Today, on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. As we come to Jonah chapter 4, we meet a man with an attitude. You say God's prophets? God's messenger, a preacher with an attitude? Yes.
Those who serve God Those who preach can have ungodly attitudes, and Jonah is a man of deep emotions, but also. ungodly emotions. Welcome to the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Senior Pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Despite the mighty works of God in his life, Does it surprise you that Jonah still has problems?
Today, we're concluding our study of Jonah and seeing how men and women of God can still struggle, even when God is at work in their lives.
Now here's Pastor John Monroe with our series finale. titled A Man with an Attitude. Today we're completing our study of the book of Jonah. and their series on this runaway prophet. Here is Jonah, a man who tries to run away from God.
but discovers that it is impossible to escape God. He then finds himself in the middle of a big fish in the middle of the Mediterranean. he cries out to God to deliver him. And God graciously gives him a second chance.
Now Jonah, instead of running away from God, obeys God and preaches in the city of Nineveh. The Ninevites repent. But Jonah, instead of rejoicing, has a lot of bad attitudes. After everything Jonah has been through, his attitude is disappointing. But it's easy to be like Jonah.
Let's learn today how godly perspectives display critical and unhelpful attitudes. Here we learn in Jonah chapter 4 that Jonah has several bad attitudes. Here's the first one. Jonah is angry with God. Verse 1, it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.
Jonah wants Nineveh to experience God's judgment and God's vengeance. rather than God's grace and compassion. Nineveh is wicked, it's violent, Lord. It's the enemy. They need to be judged rather than receiving your grace and your forgiveness.
and your compassion. And when the judgment of God doesn't fall on Nineveh, He's angry. He's angry with God. Secondly, Jonah is small-minded and narrow-minded. There are two while I was still in my own country.
Jonah is very much concerned with Jonah. He loves Jonah. He, Jonah, is entitled to the Lord's blessing, he thinks. The Ninevites, they should be judged by God. How could you, God, grant mercy to such people?
First bad attitude, anger. Second, bad attitude, small mindedness. Third, bad attitude, discouragement. Jonah is discouraged. In Jonah chapter four, this prophet.
This mouthpiece of the Lord has turned into a bit of a whiner. A bit of a complainer. He's discouraged. There's a fourth bad attitude. It is self-pity.
Of course, these are all interrelated. End of verse three. Oh Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life. Come on, Joanna. Come on.
self-pity. Anger. discouragement, small mindedness, Self-pity. What's the answer to all of these bad attitudes? Is there a solution?
You say you just shrug them off, snap out of them, discuss them with your therapist. What are we to do? know a godly perspective. dispels bad attitudes. All of us.
have bad attitudes at times. Want to tell you that a godly perspective dispels bad attitudes. Three of them. First of all, And very, very important, the perspective of God's sovereign purposes. And understanding that God is sovereign will dispel bad attitudes.
You say, What do we mean by God's sovereignty? When we speak of God's sovereignty, we mean that God is the absolute ruler over everything, He is the supreme power over the whole universe. God is sovereign. Do you notice in verse seventeen of chapter one What do we read? And the Lord appointed a great fish.
Okay. Who appointed the great fish? Who provided the great fish? The Lord. Chapter four, verse six, the Lord appointed the same word, a plant.
Verse 7, God appointed a worm. He's always in control. He rules over the fall of a sparrow, says Jesus. Do you not understand? There is not one sparrow that falls to the ground apart from your Father's will.
How wonderful. And you And Jonah. And myself, we are of much more value to God than many, many sparrows. He rules over the fall of a sparrow, and he rules over the fall of an empire. And God is so great that in a moment He can bring the greatest superpower and the world to its knees.
He's the supreme ruler over all of human history and over all of eternity. And if that is true, and it is. Why have a bad attitude? 'Cause things aren't going right in your life. Why not accept them from the good hand of God?
As Job says, if we accept the good from God, should we not also accept the evil? You say, Well, I'd rather be in control of my own life, really. Would you? Do you think you can run your life better than God? Do you really want to be in control?
As I've witnessed to people, particularly men, some of them have honestly said, you know, this is very attractive, but quite honestly, I don't like the idea of handing over control of my life to the Lord. I want to control my own destiny. I understand that. At a human level, so do I. You want to be in charge, you want to be in control.
Listen, you're not in control. What are you in control of? You're not in control of your health. You're not in control of your business. Don't tell me you're in control of your wealth.
Your children, you gotta be kidding. You know, I didn't control at all. Who can run your life better, God or you? Obviously. God.
Get out of the driver's seat then. Hello, God. At the wheel. God always strives best. He knows the way to go.
He never gets lost. He never has to stop and get out of the vehicle and ask for directions. He knows exactly where he's going. You want to run your own life?
Some of you have done that. And you've made a disaster, you've crashed, you've hit the bottom. You've made a bad turn. You've gone into a tail spin, you've toiled your life. No, God.
Is sovereign. And an understanding of God's sovereignty dispels this notion. Of self-pity. of discouragement of anger. when things don't go the way that we want.
My car, I drive a Volkswagen Passat, one point eight turbo, almost five years old, fifty five thousand miles, and I've driven just about every mile of that car myself. I like to drive, I like to be in control. I go to my car and I sit down and I take the wheel and I think I'm in control. There's another wheel in my car. that I've finally ever seen.
I know it's there. Occasionally I check it to make sure it's fine. But after driving 55,000 miles in my Volkswagen Passad, I've never needed. This particular wheel. It's a sphere wheel.
It's for emergencies. It's good to know it's there.
So, when I'm driving 70 miles down the interstate, because I would never break the law, as I'm driving 70 miles an hour down the interstate, I know that if something happens, I've got an emergency wheel. Isn't that perhaps how you view God? Nice to have God with you. But is that the back of your life? He's not at the steering wheel of your life.
No, he's there, and when things go wrong, you get down on your knees and you cry out to God. When your child is sick, when you lose your job, some problem comes to life, then you pray. But God is only for emergencies. That's not acknowledging the sovereignty of God. No, allow God.
To be in control, he is in control. Submit to that. That's why we say that Jesus Christ not only is our Savior, but He is Lord. He's Master, He's Supreme, He's Ruler. Never ever made one mistake in my life.
I have made many when I've driven myself. God Never. Makes a mistake. Submit to his will. Anger, discouragement, self pity are dispelled when we allow the truth of God's sovereignty to grip our souls.
This is living a God centred life. Jonah seemed to have security with that plant. He's very, very happy. Shows what kind of emotions he has, isn't he? Little Worm Comes takes away security.
You think you're secure? Secure in your work, secure in your health, family situation. Securing your wealth. Doesn't take much. God can use a little worm.
to take away your security. Why not understand that God is sovereignly in control even when life takes unexpected turns as it does? Because we learn deep truths through deep adversities. Our anger Our self-pity. Our discouragement is dispelled when we understand and experience.
But God is sovereign. and is always working for our good.
Now there is a second perspective. The perspective that God doesn't abandon us In our anger, in our self-pity, and our discouragement, God still cares for us. God still watches over us. Thank God for His. Grace.
Thank God that He does watch over us. In spite of Jonah's narrow-mindedness, in spite of his anger and his prejudice, the Lord continued to watch over him. Verse 6: The Lord appointed a plan. God's hand was still on Jonah. As we've seen before, Jonah was sometimes out of the will of God, but he was never out of the Lord's compassion.
Never out of the love of God. Isn't that wonderful to understand? We say praise God for that. Many of us have got off track. We've taken a bad turn, a foolish turn.
Out of the will of God, but never out of the love of God. And God has been gracious And God has been compassionate and God has been so patient with you, isn't He? He continues to love you even when you turn your back on him. He's watched you as you've run from him, as you've closed your ears to his voice. God is still watching over you.
It is true that God watches over the sparrow. And if his eye is on the sparrow, and it is, I know he watches me, and he watches you. He's watching you. He's caring for you. And that perspective that God doesn't abandon us, that God is watching over us, dispels.
these bad attitudes of anger, self-pity and discouragement and so on. Here's the third one. This is a tough one. the perspective of a godly value system. What's going to get rid of these bad attitudes?
A godly value system. Jonah's value system was really messed up, wasn't it? You see people are much more important than things. What gives Jonah happiness? Verse six.
Jonah was extremely happy about the salvation of the Ninevites no. Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.
Okay. Angry with God because God's grace was on the Ninevites. but happy with a plant. Don't be too hard on Jonah. I suspect many of us are like that.
Ticked off that God didn't judge the Ninevites, happy about a plant sheltering him from the sun. His comfort, his needs, are primary. He had more compassion for that plant. Then he had For the people and the animals of Nineveh. Verse 10: 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. And should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know the difference between the right and left hand, as well as many animals? There it is. I messed up value system. What's your value system?
What's important to you? Are we not sometimes like Jonah I remember when Guny and I were living in Scotland and I was practising law. the partnership, the law partnership where I was a partner, was doing very well, and every second year we received a new car. I must say I kinda like that. It's a good idea.
I know the session are meeting tomorrow night. I won't be there. But uh I just put that in. Not every year. I don't want to get a new car every year, but every second year, that's kind of nice.
Anyhow, That was a former life.
Okay. And Louis Palau, the well-known evangelist, came to Aberdeen, Scotland, where we stayed. for a crusade. And Goody and I were involved in the crusade. We acted as counselors.
Some of the team were staying in our home, and we were very involved. And every night, of course, we were at the crusade.
Well, during one of the evenings Uh that day I got delivery of my new car and I drove To the crusade that was being held in the football stadium of Aberdeen. And I parked the car outside the stadium. And as I was getting out, here was a young American that we had met. We didn't know much about Americans. Then I got out of my car, and to my great surprise, this A rather crazy American jumped in my car and said, John, I see you've got a new car, and he drove off in it.
The problem was he didn't know how to drive. He didn't know how to use uh a gear shift. Use an automatic car. I mean, he's gonna buy. A car automatic.
All of our cars, just about them, over ninety percent of them, have a shift. And he clashed my beautiful gearbox. I could hear it. He drove, put on the brakes fiercely, screeched her Uh Then spent a long time trying to get it into reverse again. Didn't know what a clutch was, obviously.
Trying to get it into reverse, clashing of gears comes back. And by the time he came back I was like Jonah. of verse one. It greatly displeased John and he became angry. And I thought, you know.
This is like a gorilla trying to drive my car. And so he came out of the car, and I did not exactly sing the doxology: praise God from whom all blessings flow. I had something else to say to this American. And then I locked my car. But my key in my pocket.
You ever experience these situations where you're then terribly convicted. Because I looked around me and here are hundreds, thousands of people. coming to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And my passion, my emotion was not for the salvation of people. My passion, my deep emotion, was that my car, which I had worked so hard for, which I'd got, was possibly being ruined by this insensitive American who didn't know about cars in the first place.
What was the problem? My value system. was messed up. You see that car, I don't know where it is now, probably on some scrap heap. A heap of rust Did it really matter?
No, of course it didn't matter. What mattered? We're lost souls. Where is my priority? On me, mine, what I had earned, what I was entitled to.
What we get upset about reveals a lot about us, doesn't it? What do you get upset about? Came in this morning and somebody was sitting on your favorite seat. Is it your needs, your comfort? Your life what you've earned, what you're entitled to.
Are you reaching out? to people around you who need Jesus Christ. reaching out with compassion. And grace. Loving things and using people, or loving people and using things.
What is it? Don't answer too quickly. People need Christ. But so often we're focused on ourselves, even as a church, focused on ourselves and our needs and our rights. Things don't last.
Whether it's a plant, a job, all the stuff you accumulate doesn't really matter, does it? What's your val value system? What are your priorities? when your value system is out of skew When things go wrong, to the things you possess, then you're going to have a bad attitude. Do you understand that everything that you have comes from the good hand of God?
As Job himself says, the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. What's the top of your value system? Jesus Christ, people? Or is it yourself?
Your things. Your future. Your pension. rather than Christ. We sometimes say take the world, but give me Jesus.
Really? Really? Could you really Give up all of that stuff as long as you had Jesus, really? Is that really what you believe? Or is that just a sentimental hymn?
No, people are more important than things. That's a value system to live by. That dispels selfish, ungodly, small-mindedness.
So that as we give, we set a budget as a church and we ask the people of God to give, and then we look at the return and we say, well, we've got all of these people coming. What's going wrong? It's not that we don't have the money, no. The problem is a value system. where it's ourselves, our security, Rather than giving generously as unto the Lord.
At this, the last message in the book of Jonah. Can I ask you to do business with God? God has spoken to you through these messages. The fact that Jonah wrote this book to me indicates and he tells us of his bad attitudes That's what makes him such an endearing character, isn't it? That means, I think, that he confessed these attitudes and he was changed by God's grace.
What's your response to this message? Any bitter, prejudiced, resentful, angry, hostile people here today? Anyone here with a bad attitude? Is there a root of bitterness which has grown up in your soul and is paralyzing your effectiveness? You're really ticked off.
Perhaps you're ticked off at this church, you're ticked off at the leadership, you're ticked off at someone who left this church, you're ticked off at someone who left this church, and then to your deep chagrin has come back to this church. You're really ticked off. And that bitterness It's paralysing your effectiveness. poisoning others. Will you confess that bad attitude?
You know in your heart it's sin. You know that you surely as a believer you want to extend God's grace to everyone? Do you understand that God is in control, that God is sovereign, that God loves you, that God will not abandon you? and have a godly value system. Have compassion for the lost.
Being more concerned with people than with material things And perhaps in this concluding message of Jonah, there's still a few like Jonah, you're still running away from God. I've told you over the weeks to stop running from God, to get right with God. Stop closing your ears to the voice of God. Stop. In God's name, stop running.
Do business with God. Perhaps years ago you received Christ as your Savior and you're just playing at being a Christian. And all the time, for years and years and years, you've been running from God. Stop. Get right with God.
Trust him. Love him with all of your heart. Serve him. Jonah was changed by God's grace. The Ninevites were changed by God's grace.
Have you been changed by God's grace? God has acted towards you in grace. If you got what you deserved, like the Ninevites, Like Jonah, like me. We'd all be condemned, we'd all be judged. But our Lord Jesus Christ came, God Himself, the sinless one, taking our judgment, our condemnation on the cross so that we may be forgiven.
Today receive Christ if you have never done it. As your personal Saviour and Lord. He will give you a hope. He'll give you a transformation. He'll give you a power, a new life.
And display and proclaim God's grace to this whole world. And let's go into this needy community and this needy world. with our hope in God. Telling people. that God So loved the world.
The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have. Everlasting. Like This is the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us.
From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever. but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource, John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at theverdict.org.
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The verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte. We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road. If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ, We invite you to join us for our Sunday services. For more details about Calvary and our service times, visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Take some time today to ask God to reveal if you have any bad attitudes. Don't resent people. but see them as souls needing the love of Christ. and the truth of God's Word.
May God's grace not only save you, but transform you into an instrument of His grace. Don't miss next time as we begin a new series called Next Steps in Following Jesus. Many of you may be following Jesus. What are the next steps? Or perhaps you're wondering what's involved in following Jesus.
Join me next time. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
