God Counsels Jonah in a Crisis – 10/6/24

It’s so good to have you – all of you – little ones, big ones. I am not going to preach a full sermon this morning. Thank you for not amening. I have chucked that. I do want to share with you. It may get a little out of hand, but the intention is to share from Jonah chapter 4, if you’ll turn there. If you don’t have a Bible, you should be able to find one around, in the back seat, and ask for one if you don’t have one. We want to read that chapter together.

A little background. If you’re visiting, we’re actually in a study through Matthew, and we were going to last week have a message on “Why Theology Matters.” That was delayed from last week, was going to do it today, and feel like the Lord wants us to do something different.

So I’ve been reading on my journey through the Bible, just finished the Minor Prophets, and am in the beginning, in the Gospels now. But the Lord really used this chapter in my life this week and I want to share a little bit about that. So as we read Jonah 4,  if you could look for two things:

What is God doing? What is Jonah doing? If you could look for those two things.

A little background. Jonah is an 8th century B.C. prophet to Israel. He has been called by God to proclaim repentance to the city of Nineveh. The Assyrians were enemies of Israel. They’re known for their immorality and their cruelty. Jonah says, I’m not going there to preach repentance to them. And so he heads the other way. To where? Toward Tarshish. Gets on a ship, a storm comes, is cast off, swallowed by a great fish, barfed out on the beach. And he relents, and he’s willing to go to Nineveh. He gets to Nineveh and he proclaims 40 days, judgment falls, repent or else. And shockingly the city repents, from the king on down. They say, we’ve done wrong. They put on sackcloth, ashes. And during those 40 days, they’re begging God to forgive them.

Chapter 4 is like a cut out during those 40 days, and it focuses right in on what God is doing in Jonah’s life and what Jonah is doing and saying. So as we read this, look for what God is doing and what Jonah is doing. Jonah 4:1.

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly.”

Now pause. What is “it”? Nineveh’s repentance, and God’s intention to forgive.

“It displeased Jonah exceedingly.”

In the Hebrew it is more like, it appeared to Jonah as intensely wrong,  immoral for God to do what he’s doing here. Jonah’s ticked.

“And he prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, is it is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Do you do well to be angry?’

“Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’ But God said to Jonah, ‘Do you do well to be angry for the plant?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I do well, to be angry, angry enough to die.’ And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the right hand from their left, and also much cattle.’”

This is the word of the Lord. Very interesting. So let’s start with Jonah. What is Jonah doing? Or let’s think more emotionally. How is Jonah emotionally responding? There are three examples.

First of all, verse 1, he is what? He’s ticked. Very angry. Exceedingly. Feels like what God is thinking of doing to Nineveh is morally wrong to forgive that. And so he wants to die. Look at Jonah’s emotional response.

Secondly, in verse 6, he is what? In verse 6, exceedingly glad. So Jonah is a bit bipolar. Super sad, ready to die, now super glad. Loving the shade. His HVAC is working. That plant is probably a castor oil plant. They have big leaves, provides great shade in the middle of the desert. Average day in that region, about 110 degrees, so you can imagine that would feel really good. But notice secondly, third, verse 8. What is his emotional response there? He’s angry again. To the point of hopelessness, just wants to die. So Jonah emotionally is very angry and hopeless, exceedingly happy, very angry. So he’s all over the place. Look at what God is doing. And we can look at this a couple different ways.

First of all, look at his sovereign care for Jonah. The word appointed appears three times. Number one in verse 6, God appointed a what? A plant. Yeah, that’s the shade that Jonah so appreciated.

But then secondly, in verse 7, God appointed a worm that eliminated the plant.

And then third, God appointed in verse 8, a what? A wind. And that east wind is a specific kind of wind that still hits that area today, called a Sirocco. It is the kind of wind that will suck all the life out of you. Extremely hot. And God appointed the plant, the worm, the wind with the sun beating down on Jonah. God is very active here. But then notice also how God is so carefully, gently, and patiently counseling Jonah. He asks three questions. See if you can see these three questions in this chapter.

First of all, verse 4,

“Do you do well to be angry?”

Secondly, verse 9,

“Do you do well to be angry for the plant?”

And then third, verse 11,

“Should I not pity Nineveh?”

Some of you at this point are thinking, what in the world does this have to do with anything that we’re going through right now? Well, this is more of a personal sharing for me because a week ago Saturday, our power was out. We’re running around, you know, chain sawing neighbors’ trees, doing what you all were doing as well, trying to find food. And I was in one of those moods. I know none of you know what that’s like, but part of it was, I wasn’t eating. And so I can blame it on low blood sugar, I wish.

Part of it was I was really frustrated because I was excited about my message I was going to preach that Sunday and I felt like it was important, and apparently God didn’t. So I was not happy about that. And there were numerous other things, it was hard to communicate because obviously we didn’t have electricity, our data was sporadic, no Internet. And it was hilarious.

Our neighborhood is like a watering hole where all the zebras go because there’s one high part in our community area where all the neighbors go and lift up their phones to try to get data. And it’s like, what is wrong with us? But I was there too, trying to communicate.

So I’m in one of those, yeah, that mood. And the Lord really convicted me because, you know, it’s hot, I’m sweaty, hungry. Everything’s uncertain. Can’t communicate. And the Lord was reminding me how much I was like Jonah. I get animated more over my discomfort than I do over what God is doing in the hearts of the Ninevites, if you will. When my HVAC system, my castor oil plant goes, I feel. But the Lord is so…

That’s just part of the story. I think the bigger story is how patiently and kindly God works with Noah – Noah – Jonah to expose his heart and to minister his grace. God was doing the same thing in Jonah’s heart that he was doing and the Ninevites. But Jonah needed a whole chapter just focused on him, the prophet, to get to the root of what is going on in your heart, Jonah.

So this chapter that seems so odd to us highlights two big things about God. First of all, God is great. He appoints plants, worms, wind, sun, all under his control. God is great.

God is good. He cares for, not just the Ninevites, but his own people with such gentleness. Is it good for you, Jonah, to be angry? Are you thinking clearly here about who I am and what I’m up to? And what happens when our eyes are open to the greatness and the goodness of God, we begin to see, even in the midst of difficulty and calamity and all the horrific things that are going on, we begin to see the good work God is doing. Have you been seeing that?

It’s stunning to me, and you’re a part of that all week, hearing stories of people who are just running generators around wherever they’re needed, fuel, food. Many of our people making excursions up to North Carolina to places, some on four wheelers, getting to remote regions where no one can get to others, driving helicopters, flying helicopters – driving helicopters – transporting food or just I love this, looking out for neighbors who just need to be checked on. Helping to get trees cut up. I mean, it’s been beautiful.

But here’s, I think, the message. If we’re caught up in our own comfort, like Jonah here, more animated about my plant got eaten by a worm and not animated at all about 120,000 souls on their way to destruction, we’re going to miss the opportunities, aren’t we? As God’s changed my heart, I was blown away at the conversations I’ve had the past week with – several of my neighbors are believers, some come here, but some are not – and I had conversations with neighbors that I haven’t had for years. Gospel conversations. Have you had those opportunities? And just getting together.

So I would love, if we could, just to hear a few examples. John, do you want to share a few examples of just ways you’ve been blessed this week? I’m giving him 10 seconds to think about this. And we may be able to have 1 or 2 more of you. Just surprising ways God is at work or opportunities opened up in the midst of difficulty.

So I know not everyone can do this, but one particular example that I was blown away about this week was a young man in our college ministry who just a few hours after the rain stopped on Friday after the storm, gave me a call and was like, John, where do we need to go? What do we need to chainsaw? How can we help as many people as possible? And my thought at that point was just help the people that are closest to you, and then go from there. And that’s exactly what he did. And then within a few days I was in touch with him and he had spent many nights and all day up in North Carolina just chainsawing trees and helping everyone around him. And that’s something that just showed the Spirit of Christ in him that you can’t ask somebody to do.

And just watching our young people just go to town and help so many was extremely encouraging. And just watching life groups, just so many, there’s dozens of so many encouraging stories of life groups without anybody sending an email or telling anyone, just caring for each other in very tangible ways and making sure people had generators and have food. And just if there’s anything that came up, it was just amazing to watch North Hills family take care of each other in very tangible ways. And even, and I know this is going to be months, and this isn’t the end by any means for a lot of us, but this past week, watching life group, especially members take care of each other, has just been unbelievable.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Anybody else want to come and share maybe a specific example of a surprising way you saw people caring or God providing in ways that were super encouraging. I think we are doing livestream, so it might be good if you came up. Sorry. Normally we like to go down on the floor, but…

I was just reminded this week, like everyone else, we had a chance to go help chainsaw and pull ins, and I have one speed on the job and that’s as hard as I can go until I die. And so we were, you know, my dad was chainsawing and my kids and I are pulling limbs as hard as we can, and I look over and see one of my ten year olds doing the unthinkable. She’s sitting down. And I was, you know, really quick, I was ready to be like, Hey, get up! You need to keep helping. Why are you sitting? And my dad caught me looking and he corrected me and said, “Hey, I just encouraged her to go check on Miss Mary, because Miss Mary is 89 and lives by herself. And I was thinking that one of her most important needs might be a conversation with Ella and less these limbs.”

So of course, I realized he was right. And we kept pulling limbs and Ella kept talking to Miss Mary. And when we got finished and we were eating lunch with her and praying with her, Miss Mary said, “You know, I wouldn’t have ever wanted this hurricane to come, but now that it has, and if I had to have a tree down, I’m so glad that I got to get to talk to people today because I’ve been so lonely.”

And I was reminded by my dad in my own foolishness of thinking that the tree was the most important problem, I was reminded of the opportunity that we have that we think is limb- and power-related that it’s so often the people in front of us and how that’s always true, hurricane or not. The most important things are sometimes so easy to miss in our hurry to work, work, work. And so I just wanted to encourage us to continue to see the needs that are real. Limbs need to be removed, and, you know, we need to still share meals and generators but also to have the time to see each other’s spiritual and emotional needs.

Beautiful, beautiful. Praise God.

Yeah, we’ve been working in North Carolina just to supply people who don’t have supplies or can’t get it. And I would go up there with a heart to serve. I wanted to give to them. And I would ask some of these people, how can I serve you? What can I do for you? What can I give you? And so many of them were just like, we don’t need anything. I’ve got my clothes, food, and a church up there to sleep at. What do you need? Do you need a sandwich? Also, if you don’t know Jesus, get to know him. He’s amazing. They’re down to earth. They love – at least a lot of the people I was in contact with – they just love God. They don’t love their stuff. They lost loved ones. They lost houses. One of the guys I was talking to pulled his wife out of his house and turned around to get his mom, and his house was gone. But they found her totally safe miles down the river. And he was just like, I am so blessed, I’m so blessed, I’m so blessed, I’m so blessed. And all he had was one t-shirt, a pair of shorts, and some food. And they’re witnessing to us and we’re trying to serve them and they’re witnessing to us and getting us barbecue, and I’m like, I was just so blown away and filled up by going up there and serving and realizing how blessed I am and how I prioritize material things and how they’re so happy just to have literally just have Jesus.

Amen. Thank you, Caleb.

My story is just that my neighborhood, many, many trees fell and almost none of them fell on a home. The number of trees that went down in the opposite direction is just unbelievable. So many down, so close to homes, and they just didn’t fall on the houses. There were a few that did get hit. And so my conversations with all the neighbors on my walk to see how are we doing, how is the neighborhood, were just look at God’s protection. Look at the way he protected all of us. Even the ones that had a tree fall on their home, no one was injured. And so you just had this beautiful picture of there’s all this destruction going around and somehow that tree, not one of these trees fell, and, you know, really damaged a home on like 99% of the streets in my large neighborhood. And that attitude was given right back to me with all the people I spoke to. Even though we didn’t know what had happened in North Carolina yet, even though we were uninformed, there was just this gratitude and feeling like, you know, it’s just trees. It’s not a big deal. We’re going to work and fix it and it’s fine. And it was just so nice to see, we’re not complaining and angry. We’re just going to go get to work together.

Praise God. Thank you, Karen.

So before we sing, I want to share one other praise. And this – we’ve never done this – shared this kind of financial update, but I just feel because of the timing, I think it’s important for you to know. So a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that, you know, we’re building an auditorium, and praise the Lord, it was not harmed during the storm.

But I mentioned that everything you see up there is paid for. But we knew we were getting some huge bills coming in, and so I was told by our financial team that as of this past week, they were ready to initiate a loan to borrow. And our prayer team has been praying that the Lord would provide.

And this week, over $2 million came in during the storm. Now, if you’re visiting, I just want you to know we’ve never had anything like that. Not even close. So we’re a little stunned. I kept saying to the person who was telling me, did you get the dot in the right place? You know, you could get that wrong and $2000 is still a big gift.

And by sharing that, I’m not minimizing that all of us are participating in different ways. Jesus got most excited about the widow’s mite. The little bit that we can give goes a long way. I’m also very sensitive to the fact that many of us are barely able to put food on our tables right now with inflation the way it is. And then the storm. So, please, if you’re struggling to meet your bills, let us know if we can help, please.

But having said that, I feel like the timing of this, that we were just initiating this, and the Lord said, here, let me provide for that right now in a big way in the middle of all this bad stuff, here. I felt like we had to share this so that we can praise God.

Lord, thank you for the way you are providing in little ways through lunches and meals and cups of cold water and bigger ways, chainsaw, and work, and just kind words and just gospel opportunities. And Lord, this is going to continue for a long time. There are a lot of people, even in our church, who still have trees on their houses and water in their basements or many other needs. So we want to continue to do what we have heard testified and just say, Lord, here am I.

We don’t want to be like Jonah, where we are more concerned about our comfort than we are about your compassion. So, Lord, do that work in us to transform, continue to transform us into the image of Jesus who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And that’s why we’re free, Lord. That’s why we’re not in bondage. We’re not going to live in bondage to stuff or to status. We want to give our lives away, even when you call us to give our stuff away, Lord, we want to be ready.  And thank you for the way you’re providing for the advancement of your kingdom, both through the building of this building and the work that’s happening in this community and around the world. Lord, we give you glory for all of this. In Jesus’ name, Amen.