Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Our dear Heavenly Father.
[00:00:06] All that is beautiful, all that is good, all that is noble, all that enriches the human soul comes from you.
[00:00:25] So we gather together in your house today because we have souls that need what only you can provide.
[00:00:37] We have weaknesses that only you can strengthen.
[00:00:42] We have emptinesses that only you can feel.
[00:00:47] And we have sorrows that only you can comfort.
[00:00:52] So I call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:00:56] I turn to you with all my heart and ask that your spirit would whisper to our needy souls this morning, in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:01:12] I learned this week that one of the largest libraries of the ancient world was in Nineveh.
[00:01:22] They did an excavation several times, and they have found 26,000 cuneiform tablets.
[00:01:35] And these tablets are divided into categories.
[00:01:42] And some of them are business transactions, some of them are histories, and some of them are legal tablets.
[00:02:01] When Jonah preached in Nineveh, there was a library that probably had twice as many, because these cuneiform tablets are made of clay.
[00:02:14] And over the centuries they got broken.
[00:02:20] So not only was Nineveh a a commercial center for the ancient world, it was an intellectual center.
[00:02:32] Jonah wasn't preaching to a bunch of Neanderthals, he was preaching to some of the.
[00:02:41] The most enlightened people in the world at the time.
[00:02:46] And helps if we see that it will help us understand why God has a heart to save Nineveh.
[00:02:57] So we've made it all the way to chapter four of verse five.
[00:03:02] Last Sunday, we learned that Jonah preached. The people repented, and Jonah was totally livid about it.
[00:03:12] He actually said to God, I knew you would save them.
[00:03:17] I knew that you were a God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding steadfast love. And now you've gone and done it. You've shown kindness to people I hate.
[00:03:31] So this week, Jonah leaves the city.
[00:03:35] And Nineveh is not far from the Tigris River.
[00:03:39] So the river is west of the city, that's the low ground. And east of the city there's high ground.
[00:03:47] So that helps us understand. Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself. There he sat under the shade till he should see what would become of the city.
[00:04:05] Ah.
[00:04:07] Jonah increased his misery.
[00:04:12] Ah. Could we begin with the first lesson? Ah.
[00:04:16] If you're miserable, here's a good idea.
[00:04:21] Stop doing the things that make you miserable.
[00:04:25] There's a beginning place. You can't control everything, but some things you can control.
[00:04:31] And if you are miserable this morning, here's the first thing you should do, stop doing the things that make you miserable.
[00:04:41] Jonah did not have to be miserable, but he just persisted in the thing that was make him most miserable.
[00:04:51] In fact, Jonah should have gone home.
[00:04:55] His job was done.
[00:04:57] God gave him one job. Go tell the people of Nineveh to repent.
[00:05:02] He went and told them to repent, and they did.
[00:05:07] And he should have taken the next train home.
[00:05:11] But he couldn't bring himself to do it.
[00:05:14] So he sets down east of the city in the blazing summer sun, pouts, thinking that perhaps if he's annoying enough, God will change his mind and judge the city.
[00:05:33] I find it very interesting.
[00:05:36] Do you remember in chapter one, Jonah ran from the Lord because he didn't want to go to Nineveh. Everybody remember that now he doesn't want to leave.
[00:05:48] It's like anything God wants Jonah to do, he wants to do the opposite. God said, jonah, go to Nineveh. He said, I'm not going. God says, okay, Jonah, you can go home now. He said, I'm not going home either.
[00:06:03] Is it possible that we develop a relationship with God that is, ah, reluctant.
[00:06:20] Ah, God wants us to go, we don't want to go. God doesn't want us to go, we want to go. Ah. What is your relationship with God like this morning?
[00:06:30] Do you, do you recognize a reluctance or, or do you recognize a heart that, that is eager to be about what God wants you to do?
[00:06:44] Ah.
[00:06:46] I also found it interesting that he made himself a booth.
[00:06:52] And I've been trying to imagine, ah, what this booth must have looked like.
[00:06:58] Ah, it's not very foresty around Nineveh, so it's not like you could go out in your backyard and cut some branches off a pine tree and tie them together.
[00:07:14] I've been trying to figure out what this booth looked like, and the best I can come up with is he took a garment of clothing and he kind of propped it up with a stick. And he's sitting in the shadow of, of this jacket, trying to stay out of the heat of the sun, waiting to see if God will change his mind and ruin Nineveh after all.
[00:07:47] When I was working on this sermon this week, I thought about Abraham.
[00:07:53] God said to Abraham, I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:07:59] And Abraham pleaded with him. Do you remember this? He said, if you find 50 righteous people there, will you spare it? God said, yeah, I'll spare it for 50.
[00:08:09] He said, if you find 40 righteous people, will you spare it?
[00:08:12] God said, I'll spare it for 40.
[00:08:16] He bargained him down to 10.
[00:08:20] He said to God, if you find 10 righteous people in the city, will you spare it? And God said, I'll spare it for 10.
[00:08:28] And if you know the story, God couldn't find 10 righteous people and he destroyed Sodom.
[00:08:36] And if you read that story, the Bible says that the day after Abraham talked to God, he went out and looked towards Sodom to see if God had spared the city.
[00:08:49] And he saw the smoke rising into the sky.
[00:08:54] Abraham pleaded with God to spare Sodom.
[00:09:00] Jonah pleaded with God to destroy Nineveh.
[00:09:06] Abraham was brokenhearted when Sodom was destroyed.
[00:09:13] Jonah was ticked off when Nineveh was spared.
[00:09:19] Ah.
[00:09:20] Again, I want to say the book of Jonah is not written for us to have a critical spirit about Jonah. The book of Jonah is written for all of us to do a self examination of our own heart.
[00:09:37] Ah.
[00:09:39] Ah.
[00:09:41] We ought not to have any pleasure.
[00:09:44] The suffering even of the wicked.
[00:09:49] Can you hear this, Church?
[00:09:51] Ah.
[00:09:52] Ah.
[00:09:54] Ah.
[00:09:56] America needs to hear a clear message from God.
[00:10:01] And we have to stop delighting in the sorrow and the suffering of people we don't like, Church.
[00:10:12] Ah.
[00:10:14] We have to stop. We, we have to stop taking a morbid delight when people we don't like have difficult times.
[00:10:25] We have to stop watching the news and seeing people go through terrible times and thinking in our heart they deserve that.
[00:10:35] Can you hear me, Church?
[00:10:37] Jonah is a warning to every one of us that it is unhealthy and unchristian to take delight in the sorrows of people we don't like.
[00:10:52] Ah.
[00:10:55] And then because God is so merciful, Jonah is sitting there with a bad attitude.
[00:11:02] He won't go home.
[00:11:04] He's grousing at God.
[00:11:07] And God said, Jonah, you're pretty miserable.
[00:11:11] I'm going to help you out a little bit.
[00:11:14] And the Lord appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort.
[00:11:27] So Jonah was exceedingly glad. And because of the plan, God said to Jonah, you're pretty miserable.
[00:11:39] I can help you out with that if you just go home.
[00:11:43] But since you're too obstinate to do that, I'm going to help you out. And he caused this plant to grow.
[00:11:53] Some of your Bibles call it a gourd, but it was probably a castor oil plant that grows commonly in the Middle east and it can grow as high as 6ft tall.
[00:12:07] So this 6 foot bush grows up to give. To give Jonah some more shade.
[00:12:14] I told you at the beginning of this series. This is not a Jonah and the Whale story.
[00:12:21] The. This is a Jonah and God story.
[00:12:25] And in. In the book of Jonah, we see the providence of God in. In nature. First of all, God caused a storm to stop Jonah from going to Tarshish.
[00:12:37] Second, God caused a sea creature to swallow Jonah. I actually read an article this this week. They found some guy back when they did whaling.
[00:12:50] He fell out of the boat and on a whale hunt, a whale swallowed him. They caught the whale, cut the darn thing open, and the guy was in there still alive.
[00:13:06] You can.
[00:13:07] You can look it up.
[00:13:09] It's unbelievable. The whale's stomach acid bleached the guy, so he.
[00:13:16] All right. I don't know why I tell you these stories.
[00:13:20] You sidetracked me.
[00:13:23] The storm, the sea creature. Now, God causes a plant to grow, and then he's gonna cause a worm to eat the plant, and then he's gonna send a scorching east wind.
[00:13:36] All of nature serves the divine purpose.
[00:13:39] All. All of nature.
[00:13:42] The next time you're complaining about life, the next time you're complaining about weather, the next time you're grousing about living in northeastern Ohio, I want you to remember, all of nature serves divine providence.
[00:13:57] Maybe it's a rainy day because somebody needs some rain.
[00:14:04] Maybe not, but maybe.
[00:14:06] All right.
[00:14:08] If nature so willingly serves her creator, shouldn't we have second thoughts about our reluctance to serve him?
[00:14:21] Church.
[00:14:24] Ah.
[00:14:26] Ah.
[00:14:28] I want to tell you that when you are at your most miserable, God is at his most merciful.
[00:14:36] Jonah was an absolutely miserable man.
[00:14:40] He had a bad attitude. He had a.
[00:14:44] His expectations hadn't been met.
[00:14:47] He was setting out in the hot sun. He was far from home.
[00:14:52] If you look at his life from every direction, you see one misery on top of another one. But you know what? God's mercy was greater than Jonah's misery.
[00:15:05] I don't know what misery you brought with you today.
[00:15:08] I don't know what misery pinches at your heart.
[00:15:14] I don't know what physical misery that you endure. But I do know this.
[00:15:21] God's mercy is greater than your misery.
[00:15:26] And whatever your misery is, his mercy is just a whispered prayer away.
[00:15:35] Church.
[00:15:38] There was.
[00:15:40] There was a time in my life that I had a bad accident and was in the hospital for a month.
[00:15:50] And one night I was sitting on the bed. It was about 3 o' clock in the morning.
[00:15:55] I had tubes all over me, in and out of me. I was a wreck.
[00:16:00] And I was sitting on the edge of this bed.
[00:16:03] I could not have been any more Miserable.
[00:16:09] And I was saying to God, okay, this isn't our deal.
[00:16:14] You are the God of all comfort, and I'm done.
[00:16:22] Ah.
[00:16:23] Ah.
[00:16:25] And the God of all mercy prompted a nurse to come into my room.
[00:16:32] She said, you're not having a good night, are you?
[00:16:36] I said, I have never been more miserable in my life.
[00:16:41] And this nurse said, let me see what I can do.
[00:16:45] And she remade the bed, the sheets real tight. You know what I mean? If you lay in bed, everything gets all wrinkly. And she made the bed, the sheets real tight, fluffed up the pillows, heated a blanket, got me situated in there, and I actually fell asleep.
[00:17:12] The mercy of God is greater than our miseries.
[00:17:18] He meets us.
[00:17:21] He meets us where the misery is unendurable.
[00:17:26] And he shows us his steadfast love and faithfulness.
[00:17:31] I'm telling you this morning, if you are miserable, I'm telling you this morning if you're brokenhearted.
[00:17:38] I'm telling you this morning if you're disappointed.
[00:17:42] Telling you this morning, if you're angry and resentful, there is a mercy in the heart of God for you.
[00:17:51] If you're simply just confused and you don't know which way to take the next step, there is a mercy in the heart of God for you.
[00:18:04] When Jeremiah saw the destruction of Jerusalem, when the city that was so beautiful was a pile of rubble, he wrote a book called Lamentation.
[00:18:17] And in Lamentation, Jeremiah is as miserable as a man can be.
[00:18:23] His world is wrecked, everything he's known is destroyed.
[00:18:30] There is no future in his lifetime for the the city of Jerusalem.
[00:18:35] And he wrote the Lamentation to lament his misery.
[00:18:41] But in the middle of that book, listen what he said.
[00:18:46] The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
[00:18:50] His mercies never come to an end.
[00:18:54] They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
[00:18:59] When Jeremiah was at his most miserable, he turned and looked to God.
[00:19:06] And when he saw the face of God, he said, the steadfast love of the Lord never, never ceases.
[00:19:16] His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.
[00:19:21] I don't know what mercy you will need tomorrow morning, but God has it.
[00:19:27] I don't know what surprise is awaiting you, but God has a mercy for it.
[00:19:34] I want you to hear this morning. The major theme of the book of Jonah is. God has mercy. He has mercy for pagans, and he has mercy for people who follow Him. He has mercy for people who have an open heart. He. He has mercy for people who have a closed heart.
[00:19:54] He has mercy for those who Love him and do his will. He has mercy for those who are angry with him and won't do his will. Wherever you are this morning, there is a great mercy in the heart of God.
[00:20:10] Now some of you need to hear this.
[00:20:13] There are people in your life that are breaking your heart.
[00:20:18] God has a mercy for them.
[00:20:20] There are people in your life who are confusing you. God has a mercy for them.
[00:20:26] There are people in your life that you are afraid for their future.
[00:20:31] God has a mercy for them.
[00:20:34] Can you hear me?
[00:20:35] His mercies are new every single morning.
[00:20:39] And for that person whose burden you carry in your heart this morning, for that face you close your eyes and see.
[00:20:48] God has mercy for them in whatever state they are this morning, Here's the sadness.
[00:21:02] Jonah wanted mercy for himself, but not for others.
[00:21:08] Church Ah.
[00:21:11] Isn't it a common human thing?
[00:21:14] Isn't it a common human thing? When I mess up, I expect the people around me to be merciful.
[00:21:24] Right?
[00:21:25] When they mess up, I feel self righteous.
[00:21:31] They don't deserve mercy.
[00:21:33] God needs to teach them a lesson.
[00:21:36] Church Listen, listen. The golden rule, as you would have others do to you, you do to them.
[00:21:45] Jonah enjoyed the comfort but demanded discomfort for the people of Nineveh.
[00:21:53] Jonah said, I enjoy the comfort of the shade. This plant is so wonderful. It makes my life so much better.
[00:22:03] He wanted the comfort for himself. At the same time, he was demanding that God discomfort the people of Nineveh.
[00:22:16] The merciful comfort of God should prompt us to be merciful to others rather than self indulgent.
[00:22:25] Do you remember the Sermon on the Mount?
[00:22:28] Jesus said, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
[00:22:36] Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
[00:22:43] But when the dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered when the sun grows. God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and he asked that he might die and said, it is better for me to die than to live.
[00:23:11] God gave Jonah the comfort of the plant for him to rest and then to move on with life.
[00:23:20] God did not give him that comfort that so he could just sit there the rest of his life.
[00:23:27] Can you hear this? Church?
[00:23:29] The plant was God's merciful and meaningful way to give Jonah time to rest and think, so he could move on with his life.
[00:23:39] But as quickly as the plant grew, it withered because God was saying to Jonah, it's not your life agenda to sit here and pout the rest of your life.
[00:23:52] It's time for you to get up and move on with life.
[00:23:56] Church.
[00:23:59] Sometimes God gives us discomfort because he wants to move us.
[00:24:07] When you're comfortable, you just don't feel like moving, do you?
[00:24:14] I kick back that Lazy Boy.
[00:24:17] My feet are up in the air.
[00:24:20] That little electric thing makes the head come up a little bit.
[00:24:26] Life is good.
[00:24:30] Then. Sharon asked me to do a chore, but I'm comfy.
[00:24:41] It's a whole lot easier to move when we are too uncomfortable to stay where we are.
[00:24:50] Now, God isn't punishing Jonah with this plant dying. He's not punishing him with the hot desert wind. He's saying, jonah, it's time to go.
[00:25:03] You've had your pout. You've sat there long enough. Now it's time for you to move on in life.
[00:25:10] Church.
[00:25:11] Can some of you hear God whispering to you, move on.
[00:25:17] Move on.
[00:25:19] This discomfort is the whisper of God saying to you, it's time to move on.
[00:25:28] I want to say how, in some specific ways, some of you hate your job.
[00:25:35] You're kind of like, Jonah, you don't want to go to work on Monday morning.
[00:25:41] You don't like your job. You don't like the people you work with.
[00:25:47] They don't like you.
[00:25:51] Well, maybe it's time to move on.
[00:25:55] Say, well, I don't know if I could. There are people in this church I could introduce you to who changed their careers halfway through their career.
[00:26:04] They were in a career that they didn't like. It wasn't meaningful to them, and they envisioned a different life. They retooled themselves and changed their career in the middle of their life.
[00:26:15] You can move on.
[00:26:17] You don't have to stay stuck.
[00:26:21] Some of you are emotionally stuck.
[00:26:24] You're just stuck.
[00:26:26] You can't move on.
[00:26:28] Your heart is stuck.
[00:26:31] You don't have to stay there.
[00:26:33] There are beautiful people who are gifted by God to counsel and to guide. You can move on.
[00:26:41] There are life coaches in this church who would be happy to spend time with you and coach you about moving on in life.
[00:26:51] They've taken special training and they're ready. And it won't cost you a dime, maybe a cup of coffee.
[00:27:02] All right?
[00:27:03] You don't have to stay emotionally stuck.
[00:27:06] There is.
[00:27:08] There is a whisper from God that comes to you just like the whisper from Jonah. Your discomfort, Jonah, that's the sign that you need to get up and move.
[00:27:22] There is a life to be lived. There is progress that you can make. There is a future, and there is a hope. And it's Time for you to start moving in that direction.
[00:27:36] Jonah reluctance became obstinate.
[00:27:43] At first he was just reluctant, but the reluctance degenerated into abstinence.
[00:27:49] I'm not going anywhere.
[00:27:54] You can't make me.
[00:28:00] In fact, when the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was ready to faint.
[00:28:14] He was so obstinate he wouldn't even go to the shade.
[00:28:19] He said, I'll just sit here and pass out from the heat. Church, that's abstinence.
[00:28:27] What discomfort in your life is God creating so that you can move forward?
[00:28:34] Personal discomfort, relational discomfort, professional discomfort, and spiritual discomfort.
[00:28:44] Jonah would rather die than change, and he asked that he might die and said, it is better for me to die than to live.
[00:28:58] It's pretty obstinate. Church.
[00:29:00] That's a pretty bad attitude.
[00:29:03] Ah, this is the second time. Jonah said, it's better for me to die to the live in.
[00:29:14] In an earlier chapter, Jonah said, God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry?
[00:29:27] And Jonah said, yeah, I do.
[00:29:30] Please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. This is the second time.
[00:29:38] Thank God. He doesn't answer all our prayers.
[00:29:42] Church and I want to remind you that this is our spring week of prayer.
[00:29:49] People will gather here every day this week at six o' clock in the morning, at noon, and at six o' clock in the evening, and we're going to pray.
[00:30:00] We're going to call on the name of the Lord.
[00:30:04] If you don't have anything in your life you need to pray about, then help pray for others. Because there are people in this church who need serious and desperate prayer.
[00:30:17] Some of you say, well, I don't really know how to pray.
[00:30:23] There. There's no praying wrong. Church, There is no praying wrong. If you're talking to God, you're praying.
[00:30:35] God doesn't have a God doesn't have a speech code that you're only allowed to speak to him in a certain way. God has an open heart. His prayer, his ear is open to your prayer.
[00:30:50] Ah.
[00:30:52] Ah.
[00:30:54] If you have a good attitude, his ear is open to your prayer. If you have a bad attitude, his ears open to your prayer.
[00:31:02] I want to encourage you to reorganize your week so that you can come here once every day and pray.
[00:31:11] Say, Doc, you don't know how unconvenient that is. Good.
[00:31:17] Where did you get it in your head that serving God should be ah, ah, ah.
[00:31:24] If it's easy, I'll do it if it isn't. Ah. Ah.
[00:31:29] Where did you get in your head that God only deserves your leftovers?
[00:31:34] Hey, cut something else out of your life this week and let God have one hour of your attention in prayer.
[00:31:44] Ah.
[00:31:44] If you don't, if you worry about your ability to pray, there are awesome people in this church who will pray for you.
[00:31:51] I've heard some of the best prayers in the world said by people in this church.
[00:31:57] And by the way, I could give you list after list after list of remarkable things that God has done in the week of prayer.
[00:32:06] Absolute miracles.
[00:32:09] I will be here praying every day this week for a miracle my family needs. I will be here calling on the name of the Lord, pleading with God to do what only he can do. And I invite you to let God have an hour of your life every day to see what he might do in your life.
[00:32:35] So the Lord challenged Jonah's reluctance.
[00:32:39] God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant?
[00:32:46] He said, yes, I do well to be angry.
[00:32:49] Angry enough to die.
[00:32:54] Jonah's anger became chronic.
[00:32:58] At first he was just annoyed, but he let that annoyance grow and it became anger.
[00:33:07] And he let the anger grow and it became chronic.
[00:33:11] He had an angry look, an angry approach to life.
[00:33:17] Have you let a character flaw become chronic in your life?
[00:33:22] It just started out to begin with as a little thing, but you let it stay and it got stronger and stronger. And now that character flaw is defining of who you are.
[00:33:38] Do you see this?
[00:33:40] Jonah didn't start out angry. He just started out annoyed.
[00:33:44] But he let the annoyance hang around and he fostered it and he fed it and it became anger, and then the anger became chronic.
[00:33:53] It happens with a lot of things. It happens with fear. Some of you were afraid, and now fear has come to define you.
[00:34:02] Ah.
[00:34:03] Ah. Ah.
[00:34:07] There is something so much better than that. Can you hear this?
[00:34:11] The Lord is offering you something so much better than that.
[00:34:17] Ah.
[00:34:19] When Jonah should have confessed his sin, he defended it.
[00:34:25] God said to Jonah, hey, is it healthy for you to be that angry?
[00:34:30] What Jonah should have said is, no, I'm sorry.
[00:34:34] If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin.
[00:34:38] But he wouldn't, and he defended it.
[00:34:42] And he's a lot like you and I.
[00:34:46] We have things in our life, and the Holy Spirit says, does this really belong in your life?
[00:34:53] Is this really the kind of person you want to be?
[00:34:57] Is this the kind of life you want to live?
[00:35:00] Instead of confessing, we defend.
[00:35:03] We say, this isn't so bad you ought to be looking at so and so over there.
[00:35:08] They're the messed up ones. They.
[00:35:13] This isn't anything compared to that. And we end up defending our sin when God is whispering to us to confess our sin. Church.
[00:35:30] Verse 10.
[00:35:32] And the Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
[00:35:45] Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who don't know their right hand from their left.
[00:35:57] Also much cattle.
[00:36:00] Now, here at the end of the. Here at the end of the book, we get the moral of the story.
[00:36:05] What is this whole book about?
[00:36:07] When God sent Jonah to Nineveh to call them to repentance. When God met Jonah in the storm.
[00:36:16] When God carried Jonah safely to the shore in the creature. When God blessed his preaching and people repented.
[00:36:25] When God saw Jonah pouting on the east side of the city.
[00:36:31] He all brings. He brings the meaning of all of this down to these two verses.
[00:36:37] And God said to Jonah, how is it that you carry more? You care more about a plant that you didn't plant, you didn't water and you didn't make grow.
[00:36:52] You care more about that stupid plant then you care about 120,000 children who aren't old enough to know their right hand from their left.
[00:37:05] This is what the book's about.
[00:37:07] It is a challenge of what our values are.
[00:37:14] Church Every one of us are Jonah setting underneath the clothes with the hot wind blowing on us. And we're looking around at junk, stuff, things, and we're valuing them more than the great value that God puts on the human soul?
[00:37:40] Church Our Lord Jesus taught us this.
[00:37:44] What does it profit a person if they gain the whole world and lose their own soul?
[00:37:55] What does it profit you if you get everything you ever wanted?
[00:38:01] You live like a. You live like royalty.
[00:38:06] You have a home wherever you want a home.
[00:38:09] You. You run with the billionaires. What does it profit you if you gain the whole world you and lose your own soul?
[00:38:21] Well, then I want to follow. Do a follow up question on that.
[00:38:25] What does it profit you if you get everything you ever wanted but you lose the souls of people around you?
[00:38:37] Church what does it profit you if you get everything you ever wanted but you lose the souls of the people who are closest and dearest to you?
[00:38:52] Can you hear this?
[00:38:56] Ah, the book of Jonah.
[00:39:00] Is God holding Jonah up to us and saying, jonah is my prophet, but somewhere in Life, his values went wrong and he started valuing what he wanted more than what God wants.
[00:39:24] Can you hear this? Church Is it possible that Jonah abides in the heart of every one of us?
[00:39:34] That we find a genuine struggle within us? That I want what I want more than I want what God wants?
[00:39:44] Can you open your heart to this? Church Will you listen to this?
[00:39:49] The book of Jonah is not a Jonah and the Whale story. It is the human soul and God story.
[00:39:57] The human story and the divine story where God says to us, you are my creation.
[00:40:06] I created you in my image.
[00:40:09] I have a purpose for you. I have a meaning for your life.
[00:40:13] I have placed you in the world. I've gifted you. I've talented you. I blessed you in many ways. Now we have work to do together.
[00:40:23] Ah, but we find often our heart speaks back to God the way Jonah did. And we say, I'm not doing it.
[00:40:35] I'm not going.
[00:40:37] Church Listen to me. Please listen to me. The book of Jonah is for people who are dedicated followers of God, but come to points in their life where they just don't want to do what what they know God wants them to do.
[00:40:53] Church God whispers, be generous. And you say, but I want a boat.
[00:41:05] God whispers, be generous, but you say, I want a vacation in Spain.
[00:41:12] God says, be generous, but you say, I was pretty genius last year. I think I'll take this year off.
[00:41:21] Church God says, serve.
[00:41:28] And you say, I served once. I didn't like it very much. I'm not doing it anymore.
[00:41:34] Church God says, love, and you say, I love. I'm a loving person.
[00:41:45] Jesus says to you, if you only love those who love you, how are you any different than stone cold pagans?
[00:41:52] Church There are people that God is asking you to love and you don't wanna love.
[00:41:58] You just don't want to.
[00:42:00] The book of Jonah is whispering to your heart.
[00:42:04] In every Christian life, we come to points, we come to phases where God is pressing us to go forward with him and we simply say, what you want and what I want are not the same.
[00:42:22] And I'm going to do what I want, not what you want.
[00:42:25] Church and then we get obstinate and then we get reluctant and then we have a million excuses for why we're not living the Christian life.
[00:42:35] And God is pressing on every one of our hearts this morning and saying, this book is not written for you to think ugly thoughts about Jonah. This book is written for you to do a hardcore self examination.
[00:42:49] The Lord is whispering to your heart and he is saying, I'm asking you to do my will.
[00:42:56] And each and every one of us have to make a daily decision to say, here am I, Lord, send me.
[00:43:03] Or we make a daily decision every day to say, I did my fair share. Ask somebody else.
[00:43:13] We say, let somebody else do it this time. I'm telling you, Church, the sad thing about Jonah's life is he began better than he ended.
[00:43:24] Do you hear this?
[00:43:26] At the beginning of his ministry. I haven't read this to you yet.
[00:43:30] Somebody needs to shut up.
[00:43:33] First Second Kings, chapter 14.
[00:43:36] Jeroboam, the son of Joash, King of Israel, began to reign in Samaria. And he reigned 41 years. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
[00:43:46] He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. He restored the border of Israel from Lebo Hamath as far as the sea of Arabah according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Am, the prophet who was from Goth Heifer. Sorry, I don't have time to explain this. Goth Hepfer is an ancient village near Jerusalem. I mean Nazareth.
[00:44:22] Ah.
[00:44:24] Jonah grew up in the same neighborhood as Jesus.
[00:44:32] Jesus just grew up there. Seven hundred years later, Jonah started his life as a powerful and influential prophet.
[00:44:41] And he ends his life angry with God and unwilling to do even the smallest things. God ask Church.
[00:44:54] That is a warning.
[00:44:55] The book of Jonah is a giant warning. We don't ever want to permit ourselves to be in the position where we say to God, I'm not doing it. Ask somebody else to do it.
[00:45:10] We don't ever want reluctance to triumph over. Over obedience.
[00:45:17] Our dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that you are a God who is.
[00:45:26] Whose mercies are new every morning.
[00:45:30] I thank you that you are a God who has.
[00:45:33] Who has shown forbearance in many ways.
[00:45:37] And now I plead with you for myself, and I plead with you for everyone here and everyone online.
[00:45:44] And my simple prayer is, Lord, that you would create in us a new willing spirit, a spirit of joyful service.
[00:45:55] You would create within us a new restlessness to be about the work of God.
[00:46:04] A new vision of faith, hope and love, a new commitment to see the name of God glorified in all the earth. And I ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
