Rick Warren - What to Do When It Feels Hopeless — Part One

Today I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like you were

the wrong person for the job, Like, what did you get yourself into

You didn't have the right experience or the right skill set. Well, I

know I have and you probably have too. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,

the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Okay, today we're going

to continue with the series the Manifestation of Your Life mission. Rick is showing

us that no matter how big the thing is that God is calling us to

do, we don't have to run away from it. We can actually run

toward it. This is such a good message, and I hope you'll invite

a friend to listen along with you as we discover how to embrace God's calling

on our lives and how we can live according to the purpose and plan that

He has for us. Now, let's hear what Rick has to say today

in part one of a message called what to Do When It Feels Hopeless.

Now, in the first session, I told you that there are three ways

we learn. We learned by experience, we learned by explanation, and we

learned by example. Without a doubt, the easiest way to learn is by

example. Then you don't have to make all the mistakes yourself. You can

learn from successful examples. You can actually learn from failures. You can learn

from good examples, and you can learn from bad examples. We're going to

take the book of Jonah and learn from a bad example who later turned around

and actually eventually got it right. Of a guy who was given a mission

from God and he went the other way. God said, go, Jonah

said no, and God said oh. And that's the whole story of Jonah.

God has a life mission for your life. This is the most important

thing in your life. To know your life mission. You don't want to

go through life. Stand before God and on judgment day and God goes,

well, did you fulfill the mission that I gave you on this to go?

Oh? I didn't even know I had one. You think you were

put on this earth to live for yourself? Really no, no, no,

God has a much bigger cause, purpose, goal mission for your life

than for you to just make money, retire and die. Oh no,

no, no, You're not here for something that small. God has a

life mission for every life. Now today we know that Jonah. We're looking

chapter two ran from his life mission. God said, I want you to

go to Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria, and I want you

to tell this message to these people. It's five hundred and fifty miles to

the east of where he lived in Israel. Jonah goes the exact opposite direction

as far away from God's mission for his life as he could. He gets

on board a oat and heads for Tarsis, which is a seaport on the

coast of Spain. It's twenty five hundred miles the opposite direction. And last

week we looked at ten lessons you can learn about your life mission. But

when you run from God, everything goes downhill. It creates all kinds of

problems, and we looked at the problems that happened in his life. Is

all down, down, down, down. He gets on board a ship,

he gets involved in a big storm in the Mediterranean. The soldiers throw

him overboard, the sailors throw him overboard, and he gets swallowed up by

this great fish. Now, remember I told you last week the word whale

is not in this story. You've all heard all your life that Jonah is

swallowed by a whale. Well, first place, a whale is not a

fish. A whale is a mammal, and God knows the difference. Could

have been a whale, but the sailors wouldn't have known that that he was

a mammal. But a lot of scientists think that maybe it was the largest

fish in the ocean, which is actually called a whale shark. And I

showed you a picture of a typical whale shark. Here's what that looks like

compared to a bus. Maybe not there, there we go, compared to

that's a whale shark. They're typically about forty feet long. That bus could

hold eighty passengers. That whale shark could hold one man. And whale sharks

are totally harmless to humans because they are filter feeders. They eat micronutrients.

They don't need teeth like most sharks do because they don't tear stuff apart.

They only eat micronutrients. So it could have easily swallowed a man. Now,

the Bible doesn't say where Jonah lived or died. God could have resurrected

him if he had wanted to. But that was it. And then I

wanted to show you what it looks like compared to men. Here's another one.

There's Jonah. Actually they're swimming and there's a whale shark. There are

lots of pictures I showed you last week in our first session of people swimming

around, because these guys are totally harmless to human beings. But we ended

the first chapter of Jonah with this verse. Look on the screen. Now

the Lord had arranged a great fish to swallow Jonah. And now that means

he custom made if God, you don't have a problem with this, if

you believe that God created the entire universe. God created every fish in the

ocean. God created every animal. God could have custom made a fish with

a living room, a diet, and air conditioning for Jonah if he'd wanted

to know. So, you know, if you have a problem with God

creating something special, you have a problem with the world. But let's go

back to that verse. It said the Lord had arranged a great fish.

Actually the word is ordained to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish

for three days and three nights. I heard about a little girl. She

was being challenged by a skeptic, and he goes, how could God create

a fish that would swallow a man? And the little girl said, well,

I don't know. I'm not God. But when I get to heaven,

I'm going to ask Jonah how God did it. And the skeptics said,

well, what if Jonah didn't go to heaven? What if he went

to hell? She said, then you can ask him. Now, one

thing we know for sure. Some people thought this story was a fable,

but Jesus said, no, it actually happened, and you're doubting Jesus.

Jesus said it was a true, actual story. In fact, here's what

the Bible says. This is hundreds of years later, some religious scholars who

didn't believe Jesus, they didn't think he is who he claimed to be,

the son of God. Some religious scholars didn't believe Jesus challenged him, saying,

we want to see you do a miracle. Now. Jesus answered,

you who are faithless and you intend evil. You keep asking for miraculous proof.

But the only miraculous sign I'm going to get you, you guys,

will be the same scient as Jonah. Now, let me explain that Jesus

did a lot of miracles for people who believed. People who had faith in

him, he rewarded their faith. He healed people, he raised the dead,

He did all kinds of miracles for people who had faith. But Jesus

didn't go around showing off for skeptics. He wasn't doing these signs to prove

himself to people who didn't believe. And so he goes, you just want

me to show off. I'm not the only miracle you're going to see is

the same miracle as Jonah. Now here's what the rest of the verse says.

For just as Jonah was in the belly of that huge fish for three

days and nights, so I, the son of Man, will be in

a grave in the earth for three days and nights. He goes, I'm

going to die, and three days later, I'm going to resurrect myself.

That's called Easter. Then on Judgment Day, the people of Ninevah, that's

people Jonah was sent to talk to, are going to stand up in judgment

and condemnation of you living. Now why because when Jonah warned them, they

immediately repented, they changed the ways, and they believed in God. But

today, someone greater than Jonah, he's talking about himself. He's saying today

right now with you, guys, I'm standing here, someone greater than Jonah

is speaking to you right now. Yet you refuse to turn to God like

they did. So now we move to the second part. In the first

the Jonah's story has four parts. Part one, Jonah's running from God.

Part two Jonah runs back to God as he's thrown overboard, he's swallowed by

this great fish, and in the depths of his despair, he prays a

prayer. What does this have to do with your life? Mission? It

shows the seven things you do when you're feeling hopeless, when the situation around

you feels hopeless. Now, I hope you're not feeling that way right now,

I really do as your pastor, I hope you're not feeling hopeless.

But you need to take notes because one day you're gonna need what I'm sharing

with you today. One day you're gonna lose a loved one. One day

you're gonna hear a dreaded word like cancer. One day, the bottom's gonna

fall out in your life, and you're gonna need to know what do I

do when I'm feeling hopeless? All right? If you take out your message

notes. Last session, we looked at Jonah. He's thrown overboard and he's

sinking fast into the ocean, and God prepares a great fish to swallow him

up. And in chapter two we now come to what I call what to

do when it feels hopeless? Have you ever had a situation where you felt

you were just swallowed up, Not by a fish, but you just felt

engulfed, swallowed up by something. You go, I'm surround by depression,

I'm surrounded by conflict. I've been swallowed up with worry or guilt or whatever.

Now what do you do when it seems hopeless? In this chapter we

have seven things to do. I hope this weekend you're not feeling hopeless.

I really do. I hope you're not feeling hopeless. You're gonna need this

someday. So take notes because you will have moments in your life. You're

gonna lose loved ones, You're going to have failures, You're going to have

moments in your life where it feels hopeless. Are you going to know what

to do? The Bible tells us what to do when it feels hopeless?

Number one, let's get right into it. When you hit bottom, look

up to God. When you hit bottom, you look up to God.

This whole chapter, chapter two is actually a prayer. It's Jonah's prayer that

he prays as he's drowning in the ocean. He's swallowed by some kind of

giant fish. He doesn't know what's going on. And the entire chapter is

when I'm sinking, when I'm going down, I'm going to look up to

God. I'm going to pray. That's the first verse. Jonah tuo verus

one. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God circled

Jonah prayde You know, it's funny. I was reading this today and I

was thinking some churches have a weekly fish dinner than a prayer meeting. In

this case, after the fish had dinner, Jonah prayed a little bit different

here. How do you think Jonah felt swallowed up by this situation, Well,

he immediately does the first thing on his mind. He looks up.

When you're hit in bottom, you look up. He prays to God.

Now a lot of people go, well, if God plans everything out in

our lives, why and the will should we pray. It's a good question.

If God's planning everything out, God's in charge, God's in control,

why should we even pray? And the reason why is because God, in

his sovereignty and wisdom prescribes not only the ends that he wants to see in

your life, but he also prescribes the means. He prescribes the ends to

his will what he wants to he also prescribes the means. And God wants

to involve us in his plan, and so part of his plan is to

use our prayers to accomplish what he intends to do. Part of God's plan

is that he intends to use our prayers to accomplish what he wants to do.

Already, This is inviting us to be as partners. This is quite

a privilege. God could do everything in the world without a single prayer.

He doesn't need our prayers. But God has chosen to involve you in your

own life, and me in my own life, and all of us in

the direction of the world. And there are some things God only does if

we pray. He has predicated what he wants to do on our prayers.

God wants to involve us. There are some things, there are some kind

of problems in life that the only way you're ever going to have those problems

solved is if you learn to pray persistently about that prayer. I'm not talking

about pray one time, and then that's it. If you only care about

something enough to pray about it once, you don't really care about it.

But something that you really want to see happen in your life, you're going

to pray about it over and over and over. Why does God wait to

answer our prayers? He could honestly answer any prayer instantly if he wanted to,

but he doesn't. He lets us pray and pray more, and pray

more, and pray more and pray more. Why he wants the first to

distinguish between what's really a real desire in your life and what's just a whim.

When my kids were little, was Christmas time we'd go through stores.

Daddy, I want this for Christmas. I want this for Christmas. I

want this for Christmas. I'm not really paying attentions. As soon as it's

out of sight, we're in the next line, we're in the next row.

They've already forgotten it. That's just a whim. I'd like this.

I'd like this. Oh, I'd like this. I'd like this. It's

kind of like the way I go in a candy store, but when they

go I really want this, and I keep hearing them say, Dad,

I really want this for Christmas. Dad, I really want this for Christmas.

Dad. Now only know what they really want. It's a difference between

just a whim. God says, if you don't care about praying about it

more than one time, you really don't care about it. You want a

husband, you want a different job, you want a healing Well, what

do you want in life? Do you care about enough to keep praying about

it? Until God's an God is testing your faith. He's more interested in

building your faith than he is simply answering every little prayer. God's not a

slot machine where you put in the prayer and you pull it and instantly you

get whatever you want. A slot machine will give you stuff that will kill

you. God will never give anything that's harmful to you. But there are

some kind of problems in life that are never going to be solved until you

look up and you pray persistently, and you can try everything else, but

it's not going to budget. God is waiting for you to pray. One

time, some of Jesus' followers, the disciples, came by and they go,

there was this person here who like he had a bad spirit in him,

and we tried to pray for the guy to be healed, and he

wasn't healed. Why couldn't we do that? We're kind of embarrassed. We

were doing it in front of everybody. And here's what Jesus said on the

screen. Matthew Mark, Chapter nine, verse twenty eight and twenty nine.

The disciples privately asked Jesus, why couldn't we drive out that bad spirit?

Jesus answered, because this kind can only be forced out by prayer. Now,

what is Jesus saying here? There are some problems in your life.

You can try every human solution and it's not gonna work. There are some

problems in your life that are so deep, so deep rooted in your past

and your parents, in your traumas, some problems that are so deeput the

only way they're going to come out is by prayer. And so this is

the starting point. Jonah does this thing right. This is the first thing

he's done right. He's thrown overboard. And what does he do. He

looks up and he immediately starts praying. God's waiting to see how persistent you

are in prayer. Now, here's the second thing you do. This is

what Jonah did God wants you to do this too. When you're feeling hopeless,

pray passionately. Pray passionately. I'm talking about pray with emotion. There

are certain kinds of prayers God answers, and there's a certain kind of prayers.

God's just bored with. God is bored with the trite, memorized,

mechanical, methodical, memorized prayer. We just go now, I lay me

down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep you know,

and we have all all of our little cliches, bless this food to the

nourishment of our bodies, and we're not even thinking about it because we've said

them so many times. There's a difference, if you know, as a

parent, when a child comes to you and says something that's just they don't

really mean it. But when they come and they say it passionately and they

say it with emotion, I can't imagine as Jonahs dropping down in the ocean,

he's getting swallowed by this this fish that he's praying. Now, I

lay me down to sleep. I doubt he's even praying our father, who

aren't having hollow'd be thy name first rate Jesus, hadn't given that to us

yet. But he's not praying some memory. He's going, God, I

need help right now. And he is crying out, probably shouting out.

He's praying with emotion. This guy is desperate, he's franny. God answers

desperate prayers. God answers frantic prayers. God answers emotional prayers. When was

the last time you got frantic with God? God? Here's the crisis prayer

and Jonah verse two, we see the second thing he did this praying passionately.

Jonah said, in my distress and in my deep trouble, I cried

out circle that. That's passionate prayer. I cried out. When was the

last time you cried out to God? I got Hi, God, how's

it going? How you doing? Hope you had a good day to day?

I did too, See you tomorrow over and out ten four, good

buddy. Yeah. God gets so bored with perfunctory prayers. They're just were

They mean nothing. He says, you worship Me with your lips, but

not with your heart. They're just mouthing platitudes. God says, when you

talk to me, I want to hear what's on your heart. I don't

want you to tell me what you think you should tell me. I don't

want you to tell me what you learned in some Bible school or catechism.

I want you to tell me what's on your heart. And I want you

to be passionate about it. I want you to be emotional. I want

you to be authentic. I want you to be real. Jonah says,

I cried out. That's the second thing. You don't just look up.

You cry out. You look up and you cry out. You look up

and you cry out when you're in pain, when you're feeling hopeless, when

you're being swallowed up by the circumstances around you. Now there's a word for

this. Crying out to God in the Bible is the word called lamenting.

Lamenting. A crying out to God is called a lament. A lament as

a synonym for a plaint. You said, wait a minute, it's okay

to complain to God. Of course, it's okay to complain to God.

God wants you to complain to him because he loves you. He's interested in

every detail of your life. Yes, it's okay to complain to God.

God. I don't like this. This is terrible. This is not right,

this is not fair. That's called lamenting. Did you know that in

the Book of Psalms, which your personal prayers to God, there are one

hundred and fifty of those. They're not all praise, they're all sunshiny,

happy clappy, the sun will come out tomorrow kind of thing. One third

of the Psalms of the Bible, of one hundred and fifty, fifty of

them are complaints. Fifty of them are laments, going, God, this

is not fair God. You lied to me. God, this stinks God.

That's called lamenting. Now, the best books on lamenting in the Bible,

or the Book of Job, the Book of Lamentations, which are the

laments of Jeremiah, he was the complaining prophet. Lamentations Job and the Book

of Psalms, and David Lamitz. They cry out, there's an entire book

of the Bible full of complaints. It's called lamentations. So yes, it's

okay for you to complain to God, because God cares about your laments.

God cares about the pain that you have. You know, He far would

rather have you complain than for you to say some little polite prayer that you

memorized. He doesn't care about that. He wants to know what's on your

heart. I could give you example after example how God answers the prayers of

people in pain when they pray passionately. Good example would be Hannah. Hannah

all of her life had wanted to have a baby, but she was infertile.

She couldn't have a child, and she praised this prayer look up here

on the screen, First Samuel, chapter one. By the way, Samuel

ended up being her son, that was the answer to this prayer, who

became a very famous prophet. First Samuel, chapter one. So he's telling

this story about his mom. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as

she prayed, to Lord, I've wanted to have a baby. I've wanted

to have a baby. I've wanted to have a baby, and i haven't

had a baby. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed.

She's lamenting, and she made this vow, Oh Lord Almighty, if

you will look down upon my sorrow and you'll answer my prayer and you'll give

me a son, then I will give him back to you and he will

be yours for his entire lifetime. And she did and that boy grew up

to be the Samuel of First Samuel. This is the prophet who ordained the

first king of Israel, Saul or Dame David. He wrote First and Second

Samuel in the Bible. This was Hannah's son. She's crying out bitterly.

God hears her prayer. So when you're in trouble and you're feeling hopeless,

the first thing you do is you look up. You look up to God,

you pray. The second thing you do is you pray passionately. You

don't just say, oh God, I'd kind of like to have this.

You cry out to God. This is what Jonahs doing. He's not praying

for functory prayers. This is no polite request. This is a gut wrenching

prayer. So if you don't get anything else, I tell you, I

want you to get this. It really doesn't matter where you pray. You

know a lot of people think they have to go into a church and kneel

down to pray. God doesn't care where you pray. Peter prayed while he's

sinking in the water, and all kinds of people pray in wars and battles

and all kinds. It doesn't matter where you pray. What matters is your

heart when you're praying. Thank you for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

You know, I know that you would love to live a life of significance.

But have you ever wondered if you could make a contribution so unique that

no one else in all the world could do what you've accomplished. Well,

you need to stop wondering, because God created you to make a difference in

the world. He created you to fulfill a mission that only you can accomplish.

I know you may be thinking that God couldn't use you like that,

but you know what he can. And not only can he, but he

will. It really doesn't matter what you've done or what you've failed to do.

It doesn't matter how young or how old you are. It is never

too early or too late to start on the mission that God has planned for

you. And that's that's why I'm so excited to let you know about a

brand new Bible study from Pastor Rick called Rising to God's Call a Journey through

Jonah. In this study, Rick is going to show you how God had

an incredible mission for Jonah and it went well beyond being swallowed by a big

fish. Jonah's story is really about second chances and redemption and the rescue of

an entire nation. And more importantly, it's the story of God, the

one who shows grace to everyone he created. You know, the story of

Jonah is really like a blueprint from God. It shows all of us how

He can use you to do significant things no matter where you are in life

right now. And just like Jonah, you're going to find that pursuing God's

mission for your life is the greatest adventure that you will ever go on.

And we're going to send you Pastor Rick's brand new Bible study Rising to God's

Call, a Journey through Jonah. To say thank you for your gift to

Daily Hope because it helps us share the life transforming Word of God with the

world. Just go to Pastorick dot com or just text the word Hope to

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thousand and four, and thank you so much for your support. Your gift

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world. We hope you'll join us next time when we look into God's Word

for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and

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