Jonah Part 3 – When Your Emotions Are Out of Control

Jonah Part 3  –  When Your Emotions Are Out of Control

Jonah 4:1-3 But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”  

The world says, “You cannot tell me how to feel.” The Word of God says, “I’m not telling you how to feel.” “I am telling you how to behave. And how you are behaving as the enemy of God.”

Romans 8:7, “the mind governed by the flesh is hostile or enmity with God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so,”

• We live in an emoji world where self-expression and “being the true you” hold the highest priority — no one can tell us how to feel.

• Feelings not only want to control you, they want to sit on the throne of you and be your God. 

Does God expect us to train our feelings? It appears that he does. He commands them.

• God commands obedience “from the heart” (Romans 6:17) — the vessel we often judge as ungovernable. 

• He tells us what to fear and what not to fear (Luke 12:4-5); 

• Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Feelings are something you have, not someone you are! 

• “A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln

• Feelings are a part of our journey, but they are not the compass. God’s word is our true north.”

• “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?”Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

  1. “Emotions speak the language of the heart, but faith speaks the language of God. Choose to listen to His voice.”

  2. Follow Faith, not Feelings. 

Jonah chapter 4—Most difficult chapter to preach and most frustrating to hear.

When they … Repented … God Relented.

• Whole nation—From the King—Poorest turned to God!

How do you think Jonah responded? (Chicken Dance?)

• Happy—Thrill—Praise God!

• Nope, Jonah’s furious—Chap 4:1

** Jonah is one Angry—Hebrew—Raging—Flaming Hot Cheetos angry**

———————————————————————————

Lotta drama here … Really, Jonah?

• Easy—Throw Jonah under/bus—Until—Put yourself—Shoes.

• Remember Ninevites—Evil—Rape/Murder/Torture—Scholars

• Possible—Likely—Jonah’s family—Mom/Dad/Grandparents

• Tortured—Killed by Assyrians—There’s history!

Notice … Jonah did … The Will of God.

• God told him—Preach/Ninevites—Jonah did—Not happy about it!

Two Problems with Obedience: 

1. God calls you to obey in something you don’t like with people you don’t like.

What makes you think that God will always call you to something you enjoy or be happy about? 

1. Jonah shows us a problem—Some of us might have …

2. It’s possible to do the will of God without the heart of God.

   1. God, I’ll do this … Won’t like it

   2. Do the right thing, but with the Wrong heart and wrong motives

   3. What if God calls you to obey and you wait to do it with the right heart? 

   4. Is it impossible for God to actually call you to do something that heals and changes you in the meantime? 

Obedience is more than just doing what God guides and prompts you to do. It’s doing it with His heart and motivation as well. 

• For years, I gave but didn’t want to!

• For a long time, I preached and taught for performance and not presence. 

• Read the Bible, without listening to God speak to me, Gotta keep my streak.

• I Forgive—but might write people off.   

• Go/church—Don’t give time to serve others

Possible—Do the will of God—without the heart of God.

Then the story continues—Jonah 4:5

Jonah 4:5Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the city.  

• In which direction—Jonah go? East/City.

• In the Bible, Travel East often represents

  • Moving toward exile/bondage.

  • Because of Adam’s sin, God sent Adam out of the Garden to the east. (Gen 3:24)

  • Cain left the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (Gen 4:16)

  • When Abram and Lot parted, Lot chose to go east to Sodom. (Gen 13:11-13)

  • With their backs toward the temple of the Lord, men faced east and worshiped the sun. (Ezekiel 8:16)

Jonah sat down—East—Symbolizing—Prob not trusting God again.

• Jonah claimed God … But turned away from him … Shows us …

• It’s possible to claim God, yet live with your back to Him.

• Many claim Jesus as Savior—Don’t know him—Lord.

• Jesus said many will say/me,… Lord, Lord! Away from me, I don’t know you.

People—Claim God … Live with/back toward him …

• Jonah’s hurt/Mad—Uncomfortable baking—Hot sun … Jonah 4:6

Jonah 4:6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.  

• God provided—Fish to save Jonah—

• God provided a plant to cover him. Very happy about the plant.

  • Hebrew: Vayiskma—Rejoice greatly—Exceedingly overjoyed.

Example: Isn’t just … Found-$20-in-jeans-pocket happy! 

• Not even Won-lottery happy!

  • Jonah—Very happy—God eased his discomfort

EVERYTHING IN JONAH IS STILL ALL ABOUT JONAH!

• Jonah loved receiving provisions/blessings from God!

• But God was about to teach him a lesson

Jonah didn’t like lessons. Jonah’s like some of us …

•  Jonah wanted to skip God’s lessons

• Go straight to God’s blessings!

God provided a plant

Jonah’s comfortable w/ shade God provided.

Just when we get comfortable … God has a way—Stretch faith. 

Jonah 4:7-8 “But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. [Jonah] wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”  

Expert research/Jonah—possible 3 root issues.

1. Erratic mood swings: This suggests an underlying frustration and the need to control.

   1. Acceptance of God’s sovereignty 

   2. Surrender to the need to control the situation, circumstances, and people. 

   3. Cannot control circumstances, but can control how you respond. 

2. Entitlement tendencies:  Personal definition of justice and expects God and others to operate within his parameters.

   1. Spiritual Law of Decrease and Increase

   2. Spiritual Law of Giving  

3. Depressive symptoms: These manifest through feelings of burnout, sadness, anger, and hopelessness.

   1. Prayer, praise, and singing to the Lord a new song

   2. Thankfulness 

   3. Focus on God and His goodness, not you and your plight. 

God provides shade—Next day—God provides a worm—Eats the plant.

• Sun blazing—Jonah’s head … God—This is unbelievable!

• Ready—Big end? Finale/Cliff hanger—God does get the last word.

Example: ½ marathons, 5 and 10 km. People handed out water and gel packs, not so you could stop, but so that you could keep moving! 

1. We mistake a break for the finish line 

2. So God makes you more uncomfortable in the environment you are in 

3. So you will move from the environment. 

4. Elijah and the place called THERE. 

   1. 1 Kings 17:7 Some time later, however, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 9“Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”

      1. Has your broke dried up? 

      2. Has your leaf left? 

      3. This might be God calling you forward in faith! 

Jonah 4:9-11 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” 10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”  

How do you like that ending? … And also many animals!

God says … Cry over a plant? 

• Won’t cry over those who don’t know me?

Another way—We can be like Jonah …

• God said … Go into all the world—Won’t cross street.

• Not only—Not going—Not pray—Not give—Help—Not serve.

• We receive mercy from God, but reject the mission of God.

• Want “Our Will” more than we want “His Will.”