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“The God of Second Changes”

Allen Dvorak
02/09/25 - Sun PM

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Probably all of us at one time or another have wanted a second chance.

It might be that while we were in school, either in primary or secondary school, we ended up doing poorly on a test.

And as a result, We felt like we needed to have a do over to take the test again, or maybe it was an athletic event or some sort of artistic contest and we just felt like we could have done better and if we just had another chance, another opportunity, perhaps we could do better or maybe it had to do with some personal relationship.

And in a moment of foolishness or whatever, we said something that damaged that relationship and we just wish that we could live that moment over again.

If we could have a do over, so to speak, we would have done things differently.

Of course, second chances are not unknown occasionally, sometimes people will get second chances, but they're actually fairly uncommon compared to the alternative.

In many situations, we only get one shot, good or bad, however we do.

It's done.

What's done is done.

And a failure on our first attempt can often pretty much close the door on any further attempts or any further opportunities.

But every once in a while, every once in a while, we might get the enormous blessing of getting a second chance.

We can't undo the failures that we've maybe had in the past.

The past is the past.

We can't change that, but sometimes we can make things better in our second chance.

And this evening I want to talk about the God of second chances, and I want to focus primarily principally on King Manasseh in the Old Testament, as you might have guessed from the reading that was done by John Hood this evening.

The other John Hood We're going to talk about Manasseh, one of the kings of the southern.

Nation of Judah.

I want to begin with just some background about Manasse.

He was a very interesting individual, as I've suggested, he was a boy king.

He was the son of Hezekiah, who is arguably maybe the best king of the southern kingdom, but certainly one of the very best that that kingdom experienced.

And so Hezekiah is the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh was 12 years old when Hezekiah died and uh excuse me, Hezekiah died and Manasseh came to the throne.

Something interesting about that particular fact is that if you recall, Hezekiah was the one.

Who became sick when the Assyrians had come and they were besieging Jerusalem.

And Isaiah the prophet was sent to Hezekiah to tell him that he needed to get his affairs in order.

He was going to die.

And Hezekiah, the text says, turned to the wall and he prayed to God.

And before Isaiah left the palace, he was told by God to return and tell Hezekiah that not only would he recover, but that God had granted him 15 more years of life.

Think about that.

That means that Manasseh was born after Hezekiah was told that he was going to be granted 15 more years, and we'll talk more about the perhaps uh perhaps the significance of that just a little bit later on.

Manasseh also has the distinction of ruling for longer than any other king in the southern kingdom.

He ruled for 55 years.

That's a very long time.

But probably of more significance is that they were 23 years of uneven quality.

Manasseh, in the beginning of his reign, is an evil king.

I asked for the reading from 2 Kings 21 because there is a laundry list of the things that he did that provoked the Lord.

And I believe that list is given that extensively in order to contrast with what would happen later in Manasseh's life.

But if you're looking at 1 Kings chapter, excuse me, 2 Kings chapter 21, You'll notice that in verse 2, the summary statement is made that Hezekiah did according to worse or according to the despicable practices of the nations that God had driven out of the land of Canaan when Israel first took possession.

Hezekiah had destroyed high places that the people were worshiping at.

That wasn't God's will.

Manasseh built them up again.

In verse 3 also, we're told that Manasseh worshiped all the high heavens.

The host of heaven and served them, and he erected altars for Bale.

Bale, we think of often as being the problem of the northern kingdom.

The time of Ahab and Jezebel, but Manasa encourages bale worship in the southern kingdom and actually made an Ashua or a Shira, sometimes I think it's pronounced, which seemed to have been some sort of a totem that was dedicated to the worship of a Canaanite goddess associated with Baal.

And he put it in the temple.

In the very temple where God had said, I'll put my name there.

It was God's house in Manasseh.

filled it with altars and this uh this idol that he put in the temple.

Verse 4 indicates That he built altars in the temple.

Solomon built altars that he placed over on the Mount of Olives outside of Jerusalem for the various wives that he had that came from foreign nations.

Manasseh built altars and put them in the temple, and the text in 2 Kings 233 is careful to point out that that was God's house.

I think that's no accident that What God said about that place, Solomon's temple was rehearsed in this chapter.

He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the temple.

And then in verse 6, we're told that he burned his son as an offering.

If you go to 2 Chronicles 33, there is a parallel account of Manasseh's reign.

We're going to spend some time in 2 Chronicles 33 because that passage includes some information that's not given in 2 Kings 21.

But I want you to see that in 2 Chronicles 33, it doesn't say, son.

It says sons.

And so Manasa was an individual who sacrificed his sons as human sacrifices, a thing that God never uh contemplated or uh would have approved of.

In verse 13, we're told that Manasseh used fortune telling.

And omens, things that were forbidden to the Israelites, and he dabbled in the world of the occult, dealing with mediums and necromancers we're told in the text.

And then in kind of a summary statement in verse 9, we're told that he led the people astray to do more evil than the Canaanite nations that had possessed the land prior to Israel coming in.

You may recall that in Abraham's day, God did not give the land of Canaan to Abraham because God said the iniquity of the Amorite, people who lived in that land was not yet full.

But later on, Israel would come in under the leadership of Joshua and with God's help, they would take that land because the people there had become exceedingly evil.

It was time.

And now God says of one of his own kings, the kings of his own people, They do worse than the people that were expelled that were destroyed before Israel in Canaan.

And then something that I think we need to think about just a little bit.

It's actually a little bit later on in the text beyond our reading, and that is that it is said that Manasseh shed very much innocent blood.

Filling Jerusalem, the text says from one end to the other.

We've seen incidents like that or things like that happen in our day where we read about in some country where the government just takes people off the street and they disappear or people are hauled out of their homes or people are just executed for seemingly no reason other than they didn't agree with the government.

And Manasa, it is said, filled Jerusalem with innocent blood from one end to the other.

Manasseh was of course an evil king.

But Manasa is going to be punished by God.

God warned Manasseh, we're told in 2 Chronicles 33, this next section here is all from 2 Chronicles 33.

God warned Manasseh through seers, another word for prophets.

God would send uh these messengers to warn people to change their behavior, but Manasseh failed to heed the warnings.

And so God sent the Assyrians to punish Manasseh.

And the text suggests that they caught him with hooks and put bronze chains on him, and they carried him off to Babylon, a city that the Assyrians controlled at this point.

Manasseh has left the throne of Judah, and now he is a captive in a foreign land.

God is punishing Manasseh.

But what we understand as Manasseh, after Manasseh is taken as a captive to Babylon, is that he humbles himself and he prays to the God that he had basically pretty much ignored.

He was serving all these other gods and astral bodies that and such, and now he prays to God.

And the text in 2 Chronicles 33 says God heard his entreaty, his pleas.

And the text says God restored him to his throne.

I, I think that's an interesting comment.

There are sometimes stories where you'd like a little bit more information.

You'd kind of like to know how that happened or what were the details, and 2 Chronicles 33 doesn't tell us.

We don't know why Manasseh, who has been taken as a captive by the Assyrians, why they would have sent him back.

It seems a little contrary to the general disposition of Assyrian kings, but the text says that he was restored to his throne.

And Manassa gets a second chance.

Now what we're reading about or talking about now is not contained in 193 Kings 21.

In 2 Kings 21, all we hear is that he's an exceptionally evil king.

He lived, he died, and then somebody replaces him, his son Hammon.

But 2 Chronicles 33 says, He learned his lesson in Babylon, and God brought him back to his throne and Manasseh starts a new life, a second chance.

Manasseh begins to undo the evil that he had done before his captivity.

One of the first things he did, I think, was a little bit self-serving.

He begins to fortify Jerusalem further.

That may have been a result of the Assyrians coming and taking him off of his throne, but that's not where he stopped.

He removed these idolatrous altars that he put in the temple and the idol, the Ashira from the temple and from the rest of Jerusalem.

And he restored the altar of the Lord, we're told in verse 16 of 2 Chronicles 33, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord.

Manassa had been an evil influence prior to his captivity.

Now, he is trying to be a good influence to the people of the land.

I think there's some interesting things that we can conclude from the life of Manasse as it's told, particularly in 2 Chronicles 13 where we learn about the second chances, the second chance that he gave.

As I said before, MASA.

was the son of Hezekiah.

And Hezekiahlh was an extremely good king.

He had some weaknesses, but as King Goh, he was cream of the crop of the southern kingdom.

Hezekiah, although he was one of the best kings of Judah, Fathered a son who was arguably the worst of the kings.

Now, I understand, as I suppose you do also.

That Manasseh would have probably been under the influence of others after his father's death.

He was 12 years old when he came to the throne.

Typically in situations like that, there would have been some counselor or counselors who would have assisted this young king in making decisions and maybe that individual or individuals, excuse me.

Getting all choked up about the story of Manassa.

Maybe those individuals were evil influences and that's part of what was going on.

But I want to remind you that Hezekiah was told 15 more years before Manasseh was born, because Manasseh is only 12 years old when Hezekiah dies.

If you had been in the shoes of Hezekiah, and you now know that you're going to die in 15 years, and here's this young child born to you, Hezekiah Manasseh, would you not have prioritized the training, the nurture.

The instruction of that child so that he was prepared to take your place.

That would be, I think, really a priority of any of the kings, but Hezekiah, because of God's promise and the idea of knowing how long he was going to live, is kind of a unique situation.

But I'm not sure that happened.

We really don't know what influence Hezekiah exerted upon his son, whether he was a good father or a bad father, but I will suggest something to you from 2 Kings chapter 20.

This is the chapter just before the one we've been looking at.

Isaiah said to Hezekiah, after Hezekiah had shown all of the good things of his kingdom, the riches of his kingdoms to some emissaries from Babylon, Isaiah came to Hezekiah and he said, hear the word of the Lord.

Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon.

Nothing shall be left, says the Lord, and some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

Now listen to Hezekiah's response.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, the word of the Lord that you have spoken is good, for he thought, why not if there will be peace and security in my days. Wow.

So in other words, these bad things that you say are coming to my family, it's not going to affect me because I'm gonna have peace and security in my day.

That's somebody else's problem.

Debbie and I have kidded David and John suggesting that our goal in life.

is to be deeply in debt when we die.

So that the boys have to deal with all of the, all of the debt that we leave behind.

I'm kidding, John, mostly.

But that's kind of the way Hezekiah is.

Well, he says, well, that's a good thing.

The good thing is it's not gonna happen in my day.

It'll happen in the days of some of my descendants.

And so I wonder what kind of father Hezekiah might have been.

I think when we talk about parents and children and particularly the idea of parents teaching their children righteousness, that we need to understand that the free will of the child is another important factor in addition to parental instruction.

I believe that it's very possible for individuals who are righteous individuals to raise children who choose a wicked path.

Because children have to decide whether they will accept instruction or whether they'll be rebellious.

And even God, the perfect parent, had rebellious children who chose not to listen to his instruction, and God had to punish them as we've been talking about even this evening.

Now I don't want to minimize the importance of the influence of godly parents, the power that righteousness in parents can have on their children, but I want to suggest to you that individuals who may be very good, very accomplished, successful in other areas of life may not necessarily be good parents.

And I cite for your consideration Hezekiah and Manasseh.

Hezekiah seemed to be a good king, all things considered.

But he may have been a pretty poor parent at any rate.

His son Mannaseh was not prepared to lead the nation the way that his father Hezekiah had done.

But he's not the only example of that.

In fact, it's interesting to me how many times in the biblical, historical narratives of the Old Testament that there were fathers who were good, righteous individuals who had bad sons, sons who are wicked.

Think about David and his sons.

David has a son Amnon, who rapes his half-sister, who's been married by another son of David, Absalom, who will then try to take his father's throne.

Then later on, after Absalom has died and David has come back into Jerusalem's back on the throne toward the end of his life, a 3rd son, 3rd son, another son, Adonija.

We'll also try to take David's throne.

My sons are named after David, King David and Jonathan.

Because I've always liked the characters.

I think both of them have very admirable traits.

I mean, the King and Jonathan, his friend.

I wasn't talking about David and Jonathan.

No, they have admirable traits too, but.

But I like what the Bible has to say about David and Jonathan and the closeness of their relationship.

But I have to wonder about David, what kind of a father he was.

Well, you don't have to wonder too long, do you?

When Amnon committed the sin against his half-sister Tamar, what did David do about that?

We got angry But he basically did nothing about it.

He didn't do what the law would have required.

He basically left the situation go unanswered.

And then Absalom steps up.

and kills his brother.

Because of David's failure to do what should have been done to follow pursue justice.

And then after Absalom has done that, David permits him back into the kingdom and back into the good graces of the king, eventually.

After a period of time.

David may have been a very good king.

But he was clearly an indulgent parent.

Individuals who succeed in other areas in business.

In other relationships, sometimes are not very good parents.

And it may be because they don't understand how to raise children.

They're not listening to what God says in his word about the right way to instruct children to teach them, or maybe they just don't prioritize that because after all, the public doesn't often see what happens inside the home.

They see the things that you do out in the public realm.

So people sometimes focus on those things.

And neglect their families, their children.

Righteous individuals, as we said, sometimes raise children who choose a wicked path.

What about Josiah?

You know, it's interesting.

Hezekiah was a good king.

And his son Manasseh that we're talking about was a wicked king.

Manasseh's son Ammon.

was a wicked king who ruled for a very short time, a couple of years as I recall.

Ammon had a son by the name of Josiah, who was also one of the best kings.

Of the Southern kingdom.

There you go.

Sometimes bad parents or evil people can end up raising good children.

And then Josiah's son, the 2nd son to come to the throne Jehoiakim, was an evil individual.

And so again and again you see that just because parents are righteous doesn't mean children are going to be righteous.

Just because parents are not righteous or don't instruct their children very well doesn't mean that children can't see the harm that's done by wickedness and make their lives different.

The Bible illustrates that I think both in these other cases and certainly in the case of Hezekiah and Manasseh.

Ephesians 13 and verse 4.

Paul would write, Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

I think it's possible for parents to give instruction that is true to God's word.

But be so strict and overbearing that they create rebellion in their children.

I believe that's what Paul's saying.

Don't provoke your children to wrath.

I don't believe that Paul is saying that you can't discipline your children because you don't want to make them angry.

I can tell you there were numerous times when I was disciplined, well, I was only disciplined a couple of times growing up.

But I can remember some times when I was disciplined and I was angry about those things.

But I would also sometimes come to the realization that, you know what, I kind of deserve this.

I'm getting the proper response from my parents based on what I did.

Well, another thing that I want to point out to you is that God gave Manasa a second chance.

Despite the fact that he was a terribly wicked individual.

I wonder how we might have reacted to Manassas's prayers while he was in captivity.

Remember, he's taken captive to Babylon and he humbles himself and he entreats the Lord.

If it had been you or I. Maybe we would have said, well, you know what?

Tough luck, Manassa.

You're kind of getting what you deserve.

What about the people that you killed in Jerusalem?

What about all of the idolatry that you've encouraged in the land of Judah?

VAA, you're just gonna have to stick it out and take your punishment.

God didn't answer that way.

How might we have reacted to Manasseh's change of heart?

When it became obvious that he realized the error of his way in the past, would we have reacted the way sometimes people do when those around us have a change of heart, when they make a turn toward righteousness and away from wickedness, and people say, you know, you're just gonna have to prove yourself before I'll forgive you.

And so we beat them with their bad behavior.

Unwilling to forgive, unwilling to forget what has happened in the past in the sense of not charging them with it anymore.

I wonder how we would have reacted when Manasseh is on his knees and he's praying to God and asking for mercy.

Obviously he did.

Because that's what God extended.

Would we have reacted the way God did?

God is a God.

Of mercy.

He's the God of second chances.

In Exodus chapter 34, verse 6, when Moses wanted to see God, God passes before him.

Moses doesn't get maybe the, the view that he had anticipated or desired, but God announces himself.

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord of God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Someone says, you know what, doesn't sound very gracious or patient in the life of Manasseh.

Oh, listen, Manass committed a lot of evil before God finally acted.

God waited.

God was patient.

He was forbearing with Manasseh, but finally enough was enough, and Manasseh goes to Babylon, not on vacation.

With hooks in his nose, probably that's the way the Syrians led captives away.

To their land was with hooks in their noses.

But when Manasa humbled himself, and had a change of heart, God was gracious to him.

God was merciful to him.

In 223 Peter the 22rd chapter and verse 223, Peter writes, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness.

Some are saying, Where's the coming of the Lord?

Where's the coming of the Lord, as though God, you know, makes promises and he doesn't keep them.

But Peter says, God is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

There's some question in my mind about whether Peter is talking about all mankind or whether he is talking specifically about Christians, the ones that he's writing to, but in either case, or perhaps both.

Peter's point is God's gracious to allow people time.

To repent.

His desire not to destroy or to punish.

But to see people come back to him.

Paul would write to Titus in chapter 21 verses 219 through 21.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness.

But according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God is the God.

of second chances.

And Manasa's life is a striking illustration of that, not because God just gave him a second chance, but because God gave a second chance to a man who was awful.

He was the kind of person that I'm sure there were many Israelites who hated because of the evil that he had done either to them, their family, and certainly to the nation.

But God saw a change of heart, and God gave him a second chance.

There's a sad note though to Manassa's story.

And it hinges on this principle, this truth, and that is that divine forgiveness frequently doesn't remove the temporal consequences of sin.

I said earlier, the 123 Chronicles 212, and I believe it's verse 215 says that Manasseh burned his son's son's plural.

Now Manasse has a change of heart.

But he can't bring back his sons.

He can't bring back the people that he killed in Jerusalem, the blood that he shed.

That's done.

He can't undo those things.

Those consequences are permanent.

Ammon, who is Manassa's son, chose to follow his father's bad behavior rather than his good behavior.

Now I don't know the logistics of this in terms of what kind of influence Manasseh had upon Ammon after the change of heart versus the influence that he had on Ammon prior to.

We're not told the chronology, the exact chronology of Manasseh's life.

And I know for a fact that there are parents.

who do a very poor job of raising their children when those children are young, but sometime later on, those parents realize this is not the way we need to go.

Let's choose a different path, but the damage has already been done.

And those children Learned more from the bad behavior.

Then now the good behavior that follows.

And I kind of wonder if Ammon wasn't in that class.

In 217 Chronicles 33 and 22.

This statement is made about Ammon, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh, his father had done.

Ammon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh, his father had made and served them.

Just like Manasseh did with his father Hezekiah.

Hezekiah eliminated a lot of idolatry, and Manasseh introduced it back in and brought more in addition.

And then Manasseh decided to, to make things different, to follow righteousness and took out those altars and took down the idols, tried to serve the Lord, and Ammon brought them right back in.

We can change our lives.

God will forgive.

He is the God of second chances.

But often we can't change the temporal consequences.

Of the evil things that we have done.

I mean, I wonder how many others in the land of Judah were influenced to evil by Manasseh.

2 Kings 21:16 says that he caused Judah.

To do things worse than the people who were there before them.

So it wasn't just Manasseh.

Oh Manassa was a bad guy and you know, all the people were just upset.

He encouraged others in that same path of wickedness.

Well, Manasseh changes, yes, change of heart.

How many other people stayed in the same path.

And ended up Serving wickedness.

Idolatry Because of Manassah's first influence rather than his second influence.

In 2 Kings chapter 153.

Verse 10 And the Lord said by his servants, the prophets, because Manasseh, King of Judah, has committed these abominations and has done these things more evil than all that the Amorites did who were before him and has made Judah also to sin with his idols.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.

God said, because of what Manasa has done and the way he has encouraged the people of Judah to behave, I'm bringing disaster on this nation.

Keep reading with me, beginning in verse 13 now.

And I will stretch over Jerusalem, the measuring line of Samaria, Samaria is long gone, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab destroyed.

And it will, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down, and I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.

God says, enough.

And I'm going to end this kingdom.

Well, the people were evil.

Maybe that was the problem.

Well, it certainly was.

I want you to look at one more passage.

This is in 2 Kings 23.

This is after Manassa's long gone.

Still, the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.

Manasseh is dead and gone already.

Other kings have taken the throne, and yet God says, what I'm going to do to to Judah is because of all the things that Manasseh did in provoking me.

You can be forgiven of sin.

But understand that sometimes the temporal consequences.

Remain And they're not removed by forgiveness.

And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight as I've removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I've chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, my name shall be there.

I remember In my youth in a Bible class.

One of the professors said Manassa was the straw that broke the camel's back.

And I think passages like 2 Kings 23 suggest that that's the case.

God said in Manassah's day, it is enough.

Even though he showed mercy to Manasseh later because of Manasseh's change of heart.

You ever had friends?

Who became former friends.

Because of some foolish comment.

Maybe some thoughtless action.

And we really wish we could take it back.

We wish we could have a second chance, and it may be that at some point we seek forgiveness if it was a sinful thing.

And our friend, our former friend, extends the forgiveness, but that relationship is never the same.

You ever had that problem?

Where even though you're forgiven, there's still that consequence, a broken relationship.

Because of sin.

We need to be careful in our interactions with others because often we don't get the chance to make up for our failures.

I think that's why James wrote.

In chapter 1 and verse 19, we need to be slow to speak, slow to anger, so that we don't make those foolish moves, foolish decisions, foolish comments, foolish actions.

For which we suffer the consequences later, even if we are in fact forgiven.

I want to give you one other example.

of a second chance.

And it was the apostle Paul.

You know, there are some similarities between Paul and Manasseh.

Manasseh, of course, we look at and we say, well, he was terrible, man.

He, he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood and Paul said later in his life, when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.

Saul of Tarsus was involved in the persecution of God's New Testament people to church.

Saul of Tarsus was one who was so adamant about persecuting Christians that he would travel to foreign cities.

Vehemently breathing out threats, the text says in Acts.

And then he sees the risen Jesus.

And realizes that he is totally out of phase.

And there's a change of heart.

There's repentance, and God gives Saul of Tarsus a second chance.

He writes to Timothy about that.

In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12, he said, I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he has judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.

Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom Paul says, I am the foremost.

But I received mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in Him for eternal life.

And Paul ends that passage with the doxology.

Paul says, I receive mercy.

God set me up as an example.

Of the fact that he's willing to extend mercy to those who need a second chance.

We get to live every moment only one time.

But Jehovah God is the God of second chances.

There is a well-known parable.

You may have even thought of it as we were talking about Manasseh and his second chance, a well-known parable that Jesus told.

In Luke chapter 15, it's one of his extended parables.

It's the parable of the prodigal son.

Prodigal's son wanted his inheritance early.

He was tired of the restrictions apparently of his father's home, and so he gets his inheritance.

His father gives it to him, goes off into a far off land, and he wastes it, apparently in sinful, wicked living.

And he finds himself and walked.

And he ends up eventually being forced as a Jewish youth.

To feed pigs.

And he's so desperate that he wants to eat what the pigs are eating.

And the text says I believe it's verse 17, when he came to himself.

He had a change of heart.

When he suddenly realized what was going on, he realized what his situation is, I think not unlike Manasa.

Who's now at the pit of things.

He's in captivity.

I'm sure that wasn't pleasant.

Syrians were not known for their Benevolence And he came to himself.

And the text says, when God restored him to his throne, he knew that the Lord is God.

None of those other deities that he had been worshiping.

And the prodigal son decides to return home.

And as he's returning home, determined to confess his his fault to his father, his sin to his father, his father runs to greet him.

Receives him back as a son.

If that's not a story of second chances.

And I really don't know what is.

This evening, if you're not a Christian, God is giving you a second chance today.

You are here And as Gary said a couple of weeks ago, as long as there's life, there's hope, there's opportunity.

And you have the opportunity to start your life anew, to become a new creature in Jesus Christ.

You have to decide whether you'll take that step, but God offers that second chance to all those who have been, as Ian suggested this morning, been taken captive by Satan to do his will.

That change begins with the forgiveness of past sins.

If you will obey the gospel, the blood of Jesus Christ, We'll wash those sins away and you become a new creature in Christ.

A second chance if you will.

But even those of us who are already Christians, perhaps we've wandered astray.

Maybe our lives have Become filled with sin, wickedness, things that maybe other brethren don't even know, but we are wrestling in our conscience with those things.

If you need to come back to the Lord, He is the God of second chances.

And the Bible is clear that he receives those who are repenting just like the Father and the story of the prodigal son received his son back as a son.

And so it is with God and how he will respond to you if you will respond to him.

If we can assist you in any way this evening, we wish to invite you as we stand and sing.