Title: When We Are Angry With God
Text: Jonah 4:1-11
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Introduction:
- Have you ever been angry with God before?
- We all have and expressed our displeasure for being in a situation that God could get us out of.
- Jonah, was angry with God because he believed that God would move powerfully in his situation.
- So a question that comes to mind is why would Jonah be angry with God?
- When God used Jonah so powerfully, why did Jonah act in anger towards God?
- He knew God would deliver the people of Nineveh and for some reason that angered him.
- Those feelings made him leave for Tarshish instead of Nineveh.
- Now we know it’s not wrong to express our feelings towards God, because God knows how we feel.
- It only becomes a problem when we start acting out how we feel, and Jonah gives us that example when he flees to Tarshish in anger.
- Then he gets angry with God for forgiving Nineveh when he obeys God and pronounces God’s message to the people.
- We need to continue to obey God, even when we don’t understand what God is doing.
- We need to continue to be faithful with God and trust in Him, understanding that He has everything under control.
Transition:
- What do we learn about God when Jonah was angry?
Point 1: We Learn That God Is All Powerful (vs 1-3)
I read about a small Oklahoma town that had two churches and one distillery. Members of both churches complained that the distillery was giving the community a bad imagine. And to make matters worse the owner of the distillery was an out spoken atheist. He didn’t believe in God one bit. The church people had tried unsuccessfully for years to shut down the distillery. So finally they decided to hold a joint Saturday night prayer meeting. They were going to ask God to intervene and settle the matter.
The church folks gathered on Saturday night and there was a horrible thunderstorm raging outside and to the delight of the church members lightening hit that old brewery and it burned to the ground.
The next morning the sermons in both churches was on the power of prayer.
But the insurance adjusters promptly notified the distillery owner that they were not going to pay for the damages because the fire was an act of God and that was an exclusion in the policy.
The distillery owner was furious and he sued both churches claiming that they had conspired with God to destroy his business. But the churches denied that they had anything to do with the cause of the fire.
The presiding judge opened the trial with theses words: “ I find one thing in this cause most perplexing-we have a situation here where the plaintiff, an atheist is professing his belief in the power of prayer, and the defendants all faithful church members are denying the very same power.”
- Verse 2 is the key verse for this first point
- It’s one thing to be angry at God when things don’t go right, but to be angry because there is revival and we see the compassion and mercy of God in action is another.
- Jonah is angry with God not because He was doing powerful things, but because Jonah is not committed to God’s plan for mercy.
- We can be committed to God’s moving in church and in our families, but we don’t like the process God takes to get us there.
- Some Christians don’t even like the fact of other people getting saved or coming into the church because it messes things up.
- May that never happen us.
Point 2: We Learn That God Is Concerned For The Church And The World (Vs 4-6)
- We learn from the first point that God is concerned for Nineveh, but in these verses, God is also concerned for your family.
- Jonah represents the nation of Israel, and God is concerned for Jonah’s well being just as He is concerned for Nineveh, a Gentile Nation.
- God is not just concerned for a certain people, but all people.
- God is not just concerned for the Pentecostal people, but is concerned for all people.
- God is concerned for all denominations.
- We should not be angry with God because He is moving in other churches, where people are getting saved and restored, rather we should be happy and rejoice.
In his book, In the Heavenlies, Dr. Harry Ironside tells the story of an attempted assassination of Queen Elizabeth I. The woman who sought to do so dressed as a male page and secreted herself in the queen’s boudoir awaiting the convenient moment to stab the queen to death. She did not realize that the queen’s attendants would be very careful to search the rooms before Her Majesty was permitted to retire. They found the woman hidden among the gowns and brought her into the presence of the queen, taking from her the poignard she had hope to plant in the heart of the sovereign. She realized that, humanly speaking, her case was hopeless. She threw herself down on her knees and pleaded and begged the queen as a woman to have compassion on her, a woman, and to show her grace. Queen Elizabeth looked at her coldly and quietly said, "If I show you grace, what promise will you make for the future?" The woman looked up and said, "Grace that hath conditions, grace that is fettered by precautions, is not grace at all." Queen Elizabeth caught it in a moment and said, "You are right. I pardon you of my grace." And they led her away, a free woman. History tells us that from that moment Queen Elizabeth had no more faithful, devoted servant than that woman who had intended to take her life. That is exactly the way the grace of God works in the life of an individual--he or she becomes a faithful servant of God.
Point 3: We Learn That God Has A Plan That Involves Us (vs 7-11)
- God had a plan for Jonah, a perfect will for Him to do.
- But Jonah was more concerned for his own physical comfort then God’s will for the city of Nineveh.
- We cannot see God’s plan when we don’t see us, in His plan.
- When we don’t see us in His plan, it can be a direct result of our selfishness, such was the case with Jonah.
- He did not want God to spare the Ninevites, and he himself did not want to be a part of it.
- Jonah was angry that God had decided to forgive the Ninevites; he did not want God to spare this enemy of Israel.
- The problem Jonah had was that he was not dedicated first to God’s will.
- He was more concerned about Israel’s physical security which he was a part of.
- How does that apply today?
- People can be committed to the success of the church, yet not really be committed to God’s will, purposes and holy standards as revealed in the Bible. Let me explain with this story:
If you saw the movie with Tom Hanks entitled Cast Away, you know who Wilson is. Wilson is a volleyball which floated ashore in a package after the FedEx plane, in which Hanks was riding, crashed into the sea during a bad storm. Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a fast-paced FedEx executive who gets stranded on a remote island in the South Pacific after his plane crashes, with little chance for survival. In trying to survive, he tries to start a fire with a sharp stick and cuts his hand severely. In anger, he takes the volleyball and throws it as hard as he can. When it lands he sees that his bloody hand has made an imprint which looks like a fiery head. With his finger he fashions a face in the blood — an idol, if you will. He talks to his new friend. You could even say he prays to Wilson as he attempts to make a fire. All through the film he communicates with this volleyball, asking his help and currying his friendship. The interesting thing is that nowhere in the film does Tom Hanks every talk to God. He prays to the volleyball, but never to God. Now, you have to ask yourself why he has more trust in a volleyball than God. But then you have to ask why other people trust in all kinds of things rather than God. They will talk to their friends. They will call Dr. Laura. They will read a self-help book. But they will not come to Jesus. Maybe the key word here is “self-help.” We have more trust in self-help than God’s help.
Conclusion:
- Jonah was angry not just because God moved in a powerful way, but because He was not committed to God’s will.
- God has a plan for this world, and you are included to fulfill that plan.
- The only way we are going to fulfill that plan is if we work together and get committed to what God wants and not what we want.
- Jonah had his own plan for things and it didn’t include the world, but only the nation of Israel.
- Are you committed to God’s will?
- Does your relationship with God only go as far as this church, your family?
- Does your relationship with God extend to delivering the message to other people who don’t know?
- If we are the later, we will find ourselves becoming angry when God is moving in the hearts of those who never heard the gospel.
- My encouragement to you is simply this, and it’s found in verse 11 and God says, “Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals!”
