And we're in the Book of Jonah. We've been in Jonah. We're concluding today our study in the Book of Jonah. It's been a fun study for me. I enjoy it when I get to study out a book of the Bible and just kind of walk through page by page. It's been enjoyable for me, and we're in the last chapter. I obviously could take some time here looking at this last chapter. We could take several weeks, certainly, many messages, but we are going to finish today because we've got to go on. We're going to go into the family for the next month, be talking about that. We've got some guest speakers going to be with us, challenging us with regards to the family. You know, God's given us a great service already. I have felt His presence and speaking to us in the ministry of music thus far and the time that we've gathered. And I feel like, you know, Pastor Caleb, don't get up there and mess it up, you know. God is working. So why don't we have a word of prayer and then we'll read this, the fourth chapter of Jonah and ask God to speak to us here. Lord, we are gathered here in your house. We thank you for seeing fit to come and speak to hearts. We thank you, Lord, for meeting with us and challenging us. Lord, I ask you now that as we turn to the pages of Scripture and look into your word, that you would allow me to step out of the way, that God, you would be lifted up, that your word would be held high, that you would stir hearts and challenge Christians and draw the lost to you. We pray, God, that you would meet with us in a real and a powerful way. May it not be what I said, but what you, how you spoke to hearts. Lord, we'll thank you for it. We thank you, God, for this time in your house, and we just ask you to show yourself strong in our presence for the next few minutes. In Jesus' name, amen. It's truly my desire to step aside and let the word of God speak. There is a balance there because as we've seen in the book of Jonah, that God uses a man. Somebody, how should they hear except there be a preacher? Somebody has to get up and proclaim the word of God and God uses men. He uses their personality. You say, well, I'm not like Pastor Caleb. Well, you can thank God there, amen. You say, well, I'm not like this person or that person. That's okay. You might not be a Jonah either, but we don't have to be a Jonah. You don't have to be Pastor Caleb or like Bob Gamble or like Anthony or whatever. You be you. and God will use you. He has specially prepared you and got you where you are and is willing and able to use you just as you are to do amazing things. And we've just got to fit into where God wants us and let Him take the reins and use us as Jonah ultimately did when he followed the Lord and see his obedience there. But in Jonah chapter number 4, let's read this chapter. It's only 11 verses. We'll read this and conclude the story and then I'll give you a few thoughts from it. He says, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly as he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and he said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore, I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and there made a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city. The Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceedingly glad for the gourd. But God prepared a worm, when the morning rose the next day, and it smoked a gourd, that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did rise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry? for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd that which Thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in the night and perished in the night. I should not And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein there are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?" Well, we've seen this story unfold and watched many things happen. Last week, we saw the opportunities that were developed for Jonah to come and fulfill the will of God. And this morning, we see Jonah's outrageous displeasure. His outrageous displeasure. You see, in verse number one, it says that Jonah was displeased. God had done a miraculous thing, and Jonah was upset about it. Outrageous displeasure. He wasn't happy. You know, it's amazing when you think about it. Everywhere Jonah went, people experienced revival. I would like a ministry like that. I mean, Jonah was running from God and he was on a boat and everybody on the boat got saved. Everywhere Jonah went, I mean, Jonah goes to Nineveh and a whole city of people repented of their sin and turned to Christ and Jonah went out and had a pity party. He was outrageously displeased. No reason for his displeasure. Should be very happy and thrilled with what God was doing, but he was displeased. Everyone experiencing revival, somebody said this about revival. Revival restrains the righteous anger of God. Revival restores the conscious awareness of God. And revival reveals the gracious activity of God. Everywhere Jonah went, people experienced revival, except for Jonah. Everyone else was seeing God do great things. And all the while, Jonah was even being used of God to do it. And he still was not himself experiencing revival. You say, Pastor Cable, how do you know that? Because if he was experiencing revival, there would be joy, not pity, not sadness. C.H. Spurgeon said this, a genuine revival without joy in the Lord is as impossible as spring without flowers or the dawn of day without the sun. Genuine revival brings joy and Jonah didn't have it. Everyone else was experiencing it. In this story, it's amazing as just these four chapters, we see the selfishness of Jonah unfold. But we see the turning of a sinful nation and we see the working of a sovereign God in these short chapters. God transforming and changing lives. Giving Jonah a second chance. Everyone around him experiencing the amazing transforming power of God. You know, that's what God is. God has transforming power. You say, you know what? I don't really like where I am. I don't like my life right now. You know God's transforming power can change that? God can help you. to be more than you thought you could be. God could help you accomplish more than you thought you could. God could help you because he changes you from the inside out. The amazing transforming power and just getting into the presence of God gives you what you need to be able to do that. Like the woman who touched the hymn of God's garment and he said, I felt the virtue pass from me. Just getting touched by God can help you accomplish so many things. This is the glorious nature of our Lord. All these people being changed, but Jonah himself wasn't. For the sake of an outline to kind of guide us through this passage, we want to see what God has for us in the text, but first of all, we see a pouting prophet. This prophet pouting and a little bit upset. You know, any time you find yourself pouting, you can be guaranteed that you're dealing with a selfishness. Because if you're pouting, what you're doing is you're looking at yourself, and you're saying, man, I didn't get this, or I didn't get that, or this didn't happen, or that did happen, or this should have and it didn't. I mean, you're looking at everything in your life, in your situation, and consumed with what is going on with you, and it drives you to have a pity party. You know, a pity party is the only party that's not fun for anybody. Nobody enjoys it, not you or anybody around you. Jonah was throwing a pity party. He was pouting. He was displeased. He was angry. You know, we have to control our own spirit. D.L. Moody said, the man that I fear the most is the one that walks underneath this hat. We got to control our own spirit and be careful. that we don't allow ourselves to get into this situation. He was dealing with a selfishness in his own mind and his own heart. Many times you and I do what we do, whether that's for God or for good deeds, we still do it for ourself. We may even be doing something good, but many times we do it for ourself. We are trying to fulfill a selfish desire or to maybe get favor from God, Maybe because we want to feel good about ourselves, oh, look, I helped so-and-so, you know, or I did this, or, oh, look, I did that, and doing it for selfish reasons. You know, I don't know what Jonah's motivation was, but he definitely was dealing with selfishness. Philippians 2, chapter 2, verse 2 and 3 says, You know, if we were considerate or thinking about others more often than we were thinking about ourselves, we would definitely not be throwing pity parties. We would not be consumed with what's going on in our life but with being concerned with others and what's going on in their life, investing in other people's lives. True love seeketh not her own. We know that. Chapter 13 of Corinthians tells us that. It's seeketh not her own. You know, true love seeketh not her own. You know, If we did this in just our relationships. Let each esteem others better themselves. If we did this in just our family, they could transform a lot of homes here. Just esteeming her better than you, sir. Just esteeming him better than you, you say, well, he doesn't deserve it. That's not what the book says. esteeming others better than themselves. If we just had their best interest at heart, I'm telling you, it would transform your marriage. It would transform my marriage. Transform your relationship with your children. You say, man, it's such a struggle. It's so hard. How do I do this? Esteem her better than you. Esteem him better than you. Don't be so consumed about yourself. Think about her. Selfishness is a root or result of jealousy. Think about Saul. When did Saul's problems start? When he started hearing the lady sing the songs about David and how many people he had killed. Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. His problems started right then and didn't end until he was taken off this earth. You know, we see this anger described here. He says in verse number one, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry. It didn't just say that he was upset or that he was angry. It says he was very angry. You know, as Christians, we should be in control of our spirit. We should be in control of our anger. Anger is one letter away from danger. You better be careful. You know, the Bible says, make not friends with an angry man. And some of you are married to one. You know, anger will destroy your home. This is not on the home, but I'm telling you it will destroy your home. Anger will destroy your relationship with your wife. Anger will destroy your relationship with your children. When you are not in control of your spirit, We, you're like a city that is walls are broken down the Bible says. Here Jonah was very angry and we as Christians are admonished to be in control of our spirit. First Corinthians chapter 9 verse number 25 says, and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. You need to be able to master your spirit. You say, you just make me so mad. You are in control of how you respond. You are in control of what you do. You should be. You say, well, I lose control. You got to repent to that and ask God to help you get that under control for the sake of your home, for the sake of your relationship. for the sake of your job, for the sake of your children. Get that under control. Be in control of your spirit. He was very angry. You know, an angry man acts foolishly. Ecclesiastes 7.9 says, Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. You say, You're saying I'm foolish? If you're not in control of your spirit, that's what God said. It resteth in the bosom of fools. Because when you lose control, you do things and you say things that you shouldn't do or say. You would have never hit somebody like that. You would have never struck out that way, but you lost control. You need to be in control of your spirit. When you lose control, you do things that you wouldn't do normally. And like the old object lesson that you do with the kids, you take a tube of toothpaste and you squeeze it all out on a plate. And then you pass it around to class and you tell them, okay, I want you to put that toothpaste back in the tube. And the kids get it all over their fingers and they have a lot of fun. They make a big mess, but nobody can get it back in the tube. And the things that you said and you did in anger, it's too late. You say, but I didn't mean it. I was mad. But it's too late. You can't put it back in the tube. And now your wife has to live with that hurt. And you say, well, she ought to be able to forgive. Yeah, and with God's help, she might be able to, but you ought to be able to control your spirit. Because that's what God wants. And when you're in control of your spirit, you don't let that go. You strive for the mastery, be temperate in all things. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Anger will bring destruction. You know, there's an old fable that's told about an eagle that had a fellow eagle on the opposite mountain, and they were always under competition. flying one higher than the other and one eagle got so upset and very just mad at the other one and, you know, like two neighbors that can't get along. These two eagles were constantly at each other. And one day this one eagle came down and he saw a hunter and he flew up to the hunter and he said to the hunter, he said, you see that eagle right there? He is not worth living. I think you ought to kill him. And the eagle there talking to the hunter said, well, I could, but I can't quite shoot that high. I might need some very good feathers for my arrow. And he said, well, you can have one of mine. I have good feathers. And the eagle gave three feathers to the archer to try and shoot down the eagle that he was so mad at. And the archer couldn't quite get high enough, so they climbed a little higher and he gave them three more feathers. And you know where this is going. They never did get the other eagle, but the one that was so mad that he was giving up his feathers found that he could no longer fly. It destroys yourself, the anger. You think, well, I'm mad at them, but it's hurting you. He was angry. this pouting prophet. In verse number two, we see some excuses that he developed. He said, and he prayed unto the Lord and he said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? He says, when I was at home and you came to me and talked to me, this is what I told you. Therefore, I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. He says, I knew that you were going to forgive them. I knew that you were gracious, and you were going to let these guys off, and now they're going to, they get to go scot-free after all that they've done, and they don't deserve it. He develops these excuses. When you're filled with selfishness, no one's right, not even God. God had every right to forgive them. But he said, no. He says, repentest thou of that? I mean, you let them repent? They should have been judged. His ways are perfect. God's ways are perfect. They're above our ways. We don't understand it. We don't need to understand it. We just need to trust it. You know, then we see him in a pathetic position. Look at verse number three. He says, therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life. For me, it is better for me to die than to live. When you reach a place that you would rather die than live, you're in a pathetic place. You're in a pathetic position where Jonah here, because of this situation, felt he had nothing to live for. He felt that there was no reason to go on and didn't need to continue. It's possible for the first time we're seeing the heart of Jonah here. really what he thinks and how he feels. He lacks a desire to even live in light of this situation. You know, joy in life comes not from what we know, but from what we do. You say, oh, I know about God, and I know that God is love, and I know God is joy, and I know that you live a Christian life, and I know all these things. But joy in life doesn't come from what we know. Joy comes from what we do, what we do. You know, there's, in the Christian life, there's something that's called a second mile. I have a message that I've titled, Second Mile Satisfaction. And truth is, for the Christian, true joy and true satisfaction doesn't come until we get into the second mile. Nobody was ever really excited and thrilled that they did a half-hearted job. They got through it and they were depressed about it and they're a little bit discouraged and wish it would have been better, but they got it done and they go on to the next thing. But when they did their best and they did an exceedingly good job, they got done and they might have been tired, but they were, whoa, look at that. I mean, hey man, I got it done. They were excited about it. And now some of you are awake. Second mile satisfaction. Joy comes from what you do in this Christian life. And you have the choice to live your life in the first mile and just barely squeak by as a Christian and just get us to endure and just get through one day at a time and live a discouraged, despondent, downturned life. But you also have the choice to push on into the second mile and do a little bit more of what God wants and push through and read a little longer and pray a little longer Work a little harder and see God do miraculous things, and you'll be on cloud nine. You'll be on the mountaintop. You'll be thrilled about what God's doing, and you'll have that joy that only comes in the second mile. Jonah went and did what God told him to do, but he did it half-heartedly, wasn't looking for a return, didn't know what God was going to do, and wasn't happy when God did it. You know, this is an example of the fact that you can do right and not be right. Jonah did what God told him to do, but his heart wasn't right. And we can do right, we can come into the house of God, and we can carry our Bible, and we can do right, and we can hand out a gospel tract to somebody, and we can do right and read our Bible in the morning, and not be right in our heart. Jonah did it. And God even used him to do great things because he didn't do it for Jonah. He did it for the honor and glory of God. God did it because it's what he wanted to accomplish. He used a backslidden prophet to do it. You can do right and not be right. But if you wanna have joy, you gotta be right. See God do great things and you can be right in your heart. Joy comes from what we do. John chapter 13 verse number 17 says, if you know these things, happy are ye that do them. Wanna be happy? Do right. Be happy, be right in your heart. Jonah forgot that life has no guarantees. Don't boast thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Jonah forgot that his life was not his own. He said, Lord, just kill me. It's not good for me to die. I mean, it's not good for me to live. Just kill me. He was didn't want to live. And he forgot his life was not his own. He shouldn't be living for himself anyway. He should be saying, God, whatever you want. Is there anything else you need me to do here on Earth? If not, I'm ready. Whatever you want, Lord, he should be living for God, not for himself. Your life and my life is not our own. We've been bought with a price. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. God made us, fashioned us, and our life is his for us to live and honor him. Suicide is never the answer. And I know there are those that deal with thoughts of suicide and feel that there's no reason to go on. And they're so discouraged about their life. Can I tell you this morning that Stop looking at yourself. Start to live for others. Live for God. God will give you purpose. God will give you joy. And you'll see him do amazing things. Regardless of your circumstance, we should make every day count for God. Then we see Jonah here, he puts himself into a painful prison. He puts himself into a painful prison. You see, this is what he did to himself. Jonah did this. Nobody did it to him. Jonah chose to do this to himself. You know, I listened to a documentary on Pablo Escobar, who was the head of the cartel in Colombia. Pablo Escobar, a lot of stuff in his life, Very amazing, ultimately was killed in a shootout with a DEA agent and running from the police in Colombia. But at one point he was captured and he pleaded guilty to several counts of trafficking heroin. And he had to go to jail. So he told the Colombian government, he said, okay, I'll go to jail, but you need a secure prison to put me in. And I don't want this to be on the Colombian people, so I will build the prison. So he built his own supermax facility and moved in. For five years, he lived in the jail that he built. And he ran the cartel from his jail that he built. You know, a lot of Christians are like that. They build their own jail and move in. That's what Jonah did. He put himself in this prison. You see, he was bound by his attitude. Acts 8.23 says, for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. He was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Many Christians, they put themselves into their own prison. He had brought himself there, a place where he no longer felt useful. Because of his attitude, he put himself in this prison, locked the lid, and threw away the key. In John chapter eight, verse number 34, Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commit a sin is a servant of sin. You see, at first, the choice to sin is ours. We can choose to do that. But then it begins to change, and the sin starts to take over. And we no longer are doing it out of choice, but we're doing it because the sin is ruling and reigning in our life. We have bound ourselves up. We have put ourselves into a prison of iniquity. His bad attitude affects everything that he does. You know, it'd be like me deciding that I wanted to carry this chair around Man, this chair is so heavy. It's ridiculous. It's awful hard to get anything done in this life with this chair here all the time. It's kind of stupid that you got to live a life like this. I mean, how do you expect me to, you know, get anything done or do anything? This is just dumb. This affects every part of my life. Your attitude affects every part of your life. And you choose to have a bad attitude and you wear it around and it affects all you do. It affects every situation. It affects how you look at everything. And you put it on yourself, but you walk around complaining about it. Still can't believe I got this chair here. I mean, it's awful hard to preach without hands. I like to move my hands around. You know, it's hard for me to think right now. My mind's going blank because my hands aren't free. I got to wear this chair around. Isn't that ridiculous? Man, this Christian life is so hard. You put it on yourself. You got this bad attitude and you're wearing it around. And it's disturbing your life. But nobody put it there but you. You're the one wearing it. You're the one deciding to carry it. You can choose to put it down. No, I don't want to do that. Why not? You enjoy it? You must. You find consolation in it? I don't know. Jonah put himself in bondage. He was wearing his bad attitude around all on his own. He went and having a pity party, went out in the desert and was watching to see if just maybe God would judge the people. Listen. God wants you to have victory. He doesn't want you to live that way. Put it down. Put the sin down. Put the bad attitude down. Live a victorious life and see God do great things. We choose to pick up that sin and then we complain about how hard it is. He put himself in bondage. He was just waiting for God to judge the people. He says in verse number four, then said the Lord, doest thou well to be angry? God asked him, why are you angry? Is this a good thing? So Jonah went out the city and sat on the east side of the city and he just sitting there waiting for God to judge them maybe. And the Lord God prepared a gourd. The Lord brought a gourd for him to provide him shade and he says he was even glad for it. But you know, he was not grateful for it. There's a difference between being glad and being grateful. You know, if I went back here after church and I went into the bookstore and I bought myself a Mountain Dew, I'd be glad. Man, this is good. But you know what? If Bob Gamble went back after church and bought me a Mountain Dew, I'd be grateful. You see, the difference is recognizing where it came from. Jonah didn't recognize that God, his God, who had provided for him, protected him, carried him, brought him to this place, gave him a gourd for shade. He didn't recognize, oh, he was glad for the shade, but he didn't acknowledge where it came from. Didn't recognize that God had given him this. We need to see what God is doing in our life and express gratitude for it. God didn't have to give him the gourd. God does so many things for us that he doesn't have to. We need to express gratitude for it, recognize and see what he's doing. You know, a lack of gratitude for God declares to everyone spiritual immaturity, spiritual immaturity. Let me explain it like this. You know, a baby has everything done for them. They are as immature as you can get. They don't care at all about what you did for them yesterday. Well, I fed you yesterday. That doesn't matter. They're worried about what they're getting right now. A baby wants to be fed right now. It doesn't matter that you held them and walked around with them for seven hours last night. You put them down an hour ago and they wanna be picked up right now. But as a child grows, he's supposed to mature and he's supposed to start to recognize all that mom and dad do and supposed to stop needing quite so much. Sometimes it's not until a child gets out of the house and has to live on his own and pay his own bills that he really starts to acknowledge, oh my goodness, mom and dad did a lot for me. And that appreciation really starts to come out. That gratitude really starts to be able to show when the maturity is there as a Christian, When we're not showing gratitude to God, we're showing our spiritual immaturity. We need to recognize what God is doing in our life. Acknowledge it and thank him for it. Whether it's just a gourd or whether it's a provision. You know what, God answers prayer. Just yesterday, I got a call about 10, 30, 11 o'clock from Kerry Crane. She was crying on the phone. She says, my dad was just rushed to the hospital with chest pains. The ambulance just took him to GBMC. I said, I'm on my way. I got in the car and prayed. I prayed with her on the phone and then prayed on the way there. I took Alicia with me and we stopped by Carrie's work. I picked her up from work and took her down and we found out on the way that they actually took him to St. Joseph's because St. Joseph has a stronger cardiac unit. We sat in the emergency room there for a couple of hours just waiting for word. By the time they got him checked in and made sure he was stable and we were able to go back to the room, he said the pain that I had in my chest that was about a seven is down to maybe a four. A few hours later, I got a call from Beverly Crane who said they've moved him into a room. They're going to monitor him for a little bit, but he's not in any danger of having a heart attack. He's stable and doing good. God answers prayer. He was rushed to the hospital, and what the paramedics felt was the middle of a heart attack. A few hours later, the doctors are wondering what's wrong with him. God answers prayer. You need to recognize that. Whatever it is, whatever situation you face, and some people would say, oh, well, there was nothing wrong with him. I say God answers prayer. And I choose to give honor and glory to God for it, not try and downplay it or make it like it was nothing. Because I serve a big God. Jonah. Sadly, ends out his ministry here, the last that we know of him, as a pouting prophet, not happy with seeing what God was doing. What about you? Do you find yourself in a position where you're discouraged or downtrodden, where you're dealing with some selfishness? Are you maybe focused too much on yourself instead of others or what the Lord would want? Listen, others, Lord, others, let this my motto be that even while I kneel and pray, my prayer will be for others. That's what the Christian life is about. Let's stand together with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Dear God, we ask you this morning that you would Take these thoughts here, really a much more serious message, dealing with our spirit as individuals. Are we in control of our spirit? Are we in control of the anger that might rise up? Are we in control of the discouragement that we sometimes face? God, I pray you would help us to focus on you and to focus on others, to give us the strength to follow you. And Lord, may we experience. You said that you came, that we might have life, but that we might have it more abundantly. God, there's people in this room that want to experience that abundant life. I pray, God, you'd give them the strength to do so. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.