A Heart Check

Introduction

On Monday of this week I had my annual physical. Praise the Lord, all my vitals were good. Obviously, I could have been lighter on the scales but seriously all readings were good. One of the tests my physician conducted was an EKG, electrocardiogram. You are asked to take your shirt off and they place electrode contacts all over your chest and they connect transmission wires to those contacts to take a reading of the heart. The instrument reads the heart’s rhythms to recognize any irregularities. This is one of the tests they perform to measure your physical heart condition.

This morning our mission will be to take a spiritual heart test. Is your heart in the right place?

In our time together our aim is to answer the question how can we have a heart like Jesus? How can we be as compassionate as Jesus? How can we love as Jesus’ loves?

God has a compassionate heart for everyone He has created, regardless of their ignorance, regardless of their abusiveness actions, regardless of their violent behaviors, regardless of there alternative lifestyle, regardless of their addiction, their greed, heinous living and the list goes on. God has compassion for everyone.

Turn in your Bibles this morning to our concluding message from the book of Jonah. Turn to the final chapter Jonah 4:1-11.

Jonah 4:1-11

Jonah 4:1–11 NKJV

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” 4 Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5 So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. 6 And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. 7 But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. 8 And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” 10 But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?

Prayer

Message

There is a question that must be asked this morning as we gaze at Jonah over these four chapters. Why a swing from an attitude of gratefulness, humility and thanksgiving for the Lord’s lovingkindness in Chapter 2 after the rescue by the great fish to an attitude of displeasure and anger over God’s response towards the Ninevites in Chapter 4? How can be? How can he be praising the Lord in one moment and pouting to the Lord the next? How can he go from congratulating God to complaining to God in such a short span of time?

And as well, how can we swing from times of being grateful for God’s lovingkindness toward us and quickly follow up with unhealthy anger issues toward others? Unhealthy anger is a gracious way of saying unrighteous anger. Unrighteous anger can reveal itself through apathy towards others, an indifferent attitude towards another to the extremes of a total judgmental, angered, highly opinionated, hostile attitude. The band width can be broad as we measure anger.

We come upon such a scene in our closing chapter in the book of Jonah this morning.

Jonah in chapter 1 as the Scripture states “a word from the Lord came to Jonah.”

Jonah 1:2 “2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.””

Chapter 1 is Jonah running from God. You remember Jonah traveled west in the total opposite direction of Nineveh in protest against God and flees to Tarshish or so he thinks.

Look at the map with me.

Jonah’s Travels

You can tell from this map that Jonah made a definitive statement towards God and it is very apparent in this landscape. He travels as far as he can from the presence of God. We know that to be fact in Jonah 1:10.

Jonah was selfishness and slept in the bottom of the boat that set sail from Joppa. Jonah manufactured at least in his mind an escape from God’s will for his life. He set sail alright and what a journey he embarked on.

Oh I prayed for those five that went on the submarine and we should lift their families in their loss. Jonah has quite a different story from those five that so tragically died.

Jonah 1:10 “10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.”

The scripture states that “he went from the presence of the Lord.”

This is a reminder to us church family that God will call you to task to do things your heart is not in and you really do not want to do. I dare say that there are a number of people here this morning that God has told you to address a certain matter, to reach out to a certain individual, or a family member, or to correct a wrong, or to engage in a ministry need that you are totally uncomfortable in doing. The assignment takes you out of your comfort zone. The fact is God calls us at times to participate in what He is doing that is against our flesh. And the question is why? We are angry and displeased because we are tainted over our dealings with someone from our past,. We are biased over past behaviors. We have developed a prejudice or a profiling of a people group. Or, it can be all so more basic. We are inconvenienced. God’s request does not fit my timetable. It will cost me something.

In our study this morning in Chapter 4, if you read this text , the word, “I, me, ” is used 7 times in his prayer to God. Jonah’s problem was that his anger and displeasure was all “me” oriented. Me, Me, Me. This is how I feel toward the matter. This is my thoughts on the matter. God, how will your decision affect me. What will people say if you make me to be a false prophet? My friends or supposed friends will say, why are you fraternizing with the enemy? I will be considered a false prophet if the Lord relents when Nineveh repents. Not one time did he have any concern or make any considerations for the Ninevites that were in a desperate need of transformation and salvation. Every attitude Jonah exhibited was all related to his feelings, his desires, his anger, his displeasure with the requests . God was calling him to do something he was never in agreement about and went down fighting the entire way.

Jonah had a heart problem. How is your heart this morning? Well time does not permit to totally rehash the story but in Chapter 1 Jonah runs from God, Chapter 2, Jonah runs to God as he was thrown overboard the ship heading to Tarshish. God divinely showed grace and mercy by Jonah’s rescue by a large fish. The large fish was a God sent savior for Jonah. The fish swallowed Jonah and preserved his life in its belly for three days. Jonah was gloriously saved as the Lord “spoke to the fish” and Jonah was spit up on dry land after three days. Three represents completeness. Jonah had a complete time frame to conform to the heart of God. Jonah's prayer revealed a transformed Jonah.

Listen to the heart of Jonah in the prayer in Chapter 2.

Jonah 1:17-2:2 “17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.”

Jonah was singing the Lord’s praises for His merciful rescue and Jonah knew who deserved the credit. There was no mistaking who performed the miracle. Jonah’s testimony in his prayer in Chapter 2 gave total recognition, praise and adoration for God’s mercy on his life.

Jonah’s prayer climaxed with these words, “salvation is of the Lord.”

Jonah 2:10 “10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”

In Chapter 3, Jonah runs with God.

In Chapter 3 Jonah had a heart change. I imagine we would be have a heart change as that gastric acid is still burning our skin, “yes Sir, present and accounted for, sir.”

We would be like Bear Rabbit and mean it, “please do not throw me in that briar patch.”

Jonah exercised the Lord’s request and He shouted vehemently over the city, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Jonah was faithful to the battle cry of prophecy that the Lord laid upon his heart.

And we are reminded again that when we act out the Lord’s wishes for our lives, positive things take place. When Jonah shared the message of God with the Holy Spirit preceding His words, the entire people of Nineveh starting with the King down, repented of their ways, they put on sackcloth, sat in ashes and thy fasted from food and water as a sign of repentance from their wrongdoing.

And those glorious words of our great God.

Jonah 3:10 “10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”

How could Jonah go from a broken, humble, gracious and appreciative attitude and in such a short period be displeased and angry at God in Chapter 4? How could he exhibit a heart of praise in Chapter 2 to a heart that was pouting in Chapter 4?

Complain to God in Your Anger & Displeasure VV. 1-3

Jonah did one thing right. He voiced his frustrations to the Lord.

Why was he so angry in the first place? Look back at Jonah 3:10.

God relented from bringing disaster on the people of Nineveh. The Ninevites repented and the Lord relented and it made Jonah mad.

Let me be clear about something here that is keenly important. Most of the people of that day, his peers, his religious peers of Israel would have sided with Jonah and the attitude he conveyed. The Ninevites were evil people. They were murderers and they performed despicable acts of violence and meanness. They had committed many injustices toward the people of Israel and other people groups as well. They were downright mean people and they deserved judgment. There would not have been any group outside of the Assyrians themselves that would have thought they deserved anything less than total annihilation . Jonah wanted to see them pay for the sins they had committed once and for all.

Moreover, Jonah was worried what people would think of him sharing false prophecy rather than a concern that the heathens would coming to a saving knowledge of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 18:22 “22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”

Jonah’s reputation was at stake. What is interesting when you read his prayer was his me oriented selfish praying. Jonah’s total communication with the Lord was about himself, his attitudes and how this matter would affect him.

Selfishness is a Stopgap to a Sold Out heart

A great place to begin a spiritual heart check is to analyze what you are angry about or what displeases you. Therein lies the wedge or chasm between having a heart like God toward others. Peel back deep into your being and determine what angers you.

Anger is an emotion manifested when an injustice is not met. You might be angered when a child does not respect their as they they should or more specifically, your child does not show you the respect they should. We can become angered when we read of pedophile charges brought against an adult that slips through loopholes that had been going on for years. Anger can come about between spouses over repeated requests for sensitivity, better communication, tighter discipline with the children, to curbing the spending, or more down time in the schedule and the list goes on.

The anger can carry over into the workplace when you feel you deserve a promotion and you are continually passed over. Anger over the abuse of welfare in our country, crime, profiling or prejudices against people groups.

Psalms 37:8 “8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret—it only causes harm.”

Proverbs 19:11 “11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression.”

There is righteous anger. We as the Christian community think that we are not be angry and thus we become passive about issues that need addressing today. The key is in your righteous anger, do not sin.

Ephesians 4:26 “26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,”

The story of the Prodigal Son that we studied for Father’s Day. The older son was angered as to how the matter affected him. He never considered that his brother was lost and found.

Luke 15:28 “28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.”

Let’s get real about this. Jonah was angered to the point of wanting to die. That’s angry.

1 Kings 19:4 “4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!””

Now the real question is what has angered you to the point of sin? You have thought unhealthy thoughts about a matter? You believe the person you are at odds with is deserving of the cards they have been dealt.

God may be calling you to address a matter and by the majority standards, your posture is understandable and acceptable. You have been mistreated by someone and everyone is telling you to write them off. God is telling you something different.

God is working a different plan and you know in your heart of hearts there is a wrong that needs to be made right in God’s eyes.

There could be something right now so much more elementary than what I have been talking about up to this point. God has called you to task over a ministry need He has placed on your heart with some person, some age group, some ministry here in the church and you are being self centered because it will inconvenience you. Doing what God wants you to do will disrupt your structure and your time table as to how you have your life planned out. It does not fit into my schedule.

Where do you begin? Do as Jonah did. Pray to the Lord in your complaining. For goodness sake, do not complain to others, complain to God. And as in the case of Jonah, God will work it out with you.

Anger is not the issue. Anger driving you to sin is the issue.

You may be angered over crime, our welfare injustices, the LBGTQ environment of the day.

Resolution 8, On Opposing “Gender Transition: Southern Baptists overwhelmingly affirmed a resolution condemning “gender-affirming care” and all forms of “gender transition interventions.” The resolution called these activities “an assault on God’s created order.” Southern Baptists also called on legislatures to reverse laws that support “gender transition” and affirmed legislatures that have taken action to protect children from these procedures. They also reaffirmed the rights of parents to “direct the upbringing of their children.”

This is righteous anger manifested correctly. What anger have you exhibited in wrong fashion that has been a barrier to you doing what you know God is calling you to do?

Jonah 4:2 “2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.”

Jonah was angered that God would act righteously. What should anger us is that we do not act righteously. Rather than pray against God doing right is that we should pray to God that we would act right as it relates to the matter you are thinking about right now. You have an issue in your heart you are pondering this moment that you know you need the Lord’s help to resolve the attitude. If we ask, He will provide.

Divorce for example at best is very ugly. Your anger by most might be justified. But what we tend to forget is God is just as compassionate for you as he is the other partner. God may be wanting you to get beyond anger and displeasure to allow Him to offer acceptance and deliverance.

Contemplate God for Answers in Your Dismay VV. 4-8

Isn’t it interesting that the Lord did not berate Jonah?

The Lord did not throw His verbal weight around. Jesus was angered over the money changers in the church and turned the tables over. Oh dear brother, dear sister, aren’t you grateful for the Lord’s gentleness in addressing us?

We see a thought provoking question the Lord asked of Jonah:

Jonah 4:4 “4 Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?””

For whatever reason the big lesson with Jonah in the belly of a whale did not stick. Oh dear Lord forgive us when you have been merciful and gracious to us in the big things, life changing events, and yet we forget your lovingkindness and display angry attitudes. Lord, forgive us for that.

Mercy-A Police Officers does not right you a ticket.

Grace-A Police Officer gives you a certificate for a free turkey at Publix for Thanksgiving.

God chose a small thing as an object lesson in Jonah’s life. What you want to do is begin to meditate and contemplate God in the little things of life that God is doing that will massage your attitude. Listen to what we do not want to do. Jonah sat at the edge of town as a critic of what God was doing.

We want to get it right here. When something does not strike you right, start with contemplating God to provide answers in your dismay. Do not take the position of Jonah and become the sideline critic.

Dearly beloved, I love everyone of you but you read like a book. When a decision is made as the church body at large for us to embrace a new mission or ministry and you do not like it, you do not accept it, please do not become a naysayer or a sideline critic. Trust God, contemplate His workings in your life and give time for the Lord to change your heart.

Conform to God with Acceptance in His Decisions VV. 9-11

Jonah would have found greater peace early on had he accepted God’s will for his life. I would imagine that everyone of us that finally succumbed to God’s wishes about a matter can testify that He had the matter under wraps the whole time had I not been so bullheaded.

May I say again what the entire book of Jonah is not about. The book is not about Jonah, nor is it about a Great Fish. The story of Jonah is the story of the sovereignty of God.

Isaiah 55:8–9 NKJV

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Let me remind you of something important. For everyone you have a wedge, a barrier, a severed relationship, one that you hold at arm’s distance; God has compassion for them just as He does for you. The same compassion He has shown you He wants to show to them.

Jonah had it right in his head, his heart was not right.

Jonah 4:2 “2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.”

Exodus 34:6-7 “6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.””

Is it that God wants you to exhibit the same compassion He exhibited to you?

Let’s pray.