WEBVTT 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:05.000 Jonah chapter four is, I love, I love this book. 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:06.660 I love the way this book ends. 00:00:06.880 --> 00:00:14.000 It is not the typical ending that you like to have in any story you read or any movie you watch you like everything buttoned up, tied together, have 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.770 the warm fuzzies when it's over and have some sort of heroic charge. 00:00:16.900 --> 00:00:23.120 Just like I'm going to fill today after the Patriots won the super bowl, so nobody booed that. 00:00:24.500 --> 00:00:26.020 That's okay. 00:00:26.060 --> 00:00:28.000 Haters can hate all you want and it's going to happen. 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:28.780 It's going to happen. 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:29.600 How's Kim? 00:00:29.620 --> 00:00:32.409 You go, you're like, I hope he eats just humble pie next league. 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:33.840 I don't care. 00:00:33.880 --> 00:00:35.460 Put it on public on the radio. 00:00:35.620 --> 00:00:41.220 It's going to be online Patriots win the super bowl, but more exciting than that. 00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:50.160 More exciting than that is I'm really how this book ends because the way that this book concludes, I think gives 00:00:50.160 --> 00:00:57.180 us a lot of hope as individuals in where we are in our walk with God and the security that we can have in that, not 00:00:57.180 --> 00:00:58.970 because of us, but because of Jesus. 00:00:59.980 --> 00:01:06.360 And really your relationship to God is the foundation for everything that we are and everything that we do in this world. 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:13.960 What are you going to find is throughout this text, throughout this book, Jenna responds with a lot of anger and the action of anger really comes 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:15.120 from a place of insecurity. 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:24.000 And even on the other end, like you may label, you can think of some, maybe some people, it's not, maybe not name drop here, but they tend 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:25.680 to be flying off the cuff all the time. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:26.980 And I'm not like them. 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:34.440 But as soon as someone brings a charge against you might say to yourself, well, I don't always react the way I should, and so my 00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:36.120 behavior is justified, right? 00:01:36.600 --> 00:01:41.600 But really in this story, when you're going to see Jonah in anger, just retaliating, retaliating, retaliating. 00:01:41.900 --> 00:01:49.200 You see this consistency in who the Lord is, that really points some significant things for us and our relationship with God and how God 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:50.320 walks in our lives. 00:01:50.380 --> 00:01:54.540 So let me just jump into the texts without telling you everything about the text before you read it. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:58.500 But if you think in this story, Jonah goes to Nineveh. 00:01:58.800 --> 00:01:59.740 Remember how the story starts? 00:02:00.360 --> 00:02:01.620 He's called to go to Nineveh. 00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:02.660 He's like, no way. 00:02:02.660 --> 00:02:03.610 I know this beachfront property. 00:02:03.820 --> 00:02:04.600 I'm hanging out there. 00:02:04.600 --> 00:02:05.640 God, no way am I going to Nineveh. 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:07.720 Those are, those are our enemies. 00:02:07.860 --> 00:02:12.040 I love my people more than I love them and I love my people more than I like following after you. 00:02:12.380 --> 00:02:14.570 And so because I want to, I want to love my people more. 00:02:14.880 --> 00:02:16.380 I'm not going where you call me to go. 00:02:16.380 --> 00:02:19.580 I'm not walking 500 miles into the desert and to this place. 00:02:19.640 --> 00:02:22.320 These people that have attacked us, they hate us. 00:02:22.640 --> 00:02:24.000 They've done gruesome things. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:25.040 I'm not going there. 00:02:25.040 --> 00:02:26.160 I'm going over here. 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:26.710 See you later. 00:02:27.320 --> 00:02:29.730 God, God loves Jonah enough. 00:02:30.460 --> 00:02:35.820 God loves Jonah unconditionally that he doesn't allow Jonah to run away. 00:02:36.740 --> 00:02:38.840 He permits Jonah to run. 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:42.860 But he, you're never, you're never so far from the grace of God. 00:02:42.880 --> 00:02:50.020 And so what we say at the end of Jonah chapter one verse 17 has got appointed a fish and he uses that fish as a way to draw Jonah back to him, 00:02:50.260 --> 00:02:52.760 draw Jonah back into walking with him, living life with him. 00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:55.450 And Jonah's praying and chapter two before the Lord. 00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:58.060 And eventually what we find in the store is that Jonah obeys God. 00:02:58.060 --> 00:03:06.140 He goes, he goes 500 miles from his hometown into the area of Nineveh and he preaches this message and 120,000 00:03:06.140 --> 00:03:07.420 people come to know the Lord. 00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:09.010 How do I know it's a 120,000 people? 00:03:09.420 --> 00:03:12.320 Well, the end of Jonah tells us it's 120,000 people. 00:03:12.700 --> 00:03:19.840 I mean, it's the kind of thing if Christians are in the Lord and just carry the heart for God's, God towards the 00:03:20.060 --> 00:03:23.850 people in a city, in a Valley, that this is the kind of thing we would just rejoice over. 00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:27.530 How do you feel Jonah? 00:03:30.140 --> 00:03:35.760 Jonah chapter four starts, but it greatly displeased Jonah. 00:03:37.660 --> 00:03:41.400 Jeez, why don't you tell us how you really feel? 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:44.790 I mean, everyone else is all excited about this and you're greatly displeased. 00:03:45.220 --> 00:03:49.700 And then the very next phrase, and he became hangry. 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:56.970 All right, John, let's just get it all out on the table, right next couple of verses. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.400 Jonah explains to us his perspective. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:08.040 He, it's interesting when he, as he explains this, because he has an accurate picture of God, just 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:16.120 the wrong attitude, and they say, worship happens when you're seeking God for who he is and 00:04:16.200 --> 00:04:22.680 what he desires and these passages, these two verses are the opposite of that. 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:29.860 It says in verse two, he prayed to the Lord and said, please, Lord was not this what I said while I was 00:04:29.860 --> 00:04:30.760 still in my own country. 00:04:32.260 --> 00:04:36.660 Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, the beach I'm gone for. 00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:46.100 I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and 00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:51.840 abundant in loving kindness and one who relents concerning calamity. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.540 Therefore now, Oh Lord, please take my life from me for death is better to me than life. 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:11.420 No, I'd rather be dead really God than honor you and what you desire because I know what your nature is and 00:05:11.420 --> 00:05:12.910 then God's response. 00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:22.180 I don't know how many lives Joanna has, but 00:05:22.180 --> 00:05:23.500 he's quickly using them up here. 00:05:23.860 --> 00:05:24.820 It's just like got you. 00:05:25.460 --> 00:05:29.180 Look at this story like, Hey God, now you're going to get mad right now. 00:05:30.740 --> 00:05:31.480 You're going to hate Jonah. 00:05:31.620 --> 00:05:36.140 Finally, he's pushed you over the limit and you've boiled over and you're just so frustrated him. 00:05:36.140 --> 00:05:44.500 I can see it's coming here and then in verse four you get God's 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:47.840 response. 00:05:48.760 --> 00:05:55.900 The Lord said, Jonah, do you really 00:05:55.900 --> 00:05:59.040 have a good reason to be angry? 00:06:01.620 --> 00:06:01.940 No. 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:11.400 Let me just let the kettle a bag here in scripture when got us questions like this, he 00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:12.830 already knows the answer. 00:06:16.900 --> 00:06:23.900 So when God poses this question to Jonah, we can go ahead and presume by the context of what we understand who God is and his 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:25.260 nature and being all knowing. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:28.670 He's not asking this question for him. 00:06:31.820 --> 00:06:35.060 So God's response and frustration towards Jonah in this passage. 00:06:35.060 --> 00:06:42.260 If he were fed up with Jonah, Jonah had pushed him past some point, his reaction to this would be just a way 00:06:42.260 --> 00:06:42.520 with Jonah. 00:06:44.820 --> 00:06:49.940 But I've shared without the content, through the context of this book of the story of Jonah, that the point of Jonah, I don't even see it. 00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:53.000 It's not, it's not about 120,000 people in Nineveh though. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:53.600 That's great. 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:55.060 It's not about a fish though. 00:06:55.880 --> 00:06:56.550 That's pretty cool. 00:06:57.520 --> 00:07:01.140 Not for me if that happened, but that I could see it's happening to someone else. 00:07:01.140 --> 00:07:02.310 I mean that's a cool story. 00:07:04.470 --> 00:07:13.820 But the point of the story of Jonah, it's about one man's experience in his walk with God, how 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.840 God continues to pursue after Jonah in the condition of his heart. 00:07:17.840 --> 00:07:25.280 And here in this passage in verse four God's asking this question and then saying to us that what God isn't doing is that God isn't reacting in 00:07:25.280 --> 00:07:26.200 anger, anger. 00:07:29.620 --> 00:07:35.360 The reason God's not reacting in his anger is because he already understands who he is in his nature. 00:07:37.540 --> 00:07:41.360 So that has a lot to do with the way that we react to the, to how people treat us. 00:07:44.200 --> 00:07:51.340 When we understand the identity that we carry in Jesus, whatever charges brought against us because our identity is secure, it dictates our 00:07:51.340 --> 00:07:52.060 response. 00:07:55.460 --> 00:08:02.520 And here in chapter four verse two we find that the reason that God's not reacting to Jonah in this is because Jonah is already 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:09.920 identified the nature which God possesses and the very thing that God is front are the very thing that Jonah is frustrated about 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:13.840 towards God is the same thing that is sparing his own life. 00:08:16.750 --> 00:08:21.240 So God isn't reacting in anger because he knows who he is. 00:08:23.260 --> 00:08:30.300 Insecure people are the ones that react, but the identity of who God is in this passage is 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:37.580 securely presented to us in verse two and hypocritically Jonah uses that charge against God, not even recognizing 00:08:37.580 --> 00:08:38.299 in his own life. 00:08:38.400 --> 00:08:45.540 It's the very thing that he desires and needs justice for everything everyone else 00:08:45.540 --> 00:08:45.640 got. 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:47.700 But grace for me. 00:08:49.260 --> 00:08:56.640 And here what we find in the story in verse four and the reason God's asking this question to Jonah, it's because anger, 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:00.930 anger is revealing something about Jonah's heart. 00:09:03.740 --> 00:09:04.480 It's his defense mechanism. 00:09:07.920 --> 00:09:11.430 It can be angry out of fear, out of hurt, out of insecurity, out of depression. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:18.900 But Jonah's reacting in anger and God's just identifying this in this moment to help Jonah through this moment. 00:09:18.980 --> 00:09:24.980 Because the point of the story of Jonah is about Jonah and his journey with God. 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:34.160 Laura told you in the beginning when you, when someone mentions the word Jonah, instantly the thing that we think of in our mind is often 00:09:34.160 --> 00:09:36.000 the fish, right? 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.460 And the Sunday school story goes big, fish swallows him. 00:09:38.460 --> 00:09:42.690 And so the main point about Jonah is fish and fish has nothing to do with it. 00:09:45.220 --> 00:09:50.600 It was just a tool for what to communicate. 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:58.120 Jonah chapter four verse two to us in what God desires for us as people, that's 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:05.460 the only reason that we've got an opportunity to have today has nothing to do with how lovable 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:13.320 I've made myself before God, but everything to do with this compassion and grace that's been demonstrated 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:15.780 towards us despite us. 00:10:19.540 --> 00:10:26.840 What's interesting about Jonah is when you, when you consider who he is as an individual, this is a guy who's studied God's 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:28.240 word, he is a prophet. 00:10:28.520 --> 00:10:36.980 He obeyed all the rules and a verse or chapter one chapter two we see him responding rebelliously and 00:10:36.980 --> 00:10:44.020 then in chapter three you see him responding religiously, meaning he does what we would qualify externally 00:10:44.020 --> 00:10:44.620 as good. 00:10:46.220 --> 00:10:53.240 He obeys God and goes to Minerva, but it's hard, still doesn't belong to 00:10:53.240 --> 00:11:00.040 God and it's possible to be good. 00:11:02.180 --> 00:11:05.760 It's still not connected to God. 00:11:07.920 --> 00:11:14.940 What often happens in our lives when we become religious people is that we PR we base our spiritual status on performance 00:11:16.020 --> 00:11:18.220 and you sorta treat God like this that you've got. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:25.420 If I push all the buttons the right way, you're going to do exactly what I want you to do because I, I have, I have captured you to be my slave, 00:11:25.520 --> 00:11:25.680 right? 00:11:25.700 --> 00:11:32.820 So I obey these rules and therefore you are now obligated to position yourself below me because I have 00:11:32.900 --> 00:11:43.280 elevated myself above you, obligating you to do as I desire because I've done all of the religious rules and 00:11:43.280 --> 00:11:52.100 yet God in verse four identifies you're angry 00:11:52.100 --> 00:11:59.160 for a reason and he uses the context of chapter four to dive even deeper into 00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:02.120 the problem before, before he gives the solution. 00:12:02.180 --> 00:12:09.640 And so it goes in the verse five it says this, then Jonah went out from the city and he sat East of it and 00:12:09.660 --> 00:12:16.080 there he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:21.200 And what John is doing here is not very God loving or gracious. 00:12:23.340 --> 00:12:29.020 If you remember in chapter three, Jonah and Jonah in verse four, this is the message he shared with Jonah. 00:12:29.160 --> 00:12:36.620 Then Jonah began to go through the city in one day, one day's walk, and he cried out and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:39.360 Jonah, you've obeyed God. 00:12:39.400 --> 00:12:42.200 You've gone into Nineveh, you shared the message that God wanted you to share. 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:43.140 Now you can leave. 00:12:44.620 --> 00:12:45.120 What's you wanna do? 00:12:47.340 --> 00:12:48.560 He goes up on the city and he waits. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:57.340 Well, he wants to see day 40 I don't want to watch you destroy. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:06.700 And so while God is on the throne over the city, really Jonah, Jonah puts himself on the throne above the city and just looking and 00:13:06.700 --> 00:13:08.840 hoping for the destruction of Minerva. 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:15.360 And so you see in verse one verse two Jonah's frustration, Jonah's anger. 00:13:15.420 --> 00:13:20.460 Then you see him in verse five Jonah's frustration, Jonah's anger. 00:13:22.300 --> 00:13:27.920 And then in verse six, seven and eight I want to tell you when I, when I first became a believer, I remember reading the book of Jonah early on. 00:13:28.280 --> 00:13:35.420 And when I first read this, my initial reaction to this is, ha ha, God's finally getting you like you finally made him mad because of the things that 00:13:35.420 --> 00:13:35.800 happened. 00:13:35.820 --> 00:13:42.900 So when you, when you read this, when you read this, the section of scripture, it says, so Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be 00:13:42.900 --> 00:13:46.020 a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. 00:13:46.220 --> 00:13:48.170 So you say, Oh, that's so nice. 00:13:48.280 --> 00:13:50.580 God still still loves you. 00:13:50.580 --> 00:13:50.720 Right? 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:58.660 And then it says in verse seven, then Jonah was extremely happy about the plant, but God appointed a worm when 00:13:58.660 --> 00:14:06.000 he w when Dawn came the next day and attack the plant and it withered when the sun came up, got appointed a scorching 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:13.540 East wind and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his souls to die saying death 00:14:13.540 --> 00:14:15.000 is better to me than life. 00:14:17.340 --> 00:14:19.120 So what you see in the story, right? 00:14:19.640 --> 00:14:21.570 Been waiting the whole time to do this. 00:14:23.220 --> 00:14:25.370 Kevin bacon gets me every time. 00:14:25.760 --> 00:14:29.440 But what you see in the story is God, God creates this awesome plant. 00:14:31.180 --> 00:14:38.220 And then trimmer shows up and eats the plant and then the storm comes and it just helps Jonah. 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:41.880 I mean, if there's any indication, just how stubborn his heart has. 00:14:41.900 --> 00:14:46.880 If you're ever in a storm that's just beating down on you here, here's what you need to do. 00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:49.280 go somewhere else. 00:14:49.280 --> 00:14:50.690 Go anywhere else. 00:14:50.860 --> 00:14:55.840 Like don't just sit there in anger, but Joan is so angry and frustrated. 00:14:55.840 --> 00:14:56.960 He's like, I'll show you God. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:14:58.030 I'm going to sit right here. 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:01.700 The storm just the storm just beats down on him. 00:15:01.700 --> 00:15:07.160 And so when you read the story, you're like, yeah, God smiley getting you Jody, you deserve every bit of this. 00:15:07.890 --> 00:15:11.100 You thought you had this coal plant, God toyed with your emotions. 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:14.820 And then he, and then he just shows up with tremors, eating. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:17.750 You're eating your plant and then, and then the storm comes. 00:15:25.540 --> 00:15:29.610 But then you realize as you read the context of this passage, what does actually say? 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:37.560 Remember Jonah chapter one, verse 17 God appointed a what? 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:51.640 What that phrase meant to us is that general was running away from God and God was running after 00:15:51.640 --> 00:15:52.640 him and the fish. 00:15:54.300 --> 00:15:56.300 But it wasn't because he was surprised by Jillian's reaction. 00:15:56.540 --> 00:16:01.400 In fact, before it ever happened, God had appointed this fish for Jonah. 00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:08.780 Even fel rejected God and ran away, got appointed a fish because he knew that's exactly 00:16:08.780 --> 00:16:09.650 what he needed. 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:13.140 Same thing again. 00:16:16.680 --> 00:16:22.520 God appointed a plant and he took away the plant and he brought a storm. 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:30.840 Not because he was interested in destroying Jonah or killing Jonah or just retaliating to Jonah. 00:16:31.040 --> 00:16:31.860 God doesn't react. 00:16:34.180 --> 00:16:34.760 This was planned. 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:42.360 And so rather than communicating God's destruction against Jonah, what it's communicating is God's gracious, compassionate hand. 00:16:43.580 --> 00:16:51.000 So sometimes in our lives we're interested in the circumstance got 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:51.440 changed. 00:16:51.980 --> 00:16:54.840 The circumstances got changed, the circumstance got changed, the circumstance. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:01.560 And if God were to change the circumstance, if we're being honest, the only reason that we came to God in the first place was because of the circumstance. 00:17:01.780 --> 00:17:04.910 And as soon as a circumstance changes, it's like we forget that God showed up. 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:15.000 I'm not saying every bad circumstance is some divine punishment from God in this world or, it may or may 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.319 not necessarily fall in the context that we're reading today. 00:17:17.380 --> 00:17:24.760 But what I am saying in this passage is that sometimes we're interested in the circumstance, but more than the circumstance, 00:17:25.040 --> 00:17:32.120 what God is interested in is the heart of the individual going through the circumstance and he cares so much 00:17:32.120 --> 00:17:38.300 that the circumstance becomes the very tool that God uses to communicate what he's most concerned about, which is your heart. 00:17:41.500 --> 00:17:48.560 So it's possible in our lives for everything to go, go great, go well and still 00:17:48.620 --> 00:17:48.820 be empty. 00:17:52.620 --> 00:18:01.060 It's also possible in our lives for things on the outside to not look so great but for God to fill us up, which 00:18:01.060 --> 00:18:05.520 is why regardless of the circumstance, what God is most interested is in the heart. 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:11.280 Because if you can replenish and fuel and minister to the heart, the heart is what strengthened to go through any circumstance. 00:18:15.220 --> 00:18:22.280 And so when God is sharing the story with Jonah, it's not the attitude of a 00:18:22.280 --> 00:18:22.880 punishing Jonah. 00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:32.180 What he's actually saying to Jonah's when you aren't in tune with God, you look to everything else to satisfy. 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:43.440 But yet when our circumstances are empty, it helps our hearts to redirect what 00:18:43.460 --> 00:18:44.360 is important. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:49.600 And then in verse nine, God does it again. 00:18:52.540 --> 00:18:59.840 Then God said to Jonah, just like verse four, do 00:18:59.840 --> 00:19:09.620 you have good reason to be angry about the plant trying 00:19:09.620 --> 00:19:12.940 to your heart right now? 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:17.780 Oh, that's happened in of all that's happened with the whale. 00:19:17.840 --> 00:19:19.340 All that's happened with this plant. 00:19:21.700 --> 00:19:22.290 It's an offer. 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:27.820 This my pursuit is your life. 00:19:27.820 --> 00:19:29.740 And it's like, Jenna, when are you going to get it? 00:19:29.900 --> 00:19:31.240 Man? 00:19:35.800 --> 00:19:38.240 Jonas response at the latter half of this verses. 00:19:38.440 --> 00:19:42.840 And he said, I have good reason to be angry, even to death. 00:19:45.520 --> 00:19:51.560 It's like saying God, you may think my anger is not right, but you're a plant murderer. 00:20:03.260 --> 00:20:03.260 Yeah. 00:20:03.260 --> 00:20:07.920 But Jonah, Europe, people murder Cayman recognized that in your own life that your anger, your anger is destroying people. 00:20:10.300 --> 00:20:14.580 I mean, you could get all religious about this and be like, well, no, not really. 00:20:15.260 --> 00:20:16.610 Jonah doesn't want to kill the people. 00:20:17.500 --> 00:20:18.720 He wants God to do it. 00:20:18.800 --> 00:20:19.710 So that's hard. 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:20.020 Right? 00:20:22.580 --> 00:20:31.920 In fact, James chapter four verses one and two says that when 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:34.440 you're angry, it kills. 00:20:37.450 --> 00:20:41.480 When James is writing that passes in James chapter four verses one and two. 00:20:41.520 --> 00:20:47.270 He's not talking, he's not talking to murderers, he's talking to Christians. 00:20:47.480 --> 00:20:47.950 So let me read it. 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:49.980 [inaudible] what is the source of corals and conflicts among you? 00:20:49.980 --> 00:20:54.820 Is it not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members, you lost them? 00:20:54.820 --> 00:21:00.630 Do not have so you commit murder you were envious and cannot obtain so that you fight in coral? 00:21:02.900 --> 00:21:06.840 Well, what he's saying to Jonah is that you carry the attitude of a murderer. 00:21:06.840 --> 00:21:07.440 It destroys. 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:10.220 I may not physically destroy people, but at least it destroys relationships. 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:16.660 And God has created us for those, the greatest command, loving God, loving others. 00:21:16.760 --> 00:21:19.440 It's about your relationship to the Lord and relationship to each other. 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:23.140 And when anger enters in that equation, it kills, kills your relationship to God. 00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:25.480 It kills your relationship with others. 00:21:31.700 --> 00:21:40.220 You look at verses 10 and 11 and Jonah and 00:21:40.220 --> 00:21:43.890 a story got finally dives into the situation. 00:21:44.900 --> 00:21:46.500 He's saying, okay, Johnny, you're not getting it. 00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:49.120 So let me, let me just paint this picture for you. 00:21:49.120 --> 00:21:50.040 Okay? 00:21:50.040 --> 00:21:57.160 I mean we as people, someone that offends us, that's always justifiable reason to be the bigger rear 00:21:57.160 --> 00:21:58.000 end back, right? 00:21:59.340 --> 00:22:00.520 Sorry, was that uncouth? 00:22:02.620 --> 00:22:09.100 Whoever's the largest war on in the end winds and I'm justified because you wronged me first. 00:22:12.600 --> 00:22:14.960 Then God just speaks to Jonah. 00:22:16.560 --> 00:22:23.640 Lord said, think about this, Jonah, you had compassion on the 00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:32.020 plant, which you did not work, which you did not cause to grow, which 00:22:32.140 --> 00:22:33.740 came up overnight and perished overnight. 00:22:36.440 --> 00:22:43.600 Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 1200 persons who do 00:22:43.600 --> 00:22:48.260 not know the difference between the right and left hand and also much cattle? 00:22:50.620 --> 00:22:58.260 Can I just let this cow the bag and say, when people that don't know Jesus act ignorant, don't 00:22:58.280 --> 00:22:58.680 be surprised. 00:23:01.620 --> 00:23:09.480 The more shocking thing is that when Christians who know Jesus retaliate to that and act just as foolish, that's 00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:16.800 what he's saying in verse 10 and 11 here, well, what God is doing in verse 10 11 he's also showing 00:23:16.800 --> 00:23:19.400 Jonah his priorities are messed up and who's really in charge, right? 00:23:19.700 --> 00:23:26.780 So Jonah is sitting over over Nineveh as if he is the King on the throne and God is reminding Jonah, no it's not you but 00:23:26.780 --> 00:23:29.260 I am the one who really sits as a King on the throne. 00:23:32.320 --> 00:23:39.660 Jonah, you care about what you shouldn't if you 00:23:39.660 --> 00:23:46.740 don't care about what you should and you're so stuck in self that your is mutilating the relationships 00:23:46.740 --> 00:23:48.220 which I've called you to. 00:23:50.840 --> 00:23:58.220 Can I tell you maybe one of the, one of the things that Joan has done here in this passage by being mad about this plant is he centered his joy 00:23:58.260 --> 00:24:07.380 on things that disappoint if your joy is based on circumstances because 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:11.400 it will always, always come back to disappoint here. 00:24:13.380 --> 00:24:20.400 If your joy is based on someone or something, it will disappoint you. 00:24:23.140 --> 00:24:26.350 It put it in the context of where we are right now. 00:24:26.700 --> 00:24:34.010 It's the set like this and I hope when I say I really want it to be all of us but I don't serve, 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:40.240 don't be offended by this for a minute, but I don't serve at ABC because you guys are awesome. 00:24:41.150 --> 00:24:42.340 I know that's hard to believe. 00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:46.980 I mean some of you thinking, I am fantastic, but okay, let's, let's roll with this, right? 00:24:47.060 --> 00:24:50.220 Like I don't serve at Alpine Bible church because you guys are awesome. 00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:56.180 I serve at ABC because Jesus is awesome. 00:25:01.010 --> 00:25:08.100 So if I come to a place like this and serve, because I think the people are great, eventually in that service, at some time people 00:25:08.100 --> 00:25:13.280 will disappoint me, that my joy will be gone and I will become angry because I put the expectation on you. 00:25:19.430 --> 00:25:20.750 But I already know who we are. 00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:25.200 We are broken people. 00:25:27.080 --> 00:25:31.020 We're in people in need of Jonah chapter four verse two in all of our lives. 00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:36.400 This is why Israel reads this book every year on Yom Kippor and says, I am Jonah. 00:25:43.100 --> 00:25:44.310 I hope it's not in you. 00:25:46.320 --> 00:25:50.440 If it were, I would have to quit at some point. 00:25:52.820 --> 00:25:58.400 Start saying that it's some, some, some attempt in my life that I could stray and it could be in that way. 00:25:58.400 --> 00:26:01.800 I could without being recognized and put my hope and expectations and other things. 00:26:01.820 --> 00:26:06.800 But I, I acknowledge here verbally so that my heart hopefully continues to connect to this month. 00:26:07.080 --> 00:26:09.910 My hope is always in the Lord because he is the one that does not disappoint. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:12.130 He is the one whose nature is always consistent. 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:14.180 He is the one that never fails. 00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:18.960 And even in my failures, let's not give up. 00:26:21.340 --> 00:26:25.880 If anyone has tested them over and over and over to demonstrate this, it's Jonah. 00:26:29.860 --> 00:26:33.900 Jonah in this passage even modified his behavior. 00:26:35.500 --> 00:26:36.900 Well, he did what God wanted. 00:26:38.780 --> 00:26:39.540 He went to Nineveh. 00:26:39.740 --> 00:26:46.930 He said the words he was supposed to say, God wasn't after behavior modification. 00:26:50.180 --> 00:26:52.120 God's after his heart transformation. 00:26:56.050 --> 00:26:58.010 I like, I like the way it ends here. 00:26:58.300 --> 00:27:01.410 Some translations, have this ending. 00:27:02.780 --> 00:27:04.160 Other ones translate a little bit differently. 00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:05.240 They just refer to animals. 00:27:05.740 --> 00:27:07.180 But here's the, here's what he says. 00:27:07.600 --> 00:27:13.600 It says 1200 and 20,000 persons who do not know the difference between right and left hand and also much cattle. 00:27:13.720 --> 00:27:17.250 Jonah like you can't forget the cows. 00:27:18.470 --> 00:27:21.100 It's kind of like you saying, Hey, how about this? 00:27:21.140 --> 00:27:23.100 Another great illustration for you here. 00:27:23.840 --> 00:27:31.040 He's like, he's saying, he's saying to us, Jonah, if you don't care about people, I mean at least care about the animals. 00:27:31.340 --> 00:27:32.260 What about the animals? 00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:32.700 He's gone. 00:27:32.900 --> 00:27:33.220 He's gone. 00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:38.960 All Sarah McLaughlin on us, they saw solid angel, right? 00:27:39.940 --> 00:27:41.730 Donate today and you can save a life. 00:27:46.100 --> 00:27:47.040 You don't care about people. 00:27:47.220 --> 00:27:49.060 At least care about the cows, Jonah. 00:27:52.040 --> 00:27:54.380 I mean, how bad does it have to be where you're like, nothing. 00:27:54.380 --> 00:27:56.340 I care for nothing except for the plants. 00:28:01.320 --> 00:28:09.780 Can I tell you one of the ways I want to be careful here, we 00:28:09.780 --> 00:28:12.150 recognize Jonah has got some problems, right? 00:28:14.320 --> 00:28:22.000 What I want to be careful with is to recognize and say to ourselves, okay, if I, if I relate to this in any way, which 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:26.940 we all should, but you're not the one that transformed yourself. 00:28:30.030 --> 00:28:32.620 Like the answer isn't all I've done bad. 00:28:32.620 --> 00:28:34.400 I need to do good so that God embraces me. 00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:43.330 The answer is because of who you are and where you are, you need to go to God because he is the one that transforms. 00:28:46.320 --> 00:28:47.340 It's not your strength. 00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:51.600 It has nothing to do with you. 00:28:51.600 --> 00:28:52.940 And your, ability. 00:28:52.940 --> 00:28:56.780 It's laying yourself down before God because he is the one that's come for you. 00:28:56.780 --> 00:28:58.120 He is the one that's given his life for you. 00:28:58.120 --> 00:29:00.050 He is the one that NGLs you by his spirit. 00:29:00.060 --> 00:29:02.360 He is the one that transforms your heart. 00:29:03.420 --> 00:29:11.040 And here's what we need to see in this context is that when we, when we screw up, when we mess up, when we fail, when we get angry at all of those things, God's 00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:14.040 nature doesn't react. 00:29:16.280 --> 00:29:19.020 That is all of a sudden be like, Oh, that was the last odd, that's the last straw for me. 00:29:19.060 --> 00:29:20.480 I'm going to show you who's boss. 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:21.240 That's not God. 00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:25.260 That might be some fictitious thought that you have about God. 00:29:25.320 --> 00:29:28.820 But what God's interested in all of that is our heart. 00:29:28.820 --> 00:29:36.040 And so the response to that when you read Jonah chapter four, verse two, rather than run away from God, rather than try to show God that you're worthy of his love, rather than try to transform 00:29:36.040 --> 00:29:41.660 yourself because he has compassion and loving kindness and he's slow to anger and he extends his grace. 00:29:41.740 --> 00:29:44.280 The answer then is to turn and run to him. 00:29:45.560 --> 00:29:47.860 Seek his face. 00:29:50.320 --> 00:29:50.700 God, I'm yours. 00:29:54.810 --> 00:29:59.840 I think the reason this book ends just so weird with cows messy. 00:30:00.620 --> 00:30:05.860 The reason it ends that way is so we can stop and be like, Hey, that's me, man. 00:30:05.940 --> 00:30:06.680 I'm messy too. 00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:09.400 This journey with God, it's not like this. 00:30:09.400 --> 00:30:11.500 I come to Jesus, everything's perfect. 00:30:11.500 --> 00:30:13.220 It's this consistent walk with God. 00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:14.840 We're on that journey. 00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:15.720 I'm messed up. 00:30:15.720 --> 00:30:16.480 I fail. 00:30:16.500 --> 00:30:23.700 I feel like a failure and God is compassionate and God renews me and God transforms me in his image and 00:30:23.700 --> 00:30:27.990 God brings me the security in his identity, not my own, because of my identity. 00:30:28.200 --> 00:30:35.500 Apart from it is no good, but in his identity it lifts me up and it elevates me in Jesus and it gives me opportunities to continue 00:30:35.500 --> 00:30:37.660 to seek his face. 00:30:40.680 --> 00:30:47.840 That's why when you look at a story like the story of Nineveh were 120,000 people come to know the Lord and you think about your own Valley and what God 00:30:47.840 --> 00:30:54.000 does, you don't have to quit because you feel like you failed because it's all in Jesus at this thing takes place. 00:30:58.040 --> 00:31:05.440 It's what gives me the strength regardless of my past, to think about a future and 00:31:05.480 --> 00:31:12.500 this thing, Sarah McLaughlin, if I feel, and so when we hope in things that 00:31:12.500 --> 00:31:16.370 fail, the tendency in our heart is to get angry and disappointed. 00:31:18.390 --> 00:31:26.460 You know the benefit of that moment, that reaction reveals 00:31:26.460 --> 00:31:26.940 your heart. 00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:32.640 That's why God asked Jonah the questions that he did. 00:31:35.660 --> 00:31:40.940 So let me ask you [inaudible], what was the last thing you got angry about? 00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:48.020 Did your anger express what God wanted? 00:31:54.800 --> 00:32:02.980 Well, if it did your anger expressed the way God wanted it and 00:32:03.060 --> 00:32:04.360 did you use it to speak life? 00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:15.660 Yeah, the joy of the story, the joy of the story. 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:23.000 Even though Jonah is a brat, same thing that Jenna hates God 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:28.780 for is also the same thing that brings God near his rebellion. 00:32:30.860 --> 00:32:37.060 God's still interested even in the brokenness of his heart, God is still interested in his heart. 00:32:41.240 --> 00:32:45.760 So you get to the end of the story and you ask them, where is that for me? 00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:52.580 Where is it that God shows up and reveals this and demonstrate this for my life? 00:32:52.620 --> 00:32:56.000 And the answer, we've said it from the beginning, and I just want to draw our hearts there. 00:33:01.230 --> 00:33:01.550 Jesus. 00:33:01.630 --> 00:33:08.190 Luke 11 verse 30 just as Jonah came, became assigned to the Ninevites. 00:33:10.770 --> 00:33:12.790 So will the son of man be to this generation? 00:33:14.530 --> 00:33:22.750 Jesus, of course, as a solid man, three days, three nights in the heart of the earth for 00:33:22.750 --> 00:33:29.770 you and for me, the compelling thought of that for 00:33:29.790 --> 00:33:37.090 us is that Jesus, by his death and sacrifice is offered 00:33:37.090 --> 00:33:44.130 the continual gate for us to be able to enter into his presence and experience the reason 00:33:44.130 --> 00:33:50.810 for which we are created, transforming work that he does lives. 00:33:52.730 --> 00:33:57.090 It's sang to us just like God cared for Jonah in this moment. 00:34:00.110 --> 00:34:02.000 So God cares for you. 00:34:04.780 --> 00:34:08.330 So whether you're a believer or not, this is how the journey starts for all of us. 00:34:08.409 --> 00:34:15.780 We stop in the ARB moments in our tracks, whatever's got us frustrated, whatever works might be angry about from people who don't know Jesus acting like they don't know Jesus. 00:34:15.810 --> 00:34:24.110 Whatever that excuses, I'm rebellious, I 00:34:24.110 --> 00:34:28.409 am rebellious, my heart can be selfish. 00:34:30.790 --> 00:34:32.090 It can run from God. 00:34:32.190 --> 00:34:34.050 We distant from God. 00:34:34.310 --> 00:34:36.830 In fact, that's what the gospel message is, right? 00:34:38.350 --> 00:34:39.590 Like it's not do good. 00:34:39.630 --> 00:34:40.889 So God accepts you. 00:34:41.290 --> 00:34:44.690 It's that we're all rebellious from his kingdom and need his grace. 00:34:45.190 --> 00:34:52.630 We need his grace and Jonah experienced it in his life over and over and even 00:34:52.630 --> 00:34:57.610 a message just ends message that we can see how God consistently is going to show up and in Joe's life. 00:34:57.910 --> 00:34:59.130 And the same is true for us. 00:35:01.650 --> 00:35:01.750 Why? 00:35:04.150 --> 00:35:11.210 Cause to have him is to have everything and to see the way he responds to us, even in 00:35:11.210 --> 00:35:17.290 our failures and even with all the excuses and even all the reasons we could give for why we act the way we act. 00:35:17.370 --> 00:35:20.730 In fact, we still do and God still loves them. 00:35:20.750 --> 00:35:24.070 God still desires to transform and God still wants to bring us mercy. 00:35:26.960 --> 00:35:35.550 If we put one thing, abandoned, everything, 00:35:37.990 --> 00:35:56.890 the secret 00:35:58.090 --> 00:36:01.110 space, ah, ah, transform.