Successful and Still Not Happy
Our heart is not with things. Our heart is with people. - Rev. James Meeks
Jonah 4:1-11 KJV
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
We all want to be successful. We think success is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
What do you do when you get everything you thought you wanted, and you still aren’t happy?
By the world’s standards, you’re a success.
Happiness, peace, and joy are a matter of the condition of your heart, not your bank account.
Proverbs 17:22 (KJV) says “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: But a broken spirit drieth the bones.”
If you aren’t happy in your soul with what you have, getting more won’t make you happier.
The Bible has a lot to say about the heart.
Luke 6:45 says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
Psalm 24 says those with a clean hand and a pure heart may stand in God’s presence.
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)
Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
If your heart is pure, you’ll see God working on your behalf.
If the story of Jonah had ended at Jonah 3:10, he would have gone down in history as the greatest preacher of all time. He preached one sermon of just eight words, and hundreds of thousands of people repented. Even the animals got saved.
God included Jonah 4 to let us know that Jonah had a heart problem. It shows that success doesn’t mean that you will be happy.
Chapter four starts by saying Jonah was exceedingly displeased and very angry.
He knew God was kind and merciful and would save the Ninevites. That’s why he ran from God in chapter one.
We are successful yet unhappy because we are selfish
Jonah is so selfish that every time he doesn’t get his way, he wants to die. (Jonah 1:12, Jonah 4:3)
We think everything should go our way.
People manipulate other people to get their way.
Jonah didn't really want to die. He could have stayed quiet in the fish’s belly, instead, he prayed. He was trying to manipulate God.
No matter what you accomplish or what God lets you have, you’ll never be happy.
We are successful yet unhappy because we fail to have compassion
Jonah prayed perhaps the best prayer in the Bible. He asked God for mercy and received it, but now he's upset that somebody else received God’s mercy.
He sat outside the city hoping the Ninevites would be judged.
We think God is supposed to save us, but at the same time, it bothers us when other people don't get what they deserve.
If in our hearts we don't want God to have compassion for other people, it doesn't matter how successful we are. If we don't have room in our hearts to celebrate others, there will be no room to celebrate our own success.
As believers, we should love people because God does.
We don't know how Jonah answers God’s question in verse 11. That's because God wants us to answer it…
Do we love things or do we love people?
Reflection Questions
Here are three reflection questions based on the sermon:
In what areas of your life have you prioritized success over the condition of your heart?
How do you respond when others receive blessings or mercy that you feel they don’t deserve?
What steps can you take this week to shift your focus from material success to loving and serving others with a pure heart?