The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 4: Do You Do Well to Be Angry?

Episode Date: February 23, 2020

For bitterness to break, forgiveness must happen. If we could begin to see others the way we want God to see us, then we would begin to love people the way God loves us.

Amen and amen. If you got your Bible's Jonah chapter 4th and final week, you heard it read you before, and here we go. Just in case you weren't here, we've been in this four-week series through the book of Jonah about God's relentless pursuit of his rebellious people, which if you haven't figured out yet is us through this reluctant missionary. Now in chapter 1, God speaks to Jonah, says, go to Nineveh. Jonah says, I ain't having it. It gets up and heads in the wrong direction. He's thrown into the sea to calm the fury of God against his disobedience, and he's swallowed up by a big fish or a whale. And then in Jonah chapter two, Jonah speaks to God.

He cries out in utter desperation, and God hears his prayer. That means you're never too far gone. You are never too bad. It is never too late to cry out to God. And then last week, week three, chapter three, then God speaks through Jonah, a five word. sermon. Turn or burn Nineveh. That's it. And the whole place, revival

breaks out. They all repent. They turn from their evil ways. They turn to the Lord. And in chapter four, now God is going to speak really with Jonah. Now, you would think at this point, based on, if he hadn't made it to the end of Jonah yet, you would think

that the way this thing went, God speaks to Jonah, says, go. He's like, I ain't going. He goes the wrong way. Then God saves him through trial. then he surrenders his life to God in the belly of a whale gets puked up on dry land. And then he goes in and preaches this sermon. He's the greatest preacher ever. He's the greatest prophet up to this point.

I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine? We find out in a little while. There's 120,000 people at least in Nineveh. And in a five-sentence, I mean a five-word sermon, the whole nation turns their life to the Lord. You would think that everything from here to the end would be up and to the right. You would think that when you get to Jonah chapter 4, verse 1, it would say, and then Jonah met a pretty Ninevite girl at the 1825 ministry. And they made some beautiful little Israeli Ninevite babies.

And he became mayor of Nineveh, and they lived happily ever after. Then it seemed like that's the way it would go. But if you look at chapter 4, verse 1, the first word is, but. everything's going so good. You preach a sermon, everybody gets saved. By the way, if you're a prophet, that's the point of being a prophet. I said what God said and what he said was right and everybody believed. It is a good day in the life of the prophet.

But, so if this movie has a soundtrack, it all changes. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. What displeased him exceedingly? that 120,000 people got saved. Listen, by the way, last weekend in our church, 96 people surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and 13 of those were our brothers at either Union or Baker. Amen?

Praise God. So can you imagine me saying that, 96 people? And you were like, that displeads me greatly. I would say, what is wrong with you? Like, whose team are you on, bro? This is what we're doing. Like, we exist. It will be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And when people do that, we should be excited. And that happens here, and Jonah is displeased exceedingly. Why, Jonah, what is wrong with you? Part of it is idolatry. Part of it is his own pride. Bless me, curse them. That's what he thinks. A part of it is his nationalism.

Now, God, I get that you bless Israel because we're your people. But Nineveh? They don't deserve this. Rooted in here deeply is racism. Because he thinks his people are better than those people. Whenever you feel that, think that, believe that, that is not from the Lord. There is no place for that in the kingdom of God. You cannot simultaneously put it.

your eyes on Jesus high and lift it up and look down your nose and any other image bearer on the planet. And yeah, that's what he does. You see, fundamentally, Jonah believes that he deserves grace, but those people deserve justice. That's what he believes. If you're familiar with the New Testament, Luke chapter 15, we call it the story of the prodigal son, where there are two sons and the younger son comes to his dad.

And he says, dad, essentially, you're dead. me, give me what's coming to me. This is how you know it's a Jesus story because the dad gives him what's coming to him. He gives him his inheritance. If I went to my daddy and said, hey daddy, you're dead to me. Won't you give me what's coming to me? He'd be like, I'm about to show you what's coming. That's how that would have gone in my house. So this is how you know it's the Jesus story. And so then the kid goes off and squanders it all on reckless living. And then when he's at the lowest of the low points in his life, he's an Orthodox Jewish boy feeding pigs, which means he's he is ceremonially unclean, it means he is out of fellowship with God and out of fellowship

with his people, he's not welcomed into the temple. He's unfit, he's unclean, and yet he comes to his senses, he comes back home, he's going to try to earn his way back into, not even to his family, he's going to try to earn his way back to be a servant in the house. And his dad sees him from a long way off, humiliates himself, runs to him, wraps his arms around him, gives him a robe, adopts him back into the family, and throws a party for it. We love that. But in Luke 15, that's not the only brother. There's an older brother. And the attitude of the older brother is the same attitude that Jonah has. He goes, not to the dad, but to another servant and says, what is his noise I hear? I hear singing and dancing. And the servant's like, oh, yeah,

your brother was dead. Now he's alive. Your father is throwing a party. And the older brother has this spirit of what he doesn't deserve that. I deserve God to celebrate me, not this son of yours. And this is the attitude that Jonah has. And he was angry. If you've got your Bibles out, underlined the word angry. I said, see, everybody moving here. Are you going to make me angry at you?

And he was angry. In our time together, that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about anger. And I am no psychologist or doctor or any of that, which is talking about what the Bible says. Let me ask you this. Do you ever get angry? Nah, Christians don't get angry. They get frustrated.

Ever bummed to somebody? Maybe that you live with, shares your last name? Why are you so angry? I'm not angry. I'm just frustrated. It seems to me that we live in an age where Christians just have this underlying anger, contempt for one another, this critique and critical spirit.

And it's just there. I mean, you go online for just a second and look at any kind of Christian blog, website, any Twitter where Christians are talking, it is mostly anger, contempt. criticism and negative, mostly. I'm speaking at, I speak all over the place. I'm speaking at this conference thing, this thing,

and I am not a card-carrying member of the people that are putting on the conference. I don't blown anything, okay? We're at Walmart church, whatever. We're nothing, okay? That's me. Nobody willing to tell anybody about that somebody wants to save anybody. That's who I am, okay? I'm not a thing.

And so, because I'm not a member of their club, there's this whole backlash that they invited me to come preach the Bible at their thing. And they wonder why people don't want to join their thing. It's the craziest thing in the world. My dear friend, Pastor J.D. Greer, who will be here in September to preach at Saturate. Praise God. Half my sermon material probably comes from him on a weekly basis. But he still is half mine too, so it's sort of like a...

We're sharing. So, somebody literally on my... wrote an article and called Pastor J.D. the worst Christian in 2019. And not like a Jesus jute, like the first is last, and you're the worst, and really you're the best. No, literally, you're the worst. Look, the guy that would write that is a putts. Who would do that? What is wrong with the body of Christ when Jesus says, and they will know you are Christians by your love for one

another and yet most of the things written online by Christians about other Christians are full of anger and contempt. What is wrong with us? Jonah was angry. Verse two, he's still going and he prayed to the Lord and said, oh Lord, now look at his prayer, man. He says, oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Here's the thing. Jonah has right theology. He just got a bad heart. Everything he says is right. Would you not agree? Is God gracious? Check. Is he merciful? Check. Is he slow to anger? Check. Is he abounding of stepfast love? Check. Actually, what Jonah is doing is quoting Exodus chapter 34.

Attribute by attribute, word by word, listen to me, church. Did you know that you can have a right head and a wrong heart? And there's a bunch of people in church that have that. You can know all the right things about God, but if the love of God does not overwhelm you and flow out of you, something really, really wrong down here in the heart level. And so this is what's going on here. Now, I think it's remarkable that the writer here calls what Jonah is doing a prayer. And here's what I mean. Oftentimes, oftentimes, we complain to God about his goodness. Let me explain.

You know when you're whining about your kids? Oh, it's just me? Not y'all? Y'all just wake up every day. Oh, precious gifts from God. You realize the majority of the things that we complain to God about at one point were prayer requests to God. Like the job that you have, that you're preaching to the windshield the whole way home and

griping about, you know that was a gift from, like when you applied for her, you were like, dear God, please. And he said, here you go. And you were like, how dare you? All right. That your spouse, that you complained to God about, you were begging her to say yes 20 years ago or two years ago or however long. it's been. That oftentimes the very essence of the things that we are complaining are about are God's goodness and gifts to us and then we have the audacity to point to God and blame him

for giving us these gifts and then we complain about the gifts that he has given us. There is a difference between praying and complaining to God. You can complain to God. No problem at the beginning of your prayer. It can start there. See the book of Psalms. Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's a bit of a complaint. Okay? However, if you stay there, I'm going on record and saying that's not a prayer. Because the difference between praying and complaining to God is shifting your worry and care. If all you do is come to God complaining with a bunch of information that may be true,

but at the end of the prayer there has not been a shift of the worry and anxiety over to him, then you're not praying, you're just complaining. and asking him to listen. This is why Peter says, instructs us as believers as an invitation from God, cast all your cares upon me, because I care for you. I'm not saying you can't bring your gripes and all of that to the Lord. You just got to leave it with him and not carry it yourself. You weren't meant to.

This is why Jesus says, any of you weary, heavy burden? like the stuff in your life weighing you down and then Jesus's invitation then come to me come to me and I will give you rest for your soul because my yoke like that thing you've been trying to carry

if you'll get yoked up with me my yoke it's light and my burden is easy you see so he just kind of he just kind of complains and then he's still complaining slash praying verse three therefore now oh Lord

please take my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live. I'm going to come back to this. I'm going to come back to mental health and depression. We'll be back to that in just a minute. Verse four. And the Lord said, here's how God responds. Man, you want to see the mercy of God? When you yell at God, when you point your finger at God,

aren't you glad that by his grace he does not respond to, he does not react to us? Do you know what reaction is? When you react to somebody, they act towards you and then you do that act back to them. Aren't you glad God does not react to us with the same kind of faithfulness that we act towards him? And so he asked this question, and if you will let the Word of God just do what it does, a question like this, trust me on this when I've been in it all week. It'll get down here in the soul kind of level. It'll mess you up a little bit. When I read this, I thought of you people, do you do well to be angry?

And I was like, oh, that's good, Lord. I'm going to expose some angry people here at our church. That's what we've got to do. Now, let's talk about anger real quick, okay? There is a thing that is righteous anger. Righteous anger is when your values line up with the values of God, and you can be offended by the things that God would be offended by. No problem.

You see this. You see this in all four Gospels? Jesus walks into the temple. And there are money changes. There are religious people taking advantage of the weak and the poor by selling them overpriced sacrifices, and they are trying to make money in the name of God on the people that need him most.

And Jesus gets ticked. He gets ticked. The Bible says he rolls up in there, and then he leaves for him. minute and he makes a whip. He makes a whip. And I imagine the disciples like, what's you doing? He says, I'm about to show you what I'm doing. And he rolls back in there and he uses a whip and he gets them out. That is righteous anger. Ephesians 426 says this, be angry, but you got to keep going. You can't just stop there. Next time you're angry and your wife's like, why are you saying angry, blah?

Ephesus 426 says be angry. No, it keeps going. Okay. It says be angry. and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger. So there is a thing that can cause you anger and you have it sinned, but be careful because in your anger you can sin. Now, as I read that, I was literally working on this, and I thought, am I angry?

I'm not angry. And I got a, whatever you call it, when Instagram people send you a private message. I don't know what's called. I don't even want to know. Y'all can keep it to yourself. I have a preacher friend named Matt Chandler, and he sent me this.

We have a picture of it. I took a picture of our little conversation. Okay, I know you can't hardly see it. But our social media people put clips of the sermons online, and it happens. And like the girl in the video, was laid to Christ. There's me preaching on the love of Jesus from a few weeks ago. My buddy Matt says,

why are you so angry-looking talking about dependence on God, bro? And I said, it's just my face. And then he cried laughing. Okay, so, take that thing. down. See, it's just my face. I don't feel mad right now, but it's just how it looks. All right now. But what began to happen is the more I was preparing to show you how angry you probably are, the more this very question began to just get deeper and deeper and deeper into my heart. And I felt like God wasn't asking Jonah, does he do well to be angry? I felt like God

was asking, Jobi, do you do well to be angry? You see, anger is a dominant emotion. It pushes all the other emotions aside. And there's a difference, I'm making this up, so go with me. There seems to be a difference between getting angry and being angry. Like there's an appropriate emotion of anger, and you deal with it rightly within the guardrails of scripture, and you're okay. And then there's this other thing that is being angry that does not seem to be okay. So I looked up the Hebrew word here for anger and it's hara. And it means to burn with a burning fire. And God says, do you have this burning fire of just low-grade anger all the time going in,

going on just under the surface, Jonah? And he essentially says, and how's that working for you? And again, there is righteous anger. Okay, there is, legit. There's righteous anger. But here, Jonah's anger isn't righteous. It runs counter to God's desires and character.

What Jonah's angry at is God's grace to a group of people that he doesn't like. And God says to him, hey, John, how's that working for you? So let me ask you, are you angry? angry. Do you do well to be angry? And I know I'm not talking to everybody, but from my life experience, if I'm being honest, I'm talking to the majority of men 40 and up. I don't know why. I don't know what's wrong with us, but I know I'm talking to a bunch of us. Now let me ask you this. Do you just lose it on your kids? I mean, just look over like cereal or how loud the TV is or because they didn't listen to you the first time or sometimes what actually is going on

is you're mad at her but she ain't going to talk to her that way so you take it out on them do you do you fight with your wife i mean like really like are you easily offended when she doesn't treat you like the king of the universe because everybody knows she's she's lucky to have you right because you work so hard and provide so well and what do you mean do i love you of course i love you I work so hard and give you everything you want. And you talk to her with a contempt. You roll your eyes. Do you snap at your coworkers?

Because they don't do it exactly the way you say it. Do you find yourself having to apologize for your words? No, no, no, no. I know you're offended, but it doesn't count because I didn't mean to offend you. And in fact, I was just frustrated. And so in my frustration, those words just came out. So that doesn't count. Well, the problem with that is Jesus

Jesus says that what comes out of the mouth is an overflow of the heart or do you find yourself saying like, listen, no, I'm not angry but when you do that, it makes me so angry. Hey, this is worth the price of admission right here. Nobody can make you angry. You see, the only thing that come out of you is what is in you. If I shake this water, if I take the top off of this water bottle

and I shake it up, what comes out? All right, good. Thank you. Everybody's so scared. They're like, Jesus? No, it's not Jesus. It's water. No matter how much I shake it,

the only thing that can come out of it is what is in it. And if you get shaken up by traffic, and you get shagging up because somebody's late, and you get shagging up because somebody missed the deadline, and you get shaking up because your kids don't listen. You know why? Because you didn't listen either. And it comes out.

Guess why it comes out because it is in there. Do you yell at the refs? And you say, of course I do, because they didn't. You see, 1st Corinthians 13 says this. Love is not easily angered. And I know, man, when I'm confronted with this, when we're confronted with this, we have a tendency to say, yeah, yeah, but pastor, hold on, hold on, I get it. Yeah, I agree with all those things.

But if you would just give me that little microphone for a second and I could explain to you my circumstances, then you would understand why I have a right to be angry. and that the Bible just simply says love is not easily angered. You see, if you're angry, I'm just going to tell you, something's wrong. Something's wrong. It's like a wound that hasn't healed in your life. Like if you get a wound and then it heals and there's a scar and there's evidence of the wounding, there's evidence that you've been done wrong, no problem.

But when it's properly healed and somebody bumps it, into it, you react normally, but if there's an open wound, if there's a wound that has never healed and it's just festering and somebody bumps into it, then you overreact. And that the source of that is that something is wrong and something hasn't healed up rightly. And the reality is there's a bunch of us and you've got a wounded heart and it's never been healed correctly. And maybe this is the worst of all, is that you wake up every day and you can just feel this anger under the surface. And you don't know why.

The immediate circumstances of your life would not dictate that you would be an angry person. You got the job you wanted. You got this great family. You got a lot of friends. Everything seemingly in circumstantially, as long as it's okay, you're okay. But man, one little thing gets out of whack and all of a sudden this anger comes flooding out. So let me ask you God's question that he has been working. on me this week. Do you do well to be angry? In other words, how's that working for you?

Is it helping you as a husband to be angry? Have you ever had, you meet these sweet old couples been together for a long time and they're just sweet and in love? And if you're wondering, are we one of those? Yes, you have been longer than you realize, okay? And you're the goal, man, we want to be like you. I've never met the sweet old. couple and you say, what's your secret? And she said, he used to yell at me when he'd get home from work. And I just thought, yell some more, baby. Absolutely not.

Like, is your anger accomplishing in your marriage what you hoped it would? In your friendships, how's that working for you? As an employee, as the boss, how's that working for you? Here's the big one, parents, do you do well to be angry? I'm telling you. Here's something I'm really confronted with. How in the world are my kids going to believe that their Heavenly Father is not mad at them

if I am always mad at them? Look, man, I'm going to be honest. I crushed Jonah 1, 2, and 3. I mean, I preached the pain off the place. Tell my God's calling your life, go. Boom, I did it. You're sitting in it, okay? No problem. You're talking about prayer to God in desperation. No problem. Man, I cry out to God.

Week 3, repent, no problem. Run to the cross. This week, Jonah 4 is crushing. me because what is going on in our lives that there is this just low-grade frustration and anger and it does not it does not take much to set it off do you do well to be angry you know the answer does it help you as a dad does it help you as a parent does it help you as a husband does it help you as a co-worker no well then why don't you change there's a bunch of us that I don't know. And honestly, where does it come from?

I can tell you where it comes from. James chapter 4, verse 1, simply says this. I love reading the book of James. By the way, James was the brother of Jesus. If you're still on the fence about this whole Jesus, the Messiah thing, think about this. His brother surrendered his life to him. You get that? Anybody got a brother?

Raise your hand if you got a brother? What would it take for your brother to convince you that he was the perfect son of God? Okay, I'm telling you, I've got a brother. If he came to me and said, Jobie, what's up, bro? Behold. I'd be like, nope. Okay. But Jesus post-resurrection convinced his brother that he was the righteous son of God.

And James, chapter 4, verse 1, asked this. He basically asked the same question God is asking Jonah. What's wrong with you? Why are you saying angry? The way he asked it is this. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Now, if I stopped right there and gave everybody the opportunity, Now, if you're at church, you're going to give some kind of churchy answer.

But if I ask you just on the street, why are you so mad, man? Why are you so mad? What causes fights and quarrels among you? And I gave you an opportunity. I know what we would all say. Well, I'm going to tell you why I'm mad. Because that traffic, that idiot pulled out in front of me, and is it against the law in Florida to use the blinker?

Help me understand this, okay? Or my wife, she doesn't ever and she always. My husband said he's going to be on time, and he don't be on you, whatever it is. My kids, I'm about to strangle them if they didn't. don't pick up their underwear, whatever the thing is. My boss is a liar. Every one of us would answer this way. Let me tell you what's wrong. Let me tell you why I'm mad. Because they, because he, will cause his fights and quarrels among you. James is going to go on to say, isn't it you? Isn't there a war inside of you? Do you know what the commonality of every fight that you've ever

been in is? You. And then James, this is. This is. This is the commonality of every fight that you've ever been in is. you. And then James, this is why you don't want to do your quiet time in James, okay? It's too practical. Like read Lamentations or Ezekiel, don't even know what it is. Like, ooh, the day of the morning star, praise God. Don't have to do nothing.

James says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? You want something and you don't get it. That's it. You know why you're angry? Because you wanted something and you didn't get it. That's it. Jonah wanted to be treated like God. Jonah wanted to get the grace at the expense of everybody else.

The reason I get angry is because I want something. I want to be treated some way. I want everybody to be perfect and read my mind. I want something and it does not go my way. Again, do you do well to be angry? I'm telling you, man. There's still a, I mean, I got a lot of heart work that the Lord is still doing in me. Thank God we sang that song. He'll never leave you, right? When you're afraid,

when you're doubting, and he'll never leave you the way that he found you. Amen? And I am so blessed. I should wake up every day the happiest human being on the planet. I should. I should wake up every day and just assess the situation that I am in. I have a beautiful wife. I have awesome kids. I live in the greatest city on the planet. If you don't live in Jacksonville, that's your fault, man. This place is awesome. It's the last southern city, right? I mean, some of y'all Yankees, but you're getting indoctrinated, all right?

Praise God. Like, you can't get sweet tea south of here. So this is it. And yet there's the beach, and it's February, and it's like, we're freaking out because it got down to 50 today. You understand what I'm saying? It's beautiful. What God is doing in this church is stupid, man. It's crazy.

It's unbelievable. Man, 96 people got saved last weekend by preaching on Jonah 3. That don't make sense. I should wake up every day. I've got the best friends. I've got the greatest friends. Everything is awesome. And yet, like Jonah.

And I think there's some of you with me on this one. And yet there's this thing in here, and you're like, I don't. And God is asking you, do you do well to be angry? And Jonah went out of the city and he sat on the east of the city. He made a booth. It's like a little lean to it for himself. By the way, let me just warn you here. If you struggle with anger, beware of isolation.

It is the primary tool of the enemy. And he sat under it in the shade till he should see what will become of the city. Do you know what he's doing here? He's waiting for the city to fail. Remember his five-word sermon was 40 days and you die. And then they all said, we repent. And he went up on the hill and was like, all right, you got 39.

38, 37, and he is waiting, listen to me, pessimism is just a passive form of anger. It just is. If you're always pessimistic about something, I'm telling you, it is just this passive form of anger, and he is just sitting there waiting for them to mess up so that they would be judged. Verse 6, now the Lord appointed, you might want to underline that. Now the Lord appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. There's a couple things going on here that I think are very important.

One is that God still blesses his kids with grace when they're pouting. But he's such a good, good father. that he still lavishes his love upon his kids when they're acting foolish. What kind of God does that? What kind of father does that? The kind that is love. And Jonah's emotional state, it is completely circumstantial. It's totally circumstantial.

There's a huge difference between joy and happy. And I know I bustle in the American dream all the time. that we should pursue life, praise God. And liberty, praise God. And the pursuit of happiness, it is beneath God's people. It is a circumstantial pursuit. Because happiness is based in happenings. And joy is found in the person and work of Jesus.

These are fundamentally different things. You see, whenever the circumstances change, then if your happiness just goes with that, that some days it's good and some days it's bad and it's all over the place and it's enough to make anybody crazy. But when your joy is rooted in the everlasting Jesus, he never ever changes and continues to lavishes love upon you. And even when your circumstances are awful and things are not going your way and you have all kind of reason to be angry and all your friends are telling you ought to be, then you understand that his love endures forever and he has proven, he has demonstrated his love for you. this that while you were yet still sinners Christ died for us. It's a fundamental difference.

And so God gives them this plant. It gives him shade. He's exceedingly glad. He's like, finally. Verse seven. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm. Remember God appointed the plant? Blessing. Now God appoints the worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. Look, man, God gives and God takes away. that God is sovereign. Now here's the important part. And the worm was just as much of a gift to Jonah as the shade plant was. Because God loved him that much.

J.I. Packer says it this way. And still he seeks the fellowship of his people, and he sends them both sorrows and joys in order to detach their love from the things of this world and attach it to himself. You see, we serve a God that is a good dad, and he relentlessly pursues his rebellious children. He pursues Jonah first through giving him a gift of comfort that Jonah definitely doesn't deserve, and then he continues to pursue Jonah with an object lesson of taking that thing away. One of the things I pray for us, church, it's a dangerous prayer that the Lord would break us or bless us whatever it takes to draw us. us to him. Because he and he alone is more than enough. And when the sun rose, God appointed,

there it is three times. God appointed a scorching east wind. The Bible is saying that God is bringing the pain. And the sun beat down on the head of Jonah. And you see what Jonah looks like. You got a picture of him right here. Somebody asked that that was me. He hurt my feelings. That ain't me. Give me a break. It's ball-headed, man. You get hot when you've got no hair up there to help you. When the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and he asked that he might die. And he said, it is better for me to die than to live. Let me ask you, does it do you well to be angry?

Because when you hold on to that anger for long enough, man, undelt with anger eventually becomes bitterness. And bitterness gets into hardened hearts. and there can be a level of depression and thoughts of suicide. And I don't know how to preach this except to just say this straight up. If you were thinking of doing that, if you think that that is your best option, that is not God's plan for you, that is not God's will for you. You do not have to be alone, no matter how bad the pain seems, if the tomb is empty, then anything is possible.

And you need to tell somebody and you need to raise your hand and you need to say, hey, listen, I've had these thoughts and we will walk with you. And I will do my job as a pastor, but one of the primary jobs of the pastor is to get you to the right mental health help that you need. Look, God still heals. Sometimes he heals through people. Oftentimes he heals through prayers. sometimes he heals through pills. You get this? I'm pro all three when appropriate.

We've been studying the Shemah for two years that we should love the Lord of God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. When you find yourself in a crisis, it is not physical or spiritual or relational or mental because God made you and you have heart, soul, mind, and strength,

and we should attack these things from heart, from a relational standpoint That means you need some people around you that love you. You need to say that thing out loud like, hey, listen, I know this is going to freak you out, but I just need to tell you I have had these thoughts. I have found myself in places of depression where I have thought about these things, and I need help. You need to say that to people. And you need to deal with it at the strength level, at the physical level.

That's a broken world. Not only do people not obey, but weather systems and cells don't obey. And sometimes chemicals get off, and our every good and perfect gift is from above. Praise God that we live in the time. of common grace that we do where God has given us brilliant doctors and brilliant therapists and medicines and all of that kind of thing that is trusting the provision of God and soul there's a soul level here too there's a soul level where you do it is not physical or spiritual because you're not physical or spiritual you're both

and you've got to attack this thing because we we don't battle against flesh and blood that we battle against principalities and things of darkness that do want you It wants to whisper lies into your ears like you're not valuable. And that's a lie from the pit of hell, because my Bible says that you are not your own. You're bought at a price, therefore honor God with your body. That's the truth. The enemy will begin to whisper that, like, nobody will miss you. You're unfit for use.

You're condemned. But my Bible says that therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. So you've got to attack it at that level, too. at the heart, the soul, and the mind. It is not weakness to go see a counselor to get some help. This is a good, good gift from God, so whatever you do, do not hurt yourself. Please, please, please, please, please.

Please let us know. We have care team. Hundreds of people trained on our care team to care for you. Because I love you. I do. I love you. And there'll be 11 or 12,000 people here this week. I can't individually care for all of you.

When Moses was trying to do that with all the Israelites, his father-in-all came to him and said, hey, bro, what you're doing ain't good. You've got to divide people up and divide up care so everybody can be cared for. If you're a part of 1122, we love you, and we want to care for you. You have to help us care for you.

And so you've got to tell somebody, do not hurt yourself. It is not God's will. It is not God's plan. It is not God's best. And even if you don't see a way out, I'm telling you, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible, even you discovering a joy that you never thought possible. And so he says, it's better for me to die than to live, to which God would say, no, it is not.

But God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? So you get this, man. God saves the nation, and he's like, ah, he's like this depression sets in. God gives him a shade tree. He's exceedingly happy. God takes away the shade tree and now he wants to die again. And God says, a second time, essentially the same question, do you do well to be angry for the plant?

Much like, remember in chapter 3 and the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time? Aren't you glad God does not give up on us? And he comes to Jonah a second time and he says the same question. God is relentlessly pursuing Jonah's heart. You see, essentially the root of Jonah's unrighteous anger is he thought he was God. See, think about it. He has got this little camping chair sitting up on this hill, looking over the city, waiting for his will to be done.

The problem is, is that God is sitting on his chair, which is the throne. And it's not just on the hill, it is high and lifted up. And ultimately, his will will be done. And a big part of what it means when we have this kind of brewing anger all the time is because we basically expect everybody to treat us like God. And it can be devastating to the ego when you don't get treated the way that you wanted to be treated. That's just simply called entitlement. And every single one of us live on this continuum somewhere between gratitude and entitlement.

And I promise you, the more your life is lived in a posture of gratitude, the more and more you can put away anger. And the more and more we live over here in this posture of entitlement, the more the anger will surface and bubble up in us. And so look at this audacious answer that Jonah gives. God says, do you do well to be angry with the plant? And he goes, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. Jonah's answer is completely self-absorbed. Jonah is saying that his circumstances determine his life, not his savior. And so he's focused on all the circumstances. He's not focused on the miracle that God has just performed. He's focused on the mess that he finds himself in that he got himself in.

And this is the problem with anger and bitterness. Anger and bitterness will cause you to miss out on the joy of the miraculous that God is doing around you. And here's this crazy. By my understanding of the book of Jonah, I believe Jonah surrendered his life unto the Lord in chapter 2. two. In other words, Jonah is a believer, and yet he is not exempt from depression. He's not. And the Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. Here's what God's saying.

God's saying, okay, I gave you a plant, which is my mercy, and I gave you a worm, which is my judgment. and which one did you prefer? And Jonah's like, I like the mercy. And he's saying to Jonah, well, of course you did. So if you wanted mercy, then why would you think I wouldn't have mercy on the Ninevites? Jonah, who do you think you are? Now listen, man, here's the thing. I told you that synagogues every year on Yom Kippur, many of them, will read the book of Jonah from beginning.

getting the end. It's like two pages. And then they will all say in unison, I am Jonah. Because I don't know about you, but there's a whole bunch of time. I want grace for me and justice for you. You ever do that? Or you ever notice when somebody does you wrong and ticks you off, you always judge their actions. But when you screw up, you judge your intentions. Like when I'm mean to you and you're like, hey man, you're mean to me. And I'm like, hold on, but it wasn't my fault. Okay, see, I don't think you understand. My dad used to spank me and I wasn't breastfed as a kid, so I didn't get enough hugs, and then it's that. We've got all these reasons for the way we are, but we don't have any grace for anybody else.

That's where Jonah lives. And so God gives him this picture with the plant. You pitied the plant? So he's like, all right, verse 11, God, all right. So if you pity the plant, and should I, should not I pity Nineveh people, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right? hand from their left hand saying they're dumb he's saying they're lost and also much cattle I don't know why see God's in the steak I don't know he ties the cattle in there but he does he's like Jonah if you can get

so worked up over a plant that you would say I want to die then how much more would I be willing to die or send my son to die for people that I have great compassion for that bear my own image You see, you did nothing to create this plant, and I would knit every single one of those Nineveites together in their mother's womb. This plant has nothing to do with you, except it provided you a little bit of shade, and every one of these people bear my image, and you pity a plant. And then that's how it ends. That's the end. It's a terrible ending. Look at it.

There's no like, and then, no, it just it. Cattle? That's how it ends. Cattle. Is it a bummer? from Jonah's perspective it is, from God's, no way. He saved a nation. You should read the book of Jonah and rejoice for the 120,000 people that were saved.

And see, and I think the reason that the shadow is cast is just to remind us that anger and bitterness rob you of seeing the grace of God. Now, the one little light of hope that I have is this, is that maybe this impacted Jonah because how else will we know the story of Jonah? ain't no CNN reporter up in the belly of the well like he's praying now no no no no no no ain't a Fox news camera up on top of the mountain when he's sitting in his camping chair be like he's really angry at the plant no no no no and I know if you look there's some kind of like humorous stuff in the book of Jonah maybe this is conjecture but maybe it's because Jonah realized that he took himself way too seriously and he did not take the work of God very seriously so later as he shares his own testimony of how silly he could be then he included all

these things about plants and worms and fish and puking so that people would know hey man maybe you shouldn't take yourself so seriously and maybe you should rejoice in the things of god so let me ask you anybody angry here's the point for bitterness to break forgiveness must happen if we could begin to see others the way we want god to see us then we could begin to love people the way God has loved us. So look, man, we're winding up. But I want to ask you, what I feel like in the spirit asked me this week, are you angry?

Are you bitter? Are you brokenhearted? In the book of Ephesians, Paul says, put away all anger. Are you angry and bitter because somebody hurt you? And I'm not saying they didn't hurt you. Look, I know. It hurts. Maybe your mom and dad didn't do what they were supposed to do.

Or maybe your ex promised and then ran out. Or maybe your business partners lied and ruined your reputation. And left to yourself, you're like, I have a right to be anger. You know what? You're right, I guess. In the flesh, you're totally right. And the question is not, can you justify your anger? The question God is asking is, how's that working for you?

The answer is it's killing you. Maybe you're, this is a weird one, maybe you're angry and bitter at God because it didn't go your way. I mean, she got sick, he passed away, they're not coming back, whatever it is. And the answer is to just trust and surrender. I know you don't understand. In this moment, Jonah couldn't understand why God would save the worst people on the planet. But do you trust that God is at work in all situations for the good of those that love and

and are called according to his purpose? Are you angry at God because you're for circumstances and you need to get your eyes off your circumstances and get them on the cross and understand that God's love for you is not demonstrated by your circumstances, by your marital status, by whether you have a kid or not, by how the scan went? That's not how, that's not what determines God's love for you,

but God demonstrated his love for you once and for all at the cross. When we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Or maybe you're angry and bitter. This is a big one at you. and you can't let yourself off the mat because you know you. Everybody at church thinks you're awesome and you know you're not. And you can't forgive yourself

because you blew up your marriage and you blew up the career. And you are the reason you don't get to tuck your kids anymore. And you can't forgive you. Here's the problem with that. If you are in Christ, then your standard of forgiveness,

you're making it higher than his. You mean to tell, here's what you're saying, Jesus, I know you died on the cross, For me, it ain't enough. It's a bit of blasphemy to not forgive yourself if Jesus already has. Because his grace is sufficient for even you. Are you angry? Or maybe, like I've said before, it's the worst kind when you can't explain it.

When you can't explain it. And honestly, man, you need the Lord to teach you something down in the secret places of the soul because you wake up every day and things should be okay. down here, it ain't okay. So what do you do? Here's what C.S. Lewis says. Lewis says, to be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single person great injury, but to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life. To keep on forgiven the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful

son, how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand. By meaning our words when we say our prayers each night, Father, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. So are you angry. Church of 1122, I'm confessing to you. God's got a lot of work to do in my heart. I'm confessing to you that when I go home from this, I need to confess and repent and apologize to the people that live under my roof

because the slightest little bump and anger comes out. The two little ones that I'm primarily responsible for disciplining and the picture that they have of God will be most shaped by my picture towards them and how could they believe that God ain't mad at him if I always am? And the one that is supposed to love Gretchen like Christ loved the church and laid himself down for her,

how is she going to experience that if I continue to prop myself up? I've got some stuff the spirit is working on in me. I'm just going to ask you, anybody else. So we're going to do something crazy at all of our campuses. If that's you, and the Spirit of God is asking you that question, do you do well to do angry? Do you do well to be angry?

And you know, mm-mm, but it's in there. Then I'm going to ask you to stand up. So you're talking to me. We're going to do two things. the people sitting around you, are just going to put their hand on you and pray. And I'm going to be standing over there. I need you to come pray for me.

And then our band's going to come and sing a song called Clean. Clean. Precious blood has left me forgiven. Pure like the whitest of snow. Powerful to make sin and shame retreat. This covenant is making me whole. Because of Jesus, my heart is clean. purify my heart in your presence and teach me to discover the joy of holiness that forms as you draw me

close. That's what we're going to sing. And for all of us, I'm standing too. For all of us standing, we are going to bring, we're going to put away anger and bitterness and heartheartedness just by bringing it to the Lord and saying, God, I know through your blood you have made me clean. Would you change me? Would you change me? Would you soften my heart. May I quit reacting to my circumstances and may I just trust in you. If you're standing next to one of these people, would you put your hands on them? Let's pray, dear Father in heaven, God, we love you more than anything because you love us. God, would you break our hearts?

And would you give us your heart who is slow to anger, steadfast in love, full of mercy? God, I pray when anybody around the city, state or whatever, talks about our church. They don't talk about buildings and preaching and music and stuff. God, I pray that they would talk about the loving hearts of the people of this place. God, would you mold us to be like you? Would you change us? God, may the people that we live closest with have better picture of you because what you're

going to do in our heart. There's no way we could do this without you, God. There's no way we could do this without you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. The band's going to come. They're going to sing. You stay standing and receive this prayer.