All right, we're done in chapter four. We're going to wrap up the series here,
and I don't know how many of you have been in every service for this series, but I'm just
going to recap kind of really quickly. Not like the the long recap of last week, but
it'll be a little bit shorter of a recap here. And no, this isn't western days. I'm just
wearing a gift that somebody gave me, and it is technically a tie, so just
back off Pharisees, all right? It's called a bolo tie, okay? Anyway, no, it's not
country western days. I don't have any cowboy boots either. So anyway,
and I thought, well, maybe I'll sweat a little bit less if I wear this,
but somebody turned the heat down a little bit, so that's good. Anyway, so the title of the
sermon tonight is Jonah's Anger and the Lord's Compassion. So the recap is this. Jonah,
chapter one, Jonah flees from God, gets swallowed by the whale. He pictures Christ and his death,
and he saves those men on the ship by jumping into the sea. And then,
of course, multiple other things are pictured there, but just quick recap here.
And then at the end, he gets swallowed by the whale. Chapter number two, Jonah is in the belly
of the whale for three days and three nights, which pictures Jesus Christ
suffering in hell for three days and three nights, and is spit up on the dry ground in
the last verse, picturing his resurrection from the dead, Jesus' resurrection from the dead.
Chapter three, Jonah gets a second chance. The Lord comes unto him the second time,
and he gets a second chance to go and obey God and to preach to the people of Nineveh.
And he preaches the coming judgment of Nineveh to be overthrown in 40 days. The people
of Nineveh believe God. Chapter number three, the people of Nineveh believe God.
They turn from their evil ways, and God repents of the evil that he was gonna do unto them,
and does it not. And they were not only physically spared a literal destruction,
but also they had spiritual salvation in the fact that they believed. I went through
several verses showing and proving that the Bible says that salvation is by faith alone.
It always has been. We don't believe in dispensationalism at this church. I didn't
really speak about that last week, but salvation has always been by faith.
And you're either looking forward to the cross, or we're looking back to the cross.
We're looking back to the cross and the fact that Jesus died for us, right?
And rose again the third day. So, and then, of course, Jesus clearly says in Matthew
chapter 12 that the men of Nineveh would rise up and judge his generation because they
repented at the preaching of Jonas. And I kind of showed last week also how the Bible says
in Matthew chapter 12 that they repented at the preaching of Jonas, but in Jonah chapter three,
it doesn't say that they repented. It says that God repented because they turned from
their evil ways. So you have all these plays on words, and so, but Jesus said that they
repented, so they did repent. But what did they do first? They believed on Jesus.
And then I showed you how that people will say, well, John the Baptist was preaching,
repent of your sins. And, you know, people will say that about Jesus too, that he was saying
repent, and he was saying that. But then Paul says in Acts chapter 19, verse number three,
that the repentance that John was preaching is that they should believe on him who should come
after him that is on Jesus Christ. So there are different, you know, so basically repentance,
the definition of what is, what repentance is, is based upon the context that you find it in.
It's kind of like wine. Wine is the word used for fruit juice, and sometimes it's alcoholic,
sometimes it's non-alcoholic. And so depending on what the context is, is going to depend
on what type of wine it is, because wine can be freshly squeezed out of the grape,
and that's not alcoholic, is it? That is non-alcoholic. And so alcoholic wine is fermented
and gets you drunk, and usually that's shown as a bad thing in the Bible. Like when Noah,
you know, he drank wine and was drunken, that means that he got drunk, and that is all
called a sin in the Bible. So drunkenness from drinking alcohol is a sin. So anyway,
people just get this idea that repentance always means repent of your sins. And, you know,
when you're talking to people at the door 99.9% of the time, when they say, well, if you repent,
they mean if you repent of your sins, don't they? And most churches will say, when they're
saying if you repent from the pulpit, or people at church, when they say it, they mean
of your sins. They put that, those magical words afterwards that don't appear in the Bible,
of your sins, and when people repent in the Bible, or when the word repent is used in the
Bible, they always automatically put that, they add those words. We're not supposed to add to
scripture or take away from scripture, but people are just brainwashed or mind defiled or
whatever you want to call it, into thinking that that's what it means. But the fact that
God repents in Jonah chapter 3 and he decides not to destroy Nineveh, that shows you that
it can't mean of sins, that it doesn't mean of sins when it's concerning God because God has
no sin. But it says, well, God repented the evil that he said he was going to do.
Look, evil means harm. And when God does evil upon someone, he's not doing something wrong,
he's doing harm that someone deserves as a judgment for their sin. See, there's a difference
between someone that's evil and they're doing evil because they're wicked, and someone that
has done evil because it's a righteous indignation. So, anyway, hopefully that makes sense to you.
So, tonight we're going to talk about Jonah and his anger. So, through this whole chapter,
Jonah's angry in case you didn't notice that, and he kind of has this big hissy fit and pity
party in this chapter, and really it's just kind of, to me it's bizarre. I know he's a prophet
of God, I know the guy's saved, but to me the way he's acting in this chapter is just
really bizarre to me. But, like, when you look at how Christians are today, they kind of are
similar in a lot of ways. You know, you put people's feet to the fire about going soul wanting
today, and then they don't want to come back to church again. They get uncomfortable. Well, we're
like the Jehovah's Witnesses, we're like the Mormons. But this is what God said to do. It's
not like God's asking you to walk into, you know, Compton by yourself and try to preach
that Compton's going to be overthrown in 40 days. You know, that's not what he's having us do
today. He's saying go two by two, be sent out of a church, and go knock all the doors and
talk to whoever you can on the street while you're out there, and preach people the Gospel. You know,
he just, you know, Nineveh was a pretty nasty place, and they were, you know, murdered. They
were, you know, God's at the point where he's ready to destroy the place. So, obviously it's
pretty bad. It's not just the run-of-the-mill sinners, you know, little old lady that's kind
of just doesn't believe in God or something. It's like these are murderers and thieves,
and, you know, they're the Assyrian empire. They're not a lot of good people. So, anyway,
so let's look at verse number one. The Bible says this, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry. So, why was he angry? Because God spared Nineveh. Because his preaching
worked, and so Jonah is literally just pissed off because his preaching resulted in God saving
the people of Nineveh and sparing the people and the city from destruction.
See, that's why I'm saying it's bizarre. Like, why would you be upset about that?
He obviously just hated these people. So, when I say it's possible to, you know,
to be a literal racist or a literal, you just hate people, and you can go out and preach the
Gospel and get people saved, that's what he did. I'm not saying he was necessarily a racist,
but he didn't like those people. You know, when you say, well, what do you mean by
those people? You know, the Assyrians. You know, I mean, I don't know if that's racism or not,
but he just definitely didn't like them, for sure. But, anyway, so, you know, to us as soul
winners, this seems really strange, doesn't it? Because, you know, if we had this report to
come back, one out soul winning, 120,000 saved. I mean, that's a pretty good report.
There's been no report like that from the new IFB, as far as I know,
but we would be, like, super happy about that. You know, we'd be like, that's video game numbers,
bro. He didn't get 120,000 people saved. So, you know, but it should be obvious to us,
though, that Jonah has a really bad attitude here, and it's just downright wicked, really.
But, you know, in reality, a lot of Christians have that same attitude today. They're
driven by their Fox News and Newsmax Republican politics ideology, instead of the teachings of
the New Testament, which, you know, saying things like, we just need to turn the Middle
East into a sea of glass, or we just need to turn this country into a parking lot with
our bombs. For that to come out of a Christian's mouth is shameful. And I don't care, you know,
what war you fought in, or whatever, to say that about men, women, and children that have
nothing to do with your stupid war. They're just victims that happen to live in that country,
or something. That's just a wicked attitude to have. And so, even with, like,
the whole fighting in Israel and Gaza and stuff, it's like, whose side are you on? I'm not on
either side. But you know what side I'm not on? Death, destruction, murder, killing,
war. I'm just not on that side. I'm not on either side. But you know, if people are getting murdered
and killed, I'm against that. And what am I for? I'm for people getting saved. Now, obviously,
that's not a very friendly place to the gospel. It's not, you know, and from what I've heard,
they're killing even their own people. So, you know, the Israelis, they'll be like,
we're Israeli, we're Israeli. You know, they're just getting killed in front of, like,
their own news reporters and stuff. They're just going to kill anybody that's walking around in
those zones. So, people that are hostages of their own people are getting killed.
So, I mean, but to have the attitude that you just want them all to die just because you think,
like, you know, you like Ben Shapiro and Adam Sandler and David Lee Roth and Jerry Seinfeld
and, you know, Benjamin Netanyahu and George Soros because they're God's chosen people or
something because they're still God's chosen people, folks. George Soros, the guy that's funding,
you know, all these anti-Christian, communistic societies within America that's trying to destroy
this country. But he's one of God's chosen people, so hands off. You know, this is the
attitude of some Christians, the worship that they're willing to lick the boots of Israel to
the point of worship. They're worshiping them. And, you know, it's just, you know, I've worked
with Christians that are like, have you ever listened to Ben Shapiro? Like, no, he's a Jew.
I'm not going to listen to him for more than five seconds. Like, why would I listen to him?
He is anti-Christ. He doesn't believe in Jesus. He flat out just says, you know, he got killed
because he, you know, he said some things he shouldn't have said. And we killed him because
he was like a sorcerer or something. You know, he just says it so nonchalantly.
He might as well just be saying he hates Jesus because he does. So why would I listen to somebody's
political opinions that hates Jesus Christ? What else is he lying about? Because if he doesn't
believe that Jesus is the Christ, he doesn't have God the Father, and so he's an anti-Christ.
So why would I sit there and let an anti-Christ put things into my brain? I don't care what
you think about him being God's chosen person. We're God's chosen people if we believe in Christ.
If they don't have Christ, they don't have the Father. And if they don't have the Father,
then they're not saved. And the Bible says that they're anti-Christ.
So what should our attitude be actually about people? What did Jesus teach? Well,
let's go over to Matthew chapter five. Let's see the opposite attitude of Jonah.
Let's look at what our Savior taught us to be like. And, you know, it's funny because Matthew,
in Matthew, Jesus mentions Jonah. And, you know, Jonah did do a great work. But, you know,
he doesn't really mention the character of Jonah. He just mentions that, you know, because
really what happened, he just obeyed what God said, and he preached what God told him to preach.
And when we do that, then great things can happen. God can use us in a mighty way when we're obeying
him and when we're doing what he tells us to do, when we're saying what he wants us to say.
Matthew 5 43 says, You have heard that it's been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and
hate thine enemy. The Bible doesn't say that, by the way. It doesn't say hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good unto them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. So, I mean, Jonah's attitude
is what? Kill them all, God. Wipe them off the face of the planet. His attitude is the
let's make Nineveh into a parking lot, isn't it? Isn't that what his feeling is? But that's
not what Jesus said. That you may be the children of your father, which is in heaven,
for he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the
publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, why do you more than others? Do
not even the publicans so? But be ye therefore perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven,
is perfect. So Jesus is like, our attitude should be like, let's try to do good to those
that are evil, those that are despitefully using us, pray for those people. And, you know,
the ultimate goal is to what? To try to win them over with goodness, right? So, and you're
like, well, Jonah didn't know about Jesus. I mean, I think that he knew that Jesus was
going to come. He didn't know what his name was going to be. But, of course, Jonah knew
about the Messiah. Of course, Jonah knew things in the future to a certain extent.
But he did have the Old Testament that did teach similar things. So,
turn over to Leviticus chapter 19, verse 17. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 17.
Because people kind of have this weird idea that God was mean in the Old Testament,
and he's nice in the New Testament. He's the same. He's the same. He changes not.
He's immutable, which means he can't change, right? So, Leviticus 19, 17 says,
People would be like, well, it's just talking about only the Israelis. You're only supposed
to be nice to the children of Israel. This is what it's talking about. But is that really true?
When it says, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, is it only talking about the Jews
here? Is he only talking about the children of Israel? I don't think that that's true.
And, actually, I'll prove it to you. Go ahead and turn to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter
number 10. And I don't have time to go to the whole story, but in Luke chapter 10,
we'll look at a lot of it, but Luke chapter 10, verse 25, people are always trying to catch Jesus
saying something. They're trying to catch something out of his mouth so they could accuse
him of something. And it never worked, by the way. And it says in verse 25, in Luke chapter
10, it says, Behold, a certain lawyer stood up. And, of course, lawyers, this is how they are.
And tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto
him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answered and said, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with
all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou is answered right,
this do, and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus,
And who is my neighbor? So he asked the question to Jesus, Who is my neighbor? Now,
remember in Leviticus, it says we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. So he asked
Jesus this question, then he tells a story, which you can read it later if you want to,
but basically about this guy that gets attacked by these thieves and robbers,
and they hurt him, they wound him, he's laying on the ground hurt and injured. And I think
it's a priest comes up, he sees the guy is hurt, he walks on the other side and avoids
him. And then a Levite comes up, sees that he's hurt, walks on the other side, avoids him,
he doesn't want to have any dealings with him. And then a Samaritan walks up, and then
he gets him up, helps him up, gets him on his horse, kind of walks into this hotel, this inn,
and he binds him up and fixes his wounds, and pays for him to stay at this place so he
can get better, kind of like putting him up in a hospital, so to speak. And then he says,
hey, whatever you spend on this guy, I'll come back and pay you in a few days.
So now skip down to verse 36. It says, which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor
unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, he that showed mercy on him.
It's the right answer, isn't it? Then said Jesus unto him, go and do thou likewise.
So what is the answer? Who is thy neighbor? And Jesus asked him that question,
and he answered right. He answered him the right thing, the one that showed mercy on him. That's
true. So the Samaritan was not one of the children of Israel, but yet he was the neighbor
unto him. So anybody is a neighbor unto us, basically. Anybody that needs help. And it's
like he said, he that showed mercy on him. And so when we show mercy on our neighbors,
that's your being, you know, you're treating your neighbor and loving them as yourself.
So now turn to Romans chapter 12, verse 14, Romans chapter 12, verse 14.
And I'm going to read for you in Proverbs 25, another Old Testament
scripture that talks about treating your enemies well. It says, Proverbs 25, 21,
if thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat. And if he be thirsty, give him water to
drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.
So we're supposed to treat people well, even if they're our enemy. That's what the Bible is
saying. Now, obviously, I'm not talking about reprobates here. That's beyond the scope of
this sermon, but I'm not talking about that. So Romans chapter 12, verse 14, the Bible says,
Bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not, rejoice with them that do rejoice,
and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things,
but condescend to men of low estate. Now that word condescend, you know, usually it's a
negative term, but you know, there's another meaning of it. It means to get yourself down
on the same level as somebody too. It can mean that you're looking down upon somebody,
but the other term actually is the opposite. And so it says condescend to men of low estate.
Someone that's, you know, instead of looking down on people, try to get down on their level,
right? And not be, because that's why it says mind not high things. Quit trying to be
all high and mighty. Be not wise in your own conceits. Reconpense to no man evil for evil.
Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, which it's not always,
but if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceable, peaceably, excuse me, with all men.
So we should try our best as Christians to live peaceably. We, you know, we shouldn't be
the you-know-what starters, the crap starters, or whatever you want to call it.
We shouldn't be those people. We shouldn't be the ones that are always stirring up strife.
We should be the ones that are living peaceably and doing our best to get along with people.
And, you know, being neighborly unto people and loving our neighbor as ourself.
But it says, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. See, it's not our job to get
vengeance, and this is where I think that Jonah is failing. He wants God to take vengeance
on people that he actually loves, that he wants to save, that he sent him in there to save.
And Jonah's like, why don't you kill these people? And it's like, well, I just don't
understand the disconnect here. It's like God sent you there to save these people,
and you did it, and now you're mad about it? Like, I just don't understand his state of
mind. But anyway, so he says, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place under wrath,
for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
So the people that need to be repaid, God's going to do it for us. We don't, it says,
you know, but rather give place under wrath. We don't need to take our wrath upon people.
God's going to do it for us. And that's a lesson that sometimes is hard to learn, because
in our flesh, we want to repay people, the people that cut you off.
Okay, the people that drive really dumb.
I'm just confessing my faults amongst just the people in this room, that's it.
But you know, we do, though. We want to, you know, pay people back when they do us wrong.
And that's just a, that's a natural fleshly desire sometimes.
But God, you know, we're called to be different. It says, vengeance is mine, I will repay,
saith the Lord. Therefore find enemy hunger, feed him, feed thirst, give him to drink.
He's quoting Proverbs 25 here, it says, for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire
on his head. So if that doesn't win them over, then God's gonna, you know, because of the
fact that even though they deserved the vengeance that you that you could have given them and you
don't, that means that when they don't get right because of how you treated them, you didn't win
them over, then God will repay them. And it's not going to be a pretty picture for them.
So it says, and I like this verse a lot, verse 21, be not overcome of evil, but overcome
evil with good. So, but this is, this is kind of what Jonah needed to learn.
You know, instead of just hating these people and wanting them all to die, you know, he ran
away so he didn't have to preach to them. He just like took off and disobey the Lord.
It tells us his motivation in this passage. When we get back to it, I'll show you.
But, you know, that's his motivation should have been, you know, God is obviously not
steering him in the wrong direction. He knows that God is doing something that's right and
good, but he just can't get over the fact of how much he hates these people.
And so in the New Testament and in the Old Testament, Jonah's attitude is wrong
and we shouldn't have this attitude as Christians. And so if we apply it to ourselves,
we shouldn't have indifferent attitudes either towards people or have a downright hateful attitude
towards certain people groups either. So, again, just forget about the reprobate part for right
now. I'm just talking about normal sinful people, okay? Not the worst of the worst.
So, but I would just say this, don't get black-pilled mentally. And like, what does that
mean? Well, black-pilled in a nutshell is that you don't have a positive outlook for the
future. I'm sure that it means a lot more than that to people that are kind of into all that
stuff. But, you know, you heard about the red pill and all that stuff, the kind of stuff from
the matrix or whatever. I don't know. It's just kind of this mentality that's out there. But
what is the red... Just, Brother Sean, you know about this. Is the red pill the good one to
take or the bad one? Is that the one that puts you down the rabbit hole or whatever? I don't
know. Okay. Okay, yeah. So, like, unplugs you from the matrix, basically. Okay, yeah.
I just can't remember. So, yeah. Anyway, I'm shooting off into stuff that's not really
biblical here. But I'm just saying, there are mentalities out there where
people just kind of think that our life is doomed here on earth. It's never going to get
better. It's only going to get worse. And in truth, this world is going to get worse.
Things are going to get worse. We'll read about the stuff in the book of Revelation. It is going
to get worse. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. That's what the Bible says.
But what should be our attitude about it? Well, I don't think our attitude about it should be,
well, you know, we should just eat and drink for tomorrow and be happy for tomorrow we die.
That shouldn't be our attitude. That's the opposite of what the Bible teaches.
We are lights in the world. And while we're lights in this world, we should be used by Christ
as a light. You know, if you look up in the sky on a clear night, you see, you know,
most of the world, you know, most of the sky looks dark, but you see a lot of lights,
don't you? And some stars out there shine pretty bright, and some are pretty dim.
But you do see them. And so, we can be like one of those stars in this world. And even
though most of it's dark, we can still shine bright in the area that we're at.
And, you know, when we're all in the same area, doing, you know, with the same purpose,
we can shine really bright in an area like Vancouver, in an area like Seattle,
in an area like Spokane. You know, we're not exactly in the Bible Belt. We're not in the
Philippines, where people are just like walking up to us and asking us to be saved. And,
you know, it's like machine gun salvations or something, real video game numbers.
It's not happening like that here. But people still are getting saved. And, you know,
we're making a difference in this city. We really are. People do know about us.
And maybe that knowledge of us isn't always positive.
Brother Sean was telling me that somebody, and check this story out,
so they're out so many, was it last week? They knock on this door and this guy goes,
you know, I appreciate, tell me if I'm wrong about this. He appreciates what they're doing
out there, going door to door, soloing. The guy was saved according to his own testimony.
I just don't like what your pastor is saying about the homos, right? The next door neighbor
that lives next door to him isn't saved and ends up getting saved because our church that's
so mean and hates the homos went to that door and that guy ends up getting saved.
So what about him? Why did he get his neighbor saved? Why did we have to come,
why did the hate church have to come and get that guy saved?
And, you know, so this is what I'm talking about. This is the, this is the black pill
mentality really. But they're, you know, they're mad at me because they're brainwashed
idiots in this world. They're Christian. He's probably got Newsmax on. As soon as
he closed the door, he probably just like his, his mouth dropped open, you know, and then
he's watching Newsmax and Fox News and Hannity was a Catholic or something.
But we shouldn't have that attitude. We should have the attitude that we're here. And while
we're on this earth, we're going to make a big difference for Christ in this world
and have the attitude that even though everything's going dark, everything's getting bad,
but hey, in our little circle, in our family, things are going great. Our kids are getting
saved. Our family members are getting saved. Our friends are getting saved. Hey, our church family
is saved. It's not a bunch of people that believe a bunch of different things about
salvation. Half of them are Calvinist and the other half are not saved. And the other
people are repenting your sins. There might be a couple, like, that's not what our church is
like. Our church is one and we all believe the same thing. We're in unity. That's how it should
be. So, you know, we believe that we can make a difference and that's what the Bible says,
and one day we are going to win and all these bad times are going to be behind us.
We're the light of the world and we have the ability to be positive in our own little
corner of the world, don't we? And in our own church. And so instead of just listening to
these internet influencers on the internet, and you know, I'm not saying, I'm not trying to tell
you what to do, but why don't we just be influencers for Jesus Christ instead of
worrying about being influencers on the internet? Because really what matters is the
true influencers. What is the true influence that we want to put out there? That Jesus Christ
is our savior and if you trust in him, you'll go to heaven. That's the real influence that
we want to put out there. That more than who's going to be the next president or who is
on Epstein's island or whatever. Which of course, that's a big story today, which maybe I'll preach
about that this weekend. But what difference does it make? They're not going to tell us who
was really there anyway. They're just going to give us little pieces of it. You think they're
really going to give up the elite? They're not going to give them up. Clinton won't do a
second in jail, I guarantee you. I'll guarantee right now he won't do a day in jail, guaranteed.
Neither will dirty Hillary Clinton. But they're all happy that Trump never visited the island, so
their savior Trump didn't go. Anyway, so let's go back to our text, okay?
Look at Jonah chapter four, verse two. Jonah chapter four, verse two. So Jonah's really mad
because he got all those people saved. And he prayed unto the Lord and he said,
I pray unto thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country?
So he's already had a previous conversation with God about this,
and he's saying, isn't that what I said when you asked me to go, basically? That's kind of
what he's saying, right? We already talked about this. I already knew this. I already knew you
were going to save him. Therefore I fled unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious
God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
What's he saying? He's like, I knew that if I went and preached what you want me to preach,
this is exactly what was going to happen. So he's basically saying, I willfully left
because I hated them so much, I knew you were going to let me get them saved, and I didn't
want them to get saved, so I left so I wouldn't get them saved. I mean, that's just an odd,
weird attitude to have. And hopefully nobody in our church ever gets that far gone,
where you're just like mad that somebody at the door got saved. I mean, isn't that bizarre?
Like, I just can't even imagine that. But anyway, what makes it worse, though, is that
that's why he's just straight up saying that's why he disobeyed. So he literally just didn't
want them to be saved. And another application for apathetic Christians, though, is that
another application for apathetic Christians that they refuse to go out soloing is what you want
or what you're comfortable with. That doesn't mean anything to God. If you're just like,
well, I just don't feel like going out today, God. God doesn't care what you think. He just
says to go. He doesn't say, well, you know, I know you're not a very good talker. You're
kind of more of an introvert, so I'm just going to give you a pass. It's not what he
said. What did he tell to Jonah? Go. Go to Nineveh. And then he runs because he knows he's
gracious. And then when he does go, he does what he's told, but with a bad attitude.
I mean, can you imagine what he's preaching like? Like when he, I mean, because he's told,
like he's pissed, right? He goes in there and he probably like, because he's so mad,
he's probably like ripping face, you know, worse than ever before. And it's so hard of preaching
that the people of Nineveh, he probably caused them to repent even more. You know what I mean?
Like, I mean, I'm just imagining this, but like, you know, when you're really upset
when you're preaching and you're just like, you know, you're like frothing at the mouth,
you're angry about something. It's kind of how I imagine him being, because the,
what is the message? The message isn't, you know, believe on Jesus and you'll be saved.
It's like, Nineveh's going to be overthrown in 40 days. You know, he's just like,
ah! But it ends up not working the way that maybe he thought it was going to work out.
It worked out the way God wanted it to work out. But when people are apathetic though,
it seems like people just think that like they have the choice in the matter.
In the New Testament, we don't have the choice. And so when people are apathetic about going
soloing, it's just like, and it's just even like when it goes, it rolls into like church
attendance or just anything that God tells us to do as Christians that they don't do,
that we don't do. I'll put myself in the bow. I don't do stuff sometimes too. I'm not saying
I don't, that I'm perfect or something, but just saying that like we actually, we act like
we have this, this option to just say no. And we do, but like it's a bad option.
That's a bad, it's disobedience. God wants us to obey him. And he's not looking for excuses
as to why we can't do something. And when we make up any reason why we can't go,
well, you know, my English isn't that great or my Spanish isn't that great.
You know, Pastor Shelley sounds like a gringo when he's preaching. Did you know that? He
speaks Spanish really fluently. And you know what? He doesn't care what he sounds like
when he preaches in Spanish. He knows he sounds like a gringo,
but you know what? He still preaches and they still understand what he's saying.
And he still gets people saved in Spanish. Dylan probably has better pronunciation. I'm not sure,
but he still sounds like a gringo. I'm sure when he walks up to like a natural speaker
with his white shining Casper body, they realize he's not a native speaker.
But yet he still gets people saved every single week speaking Spanish and he doesn't use the
excuse, well, I'm afraid to speak Spanish to people because I sound like a gringo.
That's a lame excuse. Stop using that excuse. Just preach the gospel. If they can understand
you at all, then preach the gospel. I'm just using that as an example. Quit using
weak crutches as an excuse why you can't go. Because if you can go, you should go.
And you know, Jonah's excuse was the worst of all. I just don't, I don't like them.
I just hate their guts. I want them to die. God, kill them.
None of us is going to be overthrown in 40 days.
No, they're not. You shouldn't have preached it like that, Jonah. I don't know. But I mean,
we got to get out of our comfort zone sometimes. Just get out there and do what God
says and stop acting like it needs to be some talent that we're gifted with. This is another
excuse that people use. Well, I'm just not very gifted in talking to people. Well, you don't
have to be. I've watched people give some of the most cringiest gospel presentations ever,
where I'm just like, you know, I have my Bible and at a certain point, I'm just like this,
trying to hide behind the plants. Even the cat's embarrassed.
Their cat's like, no. Well, you know what? You got to start out someplace
and you got to start out giving a shaky presentation sometime.
And you always have your partner there to like, you know, they, you got the little lifeline.
It's like the kids that have to be on leashes out in public. You know what I'm talking about?
You still got your partner there. That's why you don't leave your partner. Stay with
your partner, especially if they're a silent partner and they're trying to give the gospel.
Just be with them because you might need to pull the leash. Come here. Help, help. You
know, after a while, you don't need that help anymore,
but don't use excuses with God why you can't go soul wanting because it's just lame.
In Isaiah chapter 28 verse 11 says, for with stammering lips and another tongue will
He speak to this people. And in the New Testament, it's talking about tongues. And He says,
tongues are a sign for those, not for those that believe, but those that believe not.
So with a stammering lips, you know, today junior, you know, you're, you're stuck, you know,
anybody with a, He's saying people with a stuttering problem can talk to these people.
So, and you know, some people legitimately do have a stuttering problem. I'm,
I guess I shouldn't be doing that because now I'm going to start stuttering. But you know,
people legitimately are, you know, they have that real problem and they might, you know,
be like, I don't, I can't, I can't give the gospel cause I'm going to stutter,
but you can get past that stuff. And who cares if you're stuttering?
Because God said, I'm going to talk to them whether you're stuttering or not through you
just do it. So if God can use someone that who literally hated the people that He was going to,
He can use anyone and has used anyone and did use someone that didn't lie to people and
got them saved and bigger than any number that we've ever repped, right?
I mean, that's just how amazing God is, you know? So, you know, so I,
you're like, well, what does the book of Jonah really telling us?
It's telling us this stuff, you know, it's a good lesson for us to understand things.
Number two tonight, Jonah throws a pity party. He's already throwing it right now,
but like now he's really getting into it. So Jonah chapter four, verse three, it says,
therefore now O Lord take, I beseech thee my life for me for it is better for me to die
than to live. This is like the ultimate pity party, right? Like God, you let me save all
those people. Just kill me. I mean, it's not weird. Like, I don't know. Maybe I'm just like
studying this sermon today. I'm just like, how bizarre, what a weird thing to say.
But he's like, I'd rather die than live with the fact that I got these Ninevites saved.
And maybe he's just thinking about like what they're gonna be saying in Jerusalem
or whatever, what they're gonna be saying in Samaria. You got all those people saved.
How dare you, Jonah? You know, I don't know. I mean, it's pretty wicked back then.
But, you know, and sometimes we can just get so focused on ourselves and what we want
that anytime we don't get our way with God, though, this is a lesson for us,
that we go to these unreasonable extremes. I'm gonna quit going to church. I'm gonna quit on God.
You know, so-and-so said something I didn't like. And now I'm never going back to that church
again, ever! It's like, you're gonna let one thing that somebody said make you never go
back to church again. And so, you know, and these things will make you just jump off
the most unreasonable Grand Canyon-style cliff, mental cliff, ever. And that's what
he's doing right here. Kill me! That's just bizarre. But that's what he's doing.
But he's just being a spoiled brat, isn't he? Because he's already prayed. In the previous verse,
he prayed. And so now he's just like, well, just kill me then, you know. And so, yeah,
the modern psychological term for what he's actually doing right here,
I looked it up, it's called a hissy fit. And, you know, pity party was the secondary. But
this is actually what he's doing. I looked up just some quotes about pity parties.
This one I actually thought was pretty funny. It says,
your pity party on Facebook should have been under events so I could have chosen whether to
attend or not. It's like, that's a good one. But, like, really, it just, in my opinion,
it just shows how bad our hearts can be and be saved. Because, I mean, this is about as bad
of a heart as you can have. And, you know, he's a soul winner. Like, he's got more people
saved than I ever probably will in one trip to Nineveh. And he doesn't want them, you know.
Most of us would be like, yeah, I got the rewards coming in heaven, whoo!
He's just like, give them back. Here, God, take them back. Kill them.
If they can lose their salvation, make them lose it.
But then, here's what God says in verse four. He says, then said the Lord,
doest thou well to be angry? Like, is it right for you to be angry, Jonah?
So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth
and sat under it in the shadows. So he's like, he just kind of made like a little
lean to or something to give himself some shade because apparently this place is pretty
warm weather. He's there in the summertime or something, I don't know. But it says,
and he sat under in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city.
So to me, he's like kind of in this weird mindset where he's like
thinking that God still might just answer his prayer or something. But again, it's pretty weird
because I think he already realizes that God has spared them, that he saved them.
But the only thing I can think of is that he thinks that maybe his hissy fit changed God's
mind. Or maybe that he said, please just kill me. Like, okay, Jonah, well, I don't want you
to feel like that. I just will kill them anyway. I don't know what he's thinking.
I don't know what he's thinking. But that would be a bizarre way to think. And then,
you know, maybe he just thought that they turned away long enough to get a short stay of
execution, that they're just slapping each other with fishes and killing each other
again or something. But I mean, I just don't really understand what his mentality is here.
But, you know, he's obviously sitting there waiting to see if they're going to get destroyed.
So he's kind of living in a delusion at this point. And number three tonight, this is last
point, is that God teaches Jonah some hard lessons about compassion. And, you know,
God is just masterful in the way that he kind of finishes this off. Look at verse number six.
It says, And the Lord God prepared a gourd. Now, a gourd is, you know, it's a plant.
And it's in the plant family characterized as tendril-bearing vines,
either trailing or climbing, and having alternate lobed leaves, often large yellow or
greenish flowers, and many seeded fleshly fruit with hard rind, and including the cucumber, gourd,
melon, pumpkin, or squash. So you've probably seen these kind of vines before in pumpkin
patches or things like that. But a gourd is like, I mean, it's, if you've seen one,
you'd probably know what it looks like, but it's basically kind of in the melon-pumpkin family or
whatever. So, or squash. Who's ever had squash before? It's kind of like that.
So, and sometimes they grow up and sometimes they grow on the ground or whatever, but
this one obviously grows up here. So it says he prepared a gourd and made it to come up over
Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was
exceeding glad of the gourd. So, you know, he's upset. He's angry. He wants these people to die.
He sits out. He makes a little shed. He's ready for them to die. He's just watching.
And then God makes this plant grow up and gives him some extra shade.
He's like, yeah, now he's in a good mood now. He's happy. He's exceeding glad of the gourd.
He's happy with the plant. Now, I mean, I was just thinking about this verse
and kind of how it looks when you think about the gospel and how God prepares people to reach
people. And, you know, God prepares fruit also. When people get saved, then he wants them to
bring forth fruit. And God uses that picture in the Bible a lot, plants and trees bringing
forth after their kind. And when we, the Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life
and he that win his souls is wise. So he, you know, and he uses the plants and the trees
bringing forth seed and all that stuff as a picture of bringing forth. And when it comes
to fruit, usually that's, you know, something that's a good thing, right?
So thorns and those thistles and things like that, those kind of represent bad things. But
so this is something that's good, though, because a gourd can feed you.
You know, it's kind of a good thing, isn't it? But notice the wording again. It says,
God prepared a gourd to make it come up over Jonah, that it might shadow over his head
and to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
So God prepares fruit also. He saved, you know, he saved people.
He has saved people, excuse me, that he prepares to be able to come up and to be shade from the
fire that's awaiting from them from the pits of hell, right? And to deliver sinners from their
grief, if you think about it, because everybody, you know, that saved in this room had somebody
get them saved. And so he had to prepare somebody to do that. He had to prepare some
fruit to get trained and able to do that, right? Whether you watched a video where someone
shared the gospel with you and you got saved or whatever it was, God prepared that to happen
and knew that there was going to be a day that you watched some video or some person shared
the gospel with you so that you would get saved. And so if you think about the fact that
once you get that, you know, the sun is this picture that's kind of representing hell.
And Jonah's already kind of been through this picture before in the whale, right?
So it's like, it's kind of like God's having to show him this picture again, right?
And so, you know, God sends this fruit to deliver these people,
these sinners from their grief, just like, you know, God is sending this gourd to
give some grief, some relief to Jonah's grief of the heat. So, and then to deliver him from
the grief so Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. You know, when people get saved, you know,
by the Lord Jesus Christ through a fruitful person, through a soul winner,
they get exceedingly glad about that. I mean, are you glad that you're saved today? Because I am.
I'm exceedingly happy about that. Now, so, I mean, if you think of it on that level,
then God's trying to show Jonah something, you know, to what, he's like, you know,
this is what the way you should be looking at things. You know, I'm trying to show you a
picture of what it's like when I help people get saved. So, but Jonah doesn't learn this lesson.
He doesn't seem to learn lessons very easily. He has to, like, go through the worst. He's like
one of those people that has to learn things the hard way before he learns things.
But I want to have you turn to John chapter 15 real quick here. John chapter number 15.
John chapter 15, the Bible says,
I am the vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit,
he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth
more fruit. See, God wants us to be used by him today. Jesus is the true vine, and we are
the branches, and he wants to use us to bear fruit to him. And sometimes he purges us
and gets rid of things in our lives, helps us to get rid of things in our lives so that
we can be more effective in bringing forth that fruit. But, so I mean, but that's,
so that's the picture that you kind of get in scripture about that stuff.
Now let's look at verse seven back in our text.
So, but God, you know, he's being nice at first, but then, you know, he uses
the rest of these things to kind of teach Jonah this hard lesson. It says,
But God prepared a worm when he was, when the morning was rose the next day,
and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did rise,
that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah,
that he fainted and wished in himself to die, and said,
It is better for me to die than to live. So he goes from being exceedingly joyful
to being upset again and wishing that he would die. So, and it says in verse nine,
And God said unto Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?
And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death.
So here he is wanting to die again. And what I think is strange here also,
it's not, he's not upset, you know, he's not like, oh man, I have no shade.
I'm, you know, I'm sad or something. It's like, he's not sad. He's angry
that the gourd died. He's angry that the gourd died. But you see the irony in this?
He wouldn't be angry if all those people died. He's angry that a plant died,
that he didn't plant, that he didn't water, that he didn't raise, that God prepared,
that God rose up in one night, that covered him out of the grace of God,
that he sent, that he nurtured, and he's mad because it died.
But he doesn't care about 120,000 people that he just got saved and wants them
to still die after they're already saved, after God already pardoned them.
I mean, talk about a guy that just can't learn a lesson very easily.
He's angry unto death again. Here he goes again, right?
Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd,
for that which thou hast not labored, neither mayest it grow,
which came up in a night and perished in a night.
So I mean, I just, this guy, man, I'm sure he's a great guy other than this, right?
I mean, this is just like a little glimpse in the whole life of Jonah.
I mean, I'm just hoping that like, you know, there's some redeeming qualities that we learn
about him later on in heaven or something. I'm sure he is a great guy.
But this is just not the side of him that he probably really wants people to see.
But this is a lesson for us, really, because we can become like this.
I mean, maybe not to this extreme, but there's a lot of Christians out there
that are just like this, but in their own way.
God uses a gourd that he prepared and a worm that he prepared and the vehement east wind
that he also prepared so that Jonah would see things from God's point of view, right?
This is what he's teaching him through all this stuff. He's trying to teach him anyway.
And God made man. They're his creation. They're living souls that will go to
hell for all eternity if they don't get saved. He loves man. He has pity on man
and prepared a way for them to be saved. And then like, you know, some worm,
you know, goes against God's program, basically. And, you know, have no love,
have no compassion for the unsaved and the eternal state of these people.
And they care more about some stupid hanging plant at their house than they do
about, you know, some soul hanging in the balance every single day.
And I'm talking about just the average, everyday Christian that won't go soul winning.
They care more about their stupid fuchsia and watering that every single morning than they do
watering some seed that needs to be watered in this city somewhere.
And that's the disgusting truth about it. And that's the lesson that we should actually learn
from what Jonah is trying to, you know, what God's trying to teach Jonah here that he's clearly
not really getting. And maybe he gets it later. I hope he gets it later.
But I'm really just, you know, obviously we all have our faults, you know, but like I just,
I can't understand this attitude. I really just can't. So I don't know that you can either, but
in reality, this is the majority of Christians today. They care more about their plants,
care more about their yards. They care more about their cars. They care more about how perfect their
lawn is cut. They care more about, you know, just whatever hobby they have, what their favorite
show on TV is, what their favorite movie is, hanging out with their friends, their family,
whatever it is, they just, whatever it is, they care more about that than they do about
anybody else loving their neighbor as themselves. You know, and to say that God didn't love
the heathen in the Old Testament, this book flies in the face of that hugely.
It just shows, you know, and just because God doesn't show all the other cities that God
had people preach to, it doesn't mean that it didn't happen. This is the fallacy of people
thinking in the New Testament. What about all the places that Jeremiah went and preached?
It doesn't say everything that he preached, just like it doesn't give the whole sermon that Jonah
preached. God loved people in the Old Testament too, and Israel failed to do what they were
supposed to do, and that's why they've been replaced. That's why God cursed the fig tree
and said, bring no more fruit from henceforth and forever, and he replaced them with the
church. You know what the church is doing right now? Nothing. They're not doing their job.
They're Jonah Christians out there left and right. That's basically what you would describe
this generation as. A Jonah generation that refused, at least Jonah went and preached actually,
finally, but where's all the Christians that are supposed to be getting up and going soul winning
with their church? Where's the pastors that are leading a soul winning movement somewhere,
but we're the crazy ones? You know, I had an apartment manager call me again today,
and you know what? I should just put a message on my answering machine that says,
if you're an apartment manager from hell, push number two, and then you push number two that says
go to hell, but you know, not all of them are like that, but it's just, you know what? I
don't care. I'll deal with those phone calls all day. They were too scared to leave a message
anyway, but I'll deal with those every single day of the week if our church still goes soul winning.
I want our church to still go soul winning. You know what? I don't want our church to turn
into Jonah Baptist where we actually hate the people that we're going out to preach to,
or that they're like the first Jonah that just wants to go anywhere else besides go where
God told them to go, or preach anything else besides what God told them to preach,
and I'm just really sick of the apathetic Christians out there.
You know, they come to our church one time. They hear a sermon like this,
and they're like, oh, they can't. They're like the Jehovah's Witnesses. They're like the
Mormons. No, they're trying to be like us, and you just forgot what Christians are supposed to be like
so much that they're actually trying to replace us and think that the Mormons are actually,
they thought that up or something. They got it from the Bible, which you lack in reading,
obviously, because you never heard of Acts 542, and daily, and in the temple, they cease not
to preach and teach Jesus Christ. They forgot about that one. In every house, they cease not
to preach and teach Jesus Christ, but anyway, Book of Jonah, we're done. All right, let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for a great church that's still fired up about soul winning. Lord,
I pray that we never get this spirit, Lord, that we just hate soul winning, or we hate
certain people and want them to die and go to hell unless, of course, it's the reprobates,
but Lord, I pray that you would just help us to still love people, love people as ourselves,
love our neighbor as ourselves, and that we would just, that soul winning would be a big deal,
the biggest deal in our church for many, many years to come, and we thank you for these lessons
in the Book of Jonah, and Lord, even though I don't understand his mentality, maybe I'll
understand it better someday, but I just pray that you'd help us to never get that mentality
that he had in this last chapter, and I pray that you'd help us to
just love the lost, Lord, until we leave this world one day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.