I wonder how many of you have ever watched a movie or a TV series and then after the whole thing it ended with no resolution it didn't make sense you get to the end of it you're like wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait I paid attention all the way through I I watched for the entire season and we get to the end and it ends like that who knows what I'm talking about raise your hand comment section I know what you're talking about typee it there you get to the end
like I have so many questions did they get back together did the good guy live did the bad guy die because if you haven't noticed sometimes they look dead but they're not really dead you know what I'm talking about how many of you hate when something ends like that and there is no resolution raise your hand type it in the comment section I hate when that happens if you hate it I got really bad news for you you are not going to like Jonah chapter 4 because this has the weirdest Cliffhanger ending you've ever seen
Jonah chapter 4 today we conclude the message series on Jonah it is the most difficult chapter of Jonah for me to preach and it will be the most frustrating chapter for you to hear now that I've got to excited about Jonah chapter 4 let's review where we've been the first 3 weeks chapter 1 do you remember the word of the Lord came to Jonah and said go and preach to the ninevites because their wickedness has come up before me what did Jonah do he hated the ninevites because they were evil and so he got uh
on a ship going in the other direction God s a storm the sailors got freaked out they threw Jonah overboard and God provided a big fish that swallowed Jonah up chapter 1 chapter 2 Jonah prayed and God had mercy and the fish vomited Jonah up on the shore we call that beach barf God had mercy everybody say God had mercy God had mercy say it again God had mercy God mercy God had mercy because the fish vomited him out of the mouth when you think about it that fish had two distinctly different exits see what
I'm saying there God had mercy that old boy could have come out the other side right then then we would have called that uh waves of waste tide tur I don't know this w't work with me but God had God had mercy right and the fish vomited him up on dry land chapter three and the word of the the Lord came to Jonah a second time how many of you thankful for the god of Second Chances Our God doesn't just call but our God calls back and so what did Jonah do he finally obeyed the
Lord he wasn't happy about it but he preached a very short very direct message but basically turn or burn like you got 40 days to repent of your sins or God's going to destroy you and he preaches the message and all the ninevites actually turn and how does the Lord respond to their repentance how does God respond when the EV evil people turn from their sins chapter three tells us how they respond when God saw that the ninevites the very last verse when he saw the ninevites did what they did and how they turned how
they repented from their evil ways God relented and did not bring on them the destruction that he had threatened what do we see when they repented God relented when they turned from their sins God had mercy on some of the most evil people who have ever walk the face of the Earth even when they didn't deserve it but they repented God relented and the whole nation from the king the richest to the very poorest turned to God and how do you think Jonah responded he was the preacher and this National Revival breaks out I got
to tell you right now if I preached and like all of you turned to Jesus I'd be so happy I'd be worship I would break out M&M's and I would eat a whole box full I would be so I mean I'd be so if of all of you came to faith in Christ that'd be like the greatest day ever Jonah preached repented and what did he do he wasn't happy he wasn't worshiping he was ticked off Jonah 4:1 tells us this but Jonah to him this seemed very wrong and he became what say it loud
he became he became angry now the word angry there is kind of a weaker translation in my opinion the Hebrew word is a very very strong word it kind of means like ticked off like raging he was he was Furious I would call it flaming hot Cheeto angry that that's he was he was living like this isn't fair they were evil and you're repent they're relenting on them God this isn't fair then he prayed to the Lord isn't this what I said Lord when I was still at home like I told you this was going
to happen that's why I tried to forall by fleeing to Tarsus and he says this now he's going to complain about the most beautiful attributes of God I knew you were like this God and this is what bothers me me about you applying it to them I like when you apply your grace to me but I don't like when you apply it to them and this is what he says of God I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love may we pause there for a moment God
I know you are a compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love what kind of God do we serve we serve a compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love he says a God who relents from send sending Calamity and then he says hey I don't like what you're doing God so take away my life for it's better for me to die than to live if you're going to let these evil people off I don't even want to live Jonah the prophet of God says can we just slow it down for a minute
and acknowledge there's a lot of drama here you guys are being really quiet are you with me there's a lot of drama here right I mean I'm kind of like really Jonah really I mean this is God and you're going to throw this fit now it's really easy to throw Jonah under the bus until you put yourself in his shoes remember in week one I told you about the ninevites how they would they would rape the the women they would murder kids when they would take over an area they would torture the men and experts
tell us uh Scholars they that it's possible in fact it's very likely that some of Jonah's family like maybe his mom and dad maybe his maybe his Papa and Nana his grandparents maybe some some distant relatives it's very very likely that some of his family members were tortured and killed by the ninevites or the Assyrians and so when you're looking at Jonah you're going there's history there's history so we'll give him a little bit of credit because we have to acknowledge Jonah eventually did the will of God right God told him to go and preach
to the ninevites he did the will of God but he wasn't happy about it and what did he preach 40 days from now you better turn or God will destroy you Jonah he shows us a problem that many of us have you might have it I can have it and that's this he shows us it's possible to do the will of God without the heart of God it's possible to do what God wants but to do it with the wrong attitude or with the wrong motives and sometimes we'll do that go okay God I'll do
this because you told me to but I'm not going to like it or I'll do the right things but I might do it with the wrong motives and it could be any number of different ways in your life like you you'll give what God told you to give but you don't really want to or God I'll do my uver Bible app reading why because I don't want to lose my streak can we be that real has anybody ever done that have you ever lost your streak somebody told me if you go back and reset the
day on your computer you can actually get your streak back but that didn't come from me God I'll forgive what they did because you told me I have to but I won't forget what they did okay okay God I'll go to church but I don't have time to serve got quiet there didn't it now pastor I'll go to church but hey someone else can take care of the kids I'll go to church but I don't have time for serve if you think that's being harsh I was going to say I'll go to church but not
in football season I was going to say that but the problem is everybody that needs are here they're not here anyway so God bless you for being in church today how many of you know it's possible to do the will of God without the heart of God and the story continues Jonah 4:5 that tells us this Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place where where did he sit down say say it out loud he sat down east of the city those of you online you might just type that in the comment section
he said down east of the city there he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen in the city so he preached and then he got out of town and he went to the east of the city it's interesting that this very specific direction is in the Bible one more time which direction did he go he went East of the city uh this is important because in the Bible anyone who travels East this is often a picture or represents moving toward Exile or moving toward bondage many times
in the scripture when so one travels East they're moving away from God's will into Exile or bondage I'll show you just a few examples just so you can see U Genesis chapter 3 because of Adam's sin God sent Adam out of the garden which way to the east Genesis 4 Cain left the Lord's presence and lived in the Land of Nod and where was nod it was East of Eden Genesis chapter 13 when Abram and lot parted lot he chose to go which direction East to where to Sodom was Sodom good or bad Sodom was
bad he went to the wrong place Ezekiel 8 says with their backs turned toward the Temple of the Lord men faced away from the temple toward what toward the East and worshiped the Sun what did Jonah do the prophet who didn't obey God and then obeyed god with impure motives he went to the east symbolizing perhaps that he's probably not trusting God again this gets personal when you look at it Jonah was the prophet and he claimed God all through the scripture you're going to see him call him my lord lord lord he claimed God
but in this case he turned his back to God God I I claim you and your ways but once again he turned his back toward God which shows us it's possible to claim God yet live with your back to him and I say this with a heavy heart but it's not uncommon to see that in the church today people will say Hey you know Jesus save me and they know him as Savior but they don't know him as Lord I I want I want him to do what I want him to do but I'm going
to turn my back and do whatever I want to do and Jesus said this he said hey one day people are going to be like hey you know uh I called you know I I I I did these Works in Your Name Lord I I went to church in Your Name Lord I I did all these good things Lord and Jesus will say you had your back to me he'll say you may have said that and done it but we didn't know each other it's really really easy to want him to be savior but not
know him as Lord I wonder if anybody here and I can just say it pastorally like because I love you and care about you do you claim god with your lips but you live with your back toward him the good news is all you got to do is turn all you got to do is turn because we serve a gracious and a compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love our God is so good so here we got Jonah and I'm actually starting to understand him the reason I understand him because I see a
little bit of myself in him he's being a baby how many of you are ever a baby hey don't just raise your hand just elbow the baby next to you just El right now like yeah you hey big old baby Amy would like elbow me like boom right he he's he's hurt he's got his feelings hurt he's mad he's uncomfortable baking in this hot sun and Jonah 46 says this we're going to see the Lord provide a couple things remember the Lord provided a fish we're going to see God provide three more things the Lord
God provided a leafy plant and made it grow over Jonah to give him shade for his head to ease his comfort we serve a gracious God and Jonah was what he was very happy about the plant so first God provided a fish to save Jonah then God provided a plant to cover for him and he was very happy now when it says he was very happy again the word very happy doesn't capture the depth of the Hebrew word the Hebrew word is wayma and it means Rejoice greatly or it means exceedingly Overjoyed this isn't just
like I found the $20 bill in my pants happy this is like I won the lottery happy I mean this is exceedingly overjoyed and why was he very happy because God eased his discomfort because God did something for him he was very happy not because of the people that turned to God but because God did something for him because it was still all about him and that's the part that makes me uncomfortable because sometimes I see myself in that Jonah loved receiving the provisions and blessings from God but you know what God was about to
do let me tell you I'll foreshadow it God was about to teach him a lesson Jesus is the good teacher God wants to promote Us by sometimes allowing us to pass some tests and he's about to give Jonah a little object lesson and Jonah didn't like lessons he's like some of us Jonah wanted to skip God's lessons and go straight to God's blessings come on I made that up this week I hope you like it I mean we we we we don't want the hard stuff and we don't want the discipline and we don't want
to be patient and that whole being conformed to the image of Christ and blessed are those who are persecuted you know and and hey perseverance will will help finish a person and and change the way conform them to Jesus now he didn't want that but God was about to teach him a lesson and he didn't want that so what did God do God provided a plant and Jonah started to get comfortable in the shade here's what I've noticed about the time you start to get comfortable is when God has a way a stretch in your
faith the moment we start to get comfortable God tends to teach us that we still need him and we're going to see God provide two more things verse seven tells us this but at dawn the next day God provided a worm he provided a fish a plant and a worm which chewed up the plant so that it withered I told you it's weird it's going to get even weirder like this is just weird this is God's Living Word it's powerful it's true it's weird can we just say that you guys you like you like you
like you like at you're afraid don't worry God works through all things God works through weird things he is God and and and God provided a worm which chewed the plant so that it withered when the sun rose watch this God provided a what a scorching uh there it is again East Wind and the sun BL bled on Jonah's head so that he grew faint Jonah again wanted to die and said it would have been better for me to die than to live Jonah's having another pity party Jona is being a drama King Jonah's being
a drama llama right I mean can you is is he being a baby or what this is pathetic before we criticize him I just want to tell you right now I actually love that the Bible includes all these details about his emotions this is so real I mean this bro he is all over the place I mean he's up he's down he's disobeying God he's worshiping God he's praising God he's mad at God he's all over the place and I don't know about you but I can be like that at times in fact I looked
at expert research on his personality to kind of measure historic Jonah against today's personality types and and different mindsets and one source said that he had three possible root issues to his very complicated behavior and I want to show you what these are see if you see yourself and any of these because I don't at all the first one is this uh he had erratic mood swings range ranging from courageous obedience to extreme dissatisfaction and anger suggesting underlying frustration and the need to control check for me but only one the next one says this um
he had entitlement Tendencies focusing on his own views of justice and expecting God and others to operate within his parameters check the third one he had depressive symptoms manifesting through feelings of burnout sadness anger and hopelessness I don't know about you the good news is for me that was not true today but it has been true before check it's so easy to criticize this guy's emotional Tantrums all the drama but I get it and I want to talk to those of you who are real enough to admit it you might sometimes as well because I
can like obey God with great faith one moment and then ignore God and do my own thing the next I can be in the presence of God like worshiping him with this passionate authentic heartfelt adoration and then the next day can be apathetic and and and even act like he doesn't even exist I can be completely obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit God prompts me to say something and the next day God prompts like yeah that's not God that must be the devil and just walk on I hate the lessons but oh I
love God's blessings I can relate and so what does God do God provides the shade and the next day God provides a worm and the worm eats the plant so now Jon is going okay God what's up the sun is about to kill me pounding on my head God this is unbelievable after all I've done for you I risk my life I preached to those evil people cuz you told me too and here we are how does Jonah end how does the series end there is no season five coming next year it just ends you
ready for it because it's it's it's it's stinks it just it just ends it's like the here's the finale it's a cliffhanger but God does get the last word here it goes here's the ending get ready don't miss it but God said to Jonah is it right for you to be angry about the plant Jonah's like it is I'm so angry I wish I were dead but the Lord said you've been concerned about this plant though you didn't tend it or make it grow it sprang up overnight and died overnight I'm I'm the lord of
the plant God says why are you so freaked out about it and should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh in which there are more than aund 20,000 people people who need the grace of God all these people who canot tell their right hand from their left and also many animals there it is it's over did you you miss it I I'll give you that last line again cuz like the plane just lands watch this and don't miss the last line ready and and and also many animals like come on God you're
the author and finisher of our faith and that's how you end the story like I mean I I I need something better than that I want more right come on God did you change Jonah's heart I want to know did did he submit to the things of God and say I was wrong I just want to live for you did he die and if he did how did he get mercury poisoning from the fish did the worm eat them you know I don't I I want to know and and also many animals so God says
to him Jonah you're going to throw a fit over a plant and cry over a plant but you won't cry over those people who don't know me God says come on Jonah and sadly this is another way that many of us can be like Jonah because the last thing that Jesus said before he ascended into heaven was hey Disciples of Jesus those of you that have seen the resurrection those you've been transformed go into all the world and preach the gospel make disciples baptizing them in the name of the father Son and the Holy Spirit
and and I will be with you always until the end of the go into all the world and I know a lot of church folk that won't cross the street to share the gospel going to all the world well no I'm okay God if you saved me but I'm not only not going but I'm not going to pray and I'm not going to give and I'm not going to help and I'm not going to serve because I'm happy to receive Mercy from God but I'm going to reject the mission of God I told you chapter
4 is tough no no God I want my will but I really don't want your will if your will involves me sacrificing I told you chapter for it ends weird and it's complicated so let's do this let's go back to where we started in week number one I'm going to ask you the same question I asked you in week number one one playfully and most of you missed it this time you're going to get it there is a main character in The Book of Jonah hint it's not Jonah who is the main character of The
Book of Jonah the main character is God the Lord God Jonah had issues just like you just like every single one of you you guys are so quiet are you even with me he had issues and so do I but I want you to notice this Jonah's attitude never changed God's character the way he acted no matter what he did no matter what he did no matter how he acted no matter how he complained no matter how he rebelled God was still God God didn't change why because our God is always a great icious compassionate
God who is slow to anger and abounding in love who is our God our God is always gracious and a compassionate God he's slow to get angry when we disobey him why because he is abounding overflowing in love in other words love isn't just something he does it's who he is it's his nature it's it's who he is our God is a gracious compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love and so why four weeks on Jonah well it's amazing Jonah actually points us to Jesus in the New Testament and Jesus points back to
Jonah in the Old Testament we looked a couple weeks ago Matthew 12 remember Jesus said hey Ju Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights guess what so the son of man will be in the heart of the Earth for three days and three nights as well and then Jesus said this and he said and now something greater than Jonah is here and what is greater than Jonah it also starts with a J and his name is Jesus he is the Son of God he is the perfect
one he is the Lamb of God the door through which we enter the water which quences our thirst he is the alpha the Omega the soon returning conquering king of all kings and Lord of all Lords and he is greater than Jonah because Jonah ran from God but Jesus surrendered to him Jonah fought for his own will Jesus said God I want your will Jonah couldn't stomach the Sinners Jesus said I came for them he ate with them he loved them and he died for them why because Jesus has the heart of God and our
God is gracious compassionate God who is slow to anger and abounding in love and so for some of you you may be a little bit like Jonah sometimes you're close to God and sometimes you ignore him sometimes you worship him sometimes you don't like the way he does business sometimes you're happy sometimes you're sad and someone right now you may be afraid you're worried you're anxious you're alone you feel like you're battling depression and you're losing hope and maybe even I'm speaking to someone who's a little bit like Jonah when you're not even [Music] sure
if life is worth living and I want to declare it to you and I want you to hear it not from me but hear it from heaven when I tell you you are never alone Our God will never leave you and he will never forsake you and even when you feel helpless with our God you are never hopess our God is for [Applause] you because the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time our God doesn't just call but our God calls back our God is the god of Second Chances and so for
some of you God is going to give you a chance today he's going to give you a chance today you may be a little bit like this and it's just one turn toward him and he's there he's going to give you another chance another chance to obey another chance to call on him another chance to repent another chance to say I need you God I I want to be close to you he's going to give you another chance but remember every chance from God Demands a choice from you so what are you going to do
about who God is who is our God our God is gracious he is a compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love that's who our God is so father we worship you we honor you we give you praise we thank you for who you are Holy Spirit would you do a work in the hearts of people today as you're praying today at all of our different churches um I want to talk to those of you who would say I am a disciple of Jesus I I am a follower of Christ I'm going to guess
um that that for almost all of you you're a little bit like me there's some area of your life where you kind of got your back turned to God he it could be like you're not really seeking him in his word or you're you're not praying Faithfully or you're you're not using your gifts to serve or make a difference or God prompted you to do something you some area in your life right now that you know you could be closer to God and our prayer is going to be really really simple Jonah consistently would dishonor
and disobey God word and his will and then other times he would obey and this will be very very simple and that is this how many of you want to be right in the middle of the will of God today at all of our churches if that's you what we're going to do is we're going to pray and they got to warn you if you want to be in the middle of the will of God if you're not you move you hear me you move you turn toward him at all of our churches how many
of you would say yeah I really do I know Jesus I want to be in the middle of God's will would you lift your hands right now lift them online you can type in the comment section I want to be in the middle of God's will now with your hands lifted up even as an act of worship Holy Spirit just speak to us God any place any area any part of our life that is not surrendered to your lordship convict us God show us God direct us God reveal it to us God and we'll repent
we'll turn we turn to you God we thank you than you that when we turn to you we're going to find a gracious compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love so God show us any area of Our Lives not in line with your will and we will be faithful to obey just just if you if you don't if you're comfortable with this just say out loud real quietly as your prayer I will be faithful to obey just say that to God I will be faithful to obey you Lord you can type it in
the comment section say it again I will be faithful to obey you Lord as you keep praying today um I'm so thankful that on this day there will be those of you whose lives are changed forever who is God he's a compassionate God a gracious God slow to anger and abounding in love it's God's will that no one would perish and so what did God do God became one of us he sent his son Jesus who is perfect in every way Jesus came for the broken Jesus came for the Lost Jesus came for the Sinners
Jesus came for the people like Jonah came for the people like me and what did he do Jesus Took on our sin nature he took on all of our sin and he died on a cross in three days later when people went looking for him the stone was rolled away Jesus wasn't there he was risen why because God defeated death hell in the grave and now scripture tells us the good news about our compassionate and gracious God that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved no matter what you've done you
may be like Jonah you call on him you're saved you may be like the sailors who disobeyed didn't know God they called him they were saved like the ninevites like the king when you call on the name of the Lord you'll be saved today there are those of you that you don't know where you stand with God if I had a conversation with you and say like why why why would you ever belong to God well I I don't know I try to do good stuff the bottom line is say every single one of us
have sinned and our sins separates us from God and we can never work our way to God but God in his Mercy sent Jesus to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves so what do you do today you just turn the other way you turn toward God you repent of your sin you turn toward him and you surrender and when you do heaven rejoices God makes you brand new all of your sins completely forgiven today at all of our churches those who say that's me I'm I'm turning toward God I'm turning toward Jesus
I'm I'm turning away from my sin today by faith it's no longer about me it's not my will it's about his will today by faith I give my life to Jesus Jesus take my life don't just save me be the Lord of my life today I give my life to you that's your prayer lift your hands high right now all over the place lift them up and say Yes praise God for you oh thank you God that people today all of our churches right there God bless you guys oh come on someone worship God today
online type in the comment section I'm surrendering my life to Jesus and today and around the world wherever you're watching from would you pray with those around you pray heavenly father I Surrender my will to you I confess my sins to you Jesus save me be the Lord Of My Life first in every way fill me with your spirit so I could know you and serve you and follow you for the rest of my life my life is not my own I give it to you my compassionate gracious slow to anger God who's abounding in
love thank you for loving me you have all of my life in Jesus name I pray for somebody worship God right now give God praise come on Church let's give him praise I don't know about you but I needed to hear that message today I hope that it encouraged and challenged you we can learn so much from listening to God's voice and loving people the way that he's loved us click here to watch more [Music]
