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. All right, we're joining Rick with part two of
a message called what to Remember when things don't go your way. We want
to be forgiven. We want God to show us grace. We want God
to show us mercy. But that guy who heard to be no you God,
you get him. He deserves justice. Do I deserve justice? No?
I deserve grace. I deserve mercy. Jonah wants God to forgive him,
but he doesn't want God to forgive anybody who's hurt him. And he's
resentful, and he's resenting that God is actually showing mercy to somebody who hurt
him. He's resentful that God is showing mercy and forgiveness to somebody. He
doesn't like his enemies, and he wants forgiveness for himself. He wants justice
for everybody else. So let's just get real today. Let's don't talk about
this guy thousands of years ago. Let's talk about you. Who do you
want God to not forgive? Who do you want God to not forgive?
Please? Don't forgive him God. They hurt me too much. Who has
hurt you so much that you don't want God to show them mercy? This
is the Djonah trap and it happens as much today as it did to this
guy a long time ago. Who is it that hurts you so much you
don't want God to show mercy? Who are you unwilling to forgive that God's
already forgiven. God's already forgiven him, but you won't because you think you're
better than God. You are only hurting yourself. You're not hurting them.
Holding on to that resentment, holding on to that hatred, holding on to
that hurt is not hurting them. All it's doing is making you miserable.
Who are you unwilling to forgive that God has forgiven? I remember a guy
came to John Wesley one day and he said they were talking about A guy
said, Oh, I could never forgive that guy. I could never never
forgive that man. John Wesley said, well, then I hope you never
sin. Why because when you don't want to burn the bridge that you have
to walk across to get to heaven, let me show you what Jesus said
up here on the screen. Jesus said this, If you forgive others the
wrongs they've done to you, your father in heaven will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others, then your father will not forgive the
wrongs you have done. Oh, when you refuse to forgive, you're burning
the bridge you have to walk across to get to heaven. If you're unwilling
to forgive others, God says, why should I forgive you? If you're
unwilling to show grace to others, why should I show grace to you.
You want everybody else to have justice, but you want to have mercy.
That is the Jonah trap, That is the Jonah mistake. You need to
learn to forgive everybody who's ever hurts you for three reasons, past, present,
and future. Now listen very closely. Three reasons. You need to
let it go, no matter how badly do they deserve it a course not,
but you don't either. Forgiveness is never deserved. Forgiveness has never earned.
Forgiveness is just a gift. You don't forgive them because they deserve it.
You forgive them because you want to feel better. You do it for
your sake. You let them off the hook for three reasons. First,
I have been forgiven a lot in the past, so I need to forgive
other people. Second, holding on to the hurt right now just makes me
miserable. I end up thinking about people I don't want to think about.
And I'm gonna in the future need more forgivenes in the future because I'm certainly
not going to be perfect from here on out, So I need to let
it go for all three reasons. Past I've been forgiven. Second, I
don't want to be miserable now, And third, I'm going to need more
forgiveness in the future. Friend. You got to let it go. You
got to let it go, not because they deserve it. You didn't deserve
the forgiveness God's given you. You let it go because holding on to it
hurts you. Now Jonah gets mad because God does good things to people who
are repentant. And Jonah gets irritated because God shows grace to people that Jonah
didn't like. You'd think he'd be more gracious. God had shown him an
awful lot of grace for his stinky attitudes and his rebellion and all that.
So Jonah doesn't want those people and then of it to be forgiven. He
wants them to be destroyed. He wants the whole city to be wiped out.
God, it said, I want you to go warn him so I
don't have to wipe about I want you know. There's one other possible motive
that Jonah has, and we see it in the Living Bible translation of Jonah
Chapter four, verse three. Up Here on the screen, Jonah goes,
I'd rather be dead than alive when nothing that I told them has happened.
What's he worried about? Here? His reputation. He said, God,
you told me to go to nineve and go in forty days, the city
will be destroyed. If you don't turn, you don't repent, if you
don't come back to God. And now it hasn't happened. That makes me
look bad. God. He's more worried about how he looks than people's salvation.
He'd rather see an entire city destroyed than him look bad. He goes,
you know, it's better for me not even be alive. This makes
me look bad. I'm worried about how I appear to others? Are you
now? Because of this? In the second half of this chapter, God
has to teach Jonah an object lesson and it's one that we all have to
learn. We're going to look at this now. We know that life is
filled with interruptions, with dead ends. You know, you think you're going
that way in and just a dead end with detours in your plans in life,
all of our plans, they just get kicked out the side of the
door so so often, and we get so many messed up plans in our
lives. What should I remember when things don't go my way? Well,
you need to remember four things and that's what the last half of this chapter,
This last chapter of the Book of Jonah teaches us four things to remember
when things don't go your way. Now, things aren't going to go your
way a lot in your life, so you need to write these down,
and you need to remember. This is what I need to think about when
things aren't going my way, when my plan doesn't match God's plan. Number
one. First, when things don't go my way, remember four things to
remember. Remember God can see things I can't. I just have to remind
myself when things aren't going my way that God can see things that I can't.
Joonah is all upset that God had said, I'm going to destroy this
city if they don't turn to me. They turned in me. He said,
I'm gonna let him off. He's upset about that, and the verse
four it says, then God asked Jonah, who's all ticked off, What
right do you have to be angry over what I've done? Why should you
be angry that I've forgiven these people here going? Are you God? Are
you wiser than me? Can you see things that I can't see? Any
time you doubt God's wisdom, You're gonna get in trouble because God is God
and you're not. And when I have my plan and all of a sudden
God has his plan, and God's plan is different than my plan, and
I start to get upset about it. I just need to remember. God
can see stuff I can't see. God can see the past and the present
and the future all at the same time, because he's not limited by time.
We're on a planet that circles twenty four hours, you know, around
the sun, and rotates, but we have a time. If you weren't
on this planet, your concept of time would be very different. God is
timeless. He can see the past, president, and the future all together.
He can see what you can't see. So you need to trust his
wisdom. When we doubt God's wisdom, we get in trouble. God had
to deal with this with a lot of people in the Bible, not just
Jonah, another guy named Job look up here on the screen. The Bible
says in Job thirty eight two and three, the Lord said to Job,
who are you to question my wisdom? Where were you and I made the
world? Not a bad question? Where were you when God made the world?
Are you God? Do you see things he doesn't see? Do you
know more than he knows? Do you think your plan is better than his
plan? Where were you when I made the world? God says? He
says, Do I need your advice to change plans? No? Do I
need to consult you when I know what's going to be better for you?
No? Are you being a little presumptuous? Yes, I said, I
just need to remember when things don't go the way I planned. God is
God and I'm not, and I just need to trust him, and I
need to trust his wisdom. I need to trust that he can see things
that I can't see on the screen. Ecclesiastes, chapter three, verse eleven
says this God does everything just right and on time. So he always does
the right thing, and he always does it at the right time. God's
never late. We might think he's late, but God's never late. God
does everything just right and on time. But people can never completely understand what
He's doing and see the whole scope of his work from beginning to end.
We don't see what God sees you. Trying to understand God's plan is like
an aunt trying to understand the Internet. I don't have the brain capacity to
see from beginning to end. And see all of history, and you don't
either. And so the first thing I have to do is remember that God
can see things I can't see. So God said, don't doubt me.
Don't doubt me when you're going through tough times. I know what's going on.
I can see where it's headed. I know the ending. I know
the end of the story. I've read the last chapter. So he said,
don't doubt me. Remember that God can see things I can't. So
this is the first thing Jonah has to learn. Now Jonah leaves the city,
okay, And in the next verse, verse five, it says,
then Jonah left the city with Nineveh, and he found a place of the
city to sit down, and there he tried to make a temporary shelter to
sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city. Now,
do you see what's going on here? Jonah is still hoping. Even
though God says he's going to forgive the city, Jonahs still hoping God's going
to destroy him. And so what he does is he leaves town. He
goes out up on a hill outside of town, and he sits down to
watch the show. He's waiting for God to destroy the largest city in the
world at this time. Okay, this is going to be a good show.
So he gets out there and he's ready, and he sets up his
long chair and lawn chair and he pours a nice team, gets out his
chips in guacamole, and you know he's waiting to see a city destroyed.
He said, man, that's a little gruesome. How entertaining is it to
watch people be destroyed, killed and cities destroyed? Well, they're called blockbuster
movies. I mean, thousands of years later, people pay big money to
go see cities destroyed and people kill. So he thinks, I'm going to
be entertained by this. So he's sitting out there in his chair waiting to
see what will happen. The problem is it's a hot, hot, hot,
dusty Deserty day, and Jonah doesn't have a beach umbrella, so he's
getting hot. And that leads us to the second thing you need to remember,
because what God does next is pretty unusual. Number two. Write this
down when I'm going through a tough time that I don't understand. What I
need to remember when things don't go my way is remember God is good to
me even when I'm cranky. God is good to me even when I'm cranky.
Now, Jonah, he's mad at God, but God's still going to
be good to him. And in the next verse, verse six, it
says talks about that even when you're at atitude stinks, God is still gracious
to you. Verse six, Then God arranged Jonahs out there sitting under the
hot sun. Then God arranged for a broad leaved plant to spring up quickly
and provide shade for Jonah from the hot sun and to relieve his discomfort.
This made Jonah very happy and comfortable. Jonah's being a total jerk, God
still cared for his discomfort. Okay, this is kind of cool here.
Okay, now, notice then God arranged circle that word arranged, it's the
same word where it says God arranged a great fish he custom made. He
custom made a broad leaf plant to spring up quickly and provide shade over Jonah
while he said He's worried about Jonah's discomfort. Even though Jonah's attitude stinks.
God cares about you, friends, even when you're a jerk. And he's
saying here that you have no idea how many times God has made your life
comfortable when you didn't deserve it. You may have been going the exact opposite
of God, and God's still covering you with shade. You may have been
ticked off with God, you may have been totally ignoring God, and God
was still caring for your discomfort. Because that's the kind of God God is.
He loves you even when you're unlovable. He loves you even when you're
unlovely. Here's jonah mad at God for God changing the plans and going,
I'm going to forgive those people. He's out there and he's complaining about how
hot it is, and God takes care of his discomfort. I need to
remember that God is good to me even when I'm cranky. And I need
to remember that I have no idea how many times God has made my life
easier when it could have been harder and I didn't deserve it. I didn't
deserve it at all. It was simply the grace of God. Here's the
third thing to remember when things don't go as plan. I remember God sees
things I don't see. When things don't go as plan, I remember that
God is good to me even when I'm cranky. And number three, when
things don't go as plan. I remember that God is in control of every
detail of my life. God is in control of every detail of my life,
the big and the little, the large and the small, the fast
and the slow, every detail in my life. Plans in your life,
friends, don't fail randomly. I'll say it again. Plans in your life
don't fail randomly. There is a purpose. There is a reason behind everything,
everything in your life. Now, God has to teach this lesson to
Jonah. So he actually uses the object lesson of this plant that he's grown
up to give comfort to Jonah that God is in control of every little detail
of my life. And in the next you know, so God had arranged
for this plant to spring up and provide shade while he's sitting out there waiting
for the show to happen, the show of destruction. But in the next
verse it says this, but at dawn the next day, God arranged.
There's that word again. God is custom designing. God arranged for a small
worm of great a small worm to chew through the stem of that large This
is going to be an object lesson chew through the stem of that large shade
lesson a shade plant. So that it withered and died. Then when the
sun arose, God arranged there's another word again, a scorching east wind.
And the sun blared so hot on Jonah's head that he grew faint, and
he wanted to die, and he said again, it would be better for
me to die than to live. Okay, now, so far we've seen
God arranging all kinds of things in Jonah's life. Okay, he's arranged the
fish, He's arranged a plant. Yeah, he's arranged a worm. God's
using all, in fact, in fact, all look up here on the
screen. Here's all the stuff that God had arranged in Jonah's life. The
Bible tells us in chapter one, verse three, God arranged a great wind
to create a storm. Then it says, in verse seven, God arranged
the dice to reveal that Joonah was the problem. You remember that part of
the story. Then it says God arranged a great fish to transport Jonah back
to where he was supposed to be. Then it says God arranged a fast
growing plant to provide shade, and then it says that God arranged the worm
to eat the plant for breakfast. It's all been aroned now, I want
you to listen to me. The things that you think are disappointments in your
life. Disappointments are His appointments. Disappointments are his appointments. Disappointments are his
appointments. Disappointments. What looks like a disappointment in your life is His appointment.
It may not be your plan, but God has a plan, and
God is God, and you're not. The more you fight God's plan,
the more miserable you're gonna be, and you're gonna have frustration and anger and
self pity and depression and maybe feel like taking your life. But if you
go with the flow and say, God, I trust your wisdom, and
I trust that you're good to me, even when I don't deserve it.
You're good to me, even when I'm a jerk. You give me comfort.
I mean, I may be running from you completely, I'm still breathing
air, I still drinking water, my heart's still beating. Those are all
gifts of God. I wouldn't last one second without the grace of God,
and you wouldn't either. You know, people are being transformed by these messages.
In fact, here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners today.
I want to share a testimony from Ella, who listens to Daily Hope
in Canada and she started listening to our broadcast during COVID nineteen pandemic. She
wrote, Pastor Rick, like so many, I found every area of my
life flipped upside down when the pandemic hit in twenty twenty. I graduated from
the university in April that year, and I was lost and desperate for guidance.
Yet as stubborn as I was, I searched for answers everywhere else except
in God's Word. But out of desperation, I read the purpose Driven Life
and I started listening to Daily Hope. Daily Hope was one of the resources
that became monumental in my journey to giving my life to Christ a year after
I started listening. And so I want to thank you, and I want
to thank everyone at Daily Hope for all the work that you do. It
must seem so abstract when people you reach are all over the world, but
I know I'm not alone, and saying that Daily Hope has helped me find
comfort and God when I needed it most. Wow, Ella, thank you
so much. Thank you for writing, thank you for telling me that you've
accepted Christ. You know, I know so many people who are just like
you. They're lost, They're looking for answers, and they keep looking everywhere,
but in the right place, God's word for the truth. But praise
God, you found the word of God. You believed his word, and
you believe that Jesus is the truth. So it's a blessing. It's a
blessing to know that God is using this broadcast to help bring you and other
people to Him on a daily basis. Now, you mentioned that it must
be unusual to reach people around the world even though I'm not able to meet
him face to face, and I'd like to say this, I wish I
could meet everybody face to face. I wish I could take every one of
you out to a corner restaurant, sit down and have a cup of coffee
and just let me hear your life story. I would Nothing would make me
feel happier than doing that. But that's why I'm blessed to receive letters.
Please write me, Please tell me your story. I want to know how
God is changing your life, how God is using his word through daily hope
to make a difference in you. So let me know what God's doing in
your life. Let me know how he's using Daily Hope to help you in
your Christian walk, and that way we can pray intelligently for you. If
you'd like to bless Pastor Rick by letting him know how much this broadcast has
helped you, please send him an email at Rick at pastorick dot com.
That's Rick at pastorick dot com. We hope you'll join us next time when
we look into God's Word for our Daily hope. This program is sponsored by
Pastorick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support