The Balance of God | Jonah 4:5-11 | Pastor Neil McClendon

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Amen, amen.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, that's uh we've gathered today uh to experience your spirit, not just to hear a man give a speech.

We've gathered today to understand how the Holy Spirit works in our lives, how he illuminates the Bible.

It's not just a book written by men, uh, it is the breathed out uh uh will of God and give us understanding and revelation from your word, about your word, and that comes by the spirit.

Well, your word over and over reminds us walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Uh, you said that the Holy Spirit is gonna come.

That's why you left this earth, Jesus.

You said that the comforter, the paraclete, the Holy Spirit's gonna come and he's gonna lead you into all truth.

It's the Holy Spirit.

We ask you to do this morning what Jesus promised you us that you would do: lead us into the truth, because the truth is what sets us free.

Even if it violates our biggest, deepest conviction, or lead us into the truth.

We're gonna follow truth wherever it leads us.

If we must abandon our most precious and long-held theology, our ideology, we're gonna abandon it today because we want to be set free by the truth.

Holy Spirit, make that happen today in our lives in this room for your glory in our city.

We pray in Jesus' name what everyone said.

Amen, amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take and open it up to Jonah chapter four.

And today we end the book of Jonah.

It's four short chapters.

This is the seventh sermon, and today I want to talk to you about the balance of God.

The balance of God, because um, and I think it'll make sense as we get into the text, but a lot of people don't understand how God is balancing his nature.

Like recently I had a conversation with someone, and this person said, and I quote, right when we sit down, I they wanted to talk to a preacher, and I I guess they got the phone book out and they called me.

Uh, and and and and one of their opening statements was, I have a problem with a God, like in the Old Testament, that kills innocent people.

How do you explain that?

And I said, Well, first of all, there are no innocent people, uh, but we'll we'll we'll unwind from that.

And we had a great conversation.

And in the conversation, I said, Okay, I get you have a problem with a God who kills innocent people, but do you have a problem with a God who has compassion and mercy on guilty people?

No one ever says that.

We ain't got a problem with that.

And so I will allow, for the sake of logic, I'll allow what you say if you'll allow what I say.

And the person was like, I don't get what you mean.

I said, The Old Testament, yes, God does, uh He He does deal with some people in the Old Testament in violent ways, but he also deals with people who deserve punishment, he deals with them in very merciful ways.

And one of the things I want you to understand this morning is that all of God's attributes, they exist in perfect harmony with one another.

They're not in violation of each other.

So when God demonstrates his justice, he's not nullifying or denying his mercy.

And when he's merciful, it doesn't mean that he lacks a justice.

Here's why this is important for the text today.

Less and until you come to see God as balanced in his nature and being, we like Jonah, will seek to make up with what we think is lacking in God's nature.

And that, my friends, is a fool's errand.

And this is what you see.

God is mad.

If you're here today and you're like, I missed this whole thing.

The book of Jonah, I'll summarize it for you in less than 30 seconds.

The word of the Lord comes to Jonah.

God says to Jonah, hey, I got a specific assignment for you.

I want you to go preach the city of Nineveh.

Their sin, their evilness has come up before me.

And I want you to go preach to them.

And Jonah's like, I hey, those are my enemies.

I'm not going to tell them the good news.

They deserve bad news.

So God says, Go this way, he heads this way.

Gets on a ship, tries to get away, and God said, and the Bible says that God sent uh this incredible storm uh on the ship.

And the people on the ship were kind of like, hey, something's wrong with somebody.

Somebody's got some bad stank on them.

Who is it?

They cast lots, they realize it's Jonah.

They said, What do we do with you?

He says, Throw me overboard.

Okay, he realizes that he's guilty.

They throw him overboard.

And then the book of Jonah uses this word.

We'll hear a couple of times this morning, appointed.

It says that the Lord appointed a great fish to come along and swallow up Jonah, okay?

I believe the Bible teaches that not that Jonah lived three days in there, cooking marshmallows over an open flame inside the well.

I believe the Bible teaches not our not our history or our preference that Jonah dies because the inside the well, because the Bible says that he cries out from the belly of Sheol.

Sheol is the place of the dead, okay?

And so I think he dies, and I think when the whale spits him up on the shore, he's resurrected.

He goes to Nineveh and he preaches, and much to his chagrin, they turn from their evil ways.

Remember, uh, this was controversial for some people.

Uh I I heard Wade Burgess last week.

I'm not gonna be controversial.

I'll get him later.

But anyway, uh, yeah, I watched the podcast.

Uh the Bible says that he turns from it, they turn from their evil, but they do not turn to God.

This is not biblical repentance, beloved, okay?

They turn from the evil, they're polytheistic, violent people, and they go, What do we got to do to appease this God?

Okay, we got a bunch of gods.

How do we get this one off our back?

Oh, turn from our evil?

We got that, but they do not.

Never do they turn to God.

Matter of fact, you'll see in the text this morning, nowhere does the Bible reference their repentance as a means or the reason why God has mercy on them, okay?

So they turn from their evil.

God relents of the evil that he was gonna do to them, and this just torques Jonah to no end.

Last time I was before you, we talked about how Jonah's just angry, okay?

He goes outside the city and he basically says to God, I want to die, okay?

Either I gotta die or you've got to go back on your word and kill the Ninevites, all right?

I'm gonna go outside the city and I'm gonna wait to see.

You've still got some time, God.

And this is where we pick up the story.

Jonah chapter 4, verse 5.

Jonah 4:5

And Jonah went out of the city and he sat east of the city and he made a booth for himself there.

He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city.

Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort.

So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

But when the dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint, and he asked that he might die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

But God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the plant?

And he said, Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.

And the Lord said, You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.

And should I and should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle.

I told you yesterday in an email that the book of Jonah ends like the sitcom Seinfeld.

It's just kind of uh okay, that's it.

Yes, yes.

At first blush, and if but if you relax your eye and kind of look into the text, what you'll see is three things uh around what I mean, what I refer to as the balance of God.

Number one, you'll see in verse five, the direction of disobedience.

The direction of disobedience.

I've told you before, but I'll never tire of telling you this because if you don't understand this, you'll miss a lot of things.

A lot of times the Bible raises its voice and it's very clear and it says, blah, blah, blah.

And sometimes the Bible just says ps.

And you're like, if you're not listening, you you you don't hear that.

But if you're listening, you hear the Bible kind of go, pssst, and you have to understand biblical history to get this in verse 5.

It says, Jonah went out of the city and he set to the east of the city.

There's the pst.

Why east of the city?

What do you mean the direction of disobedience?

Jonah went out of the city and he set to the east of the city.

Well, if you went back to the book of Genesis, one of the things that you'll see is this trend of not good things happening when people head east.

Heading east is Jonah resuming his rebellion against God's leading in his life.

Okay?

So here's some examples from the book of Genesis: how eastward movement symbolizes uh departure from God's will.

First of all, there's Adam and Eve who are put out of the Garden of Eden on the east side.

Uh and secondly, Cain settles east of Eden.

There's also a book called East of Eden, written by John Steinbeck, which is based on the biblical characters of Cain and Abel.

If you're looking for a good summer read, okay?

Uh and basically he spells out, hey, this is he uses biblical principles in the book.

A lot of people love the book East of Eden.

They don't realize it's based on the Bible, but Cain settles east of Eden.

Uh, thirdly, the builders of Babel, the Tower of Babel, they're headed east when they decide to build a tower so as to make a name for themselves.

And then finally, Lot separated from Abram and traveled east near Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities that you may or may not have heard of, okay?

Now, the references to eastward migration, what they in what they indicate in the book of Genesis is the stages of humanity's drift away from God.

Slowly, we don't take a hard left to get away from God and head east.

We slowly just kind of drift like people in the Bible did, okay?

And so he that that's how they drifted in the book of Genesis.

It was always, it was never another direction that was referenced.

Go back and check me on this.

You'll see in the book of Genesis that when people head east, it is not a good thing.

Now, here's how we drift away from God in 2025.

It's kind of a three-step gradual process.

Number one, it's a fixation on the physical, over the spiritual, and your priorities.

It's a fixation on the physical, the tyranny of your kids' extracurricular activities.

It's a fixation on the physical, over the spiritual, in your priorities.

I said this on a podcast, and some people they've watched it recently, the Lady Circling Back uh podcast at Blake does a great job.

People say, How do you get the question?

I don't.

Blake writes the questions from sermons, and I sit down and he asked me the questions.

But someone said, Hey, could you talk more about the spiritual uh uh uh excuse me, the behavioral momentum?

And I said, Yeah, we're at dinner one night and one of my children, my girl said, Dad, how long have you been going to church consistently?

I said, Oh, probably since 1983.

And then they're like, They're looking at their toes and counting up the years.

Uh and I said, For me, here's the thing.

I've never, and I'll tell you this, I have never once in my life said, I'm gonna go to church every Sunday.

Because if I said to myself, I'm gonna go to church every Sunday, I'm gonna be pretty miserable.

Y'all are like, where's the punchline?

I I didn't, I never set out to come to church, okay?

What I set out to do was to become the person that I read about in the Bible.

And when I found me in a church that taught the Bible and was God-centered and gospel-driven, when I would go to church, I would be exposed to the truth, and the truth set me free.

And I liked who I was.

It wasn't I was no longer, I was not motivated by the grace of God.

Early on, I realized the difference is my life.

I wasn't motivated by I don't want to do that anymore.

I was motivated by I want to be what this book says that I am.

And so I would get up and go to church.

It wasn't hard.

Matter of fact, when I found a church that taught the Bible, it was liberating.

And I would go and I would do crazy things like volunteer.

I wouldn't just show up and then get my sermon and my notes and then go, gotta go.

I would look around and go, oh my gosh, this is so incredible to me.

I want other people to experience what I'm experiencing.

What can I do to help spread what's happening in me?

And they would say, Well, we we always need workers in the children's ministry.

Okay, besides that, what can I do?

Cut the grass, drain the baptistry, drink the water, whatever I've got to do, I'll do it, okay?

Because here's the thing, I didn't have a fixation on physical, I had a fixation on the spiritual, and it wasn't church, okay?

It was, I like the momentum that got got got stirred up in me when I came to church to understand the truth.

And I was like, oh my gosh, because Christianity was not, contrary to what I'd heard my whole life, it wasn't just behavior modification.

It would, it was me sanctification.

I was becoming somebody I had never been, okay?

Again, I never, ever, ever prioritize church.

I just prioritized I want to be this person that this book tells me that I am.

I can remember one of the first uh verses I memorized in the Bible is 2 Corinthians 5, 17.

It says, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation.

Old things are passed away, and behold, all things become new.

Old things don't pass away because I hate them, because I didn't always hate them.

Some days I would get up and I'd be like, them old things would call out to me, and I was like, Whew, I've been a Christian about 40 days, and I kind of missed some of that.

And then I would come into the house of the Lord and I would hear a man open up the Bible, and my heart would just vibrate inside of me and it resonated with me.

And my kids were like eating their supper, and they're like, Okay, dad, that's enough of an answer.

We were just hoping like 20 years, so I whatever since 1983.

They probably asked me that question in 2012.

And by the way, I haven't missed many Sundays since 2012 to now.

And it's not about getting a little Sunday school pen.

Remember Sunday school pens?

Because when I was a kid and you went to church, you know, maybe twice a year, all the kids had a pen.

I had excuses.

Well, my my my stepmom's an alcoholic and beats me.

That's why we don't come to church.

I learned early on, you're not supposed to say that in Sunday school.

Because they had a chart, and everybody had stars, and there was Neil.

He was here last Easter, and now it's this Easter.

Like, Neil, where you been?

Well, my stepmom likes likes whiskey and cigarettes and talking on the phone.

They don't bring me to church.

Oh, well, son, don't say that.

We don't talk that way in church.

And I just remember thinking, oh, church is full of phony people.

I never want to be around this, but I digress.

See, this is how the drift begins to happen.

You don't take a hard left and head east.

You don't go home and go, all right, kids, we're heading east.

No, you just begin to prioritize the physical over the spiritual.

Secondly, you experience what I call a loss of sensitivity.

A loss of sensitivity.

It's Ephesians 4, about verse 19.

He says, having lost all sensitivity, they've given themselves over to sensuality with a continual lust for more.

The first step in your drift away from God is that things that don't that used to bother you don't bother you anymore.

You just lost sensitivity.

You're callous, you're dull to it.

You're just kind of like, I don't get it.

Now, C.S.

Lewis wrote a book called The Screw Tape Letters.

And in the book, uh, it's the book is about a senior demon instructing his junior demon how to tempt his human.

Okay?

He's saying, this is how you do it, this is how you get these people off track.

I love this quote from the screw tape letters.

He says this.

Again, this is an older demon telling a younger demon how to how to control this human.

He says, You will say that these are very small sins, and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness.

But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the God.

It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and out into the nothing.

Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.

Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, and without signposts.

I remember reading this when I was in college, and the hair on my neck stood up.

And it was just like because I was dating a girl at the time when I read this, who said to me, Hey, you're kind of into church.

I don't think it's that important.

I'm already part of the body of Christ, so I'm not gonna want to go to church every Sunday.

And there I was at the fork in the road.

And something in my head said, You can head east, or you can kind of just, hey, you know what, we've come as far as we can in this relationship.

And it was that morning said it in church at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Marshall, Texas, hearing a man named Carlton Burris preach.

That I just realized, I don't want to marry a woman like this.

What am I doing dating a woman like this, a girl like this?

And so that night I pulled up in front of Lionberry Hall on the light on the hill that will never die.

And I walked up to the desk and I said, Can you call so-and-so down?

And say, Hey, how was church this morning?

It was great.

Hey, come on, I I want to have a conversation.

Oh, we can talk right here in the parlor.

What I want to talk about doesn't need to be talked about in public.

And she said, Okay.

Walked out and got my car, just drove just around the block, pulled on the side of the road.

Are you okay?

I'm great.

Listen, we've come as far as we can in this relationship.

So I'm just here to tell you it's over.

Oh my gosh, no one breaks up with me.

And the Holy Spirit is like, Can you imagine having kids like this?

I go back to my college roommate Joey Butler, who's sitting there reading a philosophy book with a big two of Red Man.

And I walk in and he said, Let me guess.

He got rid of the squash.

She ain't no oak of righteousness, brother.

How'd you know?

Because God answered my prayer.

When you lose sensitivity, you need to be around people who haven't.

It's helpful and convicting and frustrating, okay?

Here's the third step of the process: the glorification of feelings.

The glorification of feelings.

It's just this kind of sense of what gets lifted to the highest level is your feelings, okay?

Now, your feelings, by the way, are the byproduct of your experiences.

If you want to have different feelings, subject yourself to different experiences.

Some of you have the feelings you've always had because you don't have any what I call threatening experiences.

You don't have you don't have any experiences that threaten all your preferences and expose all your sin.

And so when you glorify your feelings, I just yeah, you you've lost the ability.

You you've lost all sensitivity because you want to feel a certain thing.

And so you have certain experiences, you have certain priorities, you have the same kind of friendships, you do not have any prophetic friends.

You don't want to be around that.

Why be around that?

Good Lord.

They may say something that offends you.

You ought to be able to tell when you're headed east, when you're drifting away from God.

Here's the second thing we see in the text.

God acts sovereignly to reveal his nature and our need.

God acts sovereignly to reveal his nature and our need.

Now, this is the last time I get to preach to you until August.

So I'm just gonna back up the dump truck and just unload it all on you here this morning, okay?

Uh uh just think a little bit.

When I say God acts sovereignly to reveal his nature and our need, it's verses six to eight, okay?

And let me say this.

I said this on the podcast as well, because somebody's like, could you talk about that?

I'm like, I only get to preach one more time and then y'all get so here it is.

Uh, sovereignty is not the way that God controls the world.

Like, sovereignty is not God saying, You're gonna be a robot, and you're gonna be a robot, and you're gonna be a robot, and he's gonna be a robot, and she's gonna be a robot, and you're all gonna do just what I say, and nothing you like.

That's not the doctrine of sovereignty.

The doctrine of God's sovereignty, again, is not the about God controlling the world, it is about God reminding the world that somebody's in control.

There's a big difference in those two.

You don't want to wake up a day of your life and live in a world where hey, is anybody at the controls of this thing?

Am I just at the mercy of whatever?

No, no, because God is sovereign and he acts sovereignly to reveal his nature and our need.

Three ways from the text that God demonstrates his nature.

Number one, his name.

Look at verse six.

It says this, it says, Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade over his head to save him from his discomfort.

Now, in verse six, it says, the Lord God.

Now, those are two names of God, Yahweh Elohim.

Uh Yahweh is the Lord, it's often translated the Lord.

Elohim is Yahweh is God's particular name, it's his covenant name.

Okay, think just a little bit.

Uh Elohim is God, it's his universal name.

Now, all through the book of Jonah, so far, what we've seen when God talks to Jonah or to Jewish people, he uses Yahweh.

When he talks to non-Israelites, he uses Elohim.

Right here in verse 6, you got to be a Hebrew scholar to go.

No, wait a minute, wait a minute.

You've jammed your two names together.

Like, my name is not Neil.

Tell me how.

Now you're awake.

My middle name is Neil.

My first name is Dwayne.

Yes, that's right.

Nobody in my life calls me Dwayne, except my Aunt Susie, who has a real nasally voice that goes, Dwayne, and I'm like, oh, I'm glad that's not my name.

Uh however, when I was little, when I was in trouble, I would hear Dwayne Neil.

And I'd be like, Uh-oh, I have crossed a line somewhere.

Yes.

So when God puts these two names together, he's saying, hello, I'm fixing to do something.

Now, by the way, to depart from this pattern of Yahweh to my people, Elohim God to people who are not my people, to depart from this pattern is to stress a particular uh aspect of God's character or his relation to humanity and creation.

It's like when people would read this, they're like, oh, hello, something's fixing to go down up in here.

The hair on my neck is standing up.

He says in verse six, now the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim.

Here it is to emphasize the scope of God's mercy, uh, because this is what happens in verse six, okay?

He's kind of saying, and then if you read the rest of it, he says, God appointed a worm, okay?

And God appointed a scorching Eastwim.

And God said to Jonah, it's Elohim, Elohim.

Wait a minute.

You put your names together, Yahweh Elohim, the Lord God, and now you're talking to Jonah.

Just Elohim, just God.

What do you know?

God's what God is saying in a very hello way is hey, hey, my mercy is universal.

It doesn't, hey, Jonah, it doesn't just belong to you.

So don't get don't get it twisted.

I don't a lot, I don't love Americans more than I love Iraqis.

And Jonah's like, Oh, nah, God, why are you talking?

Because what I extend to you, I also extend to the world.

This is what God is saying.

And so God says, Hey, by the way, don't get it twisted.

One of the ways I demonstrate my nature is through my name.

I went to the hospital yesterday, visited a friend of mine in the hospital, and I leaned over his bed and took his hand before I left and prayed with him.

And I said, God, you one of your names in the Bible is Jehovah Rapha, which means the Lord our God.

Who heals, we ask you in Jesus' name to come and act in keeping with your name and your nature.

And my friend kind of smiled after it was over and he said, Thank you for that.

And I said, By the way, his name is a reflection of his nature.

That's why some of you have a name for your spouse that you don't say to anybody else.

You just don't, I don't want to know what it is.

Don't speak it out loud in my presence.

Like I realized that my relationship with Marcy, who's now my she was my girlfriend, was getting serious because I don't know why I didn't say one day.

I just said, I was just asking for something because I'm a pretty asky individual.

I was like, hey, babe, would you get me in?

She's like, yeah, sure.

And I was like, Did I just say, babe, would you?

Ooh.

Think before you open your mouth, Neil.

Now at our house, it just comes out all the time.

Now, what you will not hear today is I will not be in the lobby after the service between services.

I will not say to one of you women, hey, babe, would you give me a cup of coffee?

They just, no, that that designation belongs to her.

Because I'm in a relationship with her in a way I'm not in a relationship with anybody else.

Okay?

And God says, Hey, by the way, Yahweh, that indicates I'm in a relationship with my people.

And Jonah wanted to say, yes, and you belong to me, and you've got to do whatever I want you to do.

And God said, Hey, get your hands off of me.

You can't control my nature.

What I've offered to you, I extend to everybody else.

So his name, secondly, his sovereignty.

His sovereignty.

Again, verse 6.

Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade over his head to save me from his save him from his discomfort.

So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

But when the dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

And when the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind.

More bad news coming from the east.

Now, by the way, so far you should hear the three times right here.

You heard appointed, appointed, appointed.

It's starting back in chapter one when the Bible says, God appointed a great fish.

So what God ordains, he appoints, because he's sovereign.

Basically, God and nature are conspiring against Jonah to teach him a lesson that he's hard-headed and doesn't want to learn.

So up to this point, when the Bible, when I say his sovereignty, he's appointed a great fish, he appointed a plant, he appointed a worm, he appointed the wind.

Because God's sovereign over all of those elements.

Thirdly, his patience.

His patience.

It's verse 9.

What do you mean, verse 9?

Look at it.

But God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the plant?

And he said, Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.

By the way, when you get like that, where you but if you want to see this, most often this comes from our kids.

Remember the first time mom and your kids said they hate you?

Yeah, you're not a good parent unless your kids have told you they hate you.

That's my litmus test.

Yes, yes.

So if your kids have just said, I hate you, you're doing something right.

Yes.

Both of mine said that to me on different occasions, and I just smiled.

And one of them said, That doesn't bother you.

Now, when you're 15, you hate the wrong people and you love the wrong people, okay?

So you're you're a double loser.

You're welcome.

And by the way, I mean every word of what I'm saying, but I'm not trying to be funny.

You should be so committed and you should know so much better than your kids that they can get mad.

And by the way, you're a terrible parent if your kids say, I hate you, and you say, I hate you too.

You would never say that if you're a good parent.

Now, my kid, my girls come back later and say, Hey, uh dad, um, hey, that thing earlier.

No, no, come here, babe.

Come here.

Boom! Don't you ever tell me you hate me.

I went UFC on them.

I covered up my head, bam! Rotate the shoulders and the hip.

No.

I was like, come here, come here.

I just hugged them, and both of them did the same thing.

They just collapsed in my arms and cried.

I'm like, babe, it's just life.

Dad's gonna make you mad sometimes.

And it's okay.

You can be mad at me.

Just don't sin in your anger.

I know, Dad.

I just can't believe I said I hate you.

I know I'm awesome.

You're sinning against my awesomeness.

Yes, it's patience.

Now, here's the thing, okay?

Uh uh again, nowhere does God mention uh their repentance as a reason for his mercy.

God's patient because God chooses to be patient.

There's nothing in them that elicits God's patience.

He just says, I am slow to anger, I'm God of compassion and mercy, and I act in keeping with my nature.

Now, three ways God demonstrates our need.

Number one is provision.

It's verse five.

When the plant, the plant's God's provision, because Jonah's provision for himself, this little tree house, this little booth, kind of like a sukkot booth for the Feast of Tabernacles, uh, it's insufficient.

The plant represents God's mercy.

So the first way that God demonstrates uh our need is provision.

You need things that you cannot get for yourself.

That's the way God set the world up.

And instead of being angry, you should come to Him for relationship because you experience provision in the context of relationship.

Here's the second way God demonstrates our need is experience.

But it's starting by this.

It's verse six.

Let me just read it to you again here.

Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah and made a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort because his little thing, his little shelter wasn't doing the job.

So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

Yes, thank you so much.

Verse 7.

But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

And when the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.

And he asked that we might die.

And he said, It is better for me to die than to live.

Now I say experience, what do you mean?

The worm and the wind represent God's judgment, okay?

The worm and the wind serve as examples of what happens when hear this, when God's judgment triumphs over God's mercy.

And God says, Hey, by the way, I'm gonna let you experience, Jonah, what you wish happened to the Ninevites.

You want my judgment to triumph over mercy?

You first, buddy.

And God says, Here's a little taste of mercy, and now I'm gonna take it away, and I'm gonna, I'm going to appoint this worm to destroy the plant that created the shade.

And then once the shade's gone, I'm gonna let the sun get up at high noon.

And then I'm gonna set a scorching east wind.

And Jonah still doesn't get it.

Again, God is allowing Jonah to experience what he wished upon Nineveh.

At this point, it would do well for all of us to remember Matthew chapter 7, verse 1, which says, Judge not that you be not judged.

Matthew 7:1

Now that's where most people stop.

But don't be lazy because it gets worse after that.

He says, For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

The Bible doesn't just say, Oh, judge not, lest you be judged.

For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you.

The third way that God demonstrates our need is isolation.

It's a lot of part of verse 8.

Look at it there.

He says, When the sun uh rose, God appointed a scorching east swing, and the sun beat down the head of Jonah so that he was faint.

And he asked that he might die, and he said, It is better for me to die than to live.

Now, this should sound familiar because Jonah has said this before.

Earlier in the chapter, he says it to God.

Don't miss this.

Look at me.

This is what I mean by isolation.

Here he's not saying it to God, he's talking to himself.

He has so divorced himself from the mercy of God.

But by his hatred, this that you're talking about this scorching east wind, it only pells in comparison to this hot air that was combusted inside of Jonah because he hated these people.

He's like, oh my gosh, you're gonna give them mercy.

They deserve judgment.

And God says, okay, with the measure you use, I'll measure it back to you.

Here's what happens when my judgment triumphs over mercy.

How are you feeling now?

He's in isolation talking to himself.

It's a statement, not a question, okay?

When you refuse God, you obligate yourself to yourself as your only audience.

Uh somebody asked me, which is a great question recently.

They said, Hey, uh, somebody I see for counseling, and this person said, How long have you been doing this?

And I said, How long have I been doing this?

Or how long have I realized that this was a need?

And the lady was like, Wow.

I said, because they're really different answers.

I said, I've been doing this, I don't know, 20 something years.

I've realized this is a need since I was seven.

She said, okay, now I'm curious.

I said, Oh, very hard life, a lot of poverty.

And my mom would sit at the kitchen table after we went to bed and smoke cigarettes and talk to herself.

And I would wake up many a night to my mom talking, and I'm like, who's she talking to?

And I would lay on the floor right outside the door to our kitchen, the doorway, one of the door's just opening, and listen to my mom.

And I would, she had her back to me, she couldn't see me.

And I would just sit there and just listen to my mom, and she would talk for 20 minutes to herself.

And I remember thinking as a seven-year-old boy, this isn't right, and I am powerless to do anything about this.

I wish somebody would come and listen to my mom.

And the lady's like, Oh, oh my gosh, I said, Oh, no, no, I don't want pity, I don't need pity.

It's just as a little boy, I just thought, man, life is so heavy on my mom, she just has to talk it out.

When I was studying this part of Jonah, I thought about my mom.

Jonah's talking to himself.

And he says, Oh man, I tell you what, it's better for me to die than to live.

Experience, okay?

Isolation, provision.

These are all things always.

Uh now, now, what happens to Jonah is that dialogue has now eroded into self-talk because he's chosen isolation over reconciliation.

I don't want those people to be reconciled to you, God, and I don't want to be reconciled to you.

Just leave me alone.

I hate you.

I cannot stand you.

I would rather die.

Here's the last thing I want to say from the book of Jonah.

Thirdly, God is not ashamed of you.

It's verse 10 and 11.

God is not ashamed of you.

Notice that Jonah made some really rash statements.

Uh uh I mean, this probably that being one of them.

Uh, it's better for me to die than to live.

Uh now, by the way, if your kids ever say anything like that, don't overreact because they'll say stuff like that.

You're dead to me.

You're dead to me.

I have a friend called me recently.

His 17-year-old son said to his dad, You're dead to me.

Stop talking.

The dad called me the next day and said, What do I do?

I said, Oh, let him live in that world.

He wants he says he wants.

He said, What do you mean?

I said, Cut off his debit card.

Take his truck keys.

You're dead to me?

I just got to raise.

And he did.

By the way, I'm available for parenting advice anytime.

Just call.

His son went out to eat with his buddies that night.

And he called his dad and said, Hey dad, there's a problem with my debit card.

And he said, Yeah, you don't get money from dead man, son.

He said, Dad, this is like this is like embarrassing.

Yeah, it is.

That I worked hard all my life, and I'm your mother and I provided for you, and you blow up on me and say, I'm dead to you.

This is what it's like when you have a dead man for a father.

Dad, dad, dad.

Click.

Yes.

You let the inmates run the asylum, you're gonna keep getting insanity.

Sometimes you gotta just flex up and let them know.

Hey, I don't know who you talk to, but it sure ain't me like this.

Guess who came home with his hat in his hand that night?

Hey dad, what a meant was, and the dad's just standing there sipping his coffee.

What you meant was what?

I'm listening.

Now, by the way, God's not ashamed of you because Jonah made some really rash statements.

And I don't want you to mend this.

You may be thinking, what's the big deal about the name?

Remember earlier I said there's God's particular name to his people and his universal name to the world.

Uh again, the Bible's subtle.

Look at verse 10.

He goes back to his particular name.

He's been saying, God, God, God, verse 10, and the Lord, Yahweh, your covenant God.

Who when you get mad at me, I don't get mad back at you.

When you say dumb stuff, I don't break up with you, I don't divorce you.

I don't cast you aside.

I'm not ashamed of you.

Well, what do you mean?

Look at God.

Verse 10.

And the Lord, Yahweh, the covenant-keeping, faithful God, said, You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in the night and perished in the night.

Man, you fall in love quick, son.

Look at verse 11.

And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?

I said to the lady, I had the conversation with you, I got a problem with a God that kills innocent people.

Well, first of all, there's no such thing as an innocent person.

And I'll explain that in the Old Testament, if you'll explain how God, who who rightfully deserves to punish all sinners, has mercy on a city like Nineveh, where there's 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left.

One of them is calling out over here right now.

And he says this lady over here's got one swaddled to her chest.

You start talking about 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left, every mom in the room just strokes their kid.

I will shank you in a heartbeat.

Don't you come near my baby?

Yeah, you're that way because God's that way.

You wrap your kids and you got them there on your chest so you can be arms free at the coffee bar.

Look at me.

Long before you swallowed your baby, God swaddled you.

So you didn't get there on your own.

God is not ashamed.

Well, I don't know what you mean.

He says, I'm not ashamed to be your God.

I'm not afraid of your emotions, my love for you, my commitment to you.

They don't change when you lash out at me.

You see, Jonah forgot what we need to remember this morning.

And it's from 2 Peter.

He didn't know there's no way he could have known it because to the New Testament.

But I want to close this morning just by reading from 2 Peter.

This is a very popular and yet misunderstood verse.

This is a lot of people get this twisted.

2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9 and 10.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises, some count slowness, but he's patient towards you, not wishing any should perish and that all should reach repentance.

I can't tell you how many people have come to me and said, doesn't the Bible say that God wishes that no one perishes and all should reach repentance?

That means no one is going to go to hell.

And I'm like, that's not what that means at all.

It means God's a God He's slow to anger, He's full of compassion and mercy.

What does the next verse say?

And they go, I don't know.

I said, I'll read it to you.

It's verse 10.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

But here's the real kicker about 2 Peter 3:9, for all you quasi-universalists.

2 Peter 3:9

Hear it again.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises, some count slowness, but is patient towards you.

He's not patient towards the unbeliever.

He's patient towards you, zealous Christian who's always trying to defend God's honor and uphold his reputation while you explain why he hasn't wiped off the map countries that you think deserve it.

Patient towards you, person who reads the Bible to find a loophole.

Doesn't the Bible say that it's the will of God that none should perish, but all should come to repentance?

And on the basis of that, I just think everybody's gonna.

God's patient with you and your insufficient, man-centered theology.

You come before God like you care about the world more than anybody else.

You're such a philanthropist, and God sees right through you, and He's patient with you.

He's patient with you.

Why?

Because He's not ashamed of you, He's not ashamed at all.

Years ago, my brother found a cassette tape of me preaching when I first started preaching.

He said, I found this in my kitchen drawer.

I thought you may want it.

I had to find a cassette player, it was in my car.

Popped it in, headed to the airport.

I listened to about two minutes, and I ejected it, rolled the window down, threw it out the window.

I was like, my gosh, I laughed.

I was like, why did anybody let me get up and talk?

I had nothing to say.

And then there was just a lull of silence, and the Holy Spirit said, I'm patient with you.

I'm not ashamed of you.

You were saying everything you knew, you just didn't know much.

You got yourself a point there.

Here's what I want to say to you.

It's the book of Jonah ends the way it does because God's saying to Jonah what he's saying to you today, I'm not ashamed of you.

I've heard all the rash promises you've made.

I've heard all the things that you said you were gonna do and didn't follow through on.

I know all the vows you didn't fulfill.

I know that you give people cheap grace because you can't forgive yourself.

And God says, I'm patient with you.

I'm patient with you.

Why?

I'm not ashamed of you.

I'm not a good how can a God, that you're smart people, think of it like this.

How can a God who knows everything be surprised by anything such that he would want to distance himself from you?

Said differently, and maybe more excessively, but what about you does God not know?

What revelation are you gonna let him in on that he's gonna take offense to?

He just knows.

Sit down with somebody just a couple weeks ago.

They said, How are you feeling?

I said, I'm tired.

I hope this doesn't take long.

And the guy said, Thanks for saying that.

I said, Why?

He goes, Because I just think, you ever get tired?

Oh, yes, I get tired.

Anything else that would surprise me?

Yeah, sometimes the sound of my coworker's voice just gets on my last nerve.

And he goes, You ought to work where I work.

I said, You want to switch places?

He's like, No.

I said, and by the way, here's the other side of that.

The sound of my voice gets on their nerves.

They go home to their wives and go, you won't believe what he did today.

He goes, Are you serious?

I said, Oh, absolutely.

Yes, I need some pity affection.

Neil was mean today.

They just want affection.

That's a cheap, that's a shortcut to get it.

Rescue me from the tyrannical tyrant.

And he's like, Wow.

I said, I'm not trying to be whatever.

I just, hey, the Bible says before, word is on my tongue, God knows it.

Okay.

You ask me a question, and I'm just being honest.

Anyway, let me pray.

Let's talk about why you're here.

And he said, You know what?

I kind of want to just get in my truck and leave.

This is so refreshing.

You're just your honesty.

And I said, That's an option too.

He said, No, I need some help.

I'm like, okay, let's pray.

Look at me.

And in that moment, God wasn't ashamed.

God wasn't like, Neil, be more religious.

Read the Bible.

Say something profound.

No, no, he's not ashamed of me.

No, he's never gonna forget me.

He's never gonna go, well, eh, I got all these people, and he was kind of thrown in on a package deal.

No, he's not ashamed of you.

So some of you relate more to Jonah than you do God in the book of Jonah.

Because you have this petulant posture towards God.

If he doesn't give your kids everything they deserve, and you the house you deserve, driving the vehicle you deserve with the reputation you think you deserve, you're not gonna talk to God either.

And some of you are living in isolation this morning because that's the way you relate to God.

And he's just standing right there beside you saying, Does it work for you to be this angry?

I'm not gonna talk you out of this.

You just is this working for you?

Because if this is working for you, keep going.

But if it's not, I got a new and better way.

This is the essence, this is the genesis, this is a starting point of behavioral momentum.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.

Some questions come on the screen.

That's for your consideration, contemplation, discussion over lunch or dinner on Tuesday.

But for right now, just be still.

Just ask the Holy Spirit, what'd you say to me today?

What add my name on it?

Think about those things.

God, this is why the Bible says that every of you that every morning your mercies are new.

God, make of us those kind of people.

Create the kind of behavioral momentum, the holy momentum in us that we stop keeping score, we stop being catty, mouthy, gossipy people.

We're just merciful, forgiving people.

We're like, dude, I I've been forgiven$50 million of debt.

I'm not gonna choke somebody over a five dollar misunderstanding.

For the person in this room that talks to themselves all the time, and their self-talk is not good.

They beat themselves down, they're not motivating themselves, they're condemning themselves.

And I pray today they would just hear you call them out of isolation, into community, into relationship.

Let them hear you say, An Ollie Ollie and free, come out, come out wherever you are.

God, your mercy makes all this possible, and for that we're grateful.

God, your provision is real in our life.

From an air conditioner that works to an honest AC repair man who can fix it when it doesn't.

Provision takes many forms.

And so, Lord, we never take that for granted.

And so we say thank you for it in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen.

If you're our guest today, let me say thanks for being here.

You're always welcome here.

Your questions are welcome here.

You're welcome here.

You're not to God did not create you to be in isolation, okay?

The only time God got God creates in Genesis, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good.

Then he looks down and he says, it's not good that man should be alone.

So if you're like uh Jonah and that you live in isolation and you you got a lot of self-talk going on, that's not the way God created you to live and to exist, all right?

If you're our guest today, all ask of you as you just text the word welcome, that number on the screen behind me, gives us a record of your visit.

We want to help you take the next step in your spiritual journey towards God, okay?

We've always got things going on in the life of our church.

We make you aware of those by way of our video announcements.

So check out the screen.

Here's what's happening at Graham Parkway Baptist Church.

Our next men's breakfast is Tuesday, July 8th in the student building.

Plan to join us for a hearty breakfast and meaningful connection.

Our speaker will be Ike Akinwande.

Ike has a heart for encouraging people with biblical wisdom and is committed to serving in leadership here at Graham Parkway and in the community.

Local Missions Week is a meaningful opportunity for students to connect with our community by meeting both spiritual and physical needs.

This year, we'll be serving families at a nearby apartment complex through games, Bible studies, and door-to-door outreach, offering school supplies and prayer.

If your student would like to be part of this impactful week, be sure to sign up by July 7th.

Our annual End of Summer Bash is blasting off this year on Friday, July 25th, with Josh Denhart and the Amazing Chemistry Show.

This will be an exciting evening of family fun.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy learning about the love of Christ through interactive experiments and an engaging stage production filled with fireballs, colored foam, liquid nitrogen, and glow-in-the-dark solutions.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at gramparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors or elders at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Also, occasionally we'll have a new person in our church that says, Hey, you didn't take up an offering.

What do I do with this?

Give it to me, I'll take care of it.

Right here.

No.

Our offering boxes are located by the doors.

We don't pass a plate at our church because our people understand that stewardship is just part of Christianity.

You can give online, you can give it there, or you can set it up, mail, whatever, okay?

So if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, take care of that before you leave, okay?

We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

So stand to your feet.

While you're standing, let me remind you that some of our pastors and elders will be available down front.

We'd love to pray with you and help you process whatever God stirred up today.

Hold your hands out.