Jonah: God in the Hands of an Angry Sinner

There are three ways that we can learn. We can learn by explanation, and that's the way we learn so many things, algebra and cooking, mechanical things.

We learn by explanation. It's also possible to learn by experience. Now, some things are best learned by experience.

If you're going to learn how to swim or play tennis, get out and do it. If you don't learn how to swim by watching movies or listening to lectures. There are some things you should never learn by experience.

It's too bad that some young people have the idea that we older ones don't know what we're talking about, and so they have to learn the hard way. So you can learn by explanation, or you can learn by experience, or you can learn by example. And we're going to consider tonight Jonah as an example of someone who had difficulty with the will of God.

During these Sunday evenings we're answering some crucial questions about the will of God. We're seeking to go beneath the surface and discover a little bit more, go a little bit deeper in this matter of knowing and understanding the will of God. Jonah is the classic example of a man who wrestled with the will of God and sought to obstruct the will of God, which raises the interesting question, how much can you and I as believers get in God's way? I think that the book of Jonah presents to us, and Jonah himself presents to us, three basic lessons about the will of God.

First of all, Jonah teaches us a lesson in discovering the will of God, discovering the will of God. You'll remember last Sunday evening I said to you that there are three approaches to the will of God that are wrong. I don't advise you to use them.

We gave names to them for convenience's sake. The mystical approach. This is the approach that says, empty your mind, don't consider any facts, don't investigate anything.

Just empty your mind and wait upon God, and you'll get a feeling, and you'll know what you're supposed to do. This is the mystical approach, and if you go by your feelings, you'll know the will of God. The second wrong approach we call the mechanical approach.

This says that the will of God is a machine, and you're a part of a machine, and if anything goes wrong, if you disobey him, you're done for, the machine comes to a stop, you can't trade it in for a new model, you can't repair it, you're through. The third approach we call the dictatorial approach. This is the approach that says you are on the throne of your life, and to really know God's will, you get off of the throne, and Jesus gets on the throne, and from then on he rules everything.

I said that was wrong, because you cannot get off the throne and stay off the throne and still be a person. Romans 5.17 doesn't say that Christ reigns instead of us, it says we reign in life. Who? One.

Jesus Christ. Paul did not say that Christ does all things instead of me, Christ does all things in spite of me. Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Now in Jonah 1 we have evidence that the mystical approach doesn't work, because in Jonah 1 the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarsus, the opposite direction, from the presence of the Lord. Jonah knew he couldn't run away from God, because Psalm 139 says you can't do that.

To run from the presence of the Lord means to resign, a prophet stood in the presence of the Lord. So Jonah was saying, O God, I'm not going to go to Nineveh, instead of going to Nineveh I'm going to resign. Here is my resignation, I'm through.

You know the story of how he went down to Joppa. Whenever you turn away from God's will, you always go down, and he went down to Joppa. He found a ship going to Tarsus, he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them unto Tarsus from the presence of the Lord.

But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was in danger of being broken, and the mariners were afraid. Now, when the sailors get scared, watch out. I can understand landlubbers getting scared, but not sailors.

The sailors were very much afraid, they started crying out to their gods, they started lightening the ship. But Jonah was gone down, that's the third time we have that adverb, Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. I've had people say to me, Oh, Pastor, I've considered this decision and I have real peace in my heart about it.

Here's a fellow who had peace. Jonah was a landlubber, the Jewish people, by and large, did not like the water. The water to them was a dangerous place.

They were people who liked the land, the mountains and the ground. I admire them for that, I'm the same way. I do not like the water.

Here's Jonah, sound asleep. Now, he's out of the will of God. The word of the Lord came saying, Go this way, and Jonah went that way, and he had peace in his heart about it.

Now, you watch out for this mystical approach that gives you a good feeling. Any good feeling you have that's contrary to the word of God is a bad feeling. It shows there's something wrong.

So the mystical approach in chapter 1 just doesn't work. I take the mechanical approach. The mechanical approach says, Oh, if you make a mistake, you're done for.

If you disobey the will of God, you're through. Well, in chapter 2, Jonah wakes up and finds out he's in the image of this great fish. They've thrown him in the water, and God prepared a great fish, and he starts to pray.

Then Jonah prays, but he didn't pray back in chapter 1. It would have been better. Then Jonah prays, and Jonah confesses his sin to God. He says, I will look toward your holy temple.

That's the Old Testament version of 1 John 1. When the temple was dedicated, Solomon said, If any of your children are far away, and they look toward your temple, hear them and forgive them. Jonah says, I'm going to look toward the temple. I'm going to look toward God, and I'm going to ask him to forgive me.

And God forgave him. Now, these people who believe in the machinery approach to the will of God, you're a cog in some kind of a machine. If you make a mistake, you're through.

Have a hard time with this, because chapter 3 starts, And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time. You can't do that, Lord. You can't do that.

The machinery is broken down. Oh, really? The will of God is not a mechanical thing. It's a living thing.

I have said more than once from this pulpit, and it bears repeating, that my relationship to God is not a mechanical thing. You drop in your quarter and put A, B, and C, and out comes the product. It's a living relationship.

And just as two friends can have a falling out and be reconciled, so my Heavenly Father and I can have a falling out and be reconciled. Just as some part of my body can go wrong, and I keep on living, and other parts compensate for it, so in the will of God. I can disobey God, and God rules and overrules and compensates, but he doesn't quit.

He gave Abraham a second chance. He gave David a second chance, and a third chance, and a fourth chance. He gave Peter a second chance.

How many chances do you have? Now, don't ever let the devil come to you and say, Oh, because you did this, you're through. Machinery is broken down. Oh, no.

That mechanical approach is dead wrong. Now let's take the dictatorial approach, chapter 3. This is the one I'm the most afraid of. And when I discuss this, I am not criticizing any organization or any group.

Get off the throne! Let Jesus on the throne. Let him run your life. I maintain he can't run my life if I'm off the throne.

I have to control my hands. I'm not a robot. I have to control my feet.

I have to control my mind. I have to control my eyes and my tongue. He won't do it instead of me.

He has to do it through me. And so, chapter 3 tells me that there was a king in Nineveh, and he heard the word of God. The word of God said, Repent! In 40 days, Nineveh shall be overthrown.

You know what the king did? He got off the throne and took off his robe. He put on sackcloth and ashes. But he was still the king.

The only difference was, now he and God were running the kingdom. He didn't get off the throne and say, Lord, you come and sit on the throne! He got off the throne and God said, okay, let's get back on and let's do it together. That's dedication, my friend.

Dedication doesn't mean you try to get off the throne of your life. You cease to exist. I won't think, which isn't too hard for some Christians.

I won't do this. No, no. Dedication means I say, Lord, I'm getting off the throne.

You get on. He gets on. Then when he gets on the throne, he says, now come on back up here.

Let's sit together and let's work this out together. We reign in life through Jesus Christ. Romans 5, 17.

The king was still the king, even though he had humbled himself. Now, how do we discover the will of God? How did Jonah discover the will of God? Through the word of God. The word of the Lord came unto Jonah, saying, arise and go.

I maintain, dear people, that no one can know the will of God apart from the word of God. Oh, you see, I go by circumstances. Jonah went by circumstances.

He was running away from God and there was a ship waiting for him. How about that? If you've been like some people, Anglican, isn't this marvelous? I must be in the Lord's will. There's a ship waiting going right where I want to go.

Now, back in Jonah's day, you couldn't pick up a ship to Tarsus any day. It wasn't like going out to O'Hare Field and saying, well, there's 15 flights to New York and 22 flights to Los Angeles. If I miss the 2 o'clock flight, there's one at 2.30. Uh-uh.

These ships were more like Amtrak. You weren't quite sure when they would be there. And so Jonah's running away from the will of God.

You railroad people will forgive me. Jonah's running away from the will of God and he finds a ship waiting for him. He says, I'm doing the right thing.

He had the money to pay for it. They had room for him. They took him on.

You can't go just by circumstances alone. You can't go by feelings. His feelings were great.

He was so peaceful, he went to sleep in a storm. I know where I would have been if I were on that boat during that storm. How did Jonah know what God wanted him to do? The word of God told him.

Now you take circumstances plus feelings plus the word of God, you may have a good combination. You have circumstances alone, watch out. You have feelings alone, watch out.

The word of God is what guides us. The word of the Lord came a second time unto Jonah, saying, Arise, go to Minot and preach the preaching I did you. That Christian who spends time in the word of God is going to know the will of God.

He doesn't know. I want us to page through the New Testament for a few minutes. I dare you to get your concordance out and find those verses that specifically tell us the will of God.

Can I show you a few of them? Let's start in 2 Corinthians. Anything in my life that disobeys any of these verses is out of God's will. 2 Corinthians 8.5. Here is a verse that tells us what God's will is.

Paul is talking about the generous giving of the churches in Macedonia. 2 Corinthians 8.5. And this they did, not as we hope, but first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. You say, what's the will of God for my life? To give yourself to God and to other people.

But Jonah didn't do that. God said, Jonah, I want you to give yourself to those men of my... Oh, not in your life, Lord. You made a mistake.

You had too many holes in the computer card. You got the wrong fella. He violated the word of God.

At this point, stop. Why read anything further? If in my life something comes that keeps me from giving myself to God or giving myself to others, I'm out of God's will. Well, let's try Galatians 1. Verse 4. Talking about our Lord Jesus.

Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of God and our Father. Anything that gets me involved in this present evil world is out of God's will. I don't have to pray about it, ponder over it.

It's wrong. Well, let's try 1 Thessalonians 4. Verse 3. For this is the will of God. Can't get much clearer than that.

Even the King James can be understood. For this is the will of God. Even your sanctification.

You're being set apart. Oh, but Jonah got involved in this present evil world. He threw his lot in with a bunch of pagan sailors.

Oh, but Jonah was not separated. He was not set apart. That's pretty obvious.

Anything that takes away my position of being set apart for God is out of God's will. You can go to Washington D.C. and rent the armory. You can rent the stadium.

You can't rent the White House. It's set apart. Special.

Well, how about 1 Thessalonians 5. Verse 18. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. The instant Jonah became critical instead of thankful, he was out of God's will.

The will of the Lord came to him saying, go to Nineveh. You know what Jonah should have done? Should have done what David does back in the Psalms. Many times you find David saying, oh, Lord, I don't want to do this.

Oh, Lord, I don't understand what you're doing. Jonah should have said, Lord, I don't want to go to Nineveh. But you want me to go and I should be thankful for this.

Help me to have a thankful spirit instead of a critical spirit. You know, it would do wonders for our Christian lives if at the beginning of every day we'd pray like this. Oh, God, help me today in everything to give thanks.

Because the minute a Christian chooses to be thankful, he starts to be disobedient. It is God's will for us to give thanks. Well, how about 1 Peter 2 and verse 15? For so it is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

He's talking about witnessing. Verse 13, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. He goes on to talk about governors and so forth.

Why? It's the will of God. It's the will of God that by your lives you might put to silence the stupid things that stupid people say. Jonah didn't do that.

Jonah wasn't a witness. Jonah was an opportunity for God to lose glory. That's the will of God that I do well, that I do good, not evil.

Jonah almost caused a shipload of people to perish. Let me say this by way of parenthesis. We are prone to say the world's in a mess because of unsaved people.

The world is really in a mess because of Christians who are out of the will of God. Abraham got out of the will of God and brought judgment down upon Egypt. David got out of the will of God and brought judgment down upon his family and his nation.

Jonah got out of the will of God and brought judgment down upon a bunch of unsaved pagan tailors. You know why? He wasn't doing good. How about 1 Timothy 2 and verse 4? This is a good verse about the will of God.

Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth? Oh, Jonah, God's will is that people get saved. Go to Nineveh and win people. Oh, I don't want to do that.

Now this is the positive side. Who will have all men to be saved? 2 Peter 3.9 is the negative. God is not willing that any should perish.

Over Matthew 18, Jesus goes so far as to say this. It is not the will of your father that one of these little ones perish. Jonah ends with God saying, you know, Jonah, there's an awful lot of little children over there in Nineveh.

They can't tell their right hand from their left hand. Is it God's will for people to be saved? Yes. If I am not assisting in getting people to be saved, what am I doing? I'm stepping out of God's will.

So here are five or six Bible verses that distinctly tell us what God's will is, and Jonah broke every one of them. How do we discover God's will? Through God's word. Just through God's word.

As you saturate your mind with the word of God, as you fill your heart with the word of God, as you read it and ponder on it and meditate, you know what happens? God talks to you. It's not a mystical experience. It's not an experience of ignorance.

It's not a mechanical experience of pushing the button. It's a living relationship. It's Romans 12 too.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove by experience what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Sometimes God just says, wait. Sometimes God just says, now get ready.

If God's been keeping you waiting for some time to accomplish something, my friend, when it does happen, watch out. It'll happen so fast, it'll take your breath away. Joseph waited for 13 years for his dream to be fulfilled.

But when it happened, boy, did it happen in a hurry. They came to his cell and they said, hey, you gotta change. You gotta change clothes.

The king wants to see you. And from then on, he was on the throne. Jonah teaches us a lesson in discovering God's will.

My Christian friend, if you're ignoring or neglecting or disobeying the written word of God, you can't know God's will. I think it's the Detroit Bible College that has as its motto discovering the will of God through studying the word of God. That's a good model.

There's a second lesson that Jonah teaches us. He teaches us a lesson about defying God's will. Defying God's will.

Here's a puny little preacher who said, no, Lord! God said go that way. He said, I'm going this way. Now, to what extent can we frustrate the will of God? Everything in the book of Jonah obeys God, except Jonah.

You take the inanimate world, you take the mineral kingdom. The waves obey God. God said waves! Storm! And a storm came.

The winds obey God. The boat obeyed God. That boat could have broken into pieces.

God kept it together. When they cast lots to see who was the troublemaker, the dice obeyed God. I have a friend who can control dice.

I don't know how he does it. He wrote a book on it. I read the book and still don't know how he does it.

I've watched him do it. It's amazing. But with him, it's trickery.

With God, it's not trickery. God controls dice. God can control little dice.

God can control winds. God can control waves. Inanimate nature obeyed him.

The vegetable world obeyed him. In the last chapter, a gourd came up. God controlled the gourd.

Animal. The animal kingdom obeyed him. He was a great fish, whatever it was.

Jonah could have written a death psaltery. He could have called it Jaws. Subtitle, The Inside Story.

Might have made a spin off of it, I suppose. He was this great fish. And God said to him, Go swallow that man.

I don't like man. Go swallow him. Go swallow the man.

So the fish obeyed God. The last chapter, a worm obeyed God. He really bugged Jonah at this point.

Little worm. God says, worm, you. Right down there.

Get into that gourd. And the worm obeyed him. A weird fish obeys God.

A little worm obeys God. A puny old man won't do it. Everything in this book obeys God except Jonah.

And Jonah had the most to lose and the most to gain. Now, this is the big question. Can a puny man obstruct the will of God? Well, apparently the answer is yes.

If you mean immediately, but not ultimately. Of course Jonah obstructed God's will. God said go and he went the wrong direction.

Now, how many days it took for all this to happen, we don't know. He was in the innards of the fish three days and three nights. It took him a few days to get to Nineveh.

But did he delay God's program? Yes. To some degree. You and I can defy God immediately, but not ultimately.

Not permanently. Because when puny man begins to defy the will of God. You know what God does? He begins to spank.

Now, God didn't spank the unsaved men on board that ship. They weren't his children. God only spanked his own children.

There are times when I felt like spanking other people's children, but I have controlled myself. I suppose there may have been times years ago when people felt like spanking mine. But, when Jonah began to defy the will of God, there moved into Jonah's life one of the most beautiful things that God ever does.

Discipline. By the way, that's the whole theme of the book of Hebrews. I don't know why it is people get in the book of Hebrews, they forget the first five chapters, they forget the last chapters, and they sit down and sit.

And they get themselves very uncomfortable in chapter six, like a Hindu sitting on a bed of nails. And they miss all the blessing of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews begins, God has spoken.

That's what happened to Jonah. God spoke to Jonah. Hebrews says God has spoken.

What will you do with his words? Turn back to Hebrews. I'm going to page through the book of Hebrews with you. I'm not going to expound it, but I'm going to page through it.

Chapter one, God has spoken. And what he is saying is more important than what the prophet said. This is the whole thing.

He's spoken in his son. His son is greater than the prophet, greater than the angels. Now, chapter two.

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, Christians now, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was said fast, how much more is the word now spoken through his son. You see, God has spoken.

Don't start drifting. Don't start drifting from God's word. I haven't read my Bible in two weeks.

You're drifting from God's word. That's the first exhortation. Over in chapter three, verse seven, he says don't start doubting God's word.

Today if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. That's what the Jews did back at Kadesh Barnea. They doubted God's word.

So first you start drifting from God's word. Then you start doubting God's word. Well, he continues to tell how important the word of God is.

If you get to chapter five, verse eleven, don't get dulled toward God's word. I've seen this happen. A Christian gets away from the word of God, he drifts, quits having his prayer time, he starts doubting the word of God, then he starts getting dulled toward the word of God.

What happens next? Well, you turn over the page. Chapter ten, verse twenty-six. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin.

God doesn't have two saviors, he's got one. He's talking about Christians here, drifting, doubting, getting dull. Now they are despising the word.

Look at it down in verse twenty-eight. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy. Of how much sore punishment would we today be held accountable? He says down in verse thirty, the Lord shall judge his people.

Not the dope addicts, not the drunkards, not the prostitutes. His people. He says, you start drifting from the word, and doubting the word, and getting dulled toward the word, and despising the word, then I'll have to go to work on you.

Because the next step is chapter twelve. Beginning at verse fourteen where he talks about defying the word of God. Verse twenty-five.

He that shall refuse not him that speaketh. And that's exactly what Jonah did. Now, when God sees I'm drifting, he exhorts me.

When he sees I am doubting, he deals with me. When he sees that I am getting dull, he works on me. When he sees I am getting a despiteful attitude, and then I start defying.

You know what he does? Hebrews twelve comes into focus. He disciplines. God will not allow his children to become rebels, even if he has to kill them.

You say you're getting awfully hard to listen to. Well, look at Hebrews chapter twelve. Verse five.

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto sons. Not unsaved people, children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor saints when thou art rebuked of him.

Two extreme things. God brings chastening upon us. We say, well, that's not important.

And we despise it. We have a suck-up attitude, a hard heart toward it. He said, don't do that.

The other extreme is just to give up and say, oh, it's all over. Don't do that. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.

Chastening is not punishment. A judge punishes a criminal to uphold the law. A father chastens a son to build character.

And Jonah defied God. He said, I'm going this way. God said, how far do you think you're going to get? I love you too much.

I've paid too much for you to let you become a rebel. And God begins to discipline. Now, I don't have to preach this because you've experienced it.

I thank God whenever I have, I'm not thankful I did it, but I'm thankful that whenever I've gotten out of his will, he's thanked me. And by the way, my friends, the worst kind of thanking is not when he touches your body. It's when he touches the body of someone you love.

That's harder. Now, suppose a person does not surrender in chastening. Verse 10, speaking about our earthly father.

Verse 9, furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us. We gave them reverence. What are you supposed to do when God chastens? Give him reverence.

Say, Father, you're right. I'm wrong. Shall we not much rather be in subjection under the Father of Spirit and live? The suggestion being if we don't subject ourselves to the Father of Spirit, we may die.

There is a sin under death. God accomplished his purposes through Samson. He did not accomplish his purposes in Samson.

He had to take Samson's life. God accomplished certain purposes through Saul. He could not accomplish certain purposes in Saul.

Saul ended up dead. Ananias and Sapphira, a sin under death. Now, this is serious business.

If you and I defy, obstruct the will of God, God is going to accomplish his purposes on this earth even if he has to get us out of the way. His first concern is lovingly to chasten us to bring us back into his will that we might be a part of the blessing. Jonah teaches us a lesson about defying God's will.

You try to defy it, God will sanctify you. If you keep on defying it, God can take you. This does not mean that every Christian who dies has committed a sin under death, obviously.

But there are some who have. For this cause, said Paul to the Corinthians, many are weak and sickly among you, and some sleep, some have died. Now, I just want to drop this in because it kicks in.

Then we'll move on to the third lesson. Someone says, when Jonah was going in the wrong direction, he was in the permissive will of God. I will now become a heretic.

God may permit me to do certain things. God has given me liberty. God has given me freedom.

God may permit me to do certain things. I don't believe he ordained them. Some Christians think that the will of God is like the Sears-Roebuck catalog, good, better, and best.

You're going to buy a crib for the baby, and they have a good crib for $35, a better crib for $50, and the best crib, $600. Color TV. So, if you want the very best, you've got to pay for it.

Now, the will of God is not like this. God has one will for my life. It's good and acceptable and perfect.

Not free will. If I travel third class, that's not God's will. I can't believe that a loving, holy God would ordain for me to travel third class.

He wants me to travel first class. There is a third class. There's a fifth class.

But don't say God ordained it. Permits it? Yes. His will? No.

So many Christians have the idea that they can blame God for the messes they get into. Lord, help us. When Jonah was out of God's will, did God permit it? Yes.

Did God ordain it? No. What did God ordain? The salvation of the Ninevites. Could God have sent angels down? Sure.

But that's not God's way of doing it. He wants a man. God has delimited himself to us.

That took a lot of grace. Now the third lesson. He teaches a lesson about delighting in God's will.

You people are so patient. I appreciate you. The will of God involves my mind.

I should discover God's will. My heart. I should delight in God's will.

My will. I should do God's will. Chapter 1. God didn't have anything.

He didn't have Jonah's mind. He didn't have Jonah's heart. He didn't have Jonah's will.

He's going in the wrong direction. Chapter 2. Jonah repents. God thanks him.

He comes back to the place where he ought to be. But you know what happens in chapter 3? With his will, Jonah obeys God. With his mind, he knows what God wants him to do.

But his heart is not in it. You say, how do you know? Read chapter 4. Jonah builds himself a booth on the east side of the city. This is east side story here in chapter 4. And he sits there and waits for God to destroy the city.

Jonah takes one of the greatest revivals in history. The whole city repented. Close to a million people repented.

Even the animals repented. They put fat cloth and ashes on the animals. There are some animals in my neighborhood that I wish would repent.

And he takes one of the greatest revivals in history. And he hated the people he was preaching to. And in chapter 4, he sits there like a spoiled brat.

Waiting for God to destroy the city. And God brings the gourd up to protect. And he's so happy for the gourd.

And then the worm comes and destroys the gourd. And Jonah loses his victory. He's concerned about a dead gourd.

He's not concerned about people going to hell. By the way, you tell me the things that you miss and you've told me something about you. What can you do without? He couldn't do without the gourd.

Then God sends that wind, that hot, oriental, desert wind to blow on him. And Jonah says, I want to die. I want to die.

I wouldn't get my way. I want to die. You see, he had no pity for the people.

That's the whole thrust of Jonah chapter 4. God says to Jonah Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? He said, I do well to be angry even unto death. If I can't have my gourd, I want to die. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not labored neither made it grow.

It came up in a night. It perished in a night. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city? I made those people They're going to live forever either in heaven or hell if gourd comes and goes and nobody cares.

You care if you don't care about people. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city in which are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand? That's 120,000 children. And much cattle? This is where this chapter leaves us.

The will of God ultimately has to be tied with the salvation of lost souls. Whatever God's will is for your life, my friend, ultimately it's going to result in the winning of souls. You're either going to do it personally or help somebody else do it.

God's great concern for the church is that we go into all the world and preach the gospel to win souls. And God is concerned about reaching lost souls. And he says to Jonah, you know what your problem is, son? You don't enjoy my will, you endure my will.

My friend, Paul puts it so beautifully in Ephesians chapter 6, doing the will of God from the heart. God loves a cheerful servant. When he talks about giving, don't give grudgingly or of necessity.

God loves a cheerful giver. Don't do the will of God grudgingly or of necessity. God loves a cheerful liver as well as a cheerful giver.

And Jonah teaches us one great lesson in chapter 4. Delight in God's will. Love to do God's will. Love people and love God.

Love souls, love God. The Lord can tell whether or not we really love to do his will. When we argue about it, we don't love to do it.

When we delay, we don't love to do it. When we pick and criticize, we don't love to do it. But if we obey instantly, if we don't argue, if we don't lay down any conditions, he says, hey, here's somebody who loves to do my will.

Jesus said, I haven't called you servants, I've called you friends. The servants don't know what the Master is doing, but I want you to know what I'm doing. I want you to be my friend.

I want to share my love with you, and in my love is my will. Oh, to come to the place where we delight to do the will of God. Enjoy it.

Because we want to please our Father. Well, here then are three lessons that Jonah teaches us how we might discover God's will. He talks to us about defying God's will and delighting in God's will.

Which leads us to the very important question, what is your relationship right now to the will of God? Is there something in the word of God that convicts us we know we are wrong? My suggestion, friend, is to straighten it out right now. If God is saying, don't do that, and we're doing it, let's quit. If God says, do this, and we're not doing it, let's do it.

And let's pray daily that we might come to such a place in our spiritual life that we'll not be grudgingly obeying God. We'll do the will of God from our hearts. Father, this is our prayer.

Forgive us when we have looked upon your will as a burden. Your word says, His commandments are not grievous. Jesus said, My yoke is easy, my burden is light.

Oh, Father, we need to learn this. Wherever this message finds each of us, oh God, help us to obey. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen.