Getting Out of Life’s Valleys

God On Display

Getting Out of Life’s Valleys Jonah 4:1-11 June 29th, 2025

Open your Bibles to Jonah, chapter 4.  While you’re doing that, let me just sort of introduce what it is I want to talk to you about this morning.  The title of the message is Getting Out of Life’s Valleys.

But if you’re gonna get out of life’s valleys, you’ve gotta deal with the matter of self-deception.  And let me just tell you this.  The longer I minister to and share with people, the more I’m amazed by the human capacity to self-deceive.  And it’s all through, somehow our sinfulness, our capacity to self-deceive, on a variety of subjects.

maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve been discouraged, you’ve been at a place of real despondency or desperation, You’ve been down in the dumps.  Well, there is in our society today, and has been now for many years, a great deception afoot. And in essence the deception is this: You are not responsible for your mental and emotional health.  If you’re depressed, it’s not your fault.  If you’re discouraged, it’s not your fault.  And if you’re despondent, it’s not your fault.  If you want to get up, if you want to give up, or if you’re down and can’t get up, it’s not your fault.  You’re not to blame for the condition of your thought life.  And then who is to blame?  The varieties are endless: your parents, your past, your environment, your circumstances--anything but me.  And all through our society, and tragically in recent years seeping into the church, is this notion that if you’re down in the dumps you can’t get up, ‘cause it’s not your fault, and something else has to change external to yourself. 

Let me say it this way.  Our happiness in life is not determined by our circumstances, but by our reaction to circumstances.  And I could go up and down the rows of this worship center this morning and I could break you down into groups.  And here’s the group of people who are dealing with this.  And here’s the people who are dealing with this.  You’re not alone.  And there are people right here this morning who are going through the very same things that you’re going through. And the thing that separates the groups is not what people are going through but how they react to it, how they deal with the things that God in His sovereignty allows to come into their life.

So if you’re not in Jonah, chapter 4, this would be a good time to get there.  Now again, the title of the message, Getting Out of Life’s Valleys.  Actually Jonah’s life is about how to get into a valley.  And we are going to see Jonah take four steps down.  But hopefully when we get to the bottom with him in a few minutes we can figure out how he got there, so that if we’re there we can get out, so that if we’re going there we can stop and reverse fields and head in a better direction with our lives. 

If you’ve been here for most of the weeks, you remember, Jonah, chapter 1, God’s like, “Go east.  Preach to these people in Nineveh.”  Jonah’s like, “Nope, not doing it.”  Goes west.  And God goes after him.  And He gets ahold of him in a storm and in a fish.  And then finally Jonah turns back to the Lord and gets going in a good direction.  That’s chapter 2.  Chapter 3 we studied last week in how to experience personal revival.  And Jonah ministered revival to the people of Nineveh and there was a massive transformation that took place, so much so that in Jonah, chapter 3, verse 10, it says this, “When God saw the deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them.  And He did not do it.” 

WOW! Ninevah was saved!  Mission accomplished!  Then comes chapter 4  [1] But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

“But.”  That’s where all the problems start.  But God was faithful to Jonah, “But” it wasn’t good enough for Jonah.  But God did everything that He promised He would do, but Jonah couldn’t be satisfied with that.  But God phenomenally pursued Jonah with incredible, relentless pursuit and grace and goodness, butJonah wasn’t satisfied.  But God did everything He said He would do, but Jonah couldn’t be content with that. 

In fact, make a note of this.  We’ll mark these four steps down. 

 1.  A self-centered outlook. Notice Jonah 4:1, [1] But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

Jonah, what are you angry about?  Well, Jonah is angry at God because God has shown mercy to people that Jonah hates.  Jonah wanted God to be his Father, but nobody else’s.  Jonah wanted the blessings of God, but he didn’t want to share them.  He was self-absorbed.  And Jonah, in effect, in verse 2, quotes Exodus 34:6.  It says, [2] And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O 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 are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. (Jonah 4:1-2 ESV)

Jonah’s doing a very dangerous thing.  What he’s doing is, he’s quoting God’s words back to Him and kind of shoving it right in God’s face.  And what he’s saying is, “Hey, God, did You not say, Exodus 34:6, that You’re loving and compassionate and forgiving and abounding in mercy?  Did You not say that?  And if You did say that, then why did You go and tell me to preach to a bunch of people that You were gonna judge them, knowing full well that in going to do that they were going to repent? 

Now I’m out here looking like a moron on a limb ‘cause I told a million people that You were gonna judge them.  And now they all got afraid and scared and fearful of God and they repented.  And now You’re not gonna judge them and I look stupid.  I know what You’re like.  I know what You promised.  Why did You send me to do that when all along You knew they’d repent?

Jonah was using God’s word against God, like Satan tried to do in Genesis, chapter 1.  It’s a very bad plan. 

            And at the center of all of this is a very self-centered outlook.  And if you want to get into a valley fast, get focused with and consumed on yourself. I’ve seen this again and again and again.  A self-centered outlook is at the heart of every broken relationship, every broken marriage, every estranged child, every severed employee/employer relationship, every broken friendship.  Me and what I need and what I’m getting and am I fulfilled and am I?  That’s the road to the valley.

And Jonah is on it.  I wish I could tell you that it gets better, but it gets worse.  Watch what happens next.  Verse 3,

2. A self-pitying attitude. 

[3] Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” [4] And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

Make a note of this:  a self-pitying attitude.  First self-centered, and then self-pitying attitude.  These terms are really quite similar.  The key and the enemy in all of this is self. While there is something overly dramatic and almost even humorous about Jonah’s dramatic, “I’d rather die,”the truth of the matter is this.  You can stand on the outside and smile about that and say how silly Jonah is.  You can read the passage of Scripture and you can say to yourself, “Jonah, you’re crazy.  What are you thinking? God blessed you.  I mean, God saved your life.  God brought revival through you.  What more do you want?”

I wrote these three things down, three reasons for Jonah’s anger.  Make a note of these.  And maybe you’ll relate to some of them. 

Number one, Jonah was not truly reconciled to God’s will.  God had told Jonah to go to Nineveh.  He didn’t want to go.  God put him in a fish and got his attention and finally he said, “I will go.”  And he went.  But he wasn’t truly reconciled to God’s will.  He was doing what God wanted him to do, but he was doing it with a chip on his shoulder.  He was doing what God wanted him to do, but he was doing it grudgingly.  That’s not good.  Jonah had that self-centered, “Fine, I’ll do it if I have to do it.”  He’s like the little kid, you’ve heard the story of the little boy who was sitting in school, and he stood up during the class and the teacher said, “Sit down.”  And he said, “No.”  The teacher said, “You sit down.”  And he said, “No.”  Finally she walked right over to him, put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him and made him sit down.  And he said, “I may be sitting on the outside, but I’m standing on the inside.”  And, you know, there’s people right here right now, and you know it’s true.  God knows, I don’t.  You’re doing the very same thing.  And you come to church and you carry your Bible and you’re submitting to God with your life on the outside, but in the inside there’s a war going on and there’s a fire raging and you’re not in submission to God and you really don’t want to live the life of a follower of Jesus Christ.  But pressure from family and pressure from a spouse and parents who call you every week and say, “Were you in church this morning?”  And reluctantly you’re doing the thing that God wants you to do.  But your heart’s not there.  That’s a really bad place to be.  And what you really want is what youwant. 

Here’s a second thing.  He had forgotten God’s mercy to him.  I mean, how soon we forget God’s blessings and God’s mercy.  God is so good to us.  And we have so much to be thankful for.  You say, “Well, you don’t know what’s going on in my life right now.” .”  But no, hang on for a second.  Take your trouble out of the temporary context and put it into the eternal.  And you look at the full scope of your life, the days you’ve lived and the days you’ve not lived yet, and God is good to you and God is faithful to you and He gives you life and breath and health and strength.

1. Jonah was not truly reconciled with God’s will.  2. He had forgotten God’s mercy to him. 

And then thirdly, he didn’t know God as well as he thought he knew God.

And sometimes the problem is, we think God’s supposed to be a certain way, like God’s some cosmic dispensing machine.  “And I’ll take four more of these, please.  And I’ll take five of these.  And could You please fix this for me?”  And like when we pull the lever and what we want to happen doesn’t happen, then we’re mad at God.  The problem is that that isn’t who God is.  And God is far more interested in our holiness than He is in our temporary happiness.  And God’s love is a perfecting love, not a pampering love.  And maybe the problem is that you’re expecting things from God that He never promised to do, never intended to do, and you need to let your mind be renewed about what God really is like.  Jonah didn’t know God as well as he thought he did, and that’s why he’s seeped and slipped into this self-pitying attitude. 

Now notice verse 4.  Note the tenderness and the patience and the sensitivity with which God comes toward Jonah.  He says, for it is better for me to die than to live.”   The Lord said, “Do you have a good reason to be angry?” [4] And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

 Like how great is that question?  Is that God’s sensitiveness?  You’d think that God would be, “Come on, Jonah, get it together!” Nope, God is not like that.  And even though Jonah’s attitude stinks, and even though Jonah, on a human level, needs a serious spanking, God moves toward him and He says with such gentleness, and He would speak these words into your life this morning, “Do you have a good reason to be angry?” 

What God says to Jonah is in effect is, “Hey, Jonah, a million people just got converted and I’m really happy about it. I’m happy; you’re sad.  Who’s right?  Do you have a good reason to be angry?”  And what should Jonah have said?  Tell me, what should he have said, one word?  “No.  No, God.  You know what?  I don’t have a good reason to be angry.  I’m just so focused on myself.  Please forgive me for my rotten attitude and help me to rejoice in all the good things that You’re doing.  I choose to look away from what’s not right in my life and I choose to embrace what is right and be thankful for it.”  That’s how he should have responded, but he didn’t, because he was so filled with self-pity. Hanging on instead of letting go.  Looking down instead of looking up.  Trusting self instead of trusting God.  Standing still instead of moving on by God’s grace. 

Well, it doesn’t stop with self-pity.  Notice this third thing: a self-absorbed lifestyle. 

3. A self-absorbed lifestyle. 

You know, it’s interesting, it doesn’t look like Jonah even answers the question, does he?  Look at verse 4, “The Lord said, ‘Do you have a good reason to be angry?’”  And Jonah’s like, “I’m not even gonna answer that,” and he just walks away.  “Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it.”  Have you ever tried to talk to somebody who’s just like so __________?  And we’ve all been there. 

“Hey, Jonah, can I just talk to you for a second?  Where are you going?”  “Get away from me, man.”  “No, no, Jonah, Jonah, God’s blessed you.  You shouldn’t be like this.”  “Get your hands off me, man!”  When people want to break through and talk to us and give us some help, do you know why we don’t, do you know why we push people off, do you know why we do that?  Because I want to think the way that I’m thinking.  And the worst thing that could happen right now is for somebody to show up with some wisdom, ‘cause I don’t want any wisdom. And right now I’m having a little pity party and none of you guys are invited!  And off Jonah goes. 

Let me read the rest of the verse, [5] Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

In other words, “God, I told You that You should have judged these people.  Now I don’t know if You’re gonna listen to me or not.  I’m gonna go sit over here and I’m gonna see if You like get it together.”  Now I want you to notice, ‘cause this is such a critical point in our own health and happiness, notice three mistakes that Jonah made.  Make a note of these. 

Number one, he quit.  “Jonah, what are you quitting for?”  So many Christians today are giving up, so many students, so many employees, so many church members.  “Nah, I’m gonna go over here.  This is gonna be better for me.”  Quitters!  So many pastors giving up.  I’ve had days like that.  That was Jonah’s first mistake, he quit. 

Here’s a second mistake: He got alone. .  It’s the worst thing a self-centered person can do and it’s the thing that they want to do most, is get by themselves, so that no one can interrupt their faulty thinking.  Jonah wanted to get all by himself.  maybe you’ve come in here this morning and you’re all by yourself.  I’m gonna tell you what, you came to the right place, ‘cause we don’t want you to stay there.  And we have so much ministry here in this church that can help you.  Find at least one trusted friend who you can share your life with, who can break inside your thinking and say, “Hello!  You’re not thinking clearly.” 

Here’s the third thing.  He became a spectator.  It would have been a little better if Jonah would have moved on to something else.  But here was a guy who was personally God’s mouthpiece in a worldwide revival and now he’s sitting under an orange crate in the desert.  Hardly a promotion.  And so not only did he quit and get alone, but he became a spectator.  And Jonah says it right in the text.  He was waiting to see what was gonna happen.  And when you get on the sidelines, now you’re even further into the valley.  He quit, he got alone, he became a spectator.  And I’ve seen enough people quit and get alone that I can tell you on the authority at least of experience, I know what people say when they become spectators.  You know what they say?  “They’re not gonna be able to do this without me.”  And then they get bitter, really bitter, and they learn through painful experience the lesson that was taught to me a very long time ago.  If I won’t do it, God will find somebody who will and I’ll miss the blessing.  Period. 

Let me just ask you this question: What’s God gonna do now? We already know what God’s gonna do ‘cause we’ve been looking at it for three chapters before today.  God’s going after Jonah, because God is relentless in His pursuit and you can’t get away from God.  And it doesn’t matter how stinking rotten you’ve let your attitude become, God is coming after you because He loves you and He’s not gonna give up on you. Now notice that God’s first approach to Jonah was very loving and very patient even again.

[6] Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

Now how gracious was that?  That God sees Jonah out there in the desert with his rotten, stinking attitude and God’s like, “Well, he’ll come around.”  Supernaturally God grew this plant up over him overnight.  I’m not a big gardener, but I know if you get a plant and, BOOM, it grows up tall enough to be over Jonah’s head, miracle, right? 

So God miraculously provides this plant for Jonah to help him with his discomfort.  And notice what it says in the text at the end of verse 6, “And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.”  Well, of course he was happy about the plant.  It was for him!  And everything for him made sense to him, ‘cause he thought everything was supposed to be for him.  But here’s the problem.  Romans, chapter 2, verse 4, says that “the goodness of God should lead to repentance.” And what should have happened was that Jonah should have watched this miraculous plant grow up, he should have known that it was from God, and he should have been like, “You know what?  There’s another blessing from God.  There’s another statement of God’s goodness.  And if I can’t rejoice in God’s faithfulness to me on the basis of this, the problem is me.  It’s my attitude that needs the help.” 

You say, “Well, my life isn’t like that right now.”  But listen, step back from that for a moment.  God is good to you.  And every single day is a gift from Him. Don’t know how many times I’ve said from this pulpit, “The same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay.”  And the same God who sends good things and blessings into our life to encourage us, if He can’t have our genuine, trusting heart, has other ways of getting our attention. 

Now notice what happens in verse 7.  The plant didn’t bring Jonah to a place of repentance and trust.  And so in verse 7 it says, “But God appointed a worm.”  I love that.  Chapter 1, God appoints a fish.  And then a plant.  So do you think He made the worm?  Or do you think He just went after one of the ones He already made and just got into that little, “Hey, worm, go over here and eat that plant”?  Notice, it says, “. . . when dawn had come the next day, it attacked (this is like a turbo worm) the plant and it withered.”

 God has more than one way of getting our attention.  And the blessing didn’t work, so now it’s time for some chastening [8] When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

  And maybe some of you are here this morning and you’ve got that wind blowing through your life.  “. . . the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, ‘Death is better to me than life.’” 

Now we’ve heard this from Jonah several times.  And we would be foolish to think that Jonah doesn’t mean it.  And at the root of that kind of thinking is Satan himself.  See, this is Satan’s goal.  Our goal is to bring glory to Christ.  And Satan’s goal is to bring shame and reproach on the name of Christ.

4. A self-deceived heart, Well, verse 9, the final step down is a self-deceived heart, where you actually believe with all of your heart what Jonah says here.

[9] But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” Again, his answer should have been, “Of course, God, no, I don’t.  You gave me that; You took it away.”  But here’s what Jonah said, And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”   That sentence right there is the saddest sentence in the whole book of Jonah.  And when you come to the place where you say what Jonah said in effect, “I have every right to feel the way I do,” when you say, “Not only am I at an awful place, not only am I discouraged and depressed and filled with negative thinking and everything’s dark around me and nothing looks good to me and why am I living this life,” that’s not the end.  The worst part is when someone points it out to you and you say, “I have every right to feel this way!”  That’s bottom.  That’s as bad as it gets.  That’s the worst possible place that you can be

.  And that’s where Jonah was.  And the Lord still deals with him so gently and so lovingly.  And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” [10] 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. [11] And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Children, we talked about that.  “Jonah, don’t you see the inconsistency?  Don’t you see it?  You’re saying that I shouldn’t care for a million people, and all you care for is yourself.  You’re at the bottom of the valley.”  Now it’s interesting, the book doesn’t really end.  It just stays this kind of “Oop, that’s it.”  It’s just one chapter in the life of a person who God relentlessly and lovingly pursued.  And maybe God’s pursuing you that way this morning. 

Make a note of these things and then we’re gonna close and just have a question and answer time for a couple of moments. 

FIRSTLY, when you choose, say “I choose,” then say, “I repent.”  It’s always the way back to God.  “God, I’ve lived apart from Your resources.  I don’t want to do that anymore.  I’ve been so dry and so empty.” 

            And then Secondly, renew your mind.  Attitudes are patterns of thinking formed over a long period of time.  And if you’re a negative, critical, prone-to-a-downward-spiral, the-glass-is-half- empty kind of person, you’re gonna have to work at that attitude for a period of time to get it different.  It’s not gonna change this morning, but it can begin to change.  Renew your mind.  Get into God’s Word.  Begin to think God’s thoughts.  Fill your mind with good things. 

            Two more things, quickly.  Request accountability.  Go to someone and say, “Help me.”  And they’ll be like, “Oh, man, I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”

And then lastly, reach out to others.  Just like put your thing down for a while and get involved in the lives of others, serving people and caring for people and ministering to people.  That can make such a difference, just getting off the “me” program and getting involved in the lives of others.  What a difference that’ll make for you if you take those things to heart. 

Pray: