God’s Freedom To Be God | Jonah 4:1-5 | Pastor Neil McClendon

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Father, we've come today to acknowledge your worthiness when the Bible says that we will lay our crowns down at your feet.

Sometimes that's hard to understand, but all we're saying is any reward we get in heaven, we're gonna just take it off and just cast it at your feet because you're the one, you're the only one who's worthy.

You're the one that's deserving of recognition.

So we're not motivated towards heaven because of reward.

We understand that when we live righteously and obediently, that life on earth will be recognized and rewarded in heaven.

And it'll be just another opportunity to take that crown off and lay it at your feet and say, Here you go.

It was you and me.

That was my only hope of glory.

And now that I'm here, I'm not gonna get it twisted and start taking credit for something that was you, not me.

So, Holy Spirit, from your word and by your spirit, increase our capacity to give you glory with how we live and how we think.

This is our prayer.

We prayed in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You could have a seat if you got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open it up to the book of Jonah.

The book of Jonah, Old Testament book of Jonah.

If you're visiting our church today for the first time, we acknowledge Father's Day, but we don't preach Father's Day.

We preach the gospel.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

Uh, and so I'm not gonna talk about five ways to be a better father or anything like that.

Uh I'm gonna I'm gonna preach from Jonah chapter four, uh verses one to five.

Now, if you're new to this, let me just give you some backdrop and catch you up real quickly what's happened so far.

The central character to the book of Jonah is not a big fish, uh, it is the word of God.

The word of God comes to Jonah and he says, Hey, go and speak, go prophesy to this city called Nineveh.

They are they're polytheistic, they're evil, they're violent.

Polytheistic means they believe a bunch of different gods.

Okay, uh, and so they're not Christian people.

Uh, and and and so Jonah says, Hey, man, those people they they and you'll see to in the text this morning why Jonah runs.

But he says, God says, go this way, he goes that way, he goes down, he rents a ship, he gets on it, he got God said, Go this direction, he goes the opposite direction.

God says, You can't hide from a sovereign God in a world in which I control everything.

So God hurls a great wind at the ship.

The sailors on the ship were like, Man, somebody here has got God mad.

Who is it?

So they cast slots and it falls on Jonah.

They say, What do we do?

He says, Throw me overboard, okay?

They throw him overboard, and uh a great fish comes along, swallows him up.

I believe what the Bible teaches, not what you've been told in Sunday school, is that he dies and he's actually spit up on the on the beach and resurrected.

You say, Why do you believe that?

Again, because the Bible says from Sheol, he cries out.

Sheol is the place of the dead in the Bible, okay?

And so I hate to crush your your your Sunday school fantasy of Noah in there with a candle lit, reading the Bible and praying to God.

Yes, and I've got your emails, thank you.

Keep them coming, okay?

Uh uh and so what happens is that God and he goes to Nineveh and he cries out, and and by the way, they repent in that they turn from their evil, but they don't turn to God.

And you'll see that in the text again today.

And so this is what's happened.

I'll start reading verse 10 actually.

It says, When God saw what they did, how they turned from the evil way, God relented of the disaster he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

That sounds like good news.

But see, here's the thing Nineveh's evil, this is a summary of uh that brings us up to this point.

Nineveh's evil prompted God to threaten evil upon the city.

As a result, they repented of their evil, and God responds by relenting of the evil that he was going to bring on the city.

But, and hear this part that God would relent of the evil that Nineveh so richly deserved was a great evil.

I mean, this this was the deal right here.

This was a great evil uh to Noah.

And so everyone is relinquishing evil except Noah, and it burns him to the ground.

I mean, if you don't deal with this sense of, hey, I thought God should do this and God did this, and I'm so angry.

That's why I want to talk to you today about God's freedom to be God.

God's freedom to be God.

And I want you to ask yourself today, in your mind, in your attention and in your affection, does God have the freedom to be God?

Or must God do everything you expect him to do in order to be God?

I'll begin reading Jonah chapter 4, verse 1.

Jonah 4:1

The Bible says, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry, and he prayed to the Lord, and he said, Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?

That this is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you're a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

And the Lord said, Do you do well to be angry?

Jonah went out of the city and sat at the 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.

This is so arrogant.

By the way, anger makes you arrogant because God's already told him, Hey, I relent of the evil I'm gonna do.

I've got plans for Nineveh, I'm gonna put them over here on the shelf and I'm gonna use them for my glorious purposes later.

But but but Jonah is so angry that he just like, I cannot believe you did this.

And by the way, I'm gonna go outside the city and build a little tree house, and you still got time, God, to come around to my way of thinking.

Yes, the Bible's full of people with that much audacity, and so is this room.

Happy Father's Day.

Absolutely.

What do you mean, God's freedom to be God?

It means three things.

Number one, God's nature does not conform to our emotions, God's nature does not conform to our emotions.

Notice that God is not put off by Jonah's anger, nor is he reinvented by it.

He's like, oh, you're you're angry.

Okay, okay, let give me a second chance.

No, we we have this kind of disproportionate response we see in the text when our expectations do not align with our experiences.

And and what we then try to do is make God responsible for our expectations by insisting that he kind of alter our experiences.

This is why, by the way, many of our prayers, I would say most of your prayers are not answered.

You really don't want God's will.

We want our will, okay?

So when I say God's nature doesn't conform to our emotions, I'm talking about Jonah's anger in verse one, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

It displeased him exceedingly, so his anger is a reflection of his displeasure because anger is never the issue, okay?

If you think you have an anger problem, you don't.

You have a self-awareness problem.

That he was displeased with God is the issue, okay?

I expected you to do this, and I didn't want you to do that, and you did that, and so we got a problem.

And God is so relational, he's not bothered by that at all.

It's like when your kids would melt down in the middle of a grocery store when they're two, and you would just back up and go, Hey, that's good.

Hey, everybody want to see a tantrum?

Come behold, the tantrum of this.

And after a while, they realize it's not getting them what they want.

They get up and you get on with your shopping.

But if you give in to that, you've got to appease that kid the rest of their life.

Yes, which is why some of you are still paying the visa bill.

But I digress.

Instead of just saying, Are you done?

Get up.

Life's gonna go on.

Here, let me just, four things about anger, okay?

That that I want you to understand.

Number one, anger is a secondary emotion.

What do you mean?

If this is anger, the issue is back here.

The issue is not that he's exceedingly angry.

The issue for Jonah is that God displeased him.

God did not have the freedom to be God because I'm so displeased, and now as a result of that, I am angry.

Second thing about anger, anger doesn't earn me the right to be in charge.

Anger does not earn you the right to be in charge.

I remember a while back I saw a couple in counseling, marriage counseling, and and I would give them homework and they didn't always like it.

And the guy's like, This is so dumb.

And the woman's like, This is awesome, thank you.

Uh and so he came every, I see him every two weeks, and he came this two weeks later and he sat down and I said, Well, have you been since I saw you last?

He said, Well, I should probably go first because I'm really angry.

And I said, Actually, you should not talk at all until you get behind your anger and get some language that's helpful and not accusatory.

And he goes, This is not helping my anger.

By the way, do you think if you announce you're angry, then you get to rule the world?

Yes, yes.

So the second thing you gotta understand, but anger, anger doesn't earn you the right to be in charge.

Thirdly, anger turned inward becomes depression.

Anger turned inward becomes you should never say to your kids, by the way, dads, don't be angry.

You should teach your kids to become emotionally self-aware and say, Oh, babe, I see that you're angry.

Do you know what you're angry about?

What's behind your anger?

What happened that made you feel something this big?

Something this big must have happened because your emotions are really this big.

And by the way, I'm proud of you for your emotional self-awareness.

Now, by the way, my youngest, when she was five, would get so angry, she would go in her bedroom, lift up her mattress because she's Hulk strong, and get between the mattress and the box spring and just and I'd come out and go, Hulk smash.

And my wife knew, don't give her some time.

But yeah, yeah, she said, I just wanted to be physically something on me, Daddy.

I just thought, oh, and I've never said, stop getting angry.

What I said was, hey, do you know what you're feeling that makes you have this response?

Because something this big has happened because your anger is this big.

I do not know.

Okay, I'm gonna let you spend some time in your room.

I want you to get in touch with that.

And now I pity her husband because she's very emotionally self-aware.

He's gonna have a lot of conversations, and he has me, and more importantly, my wife to thank for that, okay?

But here's the thing: if you tell your kids, don't stop being angry, you're gonna teach them to turn that in on them.

And and here's why anger uh turned inward eventually becomes depression, because it's this really powerful emotion that doesn't get out of you, and when it doesn't get out of you, it begins to act upon you.

That's why a lot of people that are older, like in their 60s and 70s, have depression because they've never been allowed in the family system to stand up and speak for themselves and say, Hey, I don't like this.

I didn't don't talk to me like that.

Who do you think you are?

Can you imagine your grandpa at Thanksgiving?

One of your kids pop off, and your grandpa thumps him on the nose and says, Hey, who do you think you're talking to?

I'm the patriarch of this family, okay?

Watch your mouth, son.

Now it's even better if the if the grandson is 20.

That's even better.

But a lot of you people that are 60 and 70, you've got to stop pushing it inward because you're going to become depressed.

And some psychiatrist somewhere is going to give you a pill.

And I just would say you you should probably get in touch with your anger.

And I don't mean go off, okay?

I mean just get in touch so you can speak words of life to people.

Here's the last thing about anger anger is an invitation to identify your root idols.

Your root idols.

I mentioned this before.

David Pollelson, no, a bunch of preachers refer to these things.

David Pollelson is the counselor guy that identified these.

He said basically there's four root idols: power, control, comfort, and approval.

Power is a longing for influence or recognition.

Power is a longing for influence or recognition.

Control is a longing to have everything to go according to my plan.

Uh by the way, that's why you break into people's Minnesota lawmakers' house and shoot them.

It's not about politics.

Don't listen to the news.

This was a political motivated.

No, no, it's a longing to have everything go according to your plan.

Control is a rude idol.

Comfort is a longing for pleasure, and approval is a longing to be accepted or desired.

Approval.

If you crave approval, you're always wanting to be accepted or desired.

This is why it starts in middle school.

When a guy breaks up with you or a girl breaks up with you, and you're like, oh, no, don't break up.

You should say, Oh, thank you for releasing me to God's sovereignty.

This was enjoyable.

And so, if this is not God's will for my life, whoever's next is going to be even better.

Thank you.

Can we pray before you get out?

Yes, this is why I'm not a good counselor.

I tell people this in counseling.

Women that are 26, like, we dated for four years, and I thought he was the one.

And I'm like, what made you think he was the one?

This guy is commitment phobic.

And the guy just shrugs.

Yes, approvals, this longing to be accepted are to be desired.

Now, by the way, as long as if control is your root idol, people will always have power over you.

You will fear their rejection so much that this is you.

You will accommodate and accommodate and accommodate in the hopes that you will never be rejected.

But here's the reality: you are going to experience rejection in this life.

Not everyone's going to like you.

And you should be so free that when they don't like you, they walk away, they think, I don't like that person, but I feel like I'm missing out on something by not knowing them.

That's a person that's not ruled by your acceptance or your rejection.

You see, the hardest time to remember that God's nature doesn't conform to my emotions is also the most necessary, and it's in the context of loss.

However, I would say that in your loss, the greatest gift is the consistency, the consistent certainty of God's unchanging nature.

Let me say that again.

I would say, and I'm not being flippant here, I've walked with many people through the valley and the shadow of death, that in the context of loss, your greatest gift is the consistent certainty of God's unchanging nature.

This frees us to be all over the place, knowing that God's nature remains unchanged, ever steady, and always sure.

Well, I'm going to demonstrate.

I uh worked with a man uh who lost his wife.

Uh, and the first time I met with him, I said, Well, tell me how you're feeling.

What does life feel like for you?

And he said, I am so angry at God.

I told him the other night, I wish you were a man so I could smash you in the face.

And I said, Yeah, that's that's a very powerful emotion.

And he's just kind of deep breathing, he just kind of looked at me like, I can tell you're shocked.

I'm like, I'm not shocked at all.

Uh I I understand that you're angry.

You lost your wife, and it was way too soon.

It's a cancer, and I understand all of that.

Uh, what other responses have you had to this loss?

Well, I got drunk for three days.

And I said, like a three-day bender?

He goes, Absolutely, I did.

And I said, That'll show him.

And he looked at me and goes, It's not funny.

I said, It's not funny at all.

But see, here's the thing I'm saying to you.

You can be all over the place.

And I'm not saying you should or you have to, but if you are, here's the thing: you're all over.

He goes, I read my Bible and I threw it against the wall and poured me some more whiskey.

Not like you people, real sinners, people that feel the ache of loss.

They don't go, Well, the Lord gives and takes away.

The name of the Lord be praised.

He said, I don't want to lecture.

I don't want you to quote me the Bible.

And I said, No, no, I'm just gonna tell you that your inconsistency is sustained by God's consistency.

Well, what do you think God thinks?

He remembers that we are but dust.

Yes.

Secondly, God's nature is not subject to our preferences.

God's nature is not subject to our preferences, verse two and three.

And he prayed to the Lord and he said, Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?

Why are you not listening to me?

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshus, for I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.

God's nature is not subject to our preferences.

And no, um, excuse me, Jonah's preferences are on display right here in these two verses, okay?

This is what's uh this is the beginning of what's known as a prophetic complaint.

Uh uh it is it typically consists of three elements.

And now in the in in theological circles of the Bible, it's like a prophetic, it's a prophet coming before God.

But we we're all prophets when we don't get our way.

And so it involves three things.

Number one, we accuse God of injustice.

Uh, this is this is what Jonah does.

He says, Is this not what I said?

Why didn't you listen to me?

Okay, I I I accuse God of injustice.

I remember one year we we would go to Home Depot and get a Christmas tree.

Uh, this is before we realized, hey, let's just get an artificial tree.

And we go to Home Depot, and the four of us would pick it out.

And I just had to hold it, spin it, and let my women and my family pick it.

And one year, my oldest was not happy about the tree we picked.

She's like, Dad, I said, Why didn't you say something at the store?

You ain't got to peace your little sister.

Okay, just speak up.

And so she was like, Ah, I do not like this tree.

So we got all decorated.

It was about two weeks in our house.

We're eating supper one night, and all of a sudden I hear, oh my gosh, the tree just falls over.

I didn't bolt it in the stand properly, and my oldest jumped up and slammed the table and said, I told you it was a stupid tree, and ran to her bedroom.

And her sister looked at me and I said, I think your sister's accusing us all of injustice.

Uh yes, you accuse God, hey, this is not right.

You did this.

Here's the second part of a prophetic complaint.

We point to something God said, did, or didn't do as evidence.

We point to something God said, did, or didn't do is evidence.

For Jonah is this, for I knew that you were a gracious God.

I fled because I knew what your nature was like, and I'm okay with you being gracious and merciful, just not to them.

The mercy that Jonah praised God for in chapter two, he now punishes God for showing to others.

Jonah was really your first Christian nationalist.

It didn't start with Donald Trump.

Stop listening to CNN.

It's the first one right here.

Me, my people, my ethnicity, and nobody else.

God loves Israel more than he loves Iran.

That's why he's dropping bombs on Iran, right?

No.

No, God loves the people of Iran just like he loves the people of Israel.

They don't believe in a Jew today doesn't believe in God any more than a Muslim does.

So be careful that you don't get your theology from your favorite network.

God's nature is not subject to our preferences.

We point to something God said or did or didn't do as evidence.

I knew you were gracious God.

Here's the third part of a prophetic complaint.

We request a correction of the injustice.

He says, and here's what here's what it is.

This would solve it all.

Either kill me or kill them.

That's what he says in verse 4 and 5.

Please take my life from me, for it's better for me to die than to live.

And then he says in verse 5, hey, I'm gonna go on the outskirts of town, build me a little uh a little hut, and I'll be watching.

You still got time, God, to come around to my way of thinking.

This would correct the injustice.

And by the way, he's still waiting on for God to submit to his will, which you'll see in a couple weeks.

The book of Jonah does not end well.

It's one of the most irregular endings of any book of the Bible.

Three things.

When I say God's nature is not subject to our preferences, you need to understand three things about God's nature.

Number one, it's not one-dimensional, it's not one-dimensional.

What do I mean?

Jonah couldn't reconcile God's justice and his and his mercy.

He felt that God's justice would be completely corrupted by God's mercy.

Therefore, God could not show mercy to these people.

It's not one-dimensional.

It's not like, well, and a lot of people, their God is a pretty one-dimensional God.

He's a God of love.

That's all he can do.

That's a one-dimensional, that's not what the God of the Bible is like, okay?

Uh uh This is why I say that Jonah was one of the first Christian nationalists, or what some would call an imperialist, okay?

It's my race and my nation that matters to God.

How can God feel this way about anybody else?

I say it like this, or teach it like this: God is a simple being.

He is not a complex being.

He's a simple being, he's not a complex being.

What does that mean?

Complex being would be like if I had a hundred shoeboxes up here on the stage and they were all stacked in a square to where it looked like one big box.

If you think God is a complex being, a lot of people do, Jonah did.

He's kind of like, okay, this box is God's mercy.

Okay, let's close that box.

Down here, let's pull Jenga out this box.

This is God's righteousness, okay?

This is God.

And so God lays down one to express the other.

And so for Jonah, I mean, it was just like, oh, there's no way, okay?

You you cannot show mercy to these people and love your people Israel because they are our enemies.

Because God was one-dimensional.

And here's the payoff in God being one-dimensional in your mind is that you can always control him.

You can try to use God's nature to manipulate God to get your way.

God is not a complex being, he's not a hundred shoeboxes with a hundred different attributes.

He doesn't lay down one.

Like if God's gonna be wrathful, he doesn't lay down love.

I would say the Bible teaches that God's wrath is an expression of his love, it demonstrates what he loves.

But God is a simple being, he's one big box, and all of his attributes they coexist together, they're in harmony, and it's beautiful and right and proper, and you should draw great comfort from that, okay?

Here's the second thing about God's nature: it's not open to interpretation.

It's not open to interpretation, and this is what Jonah tries to do.

We do it all the time, okay?

People all the time say to me, if I get a spiritual conversation, they say, Well, I know that I don't know much about the Bible, but I know that the Bible says God is love, and I'm all about love, so I think I'm really good.

You are both one dimensionalizing God and you're trying to interpret God in light of your preference.

Jonah says he quotes the Bible to God.

And what he's quoting from is in Exodus 34, which we'll get to in just a minute.

But he's quoting where God self-discloses, Moses comes to get the Ten Commandments.

But Jonah he says this.

He says, I knew that God was a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.

Okay?

That's a quote from Exodus 34.

Well, again, where Moses is getting the Ten Commandments, and God says, Hey, by the way, this is who I am, all right?

And what he says is true, but it's not the whole story, okay?

Because Jonah does what we often do, and then he stops the verse where it makes his point.

Let me say that again.

Jonah does what we do a lot.

He stops the verse where it makes his point.

Remember a couple weeks ago, I talked about Romans 3.23, for all sin and fall short of the glory of God.

We put a period there, but there's a comma.

And he goes on to say, and are justified freely by his grace.

But we've all we've kind of used the Bible to manipulate the dialogue to get it where we want to be.

And so Jonah does this, he stops right there.

And in so doing, he's interpreting God's nature for his agenda.

He tells half the story because he wants to win the argument.

However, the passage goes on to say this.

Here it is in its fullness.

The Lord passed before him, Moses, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiven iniquity and transgression and sin.

But it continues.

But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation?

Amen.

You should deal with the generational sins in your family because the worst day of your life as a father is to see your son or daughter struggling with something you struggled with when you were their age, but didn't deal with.

And God will visit the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.

You say, Well, does that mean that my grandpa was an alcoholic and my dad's not always?

I'm gonna be an alcoholic.

No.

But you should have a biblical theology of alcohol.

That's what I'm saying.

And then look what Moses responded.

In verse 8 says, And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and he worshiped.

How do you respond when God demonstrates the fullness of his nature to you?

Does it offend you?

Do you love the love of God and hate the sovereignty of God or the wrath of God?

Here's the third thing about God's nature.

It's expressed in God's timing.

It's expressed in God's timing.

Jonah was a lot like the Jews of his day in that he believed that God was their God and the covenant established the fact that God belonged to them, and it's the contract by which we control God.

Jonah wants God to act out of the covenant with Israel.

And yet God reserves the right to act out of his character to the nations.

Let me say that again.

Jonah wants God to act out of his covenant with Israel.

This is a contract.

I read the terms.

I had my lawyer look over it.

This is what it says you got to do.

We're the apple of your eye.

Come on now, do what we say.

God reserves the right to act out of his character for the nations.

You say, What do you mean?

Listen very carefully, okay?

God has plans for Denver.

He uses them to discipline Israel later on in 722 BC.

They were this polytheistic, immoral, violent people.

And so when God said repent, they did.

They turned from their evil, but they do not turn to God.

There's no biblical record that they turn to God.

Now, I sent you an email last week.

Yeah, Jesus said they repented in Matthew 12.

And the word he uses, the Greek word is metanoel, which means change your thinking.

It doesn't, don't, don't jam it.

It doesn't say, oh, change your thinking.

And that means they came to Christ.

No.

No.

See, uh, God preserves them for his purposes.

Here's where Isaiah 55 says of God, his ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

God preserves Nineveh.

Oh, actually, the whole nation of Assyria.

Nineveh becomes the capital.

But God preserves them for his purposes and his glory because God's ways are higher than our ways.

And I want to demonstrate that by reading uh chapter one of Nahum.

That's a book, it's one of the minor prophets.

It tells the destruction of Nineveh.

And what I want you, here's why I'm reading this.

I want you to hear the texture of God's nature.

That God is love.

Look at me.

And he's also violent.

He's a terrible being.

Do not want to jerk with him.

Okay?

And hey, men, you should demonstrate the same thing to your children, especially your sons.

Your sons should know full well you don't want this smoke, boy.

The only thing that's kept me off of you sometimes is your mom.

And if it weren't for her, I'd have thumped your gourd good for you.

Now I'm not talking violence.

I'll leave that up to you.

I'm just talking, we we got the inmates running the asylum now because they don't understand the nature of their father.

That's all I'm saying.

But just hear the character of God, the nature of God.

It's textured, it's jagged.

He's not a one-dimensional piece of glass you can go up and pay.

Oh, he's so loving.

He's a terrible being.

And that's a good thing.

This is the way the Bible says it in Nahum chapter one, an oracle concerning Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum of Elkash.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

The Lord is avenging the wrathful.

The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries.

They're not his people, they're his adversaries.

And he keeps wrath for his enemies.

So when they turned from their evil but didn't turn to him, he just kept wrath.

He's like, You clowns think you're clowning on me?

I see what you're really like.

He keeps wrath for his enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power.

And the Lord by no means clear the guilty.

Sound familiar?

Well, Jonah leaves out, Nahum finishes.

His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry.

He dries up all the rivers.

Bashin and Carmel wither, the bloom of Lebanon withers, the mountains quake before him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves before him.

The world and all who dwell in it.

Who can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

The Lord is good.

Does he sound good?

The Lord is good, stronghold in the day of trouble.

He knows those who take refuge in him, but with an overflowing flood, he will make a complete end of the adversaries.

By the way, Nineveh was flooded.

And we will pursue his enemies to the darkness.

What do you plot against the Lord?

He will make a complete end.

Trouble will not rise up a second time, for they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink.

They're consumed like stubble, fully dried.

From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor, thus says the Lord.

Though they are at full strength, and many, and many, talking about Nineveh, they will be cut down and pass away.

And now he's talking to Israel right here.

He says, Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

And now I will break his yoke from off of you and will burst your bonds apart.

In other words, I use them to punish you once.

I'm done with them, and I'm gonna wipe them off the map.

The Lord has given commandment about you.

No more shall your name be perpetuated.

None of it, nine of it, no one's gonna speak your name ever again.

From the house of your gods, I will cut off the carved image and the metal image.

I will make your grave for you are vile.

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.

I love how the Bible, the text, the nature of God is so textured, it says all this, I'll cut you off for you are vile.

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news.

Is that good news to you?

That God is this textured, that God is this sovereign in his being, and he doesn't depend on anybody's willingness, or he's not limited by our understanding.

But upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.

Keep your feast, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you.

He is utterly cut off because God cuts him off.

Again, this is another reason I don't believe that Nineveh turned.

I think they turned from their evil, but they never turn to God, because God punishes them, as he calls them, his adversaries.

They turn from evil, but they because they didn't want to perish.

Ask yourself this question.

What could your children ever do, men, Father's Day?

What could your children ever do that would make you talk to them that way?

Nothing.

You would never talk, you would never say to your other kids, don't you ever speak little Johnny's name in this house again?

Your wife's up there in the in the craft room cutting the pictures, cutting little Johnny out of all the pictures.

You would never do that, would you, man?

Of course you wouldn't.

Some of you are bothered right now.

Hey, don't talk about my kids like that.

I want to fight you in the parking lot.

You should be you should be a little agitated.

You should be like, whoo, I hadn't thought in a while, but I'm kind of getting stirred up in here.

Why?

Because this is how textured the nature of God is.

I don't believe he's talking to converted people, but his enemies that he uses and now he destroys.

God doesn't speak to his children that way either.

Take great comfort in that.

This is why, if you're a Christian today, you should have this sense of, oh, I'm strangely warmed by this.

Here's the last thing for the text.

Third thing is that God's nature invites self-reflection.

Look at verse 3 and 4.

You still with me?

I got a little intense there.

Did you feel it?

It's Father's Day.

Show a video.

We did.

Most of you weren't in here.

It starts on time.

Same time every Sunday.

Yet it still stinks up on us.

God's nature invites self-reflex.

Here's the greatest thing.

Men look at me.

Your nature should invite everybody in your family, your wife and all your kids, to self-reflect.

They shouldn't be offended.

What do you mean?

Verse three and four.

He says, Therefore now, I, oh Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

And the Lord said, He's so not bothered.

The Lord said, Do you do well to be angry?

Translation, hey buddy, let me hitch up my pants and get it on your level.

How's this working for you?

Because it ain't moving me one bit.

I'm not afraid.

I'm not threatened.

Heck, I'm not even concerned.

And Jonah, the pouting prophet, goes outside the city, builds a little treehouse and says, God, you still got time to kill all of them or kill me.

And God doesn't not move by that.

Why?

Because his nature invites self-reflection.

This is, by the way, this is why people don't grow much or change very often.

Because they compare themselves with themselves or with some other people, and their progress is fueled by satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and neither are sufficient.

Let me say this again.

We're just about done.

You still with me?

I know it's Father's Day.

It's like, come on, bro.

I know I didn't come to church to think.

I came to feel and get free coffee.

This is not the church for you.

But I know where some of those are.

And they got recliners in the front row because they're worshiping dad.

I mean, it's Father's Day.

No.

No, hear this: God's nature invites self-reflection.

People don't grow or change that often because they compare themselves to themselves or to somebody else.

And then the fuel, the motivation for changing, for maturing, is either satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

If I'm satisfied, if I'm dissatisfied, oh, I gotta bear down and read a book.

See, that's why you hate the same people you've always hated.

You gossip about the people you've always gossip about.

It's because your standard is yourself.

However, hear this, okay?

Hear this.

When you reflect upon ourselves against the backdrop of God's nature, the byproduct is clarity and understanding, and these people make progress.

Translation, when I say God's nature invites self-reflection, you should ask yourself today, if God is like this, what you read in Nahum chapter one, if God is his nature is fully orbed like that, then why am I like this?

How do I explain me if God is like that?

Jonah is so ruled by his emotions, he has this emotional response.

Either kill them or kill me.

God's like, I don't want to kill either one of you.

They're gonna play a role.

Here's the thing Is it okay, Jonah, if if my timing is not your timing, that my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts?

That I know some things that you don't know and can never understand.

See, God Jonah is ruled by his emotions.

He has an emotional response, but God's nature allows him to have a relational response.

So he responds with a relational question.

Do you do well to be angry?

Is this good for you?

Is this accomplishing what you thought it would?

And so I say to you in closing on this Father's Day that one of the greatest gifts you could give yourself, men is to grow in your knowledge and understanding of the nature of God.

Is to just maybe read some books that cause you to think a little bit.

I I I gotta because when you compare yourself to other people, you're gonna do great.

Comparing myself to other other fathers, I'm like, crushing it.

My kids would come home from school and go, Yeah, my friend so-and-so, they're dad, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, You're welcome.

Nah, I'm not making that up.

Oh, my, they gotta be.

And his dad made him sleep outside.

You're welcome.

See how easy I can do nothing and feel like I'm really making progress.

But when I hold myself up against the backdrop of God's name and God's nature, I feel okay.

Okay, I'm not going, you're welcome.

You know what I'm doing?

Oh Lord.

Mercy.

Mercy.

You can give it to anybody you want, but I thank you that you gave it to me.

And I've never gotten over that.

So mercy.

Mercy.

You're there's so much to your being and so little to mine.

Mercy.

God's nature invites self-reflection.

So let's just reflect for a moment as we're close.

Let's pray together.

Lord, thank you that your nature is so good.

It's so uh big and beyond us.

And because your nature is big and beyond us, it means we can make progress.

We don't have to be the same people who are triggered, get angry at the same things we've always gotten angry at.

Because anger shrinks our world down to the size of our preferences.

Everybody better fear us and obey us, or there's gonna be trouble.

And in reality, everybody should fear and obey God.

And we confess today that we are not God.

So I pray for men in this room who struggle with anger, that they would just meditate on the nature of God.

Stop reading books about fatherhood.

If you want to read a really good book about fatherhood, read about the nature of God.

So, Lord, just brood over us as we ponder you.

We ponder us, ourselves, in light of you.

Lord, we uh say with that beautiful expression is that uh your nature is better than ours.

You're a better father than we could ever be.

So much so that Jesus said, Your earthly father, even though they're evil, if they know how to give you good gifts, how much more your heavenly father.

Lord, today Jonas put us in touch with the how much moreness of our heavenly father, and he's reminded us of how small and petty and impetuous we can be.

And Lord, we don't want to just be mad at ourselves, we want to be fascinated with you.

There's so much in you.

And today you're just kind of inviting us into the depths of your being, saying, Come on out here.

Deep is calling out to deep today.

And I pray that doesn't produce an echo.

This is my prayer, I pray in Christ's name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

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

Uh somebody asked me recently, said, Hey, well, your church is kind of different.

Well, I and I I don't know.

We don't try to we don't compare ourselves to other churches.

Those are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I would say this though, we don't try to market our church and grow our church, we try to just teach the Bible and let you decide where you want to be in light of that.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

Uh and and and so if you're visiting today, your questions are always welcome.

If you have questions of anything you saw or heard, some of our pastors will be available down front, our elders.

We would love to answer any questions, pray with you.

Uh, but if you're visiting today, all I ask of you is just simply this that you just text welcome, that number on the screen behind me gives us a record of your visit.

We'll shoot you a text back.

Uh, we think the greatest thing you could do is become a part of a faith community, a church where the Bible's taught as it is, not as tradition has told you it is.

Uh and so there's always opportunity to grow in your understanding of God and uh of yourself, okay?

Uh, we always have things going on in the life of our church.

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

So check out the screen, see what's coming up.

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

Women of Grand Parkway, drop by the fellowship hall June 18th at 9 a.m.

for a quick breakfast, good conversation, and a chance to get to know some new faces.

If you're dropping the kiddos off at Pine Cove or Camp Arc, swing by for a bit.

Please register to let us know you're coming.

We love your kiddos, but this one is for adults only.

Our next men's night out will be Wednesday, June 25th at Rudy's Barbecue.

Plan to join us for a relaxed evening.

Come enjoy great barbecue, meet new people, and connect with other men from the church through meaningful conversations and fellowship.

The event is from 6 to 8 p.m.

and the cost is$10 per person.

To get this special meal price, you must register online by June 22nd.

We are hosting a blood drive on Sunday, June 29th from 12.30 to 3.30 in the student building.

As the temperatures rise and the travel season gets into full swing, blood donations tend to slow down.

But patients at local hospitals are still in need during these summer months.

Please register online today and set up your appointment time.

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

I have a uh bonus round uh uh information for you.

Uh it'll come up on the slide.

Uh this Thursday, uh there's a special concert at the George Theater.

Show Baraka is a hip hop artist and a spoken word artist.

Uh and so, and I have free tickets.

Uh, I sent you an email, and some of you said, I'd like tickets.

I've got plenty of free tickets if you'd like to go.

Uh, like I said, it's at the George Theater.

It's at 7 p.m.

Uh, it's a Juneteenth event.

And someone said to me, by the way, before you cut or sent me an email, someone said, Should we be advertising hip-hop concerts?

And I said, if it was George Strait, would you be offended?

See, your nationalism takes many forms.

Uh so I've got tickets.

If you like free tickets, come see me, okay?

We'd like to include our service with a spoken blessing, so stand to your feet if you would.

Hold your hands out.

The consistency of God's nature can absorb the inconsistency of ours.

He's not mad at you, he's simply right.

And he's unchanging.

That means you have a sure and steady anchor in the darker storm.

Remember that.

And depart now and enjoy your dad.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.