Sermon Transcript

Well, if you are new, welcome, and if you’re not new—both groups need to do the same thing: open your Bible! That’s what we do around here  ! This is Harvest Bible Chapel, so get your Bible open to the Book of Jonah.

If you are new, what you are about to be a part of is the final message of a seven-part series. So, I’m going to assume you’re all new—I’m going to give you a little review.

There’s this guy named Jonah and he was called of God to go to Nineveh. He didn’t like Nineveh as much as God liked Nineveh, so instead of running to God he ran from God. He caught a boat down to Tarshish. He found himself in the boat in the middle of the storm in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and the sailors decided to cast Jonah overboard.

God sent a big fish to save Jonah. In the middle of the belly of that great fish, Jonah finally wakes up and says, “I think I’ll go to Nineveh!” So the fish vomits him back up toward Nineveh. He goes to Nineveh and he preaches an eight-word sermon (no eight-word sermons ever at Harvest Bible Chapel!) and the entire city repented of sin, turned to God and fell on their faces crying out that God is the true God.

You would think that that would make a guy happy. Jonah was not a happy guy! So, we pick up the story in Jonah chapter 4 and we find that God is trying to help Jonah understand His great love, and Jonah is not quite learning his lesson.

Jonah reminds me of a football coach I had! I played football all the way through high school. How many of you played football (against your mothers’ wishes, after they saw the movie Concussion)? (I saw that last night—it made an indelible mark. I’m, not going to play football anymore, as much as the NFL is calling).

Anyway, I remember in 1984, I had this football coach. We were a terrible football team, and we had this brand-new assistant coach. His name was coach Rideout. I had met the Lord (didn’t grow up in church, didn’t grow up as a Christian). When I was fifteen years old, I went to this church and heard the gospel. God rocked my world—I gave my heart and my life to Jesus, and I wanted everybody I knew to know Him!

I remember—very vividly—coming home on a bus from a football game in which we had been beaten miserably. I found myself on the school bus sitting next to Coach Rideout. It was about a three-hour journey back to our town, so I had about a three-hour conversation with Coach Rideout.

Now, there was something that was true of Coach Rideout: he was always mad at me, and he was always mad at every other player on the team—probably rightfully so (we were really bad!). So, he’s trying to coach us up and trying to motivate us to get better. . .but I remember he was always just kind of mad.

I remember in the conversation, I tried to talk to him about the Lord, and I was telling him my testimony and how God had changed my life, and I told him about how Jesus had come to save sinners like me, and I presented the gospel to him—as a sixteen-year-old on the school bus—and I’ll never forget. . .when I asked him if he’d like to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior, here was his answer: “I’m mad at God!” I didn’t have a theological category for that, and I really didn’t know how to counsel him through that, so that just kind of shut down the conversation.

I don’t know what went wrong in Coach Rideout’s life. . .I don’t know if he experienced a divorce, I don’t know if he had an abusive father, I don’t know if he just had a bad experience in church. Apparently he believed in God, He just didn’t like him very much. And I have found that that is a roadblock in the lives of so many people. That was certainly Jonah’s roadblock. Would you like to see Jonah’s condition here?

Let’s begin reading Jonah chapter 4. I’m going to read the whole last chapter; it’s eleven verses. Can you handle it? Here we go. (Jonah 4:1-11 ESV):

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, 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?’” In other words, “How’s that going for you? Is that working out alright? Are you enjoying life at this point?” Another way to say that is, “Do you have any right to be mad at God?”

Jonah 4:5 and 6: “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.” Notice in verse 1, he’s exceedingly angry; in verse 6, he’s is exceedingly glad. It’s a little bit of a roller coaster he’s on—maybe a little bipolar. We don’t know what’s going on.

Jonah 4:7-11: “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 [he’s always thinking about what’s better for him—that’s a problem!] 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 their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’”

If you’ve ever served in ministry (and I see some pastors and small group leaders here; I see some people who serve in ministry by teaching and leading our children—all kinds of different people who have served in ministry), you know in some sense, at some level, what Jonah is feeling here. And yet, it really makes absolutely no sense to get mad at God.

Typically, if you’re in ministry, you get mad when people don’t respond to the message of the gospel. “Why can’t these people get it through their thick skulls how much God loves them? Stupid people!” You know. “That minister’s a little schizophrenic, too.” Typically we get mad when people don’t respond.

What’s weird about Jonah is, he got mad when they did respond! There are three people in the Old Testament about whom we learn who got mad and got even mad enough to die. Moses was a great leader, and yet he found himself, so many times, so frustrated with the people he was trying to lead that he said, “God, just take me home now! Just cut my life short! I’m done. I don’t want to these people lead anymore.” If you’ve ever served in ministry, in some sense you’ve felt that—usually it’s on Monday morning.

There’s another guy in the Old Testament named Elijah. Do you remember Elijah? Elijah was a great preacher, and great prophet, and he was probably known best for his boldness. One day he preached, and he prayed, and God came and consumed the sacrifice and it got the attention of all the pagan idolatrous people in that area. And yet, the very next day he’s sitting there sucking his thumb, mad enough to die.

And then we come to this guy named Jonah, and we just read his story. What is this condition! I kind of coined a term here (it’s not going to appear in any medical journal or anything—I have no authority to coin terms) . . .I would call what these guys are going through “spiritual depression.” Depression is not a biblical word; you’re not going to find the word “depression” in the Bible. You will find the word “despair,” and so that’s a better label.

Depression is something that psychologists and psychiatrists have come up with to try and label categories of human behavior without calling something “sin.” Okay? Thank God for Christian psychologists and Christian psychiatrists, but listen—we need to understand something: if you are trying to deal with a spiritual problem using medical solutions, you are not going to get to the root of the problem.

The very word “psychology” comes from the word “psyche” for “soul”, so in a sense there’s a study of the soul. We should study the soul. Around here we talk a lot about “biblical soul care.” We’re not just interested in you showing up on Sunday and hearing a message, and then kind of going out of here encouraged and charged up…we want to care for your soul and get down under the surface of why you are acting the way you are acting.

We behave in ways because we think certain ways, and when we don’t think right we don’t do right. So, if we have wrong thoughts about God, if we have wrong thoughts about ourselves, if we have wrong thoughts about this world, do you know what we’re going to become? We’re going to become spiritually depressed.

There are some causes for spiritual depression…as I just thought of some of these: first of all, it could just be a physical depletion. I remember, I went to a doctor about three years ago (how many of you were around Harvest about three years ago?). It was a stressful place. We were way understaffed; we were facing issues with tensions on the staff; we needed new leaders. To be honest with you, planting a church has got to be one of the hardest things that anybody can do. You have to be a little psychotic, actually, to even attempt it, okay?

About three years into this thing, I went into the doctor. It was kind of an annual check-up, and I explained my situation: “I’m just kind of exhausted! Just kind of joyless.” He asked me a few questions about stress, and he looked at me and said, “You’re clinically depressed!” Well, first of all—he was like a family doctor, and I wasn’t quite sure he was qualified to label me clinically depressed. And he actually prescribed some meds for me, and I took meds for like two weeks and I was depressed that I was taking anti-depression meds, so I quit!

Do you know what I was at that point? I was physically depleted. I wasn’t sleeping well, I wasn’t eating right and I wasn’t exercising. That could be the main problem—simply a diet and exercise problem. Here’s another problem: spiritual defeat. Can we just cut to the chase? So much of our joyless existence is the result of disobeying God!

At some level, we have gotten off the tracks; we’re pursuing our own passions rather than having Him at the center of our lives–Temptation after temptation, failure after failure. . .and after a while we actually lose our passion for living. In a sense, that’s what was happening to Jonah.

Here’s another reason [for spiritual depression]—just personal despair, just for whatever reason—trials and circumstances and family and relationships. Maybe through no cause of your own, life’s just not going well. You’ve lost your job; money is tight; people are mad at you and you can’t figure out why—and it doesn’t seem like there’s any solution. At some level, all these things can contribute to a spiritual depression. But here’s the thing we want to talk about, and here was Jonah’s problem. Do you know what it was? He was mad at God!

Have you ever been mad at God? When you are mad at God, what you’re saying is, “I reserve the right to decide for myself how God should treat me.” It usually doesn’t start out as shaking your fist at God—it usually starts out with something like an ungrateful spirit. You just simply don’t acknowledge how good God has been to you.

Rather than focusing on what God has done for you, you focus on everything God has not yet done for you. An ungrateful spirit turns into disappointment with God: “I think God should act this way,” and He doesn’t act that way. “I think God should do this. . .” and he doesn’t do that, and you become disappointed at God. And then you begin to express displeasure toward God.

Do you see what it says there in Jonah 4: 1? “It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. . .” at what God was doing for others. Maybe Jonah was a little jealous that the spiritual renewal and the spiritual revival that God sent to Nineveh is something that he was waiting on God to send to Israel! This whole episode is something that God was doing to show Jonah, “What I did for Nineveh, I want to do for Israel!” And yet Jonah didn’t have a category for God’s grace being extended to unworthy, sinful people like the people in Nineveh.

Do you know what spiritual depression ultimately is? It is an internal temper tantrum! It is throwing rocks, kicking your heels, cursing God—because you think He should be treating you in a way that He’s not, or that He’s withholding something that you feel like He should give you.

Look at it here in Jonah 4:4: “And the Lord said, ‘Do you do well to be angry?’” Do you remember last week (if you were here) when we studied—back up in verse 2, the Bible says one of the characteristics of God’s grace is that he is slow to anger. Do you remember I told you there is a Hebrew idiom behind that word “anger?” Do you remember what it was? “Nostril burn.” Remember that? God’s nostrils are slow to burn, even though He has every right—because your sin makes God’s nostrils burn. He is slow to anger. He uses the same word here with Jonah.

God asks him the question, “Jonah, does it really do all that much good for you to have you have your nostrils burn? Do you understand the contrast—I am slow to anger, and you’re so quick to extend anger and violence toward me or to somebody else.” But what does God do? God, again, tenderly and patiently comes to Jonah; he doesn’t rebuke him, he doesn’t smash him. What does he do? He just asks him a question.

Have you ever noticed how many times in the Bible God asks people questions? Do you remember Adam and Eve? They sinned, they ate the fruit and then they hid behind a bush. And do you remember that God’s first communication, with a man who has sinned, was a question? Do you remember what He asked him? “Adam, where are you?” Is that because God couldn’t find Adam? “Where is that rascal? He was here just a minute ago, and I’ve lost him somewhere! He’s down there on that planet, roaming around. . .Where’d he go?” Did God know where he was? So why did God ask the question?

God didn’t ask the question because God didn’t know where he was; God asked the question because Adam needed to know where Adam was. The implication was, “You are not where you’re supposed to be, and you are not where you once were! Adam, where are you?”

Do you remember Job? Job had a hard life. God allowed Job to experience some things that brought difficulty and trial into his life. Do you know what—at one point in the Book of Job, Job starts to get a little mad at God—he starts to accuse God. And God comes to him and asks him a question. He asked him a series of questions. . .

The first question was this, “Uh, Job, where were you when I created the world?” In other words, “Who do you think you are, to think that somehow you can run the universe better than I could?” God loves to ask questions! And God asked Jonah the question, “Do you do well to be angry?” That’s a good question for each of us.

I don’t know your situation, I don’t know your story, but I would ask you this morning, “Are you mad at God? Are you disappointed with God? Are you displeased with God? Are you struggling with any spiritual depression because somehow you’re having an internal temper tantrum—because God hasn’t done something for you that you wish He would do?”

Just roll yourself into the clinical laboratory here and let me just kind of diagnose you—let Pastor Trent check you out. Can we have a little spiritual examination on you? Let me ask you five questions to see if we can determine if you, this morning, are mad at God.

 

Do you have any of these five signs that you might be mad at God?

 

First of all, you might be mad at God if…

 

1. You can’t pray or praise.

 

Have you stopped praying because you’ve prayed prayers for so long that have gone unanswered. . .and you say, “I’m giving up on God!” Do you have trouble thanking God and exalting God and praising God for Who He is and not just for what He’s done for you? Is the only time that you sing or lift a voice of gratefulness to God actually when He gives you what you want. . .or can you praise Him even when He chooses not to?

You might be mad at God if you can’t pray or praise God. Do you remember Job? When God took away his wealth, took away his family and took away his health, do you remember Job’s response? “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. . .” and what was the next word out of his mouth? Praise. “Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Whether You give or whether You take away, it doesn’t change Your character. You’re a gracious God—You’ve given me more than I deserve. God, I will praise you in the pain.”

Here’s the second thing. You might be mad at God if…

 

2. You can’t stand to be around happy people.

 

Everybody’s so happy about what God’s doing in their lives and rejoicing in what’s happening in their family. Maybe you’re around people who have a wonderful marriage, and their kids are half-way behaved, and yours aren’t—and your marriage didn’t—and you have a problem being around people that things are going well with them.

You know, one of the signs of spiritual maturity is this: If you are able to rejoice in the success of another person: if they get the raise, if they get the promotion, if things are going well for them. But you might be mad at God if you can’t stand to be around happy people—rather, you isolate yourself and you build fences around yourself. . .and you stop going to your small group and you stop coming to church “because those people obviously have to be phony—and they’re faking their happiness—because people can’t be that happy!” Is that your attitude? You might be mad at God.

You might be mad at God if…

 

3. You stopped serving Him.

Was there a time in your life when you were really actively serving God—maybe through your prayers, maybe through your giving, maybe through your activity at church – you led a Bible study, you mentored a person, you served in children’s ministry, you parked cars, you helped others, you baked meals, you poured your life out for others. But you stopped doing that—maybe because somebody didn’t thank you, you didn’t feel they appreciated you—you stopped serving God. Maybe it’s because you’re mad at God.

And do you know what? The whole time you’ve stopped serving God, you still expect the church to serve you! You bring your kids and drop them off. “Where are the people this morning? They should be serving!” Well, why haven’t you signed up to help somebody else? If might be that you are mad at God.

Here’s the fourth thing. You might be mad at God if…

 

4. You spew anger toward people that you love the most.

 

Isn’t it interesting, the people that we love the most, we end up hurting the most? And if you’re an angry person and words come out of your mouth and you have turned violent and you kick the cat and punch holes through the sheetrock, it might be that your internal problem is—you’re not mad at your family, you’re actually mad at God! Ultimately, all anger is directed at God, because God is ultimate and God has all authority, and so ultimately you have to realize—if you have an anger problem, you have a problem with God!

You might be mad at God, lastly, if…

 

5. You try to numb your pain through substance, stuff or sex.

 

You’re bouncing around from substance to substance, trying to find something to numb the pain of your existence. If you’re addicted to alcohol, if you drink too much, if you’re addicted to pain meds that are way beyond really what you need, then what you’re saying is, “I’m hurting, and I’m looking for a way to comfort myself.”

That’s what Jonah did. Look at verse 5: “Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and [look at what he did] made a booth for himself there. Now I don’t know exactly what kind of booth it was—here he was to the east—but apparently it was really hot. This was Middle Eastern desert, this was high-temperature area—so he made this booth for himself. Do you know that’s what man always does when he’s hurting? He tries to create man-made substances to ease his pain.

That’s so often what happens with religion: instead of receiving the grace of God, instead of going to God for help, what do we try to do? We try to shelter our self: “I can handle it; I can build something: I can do something to fix myself. I certainly don’t need God’s help on this one!” That’s exactly what Jonah did. He made a booth for himself.

Jonah’s always trying to make himself more comfortable; he’s trying to shelter himself from pain. He expended so much energy trying to help himself, because he was so consumed with himself.

So, let me ask you this. “Why do you get mad at God?”

 

What happened to spark your anger at God?

 

You know, ultimately, as I’ve talked to people—so many years of being in church and counseling people and talking with people about how to get close to God—there are basically two roadblocks that people have when people get mad at God.

Here’s the first one: God withheld something that I wanted. Maybe you’re single and God has not yet sent you a spouse. Maybe you’re married and, for you, it’s been biologically impossible for you to have children—and you wonder and you pray, “Why is God allowing this? Why doesn’t God send this to me?” God’s withholding something that you wanted.

Maybe it’s a ministry position that you aspired to, and you studied and you went to school and you worked hard for it, and yet nobody has acknowledged your awesomeness and put you in a leadership role. Maybe it’s a job or a position.

Do you know what? It’s not only what God withholds sometimes that makes us mad, but secondly, sometimes people get mad at God because, “God removes something that I loved.” There are people who we love that God takes out of our lives—maybe a spouse. Maybe you’re a widow here this morning. Maybe you’ve been divorced. Maybe God took a child or a parent or a loved one. Maybe God took a pastor or somebody—a deep friendship that you had—it meant so much to you because it brought so much comfort and so much shelter into your life. . .and yet God removed something that you loved.

Basically there are four categories: a position, a possession, a person, or maybe, power. Maybe God didn’t allow you to make the money that you feel like you should be making. Maybe God didn’t give you the home. . .maybe God didn’t place you in the area of the country that you wanted to live in, but sent you someplace else, and you lost the thing that you loved—or God never granted the thing that you loved. Maybe it’s power or influence, or maybe it’s respect that you once had and you’ve lost respect.

Maybe your children haven’t given you the respect they used to, and for whatever reason, they no longer respect you—you’ve lost respect. You’ve lost reputation. Maybe you’ve lost an ability that you once had. Maybe you’ve gotten older and you’ve lost mobility. Maybe you’ve lost some independence. Maybe you’ve lost your health and you have a debilitating disease. Maybe you have a terminal disease. So many people will get mad at God when they have a physical condition that God doesn’t fix.

Yes, we believe in the power of prayer, yes we believe God still heals, but when He sovereignly chooses not to, how do you respond? Is it like Job? “You give and You take away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!” Or do you respond like Jonah and say, “I’m angry enough to die! Just kill me! If You’re not going to treat me any better than this, just kill me!” Have you ever had that attitude?

There was a dear couple in this church who lost a child through miscarriage, a few weeks ago, and our small group surrounded them and our staff surrounded them and loved them and prayed for them—and they responded so maturely, understanding that the Lord had taken away something that they looked so forward to loving and caring for—a child. I remember, they sought counsel regarding, “How do you memorialize a miscarriage?” There are different ways of doing that. This couple decided, “We just want to have a little simple ceremony, kind of out here in the church parking lot, and invite a few family members and friends. . .” and they brought balloons, and they wanted to do a balloon release, just to say to the Lord, “God, we release this child to You.”

There were children there, there were pink balloons and blue balloons. Each child had a pink balloon and/or a blue balloon. And there was one child there, very young—probably about three years old—and the child did not get the significance of what we were doing. The child did not understand that this was not a balloon-grab—this was a balloon-release. So when it came time to release the balloons, this child did not want to release the balloon. As a matter of fact, the balloon ended up popping, and the child was very upset and began to cry (as you would expect a three-year-old to cry upon losing a balloon—very child-appropriate behavior. . .) I had a balloon but mine was pink. I tried to give the little boy my pink balloon—not a good formula for a little boy to have pink balloon. He wanted a blue balloon, and in the middle of this very wonderful, worshipful, mature release of balloons and release of a child, there was a child there who was pitching a fit! Which is what you would expect a three-year-old to do.

But listen—that’s not what you would expect a forty-three-year-old to do when God is requiring you to release something that you love. Some of us have tried to grasp and hold on, and accuse God: “Why are You. . .?!” And you’re mad at God this morning! And it shows. There’s a level of maturity in the Christian life you have yet to achieve.

Can I just give you five reasons why it is foolish to be mad at God? We’re going to see all of these here in Scripture. Here are five reasons. . .

 

Why is it foolish to be mad at God? How do these apply to you?

 

Here’s the first thing:

 

1. I don’t know everything God knows.

 

Look at Jonah 1: 5: “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 [underline the word “appointed” here, because we see the word appointed four different times in the book of Jonah] 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. . .”

Do you remember the first time we see the word “appointed” in the book of Jonah? God said He appointed a fish. It wasn’t an accident he got swallowed! God sent the fish. I believe He especially made the fish; I believe the dimensions of the fish and the fish’s stomach perfectly matched the dimensions of Jonah, and God appointed the fish. God appointed this fish to save him.

Then, we see it here, God appointed a plant to cover him, to shade him. Once again, it is God’s nature to shade and to comfort and to cover Jonah—even in the midst of his rebellious behavior. So God appoints the fish to save him, He appoints the plant to cover him, and then—notice verse 7: “But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed [same word] a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.”

God appointed the worm to expose Jonah! God took away something that God had previously provided. God provided it to teach Jonah a lesson (“I’m a God Who will provide for your every need!”) and God appointed the worm to teach Jonah a lesson (“Your salvation, your comfort, is entirely dependent upon my goodness to send things to you. Learn the lesson, Jonah!”)

He says the next thing, in verse 8: “When the sun rose, God appointed [there’s the word again] 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.’”

So God sends the fish to save Jonah, He appoints the plant to cover him, He appoints the worm to expose him, and—finally—he appoints the wind to scorch him. Because it is not until Jonah learns the lesson that he will find the comfort that he so desperately needs!

I was reading about this east wind, there in the desert, and this is what one commentator said: “It is a constant, extremely hot wind that contains fine particles of dust. It contains constant hot air so full of positive ions that it affects the levels of serotonin and other brain neurotransmitters, causing exhaustion, depression, feelings of unreality and occasionally bizarre behavior.” Have you ever been there?

God is doing things, and orchestrating events and circumstances in your life beyond your control, that you do not understand, to try to get you to a place where you will give up trying to be your own savior. If things aren’t going well for you, maybe you’re running from God, and it’s time for you to turn around. Instead of cussing God and shaking a fist in God’s face, why don’t you understand that the trouble in your life is actually a gracious act of God to turn you around and get you to understand how desperately you need Him? You don’t know everything God knows! So quit acting like you are God! If you knew everything God knew, you would not question anything God does.

Here’s the second reason it’s foolish to be mad at God:

 

2. It exhausts my strength.

You’re wrestling with God and fighting with God. Jonah 4:8, near the end, says, “He was faint. . .” That means Jonah was physically exhausted because of his wrestling and his fighting. Even in his times of rest, in his mind he was trying to figure things out.

Strong faith is trusting in God when nothing makes sense, knowing that God is in complete control. That is how you avoid spiritual exhaustion. You rest, you sleep.

Have you ever thought about the fact that God has made the human body to go unconscious a third of every day? While you are unconscious, asleep, God is awake and in complete control of the universe! Don’t you think that’s just kind of God’s way of saying, “I don’t need you at this point, okay? You’re just going to be asleep while I run the universe.”

And yet, if you are unable to sleep, it’s because your mind is trying to play God. You’ve got to come up with the answer, rather than just trusting: “God, I’m just going to go to sleep for about eight hours. I’m going to trust that You’re going to work things out without my help.” Can you sleep well, or are you completely exhausted and can’t sleep?

Thirdly, it’s foolish to be mad at God because:

 

3. It fuels bitterness.

 

Again, Jonah 4:8, “He asked that he might die and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’” What is that attitude in him that says, “I’m better off dead?” Do you know what it is? It’s bitterness. Bitterness is harbored hurt. You’ve been hurt by circumstances, you’ve been hurt by people—ultimately, God is in control of both of those things, and yet you are bitter because you are harboring hurt and won’t release the hurt to God.

Over in Hebrews 12:15, the Bible tells us three things about bitterness: Bitterness will always spring up, because it’s a root problem. The Bible calls it a root of bitterness. It’s under the surface; you can’t see it. Maybe nobody even knows, because you put on a smiley face during the day, but deep inside you are so hurt and so bitter because of the way your life has gone. It’s a root. The Bible says it will always spring up. It will always cause trouble, and it will always defile or pollute many people.

That bitterness is eventually going to come to the surface and it’s going to spew on everybody else, and bitterness will rob your joy and your trust of God. It’s foolish to be mad at God; it fuels bitterness.

Fourthly:

 

4. It destroys my reason to live.

 

Look at Jonah 4:9: “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, [I’m] angry enough to die.’” He is talking to the very reason for living, and says, “I have no reason for living. I would rather die!” Have you ever been there? Have you ever thought, “I just don’t want to wake up in the morning. I do not want to get out of the bed!”?

I was watching a “Thirty for Thirty,” one of those ESPN sports documentary programs on Bill McCartney (former Colorado Buffalo, head coach, national champion—a wonderful Christian and very unapologetic in his faith). As the story goes, God had converted him from an alcoholic when he was in college, and just completely transformed his life—and he’d never taken another drink.

But about thirty years into his marriage, God convicted him that he had never told his wife that one night while he was drunk—thirty years ago—he had actually slept with another woman, sinned against his wife greatly. Thirty years later, God puts that on his heart, he goes to his wife, he reveals that sin, he confesses to her, he seeks her forgiveness—and that sent his wife into the bedroom for a year, and she didn’t come out.

Do you know what the problem was? She was bitter. She lost her reason for living because, even though God had forgiven her husband, it took her a year to find forgiveness in her own heart for her husband—who had humbled himself enough to say, “I’m so sorry for what I’ve done!” The image of a perfect husband in her mind was, in a moment, destroyed and she couldn’t release that to God. It destroys your reason for living.

Finally, it’s foolish to be mad at God because:

 

5. It feeds self-pity.

 

Look at Jonah 4:10 and 11, the last two verses of this book: “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 [why] should not I pity Nineveh?’”

            Do you know what God’s saying to him? “Here’s the difference between you and Me, Jonah. You are full of self-pity, and I have a heart of pity for helpless people.” When you are consumed with yourself, and you isolate yourself, and you are disappointed with God, all you can think about is yourself—and you begin to make yourself out as a victim and feel like, “I deserve better.” And you can’t have compassion for anybody else but yourself; you can’t see needs around you, you don’t understand how God wants to use you.

The only time in the entire book we see that Jonah is happy is when he was using God. Did you see what it said? The plant came up and covered him and shaded him and he was so happy—but when God wanted to use him, he’s extremely mad.

Do you understand how much God pities you? Do you understand how pitiful you are before God? Do you understand how helpless? The Bible refers here to one-hundred-and-twenty-thousand in Nineveh who don’t know their right hand from their left. (How many of you are still trying to figure that one out, by the way: “Yeah, can’t remember.”?) What he’s saying is, “There are a bunch of people in this town who are uneducated—they’re not real bright.” He’s probably referring to the children, who have yet to figure out how life works.

Those one-hundred-twenty-thousand—they are perfect examples of you and me. I have yet to figure out how the universe works; I have yet to figure out the mind of God; my only hope, my only reason for living is to be a reflection of the glory of God as He loves a pitiful sinner like me. If you’re mad at God, you don’t see yourself as a pitiful sinner. You think you deserve more than what God’s given. It’s foolish to be mad at God!

It’s interesting how the story ends: we never find out what happens to Jonah! Did he ever turn around, did he ever run back to God? We don’t know! We don’t what happened to Jonah. But here’s the way we’re going to close this series. . .not with what happened to Jonah. . .but, what about you?

Are you going to run into the arms of God, or are you going to continue to flee and curse and be angry—and to be a fugitive from God? The story of the entire Bible is the story of these forty-eight verses in Jonah: Man runs from God, God chases him down and extends undeserved grace to people who are bent on running from God.