It's Not Fair!

Jonah   •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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We always like to think we are right. A lot of times we think we are the

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you have probably seen a kid throw a tempeartantrum before.
and whenever you see a kid throw a tempertantrum they love to throw out the phrase (you have probably heard it before): “Its not fair”
and whats amazing is whenever a kid throws out that phrase “Its not fair”
probably 90% of the time you go yes it is!
But kids
It is completely fair!
But the reason children think that its unfair is because in their mind they think that they know whats fair and whats not
and ultimately they think they know it better then you.
Sometimes they might.
But whats crazy is we as adults sometimes like to throw out that phrase “Its not fair also.”
We get the speeding ticket and we go its not fair
We don’t get the promotion and we say “Its not fair”
a situation in our life doesn’t go the way we planned and we say “Its not fair”
And in these situations we are saying “its not fair” to a police officer or our boss
But have you ever said “Its not fair” to God?
Have you ever said “God this situation isn’t fair”
It may be you looking at your marriage and going God this isn’t fair
In some cases it may be because God has called you to do something and you don’t want to do it for some reason and you tell God this isn’t fair.
It may be you lost a child or a spouse and you say God this isn’t fair.
But there are times in our life where we look at our situation and we go up to God and tell Him “its not fair”
And we are going to be talking about this “Its not fair mentality today because it is really easy to catch ourselves with this attitude before God.
And really this is the attitude that we find Jonah in today for the last sermon of our series.
Because if you have been with us the past few weeks (and you should have this down by now) but if you don’t Jonah has ran from God, gets on a boat, gets caught in the storm because He was disobedient, eventually gets thrown overboard for not doing God’s will and then finds himself getting swallowed by a fish
He then repents and does what God has called Him to do which was to deliver this message to Ninevah for them to turn from their wicked ways
and whats amazing is Ninevah is receptive to this message and God ends up sparing Ninevah from His judgement.
And this is really where our story picks up today
So we will be in
and out of all of this Jonah really ends up in the passage we are in today with this attitude of “It isn’t fair”
and we are going to tie in Jonah’s situation to our own.
So once again turn to It says
(NIV)
Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion
4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 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. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
You know it is so interesting because in this passage Jonah delivers this message to Ninevah and the entire country responds.
and you know if this was us we would be going crazy.
Imagine if we gave a message of repentance to the entire United States of America and the entire country repented and turned to God
There would probably be a huge celebration.
But Jonah in this passage gets so upset he actually starts telling God off saying this is why I didn’t want to come here.
because I know that you are a gracious, compassionate God and were planning to spare this wicked nation that is deserving to be destroyed.
and Jonah is saying they deserve to
and we see Jonah with, like we talked about, this “Its not fair attitude”
because he wanted to be the judge of this nation
Jonah thought he knew better then God and because of that we see Jonah almost throw a little temper-tantrum
But you know occasionally we find ourselves in the same situation as Jonah where we think we know better then God.
and because of that we get frustrated with God.
and look what happens to Jonah, because Jonah disagrees with God and he actually gets out of Nineveh to go pout and really we can assume he is trying to get away from God and put up a road block between him and God.
But really Jonah here is trying to create these road blocks where he is far away from God
all because he is thinking Its not fair
But when we think we know better then God we try to do the same thing Jonah is doing here in this passage.
where we put up these sometimes intentional road blocks and sometimes roadblocks we didn’t even know we had because we want to be further away from God because what he did wasn’t fair.
Some of us may have set up roadblocks because God was asking us to do something and we said no way
Some of us may have set up road blocks because we ask God how could you allow something to happen
Why would God allow me to struggle with anxiety like this, or struggle with depression like this.
Why would God allow my child or my spouse to pass away like they did.
I don’t know all of your stories but we say “seriously God”
and these things begin to weigh us down where it is like we have this back pack we are carrying that is filled with rocks
and Jonah in this story his weight he is carrying is so heavy that in multiple places he tells God to end His life.
and you know when we have this type of weight we like to think the only way to get rid of it is by doing what Jonah does which is get away from God and build ourselves a little shack where we can hide out with all of our pain and weight and really hope that God may change his mind.
But whats neat here is that once again Jonah is in this shack but God comes out to him and pursues him.
because we see Jonah just miserable and God goes to teach him a lesson where He gets this vine to grow which provides shade for Jonah and the passage says that Jonah is so happy about this vine.
because
But then later God provides a warm to destroy the vine,
and we see Jonah so mad its says he wishes he was dead again.
and God goes do you really have a right to be upset about this vine?
And Jonah responds like a child where he goes “Yes I do! I am angry enough to die!”
And God tells Jonah you didn’t even do anything to even get this vine. You didn’t take care of it or care for it.
So how do you have the right to be upset what happened to it.
and there are really there are a few things we can get from this but really what I want you to get out of this is that God is the God of the universe.
He is the one that created all of this and he is a just God.
and we are not the ones who get to decide whats fair
and that is not easy to say because we like to be the ones who tell God what should be happening in our life but God is just.
and you know we live in a world corrupted by sin but God is still saying look I created this and I know what I am doing and I want you to trust me.
Which is a hard pill to swallow
But heres what makes the pill a little easier to swallow because God knows you, he knows your situation and He is going to keep pursing you.
because look at verse 11 (the last verse of this passage) because Jonah can’t swallow what God is telling Him
and God tells Jonah “look there are more then 120,000 people who do not know their right hand right hand from their left.”
basically these people don’t know right from wrong
but these are people that God created, these are people that God loves and cares for.
He recognizes that they are lost and is coming to pursue them.
and I don’t know if Jonah knows this or not but He is just as lost as these 120,000 people.
And I don’t know if you know this but at some point you were one of the 120,000 or maybe you are one of them.
where you are just lost
And maybe today you really are looking at your life and the different things going on and you just say “God this isn’t fair”
Maybe today is the day where you come before God and say I may not understand everything but I know you do.
Maybe today you can think of these prayer request you prayed and the awnser has been no or wait and you are unsure why.
and maybe because of all this you have this weight that you have been carrying around for a long time and today may be the day to instead of running away from God with these weight where you will get tired and exhausted with them
maybe today is the day that you finally come before God with what has been weighing you down and lay it at the foot of the alter.
And you will notice that there are rocks around in the center isle of the pews and I thought a neat way for us to end today would be simply by us just coming forward and laying these rocks or weights that have been holding us down far to long and laying them on the Alter \ as a way of saying “I am know longer going to be the one who says God “Its not fair” But I am going to trust God.
Because I really think there is something powerful about outwardly laying somthing at the foot of the alter, because it reflects really what our hearts are.
And what amazing is we have a God who when we come to him saying we have this weight that we have been holding onto He doesn’t say whats wrong with you but He loves you so much that He simply says give me the weight you are holding.
God wants to let you relaeas that weight this morning and so We will also be taking communion this morning and really communion is a great reminder of the love that Christ has for you.
So during this last song we are going to come forward and if you have a weight you have been holding onto I would invite you to grab one of the rocks and after you recieve communion just place the rock or that weight at the alter as a way of giving it to God.
Everyone is welcome to partake in communion as long as you have placed your trust in Christ.
But please come forward as we do this last song and we will recieve communion together as a body of Christ.
On the night before Jesusu was betrayed he was having a meal with his disciples and he said this is my body broken for you east this in remembrance of me.
The body of Christ broken for you eat in rembrance of him
Likewise when the supper was over He took the cup and said this is my blood of poured out to you and for many for the the forgiveness of your sin.
The blood of Christ shed for you drink in remembrance that He died for you.
Pray
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