Illus: There used to be a song that some churches in the South liked to sing called, “I woke up this morning feeling fine! I woke up with heaven on my mind.” But I have a confession, sometimes I wake up and I am not feeling fine, and I certainly do not have heaven on my mind.
Generally, when we wake up like this we have an attitude problem.
Illus: One man’s wife seemed to have a lot of “bad attitude” days in her life, and he bought her a mood ring to monitor the mood she was in day by day.
A friend asked him if it worked. He said it did! He said that –
• When she is in a good mood it turns green
• When she is in a semi-good mood it turns yellow
• When she is in a bad mood it leaves a big red mark on my forehead
Illus: Husbands can all be thankful that a list of things has been compiled so that we can tell when our wife is in a bad mood. When we see these changes in her life we better be ready for a hard day.
• When she stops reading Glamour magazine and starts reading Guns and Ammo magazine, we know we are in for a bad day
• When she considers chocolate a major FDA food group we know we are in for a bad day
• When she's developed a new talent for spinning her head around in 360 degree circles we know we are in for a bad day
• When she retains more water than Lake Superior we know we are in for a bad day.
• When she denies she's in a bad mood as she pops a clip into her semiautomatic, we know we are in for a bad day
• When she buys us a new T-shirt -- with a bulls-eye on the front, we know we are in for a bad day
• When you ask her to please pass the salt at the dinner table and she says, "All I ever do is give, give, give! AM I SUPPOSED TO DO EVERYTHING?", you know you are in for a bad day
• When she orders 3 Big Macs, 4 large fries, a bucket of Chicken McNuggets, and then throws a hammer-lock on the manager because they're out of Diet Coke, we know we are in for a bad day.
We all have GOOD and BAD days.
• Have you noticed that good attitudes are contagious? For example, you can go into a place whistling and smiling and soon others will be doing the same.
• But have you also noticed that bad attitudes are contagious? You can go into a place griping and bellyaching and soon others will be doing the same.
We try to avoid the people with bad attitudes.
• We have to make allowances for some who occasionally have a bad day. The reason we have to make allowances for them is because if we do not, we will not have any friends!
• But listen, it seems that some have a bad attitude 365 days a year.
The best thing we can do with people like this is to keep as much distance as we can between us and them, because they have a rotten attitude about everything.
Illus: They remind me of some children that decided they were going to play tricks on their Grandpa when he took a nap. When he was asleep, the kids decided to put Limburger cheese in his mustache. Quite soon he awoke sniffing.
• He said “Why, this room stinks!”
• He went into the kitchen and he said, “This room stinks!” He decided to go outside on the front porch to get some fresh air.
• Much to Grandpa’s surprise, the open air brought no relief, and he proclaimed, “The whole world stinks!”
There are folks like this. They are convinced that, “The whole world stinks!” They don’t have anything good to say about anyone or anything. The best thing we can do with people like this is STAY AWAY FROM THEM! WHY? Because WE BECOME LIKE THOSE WE ASSOCIATE WITH.
Illus: A man that had a very bad attitude about his work decided he was going to quit his job and find another one. He went into the office and gave them his two weeks notice. But he was surprised because when he gave his two weeks notice, they told him they would pay him for two weeks, but they wanted him to go back to his desk, pack up his belongings and leave immediately.
DO YOU KNOW WHY THEY WANTED HIM TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY?
Because if he was allowed to stay two more weeks, he would have complained and bellyached the whole two weeks. The company decided it would be best to pay him for the two weeks and get him out of the company as fast as they could. A BAD ATTITUDE AFFECTS EVERYONE!
Illus: You have heard the old saying around the house, “When Mamma is not happy, nobody is happy!” That is not only true about Mamma, that is true about everyone.
If we are in a bad mood, it has a way of DRIFTING into other people’s lives. It is like cigarette smoke.
Illus: You can walk into many restaurants and they will ask you, “Smoking or No-Smoking”? I always ask them to place me in the “Chewing” section because that is what I came to do.
But what is strange about the sections in a restaurant is that they call one section “Smoking” and the other section “Non-Smoking”, and there is no wall to keep the smoke out of the non-smoking area, It is like all cigarette smoke is supposed to know, YOU CAN NOT GO OVER THERE! THEY DO NOT WANT YOU!
Illus: A preacher was riding on a plane filled with people and cigarette smoke.
The preacher knew he would have to take a bath and send his clothes to the cleaners once he got off the airplane.
He felt like he had been charcoal-broiled, Burger King style.
Suddenly he turned to a woman and said, "Would you like to chew my gum for awhile?" The lady was insulted. "What in the world do you mean?" she snapped.
The preacher calmly replied by saying, "I’ve been smoking your secondhand smoke for the last four hours. I thought you might want to chew my secondhand gum for a few minutes."
A bad attitude affects everyone.
Illus: Moses sent the spies to check the Promised Land, and ten of the spies came back with a bad attitude. They said, “We are like grasshoppers in the land, we had better run and hide.”
Joshua and Caleb came back with a good attitude. They said that “WE ARE WELL ABLE TO POSSESS THE LAND LET’S GO AT ONCE.”
The children of Israel listened to the wrong crowd and they suffered in the wilderness for forty years.
I am here to tell you that a BAD ATTITUDE affects everyone. It is a BAD THING TO HAVE and it is a DANGEROUS THING TO BE AROUND.
The Bible records men and women who had different kinds of attitudes. For example, Jonah had some GOOD and BAD ATTITUDES. Let me share with you some of the attitudes he had. The attitudes that we see in his life can also be seen in our lives. For example, he had:
I. A REBELLIOUS ATTITUDE
Look at Jonah 1:1-2 we read “Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
God the Creator told Jonah that he wanted him to go to Nineveh and preach to them. The Bible does not say WHAT HE SAID, but his response was similar to what we say in the South, “I ain’t a gonna to do it!”
“Preacher, that is bad grammar.” Yes, but this is a bad attitude also. When you ask some folks to do something, it seems that they have already made up their mind that they are not going to do it.
Jonah, as a prophet of God, had God’s message and was determined that he was not going to deliver it, even though the message came from the Lord.
You can show some folks something in the Word of God and still you can not convince them to do what God wants them to do.
Illus: A husband and wife were arguing about who should wake up and brew the coffee.
The wife said, “If you are the man of the house, the least you could do is get up early and brew the coffee in the morning.”
The man said, “Listen, I am the man of the house, but brewing the coffee is something a woman should do.”
She said, “It is not, the Bible clearly teaches that it is the job of the man to brew the coffee.”
He said, “Oh yea! Where does it say in the Bible that a man should brew the coffee?” She grabbed her Bible and said, “Let me see, it says right here ‘He-brews’”.
God told Jonah that he was to get up and go to Nineveh, but still he would not go. Jonah made many mistakes, but this has to go down as the biggest mistake he ever made.
Look at Jonah 1:3, “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”
Nobody can flee from the presence of the Lord, but he certainly tried just like many today are trying. God does not let us get away with this REBELLIOUS ATTITUDE.
Look at verse 4, we read, “But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”
WHY DOESN’T GOD ALLOW US TO GET AWAY WITH REBELLION? He loves us too much.
Prov. 13:15 we read, “…But the way of transgressors is hard.” God makes the way of transgressors hard because He loves the transgressor.
Look at Proverbs 3:11-12, we read, “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”
Listen, we can rebel against God if we so desire, but God has something prepared for us to teach us a lesson. GOD HAS PROMISED TO CHASTEN US! HE KNOWS HOW TO CHASTEN US!
We have parents today who have rebellious children and they are scratching their heads and saying, “I do not know what to do.” But some of us old timers were blessed with parents who knew what to do.
Jonah was rebelling against God and God was not in heaven saying, “I do not know what to do”, God knew what to do! Look at verse 17, God prepared something for Jonah to get his attention and he got it. God is in charge of taking care of us, and he lays out just the right amount of discipline for us.
We see that Jonah had A REBELLIOUS ATTITUDE and he had -
II. A REPENTANT ATTITUDE
Look at Jonah 2:1, we read, “Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly.”
God chastises those who have A REBELLIOUS ATTITUDE.
• Jonah did not pray when he ran from God according to the scriptures
• It does not appear that Jonah prayed in the midst of the storm
• But in the bottom of the fish’s belly, Jonah prayed
Have you noticed that when hard times come:
• People that did not have time for God, now have time for God.
• People that did not want to talk about God, now want to talk about Him
• People that did not care a thing about God’s church, now can’t do enough for God’s church
Sometimes God has to PREPARE A BIG STORM or a BIG WHALE TO SWALLOW US, and when He does, we are ready to get right with God.
Jonah, who was running from God, wanted to get as far away as he could. But now he is running to God in prayer, desiring to get as close as he can. Look at verse 7, we read, “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.”
Jonah is not only sorry he got caught, he is sorry for what he did. Jonah is sorry for his disobedience. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT? Because he is now ready to obey the Lord.
Look at Jonah 3:1-3, we read, “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.”
Listen, God knows exactly what kind of a storm to send into our life, and when God gets through with us, we will wish we had obeyed at the beginning.
Some of the most spiritual people I have ever encountered, were people who said “No” to God over and over again, until God sent a storm into their life and God got their attention.
Illus: Years ago, a man had no time for God in his life until he went to the doctor one day, and the doctor told him he had a terminal brain tumor. The last six months of his life, he was the most spiritual man I have ever known.
God can get your attention. We can live our life as if we are God, but He can get our attention and convince us that He is Almighty God, and He is calling the shots!
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger says that when he was around 15 or 16, he was like all young boys, he thought he had become a man. He was told to do something in school, and he decided he did not want to do it. He was sent to the principal’s office for his rebellion.
The principal’s office was in a large building. You passed through a receptionist’s office to get to it. Behind the principal’s office was a conference room.
Because of his rebellion, the Principal took a paddle off the wall and gave him a few licks. Being a football player he did not have much mercy. Dr. Belger said to the Principal, “If you hit me again, I am going to hit you back.” The principal, being a very big man, said, “Step back here into my conference room!”
As a student, he thought he had won this battle because now the principal wanted to have a discussion. He tucked his shirt tail in and adjusted his wind breaker as he walked into the conference room. As he walked toward conference table, he heard the door shut and he knew that the principal had told him a lie, he did not come back there to talk, he came back there to take care of some business, and he turned him every way but loose. As he was walking toward the conference table the principal immediately took his hand and pushed him over the conference table and took a good portion of his body and sat on him and then it seemed that for the next 20 to 30 minutes he began to work on his bottom.
He said later, “What this fellow did to me would qualify for a major lawsuit today. But I was too ashamed to show anyone what he did!” He said he could not tell his dad, because his dad had a policy that if you got a licking at school, when you got home you got another one.
That took place when he was in the 10th grade and he didn’t get into any more trouble that year.
When he entered the 11th grade, he made sure that he did not rebel against the teacher because he could remember that awful day in his life.
When the 12th grade came, he still behaved because he did not want to go back to that office, he was still having flash backs of that day.
That principal taught him that he was not tough, he just thought he was. He and that principal never had any dealings again. When he graduated, the principal walked over to him and said, “I want to wish you the very best!”
Dr. Belger said, “If that man walked in here today and told me to do something, I would do it! He made a believer out of me.”
I want you to know that God the Father knows how to make a believer out of you also. He can prepare a STORM to come our way to get our attention.
• When God got through with Jonah, he wished he had obeyed God!
• When God got through with Jonah, he found out he was not as tough as he thought he was!
His attitude of REBELLION changed to REPENTANCE.
Today we hear about folks joining churches, but we hear very little about people repenting.
WHY IS IT NOT BEING PREACHED?
Because many pastors that want their churches to grow, know that there are many people out there that want to be told you can be a CHILD OF GOD and still live like a CHILD OF THE DEVIL.
But I am here to tell you that this Bible teaches REPENTANCE. REPENTANCE IS IMPORTANT! Jonah would not have been spared unless he had repented.
When God got through with Jonah he not only BELIEVED IN REPENTANCE, he also believed in RESTITUTION. He was willing to go to Nineveh and obey the Lord. Listen, REAL REPENTANCE brings about RESTITUTION. He was now willing to make things right by going to Nineveh.
It is a wonderful thing to see a man or woman repent of their sins and then begin to make things right.
Conclusion:
When Jonah, this backslidden preacher, got his attitude straightened out, God did some marvelous things.
The biggest miracle in this book is not:
• Jonah being swallowed by the whale
• The huge gourd that grew in a day
The biggest miracle in this book is the greatest revival in the history of mankind. The entire city repented and came to God.
Illus: Church members may be divided into three classes: Wishbones, Jawbones, and Backbones.
• The wishbones are always wishing and hoping that their church will somehow grow, but without their effort
• The jawbones talk a lot, but do little
• The backbones do the work
God wants to make you a vital part of this church. He wants to make you part of the backbone of this church. IS YOUR ATTITUDE GOOD?
We see that Jonah had an attitude –
I. A REBELLIOUS ATTITUDE
II. A REPENTANT ATTITUDE
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger preach some of his sermons on Youtube. Type Youtube Lykesland
