed Lessing. © 2010 by Creative Communications for the Parish. creativecommunications.com)
Maybe this morning you are thinking of a friend or family member who once walked closely with the Lord but now is not. Keep praying for them! Keep loving them! The Lord has not given up on them. He is still at work in some way to give them a second chance.
Perhaps the delay is on their end. They are not ready to come back and ask for a second chance. But keep loving them and praying for them.
What about you this morning? Do you need a second chance? Is God offering you one?
Take it! Step out in faith! Obey and do what God wants you to do.
Don’t run like Jonah. Go God’s way this day. Amen.
