Who Matters to You?

An Unexpected Hero
Who Matters to You?

I. Introduction

A. Jonah 3:4 (NAS) Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

B. Jonah 3:10 (NAS) When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

C. Jonah 4:1 (NAS) But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.

D. Jonah 4:2-3 (NAS) ²He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. ³Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”

E. Jonah 4:2b (NAS) “For I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.”

F. Exodus 34:6 (NAS) Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.”

1. Jonah is impugning the of !

G. “You can tell you’ve made God in your own image when it turns out that He hates all the same people you do.” (Ann Lamott)

H. Jonah 4:4 (NAS) “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

I. Jonah 4:5 (NAS) Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.

J. Jonah 4:6-9 (NAS) ⁶So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. ⁷But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. ⁸When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” ⁹Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”

K. Jonah 4:5a (NAS) Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it.

1. “The east” became known to Israel as the place of their . The enemies of God were to the east.

L. Psalm 121:5 (NAS) The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.

1. “Shade” means to be under the of God!

2. To Jonah—when the plant grows up to be shade for him—it means that is going down!

3. I have some “” in me!

a. “Justice” is when you get what’s coming to you.

b. “Mercy” is when you get what’s coming to you.

c. “Grace” is when you get what’s coming to you.

4. matter to God!

5. The is the one place where there is no such word as “.”

M. Jonah 4:10-11 (NAS) ¹⁰Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. ¹¹Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

1. When grace wins—it’s good news for everybody!

2. It’s because the point of the story is not that had a decision to make. It’s because the point of the story is you have a decision to make!

3. Because this is !

II. Conclusion