Craig Groeschel - When Your Emotions Are Out of Control
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 and you're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I paid attention all the way through. 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. The comment section, "I know what you're talking about," type 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 in the comment section, "I hate when that happens". If you hate it, I got really bad news for you. You are not gonna like Jonah chapter four because this has the weirdest cliffhanger ending you've ever seen. Jonah chapter four, 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 you excited about Jonah chapter four, let's review where we've been the first three weeks. Chapter one. 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 on a ship going in the other direction. God sent a storm. The sailors got freaked out. They threw Jonah overboard and God provided a big fish that swallowed Jonah up. Chapter one. Chapter two, 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 had 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 we would've called that waves of waste. Tide turd, I don't know this. Work with me. God had mercy, right?
And the fish vomited him up on dry land. Chapter three. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. How many of you're 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 and burn like you got 40 days to repent of your sins or God's gonna destroy you. And he preaches the message and all of the Ninevites actually turn. And how does the Lord respond to their repentance? How does God respond when the 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, 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 walked 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 all of you turned to Jesus, I'd be so happy. I'd be worshiping. I would break out M&Ms and I would eat a whole box full. I would be so... I mean, I'd be so... If all of you came to faith in Christ, that'd be like the greatest day ever. Jonah preached. They 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 loud. "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 furious. I would call it flaming hot Cheetos angry, that's how he was. He was livid. This isn't fair. They were evil and 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 gonna happen. "That's why I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish". And he says this, now he's gonna complain about the most beautiful attributes of God. I knew you were like this, God, and this is what bothers 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". Maybe 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 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 rape the women. They would murder kids when they would take over an area, they would torture the men, and experts tell us, scholars, that it's possible.
In fact, it's very likely that some of Jonah's family, like maybe his mom and dad, maybe his papa and nana, his grandparents, maybe 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. I go, "Okay, God, I'll do this because you told me to, but I'm not gonna like it". Or I'll do the right things, but I might do it with the wrong modus. And it could be any number of different ways in your life. You'll give what God told you to give, but you don't really want to. Or God, I'll do my you version Bible app reading. Why? Because I don't wanna 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 gonna say I'll go to church, but not in football season. I was gonna say that. But the problem is everybody that needs to hear it, 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 chapter four, verse five. It tells us this. "Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place..." Where did he sit down? 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 sat 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 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. 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 someone 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. Genesis chapter three, because of Adam's sin, God sent Adam out of the garden, which way? To the east. Genesis four, 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 eight 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 son. 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 is 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 gonna see him call him my Lord, the Lord, Lord. He claimed God. But in this case, he turned his back to God. God, 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, Jesus saved me," and they know him as Savior, but they don't know him as Lord. I want him to do what I want him to do, but I'm gonna turn my back and do whatever I want to do. And Jesus said this, he said, "Hey, one day people are gonna be like, 'Hey, I called... I did these works in your name, Lord. I went to church in your name, Lord. 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 is 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 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 you could go with elbow him right now. Like, yeah, hey, big old baby. Amy, would elbow me like boom, right? He's hurt. He's got his feelings hurt. He's mad, he's uncomfortable, baking in this hot sun.
And Jonah 4:6 says this, we're gonna see the Lord provide a couple things. Remember the Lord provided a fish. We're gonna 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 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 wayisma 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 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 is 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 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, and hey, perseverance will help finish the person and change their 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 of stretching your faith. The moment we start to get comfortable, God tends to teach us that we still need him and we're gonna 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 gonna 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 look like you're afraid. Don't worry. God works through all things. God works through weird things. He is God. 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," oh, there it is again, "East wind". "And the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. Jonah again wanted to die and said, 'It would've been better for me to die than to live.'"
Jonah's having another pity party. Jonah's being a drama king. Jonah's being a drama llama, right? I mean, is he being a baby or what? This is pathetic. Before we criticize him, I just wanna 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 and 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 different mindsets. And one source said that he had three possible root issues to his very complicated behavior. And I'm gonna show you what these are.
See if you see yourself in any of these, because I don't at all. The first one is this. He had erratic mood swings, 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. 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 wanna talk to those of you who are real enough to admit it. You might sometimes as well because I can 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, worshiping him with this passionate, authentic, heartfelt adoration. And then the next day, I can be apathetic 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 me I'm 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 John 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 risked my life. I preached to those evil people 'cause you told me to. 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 stinks. It just ends. It's like 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".
Now I'm the Lord of the plant. God says, "Why are you so freaked out about it? And shouldn't I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh and wish there are more than 120,000 people, people who need the grace of God? All these people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and also many animals". There it is. It's over. Did you miss it? I'll give you that last line again 'cause the plane just lands. Watch this and don't miss the last line. Ready? All so 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 need something better than that. I want more. Right? Come on, God, did you change Jonah's heart? I wanna know.
Did he submit to the things of God and say I was wrong? I just wanna live for you. Did he die? And if he did, how? Did he get Mercury poisoning from the fish? Did the worm eat him? I wanna know. And also many animals. So God says to him, Jonah, if you are gonna 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 of you've been transformed, go into all the world and preach the gospel, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. And I will be with you always until the end. Go into all the world. And I know a lot of church folk that won't cross the street to share the gospel. Go into all the world".
Well, no, I'm okay, God, if you save me. But I'm not only not going, but I'm not gonna pray and I'm not gonna give, and I'm not gonna help and I'm not gonna serve because I'm happy to receive mercy from God, but I'm gonna reject the mission of God. I told you chapter four 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 four, 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 gonna ask you the same question I asked you in week number one, playfully. And most of you missed it. This time, you're gonna 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 gracious, 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 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, 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's the lamb of God. The door through which we enter, the water which quinces our thirst. He is the alpha, the omega, the soon returning conquering king of all kings and Lord of all lords. And he's greater than Jonah 'cause 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 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 hopeless. Our God is for 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 gonna give you a chance today. He's 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 gonna 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 wanna be close to you. He's gonna give you another chance. But remember, every chance from God demands a choice from you. So what are you gonna do about who God is? Who is our God? Our God is gracious. He's 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 we're praying today at all of our different churches, I wanna talk to those of you who would say, I am a disciple of Jesus. I am a follower of Christ. I'm gonna guess that for almost all of you, you're a little bit like me. There's some area of your life, we kind of got your back turned to God. It could be like you're not really seeking him in his word or you're not praying faithfully or you're not using your gifts to serve or make a difference or God prompted you to do something. It is some area in your life right now that you know you could be closer to God. And our prayer's gonna be really, really simple. Jonah consistently would dishonor and disobey God's word in his will, and then other times he would obey.
And this will be very, very simple, and that is this. How many of you wanna be right in the middle of the will of God today to all of our churches? If that's you, what we're gonna do is we're gonna 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 would say, yeah, I really do. I know Jesus. I wanna be in the middle of God's will. Would you lift your hands right now? Lift them up. 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 in 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 that when we turn to you we're gonna 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 if you're comfortable with this, just say out loud, real quietly is 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 comments section. Say it again. I will be faithful to obey you, Lord.
As you keep praying today, 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 was 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. He 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. And 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, and 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 would you ever belong to God? Well, I don't know. I try to do good stuff.
The bottom line is, is every single one of us have sinned and our sin 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 turning toward God. I'm turning toward Jesus. 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, Jesus, 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. And people today at 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.