Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Today, we're continuing our series called The Habits of Happiness. In this series, Rick dives into the book of Philippians and helps you discover God's path to true and lasting happiness. All right, we're ready to get into today's message. Here is the final part of Five Daily Habits for Happiness.

Rick Warren: The second habit is I remember what matters most. Tom's going to come and talk about the third habit for happiness.

Tom: The third habit is get to know Jesus better. Get to know Jesus better. You should start every morning when you wake up saying, "Lord, if I don't get anything else today, anything else done, I want to get to know you a little bit better. I want to love you a little bit more."

Listen, you were made, I was made to live in relationship with God. If I think I can be joyful without getting to know him better, the thing I was made for, I'm just fooling myself. A lot of you, you've had a taste of joy here or there and you're just reaching for it all the time. Where is the joy found in our lives? It's found in the number one thing we were created for: getting to know God a little bit better.

Paul discovered that. He says in Philippians 3:10, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death so that somehow I might be raised to life." So it's this thing of knowing Christ. You've got to understand the difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone.

He says, "I want to know Christ." Knowing about someone—I know about Justin Bieber, I know about Kim Kardashian. I know about those people, but I don't know those people. I know my wife, I know my kids because I've spent time with them. I have a relationship with them. Paul says, "I know Christ because I've spent time with him. I have this relationship with him."

I love this in the Amplified version. It says there, "For my determined purpose is that I may know Christ, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding him more strongly and more clearly." That phrase, "determined purpose." The truth of the matter is you don't get to know Christ by accident.

You don't just wake up one morning and just sort of accidentally fall into knowing Jesus Christ better. It's a determined purpose. It's something you have to do something about. You have to invest your time in it. Your money is not going to grow just sitting there. You have to invest it somewhere in order for it to grow. We all know that. Well, your relationship with God's not going to grow unless you, like any other relationship, invest time in that relationship.

If you meet someone who has a strong relationship with God, a strong relationship with Jesus, I will guarantee you they have spent a lot of time investing in talking to him and letting him talk to them. You don't grow a relationship without investing time in a relationship. This is a little marriage advice too, but it's also true in everything that we do. It's purposeful. It's progressive.

What's the trap? We're talking about spending time with someone, so the trap is an obvious trap. The trap with this one is the trap with all of our relationships, all of our time that needs to be spent. It is busyness. We just get too busy. We get too busy. Busyness destroys relationships. It destroys relationships with your husband, your wife, with your kids. It destroys your relationship with God because you don't spend time with him.

To get to know Jesus, you've got to make time and spend time with him. Let me tell you, it doesn't take a lot of time. If you'll just set aside ten, 15 minutes in the morning—you know this in any relationship—just a few minutes of focused time can make all the difference in the world. I'm not talking about hours and hours.

If you spend just a few minutes in the morning, evening, afternoon, whenever is best for you, in that time there's something you have to do. You have to not be busy. You have to do what Psalm 46:10 talks about. You have to be still. Some of you, those are terrifying words to you, I know. You're busy all the time. Be still. When you're still, then you know that he is God. If you want to get to know God better, you've got to spend time with him. If you want to spend time with him, you've got to make time for him.

Rick Warren: The fourth habit that you need to develop—and as I said, you can do all of these in about 15 minutes a day—is this: Review where I need to grow. You need to every day do a little personal review of your life. Take a couple minutes out of every day during your quiet time with God, and you do a spiritual daily checkup. You take your spiritual pulse.

You can do it during your quiet time. You say, "Lord, where do I need to grow? What do I need to work on? Where am I weak? Where do you want me to be stronger?" A good verse—you might write this verse down—is Psalm 139:23 and 24. Psalm 139 verse 23 and 24 would be a good verse to memorize.

It goes like this: "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, test me, and know my thoughts. See if there's anything evil or wicked in my life, and lead me in the way that's everlasting." That's a good verse. That's what I call the searchlight verse. I usually say this in the morning. I say, "Okay, God, do a little heart check right now. Do a little spiritual EEG and EKG, and tell me what I need to work on today. Where do I keep growing?"

This takes humility, but it's a habit that will lead to happiness. You see, following Jesus is a decision followed by a process the rest of your life. You can't follow without walking. You've got to have movement. Following Jesus is a decision followed by a process.

A lot of you have made the decision, but you haven't continued in the process. Some of you men in particular, you're in the family of God. You said, "Yes, I've trusted Jesus for my salvation. I know there's no way I'm going to go to heaven on my own merit." But you've never really grown. You've never taken—you're too far to the beginning part. You haven't moved on.

It's like the mom who heard a thud in the middle of the night. She gets up and goes into the bedroom and finds out her son has fallen out of bed on the floor. She said, "How did you do that?" He said, "Well, I guess I stayed too close to where I got in." Some of you stayed too close to where you got in and you haven't grown in your Christian life. You're saved, but you're not growing.

This is where you need to do a daily checkup. Say, "Where do I need to grow today? Do I need to work on anger? Do I need to work on patience? Do I need to work on getting rid of jealousy? Do I need to work on watching my words? Do I need to work on being more relaxed in your grace?"

Philippians 3 verses 12 and 13, Paul talks about this fourth habit. He says, "I don't mean to say I'm perfect," and of course he wasn't because none of us are. He says, "I'm not saying I'm perfect. I still haven't learned all I should." In other words, he realizes it's a growth process. "I'm not perfect. I haven't learned all I should, but I keep working. I keep working toward that day. I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers, I'm still not all I should be."

To me, that verse is one of the most amazing verses in the Bible because it's written by the guy who wrote most of the New Testament. Paul is an older man. He's elderly, he's in prison in Rome, he's at the end of life. He's an incredibly mature person, and yet he says, "I haven't arrived." If anybody had the right to say, "I've arrived spiritually," I would think it would be the guy who wrote most of the New Testament.

But Paul says, "No, I haven't arrived. I'm up in years, I'm up in age, I'm still growing, I'm still learning, I'm still becoming more like Christ. I'm not just sitting on my blessed assurance and waiting out the end of my life." No, he says, "I'm humble and I keep growing and keep growing."

Now what's the trap that will keep you from doing this? Write it down: pride. Pride will keep you from growing because when I pretend that I've got it all together, then I don't have it all together. Now we already know you don't have it all together. God knows you don't have it all together. You're the only one who won't admit you don't have it all together.

So you might as well stop being prideful because we already know you don't have it all together. You're not teasing anybody. It's not like the Wizard of Oz: pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. We know you don't have it all together. Humility leads to happiness because it makes you teachable.

Happy people never stop growing. Happy people never stop learning. Happy people never stop discovering, never stop stretching, never stop learning. If you've stopped growing, I can tell you you're miserable because you were made to grow. You were made to learn. You were made to be better next year than you are this year.

If you're just coasting, whenever you're coasting you're headed downhill. Every time you coast, you're heading downhill. So really, if you want to be happy, happiness and humility go together because humility says, "I'm teachable. Where do I need to learn? Okay, how can I be a better husband this next year? How can I be a better dad this next year? How can I be a better boss this next year? How can I be a better employer? How can I be a better employee? How can I be a better friend to my friends this next year?"

You do this daily habit of reviewing where do I need to grow. I relax in God's grace. I relax in God's grace and I let God show me his love. I remember what matters most. I make the number one goal of my life to get to know Jesus every day. But during that time, I also say, "Okay, where do I need to keep growing?"

The secret to growth is to be honest about yourself and to keep evaluating where you are. This is what Paul says. Look at 2 Corinthians 13:5. Paul says, "Test yourselves." Do you ever do that? Test yourselves to make sure you're solid in the faith. In other words, do a daily checkup. Review where you need to grow. Take your spiritual pulse.

Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out, and if you fail the test, do something about it. I love that in the Message.

Now there's one other habit. This is the fifth daily habit for happiness found in Philippians chapter 3, and it's this: Every day, forget what can't be changed and focus on the future. That is a habit of happiness. Every day, forget what can't be changed and focus on the future. Not on the past. Your past is past. It's over. It's done. All the worrying won't change the past at all, one bit. So forget what can't be changed and focus on the future.

Let's just be honest. You have been hurt a lot in your past. I'm sorry. As your pastor, as somebody who loves you, as somebody who prays for you, I know that you have been hurt a lot. I've heard the stories. Many people hurt severely: emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse. You've been hurt in many, many, many ways, and I'm sorry about that.

Happiness requires letting go and learning to forget. Happiness requires letting go of the hurt and learning to forget. You see, you can hold on to your pain—nobody's going to force you to let it go. You can hold on to that pain, you can hold on to that memory, or you can be happy. But you can't be both. So you've got to choose.

Why don't you choose today: "I'm going to stop letting the pain of my past control my happiness in the present." Let it go. Let it go. Happiness involves learning to forget. Here's what Paul says in verse 13 and 14: "I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us up to heaven."

Circle the phrase, "focusing all my energies." You only have a limited amount of energy. You don't have unlimited energy. That's why you get tired. It's why you get fatigued. It's why you get worn out because you don't have an unlimited supply of energy. You're a human being.

Since you only have a limited supply of energy, I highly recommend you not waste any of it on the past. Don't waste any emotional energy. Don't waste another second of your life on the past. The past is past. Would you like to change it? Yes. Can you? No. So forget it. Forget it. Use all your emotional energy on today, because that's all you've got. You can't even use it on tomorrow because you're not there yet.

"I focus all my energy by forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead." This habit is so important to your happiness. There are three traps you have to be aware of and you're going to have to deal with these in order to live a happy life.

Number one is the trap of regret. You've got to let go of regrets. That's stuff that I wish I'd done differently. We all second-guess ourselves. Are there things I wish I'd done differently in life? Are you kidding me? Of course there are. But I can't dwell on them because the past is past and I can't change it. It's done. So I'm not going to waste any emotion on regrets. That's the stuff I've done wrong.

The second trap is unforgiveness or resentment. That's the stuff that people have done to you. You've done bad things—that's guilt, shame, regret. People have done bad things to you—that's resentment, unforgiveness, and bitterness. Either way, you get stuck in the past: what I've done wrong or what others have done wrong to me. Either way, you get stuck in the past.

Holding on to resentment is dumb. It doesn't hurt anybody but you. The whole time you're thinking about that person who hurt me so bad, they're out there having a steak dinner. They're not even thinking about you. So your resentment is not hurting them. The only person you hurt with unforgiveness is you.

Let it go. For your own sake, you must forgive. Do they deserve it? No. But do you deserve forgiveness from God? No. Those who experience grace are gracious, and you let them off the hook. Why? Because God let you off the hook. Because you don't want to hold on to the pain. You want to let it go.

There's one other thing that's going to keep you stuck in the past and cause you to be unhappy, and this one's going to surprise you, but it's a trap: the trap of tradition. The famous seven last words: "We've always done it that way." We've always done it—famous seven last words.

Have you noticed that things change? Yeah, every day things change. Have you noticed your body is changing? Not for the good. Your body is changing. Relationships change, the weather changes, culture changes. Everything is constantly changing, and you cannot stop change.

So you have to decide: "I can either get mad and resist and resent these changes that are happening, or I can choose to be happy." Happiness is a choice. You're as happy as you choose to be. Remember, even in the middle of changes I don't like, I can choose to be happy.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, "If you dislike change, then irrelevancy is going to appeal to you even less." Because if you don't change with the times, you become irrelevant. Now how you handle change in life reveals your spiritual maturity. It reveals how connected to God you are. The more connected to God you are, you're connected to the eternal.

Doesn't matter what's changing down here. Anything that's in style will be out of style tomorrow. One minute you're hero, the next minute you're zero. Things just constantly change, but if I'm geared and guided and anchored to eternity, that's never changing. I'm tuned into God. Change can take place all around me and I can choose to be happy and I don't resent and regret and get mad and those kind of things.

If you want to be happy, Isaiah 43 says this: "Forget the former things and do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing." That's the fifth habit. Let's bow our heads. Happiness is a choice and in many ways it's a matter of the habits you choose to develop. These five habits in Philippians chapter 3 are all things you can do in about 15 minutes a day during a daily quiet time.

So I challenge you to make this commitment right now. Say, "Dear God," just say this in your mind, "Dear God, I want to learn to relax in your grace every day. To not try to earn your approval, but to realize you already love me and you will never love me any less or any more. I want to reject legalism: trying to prove my worth by rules, restrictions, regulations. I want to live by grace and I want to be gracious to everybody else.

And then Lord, help me to focus every day on what matters most. To not believe the advertisements, to not spend and waste and worry my life away on things that aren't going to matter even a week from today, much less in eternity. Help me to focus on the eternal: what's going to last for eternity, not what's in style.

Dear God, I want to make getting to know Jesus better the number one goal of my life. Every day I want to know you a little bit better and I want to love you a little bit more. I want to spend time with you every day in a quiet time to read your word and to pray and to listen in conversation with you.

Dear God, I want to start a daily spiritual checkup. That during my quiet time I'll just say, 'Lord, where do I need to grow?' And help me to forget what can't be changed in my past. Help me to let it go and instead help me to focus in faith on the future and what you have in store for me.

Jesus Christ, come into my life right now. I want to get to know you. I want to learn to love you, trust you. I don't want a religion, I want a relationship with you. Father, I thank you for your word that is practical, it's relevant, and it leads us to the happy life that you want us to live. When we focus on what's eternal, not what's current. I pray a blessing on all of our church family. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

Guest (Male): Wow, some powerful words from Pastor Rick today. And now this is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast. This is letters from our listeners. And now here is Rick.

Rick Warren: Have you ever noticed that your day goes better when you start with God's word? That's been true in my life and I'm certain it'll make a difference in your life too when you choose to get into God's word first thing every day. It's one of the most important habits you can develop.

Here's an email from a man named Jeremy who says connecting with God every morning has made such a big difference in his life. He says, "Rick, Daily Hope fills my mind with truth when I begin each day at 3:00 AM. Wow. I've realized that Daily Hope helps fill my mind with the good stuff and crowds out all the negative because truth and hope have really changed my attitude throughout the day."

So you can take it from Jeremy. God's word at the start of your day will change your day in a positive way. Thanks for listening today, everybody. I love you, I thank God for you, and I'm praying for you.

Guest (Male): Did you know that you can start every day with hope and encouragement from Pastor Rick? Well, you can when you sign up to receive his life-changing Bible study teaching delivered directly to your inbox. Just go to pastorrick.com and sign up for this free daily hope devotional. You'll love it. 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.