The Book of Jonah - Sunday,  March 27,  2022 - 11am Service
First B Jackson
2022-03-27

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Welcome. We're glad that you're here if you would. Stan, we're going to sing a few songs. I think we're going to start off with oh worship the king. Oh worship the king, all glorious above and gratefully sing of his wonderful love.

Glad to be here this morning. Glad y'all are here too.

Our

Amen. Amen. We're gonna sing wonderful grace of Jesus. Do you know your part on this one? There are hymnals available if you wanna come get em.

It's hymn number three thirty eight but just sing what comes to you, alright? Some of the words are gonna come up on the wall, not all of your parts, alright? So, you can follow me. I'll sing most of them. Let's sing it like you mean it either way.

Wonderful grace of Jesus greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall its praise begin? Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountain sparkling like a fountain, reaching to all the lost.

By it, I have been pardoned, save to the uttermost.

Amen. I was just about out of reach. Y'all can have a have a seat. I have a few announcements. Monday nights at first B is happening.

Tomorrow night, Florine will be doing the music, leading the music, and Nick will be bringing the message. Please, consider. Come to Monday night. It is so good. Florine did quite a commercial for it this morning.

It's great. Come hang out at Monday nights. We'll have meal, music, and a message tomorrow night, 6PM down the hall. Now, usually, that goes on at the same time as Awana but because it's spring break, there's no Awana going on tomorrow night. So, no on Awana but if you say, hey, I usually I volunteer to one.

I'm used to going there on Monday nights. Anyway, come on down the hall and come to Monday nights. The if gathering, there was an if gathering here at the church just a few weeks back, three weeks or so back and there's going to be another one. If women's conference is going to be held in Bondurant, May the sixth and the seventh at the Heart to Heart Ranch, that's laying in Norris Brown's place down in Bondurant. May sixth and seventh.

At this point, that's probably enough. That's just plan on being there, ladies, if you you would but if you want to know more, you can register at bondurantfellowship.org and you can have your questions answered there and I think that's the last announcement that I remember because it had no other ones are coming up on the screen. But there was a young lady this morning, Josh and Leah Gibson have a little baby girl that was dedicated here this morning. So Endsley, Evan, Gibson was dedicated here this morning and and kind of before the first service, I asked that we would help as a church to raise this child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and it's good to see God add into our number with people coming in to asking for membership or asking for baptism. We had another young man after the service that met up with me and said, I believe in Jesus and I and I wanna be, I know that I'm saved.

I wanna be baptized. So, that's coming soon too. Just to kinda fill you in is what's going on. Anything else? Anybody else?

Barry. That's my car. Thanks. Yeah. Yep.

It it it did. It got hit after a Bible study last week but it's be in name of the

Great is the Lord. He is holy and just. By his power, we trust in his love. Great is the Lord. He is faithful and true.

By his mercy, he proves Great is the Lord. He is holy and just. By his power, we trust in his love. Great is the Lord. He is faithful and true.

By his mercy, he proves Amen.

And is there not some coming up? Okay. Would y'all have a seat? Sometimes I get ahead of myself. Oh, there is a redeemer.

There is a song right there. Okay. I thought there was. Here we go. There is indeed a redeemer.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat now. Thank you. And I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward. This is the time for the worship through giving or the offering time.

Would you just pray with me? God, we are so thankful to be gathered in your house this morning. I'm just blown away by springtime, lord. I'm so thankful for new life and new hope for the anticipation ahead of us, Lord. I thank you.

May we live expectantly looking for you at every turn. In Jesus name, Lord, we ask that you would use us, your servants. I pray, Lord, that we'd be humble and obedient, and we would be able to be used by you. You say throughout scripture that you oppose the proud, but you give grace to the humble. May we, lord, be those humble servants that are going out and placing ourselves in these plates that we put our time and our resources, our energy, as well as our financial resources too, lord.

I pray for each of the families that are going out on spring break. Some of them I know have gone out with the intent to serve you and build up your kingdom. Some are building churches in Mexico and others are traveling to various parts and, they have the evangel in their hearts. And lord, they want to have it in their mouths and they want for it to find fertile soil. In Jesus name, I ask your blessing on this time where we do take an academic break and in a lot of cases, just get on the road.

I pray for safety. Lord, but I pray that you'd use us to advance your good gospel, that your will would be done in your way among us and through us. In Jesus name, amen. Thank you, Judy. That's the whole Easter story from minor to major.

Key right there. It's beautiful. This morning, I see I've been doing a New Testament study virtually the whole time that I've been here. It's been one New Testament book after another in the order that I think that they were written. And you see up here, the book of Jonah.

That's what we're gonna cover today. Well, last week, if you were here in the Harmony of the Gospels study that we've been doing for a long time now, Jesus mentioned to the Pharisees and the scribes, the scribes and the Pharisees said, do a sign for us, kinda commanding him to do a sign from heaven for us right now. Well, they just saw him heal a mute and blind man and Jesus said, it is an evil and adulterous generation who asks for a sign And because they weren't asking for themselves. It was not a call of faith. They were saying prove it, which is kinda demanding.

You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Right? So he said, no sign is gonna be given to you except for the sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah is this and we'll get to it in in here and when I mentioned it, I gave a little two second explication of the book of Jonah but I didn't really go all the way into it and all week long, I thought, I gotta I gotta cover that. So, here we go.

We're gonna do the whole book of Jonah today. So, if you how many of y'all been reading with us in first b in the Bible? So, we've reread Luke seven of 49 verses on Monday. Luke eight was 56 verses. Luke is long.

Mine was the one for Sunday or for Monday last week and I said, Luke is long. You know, 49 verses in Luke seven, fifty six verses in Luke eight, sixty two verses in Luke nine, Luke 10 is 42. That's the shortest one this week and then 54 verses in the next one. Well, the whole book of Jonah is only 48 verses long. There are four chapters and the four chapters, the first and the third chapter are Jonah and the sailors and Jonah and the Ninevites.

That's the first and third chapter. The second chapter is Jonah's first prayer where he's speaking to God. It doesn't give an answer from God at that point and then in the fourth chapter, it's Jonah's prayer where he gets really honest with God and then God is honest with him back and so that's what we're gonna look at. The whole book of Jonah but think about that. Some of it is about Jonah and the people he's around, first and third chapter and then some of it's about Jonah's direct relationship with God, second and fourth chapter.

So, we're gonna go in that. Now, before I start, I wanna mention a couple of things. Jonah is a weird prophet. He's only mentioned one other time in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, several of the two of the gospels mentioned the sign of Jonah.

So, his name is mentioned and he's mentioned a couple times in the New Testament but in the Old Testament, he's only shows up one other time and it's during the reign of Jeroboam the second. Jeroboam the second was an evil king. As kings go, he was among the worst of the worst. Maybe not the worst but he's in the top five bad guys, right? He's not a good guy.

Jeroboam the second. And so, during Jeroboam the second's reign, Israel actually had quite the wealth and prominence during his reign but that doesn't mean that he was good, Okay? He was not good. Jonah went to Jeroboam the second as a prophet to purporting to be the prophet of the Lord and he said, God's favor is with you, Jeroboam the second. God's favor is with you.

Everything's hunky dory. Keep on doing what you're doing. Two thumbs up. Well, Jeroboam was a bad guy. That's not true.

What Jonah's message was for him was basically, things look like they're going pretty well. They're going well. Amos comes along. Amos, remember Amos from the other prophet Amos? Amos, the one who's minding his own business, tending his sycamore figs and the word of the Lord came to him and said, deliver this message.

Yeah, That guy. So he also went to Jeroboam and he said, God's justice is being overlooked in this kingdom. You are not doing what you should be doing and God's justice is against you and not long later, they were conquered by the Assyrians. So, Amos was right. Jonah was wrong.

Now, we're gonna read the book of Jonah and in this book, normally, when you get to one of the prophets, whether they be major, they're longer books or minor, they're shorter books. You get to one of the prophets and it says, the word of the Lord came to whoever and said, this is my message for so and so, go deliver it and then they faithfully go and they deliver the message that God gives to him. If you look at Jeremiah, he faithfully delivers God's message for forty years and every time any burn, anybody burns it or ties it on a rock and throws it in the river, God says, Jonah, I mean, Jeremiah, deliver this message and he gives them the same message. Right? So usually, the word of the Lord comes to the prophet and then the story of that prophet's book is him carrying out that message to whoever God sent him to.

That's the norm. In Jonah, it's not about the message so much as it is about the prophet. And the prophet of God doesn't act like you would expect a prophet of God to act. Not anything like it. Usually, you expect them to be righteous and and care deeply even though they've got hard a hard message sometimes, they care and they're presenting it the message from God.

Jonah, you just see about Jonah. So, here we go. We'll go straight into it. The first part, this is the whole enchilada. I'm using the English standard version of the Bible today.

Usually, I use New American but New American Standard for me in in in the New Testament, translating from the Greek, the New American Standard sounds the most like I speak. That's the reason I use that one. So it's easiest for me to understand. It also keeps the conjunctions at the beginning of the sentence so you know how to tie everything together. But Jonah, I'm using English standard version, and the introductory matters have kinda already covered.

We know who Jonah is. He's only mentioned that other one time, and then we get to know him pretty quickly in the first couple of verses here. This is a very typical start for one of the minor prophets. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai. Okay.

Great. That's the way all of the prophets usually begin. The second verse says what the message was. Arise, Jonah, and go to Nineveh, that great city. That's quite a characterization.

Go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it for their evil has come up before me. There's no doubt about it that Nineveh is an evil city, and there's no doubt about God already knows that. He doesn't need anybody else to tell him. He knows that Nineveh is evil. Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city to call out against it for their evil has come up before me.

But, oh boy, this is taking a turn. Usually, you just see the prophet arise and go to that city and tell him what God said to say but but Jonah rose but he rose to flee. He rose to flee to Tarshish. Now, if you are where Jonah was, Nineveh to the East and Tarshish is to the West and Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish to get as far away from the presence of the Lord as he could. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, and so he paid the fare.

He's going to great lengths, literally. He's paying to get away. He paid the fare and he went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, which is not Nineveh, not even close. Away from the presence of the Lord. Second time it said that he was trying to get away from the presence of the Lord.

Now, when you have a god who is almighty and is omnipresent, where do you go to get away from him? Okay. There's nowhere to go. Tarshish is where he thought he would go to get away from the presence of the Lord. It's as far from Nineveh as he could get.

But, oh, boy. The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up. Now there's a twist in the story. Then the mariners, the sailors now I mentioned that Jonah, the prophet, doesn't act like you expect him to act, but take a look at these sailors. You know, cussing like a sailor is a term.

Right? You expect sailors to act a certain way. They spend money like a drunken sailor. There are all these different kinds of sailor talk. You expect them to act in a certain way.

You expect Jonah to act in a certain way. Listen to this. The mariners were afraid, and each of them cried out to his God. Now that sounds kinda like sailors. They are superstitious.

Right? But they're calling out to each one to his, small g, God. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. Well, that's a normal response. You've got flotsam and jetsam.

You jettison all the jetsam and get it out of there so you see a ship sits higher in the water. They hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them, but Jonah, lazy joker, had gone down into the inner part of the ship, and he had lain down and he was fast asleep, running from God and completely oblivious. So the captain came down and said to him, what do you mean, you sleeper? Lazy, good for nothing guy. We're all up here.

We're all praying to our gods, and we're throwing stuff overboard, and you're just down here sleeping. What do you mean, you sleeper? You arise. You call out to your small g God because that's his norm. This guy is not a Hebrew.

This guy is not a prophet. He's a sailor. He's a sailing captain. Pretty rough guy probably but he says, you arise and you call out to your God and perhaps that God will give a thought to us that we may not perish. We're doing everything we can.

You ought to be doing everything you can too and they said to one another, all the sailors, mariners, come let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. Now, when you see that, some of us, baptist good baptist, right? You're sitting there and you're going, gambling. Oh my goodness. They're casting lots.

Well, that was a fairly normal way of determining what was the will of God at the time or will of small g gods especially but it's not even uncommon for the Hebrews. When they had two candidates at the end of Acts one, they had two candidates. Who is gonna be? Justice or Matthias? Who's gonna take Judas' place?

What did the disciples do? They cast lots. Cast lots to see. That's Acts one. Now, in Acts two, the Holy Spirit, Pentecost comes and we never see followers of God using lots to make a decision anymore.

The Holy Spirit doesn't speak out of both sides of his mouth. If we are believers and we are humble before God, he doesn't speak out of both sides of his mouth. We will be unified if we listen to the Holy Spirit. We don't need to cast lots But it said they did cast lots that we may know whose account this evil has come upon us, so they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Well, alright.

Indeed, it was his fault. Right? It says flatly that God caused the tempest because of Jonah. Then they said to him to Jonah, tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. The cast, the lots, and the lot fell to him, and then they asked him straight up.

You tell us. I wanna hear it from you. And he was honest with him. Actually, they asked him a bunch of questions first. What is your occupation?

Okay. We all know he's a prophet of God. Where do you come from? What is your country? And what of what people are you?

And he said to him, I'm a Hebrew, which is true. And I and I fear the Lord. He must not have been fearing him too much if he ran the other direction. Right? But he does.

He he he told him, I'm a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven. Capital g. This is almighty God. Now, this is probably not the whole of everything he said to him because it says, I'll I'll show you in a minute.

I'm a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. How silly it would be to run from him on a boat. If you know he made it all, right? To hide from God. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, what is this that you have done?

I mean, you have gotten a word from your God and you not just ignored it but you fled from it. What in the world were you thinking? These are the pagans. Right? What is this that you have done for the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he told them.

He told them what happened. He's honest with them. And then they said to him, what shall we do to you? I mean, what can we do to get out of this mess that you put us in? What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us?

We don't wanna die because of your ignorant move or your disobedient move. For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. Can you imagine? What shall we do to you so that the sea may quiet down for us? And he said to him, pick me up and hurl me into the sea.

Now, he's asking for attempted for assisted suicide. Yeah, assisted suicide. He said, just throw me over. Woe is me. I ran from him once.

I don't wanna deliver the message. I don't wanna do that. Pick me up. Throw me into the sea and the sea will quiet down for you because I'll be done with then. For I know it's because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to land. They didn't wanna kill him. They know that's right. I mean, every every society knows that that's not right. And so they did what they could.

They were being as industrious as they could be. The men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. It got worse and worse. And for all they were doing to row back, they couldn't get it there. Therefore, they called out to the capital l lord.

Think about that. Jonah, prophet of God. He speaks for the Lord and when he told the truth and said, I am a Hebrew. I fear the Lord. I didn't do what he said.

Here I am. This is why you're in this situation and that was enough for them to call upon the Lord. Therefore, they called out to the Lord. Oh Lord, let us not perish for this man's life. Save us, lord.

Save us and lay not on us this innocent blood. For you, oh Lord, you have done just as it pleased you. They recognized God's goodness and his sovereignty and didn't want the repercussions for killing this man even though he was begging him to do it. So they picked up Jonah and they hurl him into the sea while they're praying. Lord, don't hold his blood against us.

We don't know another way out of this and the sea ceased from its raging. Those guys were saved from the great tempest and then the men feared the Lord exceedingly. No, not just kind of that he shared who God was and they called out to him. It says, they feared. That's the beginning of wisdom.

They feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows to him. That's an effective missions ministry right there. And it's not the way that I would have done it, not the way I hope that God would do it but you know what? God is going to work either through your humble obedience or in spite of your and I I keep coming up with this word. It's stubbornness in Spanish.

It's. It's worse than stubborn. You can either be stubborn and hold on to all of your preconceived notions, hatred, insecurities, and your hatred or you can just say, God, may it be to me just as you have said and humble service. The men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. This book is not about this fish, okay?

This fish is it stops the sermon. So often, people get entangled in, well, there's proof or no way that could ever happen or how in the world did this happen? What in what but it says flatly, God appointed a great fish, mega fish, okay? It's not it's not, doesn't say whale. Whale is a translation people have used but the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.

And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. That's what Jesus was quoting to the Pharisees and scribes last week. No sign will be given to you except for the sign of Jonah just as Jonah was in the the the the name name Jonah's prayer. It is a very weak prayer of repentance if it is indeed a prayer of repentance. We have a lot of prayers of repentance in the Bible.

We have Isaiah the prophet that's like, oh, I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a peace of unclean lips. Lord God, I remove yourself from it. We have em in the New Testament. Peter says, oh, I'm a thoroughly sinful man. Get away from me.

I cannot take it. We have David in Psalm 51. Oh Lord, against you and you only have I sinned. Psalm one thirty nine, search me, oh God. Cleanse me.

Please, if there be any wicked way in me and there is. Cleanse me and I will be made right because of you. So, this one, Jonah's stating the obvious in some cases and it's pretty poetic but we'll go through chapter two rather quickly. It seems like a pretty weak prayer of repentance if it is indeed of repentance. He's definitely in a in a tough spot.

Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me. That sounds like Psalm 86 actually. On my day of trouble, I will call out to you because you answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, I cried and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me, and all your waves and your billows passed over me.

And then I said, I am driven away from your sight, Yet, I shall look again upon your holy temple. He was fleeing the Lord and he's admitting that. I am driven away from your sight. Yet, I shall look again upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life and the deep surrounded me.

Weeds were wrapped around my head. Imagine bleached white from the gases and oil stomach with seaweed all around your head. I'm at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed up upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, oh Lord, my God.

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you and to your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Now, that is something that he knows to be true. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love but think about the truth that God had just performed in those sailors' lives. It said, each one of them was praying to their small g God and they were making their sacrifices and they were doing everything they could with their small g gods.

But then, when they found the truth that Jonah begrudgingly shared with them, they accepted it. And so those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. It's funny that the guys in the boat are saved, and Jonah's in the belly of a fish right now. His idolatry was not nearly as evident as those other guys, but he had something that he had held on to, and it was causing him a lot of pain. Forsake the hope of steadfast love, but I with the voice of thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to you what I have vowed, I will pay.

Yes, God. I'll do as you told me. Salvation belongs to the Lord and indeed it does. He can save whoever he wants to. We sang a song in the first service that he's mighty to save.

My God is mighty to save. He is and he is reaching out to the rest of the world. He goes before us. Two ten, last verse says, and the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. What it is.

A lot of times we stop right there. Oh, he got saved from the fish. He ran from God and he realized it and he got vomited out on the dry land but listen to this. Now, it's not the sailors and it's not just Jonah to God but this is gonna be Jonah to the people of Nineveh which are the people God said arise and go to Nineveh. So, it says, then the word of the Lord came to Jonah for the second time saying, arise and go to Nineveh.

Same thing he said the first time. Go to that great city. Same thing he said the first time. Call out against it the message that I tell you. It doesn't surprise me that they're evil.

I know they're evil. You don't have to tell me. But go to it. Call out against the message that I tell you. So, Jonah arose and he went to Nineveh.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. He did what he was commanded. According to the word of the Lord and Nineveh was an exceedingly great city. It was three days journey in breath.

He says, walking across it would take you three days. Jonah began to go into the city, go on a day's journey, and he called out and this is his message. In Hebrew, it's only five words long. I mean, it's a little longer in English. We got eight words up here but think about that.

How many of y'all pray for an eight word message? You know, when you're coming in, I like the song service but that preaching. His five word message was this, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now, I'm not a Hebrew expert but I have looked up kind of the the definition of overthrown. And it can, on the one hand, mean destroyed, but it also means transformed or changed.

And so the message was, yet forty days, forty days from now, when he started proclaiming the message, and Nineveh will be turned upside down. And there's no doubt about the way Jonah took that. There's no doubt about the way the people of Nineveh took that, but let's keep an open mind about it. Yet, forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown and the people of Nineveh believed God. Wow.

Have you all heard lots of missionary moments from this pulpit up here? Have you all heard people say, we went on a mission trip. There was one person that walked the aisle. This is the people of Nineveh, all of them. Wow.

Believed God. They called for a fast and they put on sackcloth. This sounds like a grassroots uprising almost and the people of Nineveh believed God yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown and they believed God and they called for a fast and they put on sackcloth for from the greatest of them down to the least of them and just to be sure that you got it, it says, the word reached the king of Nineveh. What do you expect of an evil king? You expect him to do bad.

That's right. That's exactly what you expect. He's a he's a wealthiest, most powerful guy in a great city and you expect that the evil king doubles down and says, nope. We're not going to have this nonsense. We're going to keep the status quo.

I'm in charge. I'm going say what happens here but it says that he arose from his throne and in humility, he removed his robe. He covered himself with sackcloth and he sat in ashes. That is ineffective, humbling of oneself. And then it says, he, the king, issued a proclamation and published it throughout all of Nineveh.

By the decree of the king and his nobles. Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. He's calling for a national or a a citywide fast. Let them not feed nor drink water. We are looking at this message and taking it seriously.

Let but let man and beast be covered in sackcloth and let them call out mightily to capital g, God. They believed God. This reluctant prophet shared a message which sounds like he almost tried to sabotage his own message. Yet, forty days. He doesn't mention God.

He doesn't mention their sin. He doesn't share the Roman road. He just goes and says, forty days and Nineveh is gonna be overturned. The king says, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. We can't keep living the way we're living.

Who knows? God almighty may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. Ain't that something? Who knows? But God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish And when God saw what they did, they believed him.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them and he did not do it. Wow. Wow. That is an accepting the good news, and it changes things. That's the end of chapter three.

Here we are in the last chapter, chapter four. So now we've covered we'll call it his ministry. Jonah's ministry to the sailors, they get saved. Captain, saved. We see in the people of Nineveh.

People of Nineveh, saved. King, saved. And now, we're gonna get down to brass tacks with Jonah. It displeased Jonah exceedingly. It displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry.

And he prayed. I told you it wasn't about the fish, right? This is not about the fish. He was displeased exceedingly and he was angry and he prayed to the Lord and this is an honest prayer. Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my own country?

That's why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. I wasn't afraid of Nineveh. I hate them. I don't like these people. They're evil people and I hate them.

And I know you. And I know that you're a gracious God, and I know that you're merciful, and I know that you're slow to anger, and I know that you're abounding in steadfast love, and I know that you're relenting for disaster, and God, they deserve it. They deserve whatever hell you give them. I knew you were going to say it. I knew.

That's why I didn't want to go do it. I knew that your gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, bounding, and steadfast love, and relenting for disaster. So, here he goes again. Therefore, now, oh Lord, please, just kill me now. Take my life from me for it's better for me to die than to live.

I don't want to have any part of a world where the Ninevites are alright. And the Lord said, he answers him. Do you do well to be angry? Just think about that. Do you do well to be angry, Jonah?

In the belly of the fish, he said, salvation belongs to God. He can give it to whoever he wants to and now he's saying, they don't deserve it. Well, the truth is Jonah doesn't deserve it either. Truth is we don't deserve it either. We're enemies of God until we accept the gracious gift that he's offered.

The Lord said, do you do well to be angry? So, Jonah went out of the city and he sat to the east of the city and he made a booth for himself there and he sat under it in the shade. So, that was a common thing for him to do is make a little lean to something out of reeds, you know, and he made a little little tent set up for him and he sat under it in the shade until he should see what would become of the city. He knew that the word of the Lord is true and he knew the message was forty days and it's gonna be overturned. So he takes a vantage point east up above the city and the hills and he's looking down on it expecting fire and brimstone because that's what they deserve.

But he did see him turn and so he's just waiting to see what would happen. What would become of this city? Now, the Lord God appointed. He appointed that fish. He also appointed Jonah.

He also appointed a plant and it says, the Lord God appointed a plant. He made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head. A shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. I imagine the acids in a great fish's belly would be kinda detrimental to your derma dermis layer, right? It's kinda hard but he was he was uncomfortable in the sunshine.

It might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So, Jonah was exceedingly glad. He was exceedingly angry that God was relenting the disaster, but he's exceedingly glad because of that plant. His own comfort was fine. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant.

This is a satire. Are y'all getting that? I mean, I believe it's true. Don't get me wrong, but it's a satire. It is it is an they're everybody's acting different than you expect them to act, and it's making a point.

We're almost to the end. There are only 11 verses, I think, 10 or 11 verses in this chapter. When dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that that plant withered and when the when the sun arose, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonas so that he was faint and he asked that he might die and said, it's better for me to die and live. This is three times that Jonah has just asked for God to kill him now. He asked the sailors and then he's like, oh, I can't even live in this kind of world.

Just kill me now. It's better for me to die than to live but God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for that plant? Think about that. Do you do well, Jonah, to be angry? This kind of reminds me of Cain and Abel.

After Cain slew Abel, God spoke to him directly and said, hey, if you if you didn't, if you did what was right, what what treated you well? You know, you you know better, Cain. It was a gracious and merciful and Cain didn't want to have him part of it. He did still save his life. Jonah, God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for this plan?

And he said, yes, I do well. Boy, that's bold language to God almighty. Yes, I do well to be angry. Angry enough to die. I don't want to have anything to do with this whole world, these people, anything to do with this.

They don't deserve it. They don't deserve to be saved. Yes, I do well to be angry. I'm right. Just kill me now.

And the Lord said, you pity that plant for which you did not labor nor did you make it grow, which came into being in one night and perished in one night. And you have more sympathy for that plant. And then last verse, eleventh verse, is this chapter. It ends with a question. It's a question for him.

It's also a question for us. Let's get the question for him first. I and shouldn't not I, Lord God almighty, and should not I pity Nineveh, that great city. It's a great city in which there are more than a 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and to boot and also much cattle. Now he's comparing that as a plant.

Right? It's one plant that he caused to grow and die two days. That's it. Grow one day, die the next. And he's saying, there are 120,000 people there, and they've been taking care of these cows the whole time that they've been alive.

You don't care if I smite all of them and their cows die from neglect after they're all gone. God's mighty to save. That's what he wants to do. He wants a relationship with us. We're all start off as enemies of God, and our own hatred and preconceived notions about other people's groups.

We can get really easily get to the position of Jonah where we feel like we're right and they're wrong. We're right, and I hate them for doing what they do. They are against God. That doesn't surprise God. Everybody's against God.

We can get in a place where we just don't care about other people. It's me, my foreign, no more, me, my church, and no more instead of caring about every tribe, tongue, and nation, and every self identifying group. Now for some of y'all, you might replace Nineveh with the Democrats, and some of you might replace Nineveh with the Republicans, and some of you might replace that with a group that self identifies that you know they are consciously and adamantly against God. Should I not pity those people, God says? Should I not pity them?

It doesn't surprise me that they act the way that they act. I care for them. I've given you a message that you are to share with them in the way you live your life and the way that you use your words. And hatred is not a part of that message. I love them and I loved you.

And just because I saved you first doesn't mean that I won't save them next. So, the question there is, should God not pity evil people? And should we not also? The book is honestly, it's trying to mess with us. The satire of the whole thing is, are you okay with God loving your enemies?

Aren't you glad that God loves his enemies? Because that's the way we all start out. You know? God almighty, we call on you. We ask, lord, that you would use us, that you'd soften our hearts toward outsiders, that we would not compromise the truth of your word, but lord, that we would absolutely see this world overturned in the same way Nineveh was overturned.

Would you use us as a part of your plan? We humble ourselves in obedience. And, Lord, pray that we would never have to be used in spite of our disobedience. Would you soften our hearts toward those around us? And would you place that message that is in our hearts that we understand?

Would you allow it to come out in our actions and in our words? In Jesus name, we thank you for your amazing grace. Amen. Would you all stand with me? I think Judy's got amazing graces picked out for the last song and how pertinent that is.

The fact that it exist at all, that God's grace exist at all is what's amazing about it because he doesn't have to. He didn't have to save any of us. While we were wretches, he died for us. Watch the key chains. I have the ironic blessing for you, not the ironic blessing.

It's the ironic blessing from Aaron in Numbers where he says, may the Lord bless and keep you and may he make his face to shine upon you and give you peace and lord, I pray that we would be sharing that peace with a tumultuous and tempestuous world around us. Lord, we ask it in your name. Amen.