In the book of Jonah, we have a tale of two hearts. We can see God’s heart of compassion for Nineveh. We can also see Jonah has no heart for Nineveh. What is the problem here? Jonah knows the Lord. Jonah knows His voice. Jonah operated in the prophetic, so he is spiritually gifted. Jonah is not a big time sinner. Yet with all of those spiritual credentials, Jonah has no heart for Nineveh. His heart was not tuned into the heart of God. So, what does the Lord do? He confronts Jonah with a situation that shows him how out of tune he is.

• A Christian life that is faltering is a life not tuned into God’s heart.
• We see pictures of God’s heart in the Bible.

God’s Heart in the Story of Jonah

Jonah 1:1–2 (ESV)
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

• You know the story of Jonah and the great fish. (Jonah 1:17)
• How Jonah was directed by the Lord to go to Nineveh with a message of repentance.
• Do you remember how that Jonah ran from that assignment?
• He tried to get away from God’s presence by going to Tarshish. (Jonah 1:3)
• That plan did not work, Jonah was out of the will of God and trouble arose (Jonah 1:4).
• Trouble always arises when you are out of place.

One gentleman  said, if you are out of your place, you are out of your grace and you will fall on your face .¹

• Jonah ended up falling on his face into the sea where the great fish swallowed him up.
• You know something about sloshing around in a fish’s belly brought Jonah to his senses and he prayed and cried unto God for deliverance (Jonah 2:1-3).
• After he cried to God from the belly of the fish, God commanded the fish to vomit him up (Jonah 2:10).
• And then the Lord reissued the directive to go to Nineveh with God’s message a second time (Jonah 3:1-2).
• Nineveh repented and God did also (Jonah 3:10).

Jonah 3:10 (KJV)
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

• God saw their works.
• The whole nation from the king on down answered the altar call.
• What preacher wouldn’t want that?
• But this repentance from Nineveh displeased Jonah.
• He was angry.
• He didn’t want Nineveh to be saved: he wanted them to be destroyed (Jonah 4:1-2).

Jonah 4:1–2 (KJV)
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2 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.

• Jonah leaves the city, going to the outskirts and sits to see what will happen to the city (Jonah 4:5).
• Maybe, Jonah was waiting for God to change His mind and destroy this bunch anyway.
• The Lord teaches Jonah supernaturally causing a plant to grow over his head and give him shade (Jonah 4:6).
• The next day the Lord sends a worm to destroy the plant (Jonah 4:7).
• Jonah was furious over this development.
• He became angry that the plant died, angry to the point of death (Jonah 4:9).
• That’s pretty angry!
• To which God responds with these words.

Jonah 4:10–11 (ESV)
10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

DEFINTION: pity in Hebrew means to look compassionately on.

• Here we have a tale of two hearts.
• We can see God’s heart of compassion for Nineveh.
• We can also see Jonah has no heart for Nineveh.
• What is the problem here?
• Jonah knows the Lord.
• Jonah knows His voice.
• Jonah operated in the prophetic.
• Jonah is not a big time sinner.
• Yet with all of those spiritual credentials, Jonah has no heart for Nineveh.
• His heart was not tuned into the heart of God.
• So, what does the Lord do?
• He confronts Jonah with a situation that shows him how out of tune he is.

Which Kind of Heart Do You Have?

• Are you tuned into God’s heart for the world and the nations or do you have a Jonah, ‘I don’t care about Nineveh’ heart?
• Now, this question is not a condemnation piece.
• Don’t go to pieces if you cannot answer this like you think you should.
• There is hope for you.
• Jesus said these words.
• They are extremely important to your life.

Matthew 4:19 (KJV)
19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

• So then this question, can actually be looked at in almost a prophetic way; that is that we can securely predict that somewhere in your future, the Lord is going to deal with you in such a way that the end result of that dealing will be your transformation into a ‘fisher of men’.
• Maybe you will have a Nineveh type experience.
• It is simply part of the process of walking with Him.
• The Lord will not leave you the way you are.
• Now, look at the order of what Jesus said very closely.
• He said ‘FOLLOW ME’; this comes first.
• Then comes ‘AND I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN’.
• It is not the other way around.
• Understand what your part is and understand what God’s part is and do not get the job descriptions mixed up.
• Your part is to do the following; God’s part is to do the making.

God’s Heart in the Life of Jesus

• Jesus said to Phillip one day, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father (John 14:9).”
• The traits of God the Father can be seen in the Son.
• The life and the heart yearnings of God the Father can be seen in the life and ministry of Jesus.

Matthew 9:35–36 (KJV)
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

DEFINTION: compassion/σπλαγχνίζομαι/splanchnizomai – to be deeply moved (bowels) v. — to be affected deeply in one’s inner being, especially in that aspect (the bowels) characterized by sympathy and compassion.

• When Jesus saw the crowds, He was deeply affected inside His spirit man.
• It was like Jonah and Nineveh all over again.
• This is the motive that Jesus had in ministry.
• This is the reason that He ministered and continued to minister day after day sometimes without rest.

Mark 6:31–34 (ESV)
31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

• Bounce this question, off your heart.

QUESTION: When you look at the crowds, when you see the masses of people on planet earth, what is going on inside you?
Are you affected deeply by what you see as you gaze at the sea of humanity?
Are you moved with compassion?
How far are you willing to extend yourself for people?

• Can you see that now, we have the motive for some of our previous posts.
• Why should we Give Jesus Everything?
• Why should we live a Life Dependent on Him?
• Why should we Hunger after Him?
• All roads lead to the gospel.
• All roads lead to God’s heart.
• People are God’s heart from beginning to end.
• This is the higher life spoken of in Matt. 10:38-39 (Amp).
• Remember that the greatest thing that you can do is to do something for someone other than you.

How to Tune into God’s Heart of Compassion

• Jesus left us a clue to tuning into God’s heart in these next two verses.
• These verses are Jesus response to the compassion that He experienced when he saw the crowds scattered like sheep.

Matthew 9:37–38 (KJV)
37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

• In the first statement, Jesus states the truth of a problem that has transcended generations of men since He uttered it: the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
• Here is the problem defined:

DEFINITION: plenteous/ πολύς/polys — an adjective meaning large; above average in size, number, quantity, magnitude, or extent.

DEFINITION: few/ὀλίγος/oligos — also an adjective meaning few; a small but indefinite number.

• The solution to the ‘to big a harvest and too few workers’ problem also transcends generations of men.
• It is the same situation today.
• It is a repeatable problem for every generation of men.
• But on the other hand, the answer to the ‘staffing problem’ in the 1st century is the same answer today.
• It was the answer to seeing loved ones come to Jesus in the first century.
• It is the same answer to seeing your loved ones come to Jesus in the 21st century.
• The clue to tuning into God’s heart is praying along the lines of His heart.
• Once, you understand that people are His heart, once you know that the multitudes scattered without direction are His heart, than praying along that line will tune your heart into His.
• It will cause your heart to beat in the same rhythm as His.
• Jesus said, “Pray to the Lord of the harvest.”
• If you desire to get God’s heart, pray in line with His heart.
• Now, there is something here about the word ‘pray’ that we need to understand.
• The kind of praying that Jesus is referring to here is not your normal petition type praying.
• You know this type of prayer, “Father, I come to you right now and I ask you to… and lay your petition out … and I thank you for doing it right now in Jesus Name Amen.”
• There is nothing wrong with this type of praying, it is just not the kind of praying Jesus was talking about in this case.

DEFINITION: pray/δέομαι/deomai – to beg for something. It implies an intensity in requesting something. Words like ‘plead’ or ‘implore’ would also give the sense.

• ‘Deomai’ praying is not a passive emotionless type of prayer.
• We know that Jesus prayed at times in this manner with loud cries and tears.

Hebrews 5:7 (ESV)
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

• Can you see that if you begin to plead and implore the Lord of the harvest for the harvest, if your pray for a laborer to be sent to your loved one is done with strong crying and tears pleading with the Lord can you see that the end result of that type of praying is a heart tuned into God’s heart; a heart full of compassion for lost people?
• It is not just the adding of emotion to a prayer.
• It is reaching down into the depths of your heart.
• So much of our praying is from the neck-up.
• Show much of our praying is a mental exercise.
• This kind of praying that Jesus is a ‘crying out to God’ type prayer.
• If you cry out to God from the depths of your heart, you will find that being moved with compassion again and again is a lifestyle.
• There is something about contacting your spirit; pulling from your spirit; accessing your spirit where the love of God abides and has been shed abroad that makes being moved with compassion a reality (Rom. 5:5).

Tuning into God’s Heart Also Means Tuning into the Gospel

• What is the ultimate solution to man’s condition?
• In the days of Nineveh, it was responding to the message of repentance at the hands of man sent from God.
• In our day, it is men responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• But what is the gospel of Jesus Christ?
• In trying to understand what the gospel is the book of Romans is really important for you to read and study.
• Romans lays out the gospel for us.
• So, whatever you find in that epistle should be of utmost concern to you because the gospel contains God’s heart.

• In fact, Romans is more about the gospel than the Gospels are about the gospel.
• If you didn’t have Romans, if you didn’t have the epistles, you would not even know why Jesus died.

• Matthew, Mark, Luke and John gives us the facts of the resurrection of Jesus.
• The epistles gives us the why of the resurrection?
• We should be tuned into the why of the resurrection.
• But, how many of you have ever read Romans and had trouble getting through it?
• It seemed a little dry to you, a little stiff maybe, a bit theological even.
• You run into big Bible words like righteousness and big concepts like justification by faith.
• And it all seems not so exciting.
• We would rather talk about miracles or the Holy Spirit or hear a Jesus story.
• But if you look at this right,  this  letter is thrilling.  In this epistle,  you find the heart of a man tuned into God’s heart.
• Paul says,

Romans 9:1–3 (ESV)
1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

• Paul wished that somehow he could trade places with his Jewish brethren; that they could be saved in place of him.
• One cannot even imagine such a desire.
• It could only be born in the depths of a heart that is flooded with the compassion of the Lord.
• Paul’s heart was tuned into God’s heartbeat.
• You find this also in the back part of the letter.
• The very reason Paul wanted to come to Rome to preach was also born in this way of compassion.

Romans 15:23–24 (ESV)
23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

• Paul states why he was coming to the church at Rome.
• Paul desired assistance from them.
• He desired help on his journey.
• What kind of assistance is Paul needing?
• What kind of help is he looking for?
• Well, he is looking for financial assistance. Why?
• He needs monetary help getting to Spain so he can do what?
• Preach the gospel there also.
• So as it turns out, compassion for the lost is also driving his trip to Rome.
• Look at what Paul said in Romans 14.

Romans 14:7–8 (ESV)
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

• This is a man totally and completely sold out to God.
• Whether he lived, he lived to the Lord; this is your target, this is your example.
• Paul is not talking about occasionally living for the Lord here.
• So in this area of the gospel, are we talking about just doing some outreach occasionally then?
• We talk about people that do outreach but what is outreach?
• Is outreach a group of church people going door to door?
• Is it passing out fliers in a crowded intersection?
• Isn’t the definition of outreach something more than that?
• Doesn’t outreach start with people that have hearts that have been tuned into God’s heart?

A church that is not reaching out is passing out.

• We are called to reach out intentionally, creatively, boldly and lovingly to the unconverted and unchurched.
• We are called to be a church of faith, hope, love, forgiveness, and acceptance, bringing people into Christian maturity.
• Jesus wants us to see that the neighbor next door or the person sitting next to us on a plane or in a classroom are not interruptions to our schedule.
• They are there by divine appointment.
• They are there as opportunities for you to reach out with your heart.
• Jesus wants us to see their needs, their loneliness, their longings, and he wants to give us the courage to touch them.
• Here is a quote entitled ‘Fighting for Lost Souls’.

While some weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while little children go hungry, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor, lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God-I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end! — William Booth Founder of the Salvation Army (1829-1912)

• Your heart must make this determination.
• While there is one, my heart will reach to them.
• Jesus gave us the parable of the hundred sheep one of which was lost.
• You remember the story?
• The man left the ninety-nine and went searching for the one (Luke 15:1-6).
• Here is Jesus conclusion of the matter.

Luke 15:7 (ESV)
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

• This parable is about understanding the value of one.
• The gospel is not something we go to church to hear; it is something we go from the church to tell.
• Are you reaching out with your heart?
• We who know the need must be willing to sow the seed.
• Your mission field is the next unsaved person you meet.
• God hasn’t made many of us lawyers, but he has done something for all us Christians. He has subpoenaed all of us as witnesses.
• “The question many believers struggle with is, “How do we win the world to Christ with a minimum of fuss and bother?”
• Winning souls is hard work; it is a fuss and it is a bother.

Call to Action:

• What does this all mean to you?
• Are you willing to follow Him with all your heart?
• Are you willing to cry out to Him, to implore Him to send laborers to your loved ones?
• Are you willing to give compassion a chance to take root on the inside of you?
• Something E.W.  Kenyon wrote (New Kind of Love) that I have kept in the fly leaf of my Bible for many years.

His very strength that He has given us has been to bear the burdens of the weaker ones.  His ability has been given to us for the benefit of those who lack ability.  There will always be the weak and the inefficient.  They will ever be learning but never coming to the reality of redemption.  Because of this we must go out and serve the unworthy and the selfish, give ourselves as He gave Himself for us.  He did not die for the righteous.  He died for the unrighteous.  He died for the ungodly.  He died for men and women who have gone wrong, who have nothing to give Him but a shattered life. ²

Question: How did you align your heart with God’s heart concerning lost people? Would you please share that with us in the comments section below?

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References