(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hopefully, you've been able to see so far that there's a lot of important doctrines and important applications that we can take from the story of Jonah. We definitely know why it's in there. Let's look at verse number one of Jonah chapter four and let's see what we can come up with. I'm just going to go through the chapter very quickly and just kind of explain the mechanics of what's going on in Jonah chapter four and then I'm going to show you what the word of God is trying to tell us from this chapter. So this is after God has repented, right? I mean, the last sermon was literally titled God Repented. So God repented, God changed his mind about what he was going to do in verse number 10 of chapter three. You know, the Lord repented of the evil that he was going to do. Because why? So we are not judged by our works, but nations are, is what the Bible is showing us there. And God repented, meaning God changed his mind about what he was going to do to this nation, this city, because of what they did. They actually responded to the word of God, all right? It was like a shocker, right? If you're reading through the Bible up to Jonah, you know, this is one of the few times that people actually listen to the prophet. They usually kill the prophet, usually throw the prophet in the mire. Usually imprison him, you know, torture him, whatever. That's what they do to the prophet, all right? So look at verse number one. So these people get right, and God decides not to destroy Nineveh. You're like, yes, success. Look at verse number one. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. You're like, what in the world? But look at verse number two. So remember, Jonah rejected the word of the Lord, and he fled from the Lord in chapter number one. Now we get some context why he did so. Look at verse number two. It says, he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was this not my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore, I fled before 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. You know what Jonah is saying here? He's explaining why he ran away. He's explaining to God why he ran away. He's literally saying to God, I ran away because I knew if they got right, and they listened, that you would be merciful to them. He apparently doesn't like the people of Nineveh very much. So he did not want Nineveh to be spared, or he didn't think that they should be spared, or whatever. His opinion was he didn't think that they deserved another chance, whatever. He's literally telling God here that that's why he ran away. He ran away because he knew how merciful God was. That's interesting. Look at verse number three. Therefore, now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. We'll come back to that one. A little overdramatic, but we'll get back to that. Look at verse number four. He's not just like, oh, God pardoned them, and oh, well, I guess they got right. Now he's just like, I would rather die than see these people not get destroyed. Look at verse number four. Then said the Lord, doest thou well to be angry? I have that underlined in my Bible. If you write in your Bible, I underline that. Because look, there's a couple things that are repeated in Jonah chapter four, and whenever the Bible is repeating things to you, kind of like Galatians chapter one, when it says, if any man preach another gospel to you, whether it be an angel from us or an angel from heaven, let him be accursed, and then he says literally almost the same thing in the very next verse, in verse number nine. They said if anybody brings another gospel, preach another gospel, let them be accursed. That means if anybody changes the gospel, God is literally saying there twice in Galatians chapter one, if anybody changes the gospel, let them go to hell. God means it. God repeats things, he's trying to tell us something, it's showing us how serious God is about it. This is one of the things that's repeated right here. It says doest thou well to be angry? God is asking Jonah, do you think it's a good thing that you're angry? Look at verse number five. 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 shadow that he might see what would become of the city. And that's kind of interesting because verse number six is kind of like, you know, kind of happens before verse number five, but the Bible kind of does that sometimes. And the Lord God 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 exceedingly glad of the gourd. So Jonah goes out of the city and God grows this large tree or bush to come over Jonah and keep him in the shade as he goes up on this hill to look over the city. But now look at verse number seven. So God prepares this shade for him. In verse number seven it says God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered. So God, now he grows up this bush over Jonah in one day to keep the sun off his head, and then God just destroys the bush right away and now he's in the sun again. Look at verse number eight. And it came to pass when the sun did arise that God, not only does he take the bush away from him or the cover away from him or the shade away from him, but God prepared a vehement east wind that the sun beat upon the head of Jonah and that he fainted and wished himself to die and said, it is better for me to die than to live. So not only does God take away the gourd, now the sun's beating on his head, but I actually explained the science of this to Jacob when we were out soul winning when it was 150 degrees last Sunday, and I actually, because it was windy and Jacob's like, oh, it's great that it's windy, but it's actually not great that it's windy because while it may feel a little cooler at times when it's windy, if it's like 110 degree heat, that means it's just, it's heating up your body even faster. It's transferring heat to you even faster. So it's drawing the water out of you faster. You might have a little bit of evaporative cooling going on that makes you feel better, but you're going to be in a bad shape if you don't drink water faster if you're in a hot wind than if the sun's just beating down on you. There's some science for you, all right? All right, so he's in this sun, the wind's beating down on him, he's miserable, and God said to Jonah, verse nine, look what he says again, doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? I mean, so Jonah's just angry about everything. Jonah's angry about his personal comfort, Jonah's angry about the city, and now God asks him again, doest thou well to be angry? So I have that underlined again in my Bible because God said that twice at this point in just a few verses, and he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, now this is a little confusing for some people, verse number 10 and verse number 11, but like Jonah's throwing a temper tantrum here. He's throwing a temper tantrum here, and he's just saying, he's literally arguing with God. God is kind of trying to throw some hints at him, like hey, maybe you shouldn't be so angry about this. He's like, no, I want to be angry and I want to die, is what he's telling the Lord. Look at verse number 10. Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored. Neither mayest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. So first of all, God says, basically, he says, why are you even upset about it? You didn't plant it, you didn't, it wasn't from you. He's like, I gave it to you. He's like, I gave it to you and then I take it away. It's like somebody just gives you something for free and then they take it away. Well, you didn't have it in the first place. So what are you so angry about? God's just kind of trying to simply show him how silly he's being here, show him how ridiculous he's being. Look at verse number 11, this goes right with verse number 10, it says, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons. So a score is 20, so we're talking about six times 20,000. So we're looking at 120,000 people that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle. So there's really two levels that God is like explaining to Jonah here in verse number 10 and verse number 11. Really what he's saying is this, well, maybe three levels, if you look at just the fact that he's saying, I just gave it to you, you didn't have it in the first place, why are you upset that it's gone? But the real level that he's saying that the next level is, you know, you pity this plant, you pity this bush that died and not 120,000 people, God is saying, what is wrong with you? He's saying, not 120,000 people that they can't even discern between their right hand and their left. He's like, they know nothing. We'll get to that in a few minutes. And also much cattle. He's like, yeah, pity on this tree and not actual human beings. But really what the Lord is saying here to Jonah, and this is the main lesson for us tonight, is he is saying to Jonah, you're feeling sorry for yourself. He's saying, you are really having self-pity instead of having pity on 120,000 people. That's why God says, do us well to be angry. God is saying, you are wrong, is what he's saying to Jonah. God is saying when he asked that question, it's a rhetorical question from the Lord. He's saying, you don't do well. He's saying, you are not doing well. He's trying to teach him a lesson here. Because in Jonah chapter four, verse number one, right away, it just says, and he was very angry from the beginning. From the beginning that he found out God wasn't going to destroy the city, he was very angry. Why? Because he didn't get what he wanted. He didn't get his way. This is super important for kids, too, right here. This is super important for kids and adults, because kids will kind of just struggle into this, and it needs to be corrected from kids. Jonah was a self-willed individual. It was very simple. He didn't want Nineveh to be saved, but God saved Nineveh, and he's angry, because he didn't get his way. So I'm going to give you four characteristics from Jonah chapter four. We're not going to go to a lot of Bible, because it's all right here in Jonah chapter four. Of course, we're going to go to some Bible. But in Jonah chapter four, I'm going to give you four characteristics of self-willed people. So as I give you these characteristics of Jonah, knowing that he's pitying himself, he's just completely self-willed, I want you to compare and just say, do I want these characteristics to describe me? Do I want these characteristics to describe me? Maybe you're self-willed, maybe you're not, but do you want to have these characteristics is really the question. Then I'll tell you how to fix it, because the Bible tells you how to fix it. The Bible tells you how to fix these characteristics. So if you listen to these characteristics tonight, and you're like, I don't know if I'm self-willed or if I'm not self-willed, and then I show you the fix, it'll work, is what I'm trying to get you to understand. The Bible works. The Bible works. Jonah chapter four and verse number four. So here's one of the things that is mentioned twice, right here. The question that God asks. The first point I want to make is that self-willed people are angry people. Self-willed people are these kinds of people that are just angry over, I mean, we all know people like this. People that are just angry over like, what in the world are you so angry about? I've said to Jacob many times, like, if you want to be a saltwater fisherman, you could not be somebody that just flies off the handle when something goes wrong, because something's always going wrong. We're out on the ocean, and something's always breaking, something always falls in the water that wasn't supposed to fall in the water, something's always going wrong, some kind of weird situation that we've got to figure out, and if you're just one of these people that just like flies off the handle and just gets angry at anything, this is not for you. I keep telling Jacob that all the time. But self-willed people are angry people. Notice the first thing we see after God's decision to spare this city is that Jonah was, he's not just angry, he was very angry, and it's actually hard to, with the things that he's saying here, it's hard to actually imagine someone being more angry than how angry Jonah is. So look, if you're angry, maybe you're a self-willed person. If you're just angry for reasons that you just don't know why, and maybe people are like constantly telling you, like, why is that upsetting you so much? Something that, you know, somebody else would just let flow off their back, like, you know, like water off a duck's back, and it just like makes you angry. Maybe you're a self-willed person, because that's what's going on with Jonah. Here's the second characteristic. Self-willed people are depressed people. You can almost, when you read Jonah chapter 4, and there's a reason I read it through really fast, you can almost feel the depression coming off of him. It almost makes you depressed, reading it. You can just feel the depression. Look again twice, look at verse number 3. Look at verse number 3 of Jonah chapter 4. This is another thing that we see twice in this chapter. He says, therefore now, oh Lord, he's like, Lord, because you got your way, and I didn't get my way, I beseech thee, you know, take I beseech thee my life for me, for it is better for me to die than to live. He's like, it's just better for me, I didn't get my way, I'd just rather die. This is a depressed person, right here. Look at verse number 9. He literally answers God's question on, doest thou well to be angry, he says, yeah, I do well to be angry, even unto death. He's like, I'm so angry, I want to die. This is a depressed person, right here. Look, I am not, and I am not, I am not downplaying people that really struggle with depression. It's just like any other thing, folks. Some people will struggle with certain things, certain sins, other people will struggle with other things in their life. But here's what I can tell you for sure in the Bible, and you'll see it when I show you the solution to this, I'm not downplaying depression, I'm not downplaying people that have, you know, anxiety or things like that, I'm not downplaying, like, especially like women, there's like postpartum depression, that's a very real thing. Some women struggle with that much more than other women, it's a real thing, but here's what I can tell you. The more you focus on yourself, the worse it will be magnified. But what do they tell you today with anything? With anything. Oh, I'm depressed. Here's a bunch of pills that will make you probably kill yourself. The Bible is telling us here, it's showing us in Jonah, that being self-willed will make these things, it will magnify them. It will make them much worse. So you say, well, what can I do? I'm one of those people. I'm gonna show you what you can do. Alright, I'm gonna show you what the Bible says. Characteristic number three. So we know self-willed people will be depressed people. Self-willed people will be angry people. Self-willed people, go back to verse number three, self-willed people will also be very pessimistic people. You say, what do you mean? Well, we'll get verse number three. I mean, aside from obvious depression, he's obviously depressed about this situation, I mean, he's a little over the top, wouldn't you say? I mean, this doesn't really affect him when you look at it. When you look at this city that, I mean, he doesn't live in this city. He doesn't live there. He probably doesn't even know any of these people. Yet he's so over the top negative about this in verse number three, he says, it's literally better for me to die. This is somebody that's extremely pessimistic. This is somebody that doesn't look at a problem and say, yeah, I think I can get through this. Yeah, I think we can figure this out. This is gonna be rough for a while, but I think we can figure this out and come up with something. This is somebody that's just like, oh, man, I didn't get my way. I'm super focused on myself. I'd rather die than do anything else to try to feel better or whatever. And then in verse number nine, it says the same thing, even unto death. He's way over the top negative. I don't know how many, like, I literally know people like this that are just way over the top negative. He took a situation he didn't like. I know people. I have met people. I have worked with people. I have even gone to church with people, not in California. I've even gone to church with people that are so negative, like, I'm afraid to talk to them. I'm like, I'm afraid to ask them, like, hey, how's it going? Because I just know it's gonna be something horrible and bad. I'm so glad that, like, we believe the Bible about, you know, like, a pre-Trib, or not the pre-Trib rapture that the, you know, we believe in the, what am I, what's wrong with me right now, the post-Trib pre-wrath rapture? Because like, I knew certain people that were just like, they were so pessimistic and so depressed, they didn't want to fix anything in their life, they're just waiting, they're just like, I'm just waiting for Jesus to come get me. I'm like, how's the job, you know, brother, and all this, and they're like, ah, Jesus, come get me. Jesus, come take me away. Like, he's not coming right now, guaranteed. Certain things have to happen yet. All right, but look, there's ultra-negative people out there, we need to be careful about this. Look, folks, there's always something negative to focus on. There's always something negative. Think of the Fourth of July. Think of the Fourth of July. You know how I like all-time lows and all-time highs, and I think we should really pay attention in this country to things that are at an all-time low, like, here's an all-time low. Knowledge of the Bible in the United States is an all-time low. All-time high. People that are just in fornication and not getting married anymore. We should pay attention to those things. Those are both not good things. So I'm thinking about the Fourth of July, and I'm popping in and out of some news in the morning before we went off on our great Fourth of July, by the way, but I'm looking at the news, and here is another all-time record. This Fourth of July for our country is this idea that people are proud to be an American was at an all-time low for all groups. I mean, that's not surprising to me, but I mean, I'm talking, you know, for, you know, Satan-worshipping perverts all the way to Bible-believing Christians. All-time low for all of these groups and everyone in between. I mean, there's a lot to be negative about when you think about the state of our country. I mean, you could just be negative about everything every single day. I mean, our country's never been more divided. It's never had less faith and knowledge of the Word of God. It's never had more false doctrine being spread all over the country. You think those two have correlation, by the way, with the way things are going and the knowledge of the Word of God in this country? Our country's getting weaker every day. We used to be like, America, we're strong. We're not that strong anymore. But I mean, this is just what the Bible says is going to happen, folks. We don't necessarily have to be like, but here's the thing. We need to be careful that we're just not negative all the time. I mean, guess what we're doing? You know, hey, you know, there's a lot of negative things going on, and we should be aware of those things, and we should be teaching our children everything in the Bible. We should be teaching our children when they start, you know, talking about all this, what's a man, what's a woman, LGBT perversion stuff. We should be teaching our children what the Bible says about those things. But hey, at the end of the day, we're in church. We got the Bible. You know what we're doing tomorrow? We're going soul winning. We're able to preach the gospel in this country. We're still able to take the Word of God out and go out and get people saved. We're still able to fellowship and have a great Independence Day with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I mean, we're still able to do these things. So you really have to be careful. You're not just negative all the time, because there's always going to be something negative about. And you pretty soon become one of these people that you even hear positive things, and you'll be negative. Somebody tells you they got a promotion, and you're like, man, didn't deserve that promotion. Stupid job anyway. I mean, you could become that person if you're just like negative all the time. But you know where it comes from? It comes from being self-focused. It comes from being self-willed, just like Jonah. Super pessimistic. Here, 120,000 people listened to the Word of God. What in the world? He's taking an extremely positive thing and making it negative. So we need to be careful that we're not too pessimistic in our eyes. Look, we need to be real about what we're seeing. We need to be real when it comes to the truth of the Word of God. But look, there's a lot of things to be positive about. Careful that we can ruin our children. You know, if all your children here is just negative, negative, negative, negative. And look, if all of you with children tonight, I'll confess my faults to you. There's those moments when you just start seeing your children grow up, and they start just kind of being cynical about things, and you're like, whoa, why are you so cynical? And you're like, oh, it's because I am. You just got to check yourself. You need to make sure that we're positive about our children. Look, I point out things to my kids. I point out problems to my kids. When I see some drug addict walking down the street or fighting with the air or whatever, I'm like, hey kids, look at that. That's not good. Like, what do you think about drugs? You don't even have to say that. But it's not negative all the time. We don't want to create a bunch of cynics in our house, right? Be a positive person. And how do you do that? You get over yourself. That's how you do it. All right? Number four. So self-willed people are what? They're angry. Self-willed people are extremely depressed, and self-willed people are extreme pessimists. All right? Here's the third one, or the fourth one. And I kind of combined a couple here. And I'm going to kind of focus on the first part. But self-willed people are unmerciful and unthankful people. And that was Jonah. Look at verse number 10 of Jonah chapter four. The Bible says, Then said the Lord, Thou hadst pity on the gourd, for which thou hadst not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. First of all, like Jonah didn't say, hey, you know, I'm happy that you had the gourd there for a day. Thanks a lot for that. God, that was really great. He was unthankful. But the main thing that he was, was he was extremely unmerciful. And God is pointing that out to him. He literally said that, God, I know. In verse number two, he's like, God, I know that you're merciful, and I'm not, is basically what he was saying. I know you'll pardon these people. I know if they get right, you will repent against the evil that you were going to do unto them. You will not destroy them. Jonah wanted them destroyed, whatever they did. I mean, that's the definition of no mercy right there. Like, hey, I'm glad you got right, destroyed anyway. That's what Jonah wanted. He was that self-willed. You know what it reminds me of? Turn to 2 Kings chapter 22. Because he says in verse number 11, you're turning to 2 Kings chapter 22, and I'm going to read for you verse number 11 again, where God says, and should I not spare Nineveh that great city, and God points out a characteristic about Nineveh that is super interesting here. God is saying, you know, Jonah's kind of arguing with God here, like, why did you have mercy on them? And God tells him, he says, because they didn't know, because they don't know anything. He says, six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand. This is showing God's going to give more mercy, and the Bible, this is a doctrine in the Bible. God will give more mercy to people who don't know, to people who didn't know. They're doing stuff that they didn't know what the right way was. Look at 2 Kings chapter 22. This reminds me of Josiah. Josiah goes to rebuild the temple. I mean, Josiah is a good king, and he wants to rebuild the house of the Lord. Look at verse number 10 of 2 Kings chapter 22, and something very interesting happens when Josiah sends his people into work on the house of the Lord. It's so broken down, and so beat down, and so trashed that they didn't even have the Bible anymore, and someone found a Bible. Look at verse number 10, and Shaphan the scribe, so they bring the word of the Lord to the king. Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest had delivered me a book. They found it when they were remodeling the temple, fixing the temple, and Shaphan read it before the king. So right away, they find the book of the law, and they run it, and they bring it over to Josiah, and they read it to him, and it came to pass when the king heard the words of the book, he was just exceedingly glad. Look at this. Look how happy he was. So when he heard the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. You know why he rent his clothes? That means he was extremely distressed, because they're reading the Bible to him, and he's just like, we're in a lot of trouble. He rents his clothes, because they're reading the Bible to him, and he's like, we're not doing any of this stuff. This shows a good heart, a good king's heart right here. Turn to Luke chapter 12. Jesus himself even taught this doctrine. Right away, Josiah's like, man, we've got a lot of work to do, because we're not doing any of this. I mean, you obviously probably shouldn't lose the word of the Lord anyway in the first place, but at least when you hear it, when you hear it, get right, and that's what Josiah did. Look at verse number 47. This is exactly what Jesus is talking about in Luke chapter 12 and verse number 47. Jesus is talking about this very thing. He says, that servant, these are the people of Nineveh. This was Josiah. They didn't know. They didn't know. That servant, which knew his Lord's will. So now we look at somebody who knew what the word of the Lord said and prepared not himself. Neither did according to his will shall be beaten with what? Many stripes. This is talking about the chastisement of God right here. This is talking about somebody that's saved and knows what they're supposed to be doing, and God says, if they don't do it, but they know they're going to be beaten with many stripes. But look at verse number 48. This is Nineveh. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes, it doesn't say he's going to just escape chastisement. It says he'll be beaten with few stripes, though. For under whosoever much is given of him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more. If there's a downside to this church, it's right here. And of course I say that sort of tongue-in-cheek, but if there's a downside to this church, it's like, look, and this is why a lot of people just won't last that long in a church like this, because they're tired. You're going to know what the Bible says in this church. You're not going to sit under preaching of the word of God and not know what the Bible says. You're going to know it. Whether you do it is up to you. I'm not following anybody home here. I don't have time for that. But the Bible says that if you know and you don't do it, you're the many stripes person. You're not Nineveh. Nineveh didn't know anything. Josiah didn't even know until they read it to him. But you're going to know coming to church here. That's why a lot of people, they hear the preaching of the word of God, and they kind of just like, they just get tired of hearing what they're not going to do. That's why a lot of churches say a lot of nothing at all. Right there. Because they don't want to tell people what they know they're not going to do. So what are you going to see? You're going to see churches filled with unsaved people. You're going to see churches filled with people that are living in fornication. You're going to see churches filled with, because it's not mentioned. Because watered-down, liberal churches, they don't want to say what they know people aren't going to do. So what can we take from Jonah here? Struggling with anger, depressed, pessimist, are your children pessimists? You have a lack of compassion for people? Turn to Philippians chapter 2. The answer is don't be self-focused. That's the answer. You say, yeah, you know, number 2 and number 4 apply to me. Whatever numbers apply to you, don't be self-focused. That's the answer. Look at Philippians chapter 2. Look at verse number 4. So the answer is this. You say, I'm an angry person. I'm pessimistic. I'm depressed, and I have no mercy for people. You're too self-focused, guaranteed. Look at Philippians chapter 2 and look at verse number 4. The Bible says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. See, folks, it seems counterintuitive. It seems counterintuitive that in order to get these bad characteristics out of your life, you need to stop focusing on yourself. Because we think the guys are a lot of mechanics and a lot of physics guys, and we like to fix stuff, and we like to work on stuff, and all these types of things. And it makes sense that if I want a nicer car, that I focus on my car. But that's not how it works with us. That's not what the Bible is saying here. The Bible is saying if you want to get better as a person, if you want to get better as a Christian, focus on other people and quit focusing on yourself. That seems counterintuitive. Pretty soon, it's kind of the opposite of what maybe you would think logically. But this is why we have the Bible, so we can actually fix things in our lives. Taking your focus off yourself, just think of it this way, it'll help you to stop focusing on what I don't have. I have met so many people. I have met so many people that have more than I will ever have or ever would want, and they were just completely not happy. They're completely not happy. It's just the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. So they're never happy with where they are. They're never happy with their house, they're never happy with their situation in life, they're never happy with their job. And guess what? Here's where the anger comes in. When somebody else gets something that they wanted. And they get super angry. You say, I'm better than them, why did they get that? Focusing on other people will get you to take your mind off and your focus off of what you don't have. You should focus on what you do have and start focusing on other people. It'll get you to stop focusing on what people aren't doing for you. This is another one, this attitude that everyone needs to do stuff for me. Focus on what you can do for other people, that's what the Bible is saying. What I deserve, people owe me. This needs to be taught to the kids too. This needs to be taught to the kids too. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Kids need to be taught this from a young age. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, 1 Corinthians chapter number 6, I'm sorry, in verse number 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 7. Look at what the Bible is saying here. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 7, Paul's kind of getting on the church at Corinth because they're arguing over people that have done, somebody did me wrong and they're taking each other to court, to the secular courts. They're literally suing each other in this church. Look at verse number 7, it says, now therefore there's utterly a fault among you because you go to law one another. It's like they're taking each other to court and suing each other. He says, what should they do though? It says, why would you rather not take wrong? Why do you rather not suffer yourself to be defrauded? To these people, it was all about what somebody owed them and Paul is just saying, forget about it. Paul is just saying, forget about it. He's saying, you know, hey, somebody stole your car. He's like, you'd be better off just forgetting about the car than literally ruining yourself for the fact that somebody stole your car. He's not saying somebody didn't do them wrong. He's not saying that somebody didn't steal their money or, you know, whatever. He's just saying, it's better to just be without whatever that was, just suffer it, just suffer yourself to be defrauded than to ruin yourself and ruin your relationships and ruin yourself as a person. Quit being self-focused. Let it go. We need to teach our kids that nobody owes them anything. That's ruining entire generations of people. This idea that these kids are growing up and it's like, everyone just owes me everything. No, nobody owes you anything because that's how the world works. Everybody owes me something, me, me, me. Where's the focus there? The focus is completely on yourself. So look, Jonah was completely self-focused. He didn't get what he wanted. He was angry. He was depressed. He was pessimistic and he was unmerciful and unthankful. Here's what you say. What are the mechanics of focusing on others? I've been thinking about this one a lot this week. Here's the mechanics of focusing on others. You say, pastor, it seems counterintuitive. It doesn't seem like it would work that way. Here's why it works that way. Because when you start focusing on other people, many times the people that you're going to be focusing on are going to have issues and problems that you're going to realize are maybe greater than what you were focused on. So literally focusing on other people will make you realize blessings that you didn't see before. That's the mechanics of it. And then you know what you'll have? When you help other people, when you focus on praying for people and helping out your brothers and sisters in Christ, you know what you'll have? Instead of anger, pessimism, depression, and unmercifulness, you'll have joy. You'll have optimism. And you know what? You'll have thankfulness. You'll realize that some people would look at your life and would glean behind you, like Ruth gleaned behind the Reapers. And they would be so happy with just the gleanings off of your life. But that's what focusing on other people will do for you. It'll literally produce the opposite type of fruit as being self-focused is. One last point. There's so much to learn here. There's so much for all of us to learn here. We all struggle with one of these four things. We all struggle with maybe multiple of these four things, at least at times in our lives. But let me point out one final thing. Do you think Jonah was someone that people wanted to be around? People like this, that are super self-focused, will eventually find themselves standing alone. The Bible says a man that has friends must show himself to be friendly. This is the opposite of that. See, some people draw people to them. This is true just in conversations. If you ask yourself, just think of someone in your set. Don't shout out any names right now. But think of someone in your mind that you really enjoy talking to. I guarantee you that is someone that is genuinely interested in you and how you are doing and how your life is going and what you have to say versus this person that's just waiting for you to be done talking so they can throw in their two cents of whatever it is. It's patently obvious when there's people like that. And guess what? People don't like being in conversations with people like that. But the idea as just the type of person that you are, if you are this type of person that is completely self-focused, you will push people away in your life. Especially everyone if you don't get it. We need to teach these lessons to our kids. We need to teach our kids that this life is about other people. We need to teach our kids that their spiritual life, yes, we need to make sure that our kids get saved. We need to make sure that our kids grow spiritually. We need to make sure that our kids, though, ultimately realize that their spiritual strength is for what? It's for other people. My sons, I want them to be strong, faithful leaders for who? For their families, other people. For their children, other people. I want them to be the kind of men, when I say men, I mean 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds that will have the courage to walk down the street with a Bible, walk into the Philippines with a Bible, and give someone the gospel that they've never met. This is not about you. It's about other people. It's about other people, and it's about the kingdom of heaven. Other people being part of the kingdom of heaven. We need to teach our kids that life isn't fair. Raise a bunch of snowflakes. People are just offended by any little thing. People that somebody says something sideways to them, whatever, how are you going to be a soul winner? How are you going to be a soul winner when 99 out of 100 people reject the gospel, and you have to be strong enough to get through those 99 people to get to that one? Life isn't fair. Nobody owes you a thing. I want my daughter. I want these young ladies to understand that their life is about other people, that their life isn't about this feminist dream of just focusing on themselves, this feminist lie that just teaches them to focus on their self and abandon their own children. It's all the opposite of the Bible. The more you read the Bible, the more this stuff pops up at you. We want our daughters to be strong, faithful, virtuous young ladies that will sacrifice anything to raise up their children in the Lord. No matter what people say to them, no matter what direction the wind of this country is going to blow, which we kind of see what direction things are going. Look, folks, we need to get over ourselves. We need to focus on other people. And guess what? It's a win-win. You've got to take the win-wins in your life, folks, because guess what? Other people will benefit from it, and you will benefit from it. It's a win-win. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.