Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Pastor Rick Warren: Hello everybody. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. I'm really glad you're here. Today we're continuing our series from Psalm 23 called, Living in the Goodness of God. It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where you are and brings hope, even in difficult seasons.

And today we have the final part of a message called, Letting God Meet My Needs. Now the fourth thing is this, very important: trust him, trust God, trust Jesus, for one day at a time. Trust him for one day at a time.

Don't try to steal the whole future into today and bring it back here, have worries about all that kind of stuff that's coming up. Trust him for one day at a time.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 34, Jesus says this: "So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Anybody agree with that verse? Yeah, you don't need to borrow trouble.

He's saying, "Don't borrow trouble for tomorrow." I'm going to give you enough grace for today. I'm not going to give you the grace for tomorrow until you get to tomorrow. You don't need it today. He's saying, "Don't open your umbrella until it starts to rain." Okay?

Don't start that stuff hadn't happened yet. You can't change the future, can't change the past, just work on today. There are two days of every week you should never worry about: yesterday and tomorrow, because you can't do anything about them.

And you don't worry about the future until you successfully learn to manage today. Some of you aren't doing that good a job on that one. So why are you borrowing trouble and worrying about something that's happening in two weeks?

You see, when you think about it, today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday. And so yesterday you messed up yesterday because you're worrying about today. Now today you're messing up today because you're worrying about tomorrow.

Don't do that. Take one life, take one day at a time through your life. Now, why? Why does God say that you should only live your life one day at a time? Well, because it's true, it's the only thing you can do. You can't live in the past, you can't live in the future, you can only live today.

But there's a couple reasons why you should only live one day at a time. First, when you worry about tomorrow's problems, you miss all the blessings of today. Some of you, you got something coming up in two weeks, or a week, or a month, and it's scaring you to death. And you're making it worse because you're ruining every day between now and then by worrying about it.

What is that worrying doing? It's unhelpful, it's unuseful, all of those different things. And so you're missing today's blessing. Some of you are so worried about retirement, you're not enjoying today. You're missing the blessing of today.

And he says, "I don't want you doing that. Think it, take it one day at a time." And the other reason is, you cannot solve tomorrow's problems with today's power. When you get there tomorrow, God will give you the power and the perspective and the grace and the wisdom. He'll give you what you need when you need to get there.

But he's not going to give you the power and promise and purpose and all those things for tomorrow, today. So you're taking on a problem, God says, "I'm not giving you power for that," because I want you to trust me one day at a time. The Bible does not say, "Give us this day our weekly bread."

No, you're to pray, "Give me today my daily bread. Give me just enough strength to make it through today." He wants you to depend on him one day at a time.

Now, let me be clear as your pastor, because I love you. It's okay to plan for tomorrow. It's okay to plan for the future. Just don't worry about the future. Planning is good, worrying is bad.

Jesus highly recommends planning. There's a whole book in the Bible about planning, it's called the book of Proverbs. God says it's foolish not to plan. Like, only a fool would go all the way through life unprepared for something you know is inevitable, called death. Are you kidding me? You haven't made your peace with God, you know you're going to die, you don't know when it's going to happen.

To go through life unplanned for death, you're not ready to live till you're ready to die. So you ought to plan. Planning is good, worrying is bad. You can plan for tomorrow, but you can't live in tomorrow. You can only live today.

Now I know that the future can often seem, you know, very overwhelming. But God graciously divided it up into 24-hour segments. So you don't get all the future at once. You get it 24 hours at a time. And if God gave you all the future at one time, it would overwhelm you. But you're not there yet, you're not ready for it. And so God gives it to you in 24-hour increments.

Think of your life like an hourglass. Remember where the sand goes through the hourglass? The sand, there's all this sand up here, but it goes through one grain at a time. You can handle that. You can handle one grain at a time. You can't handle all the sand at once.

So it's not going to come at you all at once. You're going to hit the future one day at a time. You can handle that. Why? Because the Lord is my shepherd.

Now, Matthew 6:34 says this. I love this in The Message translation, it says this: "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now." Not yesterday, not tomorrow, right now. "And don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow." God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

When the time comes. Now, having said all this, is it possible that worry may be one of your most chronic sins? It's unhelpful, it's unreasonable, it's unbiblical. It doesn't work, it's irrational, it's unbelief.

And maybe you just need to say, "God, I'm sorry. I haven't been saying the Lord is my shepherd. I have been saying, 'I'm worried.' I'm worried."

Now, let me just add here: if you struggle with chronic anxiety and you've had it for years and years and years, you need more than just this. And you need a care team around you, you need a support team around you, because if you have chronic anxiety, you need, you need, first you need a doctor. You need to go and get some tests done, and you may need some meds. That's okay, it's a chemical issue. When people's chemistry is messed up, some people are chronically anxious like others are chronically angry, or others are chronically depressed.

So you need a doctor. And you need to just go get that. Then second, you need a coach, you need a counselor, you need somebody to talk with about it. So you need, you need a doctor, you need a coach, a counsel, counselor. And the third thing you need is a support group.

And you need at least those three things to make it through, because if you're having a chemical imbalance in your mind, and for me to just say, "Well, just trust God," it's like cutting off the wing of a bird and say, "Well, just fly." And it go, all, all saying all you want, fly, fly. If it doesn't have a wing, it's not going to fly. And so you, you might have to get your, your brain stabilized.

Now let me give you one last principle I want to share on this. It's not on your outline, but I want you to write it down. God is a good shepherd who will give you what you need. And here's what I want to say: what God gives to me, he wants to give through me. What God gives to me, he wants to give through me.

In other words, everything God gives you, he wants you to share with others. The Lord is my shepherd, when he meets your needs, God wants to use you to meet the needs of other people. The fact is, I don't know if you've ever realized this, but God is constantly testing how much you trust him.

Every day of your life, your faith, your trust is being tested by God. He's going to see, are you going to trust me? And he does it in many, many ways. By the way, do you know what is the number one way God tests your trust and your faith? Money, money, finances.

Why? Because we spend so much of our life trying to earn it, make it, spend it, use it, save it, invest it, whatever. And what I've learned is that the more you have, the less likely you are to trust God. Why? Because you start trusting your bank account. And this is a test. It's a test.

But when I meet other people's needs with what God has blessed me with, God gets extremely happy because God is a generous God. And he gives nine promises. I'm going to close with a verse you may have never read, it's not on your outline, so write it down, because I want you to go home and read this verse again.

Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah 58, verses 7 to 11. And in this passage, God makes some amazing, astounding promises as our shepherd. And he says, "If you'll do these certain things, I'll make sure all of your needs are met."

I'm going to read it to you, okay? It's up here on the screen. Isaiah 58:7-11. Now, he starts off with what he wants you to do. And God says this: "I want you to share your food with the hungry." Okay? You're eating well, he says, "I want you to share your food with the hungry." Then he says, "And I want you to welcome the homeless poor into your homes." That could even include immigrants. "I want you to put clothes on those who need them." Great, got it.

And then he says, "And I want you to help your relatives who need your help." Oh, come on, God! The first three I can get okay, I don't want to help that crazy uncle, he's such a flake. But God says, "I want you to help your relatives who need your help. This is a test."

Then he says, "If you do these things," and he makes nine promises. These are amazing. Look at this. "If you do these things, number one, my favor will shine on you like the morning sun." God smiles on your life, your business, your career. Number two, "Your wounds," the things where you're hurting, "your wounds will be quickly healed," because you're helping somebody else. Number three, "I will always be with you to save you." All right.

Number four, "My presence will protect you on every side." I like that. Number five, fifth promise, "When you pray, I will answer you." Now, he says, goes back a little more, he says, "Now, I'll do this if you put an end to oppression." And that would include racial prejudice and bigotry. "Put an end to oppression. And if you stop every gesture of contempt of others," including people who are politically different from you. Uh-oh.

He said, "You got to stop pointing the other side with contempt. If you stop every gesture of contempt of others, and you end your vicious talk and pointing fingers" on social media. I just thought I'd throw that in. Okay.

He says, "Okay, if you stop being such a gripy, complaining person. You stop saying, 'They're nuts, they're dumb, they're stupid,' and I don't care who your favorite group is to say that about." He said, "If you'll do that, and instead, if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry, and you take care of the needs of the oppressed, then darkness around you will turn into the brightness of noon." He said, "Your light's going to shine like crazy."

And he said, "And I, the Lord, will," here's the other promises, "always guide you. And I will satisfy your needs," that's number eight, "and I will keep you strong and well." Hello!

Pastor Rick Warren: (applause) Okay.

Pastor Rick Warren: Now, if that's not true, God's a liar, you should go home and never come back to church again, because I'm not going to worship a God who's a liar. But God has said, "If you do these things, I will do these things in your life," because I am your shepherd. Let's bow our heads.

Dear God, you are the source of everything we need to live, and yet we look everywhere else. There's nothing that we need that you can't supply. And it's really clear in your word that you do not want us to ever, ever worry about anything. You've said it repeatedly. You've told us that worry is unreasonable, it doesn't make sense, it's illogical, it blows things out of proportion.

You've told us that worry is unnatural. Nothing else that you've created worries. Everything else in creation trusts you. You've told us that worry is unhelpful. It's not going to add a single hour to our life, not make us taller or shorter. It cannot change the past, cannot control the future.

You've told us that worry is unnecessary, that you have promised to meet our needs if we'll just trust you. And you've told us that worry is unbelief, that when we worry, we're actually acting like atheists. We're acting like orphans that don't have a loving Heavenly Father, don't have a shepherd. You said, "Don't be worried. Believe in God and believe in Jesus."

So Lord, today, we want to learn to trust you to meet our needs. And we want to practice it this week. Now you pray. Say, "God, every day I want to ask you to be my shepherd. And if I have to say it 20 times a day, 'The Lord is my shepherd,' I'll remember that when I worry, you're going to feed, you're going to lead, and you're going to meet my need."

"Jesus Christ, I'm going to give you first place in every area of my life. Have access to every room in my home. No drawer, no closet, no room is off-limits to you. And whenever I worry, help me to realize that that area is an area that's not under your control, that I've held it back and that I love it more than I love you."

"God, this week and during this entire series, teach me to relax and to not hold onto my worries, not to stuff them or repress them, but to confess them. To give you my worries in prayer, to not hold onto them, say, 'God, here's a worry, I'm worried about this,' and give it to you."

"And then Jesus, help me to trust you for one day at a time. To not worry about tomorrow. It'll have enough trouble of its own, but depend on your power today to solve today's problems and your power tomorrow to solve tomorrow's problems. I just want to trust you in every single area."

"If you've never said it before, say, 'Jesus Christ, I want you to become the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Jesus, be the Lord of my life.' And I humbly ask this in your name, I pray. Amen."

Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you. Just email Rick at pastorrick.com. And now here's a closing thought from Pastor Rick.

Pastor Rick Warren: God has five purposes for your life. He wants you to know and love him, that's called worship. He wants you to belong to his family, that's called fellowship. He wants you to grow in him, that's called discipleship. He wants you to serve him with your gifts and talents, that's your ministry. And he wants you to share the good news with other people, that's your mission.

Now today as we close, I want to talk to you about the third purpose, discipleship or personal growth. How do we grow? Well, we grow through the nourishment of God's word. It's how we get to know God. To know God's word is to know God's will. God's word is the source of God's will. And God's ultimate goal for your life is for you to become like Jesus Christ. To do that, you have to fill your life with the word of Jesus Christ.

Second Timothy 3:17 says, "Through the word we're put together and shaped for the tasks that God asks for us." I remember in the Old Testament, the Bible says that Job treasured God's word more than his daily bread. That's how I want you to treat God's word. That's how you grow in discipleship. Get into his word every day. Study it, memorize it, meditate on it, apply it, never take it for granted. God's word is as essential to your soul as food is to your body. So get into the word today. God bless you.

Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.