well, if you have your bibles open up to Jonah chapter two. And while you're turning there, I want to start off this morning's message by thanking a man named O. J. 60 real person not making the name up. Um, but I want to thank O. J. XT because he is the man responsible for one of my favorite summer treats. And that is the seedless watermelon. Okay, here he was a plant geneticist O. J. XT. And in the 19 forties actually figured out a way to create seedless watermelon. Now he created this product and it didn't really take off and it didn't actually take off until the 19 eighties. And now like every grocery store you enter, you see seedless watermelon, especially all throughout the summer. And we just had it last night as we had an open house for a gnat, uh Merrin trout and just seedless watermelon. Any barbecue you go to this summer is probably going to have seedless watermelon at it and it's, it's awesome. It's an incredible treat. And the idea is, well, let's take out the seeds because they kind of get in the way and just let us let us eat. And while seedless watermelon makes for a great summertime snack, sadly, I think it also describes many churches today too by that. I mean that it's convenient. It's good. Good to taste, but at the end of the day, probably not going to reproduce or grow into anything else. You see a lot of times. That's what churches and people turn into. We, we, we think of our faith as a private one and not a public one and that depending on what surveys you look at, they say that Anywhere from two to really only 10% of all Christians actually share their faith or lead somebody else to Christ in the lifetime of their faith. And that kind of functions like a seedless watermelons where yeah, it looks good, it looks the same, it looks great. But at the end of the day, it's not going to reproduce anything. And the reason we call ourselves Mission Grove is because we want to multiply, we want to multiply individually. We want to multiply as a community. We want to multiply as a church body because God has called us to go and make disciples and that our faith is not just for us, but it's for the community. That's why you see churches everywhere that say for the community, that's why we're investing heavily into our kids ministry in the next generation because we do not want the christian faith to stop in our generation because the scary and the encouraging thing is this is that we are just one generation from both extinction and revival. Think about it. There are countries right now who their christian faith is pretty much wiped out and non existent. It only took one generation to happen, but at the same time it only takes one generation and I'm saying generation collectively as a group that's here right now, it only takes one generation to actually spark revival and we hear things like the great awakening or the jesus movement because when a group of people really catch on fire with the message of hope and love and grace, that is the gospel and we plant the seeds of faith into our community, into our families into the next generation. There's no telling what god can do and so that's what we want to do this morning is that we want to plant a seed of faith in your life that hopefully will multiply down the road. Specifically, we want to talk about the seed of prayer and the seat of prayer and how to pray when you're going through the difficult seasons in life. And so in Jonah, we, we talked last week about how Jonah is kind of a crazy story. Really Jonas kind of mixed up, he's good, he's bad, he's right, he's wrong. Everything seems flipped upside down. In fact in Jonah chapter one, everything obeyed God except for the guy who was called God's prophet. So pagan sailors obeyed God, a storm, obey God, even a fish obeyed God. But Jonah did not see Jonah received a command to go and prophesy to the city of Ninevah. Now before we cast stones of Jonah, Nineveh was seen as this cruel and even evil empire and it's literally in present day Iraq in the general area where actually present day ISIS exists. So imagine if you received the command to go and preach judgment and repentance in the middle of ISIS, you might be a little hesitant as well. Okay. And so rather than go to Nineveh and preach, he literally runs in the opposite direction. And it's interesting that when you run from God, there's always a boat available to take you further away, isn't it? Well, God, if you don't want me to go, don't put a boat right there, there's a boat. I guess he wants me to go and then we go further and didn't just go to the boat. He went in the bottom of the boat. But then there's a storm and ultimately these pagan sailors to save their lives, actually end up throwing Jonah overboard and offer a sacrifice to God and God calls the storm. And God actually shows compassion on those pagan sailors. Then also on Jonah because when Jonah thinks his life is about to end, God sends a fish. And we discussed ultimately that God's compassion is not based on our permission but on God's power. And if God showed compassion to the invites to the sailors and even to Jonah that God's compassion is available to you and to me. So here we find Jonah in chapter two and he has what I would call, he hit rock, not just rock bottom, but rock belly bottom. He is in the belly of a fish in the bottom of the sea, I don't think you can get much lower than that. Uh it's it's truth, but it's also fun to say, so, go ahead and turn to your neighbor and say rock belly bottom. So you can't say it without laughing right, okay. But it's true. Just when you think things could not get worse, he finds himself in the belly of a fish. Now, this story is kind of attacked in several ways, but people who are skeptical of scripture and say there's no way that's possible. And if that's you in the room, I want to encourage you just to keep an open mind. And and because the emphasis in this story is actually not the fish itself, but the person inside of that and really the reality that he faces. So even if you feel skeptical about the fish, just stick with me in the story and we're gonna actually focus in on his prayer. But for myself personally, if you believe that God can do the supernatural, if you believe that Jesus rose again from the Dead, if you believe that Jesus spoke creation into existence, then there's really nothing that God is not capable of doing. In fact, Jesus actually quotes and references the story of Jonah in the new testament that's found in Matthew chapter 12. And so when in doubt, I'm gonna go with jesus, If jesus said it happened, I'm going to say, I'm going with, I wasn't there, I'm gonna go with what Jesus said. And so even if you're skeptical of this fish, the reality is, is that Jonah was in rock belly bottom and he was in complete despair and it's in that despair that we can relate. People go through different circumstances to find themselves at rock bottom. Maybe it's a loss of job, maybe it's a divorce or the effects of a divorce, maybe it's the consequences of your sin being found out. Maybe it's battling a long term illness, whatever it is that you're facing, you know, we don't live in a bubblegum world. We like to think that man, if you believe in jesus, nothing bad will ever happen to you. But Jesus actually says the opposite is in this world will face trials and tribulations of many kinds but take heart for I have overcome the world. So he offers us peace in the middle of our storms, in the middle of our darkness and so whatever storm or battle or a situation that you have found yourself in or maybe a loved one has found themselves in this story that we're going to read today is for you, for myself, I consume myself, very blessed that you know, I, my my parents are here. I'm excited. My, my mom just retired and moved out and so I'm a mama's boy at heart. My mom was back in town, so that's awesome. And, and you know, married with three kids, that's great, but every single person in this room I believe has walked through some difficult circumstances for me. There were times in my life where I tested my faith or I questioned my faith and I doubted it. And I've come to realize that God is big enough for our doubts. Like when I put all my identity in sports only to tear my A. C. L freshman year of college or feeling the weight of un confessed sin and just three weeks into marriage finally opening up to my spouse. Like here's all the dark secrets I have and everything I've battled after everything. I kept bottled in to walking through the difficult times of my wife going through back to back miscarriages to being a pastor and outwardly doing ministry ministry. But inwardly feeling spiritually stuck, I actually felt like a duck on the water who on the outside it looked calm. But inside my feet were like go like this to all the ups and downs of going through foster care and adoption and and and taking care of kids and adopting our daughter and all the ups and downs that come with that. And so when I think of the difficult times in my life, I've realized that life is difficult and prayer is essential. And so I can't even pretend to put myself in your shoes right now. But I want to encourage you to put yourself in Jonah shoes because in his darkest moment literally in the rock belly bottom in the fish in the bottom of the sea, it was in that darkest moment that we have these words. He was not writing them in the fish. Okay. He was not, it was not lit in there. It was not he was not talking like nemo and dory like okay, he was not having conversations. But later we find out his words and that this is what he cried out to God in the bottom, not knowing he was going to make it out in the darkest darkest moment. So whatever dark battle or things that you face, it's in this moment we get an inside look into the heart of Jonah who had failed and he says these words, Chapter 2: verse one and then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God from the belly of a fish saying, I called out to the Lord of my distress and he answered me out of the belly of shell. I cried and you heard my voice for you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas and the flood surrounded me. All your waves and all your billows passed over me And then I said, I am driven away from your site. Yet shall I again look upon your holy temple! The water's closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me, weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountain. The fish were so low in the darkness literally in the rocks in the bottom of the ocean where you can say, I'm at the root of mountains. He says I went down to the land whose bars were closed upon me forever. Yet you brought me up my life from the pit o Lord! My God! When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed, I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah upon dry land. If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down that what we find in Jonah the heart of his prayer is this truth is that prayer is not a button to push, but a relationship to pursue. Prayer is not a button to push, but a relationship to pursue. It's not a help button. We get in trouble, panicked, hit the button, it's not a staples that was easy button. It was not something that we just cry out. It's deeper than that. Now it took a difficult circumstance for Jonah to cry out. But notice in the belly at the rock belly bottom, he's crying out with thanksgiving because he's recognizing that previous relationship that he's had with God. And he's saying Salvation comes from the Lord, that in his darkest hour in his darkest moment. We see that he's restoring his relationship to God because prayer is not a button to be pushed, but a relationship to be pursued because it's about talking and listening to the creator of the universe. How many of you ever wrestled with God? And you started with something that's like God, how could you Why? And it's natural as humans to do that, shake our fish and to cry out to God, how could you? And we wrestle with God. But what we forget sometimes is that in order to wrestle, you gotta be close and if you're wrestling with God right now, that means God is close enough to wrestle with, I have young kids at home and right now it's playful wrestling, right? And and God is wrestling and with us. But like with my kids, it's like, oh, I'm gonna get you and jump and then I just like politely like chuck them across the room. No, like I'm gentle, right? Like I'm going to wrestling and, and it's about being close. Um, it's really difficult to wrestle over facetime, right? Okay, move the phone over here, through the front. No, in order to do that, you've got to be right next to the person. And so if you're wrestling with God right now and I know it's difficult and I can't answer the question why this is happening and what's going to be the end result. But I can't tell you that if you're wrestling with God, if you're asking the tough questions that means that he is right there next to you and that our God is big enough to handle your doubts so express them. See Jonah actually this prayer that we have in Jonah chapter two actually resembles the structure of what's known as a thanksgiving song. We think of the book of Psalms 150 chapters as the book of worship. But did you know that over a third of those chapters are called lament psalms in other words psalms where people cry out to God say God, I don't understand, I don't know I am broken. I don't feel you right now, but I trust you because prayer is not a button to be pushed but a relationship to be pursued and that in our deepest, darkest hours, we recognize that God is with us, Pastor Craig Rochelle puts it this way, you experience joy on the mountaintop, but you experience trust in the valley, Joy is in the mountain top. But trust comes in the valley and that I've never grown more in my faith than I've walked through the dark valleys in my life and it's not around them but through these valleys that you find that relationship that trust when you recognize that christ is all that you have, you get a revelation that christ is actually all that you need and you're stronger than you thought you were because God has overcome the world and so in this dark moment, we see Jonah crying out to him and he gives us a structure and he gives us a path that we can connect with. But before we jump into these applications, let me just kind of have a side note here that if you know of someone or you're struggling with the idea of mental health and that's a battle that's ever present right now, I just want to encourage you that this is a starting point of the conversation, but there can be so much more and there is help out there and available. I think it's the church, we've kind of gone too far and they will just have faith. Okay, well if you're battling any other sickness or an arm's broken, you don't just tell the person who has their arm broken, just have faith. We'll go to the doctor. And so mental health, if you're struggling with an issue that's deeper than understand this and I don't know who this is for this morning, but I want you to know that you're chemistry is not your character. That sickness is not the same thing as sin and your identity, regardless of what you're walking through right now, is that you are a son or a daughter of God, you were created on purpose with a purpose and you are loved, therefore do not be afraid to share. Do not be afraid to seek help because there's hope for you and what we're about to walk through is just a starting point and I hope that we can apply this in our situations okay. So this comes from several commentators like Warren Grigsby and others, but Jonah actually gives us a structure that when we are in rock belly bottom how we can cry out to God number one, Jonah ask God for help. He asked God for help. Now on the other side of these applications is actually a very powerful truth because in order for us to ask God for help, what does that mean? That means that God is listening and that God hears, he says in psalm 1 16 1 that that I cry out to you oh God. And you hear me? Have you ever had a conversation or you thought you were having a conversation with your spouse and they went into the other room alright? Or maybe you're on the phone and it cut out for a while and at some point you lost them. But you don't know when has that happened to anybody else and you're just talking sadly I talked way too much. And so like I'll be talking with someone and I'll go for a solid couple of minutes and then all of a sudden be like, hello, hello because it's not just the idea of talking because if you're just talking to yourself, you sound crazy, right? It's talking knowing and trusting that someone that has the ability to do something on the other side is listening. Otherwise when you called for customer service and you need help, they could just put you on hold and you could just share your complaint. Does anyone else's get completely over the top? Almost just true confession too angry when they get put on hold for a complaint in customer service of a company, you know what I'm talking about? Like you have this issue, you're battling like maybe a bill that overcharged or something and and like and you're waiting and they always play this like did you know that if you go online you can resolve this issue. So I go online and says call this number. I'm like just call the number and says go online and online says call the number and like you go around and you just waiting right? And what are you waiting for? You're not waiting to speak. Otherwise you would just talk your complaint over the phone. You are waiting to talk to someone on the other side. Well, the truth is is that we have a God who hears, who listens and who knows our hearts. And so the fact that we can ask for help has power in the fact that we have a God who listens and if God can hear the prayer of Jonah in the belly of a fish in the bottom of the sea, I promise you wherever you are right now, God will hear you and it seems so simplified, but isn't it true that it starts when we acknowledge that we need help, It starts there, look for help, ask for help, ask for God's help. Secondly verse three, Jonah accepted God's discipline, he cries out for help, but he recognizes that he's in that position because of his own sin and he accepts the fact that God disciplines him. But the powerful truth on this side is that we learn in Hebrews 12 6, that God only disciplines those whom he loves. And so if you're being disciplined by God right now, it's actually evidence that he loves you when you're disciplining a child, you do so out of love for that child, right? You do. So that's why when a parent, when you see a child getting disciplined out in public, everyone's kinda like, oh well it's not my kid, I don't know, that's kind of, it's kind of awkward to watch unless you've got some pent up aggression from just going through some struggles as young parents because I used to like sit back and judge and I'm like, oh man, don't don't yell at that child, don't don't do it. Now. Now knowing the craziness of kids, I'm quietly back there, get him yo I'm ready, tag me in if you need me to jump in, I'm ready to jump in and say, you know, we brought you into this world? We can take you out now, just like or whatever phrase you want to throw in, everyone's got a phrase, right? I didn't think I would use them and it's um yeah, you know, you just do and you find yourself saying things that you didn't even expect, right? Like I don't know where that comes from. Like one time I was like, I'm gonna take all your toys and break them and I'm like, wow, that sounds really harsh, but but I didn't want to admit that, that was too harsh and they looked at me so I doubled down. I'm like, oh yeah, I'll break them and then all your electronics, I'll throw them in the pool and turn on the host and they looked at me and like, and I'm like, okay, well I won't actually do that, but you find yourself in these situations like why are you getting so worked up? Why do you want to say anything? Why do you put in time out why it's not about the discipline issue, but why do you want to discipline? It's because you love the child and you want to rear that child and you want them to grow up to be mature. And so the fact that God disciplines us is actually evidence of his love for us and we know that's true because when we're in a public place or something else goes down or something else goes wrong or something in a store breaks, what do we do? Like not my place, not my store, not my kid, right? And we kind of step back. Well, that step back in our heart is because there's not that relationship there, but in our own family and our own kids, the reason we get hurt. The reason we get upset. The reason that we discipline is because it's based ultimately in love. And so if we're willing to accept God's discipline, then we're ready to also live in light of God's love, accepting God's discipline is the idea of saying, okay, God, I trust that, you know better. Does anyone's kids in the room like to give directions from the back seat? They don't know how to drive. They're not even good at Mario Kart yet, but yet they feel like they can tell you where to go, right. Khloe, our three year old will be like, daddy turn right? No, you're not driving. No. And then I find myself having a rational argument with my three year old on what's the right way to drive? And I was like, wait a second. You're no cats driving. Just trust me. It's gonna be okay. But don't we do that with God, No, God turn left. No, God, give me this. God. You don't know where you're going. Even though you created the universe and sustained my existence. You don't know what you're doing. See when we ask for God's help and then we accept God's discipline. What we're saying is we're ready to receive God's love. And we and we moved to the third point which is that Jonah trusted God's promises. He said kind of a weird phrase when he said that, answer me O lord for I know that I will look to the temple what he was doing was actually quoting What came from First Kings chapter eight verses 38 and 39. He said whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people of Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart, stretching out his hands toward this house On another translation, it says temple, then hear in heaven in your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart, you know, I love that phrase, act and render and light of those whose heart, you know God, you know my heart and so in that truth and in that power I'm asking you to act Jonah not knowing that he would be saved out of that situation. New. Ultimately that he was saved by faith and that they're in the belly of a fish in the bottom of the sea, in all that darkness, not knowing what would come and say, I don't know what's going to happen, but God, I'm gonna trust you. Are you able to trust God even when you don't see that next step in that time of my life where I felt spiritually stuck and I was afraid to admit that because I was a pastor. So I can't be a pastor and both spiritually stuck. So I couldn't talk about it. And so I was feeling stressed. I was feeling overwhelmed. And so I realized that I kept defining myself by my own standards and by the world's standards. And it was almost like an outer world in an inner world. Has any of you ever faced that you have like your social media self and your church morning, how are you doing fine? How are you doing fine self, right. And then you have your inward battle and doubts and questions. And so I found myself conflicted and I said what if I just took time and actually defined myself by God's promises and what God says about me because if you want to know the ending of a book, you asked the author who wrote it if you want to know how to use something that was invented. You asked the inventor if you want to know the meaning of a song, you asked the musician or the artist who wrote it. And so I realized that if I need to know who I am and what am I supposed to do, I should ask the very one who created me. And so I looked through scripture and I found five promises of God. That really I started quoting every morning Romans 8 31, God you are for me, right, Joshua 1 9, God You are with me, John 14, 16 through 18 God your holy spirit is inside of me. Ephesians 2 10 God you work through me. And then 1st John 17 through nine that God even when I mess up you love beyond me. And so every day every morning for a year and a half I would wake up and say these five promises and I would just say God you are for me, you are with me, you are in me, you work through me and you love beyond me. Not if but since I know those are true, what have you called me to do today? And it wasn't immediate. But guess what? My thinking started to change. I started to get unstuck. I started to lift up. Why? Because I started to live in light of the promises of God Jonah in his darkest moment, trusted God's promises. So in your darkest moment are you willing to trust them as well? And the last one is that Jonah yielded to God's will. He yielded to God's will. He said. People like the ninja fights and pagans, they will they will lift up idols but me God with thanksgiving, I will cry out. Salvation belongs to the Lord. He said. I don't know what's going to happen but God I trust your will and even if you only saved me in this fish for this moment so that I could restore the relationship. Yeah I'm gonna yield to you. You see prayer is not just a button to push, but it's a relationship to pursue. And so when you're in rock bottom, when you're in difficulty ask for God's help accept God's discipline, trust God's promises and then yield to his will and he'll get you through. As the band comes up on stage, we're going to close with the emphasis on on two phrases, phrase number one comes in verse nine, it says that salvation is of the Lord even greater than God's saving of Jonah from a fish that jesus, the greater Jonah came down and died on the cross for your sins and for mine and rose again so that he didn't just simply cover our sins, but he conquered death and he met the very wrath of God so that if you believe that jesus christ as your Lord and savior, your sins are forgiven, you can experience heaven eternally and life abundantly. That even in our darkest moment, we can trust that God is here and that salvation is here. But then I was thrown off because you hear this beautiful poetic verse, God that ends with salvation is here and like man, then he's going to be laid onto the beach and met with roses. No, what does it say? Then the fish vomited him out. I was like wait what? It's kind of messy God and I was like well let me look up the word and so the word in hebrew is co and the verb is kaya, kaya and so you know what that word in Hebrew means vomit. Yeah, it just means that. And so it's what I found and what I understand is that sometimes salvation is messy, sometimes it's gross, but what it leads to Is a 2nd chance. It leads to redemption. It leads to renewed mission renewed relationship. Because Jonah didn't just hit a button. He restored a relationship and he did so by asking for God's help by accepting his discipline by trusting God's promises and then yielding it as well. Are you willing to do the same? Plant the seed of prayer in your life today? Don't be that seedless watermelon. Whatever difficulty you're walking through, start with prayer and God will restore. Let's pray. Dear God, Whatever situations people are walking through, I pray that you would be present with this. I don't know. Yeah. Just this morning between the time I woke up and the time we started the service. Yeah, I've spoken with five different people on extreme emergencies and difficulties and storms and rock bottom situations they're walking through right now. So God, whatever we're facing, I pray that we can pursue you in relationship that in our honesty and in our questions and in our doubts that we can just come to you. God. Let us ask you for help God, let us just accept your discipline because you discipline those you love, let us trust your promises because you are for us, You are with us, you are in us, You work through us, and ultimately you love beyond us, God. And let us yield to your will because it's your glory and your power, not our own. Thank you God for saving us. And when we are weak, you are strong, God give us faith so that we can believe and trust you in our darkness, God and your son's. Let me pray Amen.