Good morning Ontario. How are we all doing today? I hope and I trust that you all were warmly greeted this morning and it's good to be with all of you here this Sunday.
My name is Pastor Patrick Daley. I have the privilege to serve as the pastor here at Ontario Community Church.
Today we are concluding our series on the book of Jonah. We've had eight weeks of going through verse by verse, line by line, the book of Jonah.
And we have learned so much not only about Jonah, the prophet who ran off and he repented and was restored with God, but we learn so many other lessons within the Word of God.
You know, the Word of God is something that is so powerful. We should be encouraged to read, to study, to delve deep into the Word of God.
No matter how many times you read scripture, you will find, you will learn something, you will grow closer with the Lord and it's just a wonderful path to be on.
So what have we learned when we've gone over the story of Jonah? Well, we've learned about the prodigal prophet, right?
Jonah who ran from God. There was the storm that was cast. There was the speaking to the sailors. There was the captain's rebuke.
There was the swallowing of the great fish, the great fish swallowing Jonah and the time where Jonah prayed and repented.
And then what happened? He was vomited out to be fully restored and to go back on his mission to preach to the city of Minnabah.
Jonah was fully restored. We learn about the prodigal prophet. We learn about a sitting city and there's the repentance of the king and the people.
Remember, they wore saquah and they fasted and learned about the king, how he removed his robe.
He was laying down his power to submit to an even higher power and that is the God that we believe in. The name above all names.
We learn about the city being fully restored. We also learn about the captain and the king. If you remember, the captain rebuking Jonah,
where the captain is saying to Jonah, get up and call out to your God.
And it's so interesting about that point in the story where the captain is speaking to Jonah, but it's almost as though God is speaking through the captain to get through to Jonah.
We learn about the king who lays aside his power. These two individuals, the captain and the king, they use their power to command their people to call out to the Lord our God.
We learn about the intricacies of Scripture and we find this no matter how much we study the word of God. There's so much to learn and to study.
We find that Jonah and the great fish is a representation. There is a connection with the passion of the Christ and salvation for sinners.
How we get swallowed up by sin and how we need to repent to the Lord and how we get vomited out, if you will, being fully restored to God.
Just like how Christ died, right? Then he was buried for three days and on the third day Christ rose again.
We learn about the sailors and this is a very interesting, a very good point to learn that the sailors are converted despite Jonah's disobedience.
We see that there are these sailors who are caught in this storm and they don't have no idea what's going on.
But Jonah has to speak to these sailors and they learn about who Jonah is and the God that he believes in.
One of the underlying lessons there is that even though we may disobey God, at times God will still use us for his glory to bring people to him.
That's a wonderful lesson to learn. And then finally, like I said earlier, the captain, sometimes God speaks through others to get through to us, especially when we're disobeying.
Sometimes it could be through someone we interact with at the storm. Sometimes it can be a friend. Sometimes it can be a family member.
It can be so many, well, it really just depends on your situation. It depends on your circumstance.
There's so much that we can learn from this. And today we're going to go over the final chapter of Jonah.
We are going to learn about Jonah's anger and God's grace. We all have moments where we get angry. We all have moments where we get jealous.
Our God is faithful to us, though, and we're going to see this comparison between the anger that Jonah has because the city was saved.
We're going to compare that to our Lord, our God, whose compassion, who is gracious, who is merciful, who is slow to anger.
We're going to learn about the difference with that. So before we begin, let's pray together.
Father God, we thank you for allowing us to be here today as we are finishing our sermon series on the book of Jonah.
We thank you for your word. You have blessed us with your word, and we are honored that we can come together and sing praises for who you are.
That you are the everlasting God, that you, God, are higher than any other. Let us be together in love and in unity.
Let us hear the message from the word of God because, God, we are in awe of who you are, that you loved us first and foremost.
And as we read today, may we keep our own anger and bitterness in check. May we offer our anger to you.
May we realize that anger and jealousy, and sometimes it just comes from bad situations and circumstance.
But we know God, you are the God of restoration. You are the God of love and compassion. You're also the God of truth and justice.
Your love is beyond our understanding. You forgive us even when it's hard for us to forgive ourselves.
Teach us how to forgive. Teach us how to let go of our anger and our bitterness. Teach us to be like you. Teach us to love like you.
It is in you that we live, and it is in you that we love. Be with us this morning. It is in Jesus' name that we pray, and we all say together, Amen.
Isn't it interesting that we even have a fourth chapter of Jonah? Because when you really think about it, you're learning about the prophet who ran off.
There's the consequence, the storm, there's the captain, there's the sailors. There's the swallowing of Jonah, where Jonah is praying.
He's really thinking about what he did. He's repenting. Jonah gets restored and he goes to the city of Nineveh.
And what happens? The city is saved. The king is repenting of his sin and the city, they all wear sackcloth and they fast and the city is saved.
You would think that's the end of the story, right? It seems like a very nice progression there.
But we have a fourth chapter, and what's really great about it is that here we are seeing, we are going to read, we're going to learn about how God works with us,
despite our disobedience, despite our anger and our bitterness in our hearts, despite how we feel.
God is constant. God is, he doesn't change. He remains the same.
And God has a purpose for every word and every verse and every chapter in the Bible, no matter where you are at in your walk with the Lord.
If it is your first time learning about Jesus Christ, God has a plan for you.
If you have been a Christian your entire life, every word has purpose.
There's a reason for every part of the Bible. And let us never forget this.
The Bible is a library of books. It is many books. Yes, it's combined into one book we call the Bible.
But it is a collection of books that we have the privilege here to open our Bibles, to read from it.
I have the privilege here to preach from it. When not many places you can even have access to a Bible.
And so what I want us to do, my friends, I want us to open, we're going to go to the Book of Jonah.
It's going to be page 921 and page 922 as we finish our reading.
So it's page 921 in your ESV Pugh Bibles. If you're not using a Pugh Bible, that's okay.
You can use your phone or your own translation. It's Jonah chapter 4.
So I'm going to read. It says here, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly.
And he was happy. No, it says he was angry. And he prayed to Lord and he said,
Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish.
And I finally know why he left. For I knew that you are a gracious God. You are merciful.
You are slow to anger and abounding in a steadfast love and relenting from disaster.
Therefore now, oh Lord, please take my life for me for it is better for me to die than to live.
And the Lord said, Do you do well to be angry?
Strange question. God's asking if you think about it.
So Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city. He made a booth from himself there.
He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city.
Because he still wants to see Nine of the Destroyed Mind.
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. Well, it's the desert and it's hot, my friends.
So having a plant come over you and provide you shade is a wonderful thing.
So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
I don't know about you. If a plant grew and gave me shade, I'd be pretty amazed by that.
But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind. That's hot wind. Hot desert wind there.
And the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.
Have you ever heard of heat exhaustion? I'm sure we all have, right?
I'm thinking Jonah's getting some heat exhaustion there.
And he asked that he might die and said, it is better for me to die than to live.
But God said, do you do well to be angry for the plant?
And he said, yes, I do. Well, to be angry, angry enough to die.
And the Lord said, get this, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, you did not make it grow,
which came into a night and perished in a night, and should not I pity Nineveh, that great city,
which there are more than 120,000 people or persons who do not know their right hand from their left.
I love how he says that. They don't know right from wrong, right? They don't know their right hand from their left.
And also much cattle. I love sometimes the word of God has humor, because if you remember when the king had all the animals where sat cloth,
it's like God is recognizing efforts of the king there.
But there you have God saying, you pity the plant, should I not have compassion for the city of Nineveh?
So that is chapter four. This is what we're going over today.
So I want to ask you, this is your opening question. I want to ask you guys.
It's a fairly obvious question, right? Have you ever been jealous or angry at someone who did better than you?
You've been jealous of somebody before. I know I have. I'm sure that all of us at one time in our lives became jealous of someone.
Maybe there was a co-worker that you knew that got promoted, and you should have gotten the promotion.
Maybe there was that one student who somehow got 100% on their exam.
When you studied all night, and you got 82%, sometimes we feel jealous.
Sometimes we're like, why did they get the big break?
Sometimes we think of people who, we look at that one guy that has a much nicer car than you, and we're like, man, I wish I had that, right?
Sometimes it could be a Ford Mustang, or it could be a brand new Ford F-250 2023 model.
That's very specific, I know. But you get the idea though, right?
And when I was in high school, let's go to that next slide.
Being a teenager and being in high school, I used to get so jealous, and there were times I admit I got angry because I saw some of my peers, some of other students,
who had a much nicer car than this 1993 Ford Explorer. Now this isn't the exact model, but it's the same color, the same make and model.
And I had this car for six or seven years.
It was my first, my dad basically gave me a family car that was passed, a hand me down, right?
A hand me down car, and that was what I drove.
I mean, was it the nicest of cars? I mean, let's be honest here, it's a nice car, granted, I give it that, but it wasn't a brand new Ford Mustang,
or it wasn't a Camaro, or it wasn't, like I said, that Ford F-250, whatever.
It wasn't any of those vehicles.
And despite me being jealous, I had my moments. I mean, let's be honest here, we all have our moments.
I had to be reminded by my own parents that I need to be grateful for what I have.
Okay? Is this considered a clunker? Remember Cashford Clunkers?
Some people would say, yes, I know we can have a difference of opinion here, but the thing is, that's what I have.
And I had to learn to be grateful for what my parents did for me.
Yeah, I didn't own the newest car, and I still don't own the newest car. And that's okay though.
Like I said, I had it for about six years, and you know the funny thing about this car?
I miss it. I actually miss this car after all the, after the six and a half, seven years I had it.
But the idea though is that many of us, we get jealous, we get angry at times.
These emotions, it's part of human nature. It's not the feeling of anger, my friends, it's what we do with the anger, right?
Because some people they get angry, and they feel that emotion rightfully so.
But are you going to, you know, go slash someone's tire? Are you going to go do some, you're going to go sin basically?
No, you shouldn't. You shouldn't go in. So it's natural to have that anger or that jealousy, but it's what you do with it.
And I want us to think of a time, maybe think of a time where you felt jealous before.
Maybe think of a time where you felt angry. Because here's the thing.
We're going to learn Jonah was displeased with God.
He was angry. He was full of anger. And I think it's very interesting because you have two words that are describing Jonah's emotion.
So it says that Jonah's angry, right? So the Hebrew there, it's to burn, right? You're burning with anger.
You're so angry, right? Or to kindle like the flame of anger, if you will.
But in scripture, it says, I'm going to turn right there, in page 921, it says in there, if you want to turn there, it's just very interesting.
It displeased Jonah, and he was angry, right? So he was angry, and he had the flame of anger, right? He had that rage, if you will.
But displeased is a very interesting word. And I did some research on the Hebrew on this, and I found it very interesting.
That word displeased was Jonah actually felt that it was evil for God to save the city.
Imagine being so consumed with anger that you think that someone being saved, or a city being forgiven, that you think that's evil.
And that's the depth of anger that Jonah had for the city of Nineveh.
Did what Nineveh do, was that right for them to be violent and for them to be a sinful city? No.
What the city did was wrong. And I can understand how Jonah could feel angry.
It's much like how we get angry when we read about legislation that's ungodly, or we hear about bills that are passing, right?
That may not go with our beliefs, or it may go contrary to scripture.
Do you feel happy when it gets passed? Absolutely not.
So I can understand why Jonah felt that way.
When your heart is full of anger towards someone, a city, a people group, a nation, whoever, it is very easy to get consumed by that anger.
There comes a point, and in this case for Jonah, seeing something nice as evil, that you're being blinded by that anger.
And it's just, it's crazy to think how much anger Jonah had.
It seems that when you hear of a city repenting and turning to the Lord, I hope that each and every one of us, if we hear about a city of 120,000 people turning to the Lord, we would be happy for that.
Not angry with it. I just can't imagine the level of the depth of anger.
Yes, Nineveh was a sinful city, a wicked city, and as it says in Jonah 1, they did wrong in the sight of God.
They did wrong to God's people. Nobody wants to hear of your people getting persecuted, getting hurt by cities or nations.
Nobody wants to hear about that. So certainly, I can understand the anger, but it's him being consumed by that anger.
That's where we see that. It's like, Jonah, you don't get it.
So the word goes on to say that Jonah prays the Lord, and it says in here, I love when it says, oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?
That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish.
The word said, he's basically saying, this is why I ran off, because I know you're a forgiving God, because I want to continue to be angry, and I'm going to run off, because I know that if I don't preach this city, it's not going to be saved, because I'm angry.
That's pretty much the mindset that Jonah has.
He knew that God is gracious. He knew that God is merciful. He knew that God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
And that fifth point on there, relenting of disaster.
Well, what disaster is God relenting of? The city's destruction. The city being overthrown.
These are part of the attributes of God, part of the qualities of the God, of God that we believe in.
So there's gracious.
Gracious means compassionate and loving. Do we realize that our God is gracious?
That he hears our prayers, that he is a kind God, that he, and it's all interconnected.
God is merciful. He is forgiving. He is understanding.
The fact that God forgives us of our sins when we repent of him is incredible.
How often do we forgive people when they repent to us, when they say we're sorry?
Sometimes we hang on to that anger, and you shouldn't have done that. You really hurt me.
But God's forgiveness, he wipes the slate clean. He forgives us.
Slow to anger. I always love when scripture says that God is slow to anger.
I mean, it's pretty obvious when you're reading that, that God is slow to anger, right?
But it means that God is patient.
Now, let us be reminded that there comes a point where God is no longer patient, right?
We know that God is slow to anger. Does that mean God never gets angry?
So, I just want to remind us here when we're reading this.
Abounding instead fast love. Our God is loyal.
He has that everlasting love and relenting from disaster.
Willing. He released what was going to happen to the city of Nineveh.
And I'd like to put this next slide on here.
It's in your notes. It looks very complicated, I admit.
It's really not, though.
You'll find a pattern in the Hebrew about God being gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding instead fast love in these other passages.
Let me read some of them for you.
Exodus 34.6.
The Lord, the Lord a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding instead fast love. Doesn't that sound familiar?
Numbers 14, 18. The Lord is slow to anger and abounding instead fast love. It's the same word in Hebrew.
Nehemiah is saying, you God are ready to forgive. You're gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abounding instead fast love.
It's the same Hebrew. Psalm 86. You God are a merciful God. You're gracious, slow to anger, abounding instead fast love. You're faithful God.
The whole point of why this is in here is to show, I find it so interesting that these words are intertwined in the word of God for describing who God is.
By all means, when you get home today, we're not going to study all of these verses. I encourage you to open the word of God and see that if you want to even go further and look at the Hebrew, by all means, you'll see that there's a pattern there.
It's the same attribute of God.
You'll see that, okay, ex-this, the Amaya, the Psalm passages in Jonah, in Nahum. That's a strange book of the Bible for the attribute of God, the character of God being slow to anger.
It's important for us as Christians, we, when we read our Bible, we should be encouraged and inspired to know that the hand of God was in the writings, in the creation of every word and every book in the Bible.
This should help us. This should help us with our faith to see that God did divinely inspire, that God is in the word of God.
It's a reminder for us that God, how powerful God is and how good God is.
So moving forward, we can see that the next part that Jonah is consumed by his anger and Jonah is asking for God to take his life.
Sometimes we get so upset and angry and sometimes we get so overwhelmed by what life is throwing at us that we just wish that Jesus Christ would come sooner.
Amen. I know there are times where it's like, man, I just want God to come back. I want Jesus Christ to come back yesterday.
I know that happens and Jonah is unique because he is so full of that anger he would rather die than live.
If you've ever had that much anger, come to the Lord. Please, to live with that much anger in your heart, that's no way to live.
There are two stories that are similar to what's happening in Jonah. This isn't necessarily in your notes, but you'll find that Job and Elijah, they do ask for the Lord to take their lives.
And it's for Job, it's because of losing everything. So it's just a lot of it has to do with loss.
We find that, we find that Jonah wants his life taken because Nineveh is saved. And I find it interesting.
What is the question that God asks in verse four? Do you do well to be angry?
That's a weird question to ask and it's kind of like, I looked at some other translations because I was really like, that's such a strange thing to ask.
He's kind of like, it's like God's asking, why are you angry Jonah? This city has been saved. Why in the world are you angry?
And it's like when we're reading that we're like, why is Jonah angry?
He's like, God's kind of like, is it really necessary to be angry at this time? Look at the city be repenting.
So Jonah, he goes out of the city and he makes a booth for himself. What we're going to find here is that God is going to use the word point.
God appoints a plant. Now this plant is considered to be a vine, a board, if you will.
It's interesting that the plants provided shade to provide comfort to Jonah.
I mean, look, when we're out in summer and we, let's say you're driving in your car and you don't have AC, or you're working, or even you're walking in the hot sun, right?
It's nice to be under a tree, isn't it? I mean, what is that? Like a 20 degree difference when you're in, at least a 20 degree difference when you're in the shade.
So if you're out in the desert sun and you see that a plant is coming over you, I mean, I'd be pretty amazed by that.
I'd be like, this is faster than a bamboo, which is considered to be like the fastest plant ever. That's a great thing.
It says that Jonah was glad because of the plant. Well, I'd be pretty glad if that happened too.
The plant doesn't stay though, because it says that God, what he appointed a worm.
He appointed a worm that attacked the plant and it withered. That's very unfortunate.
If you just see this amazing plant, let's just say a tree, if you see an amazing tree come up giving you shade and it dies the next day, you'd be kind of sad for the plant.
You're like, this is an amazing tree. It's giving me shade and now it's gone, right?
Like you've ever grown plants before and something bad happens to your crop or your tomatoes or even if you're growing some flowers.
We don't like it when our plants die. It could be a tree. It's kind of a, it can be frustrating. It can be sad.
Not only did the plant die, but get this, plant comes, next day the plant dies and then what happens?
The scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so he was faint. Terrible timing right there.
I mean, given the wind had come when the plant was already giving shade, but that's not what God's going for here.
God's actually trying to prove a point to Jonah. It's interesting in your notes when you see the, actually let's go back to that previous slide.
God makes appointments. Now not like, I guess it's like calendar appointments, but he is appointing the great fish in Jonah 117.
He appoints the plants, the worm and the scorching east wind. Now what's interesting, now we can go to that next slide.
East wind, what's very interesting is that language only appears a few times in scripture where it's talking about, yes, wind from the east,
but it also has to do with God divinely moving in that moment. So when it's talking about the east wind in the context of Jonah, something's happening here.
God's working behind the scenes. That's one of the cool things about our God is he works behind the scenes.
We don't always see God actively working in our lives, but he does. One of my favorite verses is from the book of Habakkuk.
It's in Habakkuk 1.5 that basically says, you wouldn't believe, I'm paraphrasing here, if you knew what was happening behind the scenes, you wouldn't believe it.
And then he goes on and reveals how he's working behind the scenes. It's amazing.
The point is here, going back to the east wind, is that God is moving.
So Jonah was dealing with the heat, much like how we deal with, have to make sure that we drink water, right?
Make sure you drink plenty of water as a reminder with the hot sun, especially if you're working out in the sun.
It's dealing with that heat. I mean, Jonah didn't have air conditioning, my friends.
I can't imagine living life without air conditioning, just a modern luxury that we have and we're blessed to have air conditioning.
So having a plant to shade him was incredible. Losing the plant was devastating.
And Jonah asks for his life to be taken again because he lost this plant, right? It goes in there.
Let's see, it says, God appointed the scorching east wind, the sun beat down on the head of Jonah, he was faint, and he asked that he might die again.
That's some pretty terrible weather conditions, you know?
It's better for me to die than to live, but then God said, do you well to be angry for the plant?
So it's the same question that God's asking, why are you angry Jonah? It's just a plant.
And then Jonah's going on saying, like, yeah, it's good for me to die. Like, yeah, he says right here, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.
Imagine being so angry that you just wish to die. I mean, that's what it's saying in the Word of God here.
Then it goes on to say in verse 10, you pity the plants, right?
God's saying, you are sad for the plant, but you didn't make the plants. Who made the plants? God made the plants.
You didn't create it, you didn't make it grow. I mean, what's so interesting when we have our plants, when we're watering them, we're not making it grow.
Like, like really think about that. We're not the one that's, alright plant, okay, you need to grow a couple inches here.
I'm going to come back here. No, you have to have faith in a way for that plant to grow.
Sure, you water it, give it sunlight, but at the end of the day, you're not the one that's making it grow.
Like, that's what God's saying here. You didn't make it grow. This plant grew and it withered away.
So, who made the plant? Who made it wither away?
Well, we know that God appointed the worm, just like how God appointed the great fish, just like how God appointed the east winds.
We can see that as humans. Look, we love our things in our lives. I'm not talking about idols, I'm not talking about how sometimes we get overly consumed with the things that we have in life,
but we love our things, right? We love our friends, our families, we love our video games, right? We love our cars. We love the things that we have.
If something happens to those things though, like I have a watch here that I bought about two years ago, okay?
It's one of those ticking watch, that doesn't explain it. It's basically like a skeleton watch. You see like the inner workings of it, right?
You know what I mean when I say that? If it broke, I would be really sad. I really like this watch. I don't idolize this watch, but I like it.
I wear it all the time. It's great to have. When things that we have break, we don't like when that happens.
So, what is God showing? Jonah here. You love that plant, but you didn't make that plant. I did.
If something bad happens to things, it does affect us. And we find that God shows in his word, God is showing the capacity, God's capacity to love his people.
It's far greater than Jonah's. We're talking about how Jonah loves his plant, but how much greater is God's love for the city of Nineveh
than the capacity God being so consumed in his anger that he still, he still has some capacity to love. He loves the plant.
How much greater is God's love for the city of Nineveh? How much greater is God's love for us today here in 2023?
How much greater is God's love for you and for me and for our families?
That is a connection that we can see. It's how powerful God is. We know that God created the heavens and the earth, or we should know at least.
God created the animals and the human beings. We learn about how God appointed the fish. We learn about how God intervenes at times.
We learn that God is sovereign and he purposely at times appoints things to get through to us. Notice how God continues to work with Jonah patiently.
Don't you get like, you're kind of wondering, Jonah, when are you ever going to get it? You ran off from God. You dealt with the storm.
You got rebuked by the captain. You basically got yelled at by the captain. You had to speak to these sailors who were wondering what the world is going on.
You have to tell them who you are and what you believe in. You get thrown off of the boat. You get swallowed by the fish for three days and three nights.
You repent to God. You get vomited out of the fish. Oh, that's pretty crazy. Just thinking of all that there.
You get vomited back out onto the land. You go to the city of Nineveh. You preach to Nineveh. You see 120,000 people being saved.
The king repenting, the people repenting, coming to the Lord and you're still angry.
Wait, come on. You think that Jonah would have gotten it by now. I mean, just seeing a storm just coming up from God hurling the storm, that's pretty incredible.
And it's like, at what point, Jonah, are you going to get it? It's kind of like you'd get a little frustrated at Jonah.
It's kind of like, Jonah, come on. You've seen all the, you've seen God work in all of this capacity, but yet God is still patient with Jonah to the degree that he is showing a plant.
That's the thing that gets through to him. That's the thing. A plant. A plant growing over and providing him shade is the thing that gets through to Jonah.
Like, I'm sorry. I'm kind of shocked by that. I would have thought one of those things would have gone through to me. I don't know what, at what point it would have gotten through to you.
But a plant, come on now. We can see that God is patient, that God is kind. He ran from God. He just didn't get it.
And I know for me, personally, I think of how that's how God works in our lives, though. That God is gracious. That God is merciful.
That God is slow to anger. That God relents of disaster. We may be quick to judge Jonah for his shortcomings.
I tend to think that that's the point of Jonah. You're kind of like, come on, dude, you didn't get it. Get it together.
But I really tend to think that's the point, though. That when you read that, it's showing how patient God is with us.
And even though we sin, even though we fall short, God wants us to turn back to him, despite our shortcomings, despite how frustrating it may seem to be, despite how quick we're like, Jonah, come on, dude.
Despite how much that happens, it goes to show that God's love is greater. We all fall short. But we believe in a God. We believe in the God who is good to us.
God shows his power, his might, his holiness. God keeps his promises and his love never fails us.
This should be encouragement for us to come to the Lord. And for those of us who might have been distant from God.
Maybe you're struggling with anger. Perhaps it's time to get it and to turn to the Lord and return to the Lord.
This is our God. Our God desires for us to come to know him, to have that relationship with him.
God wants us to know him and to grow with him. This is the framework and encouragement for our faith.
May we be encouraged to love God and to love his people. May we be equipped in going deeper in the Word of God.
May we grow in our faith, not just be on milk like children are. I love how that verse is saying, going to solid food instead of milk.
Literally think of that for a second here. Could you imagine drinking from a bottle as someone 45 years old or however old you are?
I don't think so. I'm sorry. I'm not drinking from a bottle. I like solid food, okay?
I mean, I guess that's the modern equivalent, right? The sippy cup, right?
But the thing is though, we should be encouraged to go deeper in the Word of God to grow in our faith.
And may we engage our community for Christ. And as our final question, our closing question here.
How can we come to Christ? How can we grow in Christ and exhibit Christ like behavior to those around us?
As we wrap up this series of Jonah, may we learn and may we take away today that God is patient with us.
God is gracious with us, that God is slow to anger, that he abounds instead fast love.
And as we've learned in Jonah, he relents of disaster. Let's pray.
Father God, as we close our time here in this sermon series of Jonah, we are in awe of who you are.
Your grace is enough for us. Your love is everlasting to everlasting. Your love never fails us.
May we come to know you. May we make that decision to have Jesus Christ at the center of our lives.
And through coming to know you, may we grow in faith. May we go from being children in the faith as it were, to mature in the faith.
May we be encouraged to love you and to love others. May we be equipped in our faith. And may we engage the community in your holy name.
Today, God, we learn about how we as humans, we tend to get angry, we tend to get frustrated, and we just don't get it at times.
But you, God, you are gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
May we be more like you, follow in your footsteps and never be afraid of you and your word.
We love you so much, God, and we thank you for allowing us to come here today to praise you, to worship you, to hear the word of God.
May we go out from this place today encouraged and empowered to engage the community.
I pray that everyone comes to know you, grow in you, and go in your name. It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.