Rick Warren - What to Do When It Feels Hopeless

Now, if you'll pull out your message notes inside your program,

we're gonna continue in this series that I'm calling the

manifestation of your life mission. Now, in the first session,

I told you that there are three ways we learn.

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

learn 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

gonna 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 no. 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 wanna

go through life, stand before God on judgment day and

God goes, well, did you fulfill the mission that I

gave you on this earth? You 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. Today,

we know that Jonah, we're looking at chapter two, ran

from his life mission. God had 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 was 550 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 boat and heads for Tarshish,

which is a seaport on the coast of Spain. It's 2,500

miles the opposite direction. And last week, we looked at

10 lessons you can learn about your life mission. Do

you know those 10 lessons? If you don't, you need

to go back and listen to that message. It's online,

the first message in this series of when God has

a life mission for your life. 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,

it was all down, down, down, down. He gets on

board a ship, he gets involved in a big storm

in the Mediterranean Pacific, 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 was swallowed by a whale. Well,

first place, a whale's 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. Oh,

there we go. That's a whale shark. They're typically about

40 feet long. That bus could hold 80 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 or 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.

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 dinette, and air conditioning

for Jonah if he'd wanted to, you know. So 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 gonna ask Jonah

how God did it. And the skeptic 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's who he claimed to be,

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

challenged him saying, we wanna 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 gonna give you, you guys, will be the

same sign 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, I'm not, you just want me to

show off. I'm not, the only miracle you're gonna 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 gonna die and three days later I'm

gonna resurrect myself, that's called Easter. Then on judgment day,

the people of Nineveh, that's the people Jonah was sent

to talk to, are gonna stand up in judgment and

condemnation of you living now. Why? Because when Jonah warned them,

they immediately repented. They changed their 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. 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 gonna have failures.

You're gonna have moments in your life where it feels hopeless.

Are you gonna 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 gonna

look up to God. I'm going to pray. That's the

first verse, Jonah 2 verse 1. From inside the fish,

Jonah 2:1

Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. Circle Jonah prayed,

you know. It's funny, I was reading this today and

I was thinking, some churches have a weekly fish dinner,

then 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 hitting bottom, you look up. He

prays to God. Now, a lot of people go, well,

if God plans everything out in our lives, why in

the world 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, and 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 his 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 gonna 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 wanna see happen in your life,

you're gonna pray about it over and over and over.

Why does God wait to answer our prayers? He can

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. He wants

first to distinguish between what's really a real desire in

your life and what's just a whim. When my kids

were little and it 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 attention.

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. 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, I really, now I know what

they really want. It's the 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? What do you want in life? Do

you care about enough to keep praying about it until

God's answer? 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'll kill you. God will never give anything that's

harmful to you. But there are some kind of problems

in life that are never gonna be solved until you

look up and you pray persistently. You can try everything

else but it's not gonna budge and 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's 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 kinda embarrassed. We were doing it in front of everybody.

And here's what Jesus said on the screen. Matthew, Mark

chapter nine, verse 28 and 29. 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,

in your parents, in your traumas, some problems that are

so deep, the only way they're gonna come out is

by prayer. And so this is a 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

are certain kinds of prayers God's just bored with. God

is bored with the trite, memorized, mechanical, methodical, memorized prayer

where you just go, now I lay me down to sleep,

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

And we have all of our little cliches, bless this

food to the nourishment of our bodies and on. 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 Jonah's dropping down in

the ocean and he's getting swallowed by this fish, that

he's praying, now I lay me down to sleep. I

doubt he's even praying, our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name. First thing, Jesus hadn't given that

to us yet. But he's not praying some memorizing, he's going, help! 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 frantic. God answers desperate prayers. God answers frantic prayers.

God answers emotional prayers. When was the last time you

got frantic with God? God hears the crisis prayer. In

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 are you doing? Hope you had a good day today.

I did too. See you tomorrow. Over and out, 10-4,

good buddy. God gets so bored with perfunctory prayers. They're

just words. 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

wanna 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

is a synonym for a complaint. You say, 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 sucks. This is terrible. This

is not right. This is not fair. That's called lamenting.

And did you know that in the book of Psalms,

which are personal prayers to God. There are 150 of those.

They're not all praise. They're not all sunshiny, happy, clappy,

the sun will come out tomorrow kind of thing. One

third of the Psalms of the Bible, of the 150,

50 of them are complaints. 50 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 are 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 laments, they cry out. There's an

entire book of the Bible full of complaints. It's called Lamentations,

the laments of God. 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 prays

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. 1 Samuel 1, so he's telling this

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

bitterly as she prayed to the 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

to the Lord. 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

1 Samuel. This is the prophet who ordained the first

king of Israel, Saul, ordained 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 kinda like to

have this. You cry out to God. This is what

Jonah's doing. He's not praying perfunctory 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 prayed in

wars and battles and all kinds, it doesn't matter where

you pray, what matters is your heart when you're praying.

I wanna read you a poem. It's over 100 years old.

It's by a guy named Sam Foss. It's called The

Prayer of Farmer Brown. The proper way for one to pray,

said Pastor Samuel Keys, is to humble yourself before the

Lord and get down on your knees. No, I say

that the way to pray, said Pastor David Wise, is

to stand up straight with outstretched arms and eyes turned

to the skies. Oh, no, no, no, said Pastor Slow.

That posture is too proud. We should all pray with

eyes closed tight and heads contritely bowed. Well, I believe

your hands should be gently clasped in front with both

thumbs pointing toward the ground, said Pastor Johnny Blunt. But

last year I fell into a well head first, said

Farmer Brown. Both of my feet were sticking up and

my head was pointing down. Yet in my distress I

called out to God with the most honest words I've said. Yes,

the best prayers I've ever prayed was standing on my head.

It doesn't matter how you are. Now I wrote a

few extra verses. I added these. Then Jonah said, these

all may be true for each one of you. So

use whichever one you wish. But as for me, my

best prayer came in the belly of a fish. It

was dark and wet and cold and scary, but my

prayers raced like a comet. They streaked across the sky

to God and he made that big fish vomit. So

when and how and where you pray are matters of

private fashion. Just be sure that when you pray, you

present your needs with passion. All right? I think I'll

stick to preaching, not poetry, okay? All right, here's the

third thing you do. When you are feeling hopeless, You're

gonna need this someday, you better write this down. Identify

the cause of my hopelessness. Identify the cause of my hopelessness.

Hopelessness is a vague feeling and you can't deal with

a vague feeling. You can't work with a problem, you

can't solve a problem, you can't even pray about a

problem until you identify the problem. You gotta identify it.

You gotta identify the cause of my hopelessness. You can't

counteract the feeling unless you name it. Have you ever

had a general vague feeling of uneasiness and you're feeling down,

you're feeling hopeless and you go, I don't know why

I feel this way. I don't know why. Well, you

can't work on it until you name it. When you

name the feeling, that in itself helps you get a

handle on it. Anything you can't name is already out

of control in your life. So if you got this

vague feeling of depression or vague feeling of down or

discouragement or vague feeling of hopelessness, you need to stop

and go, what's really going on here? What's behind this?

You need to pinpoint the source. And this is what

Jonah did. You know, years ago, I did a study

of what causes people to lose hope. And I discovered,

I read extensively, literally everything I could possibly read on hopelessness.

And I discovered that there are about 10 common causes

of hopelessness. Hopelessness isn't the problem. The problem is what's

causing the hopelessness in your life. And as interesting as

I read Jonah's vivid description of what's going through his

mind as he's sinking down and he's praying this prayer

and he's sinking below the waves and he's swallowed by

that fish, I discovered he illustrates a bunch of those

common causes of hopelessness. So for your benefit, I just

wanna point them out. I wanna read through part of

Jonah's prayer and I want us to pick out causes

of hopelessness, because then you'll know, oh, this is what's

really making me feel bad. It's not this vague sense

of hopelessness. You can't work on it until you name it,

all right? So let me read you verse three to

six in Jonah chapter two. Jonah, this is his prayer. You, God,

cast me into the deep water, and I sank to

the bottom of the sea. everything was churning around me

and I was engulfed by powerful waves that overwhelmed me.

Then I thought I've been banished from God's presence and

I'll never get to see your holy temple again. I

was scared to death, afraid I was drowning with water

choking me and the seaweed wrapped all around my head.

This is pretty graphic. I kept sinking down to the

ocean floor, to the mountains that rise off the ocean floor.

And I felt locked in a prison forever. Now in

that passage, he gives us eight common causes of hopelessness.

Now I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on these,

but I want you to check any one of these

that you may be feeling right now, because this could

be a precursor to depression or hopelessness in your life, okay?

So here are eight feelings that cause us to feel hopeless.

And Jonah mentions them all. Number one, first, feeling I'm

in over my head. Feeling that I'm in over my head.

You know, when you feel like I don't have My

situation exceeds my knowledge. My situation exceeds my ability. The

situation exceeds my finances. I'm in over my head. I've

been thrown into the deep end. Jonah says, you cast

me into the deep water. He's saying, I'm way out

of my depth. I'm in too deep. I'm in deep trouble.

When you feel like you're in over your head, that's

gonna cause you to feel hopeless. Number two, feeling I've

hit bottom. can cause hopelessness, feeling I've hit bottom. I

sank to the bottom of the sea. He said, there

was no way I could go any lower. I was

at an all time low. And that when you feel

you can't go any lower, when you feel I have

hit rock bottom or the bottom fell out and I've

gone even lower, I'm as low as you can go.

I've hit bottom, that's gonna cause hopelessness. Third feeling. Job says,

feeling out of control and powerless. Feeling out of control

and powerless. He says in the next phrase, everything was churning,

circle that, churning around me. You ever felt like that?

Everything was churning around you. You feel out of control.

and you feel powerless to change anything. You're drifting without direction.

You got motion without meaning. You got activity without clarity.

You've got pressure without purpose. You're just drifting around. Everything's

churning around me. I'm drifting around. I'm swept along by

outside forces. You're all over the map. That's feeling out

of control. and powerless, number four. Fourth thing, feeling overwhelmed.

Feeling overwhelmed can cause you to be hopeless. I was engulfed,

Jonah says, by powerful waves that overwhelmed me. I'm engulfed,

that means I'm helpless to change it. I'm engulfed, the

powerful is so powerful, I'm overwhelmed by it. Number five,

feeling rejected or lonely. Either of these could cause you

to feel hopeless, feeling rejected or feeling, that's the real

cause of the hopelessness, not the hopelessness. He says, then

I thought, I've been banished from God's presence. Aloneness can

cause hopelessness. Jonah's saying, I feel like God's a million

miles away. I feel rejected, I feel on my own,

I feel alone. That can cause hopelessness in your life.

Number six. Feeling remorse and regret. You can use this

checklist with friends when you're helping them trying to figure

out what's making them feel so bad. Feeling remorse or regret.

Jonah says, and I'll never get to see your holy

temple again. I'll never, he's filled with remorse. He's filled

with regret. He knows the problem is his own fault.

He was running from God. You can run from God

but then you can't run anymore because you can run

but you can't hide. On here on the screen, Psalm

42 verse four, David says, my heart is breaking as

I remember how it used to be. That's a cause

for hopelessness. My heart is breaking for remembering how it

used to be. I feel remorse, I feel regret, I

may feel guilt Because it was so good, but I

ran from God. I ran from God. And my heart's

breaking as I remember how it used to be. Number seven,

big cause of hopelessness, feeling crushing fear. Feeling crushing fear.

Jonah says, I was scared to death. I was afraid.

I was afraid I was drowning with water choking me.

and seaweed wrapped all around my head. Circle that word choking.

Did you know that the word worry, the English word

worry comes from the old English word worgen. Do you

know what worgen means? To choke, to strangle. Worry has

a strangling, choking feeling on your life. It can choke

the life, anxiety, worry, fear can choke the life out

of you. They can choke the hope out of you.

Feeling crushing fear. And the eighth thing he says is,

I was feeling trapped. I was feeling trapped. I felt

locked in a prison forever. Other translation, I felt behind

bars and somebody had thrown away the key. Now, as

we go through that list, Are you feeling any of

these right now? I'm in over my head, I've hit bottom,

feel out of control, feel powerless, feel overwhelmed, feel lonely,

feel rejected, feel remorse or regret, feel crushing fear, feel trapped.

Only when you name what you're feeling, only when you

identify what you're feeling, can you actually pray about it specifically.

But once you know what's the cause of your hopelessness,

Then you can go to the next step, number four.

Here's number four. Ask God for specific help. Now you're saying, God,

I'm feeling out of control. God, I'm feeling regret. I'm

feeling remorse. God, I'm feeling fear. God, I'm feeling trapped. God,

I'm feeling, any of these things we just listed, you

talk to God specifically about those things. Be specific. Jonah 2,

verse two, the second part, he says, from deep in

the world of the dead, I asked for help and

you listened to my cry. Now that deep in the world,

that could indicate that maybe he eventually died in that

fish and was resurrected. We don't know, that's just a guess.

Psalm 50 verse 15, God says, call to me in

Psalms 50:15

your times of trouble and I will save you and

you will honor me. Once I know what's the source,

I've named what I'm really feeling. I notice I have

this vague feeling of feeling bad. I know what's causing it,

I know the thorn. Then I begin to pray specifically. Now,

here's the key to asking for help. I want you

to write this down. Pray the word of God. Write

this down, pray the word of God. of God. What

do I mean by that? I mean, take scripture and

say them back to God. This is what Jonah did

to get his miracle. Jonah clearly is well versed in

the Bible because in this very short prayer, he prays

eight different scriptures. Everything he said is a quote from Psalms.

He's eight times he quotes Psalms. He's just quoting what

other people have complained about in the Bible. Now, it's

a whole lot better to pray the Bible back to God.

God loves to hear his words prayed back to him.

You say, well, what should I pray? Write these down.

Three things you should pray. Pray the complaints to God.

Pray the complaints of the Bible to God. Everything Jonah

just prayed is actually in the book of Psalms. He's

just saying, I felt this way, I felt this way.

He's quoting David. You wouldn't know that unless you knew scripture,

but you pray the complaints to God. So when you

read one of those lamentation verses or chapters or Psalms,

you can go, God, this is my prayer. And you

pray to God, God, I am angry with you right now.

You pray the complaints to God, laments. As I said,

they're in Job, they're in Psalms, They're in Lamentations, the

book of Lamentations. Number two, pray the truth about God.

That's the second thing. Pray the complaints of God, pray

the truth of God, about God. God, you're a good God. God,

you're a gracious God. God, you're a just God. God,

you're a fair God. You pray what the Bible says

about God back to God. Okay, God, here's my complaints,

they're in the Bible. Here's what the Bible says about you,

that's in the Bible. And then the third thing, you

pray the promises of God. God, you promised to do this,

now keep your word. I can't tell you how many

times in prayers I've said, God, I need you to

keep your word. God, I need you to do what

you've promised to do. You have promised right here and

I'll say the promise. If I've got it memorized, you

have promised to do this. God, I need you to

keep your word. Pray the complaints of the Bible, pray

the truths of the Bible, and pray the promises of

the Bible. Number five, fifth thing you do, focus on

the goodness of God to me. When everything looks dark,

when everything, I can't see ahead, there's a fog, it's shrouded,

I can't see the future, it's pitch black, there's no

light at the end of the tunnel, I focus on

the goodness of God to me. And what I'm gonna

have to do is I'm gonna have to mentally shift

my mind when I'm hopeless. I'm gonna have to choose

to stop thinking about the things that are making me

feel hopeless. And I'm gonna have to choose to change

the channel of my mind and start thinking about the

things that I can be, I know for sure they're

gonna lift my spirit, the goodness of God, how he's

been good to me in the past, how he's promised

to be good to me in the future and on

and that. In verse seven, Jonah says this, When I

had lost all hope, some of you listening, there are

people listening on Daily Hope right now that they've lost

all hope. When I had lost all hope, I turned

my thoughts once more to the Lord. Friends, that's the

answer to hopelessness right there. When I had lost all hope,

I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. I

turned back to the goodness of God and the greatness

of God and the power of God and the love

of God and the fairness and the justice of God

and the kindness of God. I turned my thoughts once

more to the Lord and my earnest prayer went out

to you in your holy temple. He's talking about heaven. Now,

you know, the Bible in the Old Testament is written

in Hebrew, but the Greek word for turning your thoughts

is the word metanoia. You know what that word is?

It's the word for repent. Repentance simply means to turn

your thoughts. That's all it means. Repentance does not mean

stop doing bad stuff. Repentance means change your mind, turn

your thoughts. Think about it in a different way. Look

at life from God's viewpoint instead of my own viewpoint.

Look at the goodness of God, not the problems in

my life. I turn my thoughts, metanoia, I repent. When

you feel hopeless, you need to change the channel of

your mind. You need to change your focus. You look

at your problems, you'll be distressed. You look within, you'll

be depressed. You look at Christ, you'll be at rest.

All depends on what you're looking at. You look at

the world, you'll be distressed. Look around, you'll be distressed.

You look within, you'll be depressed. You look at Christ,

you'll be at rest. All depends on what you're focused on.

You change the channel. When I had lost all hope,

I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. What

a beautiful verse. You need to memorize that verse. You

need to take it home, write it on a card

and you need to know Jonah 2.7 by heart. Everybody

who's listening to the sound of my voice should memorize

that verse because one day you're gonna be driving a

car and you're in an accident and you think this

is the end and you'll say, and when I had

lost all hope, I once again turned my thoughts to

the Lord. And that verse will be there for you.

It can't help you if you don't hide it in

your heart. The Bible has all of the things to

get rid of your hopelessness. You just don't know where

they are. And if you poured over this verse like

Jonah did, he knew the Psalms so well that when

he's drowning, he can quote eight different Psalms from memory

and he's quoting the goodness of God and he's quoting

the complaints of David and he's quoting the promises that

are gonna save him. Can you do that? That's God's

way of getting out of hopelessness. You need to start

thinking about God's word instead of thinking about your worries.

If you're thinking about your worries, it's just gonna be

swirling down, down, down, down. If you're thinking about God's word,

it's gonna be going up, up, up. Look up when

you hit bottom. Now, one of the Psalms that Jonah

remembers in quotes is actually Psalm 27. Look up here

on the screen. Jonah says, I would have despaired, I

guess so, unless I had believed that I would see

the goodness of the Lord. I would have been in

despair unless I had believed I'm gonna focus on the

goodness of God, God's goodness to me. When I lost

all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to God. God,

you're a good God. This is not a good situation

and it's my fault. I recognize it, it's my fault.

I'm here because I was running from you. It's my

sin that caused this pain, this problem. I know it,

but you're still a good God even when I'm not good.

And I will turn my thoughts to the Lord. I

would have despaired unless I'd believed that I would see

the goodness of the Lord. You know this verse that

I just read you. You just know it in the

New International Version. We sing it all the time. Look

it up here on the screen. Here's the same verse.

The Lord is my light and salvation. Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom

shall I be afraid? I will remain, this is verse 13.

I will remain confident of this. I will see the

goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

He was anywhere but the land of the living when

he's praying that prayer. I remember quoting that verse standing

out in front of my son's home when my youngest

son Matthew lost his battle with mental illness and took

his life. It was the worst day of my life.

And I remember saying, the Lord is my light and salvation.

Whom shall I fear? Whom shall I be afraid? I

will remain confident of this. I will see the goodness

of the Lord in the land of the living. He

will not return to me, but I will return to

him one day. Regardless of what you're going through, God's purpose,

God's grace, God's mission for your life is greater than

the problem you are going through right now. I will

remain confident of this. When I had lost all hope,

I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord. As

I said earlier, you need to memorize that verse. Even

when the problem is your fault, it was Jonah's fault.

He got himself into that mess. That didn't stop the

grace of God. Now there are two more lessons we

learn when you're feeling hopeless. Number six. Reject false fixes.

Reject false fixes, the solutions, and accept God's grace. Reject

false fixes and accept God's grace. Now we've all seen

people in big trouble who turn to God only as

a last resort. They try literally everything else to solve

their problem. before they'll finally in humility turn to God.

And they will try some of the stupidest, dumbest, most

worthless things instead of God when they're in deep trouble.

Instead of turning to God's grace, they turn to everything

but God. Their marriage is falling apart. Their career is

falling apart. Their body may be falling apart. Their reputation

is falling apart in shambles and they're looking to everything else.

Reject false fixes. Last summer I took my family on

vacation to Canada. We went to Banff. I'm kind of

a rock and mineral kind of guy. I love looking

at God's creations and minerals and I went into one

of these great, beautiful rock stores up there. But there

was one section that had a whole bunch of quartz

crystals in it. for healing. And they were named. So like,

you know, if you got a poor sex life, you

need this crystal. If you're bald, going bald, you need

this crystal. If you got acid indigestion, you need that crystal.

And you know, if you're depressed, you need to put

this crystal in your room. How stupid can people be?

But they're making a killing selling rocks. Now I like crystals.

but they're not gonna keep my hair in place. Jonah

2 verse eight, here's the next thing Jonah says. Those

who look to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could

be theirs. Jonah knows it's his own fault, but he

knows God is still a gracious God even though it's

his fault. He caused all this problems. Those who look

to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be there.

Now today, we don't carve idols anymore. Little idols of

stick of money, we buy them. We all have idols,

ours just look prettier. Some people idolize their car. Some

people idolize their home. Some people idolize their front lawn.

Some people idolize the clothes they wear. We idolize fame today.

We idolize fortune and wealth today. We idolize pleasure. We

idolize sex as if it's the most important thing in life.

We idolize popularity. We idolize power. We idolize all kinds

of things. We are just as idolatrous as previous generations.

All right, just idols look nicer. What do you idolize?

Anything you think about more than God is your idol.

Some people idolize their job. That's what they're living for.

The job is God. Some people idolize the next date.

That's all they're thinking about. What's gonna be my next date?

Some people idolize marriage. Getting married is the ultimate goal.

pinnacle of life. It's not. Anybody wanna give a testimony

on that one? It's a good thing I've been married

almost 45 years, but it's not God. What do you idolize?

What do you idolize? Those who look to worthless idols,

you're looking for some other solution to your problem instead

of turning to the grace of God, you forfeit the

grace of God. You know, when I saw those crystals

in that store and all the things that were promising

to cure, I thought of this verse here on the screen.

Romans 1 25, instead of believing the truth of God,

many people choose to believe lies. They choose to believe lies.

Like this crystal is gonna make me feel better. Worshiping

and serving created things rather than the creator himself. Who

made those crystals? God did. They can't talk, they can't listen,

they can't give you advice. They're idols. They can't solve

your problem. People choose to believe lies. We believe lies

all the time. Our culture is filled with lies that

we believe. If it feels right, It must be right.

That's a lie. It may feel right to you. That

doesn't make it right. If it feels right, it must

be right. That's a lie. It's just not true. I

am the master of my fate. That's a lie. You

are not the master of your fate. That's easily disprovable.

It's easily proven wrong. You didn't choose most of the

major things that made you you. You didn't choose where

you were born. You didn't choose when you were born.

You didn't choose who your parents were. You didn't choose

your race. You didn't choose your natural gifts and aptitudes.

You're not the master of your fate. Most of the

things that made you, you had no control over. It's

a lie. It's trying to say, I'm God. God is

not God, I'm God. He who dies with the most

toys wins. That's a lie. He who dies with the

most toys still dies. And we're not keeping count because

you're not taking any of it into the eternity. God

helps those who help themselves. That's a lie. It's just

not true. It's not in the Bible. God helps those

who trust him, not who help themselves. If it's to be,

it's up to me. That's a lie. If it's to be,

it's up to God. You're not God. God is God.

People choose to believe lies and they forfeit the grace

of God. Look at this verse on the screen, Philippians 3.3.

We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast

about what Christ has done already for us. That's the

grace of God. That's how you're gonna get out of

your hopelessness. Not by pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps,

We depend on the grace of God. Jonah didn't try

to save himself. When he's at the bottom of the

ocean in this big fish, he's not going, now can

I remember my lifeguard Red Cross training? I'll hold my

breath deep, I'll swim to the top, and then I'll

tread water until a Mediterranean cruise ship comes by and

picks me up. He's not trying to save himself. Stop

trying to save yourself and forfeit the grace of God

Jonah says this, Jonah 2, 6. You, O Lord, saved me,

and you brought my life back up from the pit.

That's a euphemism for death. You brought my life back up.

I was dying. He may have died. I was dying.

Now here's the seventh thing you do when life seems hopeless.

Number seven. Do what Jonah did. Express gratitude to God

in advance. Express gratitude to God in advance. Before you're

out of the situation, while you're in the belly of

the fish, while you're at rock bottom, while things are

swirling around. Now, I need to explain the difference between

gratitude before and gratitude after. If I wait until after

God solves my problem, to thank him, that's gratitude, that's thankfulness.

Thank you God for solving my problem, that's gratitude. If

I thank God in advance before the problem has been solved,

that's faith. Does that make sense? I am in faith

saying thank you God in advance for solving this problem,

for answering this prayer. If I wait till after God

has solved the problem, it's just gratitude, it's thanksgiving. That's

a good thing. But if I thank God in advance,

now I have expressed faith. Thank you, God, for solving

this problem. While I'm depressed, I don't feel like the

problem's solved, but I'm thanking you in advance. That's faith.

And God always, always responds to faith. How do I

show gratitude to God in advance? Well, notice, three ways.

Jonah did three things, and these are the three things

you need to do when you are feeling hopeless. Showing

gratitude to God in advance. Verse nine, Jonah says, I

will sing a song of thanksgiving, and I will sacrifice

to you, and I will do what I have promised

you to do because, why? Because salvation comes. comes from

the Lord. Now notice he says, I will, I will,

I will. This is in advance. He's promising, he's vowing.

I will do this, I will do this, I will

do this. He's doing it in advance. He's not waiting

till the problem's solved to be grateful. Now, write these down.

Here are the three ways you express gratitude to God

in advance. Number one, through singing. Through singing. I will

sing a song of thanksgiving. Some of you don't think

singing is important. It is. I don't have time to

go into it, it's good for your health, it's a

depression reliever. Study, psychological studies, it's good for your health.

Now I see you out there, some of you think

you're too cool to sing. Oh, I'm just cool. Everybody

else is singing, but I'm too manly to sing. I'm

too cool. Or some of you just think, you don't

know my voice, Rick, I can't sing. The Bible doesn't

say you have to have a good voice. It says

make a joyful noise. Even pigs can do that when

they eat. That's a joyful noise, okay? And in a

crowd this size, you could be a prison singer. You're

always behind a few bars and never have the right key.

but it's still a joyful noise, okay? I'm not talking

about the kind, your voice may need to be cultivated,

it's plowed under. I mean, you couldn't carry a tune

in a baggie really, but you need to learn to

sing to God. And you sing to God in advance

and you say, I will remain confident of this, I

will see the goodness of the Lord in the land

of living, I will remain. The Lord is my light

and salvation. Whom will I fear? Whom will I be afraid?

You need to sing that. You need to sing every

song every week. It's thanking God in advance. It's good

for your health. Number two, second way, he says, through

giving back to God. Through giving back to God. He says,

I will sacrifice you. I'm not only gonna just sing

to you, I'm gonna sacrifice to you. Do you give

any of the income that God has given to you

back to him in recognition that it all came from

him in the first place? That's a sacrifice. I'm gonna

give an offering. I'm gonna sacrifice giving back to God.

Number three, through recommitting to my mission. Through recommitting to

my mission. He says, I will do, God, what I've

promised you to do. Well, you said go and I said, no,

I'm taking that back. I am recommitting to my mission.

I will do what you promised me to do. You see,

Jonah messed up royally and we've all done that too.

We're all Jonas. We're all Jonas. We've all messed up royally,

but that does not stop God's life mission for you.

God still had a life mission for Jonah even though

he had rejected, done everything he could do to exactly

go the opposite direction. Look at this one verse, Romans 11,

Romans 11:29

verse 29. For God's gifts, his gifts to you, the

gifts he's given to you, you're gifted, you're talented in

certain areas. God's gift and his call, God has a

calling on your life. He has a life mission for you.

God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. It's irrevocable. It's

still in force in your life. I don't care what

you've done. I don't care how old you are. You

may have missed God's mission for your entire life. It's

still in force. Would you write this down? God has

no plan B for my life. God has no plan

B for my life, barik. You don't know what's happened.

You don't know my failure. God has no plan B.

You don't know about the affair I had. God has

no plan B. But you don't know about my divorce.

God has no plan B. But you don't know about

my bankruptcy. God has no plan B. But you don't

know about my embarrassing failure where I fell flat on

my face. God has no plan B for your life.

God's mission in your life is still in force. You say,

but I've only got three years left. Then you better

use those three years. You may have sucked your entire life.

God says there's no plan B. I didn't pull back

the mission because Jonah went the exact opposite way for

most of his life, no. God says it's still in force.

The gifts that God has given you, he hasn't pulled back,

even with all your mistakes. And the calling God has

on your life, he's never pulled back. It is irrevocable.

I've only got a little time left. It doesn't matter,

doesn't matter. I don't care how old you are and

I don't care what you've done. God's gift and call

in your life is irrevocable. You better get at it,

whatever's left in your life. Now, when did Jonah decide

to do these three expressions of gratitude? After he's out

on dry land? No, while he's still in the situation,

while he's still feeling hopeless. not after his ordeal is over.

This is how he gets out of the ordeal. And

when he does these three things, I will, I will,

and I will. When he does these three things, here's

the last verse in the chapter, verse 10. So the

Lord ordered a great fish, the great fish, to vomit

Jonah onto a beach. Can you imagine if you were

sun tanning on that beach? What a freaky thing that

would be. Here comes a big fish, spits out a man.

He comes out, the stomach acids in the fish has

probably bleached him albino. He's got fish vomit and seaweed

mangled in his long hair and he probably hit the

ground running to Nineveh. I don't think he took his

time cozily, jauntily walking along, skipping the fields and picking daisies. No,

he hits the ground running because God loves to give

a second chance and a third and a fourth and

a 10th and a 20th. We're gonna look at that

next week. God loves to give a second chance. Jonah

chapter one, we see Jonah running from God. Jonah chapter two,

we see Jonah running to God and his grace. Jonah

chapter three, we're gonna see Jonah running with God and

that's where it gets exciting. Where are you? Let's bow

our heads. Father, there are people here listening right now

who are feeling hopeless. There are some people here in

over their head and they know it. They're going, I'm

in deep kimchi, deep weeds, deep guacamole. I'm in deep.

I'm in over my head. Some feel they've hit bottom.

Help them to look up. There's some here who feel

out of control, feel powerless to change anything. And many

who are listening right now in our campuses or on

Daily Hope are feeling overwhelmed. And there are others who

feel rejected. And there's some who just feel lonely, I

feel alone. And there are others that are feeling regret

and remorse maybe guilt, and some are feeling crushed by

fear and anxiety and worry, choked. And I'm sure a

lot of people feel trapped, trapped in a job, trapped

in a relationship they can't get on with, can't get

out of, trapped in a habit, trapped in a memory.

Help them to do what Jonah did, to take these

seven steps. Help them to pray with passion, not fake, phony, perfunctory,

memorized prayers. Help them to pray with passion, help them

to pray persistently, and help them to pray your word

back to you, the complaints, the truths, the promises. Now

you pray. Say, God, I'm feeling a little helpless or hopeless.

I'm feeling a little helpless or hopeless. I'm looking to you.

I wanna turn my thoughts to you and focus on

your goodness, not my problems. You love me. Say that

in your heart. You love me. You really love me.

You will never stop loving me. You have always loved me.

Help me to never forget that or doubt that even

when I feel swallowed up by my circumstances. Father, I

wanna reject all the phony and fake and human fixes

to my problems and I wanna depend on your grace instead.

And so in faith, in the middle of my storm,

regardless of how I'm feeling right now, I'm gonna thank

you in advance for rescuing me. And I wanna express

my trust and my gratitude to you by singing, by

giving an offering, by recommitting to whatever mission you made

me for. Thank you that you are the God of

second chances. Thank you that you have no plan B

for my life. And thank you that you will use

it all for my good. Jesus Christ, I want you

to be the manager of my life. Come in and

do some house cleaning in my heart. Change my values

and my priorities. I wanna become a person of love,

loving you and loving others. And I ask you to

change me and save me. In your name I pray, amen.

God bless you, everybody.