Do you like short sermons? Here is one of the shortest sermons in History, Jonah 3:4. "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth."The Ninevites knew who the God of the Jews was. They had conquered the Jews several times. Everyone in the neighborhood knew who Yahweh was. So how in the world did this short message bring about the repentance of a whole city? And a pagan audience at that, who had been antagonistic toward the Jews. There was nothing sophisticated about Jonah's sermon. They could probably read his attitude of disgust toward them. It would have been hard to hide. Yet the whole city repented. How did that happen?The answer is straightforward. It is God who convicts us of our sin and need. Not persuasive words. I have preached messages that were not that great and had people come to me and tell me how transformative it was. That is simply the Holy Spirit working in their hearts, regardless of what I said. Sometimes I wasn't even speaking on the topic that touched them. It is God who works in our hearts to bring change. It is the Holy Spirit. It is always the Holy Spirit.This is how Paul described his preaching to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. "And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God's power."Did you catch that? "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power."Remember this: If God is convicting you, pay attention. Pay attention if He grips your heart on something because He is speaking. The Ninevites paid attention, and they were spared disaster. It was not Jonah's compassion or creative message that got their attention but the Holy Spirit.If we want a movement of God in our congregations, we need to pray that the Holy Spirit will work among us. If we want to see a church of long tables and low walls where everyone is welcome, we need to pray that the Holy Spirit will show up. In every epistle of the New Testament that Paul wrote he speaks of his prayer for the people in that congregation. How often do we pray for our congregation? It is prayer and the Holy Spirit that change people and motivate congregations to great things. We can have the best strategy and plan, but nothing will happen without God's power through His Spirit. In fact, the seven most scary words in Scripture are in John 15, where Jesus says, "Without me, you can do nothing."Here is the funny thing. Jonah didn't even want the Ninevites to repent, but they did when God touched their hearts. So it all comes back to the Holy Spirit.Remember when God touches you to pay attention to His Spirit. Remember to pray that God will be at work in your congregation. Remember when you minister to people who don't know Him that it will be the Holy Spirit that convinces them, not you. So talk to them and minister to them but talk more to God, who can change their hearts.Father, thank you for the incredible power of your Spirit that could move an entire city to repentance with a very short one-sentence sermon. Remind us that it is always through your power that people change. Help me to be a person of prayer for others.