Great Repentance

1. Read Jonah 3:1. When has God given you a second chance? Taketime to thank Him for His great grace.2. In Jonah 3:2 the Lord tells Jonah to “preach the message that I tellyou.” How does this require faith for Jonah?3. How might Jonah’s sermon in v. 4 be poorly received by theNinevites?4. How did the Ninevites respond to the Word of the Lord in v. 5?5. The people of Nineveh “believed God.” Read how the people ofIsrael believed God in Exodus 14:31. What is the context of thatpassage?6. Jay Sklar says “The Ninevites take this warning and invitation fullyto heart; they ‘called for a fast and put on sackcloth.’ In the contextof repentance, fasting was a way to humble yourself before God anddevote time to confessing your sins to him (see 1 Sam. 7:6; Dan.9:3). Similarly, sackcloth was a sign of mourning (see Gen. 37:34; 2Sam. 3:31), just as black clothing is in many societies today; incontexts of repentance, it was a way of saying, ‘I am grievingbecause of the wrong I have done’ (see 1 Kings 21:27).”What does fasting and wearing of sackcloth show? In what waysshould we show grief over our sin today?7. How does the King of Nineveh show humility in v. 6?8. How do we know this is true repentance (v. 7-9)?9. Read Jeremiah 18:7-8 – how does God do this for Nineveh?10. Read Colossians 3:5-10. How does this language relate to truerepentance?11. In Jonah 3:10 how do the people turn? How does the Lord turn?

12. As grace has been shown to us, we need to show grace to others.3 Ways to show great grace:-Show grace to your enemiesRead Matthew 5:44.How will you show grace to your enemies this week?-Show grace to your brothers and sisters in ChristIn what ways is it difficult to show grace to some brothers and sistersin Christ? Have you struggled with certain Christians?Spend MORE time with real people and LESS time on social media thisweek. Social media is built to benefit from controversy = more clicks.Limit yourself to social media interactions and have more face-to-faceinteractions. This will help us show grace to others.-Show grace by forgiving othersBecause of the cross, we can forgive others. Jesus forgave the menwho put him to death when he prayed for them, “Father forgive them,for they know not what they do.”Read Ephesians 4:32. What is the instruction? How will you follow thisinstruction today? This week?Leslie Allen says, “Justice is better served by reformed characters thanby corpses. God’s deepest intent is thus achieved, for ‘he does notwant any to perish, but wants all to come to repentance’ (2 Pet. 3:9).”Do you want to see reformed characters or corpses? Pray about thistoday!