From Discouragement to Contentment

Turn to Jonah, chapter three.

Tonight, the person that was going to sing a special has fallen ill. And so this is what you get right here.

I am sorry for that.

But who would like to hear me sing a solo?

A couple, A few of my favorites?

Yes, they have said they want to hear me sing a solo.

Now we know who has bad judgment or bad hearing or is just against me and wants to see me embarrass myself.

It could be all three, I don't know.

But Jonah chapter three is what will be this evening.

And I hope this will be a help to you tonight.

I want to think about this topic.

Dealing with discouragement and discontentment.

Dealing with discouragement and discontentment.

Typically, when you hear messages preached from the book of Jonah, the focus is in Jonah chapter one and Jonah chapter two, which has a whole lot packed into it.

It's incredible how little Jonah is as far as it's just.

It's just two.

It's two and a half pages in my Bible, but it is jam packed full of good stuff.

And I'll tell you, chapter three and four hit hard.

They hit hard, I would say personally hits harder for me in chapter three and four than it does one and two.

Chapter three and four is after Jonah has already rebelled against God, run away.

And then God prepares a fish and the fish swallows up, or whale follow, swallows up Jonah, and then ends up spitting him out after he prays a prayer of repentance.

And so now you have Jonah, who is, you would imagine, a very repentant prophet and close to God.

He was brought to the depths of the earth, he said, and from the depths of the earth he prayed.

And God had that whale spit him out onto the shore.

And now he's where he was supposed to be all along.

He.

He is now in Nineveh, not by boat, but by the will of God Almighty, through a fish.

You can just imagine as he's walking there on shore thinking, well, that was quite a trip.

You think you've had some bad trip.

That was quite a trip.

Can you imagine?

Can you just.

Can you see him?

Can you smell him?

Can you imagine how bad it must have been?

And that's Jonah.

A lesson learned, you would think.

And so as we read Jonah chapter three, I want you to see in verse number one, we'll read the whole chapter, all 10 verses, it says, 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.

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey.

And he cried and said, and here's the message from the prophet of God yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Now that's the shortest message you can imagine ever hearing.

Can you imagine if I got up here and preached a message that short?

I can't either.

But that's what he did.

I would say that likely if this was all he truly preached.

I think that also may show his heart.

I see a lot of judgment here, but I don't see an appeal for people to turn to God.

And all correct preaching, when preached in this way with strong judgment, ought to have an appeal for people to follow and to come after and follow hard after God.

You don't see that here.

Now look at verse number five, please.

So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them.

For word came unto the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

Now this is what revival looks like, or this is what I don't know if should even say revival.

These were people that were not saved.

This is what it looks like when a nation comes to God.

And so in verse seven, and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything.

Let them not feed nor drink water.

This fast is even going to be appropriated to cattle.

He is not messing around.

He is taking no chances when it comes to the judgment that is imminent upon him and his people.

And then in verse number eight, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God.

Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands.

I love verse number nine.

Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?

I think I have an answer to verse number nine.

I think the answer is, Jonah, if there was one person that would have heard that prayer other than God himself, There was one person that knew how God would treat repentance in this severity.

And then it says here verse number 10.

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way.

And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not.

Now, let's look right into the very next verse.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly.

And he was very angry.

Do you know what that means?

It means that he burned inside.

That he was literally boiling up inside of him.

He was angry, upset.

He was mad at God.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine if I were to preach tonight and let's say 10 teenagers or 20 people within the congregation came and got their hearts right with God and repented, and then I walk out of here angry, mad and upset because God did what he did in their hearts?

That sounds ridiculous.

It sounds unbelievable, but it's way worse than that.

Here, an entire nation, from the top to the bottom, from the king to the cattle, show a sign of repentance.

And he is mad at God because God gave him the same thing that he had received in his own life.

The goodness, the grace and the mercy of God.

This guy was messed up.

This guy was messed up.

In chapter three and four, you really find out how messed up he was.

So this chapter is not just about Jonah.

I think when we read chapters like this, we should see ourselves and we should look at Scripture and ask ourselves, is there any Jonah in me?

Even faithful believers can become discouraged when they should be rejoicing.

Even longtime Christians can find themselves bitter when they should be boasting of God's goodness.

God's work in the Book of Jonah, I believe here, is twofold.

All throughout the Book of Jonah, you see God passionately pursuing a people that are far from him.

The Assyrians were very far from God.

But I also see a tender heart, God's heart, as he deals with, of all people, his own prophet.

And he's running after that prophet the whole way through the Book.

And he's seeking after this prophet's heart while bringing salvation to an entire nation.

And we have a picture more so of that one righteous heart than we do of the wicked sinners that came to him.

Let's see that heart tonight.

And let's ask ourselves, is any of that heart reflecting or reflect upon me first, let's consider this.

We should rejoice with those that rejoice.

Verse one again says, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

Check this prayer out, Verse number two.

And he prayed this prayer.

I'm sorry, this prayer is unbelievable.

I just want you to think about God's prophet and the setting of what all just took place.

This is his prayer to God.

And he prayed unto The Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country?

Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish God.

This.

This is why I didn't want to obey you and I didn't want to preach your word.

This is the very reason why.

And then he says, here's the reason.

For I what knew.

I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evil.

Whew.

What a prayer.

What a prayer.

Warrior.

Now, this is that fervent prayer, but in the wrong way.

The fervency is going the wrong direction, but it is fervent.

It's unbelievable.

But again, as hard as it is to read and think of where his heart could have been, I think if we are honest with ourselves, we can maybe see some of our own heart as we see his.

This is a verse that we use in our household very regularly, and it has been going on.

I'm not going to tell you which child that we started this with, but I like doing this.

But it's been 11 and a half years, so I'll tell you this, it ain't Opal, although we preach it to Opal, too, and did recently.

In fact, yesterday, that little monkey, she was playing a game with the other kids and she came barging into my room and she said, they won't let me win.

And she was upset because they won and wouldn't let her win, and she would not have any.

She wouldn't rejoice that someone else won.

She could only find satisfaction if it blessed her.

And so we use that scripture reference very frequently.

Rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep.

When heaven was cheering, Jonah was pouting.

Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria.

Assyrians.

They were an intensely wicked people, and they were known for their brutality.

They were notorious for their intense cruelty.

They were known for mass executions, for displacing people and families after conquering them.

And they were even known for.

There are things I cannot even make mention of in this room tonight because of the audience.

But they were known for mutilations and psychological terror that they instilled on people.

And they were known for forced exiles after defeats and everything else.

Listen.

The Israelites and the Assyrians were mortal enemies.

The Israelites had had long waited for God's judgment on this wicked people.

Can you think of any people groups that you think, well, God's judgment must surely be coming on them.

God's hand of wrath must surely be being stayed if he hasn't judged them harshly yet.

And maybe we think, I just hope that God will give them what is theirs.

That's the way that the Israelites felt about the Assyrians when mercy came though.

When mercy came instead of judgment, Jonah's heart became bitter instead of being joyful.

Bitter instead of joyful.

It should not bring joy to see anyone remain in darkness.

It shouldn't bring joy to any believer that any person would die in darkness.

It shouldn't bring us joy to see that in any way.

I would even say it this way.

I don't know if you've read through the Psalms before, but some of the Psalms are a little dark.

You ever read what's called an imprecatory psalm?

The.

The imprecatory Psalms are the ones of God's psalmist proclaiming and praying for the destruction and defeat of his enemy.

Right.

And I'll be honest with you, I have never personally felt liberty from God to pray those prayers.

So in case you're wondering if, you know, has he ever prayed a prayer like that on me, I have not.

I have not.

I've never felt the liberty to do that.

God has given us accurate recordings of imprecatory psalms in the hearts of psalmists, but that does not give us liberty to desire and pray for hellfire and judgment on other people.

So this is kind of a funny illustration, but Hannah has told me multiple times I haven't called you Hannah in a long time.

That's kind of weird, even just saying that.

If she ever calls me Aaron, I'm in trouble when I call her Hannah.

It's just weird.

But anyways, so just so you know, that's my wife.

I call her other names too, but.

So when she was in high school, she was on a basketball team, you know where I'm going here.

And she tells me frequently, not frequently.

She's told me multiple times where right before games, their team will pray together.

And whenever this one girl on her team was given the opportunity to pray, she would always pray an imprecatory psalm against the other team.

Break thou the arm of the wicked, and the evil man, seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

You know, can you imagine that right before a ball game?

And that'll really.

That'll really light your fire.

That'll get you to Go, you know, on three.

One, two, three.

Break their arms.

Can you imagine that?

It shouldn't bring joy, though, to see anyone remain in darkness.

And I don't think it's a. I don't think a heart that would pray that way reflects the heartbeat of God.

It should bring joy, though, to see sinners turned to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course.

Luke 15:7.

I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.

You know what Jonah had?

Good doctrine, great doctrine.

Read verse two again.

Chapter four, verse two.

Jonah had great doctrine, but he had a bad heart.

I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful and slow to anger and of great kindness.

God's looking down saying, is this a real prayer?

I say in jest.

Can you imagine that prayer as it went up before God?

Talk about smacking the ceiling and bouncing back off.

Just not a prayer that God would have blessed.

Jonah's theology may have been correct, but his attitude was corrupt.

Jonah had hatred in his heart for someone that Jesus loved, in fact, a whole nation.

Jonah was bitter towards these people to the point where he would have been the one to pray an imprecatory psalm on those people and rather see them die in darkness and hell for eternity than to come and have an opportunity and experience the same mercy and grace and forgiveness that was extended to his own heart.

Wow.

You know, it's possible.

I hope you hear this.

It's possible to be doctrinally sound, but spiritually sour.

You ever been there before?

We know what's right.

We know who God is, and we've got the truth that will take our Bibles and wave the answer back to heaven.

But we do it with the wrong disposition.

Position matters.

So does disposition.

Look at Jesus, John, chapter one.

He was full of truth, and that's the stand we all ought to take.

But he was full of something else too.

Full of grace.

In all of your truth seeking and truth telling, is it seasoned properly so that other people even have a taste for it?

Is your heart right or is it just what you know?

Are our hearts right before God?

Knowledge of God's grace should soften our hearts, not harden our hearts.

And I would even ask this question, what good is our theology if it does not change our hearts towards sinners that Jesus died to save?

Does your heart beat in the same rhythm as God's for the people that you disagree with in life?

I want you to think in your mind someone that I don't like or I disagree with.

And now I Want you to ask, is my heart towards that person?

The same heart that God has for that person?

Ugh.

I'm glad I'm asking and not having to do it.

This is hard.

I say that jokingly.

God's beat me up enough already, already over this.

But think about that.

Does your heart mirror God's heart for the person that maybe isn't your favorite person?

This is important.

This has to do with our theology.

Theology that does not live itself out philosophically and correctly.

What good is makes us smarter, I suppose.

I'll tell you what it also does.

It makes us more accountable.

I'm accountable for what I know of God.

And if I choose to know what I know and not act upon it and let it transform my life, I will answer to God for that.

Is there a person or like Jonah, is there a group of people that you know that you do not love or like, like God loves?

Do we believe the lie that we can be right with God while also be bitter with people?

Do we lie to ourselves and say that we are right with God when we refuse to be right with people?

And that starts in our homes and in our churches.

But I believe it also extends into our relationships with the unsaved.

If my heart will not be right for people whom Jesus died for, can my heart be right before God?

It cannot be.

And so I challenge you tonight to make your heart beat like God's heart beats and ask God to renew a right spirit within you.

The title's encouraging, at least dealing with discouragement and discontentment.

But the message is hard to hear.

It really is.

It's hard to hear a warning to.

I would say maybe the choir here.

Right theology is meant to produce right compassion, and correct doctrine produces correct living.

Let's not be people that boast in our knowledge of God if that knowledge is not transforming us.

Remember that Jesus, his strongest rebukes were to those who were his, if you will, smartest Bible students.

His strongest rebukes were those that knew His Word the best.

The scribes, the Pharisees, the ones that spent all of their time reading everything about it and memorizing the Torah and memorizing Scripture and knowing what it says and knowing what it means and.

And going beyond that.

That was everything to them.

Man, talk about missing the boat, talk about having the Scriptures, talk about having, you know, everything that should give you the right theology, but coming out with the wrong theology and also the wrong type of living.

Jesus came and he rebuked them harshly.

And so if we sit here tonight and we're not right.

And our heart doesn't beat like God's heart beats for people in our family, people we work with, for people that we are in church with, for people that are out there in the world that need Jesus.

If we say that we know him and we do not, the truth, we lie.

And we say we lie.

We say we know him because we know His Word.

But he will reveal more of himself as we obey His Word.

Be ye not hearers only, but doers of the Word.

And so I think we can also consider this, that we should stop counting our wounds and see others wounds.

Look at verse number three in chapter four, please.

So verse one and two is really bad.

It gets worse.

Can you imagine?

Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me.

That sounds a little suicidal.

Or pray as idle.

I don't know what that would even be called when you're asking God to.

I don't know.

That's not a word for it is better for me.

Underline that.

Better for me to die than to live.

Then, said the Lord, man like, okay, surely God is going to set him straight and just annihilate him with truth.

Instead, God asks a simple question.

In fact, Jonah's message to the Ninevites was much harsher than this question is to him.

And we don't see the Assyrians rebelling against God in this passage.

We see them turning to him.

We see Jonah turning away from God and wicked people turning to him.

And God just asks a simple question.

Doest thou well to be angry?

Ouch.

Ow.

You know, that had to have hurt.

God knows just what to say to prick the heart appropriately, doesn't he?

Do thou well to be angry.

Verse 5.

So Jonah went out of the city.

Did he respond?

By the way, my children, when I speak to you, respond.

They know that.

They know that well.

And when it doesn't happen, I relearn them well, when I speak to them, they ought to respond.

That's just common courtesy.

But between a father and a child, it's an expectation.

It's a training opportunity.

But let me tell you something.

Jonah is directly commuted to communicated to by God himself.

And Jonah doesn't reply.

At least we don't have record of it.

We know what he does.

So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city.

There's still a little sliver of hope in his heart.

A Little opportunity for a little morsel of joy to spring up into root.

And that joy looks like this seeing the suffering and annihilation of people who desperately need Jesus Christ.

Ugh, man, your heart is so far away.

Verse 6.

And the Lord God prepared a gourd.

Remember before what he did, he prepared a whale.

Now he's preparing a gourd.

He's preparing all these things.

Notice all the things that he's preparing are for the one that shouldn't need it.

The guy that knows God and his word.

But God's having to really work hard with this one.

He's really having to work hard with this self righteous guy.

God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief.

So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

Do I. I mean this is what brought him joy.

Did thousands, did a whole people group turning to Jesus under his own preaching.

I mean that brought him anger.

But God gives him a little shade and he's happy.

Imagine.

So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd, but God prepared.

Here's another thing he prepared.

He prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd, that it withered.

And it came to pass when the sun did arise, that God prepared another thing, a vehement east wind.

And the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted and wished in himself to die.

And said again, it is better for me to die than to live.

And God said to Jonah, doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?

And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death.

Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.

And should not I spare Nineveh, the great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand.

We don't know exactly what that means, but.

But if you can't discern your right hand from your left hand, you're not just like some of the people that I know that really aren't very good at that, that are full grown adults.

But I think here it's talking about children, people that can't discern their left from the right.

120,000 of them is what the scripture talks about.

Eternal souls.

He's in such a place that he can't rejoice over eternal souls coming to Christ as much as he can rejoice over a dayspring gourd that gives him a little bit of shade for a moment.

His temporary comfort was more important to him than the eternal discomfort of souls.

I can't say the word expiring, being extended into eternity forever.

Dying but never dying, Suffering but never extinguishing their life, extinguishing the second death.

It brought him joy to think that, man, if I could just get a little shade, man, you talk about, and I'm talking to myself here, but you talk about comfort living and that bringing joy and that bringing satisfaction to a life.

That's American living right there.

We're so comfortable.

We're so comfortable.

It's so nice being comfortable too.

I love it, I love it and so do you.

We should recognize that.

But what about the idea that maybe God would have some of us be uncomfortable for the sake of the salvation of souls that will eternally continue into existence and hell forever experiencing the judgment of God needlessly because Jesus has already paid for their sins.

Imagine that.

Well, we should stop counting our wounds and maybe see others wounds.

Reminds me of a story.

When I was in Virginia I, I was probably 15 or I was probably 16 actually, or 17 for sake of legal reasons.

I was 18.

We were doing a boating trip with a bunch of the teenagers from our bus ministry.

I served in the bus ministry since I was a kid and I got to help do a lot of things and even lead some things in that group.

When I was younger and we were doing a boating activity on the Potomac river we had a boat and we loved going up and down the river and, and we thought well, we're going to bring out some of our friends.

And I did that every once in a while.

And so we're up in the Potomac river and we're hitting some waves.

Like there's, there's a decent amount of, decent amount of wind and it was creating probably like three foot swells.

Nothing crazy, but the perfect, perfect amount for that area in the boat that I was in.

A little 17 foot open bow, little runabout boat.

It was just perfect, perfect, like nightmare.

And so we're going down the river or up the river and the waves are like very big, they're not choppy, they're kind of like full on waves, you know, the ones that you're riding.

And so we're riding these waves and I had the great idea of allowing one of the other teenagers to drive the boat and so he took the Helm, if you will.

And I sat in the front of the open bow there in the front of the boat.

And so he kind of comes back in there, and then he's cruising along.

And all of a sudden, I'm noticing that the waves are getting bigger, and we're going faster against the waves and against the wind.

And I was like, this is fun, but I'm starting to get nervous.

And I never forget, as I was holding onto the rail on the bow, I kind of just looked back because I saw a big wave coming, and I knew that was the wave that would be a very real detriment to us if we hit it at the speeds we were at.

And I remember looking back right before we were about to hit that wave, saying, dude, for sure, he's about to throttle off.

He had already fell out of his chair and rolled to the back of the boat.

And we had seven or eight people on the boat.

So what happened?

Well, we went, whoa.

And we took.

We went airborne, and the next big one was coming.

We slammed down into the water, and then we went.

And then when we slammed into the water, the accelerator went bo.

And it floored.

So now we're flooring it, going up this last wave, and we went airborne.

It was amazing.

The boat stood up like this, and all I remember was literally hanging on the railing.

I would have definitely been thrown off the boat had I not been holding on that railing.

My feet were above.

I'm not, like, making this up.

My feet were way up here.

I was holding onto the railing.

We came down and slammed into the water.

Boat shut off.

Battery got ripped out.

A bunch of stuff flew out into the water.

I immediately stopped.

All I can remember was it was silent after that, and we were all, like, in shock.

And I remember just looking around, and I immediately started counting heads, making sure that every person was on the boat.

Thank the Lord, every person was on the boat.

And I'm not in prison today, but I was 18, and we were fine anyways, you know, so why tell that story?

Well, like, a couple minutes after we had grabbed a few things out of the water, one of the guys said, whoa, Aaron, like, you're bleeding.

And I looked down, and my arms were just, like, all red.

They were just bleeding a lot.

And the water makes it look worse than it is, you know, so, you know, I was a teenager, too, so I kind of felt cool.

Like, I'm bleeding everywhere, and, like, look at me.

This is cool.

You know that feeling, guys?

I know you do.

So I thought it was kind of Cool.

But I mean it was a lot, it was a lot of blood.

I didn't even recognize my own situation because I was so focused on thinking that, you know, I'm responsible for these other people, I need to make sure they're on the boat at least.

And they were.

But I was focused on that while I was bleeding.

Well, I think that should be somewhat of the mindset that we need to have and seeing the hurt that other people have as opposed to focusing on our own wounds, our own selves.

Jonah said, therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life for me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

That's really discouraging.

Jonah praying to be killed by God is a really weird prayer first of all, but it really shows his heart and that he was so self focused he was of no good to the work of God.

I would say this, that that heart wasn't any different than when he had preached though.

However, God is bigger than all of that and God used him despite his heart against these people.

And God can use any dull tool in his shed if he so desires.

And that's what he did in his providence.

But man, his heart is still here in this bad place.

Jonah's focus shrank to just seeing himself.

And I call this the better for me philosophy.

So some people live as if life's only question is, well, what's in it for me?

What's best for me and my peeps, my people, my house, myself?

What's in it for me?

Well, this view and this type of living will for a believer lead to discouragement and disparity and unfulfillment.

Because God has created us to do something so much more than to just be comfortable and satisfy our own selves and our own desires.

So the Bible says in Acts 20, verse 35, I have showed you all things how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

And yet Jonah here is thinking it's more blessed to take, even if it means his own life for his own sake.

That's serious stuff.

It's really serious stuff, you know, and I don't make light of this at all, but there are people that think thoughts like this, very self harming thoughts and it's dangerous thinking.

It's not godly thinking and it would never please the Lord and it would hurt the people that are around you that you think don't care about you.

Let me Tell you something, it would destroy people here to see something like that happen to you.

And never believe the lie that says nobody cares.

That's a lie from the devil.

And if you think those thoughts, you should go seek help from someone that wants to help you.

There are people that care about you and love you.

And so when you have thoughts like that, you need to get help.

You need to get help.

And we have groups just that are tailor made without judgment, with help on the way ministries, just like that.

And I'd encourage you to even go to our pastor, Pastor Stone, and ask him and seek guidance and counsel, maybe his wife or lady, but take those thoughts seriously and get help.

Discouragement can cause people to give up, give up on trusting God, giving up on helping others, and maybe giving up on life itself.

Choosing to rejoice, though, is a matter of the will.

There's always something to rejoice in.

The scriptures say this, rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say rejoice.

He wouldn't tell us to do something that we are not able to do.

He's saying there's something to rejoice in.

Find it and rejoice in it.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

We might not be thankful for everything, but we can learn to be thankful in everything that the Lord allows us to go through.

The Bible says in everything give thanks.

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

And so instead of getting bitter about the thing, use proper theology and allow it to help you help yourself and to allow you to encourage yourself in the Lord like David did to help yourself and find an area in your life.

And if you can't see any good in your own life, to be able to rejoice in what God is doing currently in the lives of somebody else, there's always something to rejoice in.

Then there's the better for you philosophy, and that's the better for you philosophy.

We're out of time, so I won't read it, but maybe you want to write this passage down.

Philippians, chapter one, verses 21 to 26 are amazing verses on this topic.

The first verse just says, for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain nevertheless, to abide in the flesh, it's more needful for you.

Paul knew what what was best for him.

It was to be with Christ.

But he recognized that wasn't best for them.

And so he wanted what was best for them.

And so he found contentment in that lot.

And that's the way that we should live.

To live is Christ.

Life is ministry and ministry is life.

Live for the Lord and give him all you have.

As long as God gives you breath, he has given you purpose.

Find purpose and pursue that.

If you've quit serving, or maybe you've quit trying, or you've quit reading your Bible, or you've quit caring about souls, now is the time to come to the altar tonight and change your philosophy to a better for you philosophy.

And to live.

Understand that to live is Christ and I encourage you to live for him.

To die is gain.

Eternity with Christ is far better.

Far better.

But until then, we live for the benefit of others and for God's glory.

Paul's perspective, it shifted from what I want to what others need.

A pastor once visited a nursing home and met an elderly woman confined to bed.

Her body was frail, her voice was weak.

On her nightstand was a handwritten list titled People to Pray for.

Today she prayed for missionaries, her pastor, her children, and the kids in Sunday school.

When asked if she ever got discouraged, she smiled and said, oh no.

As long as I can pray for someone else, God still has a purpose for me.

When you're discouraged, serve someone else.

A self centered life will lead you to despair.

A Christ centered, otherly focused life will lead you to joy.

And so Jonah's discouragement came from a heart that was out of step with God's heart.

He cared more about his comfort than about God's compassion and other souls.

When we face discouragement, we can rejoice in God's mercy, especially when he shows it to others.

We can refocus our heart on his purposes rather than our own preferences.

And then we can remember that true joy is found not in what's better for me, but what is better for others.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul?

And why art thou disquieted within me?

Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God.

And we read the last verse in the book of Jonah and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?

The last phrase is so intentional and so overlooked.

What does it say?

And also much cattle.

Huh?

God, why?

Why did you tell us that God cared more about the cattle in Nineveh than Jonah cared about the souls that would spend eternity in hell if his heart didn't get right?

How condemning.

How perfectly poignant.