Leading The Way

Narrator: He is the pastor and author of more than 50 life-impacting books, including the recent culture-changing read, An Unholy Alliance. Here is Dr. Michael Youssef.

Dr. Michael Youssef: If you are not reconciled to the will of God in your life, I can tell you with assurance that nothing, nothing is going to make you happy. When you are not reconciled to the will of God in your life, the smallest disappointment, the least offense, the smallest unintentional mistake on the part of others is going to set you off.

Narrator: Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for a look beyond the children's story and into the real life of Jonah, what his life says to you in 2026. You see, Jonah was a real man, and he was called by God to preach real grace to real people of all generations.

Today, on Leading The Way, Dr. Youssef invites you into one of the greatest spiritual revivals in all of history. A revival touching lives of some of the most despised people of their time, beginning with a man running in disobedience from God, Jonah, who then gets partially digested in the belly of a great fish, and yet, ultimately, he obeys God's call. He declares the message of God's grace to the Ninevites.

But then, after watching God move and people of Nineveh turn to God, Jonah got angry at the grace extended to these evil people. So stand by now for a look at how we sometimes emulate Jonah. Listen with me to Dr. Michael Youssef and a very real Leading The Way audio.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Have you ever been angry with God for His mercy? No, I'm not talking about His mercy to you or His mercy to a loved one. We all love that. But I'm talking about your frustration with God when He shows mercy to somebody whom you consider to be a rascal, when He shows mercy on someone that you think that he ought to be strung by his ears in the public place. You know what I'm talking about.

But let me make a confession to you up front. And my confession to you is this. If I was writing my own biography like Jonah was writing his in this book, I would have stopped at chapter three. Ending at chapter three would have just made me look like, I mean, it would have presented me in the best light. Ending with chapter three would have proved that I'm a guy who always puts his best foot forward.

I mean, after all, the movies that we all love are the ones that always have a happy ending, right? Even in the business world, we say the best deal is when everybody wins, when it's a win-win deal. We like a happy ending. We like a fair deal. But why in the world did Jonah include chapter four in this book?

At the end of chapter three, he left us with the account of the greatest revival that is known in biblical history. And then he goes on to chapter four as if to say, "Now, let me show you my dark side. Now let me show you my shallowness. Let me show you my self-centeredness. Let me show you my selfishness. Let me show you my Achilles' heel. Let me show you my loveless heart."

Listen, there is not a PR firm in the world that would have allowed chapter four to be written. There is not a spin doctor worth his salt that would have included chapter four in the book of Jonah. There is not a ghostwriter worth his pay that would have included that part of a famous preacher's biography because we're into this thing that says, "Show them the good stuff. Show them my strength, show them the successes, show them the greatness of the man. Show them not your weakness, show them not your warts, show them not that you're sweating."

I'm sure somebody would have said to Jonah, "Jonah, if you're going to have to write chapter four, my friend, listen, just summarize it in the following manner. Just spin it to make it look good and say, 'Well, after three days of preaching all over Nineveh from one end to the other, I was so exhausted, and I said some things I'm not proud of.'" He would have said to him, "Man, just say that you were exhausted after all the energy that you expended traveling for three days preaching in Nineveh, that you just said few things that you didn't really mean." Just tell them that.

Every day, I am grateful to God the Holy Spirit, every single day, who moved the men and women of God to write the scripture. I am so thankful to Him every single day of my life that He did not take these men and women of God in the Bible and took them through a laundromat and cleaned them up and washed them off and then starched them and then wrapped them with some cellophane paper and then placed them on a pedestal and said, "Now you be like them."

That would have been frustrating to every one of us, certainly to me, I can tell you that. In fact, I am grateful to God the Holy Spirit that the account of the lives of the apostles were presented to us as they were, not as Supermen, but as men with all of their weaknesses. Oh, many times did I identify with Peter with the foot-and-mouth disease? How many times I used to identify with John and James, the Sons of Thunder? You know, that's how they got that nickname, Sons of Thunder.

Luke chapter nine, because what I'm going to tell you about them is really my interpretation, okay? Jesus sends them on to a city in Samaria, and He said, "Guys, the team and I are going to follow. You go over there and you get us hotel reservation, and we'll follow you in the next day." So what happens, they go into the hotel and they try to make reservation for Jesus and his team in Samaria, and what happened? They kicked them out of town. They said, "Get out of here. We're not going to let you stay in our town. We don't want anything to do with you."

And you know what happened? John, I mean, again, this is a rough translation, but you get it. I mean, he would have just went out on the corner and he waited for Jesus. Man, he couldn't wait for him to get here. And as soon as Jesus arrived, he said, "Now Jesus, before you do anything in this town, I want you to call heaven and bring fire and burn everybody in this town. Burn the miserable people." Rough translation, but you get it. Burn them, scorch them, turn them into ashes.

And Jesus says, "What?" "Yeah, burn them up. Get rid of them. They are bad people." But beloved, listen to me. Jesus had a different thing in mind for Samaria. He had a different thing in mind for the Samaritans. For Jonah himself, that same John writes in his gospel in chapter four and he said Jesus was tired and then he sat at the well and there a Samaritan woman came and had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then she testified into the city and she went and she told them about the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, the one who forgave her her sins, the one who loved her unconditionally. And the Bible said the whole city came out and they all believed in Jesus. See, that's what He had in mind. Salvation, not scorching of the city.

And that's why to me, it's really incredible when you think about it that that same apostle John who wrote more about love than any of the other apostles, the same Son of Thunder who wanted to call fire from heaven to burn the Samaritans, is the one who wrote more about love. Read his epistles than any of them.

Beloved, listen to me. What I'm going to tell you is really important and it's the truth. It's easy for me to pick and choose upon whom God should have mercy and upon whom He shouldn't. It's easy for me to decide who is a candidate for mercy and who's not. And I suspect that it's easy for you too.

I want you to hear me right on this one. The book of Jonah was not about Jonah. The book of Jonah is about the God of Jonah. The book of Jonah is about the God of mercy. The book of Jonah is about the God of grace. The book of Jonah is about the God who is totally sovereign, who is in total control, who is perfect in His knowledge, who is perfect in His wisdom, the God whose ways are different from our ways as far as the east from the west.

Poor Jonah. Poor Jonah. He cared more about the shading of that vine than the fact that tens of thousands of people were saved. Does that not break your heart? He was more happy with the vine and the shade than with salvation. Have you ever thought about this? I tell you through the years, I've always been amazed in what makes people happy and what really makes people angry. And when somebody said, "That makes you happy? Well, good for you. God bless you." I mean, it wouldn't make me happy at all. But if it makes you happy, that's fine.

"Well, that makes you angry? Well, it's really not even important. That makes you angry?" And the question for you is this. I hope you never rest until you answer the question to yourself. What makes you happy? What's really makes you happy? Are you more happy when you see people saved or when you only get your personal needs met? Are you more happy when you experience the desired change in your circumstances or when you see the unchanging God being glorified in somebody's life?

What makes you happy? What makes you happy can tell more about you, can tell more about me than anything else. Let me ask the same question a different way. What's your vine? What's your vine? We know what Jonah's vine was. It was the shade that helping him from the scorching heat of that part of the world. What is your vine? What's your focus? Is it the blessings or the Blesser? What's your vine?

Because we're so blessed right and left. And therefore, our greatest danger, our greatest danger is making our blessings to be the object of our worship instead of the Blesser. Jonah was more happy with the vine than the God of the vine.

And beloved, you know and I know there are so many professing Christians today who get so hung up on the minor issues of life, not the major ones. There are so many professing Christians today who get hung up on the things that are not necessary for salvation than the lost souls that are going to end up in a Christless eternity. There are so many professing Christians today who are hung up on style and not substance.

There are so many professing Christians today who are more happy with self-gratification than with gospel preaching. There are more professing Christians today who are more concerned about their likes and their dislikes in the church than reaching the lost and equipping the saints. There are so many professing Christians today who are so hung up on finding somebody who will agree with them than finding somebody who's going to rebuke them and exhort them to live in obedience.

No wonder Jesus said, "When the Son of God returns, will he find faith in the earth?" We are looking at the vine instead of the God of the vine. We're more interested in the shade that the vine is providing than serving the will of the God of the vine. We're more concerned about our comfort, our convenience, and our concerns than seeing lost people getting saved eternally.

And here's what normally happens. Listen to me. Please listen carefully. When you become so preoccupied with your vine and something happened to your vine, you're going to become filled with resentment at the loss of your vine, whatever your vine may be. And all vines are different. My vine is different from yours.

And when we become resentful at the loss of that vine, whatever it is for you, we become irrational. We become unproductive. We become touchy and be quick to take offense. And we become bitter and complainers. We wallow in self-pity and we develop a distorted picture of reality. Jonah became irrational over simply a loss of the shading of the vine. He became irrational. He wanted to die. You say, "Wait a minute. Die over the vine?" Well, ask yourself the question. What makes you irrational?

I know this is a fact of life, but when husbands and wife get into some altercation, most often over some silly thing. I don't know about your home, but at my home, it's always a silly thing. And I'll get into a hissy fit. And I thank God you don't see me in my hissy fits. I show up on Sunday morning, at least I'm looking righteous and holy and so forth, so you don't see the other side of me.

Over silly thing. When you think about it within a short period of time, you think about, "I was upset about that? I'm sorry." I was upset? Did I get ticked off about something so silly, so stupid, so not even important? But that's where Jonah was. That's where he was. He wanted to die. And you want to say to him, "Jonah, you should be ecstatic that tens of thousands of people were saved as a result of your proclamation.

Jonah, you should have been rejoicing, my friend. Jonah, you should have been praying to God to let you stay in Nineveh so you can disciple all these people. Jonah, you should have been on cloud nine now that you have fulfilled the purpose of God in your life. You should be singing your heart of praise and adoration and thanksgiving instead of wanting to die over a silly little vine."

Now beloved, let me tell you something. In case you think that I'm standing here judging and condemning Jonah, I really am not. I'm truthfully, I'm not condemning him at all. But you know why? Because there's a little Jonah in every one of us. We are discontented people instead of being the most contented people. We are so preoccupied with the blessings instead of the Blesser.

We are so ungrateful about the things that we don't have instead of being grateful for all the things that we have. Listen carefully, please. If you are not reconciled to the will of God in your life, I can tell you with assurance that nothing, nothing is going to make you happy. Nothing. You can own half of the world and you're still not happy.

When you are not reconciled to the will of God in your life, the smallest disappointment, the least offense, the smallest unintentional mistake on the part of others is going to set you off. It will set you off. And you'll be spending your life doing nothing but wallowing and murmuring and complaining and criticizing and feeling sorry for yourself and you never serve the purpose of God in your life.

And I want to cry because that is the greatest waste on the part of the children of the living God. Jesus did not die on the cross so that you can sit there and wallow about the loss of your vine. It's like the two guys who were playing golf and one of them was one of those people who are always complaining about something.

And he said to his friend, he said, "You know, one day I'm going to ask God why He allows poverty and injustice and unbelief when He could do something about it." And his friend said, "Well, why don't you?" He said, "Because I'm afraid that He may ask me the same question." That He may ask me the same question.

Hear me right on this one. It is easy to hide from the call of God upon your life. It's easy. You know that. It's easy to withdraw from the battlefield. It's easy to abandon your mission post. It is easy to be a deserter in the army of God. And the best place to do that is in the church pews.

Jonah was so consumed with anger at God's goodness on Nineveh that the slightest thing just ticked him off and threw him into a hissy fit. He was like a wounded bear. They tell me that a wounded bear lashes out at the slightest provocation, even if it was imaginary. You know, you cannot help, if you spend as much time studying Jonah like I have in the last few weeks, and you couldn't help but conclude that Jonah really was not a very happy guy. He really was not.

I think we see him happy once when he got that shade, the vine, over his head. I think that's the only time we see him happy. I mean, Jonah is so opinionated that if God doesn't do what he says to God to do, he's just not going to cooperate. It was not his idea, he's not for it. He was unhappy with his first commissioning. He was unhappy with the storm.

He was unhappy in the belly of the fish. He was unhappy with the second commissioning. He was unhappy when God showed mercy on Nineveh. He was unhappy when God responded to the Ninevites' repentance. Even when he obeyed, it was a reluctant obedience.

But you know what? That tells you more about God than Jonah. God was so glad to get obedience, reluctant or otherwise. That's our God. It tells you more about God than Jonah. It tells you about His mercy. It tells you about His patience. It tells you about His perseverance. It tell you that He honors the smallest amount of obedience even if it is reluctant obedience.

Reminds me of Peter. You know Peter, when the Lord Jesus gets in the boat and He said, "Peter, I know you've been fishing for a long time, but just throw the net on this side." You remember Peter's reaction? I mean, he said, "Lord, come on now. I'm a veteran fisherman. We fished up and down this lake. I mean, Lord, we know this lake like the back of our hands. And for goodness sake, whoever heard about fishing in the middle of the day?"

But because You said so. Reluctant obedience. And God honored it anyway. Because You said so. And then they got more fish than they could take into one boat. You've heard it said that blessed is he who expects nothing, for he is never going to be disappointed.

And yet with God, listen to me, with God, and if His word teach me anything, if it teaches you anything, it teach you to always expect God to bless obedience. It really does. Always expect God to make His infinite resources available to His willing and obedient children. Always expect God to fulfill His promises to His trusting children.

Always expect that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God. Always expect the knowledge of His glory will cover the earth as the water covers the sea. Always expect to work until no man would say to his neighbor, "Know the Lord," for he shall know Him from the least to the greatest. Always expect Him to help you elevate your vision to see things from His perspective and to see the fields that are ripe unto the harvest.

And all of that is possible because a greater than Jonah had come, taken our flesh, lived among us, borne our sin, suffered and died on a cross, and triumphantly rose again from the dead in order to accomplish salvation for everyone who would come to Him. For this salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which they must be saved, the name of Jesus.

Narrator: Can you relate to Jonah? Angry at God or maybe you're living in disobedience? Maybe you'd like to speak candidly with the Leading The Way pastor or counselor. We invite you to begin your conversation by filling out a contact form. Just go to ltw.org/jesus.

You know, it's amazing to realize that even through Jonah's disobedience, God brought grace and new life to a people considered unredeemable. We're so grateful that God is using Leading The Way to deliver grace to people and places that also appear to be unredeemable. For example, we received this story of life change from the heart of the Middle East, and it really brought encouragement to the Leading The Way team. Take a listen.

Guest (Female): I was an atheist who had lost faith in all religions until I listened and contacted your ministry. Your words struck me to the heart. Your team shared beautiful things about Christ. I felt something drawing me to Jesus.

When your team member invited me to receive Christ in my life, I was hesitant at first, but something compelled me to accept him. While praying the salvation prayer, I felt something strange yet beautiful coming over me, as if Jesus was standing right beside me. Your team member is working on getting me a copy of the Bible, and I am excited about starting a discipleship course to grow in truth.

Narrator: Isn't that exciting? Won't you stand with Dr. Youssef today so that others can also experience a personal encounter with Christ? Here's how you do that. Get in touch at ltw.org or pick up the phone and give us a call at 866-626-4356. That's ltw.org or 866-626-4356.

This program is furnished by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth.