Slowly Transformed by Grace

Jonah 4:11 (NLT)

     But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

1. Grace is not about how bad you are but about how good God is.  Grace is not about how weak you are but how powerful God is.  Grace is not about how unfaithful you have been but how faithful God is.  Grace is not about how unloving you are but how loving God is.  Grace is not about how much you can do but how much God has done for you.  Grace is not about how unworthy you are but how God’s worthiness given to you.  Grace is not about how much you can clean up first but how much God has already forgiven and accepted you.  Grace is not about how much you can do but how much God can do through you.  Grace is about receiving and as we freely receive, we freely give.

2. We can only understand the greater miracle in Jonah’s life from the perspective of God’s continuing patience, persistent grace and His transforming power

Jonah 1:1-2; 3:1; 4:9-11

     The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."…Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:  "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."…But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"  But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

Jonah 2:1-2, 4, 7-10 (NIV)

 ¹ From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. ² He said:
       "In my distress I called to the LORD,
       and he answered me.
       From the depths of the grave ^[a] I called for help,
       and you listened to my cry…

 ⁴ I said, 'I have been banished
       from your sight;
       yet I will look again
       toward your holy temple…

 ⁷ "When my life was ebbing away,
       I remembered you, LORD,
       and my prayer rose to you,
       to your holy temple.

 ⁸ "Those who cling to worthless idols
       forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

 ⁹ But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
       will sacrifice to you.
       What I have vowed I will make good.
       Salvation comes from the LORD."

 ¹⁰ And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Exodus 22:21 (NLT)

     “You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Hebrews 9:13-14, 24, 26 (NIV)

    The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death…For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence… But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

3. We know when we have encountered grace when we begin to lose our superiority over others and stop becoming cynical and critical about messed up people

Jonah 2:8 (NIV)

     …Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

Jonah 2:9 (NIV)

     But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good.  Salvation comes from the LORD."

4. We know we are encountering grace when we realize that salvation is totally of the Lord, when we are no longer worried about our performance, what others think about us, and that gives us the strength to admit our weaknesses

I am grateful to Tim Keller, from whom most of this sermon came from