Helpless But Hopeful

It was the fall of my senior year and me and a couple of my

friends were driving around on the country roads of southeast

Iowa and we were in a mood. We were in that season of my

life where I was taking stupid pills like Tic Tacs.

You know what I'm talking about. Has anybody ever bought Tic

Tacs? And then they were, you still

had them the next day. Like, they just disappear as

soon as you get them. And if there were stupid pills

in the medicine cabinet, I wanted them all.

And so it was one of those nights where we'd taken all the

stupid pills and we were driving around and we saw this car that

was in a field and we didn't think much of it other than we

should just pull in. And it kind of looked like, you

know, it didn't belong to anybody.

And so and our thought progression, if you want to call

it thinking we should have a lot of fun with this vehicle.

And that's exactly what we did. Me and my friend, we got out and

broke out the windows, jumped through the sunroof, ripped the

doors off, flipped it up on its on its hood or on the roof.

And some of you guys are going to, this isn't going to make

sense to you, but two of the girls that were with us had a

camcorder like a shoulder mounted.

And so they filmed me and my friend being dumb and we kind of

moved on, didn't think anything of it.

Well, a couple weeks later I was at a party and hear a bunch of

people laughing and cheering. And I'm like, I should go inside

and check what that's all about. And I walk in and they're on the

big screen. Is me and my friend demolishing

this car with our feats of strength and feats of stupid.

And turns out that wasn't some abandoned car that nobody cared

about. It was a car that was parked in

the field to keep it from the person who was going to get it

on their 16th birthday. Yeah.

I mean, who you chose to be your pastor says a lot about you

guys. You guys.

Some checked up people. Well, my life came to a

screeching halt. I just made Allstate Choir, got

kicked out, had to sit out the first couple games of my senior

year basketball season, had to ride the bench.

I'd let my parents down, my team down, my family down, my coaches

down, teammates down. I had let everyone down.

My parents were looking at me. I mean, I was likable.

I had good social skills. Teachers liked me.

And yet there were the stupid pills.

And I was like, I want a refill. And the consequences of my

actions hit me so fast and so hard that I could not see a path

forward. And so I was suicidal.

One of these days I'll unpack more of what happened, but my

future was fading. I couldn't see anything beyond

what I was in. There was this war going on

inside of me between who I wanted to be and who I was

capable of, and who I was and who I was was winning.

If I were to say it in a spiritual way, there was a

battle going on between who God created me to be and who God

called me to be and who Satan was tempting me to be and who

Satan was tempting me to be was winning.

I had hit rock bottom. If you are somebody or know

somebody who's has hit rock bottom, can you get your hand up

for just a second, turn to your neighbor and say rock bottom,

man. I want to welcome all of our

different locations. Those of you watching online,

we're glad for you. To those of you who are a part

of the crossing inside, this might be a very special message

for you because I'm guessing you are either in rock bottom or

you've been here before and you're can't believe that you're

back because you thought, man, after I get out, I'm never going

back. And so if you're a part of our

inside family, I just want you to know I love you.

I'm rooting for you. I'm praying for you, and I hope

that this message will be a special benefit to you.

There might be some of you in here.

We're on this sermon series called The Story of Jonah, and

the the tagline is The Unusual Path of Grace.

And what you're going to see in this series is that God

continues to run after the people who are running away from

him. There might be some of you

gathered today or tuning in and you've been running for God from

for a really, really long time. And I just want you to know, I

am so glad that you're here. You might be here today and you

know somebody who's been running from God for a really long time.

And I'm glad that you are here as well.

You might know somebody who has hit rock bottom.

You might need to pay attention on their behalf so that you can

give them a word of hope in a moment of crisis.

There might be some of you right now when you are actually at

rock bottom, and I'm thanking God that you were here.

And I want you to know that I've been praying for you this week.

I want to recap last week we were in Jonah chapter 1.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

Jonah is a prophet of God, the mouthpiece of God, the preacher

of his day. And God calls him to do

something, to go and preach to the Ninevites, which is 500

miles to the northeast. And Jonah decides not to do that

thing, and he hops on a ship that is setting sail for 2500

miles to the West. We asked ourselves a really

tough question. And the fact that you showed up

again this week surprises me. Because the question last week

is, what do you do when God calls you to do something you

don't want to do? All of us have things that God

has asked us to do that we don't want to do.

It might be asking for forgiveness.

It might be forgiving. It might be loving your enemies.

Maybe it's finally using your gifts, talents, and abilities to

build the Kingdom of God instead of your own castle.

It might be inviting a friend or a family member to church.

What you do when God calls you to do something you don't want

to do says a lot about you. Where your priorities stack up.

What you actually believe and what you do when God calls you

to do something you don't want to do reveals what you really

believe about God. Is He actually your Lord and

your Savior? Is His way really the best way?

So Jonah runs from God, and God sends his storm, not to end

Jonah's life, but to bring Jonah back to God.

In the process, the sailors that are on the ship, they go from

not believing in God to believing in God and making vows

and commitments to God. And the story ends in chapter 1

with Jonah being picked up and thrown into the sea.

The very last words in Jonah chapter one verse 17 are these.

Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah

was in the belly of the fish 3 days and three nights.

There have been some who have doubted the historical

reliability of the story of Jonah.

They claim it was just a spiritual story, a fable, not an

actual event that actually took place.

However, here are four reasons why I believe that this is a

real story that really happened #1 Jonah was a real person in

the history of Israel. His name is recorded in Second

2 Kings 14:25

Kings chapter 14 verse 25 and it is also recorded his family

tree, his lineage, how he got here.

This is backed up by a Jewish historian by the name of

Josephus or Flavius Josephus in the 1st century.

So #1 Jonah was a real person who actually walked planet Earth

number two-part of the reason why people believe that this

story didn't actually happen is because for thousands of years

the city of Nineveh could not be found.

The story of Jonah takes place about 700 BC, but in 1800 AD,

the city of Nineveh was unearthed in the vicinity of

Mosul, which is in modern day Iraq, and the city was unearthed

underneath. It was under 2 mounds, two

hills. The name of one of the hills was

Kuyunjik. You don't need to remember that

one. The name of the other hill that

also housed the underneath it housed Nineveh was Nabi Eunice.

Turn to your neighbors, say Nabi Eunice.

In Arabic, Nabi Eunice means the prophet Jonah.

They found Nineveh, which Jonah preached to, under the hill that

people had named the prophet Jonah #3 Some say that there is

no way for a whale to follow to swallow Jonah.

Why? Because while whales have big

old mouths, they have pretty tiny throats.

And so there's no way that this could have taken place.

Well, I would say a couple things to that.

One of the sperm whale has the size of mouth and the size of

throat to accomplish that, and so does the fin whale.

And the fin whale is the largest whale in the Mediterranean Sea.

Now if Jonah was not a six, six, £300 bad golfer, this is what it

would look like to scale. If I was Jonah and I was about

ready to be eaten by a Fen whale and he's going to swallow me

like a chicken wingy. OK, boom, gone down the gullet.

But that does not really give you the scale of the Fen whale.

So what what I would like to do, tech team, if you can, I want

you to like do like a green screen thing and then put like a

fin whale like in the center of the room above my head so they

can get an understanding of yeah.

So if I yeah, yeah, I'd fit. And I've got like German

lineage, not Jewish lineage. So I mean, you know, Jews are

typical or not, as you know, not as tall as not a lot of Jewish

guys in the NBA. That's what I'm saying.

OK. I'm just I'm saying that kindly

just anyhow. So this is the scale for me.

Now the other thing I would tell you is that the Bible doesn't

say a whale. The Bible says a huge fish and

God could have created a one off fish to accomplish this very

specific task of saving Jonah's life.

And there are going to be times when you are reading the Bible

where you're going to bump into something that is hard to

swallow, pun intended. And what I would tell you is

when you bump into situations like that, I want you to have

the same tool that I have in my tool belt.

And here's the tool I have in my tool belt.

If you can believe the 1st 5 words of the Bible you can

believe all the rest. And the first 5 words of the

Bible are in Genesis chapter one verse one.

In the beginning, God created, if God made the earth and the

seas and the galaxies and the stars and put things in orbit

and creates gravity on our behalf and gives us lungs to

handle carbon monoxide and oxygen, He can make anything he

needs to make to accomplish anything he wants to accomplish.

Reason #4 while I, while I believe in the story of Jonah,

is that Jesus mentions the story of Jonah and he draws a parallel

to his own life and his own ministry.

And I'm a big fan of Jesus. So if Jesus believed it, I'm

inclined to believe it. And we're actually going to

unpack that a little bit later in the sermon.

So at the end of chapter 1, Jonah is been thrown into the

sea and a huge fish has swallowed him.

So let's pick up in Jonah chapter 2.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

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

He said, in my distress, I called to the Lord, and he

answered me from deep in the realm of the dead.

I called for help and you listened to my cry.

You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the Seas,

and the current swirled about me.

All your waves and Breakers swept over me.

I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look

again towards your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened

me, the deep surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my

head to the roots of the mountains.

I sank down. The earth beneath barred me in

forever. But you, Lord, my God, brought

my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I

remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you to your holy

temple. Those who cling to worthless

idols turn away from God's love for them.

But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you

what I have vowed. I will make good.

I will say salvation comes from the Lord, and the Lord commanded

the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Jonah gets thrown into the sea, and while the sea becomes calm

on the surface, it sounds like there's an awful lot going on

under the surface. Jonah was born in land.

More than likely he couldn't swim.

And if you get thrown into the sea and you can't swim, you

sink. And that is exactly what

happens. Listen to Jonah's collection of

the events, he says. In my distress, from deep in the

realm of the dead, you hurled me into the depths to the very

heart of the sea. The currents swirled about me.

All your waves and Breakers swept over me.

The engulfing waters threatened me and the deep surrounded me.

Seaweed was wrapped around my head.

God's apparently making a sushi roll out of Jonah to the roots

of the mountains. I sink down to the earth.

The earth beneath barred me in forever.

When my life was ebbing away. It appears that Jonah got thrown

in, but the whale didn't come right away.

Jonah was going down, down, down.

And Jonah, he hit rock bottom. Now, the good news is, God is a

great God and he's a kind God. So he didn't send a shark to eat

him. He didn't allow him to drown in

his goodness. He sends a huge fish to swallow

Jonah and gives Jonah three days to turn his life around.

What do you do when you've hit rock bottom?

What do you do when you've bumped up against rock bottom?

I'll tell you what Jonah did. Jonah prayed there might be some

of you that you've hit rock bottom and you think that there

is no way that God could hear your prayers when He's all the

way up in heaven and you are all the way down at rock bottom.

There might be some of you today that are thinking there is no

way that God would hear your prayers after all that you have

done. There might be some of you today

that are going, There's no way that God should listen to you

since you have not been listening to him.

But can I show you how good your God is?

Jonah chapter 2 From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

his God. He said, In my distress I called

to the Lord, and he answered me from deep in the realm of the

dead. I called for help, and you

listened to my cry when my life was ebbing away.

I remember you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you to your holy

temple. Jonah cried out from the pit,

and God answered. Jonah offered a prayer, and God

listened from the depths of the sea.

The prayer rose unhindered to God in his holy temple.

I have really good news for you today.

No matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, no

matter what you've done, no matter how much you have been

running from God, you have not run so far as to outrun the ears

and the grace of God. Fellas, have you ever said

something under your breath in a altercation with your wife and

she heard it perfectly clear? Raise your hand if that's your

testimony. You were just talking to God and

she overheard it. I want you to know the next time

that that happens, God has better hearing than your wife

today. If you cry out, He will answer.

If you call, He will listen. If you offer a prayer from the

pit, it will rise unhindered to the heavens.

No wonder it says in James chapter 5 verse 13.

James 5:13

Is any among you in trouble? Let them pray.

We tend to think that in times of crisis that God is distant or

removed. Sometimes we even interpret

God's silence as indifference. But Jonah reminds us that God's

presence allows us to endure the trials we face, even the ones we

created in our own disobedience. The authored Leonard Sweet in

his book Soul Salsa describes the story of a young or of a

Native American tribe who on the 13th birthday they have this

rite of passage for their young warriors.

On the night of their 13th birthday, they were taken into

the middle of the forest to spend the night alone.

It would be their very first night away from their family and

the security of their tribe. They were blindfolded and taken

miles into the heart of the forest, and they were left there

all night long, every time a twig snapped.

They wondered what while the animal was preparing to pounce,

Every time an animal howl, they imagined a wolf leaping out of

the darkness. Every time the wind blew, they

wondered what sinister sound it masked.

No doubt it was a terrifying night for those 13 year old

boys. And after what seemed like an

eternity, the first rays of sunlight penetrated into the

heart of the forest. And looking around, the boy saw

flowers and trees, and he saw a path home.

And then, to his utter astonishment, he beheld the

figure of a mighty warrior standing a few feet away with

bow and arrow and quiver. And it was his father, and he

had been there all night long. Hear me, if you are in the pit,

if darkness is creeping in, if sin is taking over, but you are

still alive, God is not done with you yet.

And don't ever doubt the power of God to turn things around.

And don't ever doubt the power of prayer.

About six weeks back, maybe a couple more, there was a group

of guys that I do a Discovery Bible study with, and one of the

guys had an encounter with somebody who was hitting rock

bottom. They were suicidal.

The text messages started blowing up the thread.

The phone call started coming in and I got on the phone with

Bobby and Bobby just wasn't seeing a path forward.

He had hit rock bottom and he couldn't see his way out.

And we immediately tried to get him connected to Vine Co, our

counseling center. And a person on staff

volunteered to go to Regen with him to help him overcome the

hurts, habits and addictions that were impacting him in such

a negative way. And we said, hey, we can't wait

to see you at church. And I'll be honest with you,

that first week, almost none of it worked.

But then started seeing Bobby at church and so I had written in

my prayer book Bobby Suicide and so I started calling him Bobby

Suicide. And every time I saw Bobby

Suicide at church, I put a little hash mark.

In other words, that first hash mark, because he came the first

time. And then there was a second hash

mark and he came the second time.

And then there was the 3rd hash mark, and then the 4th hash

mark, and then the 5th hash mark, and then the 6th hash

mark. And today was the 7th hash mark.

But Bobby went from being Bobby suicide to being Bobby baptized.

First service. Hear me.

Don't ever doubt the power of prayer to God to pull you out of

the pit. First thing that Jonah did was

he prayed. Second thing he did is he

realized that those clinging to anything other than God are

doomed. Jonah chapter 2, verse 8.

Jonah 2:8

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love

for them. To those of you clinging to a

political party, it's going to let you down.

To those clinging you clinging to possessions you will never

have enough. To those of you holding on to

your status, it will not pull you out of the pit.

To those of you betting on all of your good works, there are

not of good work, enough good works for you to do to undo what

you've already done. To those of you hoping that you

will just be better than the rest, the rest is not the

standard. Perfection is.

To those of you planning on choosing your own path, that

path leads to destruction. God, God in his love has made a

way through the person and work of his Son Jesus.

And Jesus says anyone who wants to come to the Father must come

through me. And God in his love has provided

a way for you. But if you cling to anything

other than Jesus, you are turning away from God's love.

To follow any other path is to walk away from that love.

Third thing Jonah does is he worships Jonah chapter 2, verse

Jonah 2:9

9. But I, with shouts of grateful

praise, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make

good. What I said I was going to do,

I'm actually going to do. Jonah realizes that the God of

the mountain is also the God of the valley that will.

God wraps himself in light. He is not immune to coming into

the darkest of seasons and valleys with us.

And so Jonah lifts a shout of grateful praise.

And how can he not be grateful? He deserves to die for what he

has done. But God has sent a great fish

and given him time to get things right.

So Jonah makes commitments to God.

Worship is not just about singing songs.

It is also about obedience, about doing the things we said

we were going to do. Some of us, we might be singing

louder than our obedience. We might be lifting our hands

higher than our commitments for just a second.

Moms, imagine that your kids started singing songs about how

awesome you are. Mom, you're so awesome.

You're the most awesome. Mom.

They just started singing that as they were brushing their

teeth in the morning. And then you're like, hey, did

you? Did you do that thing that I

asked you to do that you said you were going to do?

Mom, you're so awesome. Did you let the dog out?

You're so stinking awesome. And you're pretty.

You don't need all that makeup. You look great the way you are.

Have you picked up your room? And you're so awesome, Mom.

You can tell I'm not leading worship for any of our campuses

anytime soon. Moms, would you like the songs?

Yeah. Would you also like those songs

coming from a heart that was doing what it was supposed to do

and did that it was that it said it was going to do.

God doesn't just love your voice.

He loves your voice. He loves your worship.

But worship is not just singing. It's also obedience.

And so Jonah says what I vowed I was going to do.

I'm actually going to do #4 Jonah realizes that God is a God

who saves Jonah chapter 2, verse 6 and 9 to the roots of the

Jonah 2:6

mountains. I sank down the earth beneath

barred me in forever, but you, Lord, my God, brought my life up

from the pit. I will say salvation comes from

the Lord. God is a God who lifts people

and lives from the pit. God is a God who brings

salvation. There's a lot of people who

give, say a lot of things about God, but you better make sure

when they're talking about God to you, you at least remind them

that God, the God that we serve, is a God who's gracious and a

God who saves. If you've ever seen me in the

valley, if you've ever been at rock bottom, but you're not

there anymore and you're standing on a mountain, it is

not because of your wisdom. It is not because of your might,

but because we serve a God who saves.

We got where we are because God put us there.

We were in the pit needing a rescued and our God rescues.

We were in a pit and we needed saved.

And the good thing is we have a God of salvation.

Remember I said that Jesus points to the story of Jonah?

Well, let's Fast forward 700 years to Matthew chapter 12 and

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

look what Jesus says. Then some Pharisees and teachers

of the law said to him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.

Then he answered, This is Jesus talking.

A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but

none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a

huge fish, so the Son of Man will be 3 days and three nights

in the heart of the earth. You see, both Jonah and Jesus

were sent on a rescue mission by God.

Jonah rebelled and ran from his mission.

And Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane said not my will be

done, but your will be done. Jonah was disobedient.

Jesus was obedient. Jonah went down to death

symbolically, but Jesus went down to death on our behalf

literally. Jonah escaped death, but Jesus

defeated it. Jesus's Jonah, like returned

from the empty grave, became the hope for all who are in him,

that death is not our end and death is not our destiny.

If you were to go to the catacombs where they bury the

people in Rome, where all the earlier early Christians were to

bury their dead, almost half of all the artwork that they carved

into the stones have a reference to Jonah and the whale.

It's not hard to grasp the imagery here.

The sailors are the mourners, lowering their loved ones and

friends into a watery grave. The fish, which became the early

sign of Christianity, by the way, was there to take hold of

those laid into the watery grave and keep them safe until First

1 Thessalonians 4:16

Thessalonians. Chapter 4, verse 16 says the

dead in Christ will rise. The empty tomb of Jesus fulfills

the sign of Jonah and shows the ultimate way that Jesus is

greater than Jonah. Jonah was delivered, but Jesus

is deliverance. Jonah was saved, but Jesus is

salvation. In fact, Jonah ends his prayer

with these words. Salvation comes from the Lord,

and if you were to read it in the Hebrew text, it says Yeshua

comes from the Lord, Salvation Yeshua.

If you want to translate that word into Greek or into Latin,

I'll give you the word Jesus. Jonah ends his prayer with Jesus

on his lips. Why?

Because Jesus saves. Why?

Because Jesus is salvation crossing family.

Look at me. You might be in a spot today,

you might be hitting rock bottom, you might be in a storm

of your own causing, but it is not over.

There was once a fellow runner from God.

Much like Jonah, he had abandoned his faith.

As a teenager. He'd been given to gambling and

drinking and lying. But in 19 or in 1748, aboard the

ship the Greyhound, on his way to England, he found himself,

like Jonah, in a severe storm off the coast.

He cried out to God for deliverance, and God spared his

life. And while it took a while, the

events of that night eventually shaped and formed his future.

Eventually, he rekindled his faith and his allegiance to God.

Instead of being a slave trader, he became an abolitionist and

fought for the rest of his life against the release of slaves.

And then he became a pastor. And as he would pastor, one of

the things that he would do is he would write songs for his

congregation to sing. And I'm so glad that he did,

because if he hadn't, we would never have had the words written

by John Newton. Amazing Grace, how sweet the

sound that saved a Wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found was blind.

But now I see twas grace that taught my heart to fear and

grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace

appear the hour I first believed?

Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come.

Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me

home. The Lord has promised good to

me. His word, my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

Yeah. When this flesh and heart shall

fail, and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within

the veil a life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun for bear to

shine. But God, who called me here

below, will be forever mine. When we've been there 10,000

years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing

God's praise than when we first begun crossing.

Family, hear me, If you are at rock bottom, but there is still

breath in your lungs, God is not done.

You do not have to stay in that pit.

You can be saved because Jesus is salvation.

We're moving to a time of decision.

If you're here today, or you're watching online or the crossing

inside and you don't have an intimate personal relationship

with Jesus Christ, if you're in the pit, if you're at rock

bottom, I have a really, really, really, really, really, really,

really good news for you. God will hear your prayers and

Jesus saves. And so today, if you cry out to

him, He will answer you. And in just a few moments, the

people around you are going to stand and sing, and some of them

are going to come to the steps and pray.

And what I would encourage you to do is talk to somebody who

brought you. Talk to somebody that you know

that you saw across the room that might have the answers that

you've been looking for. And if neither one of those two

sound awesome to you, you can walk right over there underneath

that screen next to the baptistry and start talking

about the God that we've been talking about, asking the

questions that might be holding you back from believing, from

following, from trusting Him. Do not waste this moment to get

right with God. To the rest of you in the room,

to those of you who are already Jesus followers, I want you to

hear me. Don't you ever doubt that in

times of darkness and hard seasons that God is not

listening to your prayers. So I want to encourage you to

use this time at the steps, calling on God, crying out to

Him, because prayer has the power to change things.

Recently I've been praying two things for a lot of people,

wisdom and courage. Wisdom to know what to do and

the courage to do it. Jonah knew what he was supposed

to do, he just didn't do it. Some of you, you know exactly

what it is you're supposed to do.

You just haven't had the courage that you need to do it.

But you don't have to muster the courage.

He will be your courage. You don't have to come up with

all the strength. He will be your strength.

I know there's some of you are going, man, I have no clue what

I'm supposed to do. Well, I'm praying that God would

give you the wisdom to know exactly what that is.

Would you guys stand with me? God, we're entrusting this holy

moment into your hands. You know perfectly what every

person in this room needs. You know what every person in

this room wants. And God, right now we're just

asking you to move in our hearts and our lives, to redirect us,

to shape us, to mold us. Got to pray for all those that

can hear my voice right now that you would make it incredibly

clear what it is that you want us to do, and then through your

Spirit that you would give us the courage to do it.

In your name I pray. Amen.