The Local Vineyard Church Podcast
The Local Vineyard Church is a church located in Richmond, Virginia. The Local is a part of the VineyardUSA network. You can find more information about The Local and VineyardUSA by visiting https://localvineyard.church
The Local Vineyard Church Podcast
When Your Emotions Are Out Of Control
Have you ever invested hours in a TV show only to be disappointed by an unsatisfying finale? That's exactly what the book of Jonah delivers—a cliffhanger ending that leaves more questions than answers. While Sunday School lessons usually gloss over Chapter 4, this final installment reveals the most challenging and profound spiritual lessons of Jonah's journey.
After Nineveh's miraculous repentance, we find Jonah not celebrating but seething with anger outside the city walls. When God shows mercy to people Jonah deemed unworthy, the prophet throws a spiritual tantrum, even wishing for death rather than witnessing God's compassion toward his enemies. This raw, honest portrayal of Jonah's emotional turmoil makes him surprisingly relatable—cycling through obedience and rebellion, worship and complaint, faith and doubt.
The most haunting revelation is that we can perform God's will without embracing God's heart. Jonah delivers God's message but resents the very mercy that saved him. When God provides a plant for shade, Jonah rejoices—yet when God removes it, he spirals into despair, revealing his skewed priorities. He cares more about his temporary comfort than the eternal destiny of 120,000 souls.
God's response is both challenging and comforting: "Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh?" The story ends without resolution, leaving us to confront our own hearts. Do we love what God loves? Do we share His compassion for those different from us? Are we more concerned with our comfort than God's calling?
The beauty of this ancient text lies in its revelation of God's unchanging character. Despite Jonah's erratic behavior, God remains "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love." When we turn our hearts toward Him daily, surrendering our comfort for His purpose, we discover that intimacy with God transforms us in ways mere religious activity never can.
Made a decision to follow Jesus? We want to know about it! Fill out our connect card here: https://local.churchcenter.com/people/forms/115766
Thank you for your generosity. For information on how to give, visit https://localvineyard.church/give.
Now, have you ever watched a TV show, a series you're invested into it or a movie, and then it gets to the final episode, the end of the movie, and you absolutely hate the way that the show ends. Who in here remembers the show Lost? I was lost the whole entire time. Or maybe the movie Inception Actually a great ending, but it was a cliffhanger, like what happened. Did he ever wake up, did he not? I don't know. You know, but these endings sometimes you invest so much time into the show, you invest so much time in the movie and it leaves you unsatisfied. Here you go. I got some bad news for you today.
Speaker 1:We are in our summer Bible study on the book of Jonah. We are in the last chapter, and if you hate stories that don't have good resolutions, you're about to hate this one because it does not have a good resolution to it. It has a cliffhanger, it leaves you confused. Here you go when you read the Bible if you ever read the Bible and every time you read it you say, wow, that wasn't weird at all. You're not reading the right book. There's things in the Bible like that was really weird, that was odd. I don't know what that means. And the end of Jonah. Is that okay? So we're going to look into this. We're going to figure out a recap for the book of Jonah. If you're new with us, if you grew up because the truth is, if you grew up going to Sunday school or went to vacation Bible school.
Speaker 1:Chapter four they typically leave out. They don't talk about chapter four at vacation Bible school. But here you go. Chapter one God says to Jonah go to Nineveh. Jonah says nope, he jumps on his ship, goes the wrong way, gets tossed overboard and swallowed by a giant fish. Chapter two Jonah finally prays inside the belly of the fish. God shows him mercy. The fish vomits him onto dry land. We call that beach barf and let's thank God it didn't come from the other end. Okay, here you go. In chapter three, god gives Jonah a second chance. And aren't you glad that God's a God who calls us back, that he calls us once, but then he'll call us back. He is a God of second chances.
Speaker 1:Jonah preaches the world's shortest and grumpiest message ever. Basically it was a repent or burn type message and, shockingly, the whole city of Nineveh repents. And how does God respond? How does God respond to the city, this city that was filled with wicked and evil people who did horrendous things. This is what it says. When God saw what the Ninevites did and how they turned from their evil ways, god relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. What do we see? They repented and God relented and the whole nation, from the king, from the very richest to the very poorest, turned to God. And how? How does Jonah respond to this news? Like if it was me and I preached the message and at the end of my message, everyone did what I wrote down in the message. I'll be pumped. I'm like they listened to me. This is good. This is not how Jonah responds. This is not how Jonah responds.
Speaker 1:Jonah preached. They repented. He wasn't happy, he wasn't worshiping, he was ticked off. He was ticked off. Jonah. 4.1 here in our Bible study says this.
Speaker 1:Now, that word angry there is kind of a weaker translation in my opinion. That Hebrew word there means kind of like a rage. He was furious, he was livid, and it said this wasn't fair. They were evil and God relented on them. God, you aren't fair for showing them grace. He prayed to the Lord. Isn't this what I said, lord, when I was still at home. This is what I tried to foresaw by fleeing to Tarshish.
Speaker 1:Now he's getting honest, he's saying why he ran to Tarshish. Now, here you go. And then he's going to complain about some of the most beautiful attributes of God. And this is the part that's crazy. And it's crazy because he loves it when God applies these attributes to him, but he didn't love it when he applied it to other people. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love. Let's pause there for a moment because, just in case you're wondering, what is the characteristic of our God, our God is a compassionate God. He is slow to anger and he is abounding in love. Isn't that good news? That's the kind of God we serve.
Speaker 1:And then Jonah continues. He says a God who we lent some sin and calamity. Now, lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live. That's Jonah Again. I don't remember learning that in Sunday school. If you're going to let these evil people off, I don't even want to live. If you're going to let these evil people off, I don't even want to live. Can we just slow down for a minute and acknowledge there's a lot of drama here. There's a lot of drama, like really, jonah, like really. I mean, this is God and you're going to throw a fit on the miraculous thing that God did through you. Is this really what you're going to do? Now, here you go.
Speaker 1:It's easy to throw Jonah under the bus, though. It's easy to criticize Jonah and say, man, I can't believe he's like that. But remember what I told you in week one about the Ninevites. They were horrible people. They would harm women in horrific ways, they would murder children, they would take over an area, and they were known as the flay men. They were flay people, and we don't know for sure if Jonah's own family suffered at the hands of the Ninevites, but it was very possible. It was very possible. What we do know is that the Assyrians were violent and cruel, and Jonah lived during a time where their violence was very real, and so it's not hard to imagine that this pain was very personal to him and his resistance had deep roots.
Speaker 1:So we'll give him a little bit of credit, and we have to acknowledge, though, that Jonah, even though he didn't want to, did the will of God, even though he did it reluctantly, he still listened to God and had an obedient heart. That's important, but this shows us a principle. This shows us something it is possible to do the will of God without the heart of God. It is possible to do the will of God without the heart of God, and the problem that so many people in our world today have with the church is that people are doing the will of God but they're not having the heart of God. The heart of God is missing the compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love nature of Jesus. Followers aren't always there, but we have our Sunday services, we have our big buildings, we have our conferences, but we miss justice, we miss diversity and inclusion, we miss these things, and so so here it goes it's possible to do what, what God wants, but to do it with wrong attitudes or with wrong motives.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I go, okay, god, this is, I get this. Because sometimes I go, god, okay, I do, I'll do this because you told me to do it. But that doesn't mean I want to do it, that doesn't mean I want, I want to do it, and there's many different ways that this happens in our lives. We'll give. We'll say, okay, god, I'll give, but now I'm tight, now my budget's tight, god, you know I'll forgive, because I guess I'll forgive others because you forgave me, but I still remember everything they did. How many of you know it's possible to do the will of God without the heart of God? Jonah continues.
Speaker 1:Jonah had gone out and sat down at the place east of the city. That's very important. There he made himself a shelter, sat in the shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Where did he sit? He sat down east of the city and so he preached, went out of town and sat down east of the city. Where did he sit? He sat down east of the city and so he preached, went out of town and sat down east of the city.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that the Bible includes this very specific detail in our Bible study, because more than one time, more than one time in the Bible, we see that there is something about going east. There's something about going east. This is very important, okay, because when we look in scripture, anyone who travels east this is often a picture or represents moving towards exile or moving towards bondage, for example. I'll give you some. Because of Adam's sin, god sent Adam out of the garden to the east. Cain left the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. When Abram and Lot parted, lot chose to go east, to Sodom, with their backs towards the temple of the Lord. Men faced east and worshiped the sun.
Speaker 1:And so we see, what did Jonah do? What did the prophet Jonah do, who didn't obey God and then obey God with impure motives? He went east, symbolizing that he's probably not trusting God again, that he's probably not. He's turning his heart. And this gets personal. And when you look at it, jonah was the prophet and he claimed God. All throughout the scriptures you're going to see, he says this is my God, my Lord. He claimed God. All throughout the scriptures you're going to see, he says this is my God, my Lord, my God. He claimed God, but in this case he turned his back to God. God, I claim you in your ways. But once again he turns his back towards God, which shows us it's possible to claim God. Yet live with your back towards God, turn towards God. We can claim God, but not do what God's calling us to do. And I say this with a heavy heart.
Speaker 1:But it's not uncommon to see in the church today, to see people say Jesus saved me. Yes, he's my savior, but he's not my Lord. He's my savior, but he's not my Lord. He's my savior, that's good, but I don't really need to spend daily time with him. I mean, he saved me from the eternal damnation of hell and that kind of person doesn't deserve my daily time.
Speaker 1:Jesus says this. He says one day people are going to be like hey, didn't I do all these works in your name? Didn't I do all these things? Didn't I go to church, lord, Didn't I do all these good things? And Jesus says and Jesus says to me one of the scariest verses in the Bible. Jesus says yeah, you did, but I never knew you.
Speaker 1:So it is possible to claim God, but live our backs turned towards God. It's possible to do the will of God without the heart of God. And what are we noticing in these things is that Jesus is far more interested in the conditions of our hearts than our actions. Jesus is far more interested in intimacy with us, union with us, and out of that place we do his will, rather than let me do these things to try to earn God's love. And you can never earn a love that you can't earn, and that's grace, and that's grace. And so the good news. The good news is this If you feel like, if you feel like man, you claim God with your lips, but you live with your back towards him, the good news is this All you have to do is turn. You don't have to do a three-step program, you don't have to. You don't have to do all these different things. It's just turn and turn your heart back to Jesus.
Speaker 1:And here's the beautiful thing about spending daily time with God, the reason why I'm always talking about spending daily time with God because when I spend daily time with God every day, I'm turning my heart back to God Every day. God, here I am today, here. Take me today, god. Let me do your will today, because what you gave me yesterday won't do. I got to get something new today. I got to feel your presence today. I got to see you today, so I'm going to turn my heart to you today. And so that's the beautiful part. And the good news is because, when we turn, what do we discover? Oh, I love this. I love this Because when you turn your heart to God, when you spend daily time with God, what you begin to understand is that we serve a God who is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and that's his nature.
Speaker 1:And so every time I get up in his business, every time I get intimate with him, every time I get close to him, I understand that he has compassion for me, that he loves me. You're like love, jacob, that's just so soft Love. I know God loves me, but do you? But do you know that God loves you? Because if on the inside of you knowing deeper his love for you, and so here you go, so here you go. But Jonah, though, we pick on Jonah, we pick on the guy, but I understand him. And the reason why I understand him? Because I see a little bit of myself in him, because Jonah was being a baby and sometimes I act like a baby. How many people ever act like a baby before? Don't nudge the person next to you.
Speaker 1:That person's a big old baby, he's mad, he's uncomfortable, he's hot in the sun, and we're going to see the Lord provide for him a couple of things. Remember, the Lord already provided for him a big old fish, and we're going to see that the Lord provides a few more things. Check this out Jonah 4, sorry, verse 6. Then the Lord provided a leafy plant. This is very nice and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head, to ease his discomfort. And Jonah was what Very happy, Very happy about the plant. We serve a gracious God, and Jonah was what he was happy about the plant. So first God provided a fish to save Jonah, then God provided a plant to cover him and he was happy.
Speaker 1:And now, when he was happy again the Hebrew word here captures something a little bit deeper it's like a rejoice, greatly, it's like an exceedingly rejoicing. It's more than like you ever put your pants on and you fill your pocket and you pull out $20. You're like whoa snap, I didn't know I had that. It's more than that. It's like winning a lottery. Happy Like what I won, the lottery. I can't believe I'm going to Disney World. It's like that kind of happy. And so he's overjoyed, he's very happy. Why is he happy? Because God eased his discomfort, because God did something for him. He was happy because of that, not because of the people that turned to God, but because God did something for him, because it was still all about him.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no. Don't hear what I'm not saying. Don't hear what I'm not saying. God does want to do things for you. God does want to provide comfort for you. God does want to grow you and shape you and form you and mold you. But if your life is all about your comfort, your life will always feel a little bit short. It will always feel a little bit like ah, there's something more, but I'm comfortable. Well, cool.
Speaker 1:Most of the time, purpose and comfort don't go hand in hand. Most of the time, purpose and comfort don't go hand in hand. The American dream will tell you it will, but the gospel says differently. The gospel says I take up my cross. The gospel says I live from a place of surrender. The gospel says I'll go to the ends of the earth for my Jesus. Come on, am I preaching pretty good today? Some people are like no.
Speaker 1:Jonah loved receiving the provisions and the blessings from God, but you know what God was about to do? God wanted to teach him a lesson. Jesus is Savior, lord, and he's also known as good teacher. And God wants to promote us by allowing us to pass some tests. And he is about to give Jonah a little object lesson. And Jonah didn't like the object lesson. He's like some of us. Jonah wanted to skip the lessons and go straight to the blessings. That was good, all right. Okay, we don't want the hard stuff, we don't want the discipline, we don't want to be patient, that whole being conformed to the image of Christ. Blessed are those who are persecuted. Perseverance will finish the character that you need to be. I mean, all that stuff sounds good, but I don't really want to go through it. He didn't want that, but God was about to teach him a lesson.
Speaker 1:So what did God do? God provided a plant and Jonah started to get comfortable in the shade. And here's what I've noticed Every time you start to get a little bit comfortable is when God starts to stretch your faith. In the moment we start to get comfortable, god tends to teach us that we need more of him. Check this out. But at dawn the next day, god provided a bug which chewed the plant so it withered. I told you this one's weird. This is a weird one, guys. This is the living word of God. It gets weird. Then, when the sun rose, god provided a scorching east wind and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint and Jonah wanted to die and said it would be better for me to die than to live.
Speaker 1:Jonah's having another pity party Jonah's being drama king, jonah's being drama llama. But before we criticize him again, I just want to tell you right now I love that the Bible includes all these details about his emotions, because this guy is real. I mean this guy? I mean he's all over the place, isn't he? I mean he's up and he's down, he's disobeying God, but then he's worshiping God, he's praising God, then he's mad at God. He's all over the place. And I don't know about you, but I can be all over the place at times. In fact I love.
Speaker 1:Pastor Craig Rochelle did a message on this and he did a research about the personality type of Jonah, about the historic tendencies of Jonah, based on modern understanding of mental health, and he did this research on it and compared them and they found three possible root issues for his very complicated behavior and I want to show you these and you might see yourself in one, two, three. All of them. Check this out. Jonah's root issues Erratic mood swings, raging from courageous obedience to extreme dissatisfaction and anger, suggesting underlying frustration and the need to control things. Entitlement tendencies Can we get all the youth to come in here? I'm sorry. Entitlement tendencies Focus on his own views of justice and expecting God and others to operate within his perimeters, and then depressive symptoms manifesting through feelings of burnout, sadness, anger and hopelessness. I don't know about you guys and I might need the whole church to lay hands on me at the end of this message, but I can check yes to all those boxes, say yeah, yeah, I've been there. I've been there before. It's easy to criticize this guy's emotional tantrums, all the drama, and we get it. But I want to talk to those who are real enough to admit it.
Speaker 1:You might sometimes see yourself in that Sometimes you can obey God with great faith. In the next moment, not wanting to do anything with God, you could be in the presence of God, worshiping Him with passionate, authentic, heartfelt adoration, and the very next day, do a decision that you know you shouldn't be doing. I can be completely obedient to the promises of the Holy Spirit. God tells me to do something and I say, yes, I'm going to do it. God. And the next day, god tells me to do something and I say that probably was the devil, that wasn't God. Let me make an excuse. I hate the lessons, but I love the blessings. And what does God do? God provides the shade. The next day, god provides a bug. The bug eats the plant. So now Jonah is going. Okay, god, what's up? The sun is about to kill me. God, this is unbelievable. After all I've done for you, I risked my life, I preached to those evil people you told me to. I didn't even like them and I did it.
Speaker 1:How does Jonah end? How does this series end? There's no season five coming, it just ends. You ready for it? You ready for this ending? Because it stinks? It ends. It's the finale, it's the cliffhanger. God does get the last word. Here it goes, don't miss it.
Speaker 1:But God said to Jonah is it right for you to be angry about the plant? It is. Jonah said I'm so angry I wish I were dead. But the Lord said you have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals?
Speaker 1:The end, that's it. That's it. That's what we get. That's what we get at the end of the story. It's over. Let me just say it one more time because the plane landed. And also God's like bro, you see all them animals up in there, little pets, little birds, this, this is it, god. This is how you finish this story.
Speaker 1:I mean, did Jonah's heart change? Story? I mean, did Jonah's heart change? Did he submit to the things of God? Did he admit that he was wrong? Did he live? Did he die? If he died, how so Did the bug eat him? And so many animals? God says to him Jonah, if you're going to throw a fit over a plant and cry over a plant, but you won't cry over those people who don't know me. He said come on, jonah.
Speaker 1:And sadly, this is another way that many of us can be like Jonah, because the last thing that Jesus said before he ascended to heaven, he looked at his disciples and he said go. He said go, go, go out today. Go out and speak the name of Jesus, speak my name, go, baptize some people in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and to the ends of the earth, and I will be with you, because all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to me. He says go, go into the world. And I'm guilty of it too, because I know a lot of church folk. I know a lot of church folk. I know a lot of church folk that love Jesus but they won't cross the street to share the gospel. They're like okay, god you saved me, I'm glad you saved me, but I'm not going to pray, I'm not going to give, I'm not going to give, I'm not going to help, I'm not going to serve Because I'm happy to receive. And I told you, chapter 4 is rough, it's a tough one. A tough one. I want my will. But do I really want your will? When you look at the Lord's prayer? I love it. Do I really want your will? When you look at the Lord's prayer, I love Jesus says may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. You want to know what Jesus is saying there. God, I'm going to pray your agenda first. God, I'm going to pray your agenda first. I'm going to be about your business. I want to be about the Father's business and friends. When we spend daily time with God, we get about the Father's business and friends. When we spend daily time with God, we get about the Father's business. And when we get about the Father's business in our personal lives. There we begin to find freedom. There we begin to have the courage to take the steps that we want. There we begin to see that God wants to use my life to do something impactful. There it happens to do something impactful. There it happens. So the first week of the series, I said who's the main character of the book of Jonah? And it wasn't Jonah and it wasn't the big fish. The main character of the book of Jonah was God. It was God, because this is what I want you to see. Jonah had issues, just like me and you. To me, he sounded like an everyday person who's trying to figure out how to follow God. He had issues, like all of us. But you'll notice this Jonah's attitude never changed God's character, the way he acted, no matter what he did, no matter what he didn't do, no matter how he complained or how he rebelled, god was still God and God didn't change. Why? Because our God is always gracious, our God is always compassionate, he is slow to anger and he is abounding in love. And so who is our God? Our God is always gracious, he is a compassionate God. He's slow to get angry even when we disobey Him. And why? Why is he slow to get angry, because he's abounding, he's overflowing in His unconditional love, known as grace. In other words, love isn't just something he does, it's who he is, it is His very nature. It's who he is. Our God is gracious, our God is compassionate, our God is slow to anger and our God is abounding in love. And so why four weeks of Jonah? Well, it's amazing, because Jonah actually points us to Jesus in the New Testament and then Jesus points us back to Jonah in the Old Testament. We looked a couple weeks ago on Matthew 12. Remember, jesus said hey, just as Jonah went to the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, guess what? I will too. So the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights and check this out. And now Jesus says this and now something greater than Jonah is here. And what is greater than Jonah? His name is Jesus. He is the son of God, he is the perfect one, he is the lamb of God, he is the door through which we enter, he is the water which quenches our thirst, he is the alpha and the omega, he is the soon returning conquering king of all kings and he is the Lord of lords and he is greater than Jonah, because Jonah ran from God but Jesus surrendered to God. Jonah fought for his own will. Jesus said your will be done, not mine. Jonah couldn't stomach the sinners. Jesus ate with the sinners. Why? Because Jesus has the heart of God and our God is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and abounding in love. And so, for many of you, we might be like Jonah at a time. Sometimes we want to choose our own comfort over God's plan, and you maybe feel like I'm battling depression, just like Jonah. You may feel like I'm afraid and worried about what my next steps are. Just like Jonah, you may be even at a place you say is life really worth living? And I want to declare to you today I want you to hear it, I want you to hear it from heaven you are never alone. Our God will never leave you nor forsake you. And when you feel helpless with our God, you are never hopeless, because our God is for you, because the word of the Lord came back to Jonah a second time. We serve the God who calls us and then calls us back and back and back again. He annoyingly pops up on our phone with text messages Saying I'm still here. I'm here, I'm waiting for you. Because he's compassionate, because he's gracious, I want to say this one over you guys he's slow to anger, meaning you don't have to prove yourself to get his attention. He's abounding in love.
Speaker 1:That's our God, that's the God we serve. So, even when we disobey, even when we say I'm too tired today, god, even when getting up and trying to spend daily time with God seems more like a chore than a relationship, even when he's gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and he says I'm always here and look at all them animals. So, god, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you, lord, that you showed us through the book of Jonah even when we are faithless, you are always faithful. Even when we turn our backs or turn our hearts towards you, it doesn't change your posture towards us. God, we thank you that you are gracious. We thank you for your compassion. We thank you that you're slow to anger. We thank you, lord, that you overflow with love. We thank you, lord, that you overflow with love. So we say we want you, god, we want more of you, we want to do your will. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. I mean, I just really feel the Holy Spirit saying he wants to spend daily time with you. I feel like the Holy Spirit has said for you just give him your car ride to work. Give him that time. I don't know who that's for, but you feel like the Holy Spirit's saying that to you right now. He's. You're justifying how you don't have time. That's what it is the Holy Spirit's saying just give me, you don't have time. That's what it is the Holy Spirit is saying just give me your car ride to work. Come, holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. We love you, lord, we are not in a rush. That's why the Holy Spirit is saying it's not about behavior modification. You can't behave your way into a relationship with the Lord, and he doesn't even want you to. He just wants you. He just wants to know you. He wants to hear your heart.
Speaker 1:God, I think we feel like it sounds too easy sometimes, lord, that you just want us to love you and be loved by you. God, yeah, receive the Father's love. Jesus, we thank you. We thank you for this story of Jonah that reminds us that everyday, people can fall away from you, have hardships and struggles, yet you are always there with us and that you love us. So, god, we thank you for that love. We thank you for your goodness and we thank you for your favor. We love you in this place today, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let's give God some praise.