What Does God Care About? Developing God’s Heart for the Lost

There are moments when I have to stop asking what I think the church should care about and return to a more important question: What does God care about? To understand God’s heart for the lost, I have to let Scripture challenge not only what I believe, but also what moves me, frustrates me, captures my attention, and shapes my priorities.

The book of Jonah provides an uncomfortable place to ask that question. Most of us know the familiar parts of the story. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah ran in the opposite direction. A storm threatened the ship carrying him away from God’s assignment; Jonah was thrown into the sea, and God provided a great fish to preserve his life. Eventually, Jonah went to Nineveh and preached the message God had given him.

Then something remarkable happened.

Nineveh repented.

God showed mercy.

You might expect Jonah’s story to end there with a celebration of one of Scripture’s great spiritual awakenings. Instead, Jonah became angry. The city had responded to his preaching, yet the prophet could not rejoice because God’s mercy had reached people he did not want God to forgive.

That is why Jonah has so much to teach me about God’s heart for the lost. Jonah’s greatest problem was not simply that he resisted going to Nineveh. His deeper struggle was that his heart did not reflect the heart of the God who sent him.

Read Jonah 3:10-4:11 (ESV).

The closing chapter of Jonah forces us to wrestle with a difficult possibility. We can know the truth about God, participate in the work of God, and still resist the heart of God.

Jonah knew what God was like. His own prayer in Jonah 4:2 describes the Lord as gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. His words echo God’s revelation of Himself in Exodus 34:6-7 and the testimony of Psalm 145:8-9.

Jonah’s theology was remarkably accurate.

His heart was another matter.

A mission-minded life begins with a heart that cares about what God cares about.

Before missions becomes a trip, an offering, a ministry program, or a conversation about evangelism, it begins with alignment. I have to ask the Holy Spirit to shape my heart until the things that matter to God increasingly matter to me.

That process can be uncomfortable because Scripture often exposes priorities I would rather leave unexamined.

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Big Idea 1: Misplaced Priorities Reveal Misaligned Hearts

Jonah 4 opens with a reaction that should surprise us. Nineveh has repented, God has withheld the announced judgment, and Jonah is furious.

His explanation makes the situation even more revealing. Jonah tells God that this is exactly why he fled toward Tarshish. Jonah knew God was gracious. He knew God was merciful. He knew the Ninevites might repent and God might forgive them.

Jonah was not primarily afraid that his preaching would fail. He worried it might succeed.

He did not want mercy reaching Nineveh.

That is particularly striking because Jonah himself had recently survived only because of God’s mercy. He had rebelled against God’s command, fled from God’s presence, endangered the people aboard the ship, and eventually found himself sinking into the sea. God could have allowed Jonah to experience the full consequences of his rebellion, but He rescued him, preserved him, and gave him another opportunity to obey.

Jonah gladly received mercy for himself while resenting mercy when it reached someone else.

When Correct Theology Has Not Yet Changed the Heart

That challenges me because I can understand God’s grace intellectually without letting it transform how I see other people.

I can believe that Jesus saves sinners while quietly deciding which sinners seem worthy of being saved. I can celebrate forgiveness when I need it, then feel uncomfortable when grace reaches someone I believe should face consequences. We can sing about mercy during worship and then speak about certain people as though they are beyond redemption.

Jonah knew God’s character, but God’s character had not sufficiently shaped Jonah’s character.

God confronted him with a simple question:

Jonah 4:4 (ESV) “Do you do well to be angry?”

Then God used a plant to expose what Jonah truly valued. God caused the plant to grow and provide shade, and Jonah was exceedingly glad because it made him comfortable. When God appointed a worm and the plant died, Jonah became so angry over its loss that he said he wanted to die.

His emotional response creates a powerful contrast. Jonah cared deeply about something that made his life easier, yet showed little compassion for a city full of people facing judgment.

I have to allow that contrast to challenge me too.

What Moves Me?

What consistently produces my strongest anger, grief, excitement, and joy often reveals what has captured my heart.

There are legitimate reasons to care deeply about family, finances, our country, justice, responsibilities, and the needs around us. Yet I also need to ask myself whether the spiritual condition of people ever carries comparable weight.

Do I know people who are far from Jesus and pray for them by name?

When I sit in a restaurant, walk through a store, attend a community event, or talk with someone at work, do I ever consider what may be happening spiritually in that person’s life?

Have I become so accustomed to the lostness around me that I no longer notice it?

Our culture has become extremely skilled at outrage. Christians can easily get pulled into the same cycle, constantly reacting to what people are doing wrong. God’s heart for the lost calls me toward something different. Biblical compassion sees sin truthfully while still believing in the transforming power of grace.

Jonah looked at Nineveh and saw people who deserved judgment. God looked at Nineveh and saw people who desperately needed mercy.

Big Idea 2: God Values People More Than My Comfort

God eventually confronts Jonah over his attachment to the plant.

Jonah cared deeply about something he had not created, cultivated, or caused to grow. The plant appeared quickly and disappeared just as quickly. Yet its loss devastated him because it affected his comfort.

God then directed Jonah’s attention toward Nineveh.

Jonah 4:11 (ESV) — 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?”

The city contained more than 120,000 people who did not know their right hand from their left. Scholars have interpreted that description in different ways, but the central point is clear. God saw a vast population of people who desperately needed His mercy.

Jonah saw enemies.

God saw people.

Jonah was preoccupied with his discomfort.

God was concerned about lives.

This does not mean Nineveh was innocent. Jonah 1:2 tells us that the city’s evil had come before God. Nahum 3:1-7 later describes Nineveh in terms of violence, bloodshed, deception, and brutality.

God’s compassion was not based on pretending that their sin did not matter.

God saw their wickedness with perfect clarity and still sent a prophet.

Mercy Does Not Minimize Sin

This distinction matters when we talk about God’s heart for the lost.

Biblical compassion does not require us to redefine sin, ignore evil, or pretend destructive behavior is harmless. God never did that with Nineveh. He warned them precisely because their wickedness was real.

Yet God’s righteous judgment against sin did not eliminate His compassion toward sinners.

Ezekiel 18:23 asks whether God takes pleasure in the death of the wicked or desires that the wicked turn and live. Ezekiel 33:11 records God’s urgent invitation to turn from evil. 2 Peter 3:9 describes God’s patience and His desire for people to reach repentance. Romans 2:4 reminds us that God’s kindness is intended to lead people toward repentance.

God sees sin accurately and still moves toward sinners with mercy.

That forces me to ask another difficult question.

Who are my Ninevites?

Who are the people I struggle to imagine God saving?

It may be someone whose worldview frustrates me, someone living in a way that directly contradicts Scripture, someone trapped in addiction, someone hostile toward Christianity, or someone who has hurt me personally. Sometimes an entire group of people can become a category in my mind before I remember that every category contains individual human beings created in the image of God.

Loving people does not require approving everything they do. God certainly did not approve of Nineveh’s wickedness.

Biblical compassion allows me to hold two truths together: sin is serious, and people are precious to God.

People can be guilty and still be pursued by grace. They can be deeply wrong and still be loved. They can deserve judgment and still hear an invitation to repent.

Every Christian should recognize something familiar in that description.

Big Idea 3: God’s Mercy Makes Us Mission Minded

Before I become too frustrated with Jonah, I need to remember where I fit into the story.

I am not naturally standing beside God looking down at Nineveh.

Spiritually speaking, I was once inside the city needing mercy myself.

Paul writes in Titus 3:3-5 that “we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray.” I appreciate the honesty of those words because Paul does not begin by describing how terrible everyone outside the church is. He remembers who believers were before the kindness and mercy of God reached them.

Ephesians 2:1-5 says that we were dead in trespasses and sins. Then the passage turns with two remarkable words: “But God.” God, being rich in mercy because of His great love, made us alive together with Christ.

Romans 5:8 reminds us that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

I was not saved because I was somehow more deserving than Nineveh. I am alive in Christ because mercy found me.

Remembering that changes how I see people who are still far from God.

The Mercy That Reached Me Became a Message Entrusted to Me

Paul connects these truths beautifully in 2 Corinthians.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 (ESV).

God reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and then He entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation.

The mercy that reaches us becomes the message entrusted to us.

That means I can look at someone trapped in addiction and believe Jesus can still set people free. I can look at a broken family and believe God can restore lives. I can encounter someone hostile toward Christianity and remember that Saul of Tarsus once persecuted Christians before becoming Paul the apostle.

And I can look around the world at people with little access to the gospel and remember that Revelation describes redeemed people from every tribe, language, people, and nation worshiping Jesus.

This is where God’s heart for the lost begins to reshape my own priorities.

Missions does not begin when someone boards an airplane. It does not begin when a church receives a special offering. Those are important expressions of mission, but the deeper beginning happens when God’s people pray:

“God, make Your heart my heart.”

That prayer changes how we see our neighbors, how we spend our resources, how we pray, how we use our influence, and how willing we are to obey when the Holy Spirit places someone in our path.

Gratitude becomes a great motivation for mission because I remember someone who brought the gospel to me.

I was lost, and Jesus found me. Guilty, and Jesus forgave me. I was spiritually dead, and Christ gave me life. I received mercy I could never earn, and because I received it, I want others to experience it too.

God’s Heart for the Lost Changes the Questions We Ask

A mission-minded life begins with asking different questions.

Instead of thinking primarily about what makes me comfortable, I begin noticing the people God has placed around me. Rather than seeing church only in terms of what I receive, I begin asking how God might use His church to reach people who have not yet experienced His grace.

This perspective also keeps missions from becoming something that belongs exclusively to professional missionaries.

Some believers will cross oceans. Others will cross the street. Some will give generously so missionaries can go where they cannot. Others will pray faithfully for people and places they may never personally visit. Some will open their homes, mentor a new believer, teach children, serve practical needs, share their testimony, or have a conversation with a coworker.

The expressions vary, but God’s heart for the lost remains the same.

In a previous post, I explored this same calling through Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian official in Acts 8. The gospel often moves outward through ordinary believers who notice people, listen, obey the Holy Spirit, and faithfully carry Jesus beyond the walls of the church.

Mission also requires perseverance. There will be people who do not respond immediately, and seasons when obedience feels harder than expected. Acts reminds us that evangelism and discipleship belong together, and faithfulness continues even when the visible results come slowly.

Our responsibility is faithfulness. God remains responsible for the harvest.

Conclusion: The Question Jonah Never Answered

Jonah ends differently from most stories.

There is no final response from the prophet.

God asks:

Jonah 4:11 (ESV) “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city…?”

Then the book ends.

We never hear Jonah’s answer. We do not know whether he finally repented of his attitude or whether he ever learned to celebrate the mercy he had preached about.

God gets the last word, and His final word is a question about compassion.

Perhaps that is exactly how the book is supposed to end because eventually God’s question is no longer directed only toward Jonah.

It is directed toward me.

Should God care about my community?

Should He care about my neighbor who does not know Jesus?

Or should He care about the coworker who rejects Christianity, the family member who has walked away from faith, the person whose behavior frustrates me, or the people living in places where access to the gospel remains limited?

The answer is already clear.

God cares.

The unresolved question concerns my heart.

Will I care about the people God cares about?

Jonah never answers. Scripture leaves us sitting with the question, and perhaps the silence is ours to break.

Prayer

Father, thank You for the mercy You have shown me. I know that I did not earn Your grace and could never deserve the salvation You have provided through Jesus Christ.

Forgive me for the times I cared more about my comfort, preferences, and frustrations than about people far from You. Show me where prejudice, anger, indifference, fear, or selfishness has distorted the way I see others.

Holy Spirit, form God’s heart for the lost within me. Help me see people through Jesus’ eyes while staying faithful to Your truth. Give me compassion that does not compromise righteousness and conviction that never loses sight of mercy.

Teach me to pray for people who need Jesus, to notice the opportunities You place around me, to give generously, to speak courageously, and to obey willingly. Thank You that Your mercy reached me. Use my life so that others may encounter that same mercy.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Call to Action

Take a few minutes today and ask yourself one question:

Who is my Nineveh?

Is there a person or group of people you have struggled to see with compassion? Instead of starting with what they have done wrong, begin praying for them by name. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see them as people who need the same mercy that reached you.

Then pray one simple prayer each day this week:

“God, give me Your heart for people.”

Watch what begins to change.

Links From chadbrodrick.com

Carrying the Gospel Beyond Our Walls

Faithful When the Mission Gets Hard.