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Would you please remain standing
as Doctor Brad Voyles from 

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coveted college reads God's word
for us? 

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Thank you. 
Please give attention now to the

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reading of God's holy inerrant 
word. 

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When God saw what they did, how 
they turn from their evil way, 

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God relented of the disaster 
that He had said He would do to 

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them, and He did not do it. 
But it displeased Jonah 

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exceedingly, and he was angry. 
And he prayed to the Lord and 

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said, Oh Lord, is not this what 
I said when I was yet in my 

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country? 
That is why I made haste to flee

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to Tarshis, for I knew that you 
are a gracious God and merciful,

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slow to anger, and abounding in 
steadfast love and relenting 

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from disaster. 
Therefore now, oh Lord, please 

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take my life for me, for it is 
better for me to die than to 

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live. 
And the Lord said, Do you do 

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well to be angry? 
This is the word of the Lord. 

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It is often said today that we 
live in an age of outrage and 

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our polarized and divided 
culture. 

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Anger has become one of the 
default ways that we respond to 

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the world around us. 
And let's be honest, there's 

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plenty to get angry about. 
And so we get angry about the 

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direction our country is headed 
in, Angry with the leaders that 

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let us down. 
We're angry with the church that

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we sometimes feel has lost her 
way, angry with people with whom

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we disagree, angry with the 
frustrations, difficulties and 

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disappointments and life. 
But we never stopped long enough

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to ask, How did we get this way?
Where does all of our collective

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anger come from? 
Author and essayist Tim Kreider 

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wrote about this in an article 
that he wrote in the New York 

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Times. 
I want you to listen to what he 

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said, he said. 
Outrage is a lot like other 

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things that feel good but 
overtime devour us from the 

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inside out. 
And it's even more insidious 

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than most vices because we don't
consciously acknowledge that 

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it's a pleasure. 
We prefer to think of it as a 

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disagreeable but fundamentally 
healthy and voluntary reaction 

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to negative stimuli thrust upon 
us in the world that we live in,

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like pain or nausea. 
Rather than admit that it's a 

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shameful kick, we eagerly 
indulge again and again. 

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OK, So what is he saying? 
He's saying that anger is much 

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more than a negative emotion, 
that deep down anger is actually

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a pleasure, a strange pleasure 
that we enjoy. 

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It makes us feel good. 
And I want you to listen to what

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Crider wrote next, he said. 
And as with all vices, vast and 

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lucrative industries are ready 
to supply the necessary 

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material. 
He wrote that back in 2009, just

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two years after the invention of
the iPhone. 

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And now, on the palm of our 
hand, Twitter and the almighty 

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algorithm is fueling our anger. 
Outrage has become a commodity. 

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Our anger has been monetized and
every one of us is paying the 

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price. 
So the question for us as 

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Christians living in an age of 
outrage is this is there such 

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thing as righteous anger? 
Can we actually be angry and not

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sin? 
And this morning as we jump back

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into the book of Jonah, what we 
will find is that not much has 

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changed in the history of the 
human heart. 

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God has mercy on Nineveh, and 
Jonah is angry about it. 

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He's angry at his enemies, He's 
angry at God, and he's angry at 

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grace. 
And so God asked Jonah a 

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question, and it's a question 
that is just as important for us

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today as it was back then. 
God asks, do you do well to be 

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angry? 
Do you do well to be angry? 

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In order for us to honestly 
answer that question, we first 

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have to see that underneath it, 
Jonah answers 3 fundamental 

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questions about anger. 
And what we'll find in Jonah's 

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story is that though our anger 
has the dangerous capacity to 

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consume us, the anger of God is 
not only righteous, but it also 

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redeems us. 
The first question the book of 

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Jonah answers is this. 
Where does our anger come from? 

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If you have a Bible, once you 
turn the book of Jonah, you can 

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turn there in your bulletin. 
If you don't have a Bible this 

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morning, invite you to take the 
Blue Pew Bible in front of you. 

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That's our gift to you. 
We're going to pick up where we 

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left off 2 weeks ago before our 
missions conference. 

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This is Jonah 3 verse 10. 
We're told that when God saw 

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what they did and how they turn 
from their evil way, God 

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relented of the disaster that He
had said He would do to them, 

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and He did not do it. 
Now, if you're new with us this 

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morning, we've been working our 
way through the book of Jonah, 

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and already we've seen some 
incredible things. 

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Jonah is one of the last 12 
books of the Old Testament, one 

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of the minor prophets. 
God called Jonah not to be a 

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prophet to his own people, 
Israel, but to his enemies, the 

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people of Nineveh. 
Jonah hated Nineveh and so he 

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refused. 
He refused God's command. 

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He rebelled against God and he 
tried to run from God. 

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But God out of his patient 
mercy, didn't let Jonah run 

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away, but he chased him down. 
He sent a storm and they sent a 

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really big fish to swallow him 
up and spit him up on dry lands 

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that he would then go and repent
and preach to Nineveh. 

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And amazingly, through Jonah's 
reluctant ministry, the people 

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of Nineveh repented. 
And what we see here in Jonah 

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310 is that God saw the 
repentance and he had mercy on 

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them. 
Now, Can you imagine what that 

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must have been like for Jonah, 
for any missionary? 

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He was sent out to a foreign 
country where they know they're 

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going to face hostility and to 
preach God's word and to see an 

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entire country repent and turn 
to God. 

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Wouldn't you be amazed? 
But Jonah's not amazed. 

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No, Jonah gets angry. 
Look with me, Jonah 4 verse one.

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But it displeased Jonah 
exceedingly. 

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And he was angry. 
Jonah has to be the only prophet

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in the Bible who was actually 
upset that his prophecy worked. 

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And here he is angry. 
What's he angry about? 

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Well, the book of Jonah tells us
at the beginning of Jonah 4/1 

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that God's mercy for Nineveh was
exceedingly displeasing to 

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Jonah. 
And in the original language in 

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the Hebrew, the word for this 
phrase, it displeased him 

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exceedingly. 
Literally is the word for 

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outrage or anger. 
What that means is that the 

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mercy of God for Nineveh had 
become an evil to Jonah. 

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Jonah saw God's grace as an 
evil. 

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And not only does it give us a 
window into the depths and the 

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darkness of Jonah's heart, but 
it also helps us to understand 

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where anger comes from. 
You see, anger has to do with 

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evil. 
Now don't misunderstand me. 

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I'm not saying anger is evil 
now. 

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In fact, I'm saying quite the 
opposite. 

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Anger is the right reaction to 
evil and sin that we see in the 

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world. 
Anger is a cry for justice. 

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And when we see evil in the 
world, when we see injustice, 

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when we see what sin has done to
God's creation, it should 

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rightly fill us with anger. 
And the clearest example we have

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of this is in the character of 
God himself. 

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From the very beginning of 
Scripture, we see that God in 

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his righteousness, his justice, 
pours out his anger on sin, on 

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injustice, on evil. 
It's one of his attributes. 

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But it's one of the attributes 
we don't really like to talk 

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about, do we? 
Because in our minds, we think 

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that God's anger in no way can 
be congruent with his love. 

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If God is love, we ask, well, 
how can he be angry? 

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And that prevailing question 
sits with so many of us today, 

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so much so that theologian 
Richard Niebor wrote at the 

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beginning of the 20th century 
that Christianity in America had

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become, quote, a God without 
wrath, who brought men without 

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sin and to Kingdom without 
judgment through the 

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ministrations of a Christ 
without a cross. 

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Do you hear the progression? 
When we remove God's anger, his 

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righteous anger for sin from 
him, then it removes his 

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judgment. 
And if it removes his judgment, 

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it removes any understanding of 
sin. 

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And if we have no concept for 
sin, that there is no reason for

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the cross of Christ. 
You see, love is not just the 

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central aspect of God's 
attribute in the heart of the 

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gospel, but so is his righteous 
anger. 

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And if that bothers you this 
morning, I want you to imagine 

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the alternative. 
You see, because God so loved 

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the world, He loves his 
creation. 

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He loves the people that he's 
made in his own image. 

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Then when he sees what sin has 
done to his creation, it should 

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fill him with anger. 
His anger flows from his love. 

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And if he didn't get angry about
sin and Satan and death, then it

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would make him apathetic. 
And our God is anything but 

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apathetic. 
Out of His love flows his anger,

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and the image of the Bible uses 
to describe the righteous anger 

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of God is the cup of his wrath. 
I'm going to give you an 

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example. 
This is Psalm 75, verse 8. 

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For in the hand of the Lord 
there is a cup with foaming wine

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well mixed, and he pours out 
from it, and all the wicked of 

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the earth shall drain it down to
the dregs. 

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God has prepared a cup of His 
wrath, His righteous anger for 

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every Sinner, because every 
Sinner has committed treason 

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against the king and his 
Kingdom. 

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That includes you and includes 
me. 

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There can be no salvation 
without His love. 

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There's no gospel without His 
wrath. 

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I think one of the reasons this 
is hard for us is because we 

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tend to make God in our own 
image rather than the other way 

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around. 
What we need to understand about

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anger is that our anger is not 
like his. 

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James says that this way. 
James chapter one verse 19, he 

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says no. 
Then my beloved brothers, let 

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every person be quick to hear, 
slow to speak, slow to anger and

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listen to this. 
For the anger of man does not 

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produce the righteousness of 
God. 

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God's anger is always righteous.
It's always right. 

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It's always just. 
And though we can be as human 

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beings, and in fact should be, 
righteously anger about the 

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fallen world that we live in, 
our anger is not like God's 

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anger. 
And this is because of one 

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simple and fundamental truth. 
We are not God, and every one of

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us stands under the exact same 
judgment that we might want to 

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hold over the world. 
And deep down, This is why Joan 

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is angry. 
He's angry because God is the 

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judge and he is not. 
So the second question that the 

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book of Jonah answers is well, 
and who are we angry with? 

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If anger has to do with justice,
then who are we angry with? 

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Look with me verse 2 and when 
Jonah prayed to the Lord and 

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said, O Lord, is this not what I
said when I was yet in my 

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country? 
Now for just a second time in 

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the book of Jonah, Jonah praise.
But I want you to notice his 

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second prayer is a far cry from 
his first. 

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His first prayer is a prayer of 
repentance. 

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Now in Jonah chapter 4, Jonah is
praying a prayer of anger. 

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It's a prayer of complaint. 
Well, who is he angry with? 

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Well, on the surface, Jonah is, 
of course. 

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He's angry with Nineveh, his 
enemies. 

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And if you know anything about 
Nineveh, as we've seen 

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throughout our study, is he had 
plenty of reason to be angry. 

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Jonah was violent or the people 
of Nineveh were violent, and 

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Jonah knew it. 
He knew it in his heart. 

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He witnessed it himself. 
Nineveh and their violence was 

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well documented. 
They were evil. 

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They mutilated their enemies and
put them to torture. 

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And so if anger is connected to 
injustice, Jonah certainly has a

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case. 
So the question we have to ask 

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is, well then why is Jonah's 
anger so wrong? 

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How does righteous anger turn 
into unrighteous anger? 

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Book of Ephesians chapter 4. 
Apostle Paul says be angry and 

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do not sin. 
Be angry to do not sin. 

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So how do we do that? 
How can we be angry and yet not 

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sin? 
Well, I think we usually ask 

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that question because we want to
justify our anger. 

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I think John Calvin helps us 
understand what Paul's getting 

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at. 
This is what he said. 

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He says we comply with this 
injunction if the objects of our

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anger are sought not in others, 
but in ourselves. 

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If we pour out our indignation 
against our own faults and with 

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respect to others, we ought to 
be angry not at their persons, 

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but at their faults. 
Nor are we be excited to anger 

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by private offenses, but by zeal
for the glory of the Lord. 

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What Calvin is saying is that 
though we can be angry for 

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righteous reasons, rightly angry
at sin and evil and injustice, 

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we never seem to subject 
ourselves to the same standard, 

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do we? 
We're so quick to be angry at 

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other people and their sin, and 
so slow to be angry at the sin 

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in our own hearts. 
And this was Jonah's problem. 

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His anger was not righteous. 
It was self-righteous, and more 

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often not. 
If you were like me, that is 

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what your anger looks like. 
We are prone to self-righteous 

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anger, angry at others while 
failing to see that we suffer 

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from the same sin that plagues 
them. 

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And though Jonah's anger at 
Nineveh's sin and evil may have 

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started for the sake of justice,
he refused to see his own sin a 

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rebel against God. 
And more than that, Jonah failed

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to realize that our battle is 
not against flesh and blood, but

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against the principalities and 
powers of the Kingdom of 

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darkness. 
And So what we need to 

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understand is that as we live in
this age of outrage in a broken 

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and fallen world, not only are 
we sinners too, but our battle 

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is not against people. 
Our battle is for people against

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the principalities and powers of
darkness. 

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And so here is Jonah with 
misplaced anger that even after 

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everything God had done for him,
he's angry not just at Nineveh, 

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but he's angry at God. 
Look with me. 

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The end of verse 2. 
Jonah says that's why I made 

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haste to flee to Tarshish, for I
knew that you were a gracious 

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God, merciful and slow to anger 
and abounding in steadfast love,

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relenting from disaster. 
See just how honest Jonas being 

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in this moment of weakness 
before the Lord, bringing his 

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anger to him, admitting that 
deep down he's not just angry at

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Nineveh, he's angry at God. 
And I think deep down, so many 

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of us fail to realize that so 
much of our anger is misplaced. 

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And deep down, our problem isn't
with other people. 

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Our problem was with God, and we
don't like what he's doing. 

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And Jonah is so angry at God 
that verse 3 tells us he wants 

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to die. 
He wants God to leave him alone,

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to leave him alone in his own 
self-righteous anger and to die.

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And that leads us to the third 
question. 

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The third question the book of 
Jonah answers for us. 

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What good does our anger 
actually do? 

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And out of his patient mercy, 
the mercy that Jonah refused to 

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show to Nineveh, God actually 
showed that patient mercy to 

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Jonah. 
And just like he didn't allow 

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him to run away, he didn't allow
Jonah to just be alone and die. 

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No, God meets him in his anger. 
And out of his grace and mercy 

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for Jonah, he asks him a 
question. 

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Do you do well to be angry? 
God is graciously confronting 

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Jonah's anger head on. 
It's as if he's asking, OK, 

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Jonah, you're angry. 
I get it. 

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How's that working for you? 
It's actually helping anything. 

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Do you do well to be angry? 
In other words, what good does 

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your anger actually do? 
Because this is the other 

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difference between our anger and
gods. 

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We might be rightly angry about 
the world around us, but our 

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anger can't even do anything 
about it. 

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Our anger is powerless, and that
makes us even more frustrated 

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and more angry. 
But you see, God's anger is 

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righteous not only because it's 
right and just, but God's anger 

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is righteous because it has the 
power to make every wrong right.

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Again, God's anger not only is 
good, God's anger does good. 

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God's anger is both righteous 
and it is redemptive. 

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And one of the questions that 
people often ask is, well, did 

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Jesus ever get angry? 
And the answer, of course, is 

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yes, Yes, he did. 
And as the Son of God, it was 

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always righteous, righteous 
anger. 

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And you might be thinking of, 
well, no, there was that one 

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time where he turned over the 
tables in the temple. 

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But actually, I think one of the
most profound displays of the 

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anger of Jesus found the Gospel 
of John in the death of Lazarus.

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John, 11, tells us that Jesus 
had a friend named Lazarus, and 

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he was friends with his sisters 
Mary and Martha. 

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His friend Lazarus got sick and 
he died. 

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And by the time Jesus made it to
Lazarus, he'd been dead in the 

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tomb for four days. 
And John tells us that when Mary

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came to where Jesus was and saw 
him, she fell at his feet, 

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saying, Lord, if you would have 
been here, my brother would have

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not have died. 
You can almost hear anger, 

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sadness and grief all mixed 
together. 

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And then we're told when Jesus 
saw her weeping and the Jews who

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had come with her also weeping, 
he was deeply moved in his 

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spirit and greatly troubled. 
Literally, in Greek, it says 

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that Jesus had become angry. 
He was angry that Lazarus died. 

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And then just a couple verses 
later, we're given what's 

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famously known as the shortest 
verse in the Bible. 

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Jesus wept. 
And more than a piece of Bible 

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00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:39,720
trivia, we're giving a window 
into the emotional heart of 

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Jesus. 
He was weeping angry tears. 

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And of course, if you know the 
story of Jesus, you should 

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immediately ask, well, why? 
He's already promised that he's 

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going to raise Lazarus from the 
dead. 

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He knows he's about to call 
Lazarus out of the tomb. 

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He knows that everything that 
he's about to do is so that 

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every one of us throughout time 
would see that He is the way, 

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the truth, and the life, that He
is our resurrection, that 

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00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:11,840
whoever believes in him should 
not perish but have life 

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forever. 
He knows what he's about to do. 

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So why is he angry? 
He's angry at sin and death. 

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And here in this moment, he 
focuses all of his righteous 

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00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:29,560
rage on death. 
And he tells Lazarus, come out. 

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00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:38,920
God's anger does good. 
In just a short time later, 

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Jesus will become emotional 
again. 

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00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:47,800
And in the Garden of Gethsemane 
he will be so deeply troubled 

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down to his soul that he will 
sweat drops of blood. 

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And there in the garden he will 
pray. 

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00:23:55,280 --> 00:24:01,120
Father, if it would be possible,
take this cup from me. 

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00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,840
What filled him with such agony?
The guard of Gethsemane. 

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00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,960
It wasn't the physical death 
that he was about to die on the 

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00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,800
cross. 
No, it was the cup, the very 

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same cup of wrath that we read 
throughout the pages of the Old 

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00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,800
Testament. 
Jesus knew that he was about to 

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00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:25,400
drink the cup of wrath so that 
you and I could drink the cup of

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00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:30,120
salvation. 
Jonah was filled with 

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00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:35,240
self-righteous anger, so much so
that he wanted to die. 

335
00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:40,040
But Jesus are true and greater. 
Jonah was so filled with 

336
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:45,520
righteous anger that he went to 
the cross to destroy our enemy 

337
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:53,000
of sin and death by drinking the
cup of wrath that belonged to 

338
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,520
you and me down to the dregs, so
we could drink the cup of His 

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00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:02,320
mercy forever and His Kingdom. 
Let's pray, Father in Heaven, as

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00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:10,600
we now come to the table, help 
us to see the drama of the 

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gospel put on display for us, 
that you've invited us now to 

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00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:19,800
drink the cup of salvation, 
because, your Son, drink the cup

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00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,560
of wrath for us. 
O Lord, may we be overwhelmed 

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00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:29,160
this morning with gratitude for 
the love and anger that have 

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00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,920
collided on the cross for us. 
We ask in Jesus name, Amen.