SHOULD I NOT BE CONCERNED?
Years ago, there was found in an African mine the most magnificent diamond in the world's history. It was presented to the king of England to blaze in his crown. The king sent it to Amsterdam to be cut. It was put into the hands of an expert gem cutter. And do you know what he did with it? He took the priceless jewel, and cut a notch in it. Then he struck a hard blow with his instrument and the diamond lay in his hand broken in two. Did he do this out of recklessness, wastefulness, and criminal carelessness? Indeed not! For days and weeks that blow had been studied and planned. Drawings and models had been made of the gem. Its quality, its defects, its lines of separation had all been studied with minutest care. The man to whom it was committed was one of the most skillful gem cutters in the world. Was that blow a mistake? No! It was the climax of his skill. When he struck that blow, he did the one thing which would bring that gem to its most perfect shape, radiance, and jeweled splendor. That blow which seemed to ruin the superb precious stone was, in fact, its perfect redemption. From those two halves were wrought two magnificent gems which the skilled eye of the craftsman saw hidden in the rough, uncut stone as it came from the mine.
Sometimes, God lets a stinging blow fall upon your life. The blood spurts; the nerves wince. The soul cries out in agony. The blow seems to you an appalling mistake. But it is not, for you are the most priceless jewel in the world to God. And He is the most skilled craftsman in the universe. Let us beware of questioning the methods and approaches of almighty God. We lie in His hands, and He knows just how to deal with us.
Jonah 4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee 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, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4 But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?" 5 Jonah went 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. 6 Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine 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. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live." 9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die." 10 But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
1. Concern for God’s Plan (vs. 1-5)
Jonah was angry with God for sparing the lives of the Asyrians. God’s grace and the fact that He might spare them was part of the reason that he had run away in the first place. Jonah saw what they as a nation had done, and knew what they were going to do. He wanted them to be judged and suffer. God had a different plan.
There will be things that happen to you in life that are out of your control – things that will bring you pain. At times like that it is easy to cry out to God and blame Him for the pain you are going through. Have you ever questioned God’s plans for your life.
The will of God will never lead to where the grace of God cannot keep you.
Jonah's sulking disappointment came from a failure of imagination, a failure of heart. He had no idea what God was doing -- the largeness of his love and mercy and salvation. He had reduced his vocation to his own performance -- he was in the right place, doing the right thing -- but he interpreted everything through his Jonah ideas, his Jonah desires. -- Eugene Peterson
Years ago Naomi and I took the kids to Marineland. We went on the kid’s Ferris Wheel and I could see that one of our kids, who was then 3, was getting scared and ready to cry. I tried to catch her attention, and finally she caught my eye, and I was smiling and yelling, "Hey, this is fun!" When she saw that I was not terrified, but smiling, she also began to smile. What was once terrifying, became enjoyable--even fun! I thought how our Heavenly Father will "put us on some scary rides" in life, not really to terrify us, but to cause us to catch His eye, to teach us that He is in control and we can trust Him.
Scott Krippayne has a wonderful song that says:
Sometimes He calms the storms with a whispered "Peace...be still."
He can settle any sea but it doesn't mean He will.
Sometimes He holds us close and lets the wind and waves go wild.
Sometimes He calms the storm, other times He calms His child.
2. Concern for God’s Plant (vs. 6-8)
Jonah was not only angry with God because He had spared the Assyrians, he was also angry with God because He had allowed a worm to eat away the thing that brought him comfort. Think about this. Jonah was angry about the loss of something that did not belong to him in the first place. He did not own the vine. He did not plant it or make it grow. The vine was a gift from God. It belonged to Him, and because it belonged to God it was His to give or to take away.
We often take for granted in life the things that are truly gifts and do not take notice of them until they are gone. We assume that because we are following God and seeking to do His will that we will have comfort. Comfort comes in many different forms.
For some people this may be the comfort of religious tradition. They want the church to meet their needs in the way that is most familiar to them. So, as long as they sing the right hymns and say the right things and meet their needs they are happy, but as soon as that comfort is removed there is anger. The problem is, the church does not exist just to meet your needs. It exists to shine the light of Christ. The church does not belong to you, it belongs to Jesus, so really He can do with it as He likes.
For some people comfort comes in the form of financial security. As long as I have lots of money then I have the security and freedom to do what I want. When the stock market crashes or they loose their money they cry out to heaven “why is this happening to me?” Remember the parable Jesus told;
Luke 12:17-20 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18 Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ' 20 But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
The reality is that the money and things that we have in life does not belong to us, it belongs to God. Every dollar in your bank account belongs to Jesus. That is why God has told us we should tithe. It is just a way to constantly remind us that the things we think we own belong to God and He get’s final say in what we do with it.
For some people their comfort is physical health. They think that as long as they eat right and exercise (which are good things) that they guarantee themselves a long life. However, every breath and every heartbeat is a gift from God. No person here knows if today will be the last day they live. We grieve with Pastor Shirley over the loss of her husband Thomas. They were all in India together celebrating as a family. Thomas seemed to be getting a cold so he went to the hospital to get some antibiotics. He never made it, he just closed his eyes and died on the way. In an instant, he was gone. Life is like that. God has never guaranteed us a long life. Every moment is a gift that should not be taken for granted.
There are times in life when God will allow things in life to happen which will bring us discomfort. God has not called us to a life of care-free living without struggle. If we are going to truly be witnesses for Christ then God calls us to a level of commitment that will bring discomfort. Growth in Christ always has with it a level of discomfort.
A man confined to bed because of a lingering illness had on his sunlit windowsill a cocoon of a beautiful species of butterfly. As nature took its course, the butterfly began its struggle to emerge from the cocoon. But it was a long, hard battle. As time went by, the struggling insect seemed to make almost no progress. Finally, the human observer, thinking that something had gone wrong, took a pair of scissors and snipped the opening larger. The butterfly crawled out, but that's all it ever did--crawl. The pressure of the struggle was intended to push colorful, life-giving juices back into the wings, but the man in his supposed mercy prevented this. The insect never was anything but a misshaped worm, and instead of flying on rainbow wings above the beautiful gardens, it was condemned to spend its brief life crawling in the dust. That gives me the idea that God knows what He is doing. It's a fact that you can depend on Him--even when it seems the struggle is hard and meaningless.
3. Concern for God’s People (vs. 10-11)
The book of Jonah ends with an amazing picture. The city of Nineveh has just been saved. Countless thousands of people’s lives spared. The bible says there is rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, so we can only imagine the great celebration that is taking place in the heavens all around. And in the middle of it all we see Jonah, sitting there sulking, wanting to die.
Jonah was totally focused on his own problems. God spared the Assyrians - what would that mean for his people and the nation of Israel? God took away his vine – now he had to sit in the hot sun. That reminds me a lot of my own life sometimes. Completely self-absorbed in my own plan and in my own comfort when all around me are countless souls who face God’s judgment.
Sometimes we become so focused on our own little worlds that we fail to see what God is doing all around us and around the world. I have to say as a pastor that is true of me. It is so easy to get busy and loose focus. So often we can miss the forest because all we see is our own little tree.
The central message of the book of Jonah is that God’s heart is for lost people and not the comfort of Jonah. He has a bigger plan and His agenda is far greater than the comfort of one miserable prophet.
What does God want from you? We said last week that God has a plan for your life. He wants to use you for something greater that you could have ever imagined. God is concerned for the peoples of this earth. He sees the billions of people who are going to hell without ever hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. He sees the millions starving because of wars and greed. He longs for the day when all things will be made new, when the Gospel will be preached and every nation, tribe and tongue will be represented before His throne.
As terrible as the picture is of a city and the heavens rejoicing around a sulking prophet, an equally terrible picture is that of a community of believers rejoicing while completely ignoring a lost broken person. Like the video we started with this morning, we have to have a heart for the people around us.
The book of Jonah ends with an important question. They are strong words from God which I believe rang through the ears of Jonah for a long time and which should been ringing in the ears of every child of God, “Should I not be concerned about that great city”. God’s heart is for the poor and oppressed. He weeps for those who are lost and helpless. To be a follower of Him is to have His heart.
In 1985, the city of New Orleans was throwing a party at one of the city swimming pools. They were celebrating that there had never been a drowning at any city pool in New Orleans. At this party were over 200 guests, and 100 lifeguards. Everybody was celebrating this great achievement. But as the party was breaking up and the last bunch of guests were leaving, someone saw the body of thirty-one year old Jerome Moody floating face down in the pool. So many lifeguards but they missed what was right in front of them. Sometimes the church is like that – we do a lot of celebrating while people are drowning all around us.
Should I not be concerned? Am I concerned? Do I really care? Am I so caught up in my own plans and comfort that I am totally missing what God is doing around me and what God wants to do through me?
Jesus mentioned the book of Jonah as a warning in the New Testament;
Matthew 12:38-41 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you." 39 He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
Remember that Jesus was not speaking here to pagan idol worshippers. He was speaking to Israelites, he was speaking to religious people. God has given us a choice. God loves us, He has a plan for our lives and wants to use us to change the world, but we have a choice. Jesus is calling us to be salt and light in this city, but we can either obey that call or run from it.
Inspired by the life of William Carey, Adoniram Judson was the first American Baptist missionary to Burma. He set out on June 17, 1812. His goal was to translate the bible into the native language and plant a church with 100 members before his death. Upon his arrival he built a hut and had many open meetings, but in his first 7 years he had very little impact. The first believer was baptized in 1819. After 12 years only a handful had come to faith.
In 1824 war broke out with England, so the Burmese arrested Judson because he was light-skinned and English-speaking. He was marched through the jungle to a vermin infested death prison. Clouds of mosquitoes feasted on the raw flesh of his feet and legs. He was beaten and abused. Treatment like this went on for almost two years. All the other British captives that were with him died. Finally, the war ended and he was released.
A few months after his release, Judson’s wife, weakened by smallpox, died of fever, and shortly after that their baby daughter also died. Judson nearly had a breakdown. He would kneel by his wife’s grave for hours each day, regardless of weather. He built a one-room hut in the jungle and morosely dug his own grave in case it might prove necessary, and worked in solitude on a translation of the Bible in the Burmese language.
His life and work inspired others to come and join him in Burma. He died there in 1850 at the age of 61 after 37 years in service. His goal had been to plant a church with 100 members and translate the bible before he died. By the time he died there were more than 100 churches with over 8000 believers. Today in Myanmar, more than 1 million Burmese Christians trace their spiritual roots to Adoniram Judson.
His translation of the bible is still the most popular one in use today. In the 1950s the prime minister of Burma told the Burmese Christian Council “a new translation of the bible is not necessary. Judson’s version captures the language and idioms of Bumese perfectly and is very clear and understandable.” The Burmese-English dictionary he compiled, now over 200 years old, remains the official dictionary of Myanmar today.
Each July the churches in Myanmar celebrate Judson day, commemorating his arrival as a missionary.
Why did Adoniram Judson do it? Why did he leave the comfort of his home and travel around the world and die in a foreign nation? Why did so many others follow him, only to die shortly after arriving of disease? He did it because he was not so concerned with his own comfort as he was for the people. He loved them because God loved them.
God may be calling you to get up and move to the ends of the earth today, but certainly He is calling us to the people who live around us. Should we not be concerned about Brampton?
