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Amen. So Jonah chapter 3, so a unique story in the Bible here in Jonah chapter 3, a story where the prophet Jonah, of course, goes to Nineveh at the command of God. And the whole story of Jonah is just a very interesting story where the prophet doesn't really want to go, but he ends up going. He preaches to Nineveh. What makes this story so unique is that the prophet, the man of God, actually goes to the city to preach the Word of God and give this warning to them, and they actually listen. So we're going to look at Jonah chapter 3, keep your place there. And we're really going to look specifically at Jonah chapter 3 in verse number 10 this morning. We're going to talk about it in a little bit different context this evening. But to give you some context, and before we focus on Jonah chapter 3, let me just kind of give you an introduction into the subject this morning of the sermon. Sometimes, if you're like me, sometimes I change my mind on things. I, you know, maybe in your life, I'm sure in your life this happens to you, but sometimes I'll think something's a good idea at the time, and then something will happen or I will realize some more information about that, and, you know, I will change my mind, okay? And I'm sure many of you can relate to this. Everybody changes their mind at times. I mean, many times, maybe, you know, some examples, maybe you make some decisions when you were stressed out or you were upset about something. A very wise person once told me, you should never make drastic decisions in your life or any decisions when you are, you know, really upset or there's been a major change in your life. You should just let things calm down so you don't end up making a rash, wrong decision. You know, there's nothing like somebody. So, I mean, look, we're all going to change our minds in our lives. I mean, we're all going to change our minds. We're going to realize things that we didn't realize before, and we're going to course-correct in our lives. This is normal for people to do. You know, there's nothing like, on the flip side of this, there's nothing like somebody who just, you know, will just not let go of a bad idea, somebody who just has an idea and just, because they don't want to change what their decision was, they just hang on to that bad idea and they just want to, they're just going to go down and they're going to chain themselves to that sinking ship. I remember many, many years ago, I worked with an engineer who came up with a very big idea. It was a very big idea on this very big power plant, and it was brilliant, and it seemed like it was brilliant, and it turned out that, you know, as long as it cost, I believe the cost was, you know, it was tens of millions of dollars to install this idea on this plant, and it turned out, you know, he was estimated it would cost about $50 million, and it turned out, and it was a good idea at that number, it turned out that it was actually going to cost $350 million, you know, like way more than what he thought, which made it not such a good idea anymore. But this type of, this individual was this type of person that he could not let go of an idea that he had. So it just turned into this, you know, catastrophic series of events where an idea that seemed good at the time was just hung on to, you know, there was not minds that changed, you know, when facts came forth. Turn to Proverbs chapter 11, and he just hung on to a bad idea. He didn't change his mind. So look, changing your mind, all that to say this, changing your mind, course correcting, you know, is a good thing, you know, and we ought to remember in our lives that it's never too late to do so. All right. As soon as you realize in your life, I mean, this is definitely something that we should all remember. As soon as you realize in your life that something's not a good idea, you should let go of it as soon as possible, because the damage that will be incurred from following through on a bad idea is definitely a function of time. Okay. The longer a person hangs on to a bad idea, look, this applies to sin in your life as well. The longer you hang on to something in your life that you know is wrong, that the Bible tells you is wrong, you know, the more damage it will cause to you, and those around you, especially, that's always the one that people don't think of, you know, they get into sin, they fall into something that maybe seemed like a good idea at the time, they find out that it's sin, they find out that it's damaging people, and they hang on to it, they're like, I can withstand this. But they don't realize what it's going to do to everyone around them. Look at Proverbs chapter 11, in verse number 14, we're talking about this idea of changing our minds, right? The average that people in general will change their minds all the time. And this is a good thing. Here's another example. The Bible says in Proverbs 11 14, where no counsel is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. So the Bible here is telling us that look, there might be times when you make a decision, and then you go and you seek counsel. The Bible tells you in Ephesians chapter four, that God gave us prophets and pastors and teachers, people that are there, and why are they there? They're there for counsel, they're there for what? For your safety. So maybe there's a situation where you make a rash decision, and then you rely on a prophet, a pastor, a teacher in your life, and they say, hey, no, that's actually the wrong decision. You should go this way. Look, you should change your mind about that. You should course correct about that. That's the whole reason that God gave you those people in your lives is to help you, you know, a multitude of counselors, there is safety. So many examples in the Bible about that. Think about just King Rehoboam, you know, Solomon's son. Solomon's son literally took, he literally took the the counselors to the wisest man who ever lived on the earth and said, nah, I don't want to listen to that. I'm not going to change my mind about that. Instead, he went and he listened to his buddies and it cost him the whole kingdom. Many people suffered. But the point is, change your mind when it needs to be changed. Change your mind about things. Course correct. This is a normal thing for people to do. Now go back to Jonah chapter three. We're talking about changing your mind. Many times we have ideas that are not good. Ideas that are bad. Maybe we're in sin. We realize we're in sin. We change our mind about that and we move away from that. Look at Jonah chapter three and look at verse number 10. The Bible says this, it says, and God saw their works. What were their works? The Bible says God saw their works. We're talking about the people of Nineveh here. Jonah went and he preached the word of God to the people of Nineveh. He's like, you better get right. You better stop what you're doing or, you know, God's going to destroy you. And God saw their works. What were their works? It explains it for us right here. That they turned from their evil way. So they changed, you know, their wickedness that they were doing. They changed what they were doing. They actually turned from what they were doing wrong. And look what the Bible says here. It says, and God repented of the evil that he said that he would do unto them and he did it not. Now, we have to remember in the Bible here, I'm going to just take a couple minutes to explain this, but we must, especially as the English language has been changing, seeming like every week, we need to remember that we need to let the Bible be our dictionary. So the first thing that we need to realize is that evil in the King James Bible, this word evil, many times when it talks about God doing the evil, God giving an evil spirit, you know, whenever you look at King Saul and he was being chastised by God, the Bible says he had an evil spirit, but it was given to him by God. It means a hurtful spirit or God repented of the evil here. It means God repented of the hurt that he was going to do to them. All right. That's what that evil means there. It doesn't mean that, you know, God was linked. You know, everyone thinks evil has to do with Satan, but not in the King James Bible. It just means hurt or damage or chastisement in this case. And then another word that we need to understand what it actually means according to the King James Bible that has been changed today is the word repent. Okay. The Bible says God repent of the evil. So repent simply means to change your mind. That's all repent means. We've literally changed the dictionary meaning of this word. If you go to the Merriam-Webster dictionary version, you know, they will say literally in there that repent means to turn from sin. There is no verse in the entire Bible that says repent of your sin to be saved. Yet that's what people, it says repent and believe, repent and be baptized, you know, repent and be converted in Acts Chapter 3. Repent means change your mind. Turn from unbelief to belief. If you think that repent always means turn from your sin, that means God sins because nobody in the Bible repented more than the Lord himself. So the Bible here is saying that God repented of the evil that he said he would do to them and he did it not. Now that we know the context of what repent means and what evil means, the Bible is literally saying here God changed his mind. So as we talk about changing our minds as an introduction this morning, I want to talk to you, the title of the sermon is Changing God's Mind. Because guess what? God can change his mind. The Bible literally says that in Jonah Chapter 3 in verse number 10. Turn to Exodus Chapter 32 and look at verse number 14. Exodus Chapter 32 in verse number 14. The Bible talks about God repenting or changing his mind many times in the Bible. Look at Exodus 32, 14. In Exodus 32, 14 the people have just, you know, Moses went up to the mountain for 40 days and the people made the golden calf and they started worshiping idols and, you know, committing fornication and doing all sorts of wicked things. Look at Exodus 32, 14. The Bible says, And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. So here God was going to destroy these people and Moses intervenes. The couple of verses before verse 14, Moses intervenes and he beseeches the Lord, you know, for the people and he convinces God to not destroy them. They still get punished, but God changes his mind. God repented of the hurt of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Very similar verse in Genesis six. Turn to Genesis Chapter six and look at verse number six. Remember God, you know, flooded the whole world in Genesis Chapter six before God, you know, flooded the world. Look what it says when God looked down and he saw everything that men were doing and what God flooded the world. Why did God flood the world? Because everyone what was the main thing that God says twice? Everyone was violent. It wasn't that, you know, they, whatever Hollywood tells you, it's, they were, they were committing violence. People, innocent people were being killed. People were violent. People were wicked. Look at verse number six of Genesis Chapter six. Look, this is something that, that God changed his mind about right here. It says, and it repented the Lord that he made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. God looked down at man and he said, I changed my mind that this was good, that I created them. Look what they're doing. God can change his mind. And you say, how is this possible? How is it possible that God can change his mind? Especially turn to Malachi Chapter three, especially when we know one thing about God. You know, when we change our mind, when we change our mind, it's because, you know, many times we've changed our mind. It's because we made a mistake. It's because we were heading in the wrong direction. Then we went and we got counsel and that counsel told us, Hey, you know, go in this direction and we change our mind. And we, we change as new information is brought up. Does God need more information? Is God making mistakes? Why is God changing his mind? It's clear that God is changing his mind in the Bible here. And look at Malachi Chapter three and verse number six, the Bible says, for I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. So how can these two things be possible? And that's what I'm going to explain to you this morning. How can God change his mind about things and then say that I change not. How can both of those, both of those things be, how can those things be true? We know, look, remember our Bible reading rule. When you're reading the Bible and you read things that seem to contradict each other, you're, you're not thinking it through. You're not understanding it right. You're missing something. We can definitely say that there's nothing in this Bible that contradicts anything else in this Bible. That's how we know it's perfect. That's how we know it's perfect because there's no mistakes in it. There's no contradictions in it, right? So look, there's two possibilities where God says, I can't change. You know, I change not. He says in Malachi Chapter three. And then we actually see God changing his mind or repenting, turning from what he was going to do instead, doing something else. The first possibility is that God made a mistake, you know, but that's not a possibility because then the Bible contradicts itself. And the Bible actually said that that would mean that God makes mistakes, that God has sin. The Bible says in John and first John three five, it says in him is no sin. You know, God is perfect. In second Corinthians chapter five, it says that Jesus, he knew no sin. So the difference between us and God is that God does not sin. God has no sin. So we know that that's not true. We know it's not that God made a mistake. All right. Here is the other possibility. The only other possibility, the only other possibility to why God could say, I change not. And then also change his mind on things is that there is something outside of God that is causing the change. And that something is us. And if you look at every single time that God changes his mind, it has to do with what people are doing with what we are doing. The answer is this folks, God can change his mind. And it's actually a proof of this. All right. It's a proof against Calvinism, right? God can change his mind because we have, we as people saved and unsaved have complete free will. That's how God can change his mind. That's how we should be very thankful that God changes his mind. Look, this is Calvinism destroyed right here. People have complete free will. Even after you're saved, you have free will. You know, if you accept, look, if you accept Calvinism, think about this. If you accept Calvinism, this idea, Calvinism is this idea that, that God has ordained certain people. He has pre chosen certain people to be saved and he has pre chosen certain people to be damned. There's nothing we can do about it. Look, if we were Calvinist, we would not go soul winning because what would be the point? This is why Calvinists don't go soul winning. Look, I'm glad they don't go out and teach a false gospel out there. But the point is if Calvinism is true, we don't have free will. If Calvinism is true, then that means that God made a mistake that God can make mistakes. It's even Calvinism is based on two things that people are predestined, pre chosen for salvation and pre chosen for damnation. And also that the saved will have, will follow the Lord. It's those two basics right there. Look, if, if this ratio of people that will be saved to unsaved is already set, then God, I mean, you have to look at these instances when God repented that he made man. And you must think that he must have gotten that racial wrong. Why would he be upset, you know, at what man was doing if he already pre chosen people to be saved and then pre chosen those people that would be saved to automatically do and follow him. If it was an automatic thing and people didn't have free will, God must have made a mistake in Genesis chapter six in verse number six, when he says, I regret that I even made man. I repent that I even made man. He must've, he must've got the ratio wrong. You see what I'm getting at? He must have got the ratio wrong. So look, it destroys. We have, we have free will folks. Calvinism is, is a silly doctrine when you, it just takes you like five seconds to think about it. It makes no sense if you know what the Bible actually says. You know, God would not get upset and destroy the earth regret making man if this, if his preordained plan was perfect. All right. Turn to first Timothy chapter two. Like he, he just didn't get the ratio strong enough, but here's the funny thing. If you're a soul winner, here's the really funny thing to think, to think that the ratio, I mean, the Bible actually says the opposite. First of all, first Timothy chapter two, look at verse number three, first Timothy chapter two and verse number three, as if, as if God would have created, you know, this predestination plan where the ratio was like 1% of people would be saved and the rest would not because that's pretty close to what the ratio is. Most people are not saved. Most people are not saved out there, but is that what God wants? Is that what God wants? Why are most people unsaved? Is it because God wants them to be unsaved? God wants 98, 99% of people to go to hell. Is that what God wants? Look at first Timothy chapter two and verse number three, the Bible says, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who will, this is, it means, this is what it means. It means who wants, this is God's will, what I'm about to say, who will have all men to be saved and to come onto the knowledge of the truth. That literally says in verse number three, there in verse number four, it says, God wants everyone to be saved. Yeah, we see the vast majority of people out there, the vast majority of people out there are not saved. The disciples asked Jesus, are there few that be saved? He basically said, yes, there are a few, but he wants them all to be saved. You see what I'm saying? It's what God's will is that everyone would believe on him that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Look, this is what God wants. This is what God wants. This idea of Calvinism is completely ridiculous that God wants everyone to be saved yet he's only preordained like 1%. He only chose one. What? It doesn't make any sense. You couldn't even know 10% of the Bible and believe Calvinism. All right. But the point is this, the point is this, God can change his mind because we do have complete free will. We have complete free will. I mean, first Timothy chapter two, I mean, look, even the most wicked reprobate out there who's been rejected by the Lord at one point, God wanted that person to be saved at one point in that person's life. All right. The answer on how God can change his mind is that we do have free will. We have, look, we have free will even after we're saved. You know, that's why this idea of Lordship salvation, we'll talk a little bit about it tonight. You should do the things that the Bible says, and there will be consequences as a saved person if you don't, but you still have free will. You still have the flesh. We will have this flesh fighting against the Holy Spirit in us. It's threatening to grieve the Holy Spirit in us until we are dead, until we are physically gone from this earth. We have free will. That's why, you know, this idea of just complete free will, you know, really needs to be understood. There's a lot of talk of artificial intelligence today, you know, and you talk, especially you talk to a lot of young people out there and they're like, oh man, the machines are going to take over. You know, they've seen too many movies or played too many video games or something. Look, machines aren't going to take over. All right. Look, machines are machines. Even Elon Musk, like had some robot that he brought out on the stage the other day and like, you know, it said some clever responses to his, his comments or something. Everyone's like, oh, the machines are going to take over. No, they're not. Right. Only we have complete free will. Even these artificial intelligence, you know what they are? They're just computer programs. That's it. They're just computer programs. They're only as smart as the person that wrote the computer programs. Yes, they can adjust to things and will never have free will. We were just in the bakery last night and I'm sitting there telling the kids like we're in this bakery and there's all these cakes everywhere. Like these cakes don't last forever. And I'm like, man, just think about how much effort it takes to make all these cakes. Like somebody staying up all night to make all these cakes. I even asked the donut ladies like two weeks ago. I was like, when do you get up? You ever go to the donut shop in the morning? It was like, it's like an art thing. It's like all, there's like hundreds of donuts and they're all done different and all this. There's no robot that can do that. We can't even come up with a robot to make a donut. All right. And you say, oh, there's machines and there's factories. You know what? I've been in the most complicated factories, the most complicated fact, uh, plants on the planet. You know what you have? You have lots of machines doing a lot of things and you have machines breaking everywhere and you have armies of mechanics and armies of technicians and armies of electricians just trying to keep everything going. All right. The machines aren't going to take over. All right. There will never be a self-driving car. Why? Because we have free will because we can't come up with a machine that can compete with free will of everybody else. Yeah. They can come up with all the assistants and braking assist and maybe all these different things. Every single person I know that has tried to take a nap in their Tesla has crashed their car. A hundred percent of them, every single one. It's too dynamic of a situation. Free will is a big deal. We can't with all our technology, we can't create one cell of life without duplicating it from something else. We can't create a robotic fly, a robotic amoeba, the simplest little life forms that God makes. Okay. Look, and just that doesn't even take into, you know, the fact like consciousness cannot be duplicated. It just can't. Much less the soul and the spirit, which is a whole nother thing. All right. We're too arrogant today. We're too arrogant today, folks. We can't create the most simple organism. We couldn't even create a, you know, Elon Musk robot couldn't get up and make you a donut. I don't know what to tell you. All right. The machines aren't going to take over. So if you're worried about that and that's keeping you up at night, there's a little side note for you. God created this entire universe. He created this entire universe and he created a being us human beings that have a hundred percent free will to follow him or to reject him. Thus he has the ability to change his mind in how he deals with us. That's all I'm trying to get you to understand this morning. Turn to first Peter chapter five, but guess what? He's done some things. He's done some things to help us out. You're like, man, I'm saved. I believed on the Lord, Jesus Christ. You know, I want to do the right things. I want to follow the Lord. I want to, you know, do what God says in the Bible. I want to do these things. It's like, could God give me a hand here? He has. He's given you the Holy Spirit. He's given you the earnest, the down payment of the Holy Spirit inside you to guide you to intervene for you. When you pray stupid things, the Bible, I mean, we talked about this just a couple of weeks ago. When you pray stupid things, I hope I can win the lottery. The Holy Spirit literally intervenes for you and says, God, that's, he puts his hand on your face and he says, Nope, that's not what he wants. What he wants is to get his life together and to learn the Bible and to learn what you say about how he should be running his life and to follow that God, that's what he wants. God, give him a good church. God, give them pastors and teachers. The Holy Spirit intervenes for us. That's why the Bible says we can grieve the Holy Spirit because he's there. If you're a, if you're a believer, you've been sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says you can make, you can just have that Holy Spirit. You could be walking in sin in your life and you're just like immune to chastisement. God's just chastising you left and right. And the Holy Spirit's in you. And he's just like, somebody said this to us yesterday, soul winning. I know he's the person was saved. They're just like, I know that, you know what I'm doing in my life. It's just like, it's just crushing me. I can feel myself like grieving God. Like he can, he can feel himself grieving. He can feel the spirit grieving inside him. Right? Turn to 1 Peter chapter five. So he's given you, look, he's giving you some advantage, some, some advantage. He's giving you the Holy Spirit to guide you through your life, even though you still have the flesh, but guess what? Angels, angels have free will too. Did you know that? Look at 1 Peter chapter five and verse number eight, the Bible says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking who he may devour. So yeah, you have free will. You have free will in your life, but there's also Satan, Lucifer, who's roaming this earth. Turn to 1, 2 Timothy chapter two, 2 Timothy chapter two. He's roaming this earth and he's trying to knock Christians off their path. He's trying to look, you can't take away your salvation. He's trying to keep you from getting other people saved. He's trying to drive Christians into an unprofitable life. He's trying to, he's trying to get you out of church. He's trying to stop you from soul-winning. He's trying to stop other people from listening to you. He's trying to change what the Bible says. He's trying to put out all these new Bible versions. People are like, what's even true? There's 150 different Bible versions and they all say different things in every verse. You're saying that's the word of God. This is Satan doing this. He's working over time to drive as many people, keep as many people unsaved as possible. He can't make you unsaved. He can make you unprofitable though. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 in verse number 26. Angels have free will as well. This is where the rebellion, the war in heaven in Revelation chapter 12 comes in. Look at verse number 26 of 2 Timothy chapter 2. It says, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil. The devil's out there trying to snare people who are taken captive by him at his will. Look, Satan has a will and it is not the will of God. Satan has a free will. He led a third of the angels in rebellion against God. And look, God is allowing this to happen right now. You say, you say, why? You say, why? You know, I know I have free will. I get it. I know I'm saved. I have free will. Why would God allow Satan to operate? Well, guess what? As a saved person, you don't have to worry about that. Look at Genesis chapter 50. Actually, you turn to Romans 828. In Genesis chapter 50 in verse number 20, Joseph says this. Remember the story of, of Joseph? His brother sold him into slavery. You know, he was put in prison. He was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. And he rose, he rose to be the second in the command underneath, second in command of Egypt, underneath Pharaoh. And he ended up actually saving his entire family in, in this horrible famine. But look, and look at Joseph, what he says in verse number 20 of Genesis 50, I'll just read for you. You go to Romans 8, 28. He says, but as for you, talk into his family, his brothers. He thought evil against me, but what? He says, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive. God used those bad, wicked things that his brothers did to save many people, right? To save those people. And God gives that same promise to us. You're like, man, the devil's walking around. He's doing bad things. Look, if you're a soul winner, you're out there getting people saved, you got a target on your back. He's after you. He's trying to get you out of church, knock you off your horse, get you just wrapped up with the thorns of this world. That's what the, that's what the devil wants from you. Whatever your, whatever could get you not thinking about spiritual things. That's what the devil is going to do to you. You're going to put that right in front of you. He's going to just tempt you left and right. Why? So you can be unprofitable, but look what the Bible says in Romans 8, 28. It says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Look, this is a super important verse that nobody understands here. Everybody's got this bumper sticker. Everybody's got it on the refrigerator. The Bible says all things work together for good. You know what that means? That means it's talking about bad things because obviously good things, they don't have to work together for good because good things are good. If I come up and I, I give you a gift, you're not going to be like, Oh, how could this be good for me? It is good for you. It's talking about bad things that happen to you here, but notice it doesn't say, and we know that all things work together for good to everybody, no matter what. It says all things work together for good to them that love God. The Bible says you only love God if you keep his commandments. You could be saved and not be loving to God. You could be saved and not showing love to God, but the Bible says for them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose. Look, if you're saved and you're doing what you are supposed to do, all will work out for good for you. That's a huge promise. That is a huge promise from God right there. That's, that's one that any saved person should not leave on the table. God is saying, you're saved. Follow me now. Do the will of God. Be profitable. He's like, no matter what happens to you, I will work it out for good. That's huge. Yet Christians leave that one on the table. Back to the point. This is why God must be able to change his mind. Turn to second Chronicles chapter seven because of us, because we have free will. He says as much in the Old Testament hundreds of times. Look at second Chronicles chapter seven for a perfect example. Look at verse number 14, second Chronicles chapter seven. Look at verse number 14, second Chronicles chapter seven, verse number 14. God is speaking to a nation here. He is speaking to a group of people. He's speaking to the nation of Israel, to the children of Israel. And he says that at the beginning, he says, if my people, he's talking about the nation of Israel, the people that believe the people which are called by my name shall humble themselves. Look, he's saying, this is like an if then statement. Okay. If you do this, then I will do this. If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and what and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Talking to the nation, God says, look, I'll change my mind. He's like, if you keep doing things this way, I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to drive you from the land. He says, but if you turn from your wicked ways, I'll heal your land. It's all, look, the variable is us. When you look at a nation, I mean, we should read this, like, you know, the president of the United States should read this like every single day. I mean, we have, I mean, I just heard this week, you know, here we have like a billboard that the governor of our state is like putting in other states that literally says, need an abortion? California is ready to help. And then they quote Jesus. They quote Matthew 12 31, where it says in the second, it says, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The billboard says there is none other commandment greater than these as if, as if, so my tax dollars go to buy a billboard that says, loving my neighbor is helping them murder their children. You're just like, what in the world? Yeah. God's going to change his mind. He's going to change his mind. If we keep this up, he's going to be like, you know what? I was going to crush them. I'm going to crush them faster. If we keep this stuff up, but we need to turn from our wicked ways as a nation, and then God will heal the land. It's very simple. Okay. It's very simple. The direction we're going is not going to work. It's not going to get God to change his mind. It's going to get him to speed up the process is what it's going to get him to do. So here's the application this morning. God can change his mind. You see that? He responds to our actions. We are the variable. We are the variable. Turn to James chapter one, but this is good news. Okay. This is good news that we are the veil. Look, Malachi three, six is still true. I am the Lord. I changed. The rules don't change. It is not a mystery of what God thinks is bad and what God thinks is good. That's why this idea that, you know, the old Testament, God was mean and new Testament, God is, you know, Jesus with the long hair and the dress and, you know, just going around saying, I love everybody, no matter what they do is false because God does not change what he thought was wicked in Leviticus. He thinks is wicked today. It's all the same, but what it means that God can change his mind is that we as a nation, but individually now let's talk individually. We can avoid God's wrath. We can avoid the chastisement of the Lord. Turn to James chapter one. So I'm going to give you two ways to just, you know, have God, you know, to avoid God's wrath in your life. The first way is this, is this it's be consistent. We're the variable. We're the reason every time God changes his mind is because people were doing wicked things and then they stopped doing wicked things. All right. Or, you know, people were the same or people were doing the right thing and then they started doing wicked things. People are the variable. Look at James chapter one, verse number six. The first way to avoid God's wrath in your life and to apply this this morning is to be consistent, be consistent towards the Lord. We're the variable. Look at verse six. We read verse eight all the time, but look at verse six in verse seven, the Bible says, let him ask in faith. What nothing wavering for he that waver is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Look, he's saying, he's saying, don't be that variable. God is saying, don't be that variable person. So I have to be just like constantly adjusting on what I'm going to do to you. You know, blessing curse, blessing curse. He's like, just don't waver. Don't waver in your Christian life. Look at verse number seven. He says for, for let not that man, the guy that is just being tossed by the wind, that's wavering. It says for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. That's a big statement right there. The Bible is saying, if you're wavering in your Christian life, don't expect anything from the Lord. Don't expect anything from God. And then he says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. So just ask yourself in James chapter one, who's the variable in this equation. The fact that God can change his mind is actually a huge blessing for us in our lives. How consistent are you towards God? James chapter one is saying, be stable towards the Lord and he'll be stable towards you. That's what James chapter one is saying. Turn to Luke chapter 18. Here's the second one. Here's the second one right here. I'll spend a little bit more time on this one. You're going to be consistent, but here's the second way to avoid God's wrath and avoid, you know, have a consistent response from God in your life. Be consistent. Number one, number two, be persistent, be persistent in your life towards the Lord. Look at Luke chapter 18 verse number one, Jesus gives a parable here. Jesus gives a parable in verse number one, Jesus says, and he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and what not to faint, not to what waiver, not to stop their Christian life. We'll get verse number two saying there was a city in a city, a judge which feared not God, God, Jesus does this all the time. He compares like how good of a parent God is to just some worldly parent. He compares here. He's comparing, you know, how good of a judge God is to some just normal judge. This is a normal judge. He doesn't fear God. There's a city, a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man. He doesn't really care about too much. He was just a judge. And there was a widow in that city. And she came unto him saying, avenge me of mine adversary. She doesn't tell us, you know, what happened here, but this woman had something done wrong to her. And she came to a judge who just didn't care too much about anybody but himself. And she said, please avenge me, judge. Look at verse four. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow trouble with me, I'll avenge her, lest by her continual coming, she wearies me. She weary me. So this woman just keeps coming back to this judge. And she's just like, this person did me wrong. This person stole from me. This person hurt me. Fix it, fix it, fix it. He doesn't care about the woman. He doesn't care about anything. He doesn't care about anything that's going on. Kind of reminds me a little bit of Pontius Pilate. Just people just annoying him to the point where he's finally like, fine. Look at verse number six. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge sayeth. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear along without him. So he said, I'll avenge her. In verse number five, he said, fine, I'm going to, I'll take care of it. Just so she'd quit bothering him. Look at verse eight. I tell you that he will avenge them. So now he compares himself like the perfect judge with this unjust judge. He's like, even the unjust judge avenged this lady because why? Because she was persistent because she just kept pursuing the issue over and over and over again. It says, shall God not avenge his own elect, meaning the saved shall not God like come and help his own people, which cry day and night unto him, which are persistent. You see, they're persistent. They're praying. They're constantly beseeching the Lord. Can any of us really say that we're really pursuing the Lord every single moment in our lives? I don't think anybody could say that. That's what God is saying that we should be doing. We should be pursuing the Lord all the time. No, but what we do is we think about ourselves and we think about what's going on in our lives day to day. And then when we get in trouble, then we're like going to God. We're like, Oh, Lord, help me. And God's like, who are you again? Like, you know, what's going on? I haven't heard from you in like three months. We need to pursue the Lord in our lives. You know, look what he says in verse number eight. He says, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. These people that are just constantly pursuing and crying to the Lord. And then he says, nevertheless, he's like, when, when I come back, he's like, nevertheless, when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? He's saying, nobody's doing this. Nobody is pursuing me. You know, these two characteristics turned to Acts chapter 13. We just studied Acts chapter 13. Turn there though. These two characteristics are why God was so fond of David. You ever hear about the way God speaks about David? You know, a lot of people are confused about that. I mean, David, I mean, David is a person in the Bible, a person in the Bible that, I mean, some of his sins, they're the most public sins in the Bible. The sins that David did. You know, he committed adultery. And then on top of that, I mean, he murdered the man, you know, to cover up his sin of adultery. And you're just like, but you hear God speak about him. You've got, you're literally, you hear God say for generations, for generations, you have a King, like five generations later that messes up. And God says, you know what? I'm going to spare you. Why? For David's sake. You're like, what in the world? David, all I remember about him is, Oh yeah, I remember the Goliath thing. That was cool. But all I remember about him is the, the murderer and the adultery. And then he like went and took a census of the people and got like tens of thousands of people killed. What in the world for David's sake, David was consistent and persistent. That's why God, that's why God was so fond of him through all his faults, which is good news for you and good news for me. Cause we're faulted too. Look at Acts chapter 13 verse number 22. That's why God says this, things like this about David. Look at verse number 22 of Acts chapter 13, first Samuel chapter 13 says the same thing says, I will seek for a man after mine own heart. It says in first Samuel chapter 13, look at acts chapter 13 verse 22. The Bible says, and when he had removed him, he raised up unto them. David, this is Paul getting this sermon that we just talked about Wednesday night. He's talking about how God chose David to be the King. He raised up unto them, David, to be their King, to whom also he gave their testimony and said, I have found David. This is God speaking this. He says, I have found David, the son of Jesse. What look how God describes this man, a man after mine own heart. David was a sinner. He messed up left. He messed up right. But you know what? David was a man. You notice how it doesn't say that I was after David. It says David was after me throughout David's whole life. He was the one pursuing the Lord. He pursued God's heart. You know what that means? He pursued God's will throughout his whole life. He messed up. But what happened when Nathan came to him, when Nathan came to him and said, thou art the man that have committed adultery and murdered. He said, I have sinned immediately. He got right right away. David was pursuing God his whole life. He was a man in the flesh. He messed up. His sins are right in the Bible for us to study and read, but he pursued God's heart his entire life persistently in his life. You know what? Most people make a mistake and they quit. Most people mess up. Most people do this. I can just, I can just think of all the examples and most people, they make a mistake in their Christian life. They get backslidden in their Christian life and they never get back to where they were. It doesn't mean they don't lose their salvation. They just, they, they just stopped being profitable in their life. David always got back. He owed that. That's why, that's why God is, is speak so highly of him. That's why God granted mercy for hundreds of years after David. It could be you. Oh man, I got to be perfect. No, bounce back. Get it right. Bounce back. Continue to pursue the Lord in your life. You could be, you could be just as, as God could talk about you the same way he talks about David. God could grant, grant mercy to your children's children's children's children's children for your sake. These promises are your promises. These promises, because God, God, God's, he doesn't, he's not a respecter of persons. David was consistent. He slipped up, but he continued to pursue God in his life. This is why, so this is why God speaks so highly of him. But so many people, so many Christians, they backslide, they fall into sin and they just, they'll just, they'll just never get back to where they were. It's sad because it shouldn't be that way. They should get back up and continue to pursue the Lord. This is why the majority, this is why Jonah chapter three is such a unique chapter in the Bible because Nineveh, what did they do? You read Hebrews chapter 11. What did they do to these prophets? They killed them. They saw them asunder. These people came and they spoke to look at the life of Jeremiah, the whole life of Jeremiah, not one person listened to him. And at the very end, they didn't listen to anything that he said. All the things came true and they still kidnapped him, didn't listen and took everybody to Egypt. They never listened to him one time. The guy had a miserable life. Most of the prophets were just persecuted, killed, tortured, murdered, I mean just martyred. Most of the nations didn't get right. Nineveh did. That's why it's so unique. Look, you could be the Nineveh. You know, you don't, it doesn't mean you have to, the message this morning is that you don't have to have a perfect life. You don't have to be like, Oh man, sin and now I'm done. No, get back up, get it right. God can change his mind towards you. You're like, I'm under the chastisement of God. God is clearly, God is clearly punishing me right now. It doesn't have to be that way. Get back up, get it right. Continue to be consistent, be consistent, get consistent and then pursue the Lord in your life. This is not that hard. Look, it may not be easy, but it is very simple is all I'm trying to get you to understand this morning. Jonah chapter three is a unique situation in the Bible. That's why it's there. God sees this example of this nation that gets right. And he's like, I better write this one down. I better write this one down. It is possible. So yeah, God can change his mind. Thank God for that. He changes his mind for us. And what's better if we can consistently and persistently pursue the Lord in our lives, we will have stability in the way the Lord deals with us. That's the point this morning. Be consistent and then pursue the Lord every day in your life. And he'll be consistent towards you. It's a great promise. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.