Remember the story of Jonah… other than the Moby Dick part? Here’s the basics…

God tells Jonah to go announce the destruction of Nineveh to the people of Nineveh. After much fighting, running and hiding… and Moby Dick, Jonah goes and announces the destruction of Nineveh to the people of Nineveh. THEN, the people of Nineveh repent, and God doesn’t destroy them.

Now… in modern church terms this means…

God calls Jonah to preach the Gospel. After much fighting, running and hiding… and probably no Moby Dick, Jonah goes and preaches the Gospel. THEN, he has a wonderful altar call and tons of people get saved and they don’t go to Hell.

So after this happens… this is what the Scripture says in Job 4. I’ll bold the stuff I really want you to pay attention to.

Jonah 4:1  But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.2  He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.3  “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”4  The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
5  Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.6So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.7  But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.

8  When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and 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.”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”10  Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.11  “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

After reading this I was reminded about how much we get bent out of shape over. We get upset when our congregations don’t worship they way we want them to. When they don’t shout, raise their hands or dance when we want them to. We also get upset when people complain about the new lights, media and sound systems. Those are things that we’re partial to. Things we like and appreciate… they’re our plant.

When you prioritize the plant over the salvation of people you’re missing the point. Plain and simple.

Sometimes, we’re like Jonah… and we want to plant a flag with, “I have good reason to be angry, even to the point of death.”

No you don’t.

Let’s make God’s priorities our priorities and let the rest be fun extras that we can live without and be content when they die.

Blessings!