Biblical Compassion,Part 5

One of the most important lessons in life is that we have to learn day after day after day until the day we die is that God is God and we are not. Now, I know that comes as a disappointment to some of you, but that is the lesson that the Lord wants us to learn again and again and again until we come to the point of total surrender. Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.

Connect through audio, video, print, and evangelistic events worldwide. Well, when life goes sideways, how many times do we blame God rather than see that it was our own poor life choice? Well, today, the life of Jonah. It's a look at how God used creative means to pull Jonah back to obedience. You're sure to be blessed by Dr. Youssef's dive into Jonah's experience through today's message. It's from his series, Biblical Compassion. Join me now in listening to today's Leading the Way.

Here's Dr. Michael Youssef. When I finished this message, I turned to my wife and I said, this is going to be a very hard message. She said, well, the whole series of Jonah hasn't been a joy ride. I know she has spoken for so many of us and I know she's spoken for me. Because one thing you can be sure about is the sermon before I bring you the application has already been gone through me and been applied in my life before I bring it here.

And consequently, it is not something that I declare to you dispassionately. My heart and soul had already been integrated with this message. In fact, this particular message I found myself before God asking myself the question. The question is posed to me by the Lord and by the Holy Spirit. Have I ever been angry with God for His mercy and grace? Ask yourself that question sometime. Because after a thorough examination, you're going to discover, you know, when you have to be honest with God, you can't fake it with God and you have to come up with some answers that you might not like, as I did.

And my answer was no and yes. No, I've never been angry with God at any time when I received mercy from His hand for me. I have never been angry with God when I've received mercy from His hand for my family. I've never been angry with God for the mercy that we have received as I pray for you, as we pray for one another and we see answers to prayer.

In fact, to the contrary, I have a discipline by which I mark these things down and I constantly go back to the Lord and give thanks to the Lord for answered prayer. I give thanks to the Lord for showing mercy. So no, I don't get angry with God for His mercy. So what is that yes?

What is that yes all about? Well, the yes is about the times when I get angry with God for having mercy over deceitful politicians who are deceiving this nation. The yes has to do with the times when I get angry with God for the so-called church leaders who are deceiving so many people in the congregations about the truth of the gospel.

Oh yes, there is a yes. Yes to the times when I became angry with God for having mercy upon people who are torturing and killing Christians around the world. God, why do you bless these people, at least materially anyway? It is very easy for me to pick and choose who should receive the mercy of God and who shouldn't. It is so easy for me to select who is a candidate for God's mercy and who's not.

It's very easy. There's one problem. God never asked my opinion. Oh true, I have volunteered many times. But I want to tell you, I want to tell God who are the good guys and who are the bad guys as if God doesn't know. I want to tell you that the story of Jonah is really not a story about Jonah but it is a story about the mercies of God from beginning to end. That book is about God's compassion. That book is about God's mercy. That book is about God's sovereignty.

That book is about God's grace. First we saw his mercy shown to Jonah himself by being commissioned to go out and preach to the Ninevites. Then we saw God's mercy to Jonah when he rebelled and disobeyed God and he was thrown into the belly of the great fish. And when he repented, God delivered him. We saw the mercy of God manifested when these pagan sailors repented and turned to Yahweh and cried to him. They were saved. We saw ultimately the greatest of all mercies when the greatest revival in history was shown to the savage people of Nineveh when they repented and turned to the Lord and they were saved.

It's a book about mercy from beginning to end. Just as we saw in the last message how God's mercy upon the Ninevites when they repented led to the saving of their city. Turn with me please if you haven't already in your Bibles. Chapter 4, the book of Jonah. Where do we see Jonah? I mean he, here in this chapter we find him after the greatest revival in history. After the greatest transformation of people who were the most wicked people in the face of the earth to worship Yahweh, the living God. We see him in chapter 4 after this incredible spiritual experience, not jumping for joy but singing the blues.

Why? Why is Jonah so miserable? Well for starter, God did not live up to Jonah's expectations. God did not do what Jonah wanted him to do. God let Jonah down by not destroying Nineveh. And Jonah was disappointed.

So disappointed in fact to the point of death. Jonah was so angry with God to the point of beginning to rationalize his former disobedience. Beginning to rationalize his former rebellion. Look at it, verses 2 and 3 of chapter 4. What is he saying?

Here's what he's saying. Really he said, God, I was right all along for not wanting to go to Nineveh. God, I had a feeling that you are going to spare that city. God, I really had a sneaking suspicion that you are going to have mercy on them and I don't like it.

I wanted you to zap them but you saved them. Have you ever been in a situation where things just did not work out the way you want it to work out? And the devil comes in and he lets you use that as an excuse for sin, for disobedience, for rebellion, for life of impurity before God, for unfaithfulness to your spouse.

Have you ever been there? God, things did not turn out the way I want them to turn out. Please listen carefully. One of the most important lessons in life, for those of us who love God, one of the most important lessons in life is that we have to learn day after day after day until the day we die is that God is God and we are not. Now I know that comes as a disappointment to some of you.

It comes as a disappointment to me. But that is the lesson that the Lord wants us to learn again and again and again until we come to the point of total surrender. Let me make a confession to you. Those few times, those rare times in which I'm angry with God regarding his mercy toward his enemies are very frightening times for me. When I use the scripture to tell God to stop having mercy on the wicked, I am doing three frightening things. Number one, I am identifying with Satan who quoted the scripture to the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness in order to get Jesus be tempted to do what Satan wanted Jesus to do.

That should be very frightening. And the second thing, it is frightening because it appears that I know more than God. And the third reason why this is frightening to me personally is because I am being blinded to the fact that if it were not for the mercies of God, I would not be right here today. This diabolical way of dealing with God places us above God. This diabolical way of dealing with God and his word places us in a superior position. And I want to tell you that this frightening feeling always leads me to repentance. I know in those rare times when that happens, it takes a split second for me to recognize what I have just done and I bow my head and I said, oh God, forgive me, I have sinned against you, in my wickedness have criticized you, I have questioned you, please forgive me.

My beloved friends, listen to me very carefully. There is something comical here, it is really comical. Jonah was not only angry with God for having mercy on the Ninevites, but he wanted God to kill him. He was angry enough, he wanted to die.

It is comical. I mean, he just could have drowned himself right there in the belly of the whale, but he cried to the Lord and the Lord delivered him. Jonah seemed to be so miserable when he should have been so happy. Jonah wanted to die after witnessing with his own eyes one of the greatest miracles of all times, one of the great revivals in history. Why is that? I want to tell you why.

Whether you want to know why or not, I'm going to tell you why. Because I want to tell you that Jonah and his problem is the same as many of us who are in the church of Jesus Christ, who are discontented in the midst of abounding blessings. Jonah's problem is the same as many of us who are restless when we've got everything. Jonah's problem is the same as many of us who think that more and different is going to make us happy.

Then we get the more and the different and we are more miserable. Why is it? Why discontentment and restlessness in the midst of blessings?

Why is that? The answer is this, you have not reconciled your life with the will of God and that is why. No matter what you get or how much you have or where you go, you will always be discontented. Jonah had been opposed to the will of God from the very beginning and being opposed to the will of God in your life is like a nail in your shoe. You might wear a thousand dollar pair of shoes but if the nail has not been reconciled to the will of God, it's irritating the dickens out of you.

I mean it's frustrating you and sometimes even like Jonah, have a death wish. Listen to me my beloved friends, when you are angry with God because of the parents that he had given you or the family you grew up in. When you're angry with God because of your past pain and suffering. When you're angry with God because of your unperceived unfairness of life. When you're angry with God because of your background. When you're angry with God because of your past struggle. struggle when you're angry with God because of whatever happened in your life. No matter how successful or how rich or how blessed you may be, you are still discontented and restless.

And you may even be like Jonah, so angry with God you want to die. But when you recognize, not just in your head but all over you, in your heart, in your spirit, in your soul, when you recognize that God gave you the parents He gave you for a purpose, that God gave you the family He gave you for a purpose, that God gave you the background that He gave you for a purpose, that God has given you your past for a purpose. When you will do that, you will have the spirit of contentment.

If you don't, you will always be unhappy. You will always be ungrateful. Oh, you pay an intellectual assent to the fact, oh, I'm blessed, but deep down you're not. When you are not consoling yourself to the will of God in your life, you will never have a real genuine appreciation for the mercy of God. You will never have a real genuine appreciation for the grace of God. You can own the world, but inside you're discontented. When you have not reconciled the will of God in your life, you're going to have a memory like a sieve, always forgetting God's mercies, always forgetting God's blessings, and you're looking for the next one, and the next one, and the next one, and you forget all that you've had been given.

No matter what God does for you, you're going to forget it so fast. So what is Jonah's solution to the problem? Jonah's solution was quit. Just quit again. Run away again.

Build yourself a private retreat and stay there. What does that mean? It means that Jonah is declaring his independence from God.

That's what he really is doing here. Look at verse five. You want to know what verse five really is saying? Verse five is really saying, God, I'm going to sit on the fence. God, I'm going to see how you're going to get yourself out of this trouble all by yourself without my help.

Here's what Jonah's saying, he's saying, God, I am going to wash my hands. I'm going to resign from the human race. Lord, I'm going to resign from life. I'm going not to help anybody. I'm not going to do anything for anyone. God, I am not going to witness for you anymore.

My beloved friends, let me tell you something. It is easy to withdraw from the human race. It's easy to pull out and stay out. It's easy to abandon God's mission and call upon your life. It is easy to become a deserter of God's army.

It's easy. So how God deals with Jonah's rotten disposition. Well he gave him a practical lesson. He didn't give him a sermon. He gave him a practical lesson. I think Jonah was not ready for more sermons.

He just about had enough sermons and he was ready for real practical experience. So out of compassion, God spreads a fast growing vine over Jonah's little retreat to protect him from the blazing heat of the sun of the desert. Look at verse 6. Because here in verse 6, you're going to find Jonah happy for the first time ever. Jonah has not really been happy before. We've not seen him happy. I mean, he was unhappy with God's commissioning him. He was unhappy with the storm that he experienced. He was unhappy with being inside the great fish. He was unhappy with the second commissioning. He was unhappy with the repentance of the Ninevites. He was unhappy with God having mercy on the wicked Ninevites after their repentance. He just is an unhappy person. For the first time here in verse 6 of chapter 4, he's happy.

He's going to be sheltered from the blazing sun. But don't hold your breath. This happiness is a short-lived one, really is.

It's not going to last. It's a temporary happiness. But he was happy nonetheless. Well finally Jonah is happy. Isn't that great? Isn't that great?

Why is he happy? Well finally God is doing something for Jonah. Come on now.

Finally God has come to his senses and taken care of Jonah. Oh don't call me selfish. I just want my piece of the pie. Don't call me selfish.

I just want my place in the sun. Having my vine in the sun was getting what is due to me, what God owes me. Well you know the Lord has a sense of humor. The next day the vine withers quickly.

Just disappears as fast as it came off, it took off. And this time Jonah really gets miffed. I mean really, really wants to die this time.

It's for real. I want you to go back with me for a second about the root of Jonah's anger with God. And the discontentment that I've just talked about.

Just for a couple of seconds. I want you to focus on that again. See when you have not reconciled yourself to the will of God in your life, your anger will go from bad to worse.

And the periods of happiness are going to get shorter and shorter and shorter. What is God teaching Jonah here? Well look at verses 9, 10, and 11 of Jonah chapter 4.

Jonah had become so self-centered that he cared more for his precious little vine than the converting and the saving of 120,000 people plus cattle. I pray to God, I literally would hope to God that no one is hearing me ever get to that situation. But I want you to ask yourself the question that I believe with all my heart that God has left in this book for every one of you.

Not one can say that is not for me. Every single person must ask yourself the question. God asks Jonah that question and with that question the book concludes.

I pray, I beg you before God you never rest tonight until you answer the question. And let me put the question in the modern day vernacular. Is your love for your garden or your pet greater than your love for the lost people of the world?

Is your compassion for the lost who do not know Jesus Christ and have no near neighbor to tell them about Jesus Christ is the same as that compassion that Jesus has for them? This is the question that God asked Jonah. And that is why it was left for the last verse of the book. And there's a reason why this question was never answered in the Bible. Because it is left for every one of us to answer that question to God. Not your spouse, not your pastor, not your Bible study lead, to God.

The book winds up with a question. I want to let you ponder this question that God had asked Jonah. Do you spend more on your leisure than on world evangelism? Do you value your little luxuries more than the lost people of the world?

Do you? Do you care more for your own pampering than for the kingdom of God? Please answer the question, not to me, but to God. You are listening to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousaf. Do you have questions about what it means to live the Christian life? Well, our pastors and counselors would love to help.

And you can start a conversation when you visit ltw.org slash Jesus. The more a culture like ours focuses on this life alone, the higher the rate of depression, the higher the level of the unhappiness and unfulfillment in this life. The higher the level of loneliness, the higher the rate of chemical dependence, the higher the rate of dissatisfaction, the higher the rate of discontentment. We're all chasing something, appearance, popularity, wealth. We live in a world that strives for these things.

But are we designed for them? It's only when we find what our hearts are truly made for that we'll find peace. We were made to have a heart for God. In his newest book, A Heart for God, Dr. Michael Yousaf leads us through the life of David, walking us through his triumphs and pitfalls as we learn what it means to be someone after God's own heart. Discover God's faithfulness and power in a life completely surrendered to God. For your gift of any amount, Dr. Yousaf will send you your own copy of A Heart for God. Your gift will allow leading the way to continue proclaiming the Gospel in 28 languages, leading the laws to Christ, and strengthening Christians in their faith. If you'd like to order by phone, call 866-626-4356. One of the helpful ministry representatives at the call center can assist you, 866-626-4356. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousaf.