Rick Warren - What to Remember When Things Don’t Go Your Way

If you pull out your message notes, today we're ending

a series we've been in for several weeks on the

life of Jonah. We've been looking at your life mission.

I've said this every week. You weren't put on this

earth simply to live for yourself. No, no, no, you

were made for a much greater purpose than you. You

weren't put here to just make money, retire and die.

God has a plan and a purpose and he actually

has what's called a life mission for your life. Only

you can fulfill your life mission. If you don't fulfill it,

you just missed the whole purpose of your life. So

what we've been talking about is extremely important. And we've

been looking at the manifestation of your life mission. Now

I told you there are three ways you can learn

about something like for instance, your life mission. You can

learn by explanation, you can learn by Example, you can

learn by experience. You don't have enough time in life

to make all the mistakes yourself. It's wise to learn

from experience, but it's wiser to learn from the experiences

of others, then you don't have to make those mistakes.

You can learn from people who are more successful. You

can also learn from failures and go, I don't wanna

do that. In the Bible, there's this little book called

the book of Jonah, only four chapters. Jonah does almost

everything wrong in his life mission. And what we're learning

from this story are what not to do with your life.

It's in there as a warning saying, don't do it

this way. It'll save you a lot of heartache, save

you a lot of pain, save you a lot of frustration.

But you were made for a mission. Now this guy Jonah,

he is a rogue prophet. He is a reluctant prophet.

He is a resistant prophet. I told you earlier, he

was a bigot. He was racially prejudiced. And when God

told him, I want you to go to the city

of Nineveh, which was the largest city in the world

at that time, the capital of Assyria. And I want

you to proclaim a message to them. He goes, I'm

not gonna do it. They're my enemy. They're politically different

from me. I don't like those guys. I hate them.

I don't want you to bless them. I don't want

you to use them. I don't want you to forgive them.

And so he runs the opposite direction. Instead of going

east to Tarshish, I went east to Nineveh. He heads

west to Tarshish, a seaport on the coast of Spain.

You know, they have the big, a ship, a storm

in the ocean. He's thrown overboard. He's swallowed by this

giant fish that the Bible says God had prepared, uniquely prepared.

He's there in that fish that he turns him around,

spits him out in the right direction. And we've been

following his life, learning what not to do. Now, so far,

here's what we've learned. In chapter one, up here on

the screen, we saw Jonah rebelling and running from God.

He goes, God, I don't wanna do your plan. I

wanna do my plan. I don't wanna go with your

mission for my life. I wanna just kind of do

what I wanna do. Chapter two, we see Jonah repenting

and running back to God. And he prays, goes, okay,

I'll do it. Then last week, we looked at chapter

three where he's restarting and he's running with God. It goes, okay,

I'm gonna do it. He has a bad attitude. His

attitude stinks, it sucks. But he's doing, at least doing

what God tells him to do. Now, in this last chapter,

we're gonna see Jonah regretting and resenting because God changes

the plans and Jonah doesn't like that. What we're gonna

look at today is quickly I wanna review the mistakes

that he made that we've seen up to this point,

point out a couple more mistakes that he made in

this chapter and then look at what to remember when

things don't go your way. Because you figured out by

now most of life doesn't go your way. Everything in

the world is broken because of sin. The economy's broken,

the weather's broken, relationships are broken, your body's broken. Nothing

works perfectly on this planet. And your plans don't work perfectly.

A lot of times you make your plans and what

happens is the exact opposite. Jonah had his plans for

what he wanted God to do. God had his plans.

And when God did his plans instead of Jonah's, Jonah

gets resentful and regretful. Now, we're gonna look at what

to remember when things don't go your way. But first,

I want you to see, so far we've seen five

mistakes that Jonah made. You don't wanna make these because

these make your life miserable. Number one, Jonah thought, they're

on your outline, he thought he could ignore his mission.

So he runs from God. Now, you can run from

God the rest of your life, but then what are

you gonna do? You're gonna run into God. You can

run from God the rest of your life, then you

can't run anymore, and you just wasted your life. Number two,

Jonah was prejudiced against people that God created and loved.

That's gonna always make you miserable if you're prejudiced, if

you're a racist, you're a bigot. Number three, Jonah cared

more about his politics than people's salvation. God says, I

wanna go save that city called Nineveh, and he goes, no,

they're the enemy. I don't want you to save them.

He cared more about his politics By the way, anytime

you make an allegiance to your nation greater than your

allegiance to God, there's a word for that. It's called idolatry.

And it breaks the first two of the 10 commandments

where God says, you're not to have anything before me.

I'm to be number one in your life. Okay. Then

he says, number four, Jonah was only interested in his nation,

not the whole world. That's a mistake. And number five,

Jonah reluctantly fulfilled his mission, but he does it with

a bad attitude. As we saw last week, he eventually

goes to Nineveh and instead of giving a message of

love and forgiveness and God wants you to change if

you'll turn back to him, he walks in and goes,

you guys are gonna die, bye. Not exactly a positive,

popular message and not exactly expressing the love of God. Now,

in Jonah chapter four, what we've come to today, we

find two more mistakes and both of them involve resentment,

resentment because Jonah doesn't get his way He gets resentful. Now,

let me just say here, resentment is the most worthless

emotion in your life. Anytime you get resentful, you're gonna

hurt yourself more than you hurt the person you're resentful against.

If I asked you to remember somebody who's hurt you,

you could probably pretty quickly bring up somebody in your

mind who's hurt you and you've had resentment against them.

You think by resenting them, you're holding them accountable. But

actually when you're resenting somebody, all you're doing is make

yourself miserable. They're not even thinking about you while you're

thinking about them all the time. There are people who

hurt you a year ago, five years ago, 10 years

ago in your life. You're still holding on to that hurt,

that's dumb. They can't hurt you anymore unless you hold

on to the memory of it. That's called resentment. They're

not even thinking about you while you're stewing and spewing

and going, I hate the fact that they did that

to me. And you're going over and over and your

mind gets bigger and bigger. They're out there cooking a

steak on the barbecue, making homemade ice cream and playing golf.

They're not even thinking about you. Who's the miserable one? You.

Resentment never helps. It always hurts. You gotta let it go.

You gotta let it go. Now, these are the next

two mistakes that Jonah makes. I don't want you, because

I care about you, because I love you, I want

your life to be happy, I want your life to

be successful, you gotta get this resentment stuff out of

your life. No matter what people have done to you,

they can't hurt you anymore unless you hold onto it

through resentment. Now, here, while resentment, is bad against anybody,

the worst kind is when you have resentment against God.

And you may have never even thought about this, but

you have had times in your life, we all have,

where we are resentful against God. God, why did you

do that? Why didn't you do this? Why did you

let that happen? And you get resentful against God. That

causes all kinds of problems. Now here are the two

mistakes that Jonah made. I want you to write these

down so you don't make them, okay, in your life.

Number one is resenting God's plan when it doesn't fit

my plan. That's what Jonah did. Resenting God's plan for

my life when it doesn't fit my plan for my life.

Have you ever done that? Of course you have. You

got mad at God when you had a plan and

your plan for graduation, for marriage, for that job, for whatever,

didn't happen. Resentment is a deadly poison. It's like drinking

arsenic and hoping it kills your opponent. It's like aiming

a shotgun at yourself and pulling the trigger so you

hit your enemy with a kick of the recoil. It's

always gonna hurt you more than it hurts anybody else.

But resentment against God is especially bad. Now, why was

Jonah resentful? I'll tell you why. Because he wanted his enemies,

the city of Nineveh, to be destroyed. God's going, I

wanna forgive them. I wanna warn them and hope they'll

turn back to me. God, Jonah's going, I don't want

you to forgive them. And so he doesn't want God

to let him off the hook. In Jonah 3, verse 10,

Jonah 3:10

the last verse, the last chapter, and first verses of

the next chapter, it says this on the screen. When

God saw that the people of Nineveh had put a

stop to their evil ways, and they really were a

pretty wicked city. They were kind of like Nazis of

that day. They were very, very brutal. When Nineveh had

put a stop to their evil ways, he had mercy

on them and he canceled the destruction he had threatened.

Now this change of plans upset Jonah and he became furious.

So Jonah complained to the Lord about it. Now, I

remember I told you last week that when God warns

you about something, you know, if you don't change this,

it's gonna be, there are gonna be problems, there are

gonna be discipline, there'll be punishment. Whenever God warns you,

that's a good sign because a warning means I don't

wanna do it. I don't wanna discipline you. I don't

wanna publish. I'm just warning you. When God warns you,

if you walk off that cliff, you're gonna fall. That's

for your good, not for your bad. So a warning

actually is God's grace. If God just wanted to punish you,

he'd just punish you. He doesn't warn you, he just

does it. And so God says, I want you to

go to Nineveh and warn them that if they don't

straighten up, things are gonna change. Well, that's a symptom

that I want to forgive them. And that's what God

wanted to do. Well, Jonah doesn't want that. When God warns,

Jonah's hoping that he has destruction. So he gets resentful

because God decides, I'm gonna forgive these guys because they've

turned back to me. So I'm gonna forgive them. Jonah

blows a gasket. He gets upset. He gets resentful against God. Now,

how do you know, you, how do you know when

you're resentful at God? You're gonna find five emotions in

your life. Write these down. These are signs that subconsciously

you are resenting God right now. Number one is frustration.

Frustration in your life is a sign that you're resenting God.

The Bible says this change of plans upset Jonah. He

got very frustrated. He got very upset. He got kicked off.

Now this revival when God said I'm gonna forgive him,

it's good news for everybody except Jonah. When God says

I'm gonna forgive the whole city, everybody's rejoicing except one guy, Jonah, why?

Because he's the guy who doesn't want him. He wants

him to be destroyed. So he's frustrated. Second thing is anger.

It says Jonah became furious. That word there in the

Bible literally means he lost his temper. He's in a rage.

He's livid. He is indignant that God did not destroy

the people who had hurt him. Why didn't you destroy

those people? And so he's very, he's not only frustrated,

he's angry. Number three, self-pity. When you have self-pity, often

behind it will be resentment. It says he complained to

the Lord. And he goes, oh, poor me. Nobody likes me.

Everybody hates me. I'm gonna go eat worms. And he

has a pity party and he invites me, myself, and I.

Have you ever done that? Had a pity party for yourself?

Oftentimes there's resentment behind that. Frustration, anger, self-pity. Now in

the next verse, it says this. Now, Jonah says, I

ask you, Lord, please kill me. Huh? Please kill me,

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

this guy's way off now. Okay, this guy is seriously,

are you kidding me? This is extreme resentment. God, just

kill me. I'd rather be dead than alive. Now, here

are the two other things, depression and suicidal. Depression, it's

better for me to die than live. That's severe depression.

And suicidal, Lord, just kill me, okay? I don't wanna live.

My plans didn't work out, so I don't wanna live.

Just kill me. You know, take my life. Now, how

rational is this? Okay, this is extreme resentment. Okay, now

it's not rational because think of all the things that

God has done for Jonah so far in his life.

All the stuff he survived because of miracles. He survives

a storm at sea. He survives being thrown overboard by

those sailors that we looked at a couple weeks ago.

He survives being swallowed by a giant fish. All these

things have happened that he's still alive and he's going,

I just wanna die. I just wanna die. Now, why

is that? This is what happened when hate fills your heart.

Hate filling your heart will cause these emotions. Resentment filling

your heart will cause these emotions. And actually, they actually

come in order because it starts with frustration because things

aren't going the way you want them to go. Then

it goes from frustration to anger. I'm ticked at God

because things aren't going the way I want them to do.

Then it goes from there to self-pity and I start

feeling poor me, poor me. Then it moves from there

to depression and then it could move to I may

as well just die. It progresses. That's what happens when

you hold hate in your heart. I am begging you

as your pastor, I am begging you, whoever you're holding

hatred against, Whoever you're holding hurt against, whoever you're holding

resentment against, let it go. Let it go. Because if

you hold it in your heart, hatred in your heart produces,

and resentment in your heart produces frustration and anger and

self-pity and depression. I remember many, many, many, many years

ago when Kay and I first got married the first year,

about six months into our marriage, we were not getting

along in our marriage. And we were fighting like crazy

and we were like brand new newlyweds. Kay thought she's

having a nervous breakdown. I ended up in the hospital.

I literally was in the hospital. And I remember a

psychiatrist came in. This is like 45 years ago. Psychiatrist

comes into me and he goes, so what's your problem?

I said, well, I'm depressed. I'm depressed. He goes, so really,

what are you angry about? I said, oh no, I'm

not angry. I'm just depressed. depression is sometimes frozen anger.

When you swallow your emotions, your stomach keeps score. And

I was so angry at Kay and I was swallowing it.

I wasn't expressing it, I was repressing it. And it

was causing depression in me. When you hold anger, when

you hold hatred, when you hold hurt, when you hold

resentment in your heart, you're not hurting the other person.

You're just hurting yourself. You gotta let it go. That's

a mistake that Jonah made. I just wanna die. It

always hurts you more. Now here's the second mistake that

Jonah made. First is resenting God's plan when it doesn't

fit my plan. I resent God because his plan doesn't

fit my plan. The second resentment is resenting God's mercy

and goodness to other people. When God is good to people,

I don't want him to be good to you. then

I get upset. When God is merciful and forgiving to people,

I don't want him to forgive, then I get upset.

And that's what happened to this guy, Jonah. Jonah hates

that God is forgiving people he doesn't like. That not

only his political enemy, as I told you, he's racially

prejudiced against these people. Jonah chapter four, verse two, it

says this. Then Jonah complained. Now, who's he complaining to?

To God. He says, didn't I say, he's talking to God,

didn't I say before I left home that I knew

you would do this, Lord? In other words, forgive these people.

That's why I ran away to Tarshish. He says, this

is why I ran away from my life mission. I

knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God. I

know you're slow to get angry. I know that you're

filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could

cancel your plans for punishing these people. Now notice, Jonah says,

I ran from God and I ran from my life mission.

I ran from what God had told me to do

because I knew what a good God he is. He said,

notice the four things that God knows about God. He says,

I knew you're gracious and compassionate. He says, I knew

you're patient. In other words, you're slow to get angry.

God doesn't get ticked fast. He's patient. He's slow to

get angry. He says, I knew your love is unlimited.

It's everlasting. It's eternal. And he goes, I knew that

you would rather forgive people than punish them. And all

this knowledge, what does it do to Jonah? It depresses him. Really? Really?

All these good things about God and Jonah gets depressed? Why?

Here's why. Because Jonah had a problem that you and

I have too. We want forgiveness for ourselves and we

want justice for everybody else. We wanna be forgiven. We

want God to show us grace. We want God to

show us mercy. But that guy who hurt me, no, God,

you get him. He deserves justice. Do I deserve justice? No,

I deserve grace. I deserve mercy. Jonah wants God to

forgive him. But he didn't want God to forgive anybody

who's hurt him. And he's resentful. And he's resenting that

God is actually showing mercy to somebody who hurt him.

He's resentful that God is showing mercy and forgiveness to

somebody he doesn't like, his enemies. And he wants forgiveness

for himself. He wants justice for everybody else. So let's

just get real today. Let's don't talk about this guy

thousands of years ago. Let's talk about you. Who do

you want God to be? to not forgive? Who do

you want God to not forgive? Please don't forgive them, God.

They hurt me too much. Who has hurt you so

much that you don't want God to show them mercy?

This is the Jonah trap. And it happens as much

today as it did to this guy a long time ago.

Who is it that hurt you so much you don't

want God show mercy? Who are you unwilling to forgive

that God's already forgiven? God's already forgiven him, but you

won't because you think you're better than God. You are

only hurting yourself. You're not hurting them. Holding on to

that resentment, holding on to that hatred, holding on to

that hurt is not hurting them. All it's doing is

making you miserable. Who are you unwilling to forgive that

God has forgiven? I remember a guy came to John

Wesley one day and he said, they were talking about

a guy and the guy said, oh, I could never

forgive that guy. I could never, never forgive that man.

John Wesley said, well, then I hope you never sinned. Why?

Because you don't wanna burn the bridge that you have

to walk across to get to heaven. Let me show

you what Jesus said up here on the screen. Jesus

said this, if you forgive others the wrongs they've done

to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others, then your Father

will not forgive the wrongs you have done Oh. When

you refuse to forgive, you're burning the bridge you have

to walk across to get to heaven. If you're unwilling

to forgive others, God says, why should I forgive you?

If you're unwilling to show grace to others, why should

I show grace to you? You want everybody else to

have justice, but you wanna have mercy. That is the

Jonah trap. That is the Jonah mistake. You need to

learn to forgive everybody who's ever hurt you for three reasons. Past, present,

and future. Now listen very closely. Three reasons. You need

to let it go, no matter how badly. Do they

deserve it? Of course not. But you don't either. Forgiveness

is never deserved. Forgiveness is never earned. Forgiveness is just

a gift. You don't forgive them because they deserve it.

You forgive them because you want to feel better. You

do it for your sake. You let them off the

hook for three reasons. First, I have been forgiven a

lot in the past. So I need to forgive other people. Second,

holding on to the hurt right now just makes me miserable.

I end up thinking about people I don't wanna think about.

And I'm gonna in the future need more forgiveness in

the future, because I'm certainly not gonna be perfect from

here on out. So I need to let it go

for all three reasons. Past, I've been forgiven. Second, I

don't wanna be miserable now. And third, I'm gonna need

more forgiveness in the future. Friend, you gotta let it go.

You gotta let it go. Not because they deserve it.

You didn't deserve the forgiveness God's given you. You let

it go because holding on to it hurts you. Now

Jonah gets mad because God does good things to people

who are repentant. And Jonah gets irritated because God shows

grace to people that Jonah didn't like. You'd think he'd

be more gracious. God had shown him an awful lot

of grace for his stinky attitudes and his rebellion and

all that. So Jonah doesn't want those people in Nineveh

to be forgiven. He wants them to be destroyed. He

wants the whole city to be wiped out. And God

had said, I want you to go warn them so

I don't have to wipe them out. I want them

to turn. You know, there's one other possible motive that

Jonah has, and we see it in the living Bible

translation of Jonah chapter four, verse three, up here on

the screen. Jonah goes, I'd rather be dead than alive

when nothing that I told them has happened. What's he

worried about here? His reputation. He said, God, you told

me to go to Nineveh and go, in 40 days,

the city will be destroyed if you don't turn, if

you don't repent, if you don't come back to God.

And now it hasn't happened. That makes me look bad, God.

He's more worried about how he looks than people's salvation.

He'd rather see an entire city destroyed than him look bad.

He goes, you know, it's better for me to not

even be alive. This makes me look bad. I'm worried

about how I appear to others. Are you? Now, because

of this, in the second half of this chapter, God

has to teach Jonah an object lesson and it's one

that we all have to learn. We're gonna look at this.

What should I remember when things don't go my way? Well,

you need to remember four things and that's what the

last half of this chapter, this last chapter of the

book of Jonah teaches us. Four things to remember when

things don't go your way. Now, things aren't gonna go

your way a lot in your life so you need

to write these down and you need to remember This

is what I need to think about when things aren't

going my way, when my plan doesn't match God's plan.

Number one, first, when things don't go my way, remember,

there are four things to remember. Remember, God can see

things I can't. I just have to remind myself when

things aren't going my way that God can see things

that I can't. Joan is all upset. that God had said,

I'm gonna destroy this city if they don't turn to me.

They turned to him, he said, I'm gonna let them off.

He's upset about that. And in verse four, it says,

then God asked Jonah, who's all ticked off, what right

do you have to be angry over what I've done?

Why should you be angry that I've forgiven these people?

He going, are you God? Are you wiser than me?

Can you see things that I can't see? Anytime you

doubt God's wisdom, you're gonna get in trouble. Because God

is God and you're not. And when I have my

plan and all of a sudden God has his plan

and God's plan is different than my plan and I

start to get upset about it, I just need to

remember God can see stuff I can't see. God can

see the past and the present and the future all

at the same time because he's not limited by time.

We're on a planet that circles 24 hours around the

sun and rotates. If you weren't on this planet, your

concept of time would be very different. God is timeless.

He could see the past, present, and the future all together.

He can see what you can't see. So you need

to trust his wisdom. When we doubt God's wisdom, we

get in trouble. God had to deal with this with

a lot of people in the Bible, not just Jonah.

Another guy named Job, look up here on the screen.

The Bible says in Job 38, two and three, the

Lord said to Job, who are you to question my wisdom?

Where were you when I made the world? Not a

bad question. Where were you when God made the world?

Are you God? Do you see things he doesn't see?

Do you know more than he knows? Do you think

your plan is better than his plan? Where were you

when I made the world, God says. He said, do

I need your advice to change plans? No. Do I

need to consult you when I know what's gonna be

better for you? No. Are you being a little presumptuous? Yes.

I said, I just need to remember when things don't

go the way I planned, God is God and I'm not.

And I just need to trust him and I need

to trust his wisdom. I need to trust that he

can see things that I can't see. on the screen,

Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse 11 says this, God does everything

just right and on time. So he always does the

right thing and he always does it at the right time.

God's never late. We might think he's late, but God's

never late. God does everything just right and on time,

but people can never completely understand what he's doing and

see the whole scope of his work from beginning to end.

We don't see what God sees. You trying to understand

God's plan is like an ant trying to understand the internet.

I don't have the brain capacity to see from beginning

to end and see all of history and you don't either.

And so the first thing I have to do is

remember that God can see things I can't see. So

God's saying, don't doubt me. Don't doubt me when you're

going through tough times. I know what's going on. I

can see where it's headed. I know the ending. I

know the end of the story. I've read the last chapter.

So he said, don't doubt me. Remember that God can

see things I can't. So this is the first thing

Jonah has to learn. Now, Jonah leaves the city, okay?

And in the next verse, verse five, it says, then Jonah,

left the city of Nineveh and he found a place

east of the city to sit down and there he

tried to make a temporary shelter to sit under as

he waited to see what would happen to the city.

Now do you see what's going on here? Jonah is

still hoping, even though God says he's gonna forgive the city,

Jonah's still hoping God's gonna destroy him. And so what

he does is he leaves town, he goes out up

on a hill outside of town and he sits down

to watch the show. He's waiting for God to destroy

the largest city in the world at this time. This

is gonna be a good show. So he gets out

there and he's ready and he sets up his long

chair and he pours an iced tea and gets out

his chips and guacamole and he's waiting to see a

city destroyed. He said, man, that's a little gruesome. How

entertaining is it to watch people be destroyed, killed and

cities destroyed? Well, they're called blockbuster movies. I mean, thousands

of years later, people pay big money to go see

cities destroyed and people killed. So he think I'm gonna

be entertained by this. So he's sitting out there in

his chair, waiting to see what will happen. The problem is,

it's a hot, hot, hot, dusty, deserty day. And Jonah

doesn't have a beach umbrella. So he's getting hot. And

that leads us to the second thing you need to

remember because what God does next is pretty unusual. Number two,

write this down. When I'm going through a tough time

that I don't understand, what I need to remember when

things don't go my way is remember God is good

to me even when I'm cranky. God is good to

me even when I'm cranky. Now Jonah, he's mad at God.

But God's still gonna be good to him. And in

the next verse, verse six, it says, talks about that

even when your attitude stinks, God is still gracious to you.

Verse six, then God arranged, Jonah's out there sitting under

the hot sun. Then God arranged for a broad leafed

plant to spring up quickly and provide shade for Jonah

from the hot sun and to relieve his discomfort. This

made Jonah very happy and comfortable. Jonah's being a total jerk.

God still cared for his discomfort. Okay, this is kind

of cool here, okay? Now notice, then God arranged, circle

that word arranged. It's the same word where it says

God arranged a great fish. He custom made. He custom

made a broadleaf plant to spring up quickly and provide

shade over Jonah while he's sitting there. He's worried about

Jonah's discomfort even though Jonah's attitude stinks. God cares about you, friends,

even when you're a jerk. And he's saying here that

you have no idea how many times God has made

your life comfortable when you didn't deserve it. You may

have been going the exact opposite of God and God's

still covering you with shade. You may have been You

may have been totally ignoring God and God was still

caring for your discomfort because that's the kind of God

God is. He loves you even when you're unlovable. He

loves you even when you're unlovely. Here's Jonah mad at

God for God changing the plans and going, I'm gonna

forgive those people. He's out there and he's complaining about

how hot it is and God takes care of his discomfort.

I need to remember that God is good to me

even when I'm cranky. And I need to remember that

I have no idea how many times God has made

my life easier when it could have been harder and

I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve it at all.

It was simply the grace of God. Now here's the

third thing to remember. When things don't go as planned,

I remember God sees things I don't see. When things

don't go as planned, I remember that God is good

to me even when I'm cranky. And number three, when

things don't go as planned, I remember that God is

in control of every detail of my life. God is

in control of every detail of my life. The big

and the little, the large and the small, the fast

and the slow, every detail in my life. Plans in

your life, friends, don't fail randomly. I'll say it again.

Plans in your life don't fail randomly. There is a purpose.

There is a reason behind everything, everything in your life. Now,

God has to teach this lesson to Jonah. So he

actually uses the object lesson of this plant that he's

grown up to give comfort to Jonah, that God is

in control of every little detail of my life. And

in the net, you know, so God had arranged for

this plant to spring up and provide shade while he's

sitting out there waiting for the show to happen, the

show of destruction. But in the next verse, it says this,

but at dawn, the next day, God arranged, there's that

word again, God is custom designing, God arranged for a

small worm, oh great, a small worm to chew through

the stem of that large, this is gonna be an

object lesson, chew through the stem of that large shade

plant so that it withered and died. Then when the

sun arose, God arranged, there's another word again, a scorching

east wind. And the sun blared so hot on Jonah's

head that he grew faint and he wanted to die.

And he said again, it would be better for me

to die than to live. Okay, now so far we've

seen God arranging all kinds of things in Jonah's life. Okay,

he's arranged a fish, he's arranged a plant, he's arranged

a worm. In fact, look up here on the screen.

Here's all the stuff that God had arranged in Jonah's life.

The Bible tells us in chapter one, verse three, God

arranged a great wind to create a storm. Then it

says in verse seven, God arranged the dice to reveal

that Jonah was the problem. You remember that part of

the story. Then it says God arranged a great fish

to transport Jonah back to where he was supposed to be.

Then it says God arranged a fast-growing plant to provide shade,

and then it says that God arranged a worm to

eat the plant for breakfast. It's all been arranged. Now

I want you to listen to me. The things that

you think are disappointments in your life, disappointments are his appointments.

Disappointments are his appointments. Disappointments are his appointments. Disappointments, what

looks like a disappointment in your life is his appointment.

It may not be your plan, but God has a plan.

God is God and you're not. The more you fight

God's plan, the more miserable you're gonna be. And you're

gonna have frustration and anger and self-pity and depression and

maybe even feel like taking your life. But if you

go with the flow and say, God, I trust your

wisdom and I trust that you're good to me even

when I don't deserve it. You're good to me even

when I'm a jerk. You give me comfort. I mean,

I may be running from you completely. I'm still breathing air.

I'm still drinking water. My heart's still beating. Those are

all gifts of God. I wouldn't last one second without

the grace of God and you wouldn't either. So God

has arranged everything from a great wind to a little worm. Now,

I want you to get this. In your life, in

your life, sometimes God arranges something really big to swallow

you up like that big fish. He arranges big circumstances

to swallow you up and you're heading the wrong direction

and when it spits you out, you're headed in the

right direction. At other times, God arranges something brand new

that comes up suddenly in your life, like that plant

that sprung up suddenly and provided shade and comfort when

he was discomfort. And sometimes God provides something new in

your life to give you comfort even when you're not

where you ought to be. But God's given you comfort

even in that situation. And then sometimes God arranges something

small to eat away at what's been giving you comfort

because he doesn't want you to stay there. He wants

to move you. He wants to get you going. He

doesn't want you sitting on the hill under the shade

plant for the rest of your life. So he arranges

something real small like a worm to eat away at

your comfortable and all of a sudden it's not comfortable

anymore and you're back under the hot sun. In all

of those situations, big, little, small, whatever, God is doing

it in every situation, in every case. God's motive is love.

He's doing it because he loves you. Not because he

hates you, not to punish you. He's doing it because

he loves you. God is a God of wisdom, God

is a God of grace, and he's a God of love.

And you may not see the beginning to the end,

but he's doing it, whether it's the big or the

little or the new in your life. He's doing it

because he loves you. And he knows what will make

you happy more than you do. You know, the word

great is a very prominent word in this book of Jonah.

I haven't called attention to it so far. But as

we're ending this series, I want you to look up

here on the screen. How many times the word great

shows up in the story of Jonah? It says that

chapter one, God arranged a great wind. And then it

says that the wind created a great storm. And then

it says that the sailors felt great fear, because the

boat was breaking up. Then God arranged a great fish.

And then it says Jonah got a great second chance.

And then Nineveh showed great repentance, that city, and as

a result, the city had a great revival. A lot

of great things happen, but also a lot of small things.

I want you to write this down. Write this down

somewhere on your outline. God uses both great and small

things to direct me. God uses both great and small

things to direct me. Great circumstances, big circumstances that swallow

me up, little circumstances like a worm that eat away

at my discomfort and my comfort. God uses both great

and small things to direct me, but God is a

God of details. And he's in control of every detail

of your life. So when things don't go the way

I want them to go, I remember God can see

what I can't see. I remember that God is good

to me even when I'm a jerk, when I'm cranky,

when I'm totally ignoring him, God's still good to me.

And I remember that God is in control of every detail,

the big and the little. He is arranging, it's all arranged.

Disappointments are his appointments. Verse nine, then God asked Jonah again,

what right Do you have to be angry that the

shade plant withered and died? Jonah said, I have every

right to be angry and I'm angry enough to die.

This guy just doesn't get it, okay? He just doesn't learn.

This is what we're learning not to do, okay? Jonah

totally misses the point. What's the point? Write this down.

When things don't go my way, the fourth thing to

remember is remember to focus on what will last. When

things don't go my way, I need to remember to

focus on that which will last. I remember that God

can see what I can't see. I remember that God

is good even when I'm a jerk. I remember that

God is in control of every detail and I remember

to focus on what will last. You see, you guys,

we fret And we worry and we stew and we

spew and we get upset over the passing of circumstances

that aren't gonna last this week, much less next month,

next year, 10 years or for eternity. We spend most

of our worries on stuff that is so short term,

like a plant that grows up and dies the next day.

And he goes, why are you worrying about this? He said,

if you're gonna get distressed in life, at least get

distressed about something that really matters. Plants don't last, they're short-lived.

Some of you, you kill them really quickly at your house.

You're really good at killing plants, okay? You don't have

a green thumb, you got, I don't know, some other

kind of thumb. But the bottom line is, he's saying

if you're gonna get distressed about something in life, well

at least get distressed about something that matters, that's gonna last.

You're all worried about a plant that grew up one

day and then I let it die the next. To

teach you the brevity of life, to teach you how

most of the stuff you're worried about isn't even gonna

matter a year from today. It's just temporary. In verse

10 and 11, it says, then the Lord said, Jonah,

you're more concerned about a plant that died, even though

you didn't plant it, you didn't water it, you didn't

make it grow. In other words, I did that. And

plants are short-lived. They spring up quickly and they die.

But Nineveh, that city over there, the one that you

wanted destroyed, has more than 120,000 people who don't know

their right hand from their left. I'll explain that in

a minute. Not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I

be concerned about that great city? Now Bible scholars debate

what is meant by 120,000 people who don't know their

left hand from their right hand. Some scholars think it

means children. 120,000 kids, they don't know the right hand

from their left hand. So there'd be 120,000 kids in

that city. Others think it means the people there weren't

morally astute. They were morally ignorant. They didn't know right

from wrong. And as a result, they were living in

a wrong way. Either way, God is saying, Jonah, you

care more about your own comfort, this shade plant that

died and you got ticked that it died in a day.

You care more about your own comfort than the salvation

of a city full of people who are spiritually dying.

Why don't you get concerned about stuff that really matters

rather than simply your own personal comfort? Now, I'm not

gonna make a big point here, but God wants us

to care about cities. He says, should not care about

that great city? If God cares about cities, we should too.

What city should you care about? Well, obviously the one

you live in. But God says, you should care about

all cities. Why? Because they're filled with people that God

created and made and loved. The future of the world

is urbanization. The future of the world is cities. By

the end of this century, the vast majority of people

in the world will live in major cities. That's the migration.

The future of this world is young, urban, and south

of the equator. That's the future. Study any demographics, they'll

tell you that. That's the future. There will be cities

of 85 million like Kinshasa and Nairobi and others. Giant,

giant cities. He's just saying we need to care about cities. Why?

Because people are there. Let me just phrase it another way.

What do you care about most? The plant that's given

you comfort or the salvation of people that God created

and loves and wants them to know him? I mean,

what if this Christmas you cared more about the salvation

of the people around you than you did cared about

what you're gonna buy them as a gift? You're gonna

spend an awful lot of time thinking about what am

I gonna buy them for a gift this Christmas? That's temporary.

Most of those Christmas gifts aren't even gonna be around

next Christmas. It's the plant that's gonna die. What if

you spent as much time praying for that person and

their salvation and inviting them to a service as you

did spending time on what to buy them as a gift?

You got your priorities in the wrong. He says, if

you're gonna get distressed, get distressed over something matters. People

need the Lord. They need the Lord a whole lot

more than they need a Christmas gift. And yet why

are we more worried about the temporary? The greatest, this

whole series has been on your life mission. The greatest

use of your life is to invest it in something

that outlasts it. You see, you can waste your life.

There are lots of ways to waste it. You can

spend your life. There's lots of ways to spend it.

Or you can invest your life. And the greatest use

of your life is to invest it in something that

will outlast it. Focus on what's gonna last. What's gonna last?

There are only two things on this planet that are

gonna last forever. This building isn't gonna last. The United

States of America isn't gonna last. Starbucks isn't gonna last.

There are only two things gonna last forever. The word

of God and people. God's truth is eternal. It'll still

be true a million years from today. If it's true

a million years ago, it'll be true a million years

in the future. God's word is true. So it's gonna

last forever. And there's only one other thing that's gonna

last forever. Oh yeah, people. One of two places, heaven

or hell. And what we do with our time now

may determine their eternal destiny. So if you wanna invest

your life in something that's gonna last, invest it in

the word of God and in people. Get this book

into your mind, into your heart, and get people into

God's family. And in heaven, people come up to you,

thank you. I'm here because of you. I'm eternally grateful.

I'm here because you cared enough. You cared more about

my salvation than my present. This is the message of Jonah.

This is your life mission. Let me just end with

a couple verses up here on the screen. Matthew 6,

Jesus says this. Don't worry. Don't worry about will we

have enough to eat or drink or wear. Only people

who don't know God are always worrying about those kind

of things, the temporary things of life. He goes, your

Father in heaven knows what you need. He knows you

need something to eat, something to drink, something to wear.

He goes, your Father in heaven knows what you need.

So instead, focus on putting God's work first and doing

what he made you to do. That's called your life mission.

Focus on putting God's work first and doing what he

made you to do, your life mission. And here's the promise,

God will make sure that you have all these other

things that you need as well. I'm gonna take care

of your needs. You don't have to worry about that.

If you're gonna worry about something, worry about your life mission.

Worry about putting God's work. Worry about doing what God

wants you to do. Last verse on the screen, 2

Corinthians chapter four. We fix our eyes. That means we

focus our attention. We fix our eyes not on what

we see, but on what we cannot see. Because what

we see will last only a short time, but what

we cannot see will last forever. You can see this cup,

but it's not going to last forever. It'll eventually deteriorate, rust.

It'll fall apart. You can see this table, but it

will eventually fall apart. This building will eventually crumble. Everything

you see on the earth is temporary. It's not gonna last.

What's gonna last are the souls of people, the word

of God. The eternal is invisible. He said that's the

stuff that matters. Let's bow our heads. Father, you made

each of us for a mission. You didn't put us

here to live for ourselves. We don't wanna waste our lives.

We wanna make our lives count. Thank you for all

these lessons from Jonah on what not to do. Now

you pray. In your mind, say something like this to God. Say, God,

help me to remember that when things don't go my way,

help me to remember that you can see what I

can't see Help me to trust your wisdom. You know

how it's all gonna work out and I don't. I

wanna trust your wisdom in my life. And God, when

things don't go my way, help me to remember that

you're good to me even when I'm cranky. And that

there've been many times in my life that you've taken

care of my discomfort and I didn't even realize it.

You were being good to me when I was totally

ignoring you. Sorry. Help me to remember that you are

always a good God and that everything you do in

my life, you do out of love. God, help me

to remember that you're in control of every detail, the

big and the small. Help me to remember that the

disappointments are his appointments, your appointments. And Lord, help me

not to worry about stuff that's not gonna last and

not gonna matter. Help me not to worry and get

stressed out over temporary stuff. But help me to focus

on what's really gonna last. Your word and your people

Today I'm committing the rest of my life to discovering

and developing and fulfilling the purpose, the mission that you

made me for. Jesus Christ, come into my life, into

every room in my heart. Fill me with love and confidence.

I need your forgiveness. Help me to forgive those that

have hurt me. Help me to be as gracious with

them as you are with me. And Lord, today, that

person that's hurt me, I am letting them go. I

know I'm gonna probably have to do it over and

over and over till it finally feels right, but I'm

letting them go. I'm letting them off the hook because

you've let me off the hook. Thank you for your

grace and forgiveness to me Jesus Christ, I want to

follow you from here on out. In your name I pray. Amen.

God bless you.