Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Pastor Rick: Hello and thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. And today we are continuing in a series called The Miracle of Mercy. Rick will show us how God's mercy can lift your guilt, heal your wounds, and transform the way you live. And now here's part two of a message called God Can Use Anybody.

Pastor Rick: Now, here's the third key, the third secret of being used by God the rest of your life, no matter what's happened in your past. Here it is. Number three: Remember, it's not about me.

Pastor Rick: Remember, it's not about me. Now, every time you forget that, you're going to either get bitter from problems or you're going to get prideful from blessings in your life. And when you forget that it's not about you, you take everything personally.

Pastor Rick: In verse 5, Paul gives us this third key. He says this, "Our message is not about ourselves. It's about Jesus Christ." It's about Jesus Christ as the Lord. "We are merely your servants for Jesus' sake." He uses this phrase for Jesus' sake twice in this chapter. He says, "It's not about us. It's all about Jesus."

Pastor Rick: Do you, does anybody remember the first sentence of The Purpose Driven Life? It's not about you. It's not about you. That is the most counterculture statement you could possibly make in today's society. It's not about you. It's the exact opposite of everything you're taught.

Pastor Rick: Because everything else in our society says, "It's all about you." Every advertisement appeals to your self-centeredness. It appeals to your narcissism. Every single message you get every day goes, "It's all about you." "We do it all for you. Have it your way. You deserve the break today. Today you get the best. You're number one. It's all about you. You need to think of what's best for me. I need to think of what's best for me." And on and on and on.

Pastor Rick: Every a thousand times a day our society says, "It's all about you." It's very hard to live an unselfish life in today's culture because our entire culture and our entire economy is built on the fact that everybody says, "No, no, it's all about you." It's not. You are not the center of the universe. God is the center of the universe. And when you live a self-centered life, as I said, you become frustrated, you become unfulfilled and eventually you become bored.

Pastor Rick: You know, when I wrote that sentence in Purpose Driven Life, the first sentence of the book, it's not about you. Honestly, I had no idea that I was going to be tested on that sentence every day for the rest of my life. I, sometimes 30, 40 times a day, I have to say that sentence to myself. "It's not about you."

Pastor Rick: And, and when I get a great opportunity to do something, I go, "It's not about you." And when I face a big, big problem, I go, "It's not about you." And when I'm criticized, fairly or unfairly, I go, "It's not about you." And, and when I'm praised and somebody says something nice, I go, "It's not about you." And when somebody gets angry, I go, "It's not about you." And when somebody's upset because their need's not being met, "It's not about you."

Pastor Rick: I, I sometimes have to say that 20, 30, 40 times a day to myself. "It's not about me." In fact, sometimes I wish I hadn't written that sentence. Because I did I didn't want to be tested on it every day for the rest of my life. But God's going to say, "Okay, Rick, you wrote it. Are you going to live it? Are you going to live it? It's not about you. It's all about God."

Pastor Rick: Now, learning to follow Christ and learning to let Jesus Christ use you in an amazing way is all about motivation. God is far more interested in why you do what you do than what you actually do. There might be a hundred things you could do with your life that God would say, "Fine, that's great. I made you, I shaped you. Any one of those would be fine with me." There might be a hundred different things God would say, "That would be fine for you to do with your life." What he is interested in is why you do it.

Pastor Rick: God is not interested in your methodology as much as he is interested in your motivation. You can have the the right methodology, and you do everything right, and you're very successful in life. But if you've got the wrong motive, it doesn't count with God. On the other hand, you could really mess up and you do it all wrong, and you have so many failures, and you have so many mistakes. But you got the right motive, God goes, "That's good enough."

Pastor Rick: Why is always more important than what. And when you figure out why you do what you do in life, God will show you how. It's always about motivation, and you got to remember it's not about me. So you have to continuously ask, "Why am I doing this?" I see this happening all the time in in people, uh, who become believers, they become followers of Christ, and, and then they want to get involved in like a a ministry of Saddleback Church.

Pastor Rick: Uh, we have every week over 25,000 people volunteer their time for free in one of 550 ministries in the community. We don't do ministry in the church, we do it out in the community, helping other people. And over 25,000 people, every week, volunteer their time in this church. And I notice that when they first start serving as a brand new believer, you're doing it with the right motivation. You're, you're you're out of gratitude to God. Nobody's telling you to do this.

Pastor Rick: Nobody's, you're not fearful, you're not pressured, it's just, "I I want to give back. God has saved me. I want to do something with my life. I want my life to count." And, and I I just in gratitude, I want to serve God. But I see slowly over time, sometimes people who are doing a particular work or service or ministry, all of a sudden the motivation starts changing and all of a sudden I do it for the wrong reasons. I like the approval I get. I like the applause I get.

Pastor Rick: It makes me feel important. And all of a sudden, I'm doing it for me. And a lot of times, what happens is people who start off as servants end up as celebrities. I see this happen in pastors all the time. You know, I coach pastors. Success is actually not really good for pastors, because it can mess with your mind, particularly if you have a lot of success early in your life, in your ministry, in your church. And I see guys who started off genuinely loving God in in serving Christ in their church. And they turn from servants into celebrities. And they're not realizing, "It's not about them." It's not about them.

Pastor Rick: They're doing it for Jesus' sake. Now, Paul is crystal clear. Twice in this passage he says, "I do what I do for Jesus. I do it for Jesus' sake, not for me." And he says, "We're just servants for Jesus' sake." Now, down in verse 7, he continues this. And he says, "You know, we're just like clay jars." We're just like jars of clay, in which this treasure is stored. God puts his power, God puts his love, God puts his mercy inside you. You're just a jar of clay. He puts this treasure in you. He says the real power comes from God and not from us.

Pastor Rick: So he says, "You know, our frail bodies are like clay jars." Some of us have big jars. Okay? What happens if you drop a clay pot? It breaks. And we're all crackpots. We're all crackpots, we're all broken, we're all flawed, nobody is flawless, nobody is blameless, and we're all a little cracked. And that's okay, because when it is through the cracks that the light can shine out and the glory of God shines out.

Pastor Rick: See, a lot of people think that God wants to use your strengths. Well, he does, but he actually uses your weaknesses even more than your strengths. Because as I as I just said, when you, when you, when you go out and say, "Hey, let me tell you what I'm good at." I could tell you all the things I'm good at, all the awards I've won, all the opportunities I've had, and you go, "Well, goody for you." That doesn't make us feel close.

Pastor Rick: And when people you share your strength, people, they resent you, they're jealous of you, they're envious of you, and they're just, they blow you off, go, "That guy's full of pride. She's full of pride." Whatever. On the other hand, when you share your weaknesses and you share, uh, uh, the problems you're going through, and you share how God shines through your weakness, people go, "Wow." It draws them close. It pulls them in intimacy.

Pastor Rick: This is why a lot of marriages aren't close. They don't share their weaknesses with each other. Hasn't ever got to that stage. God has always used flawed instruments. Everything, every person God has ever used was flawed, except Jesus Christ, because obviously he was the son of God. I'd have to admit, looking back over my life, that, um, I've gone through four stages in dealing with with my own weaknesses.

Pastor Rick: When I was a young man, uh, I actually just uh, denied my weaknesses. I was so afraid of my own weaknesses, I wouldn't even admit them to myself, much less anybody else. And sadly, you can find people who are 30, 40, 50 years old who can't admit their weaknesses. Uh, and, and they they they they never apologize for anything, and they won't admit when they're wrong, and they can't admit their weaknesses. And anytime you find somebody who can't admit a weakness, you know this, they're extremely insecure.

Pastor Rick: The more secure you are in God's mercy, the more secure you are in God's love, the more open and honest you will be about your weaknesses. The more insecure, when you don't feel God's mercy and you don't feel God's love, the more you're going to deny your weaknesses. And I did that as a young man. I denied my weaknesses. I wouldn't even admit them to myself.

Pastor Rick: Later, they just got so big, I couldn't deny them anymore. And so I moved to phase two in which I just hid them. I knew them. I knew my weaknesses, but I didn't want anybody else to see them. So I I hid my weaknesses. And that always makes more stress, and it can give you fear and panic and all kinds of things when you're hiding your weaknesses. And then I finally moved, and this was decades ago, where I actually accepted my weaknesses. And I said, "Okay, this is part of the package."

Pastor Rick: You are a bundle of both strengths and weaknesses, and so am I. You have some great strengths in your life, but you also have some major weaknesses. They do not cancel out each other, both are true. I have some great strengths in my life, but I also have some great weaknesses in my life. And God gives us these both so that we don't get too prideful and think we don't need God, and think we don't need other people. But I I finally accepted them. And then a couple decades ago, I actually started glorying.

Pastor Rick: glorying in my weaknesses. I go, "Hey, look at my weaknesses. God is using me. I am a trophy of God's mercy. I am a trophy of God's grace. I don't deserve to be the pastor of Saddleback Church. I don't deserve, I didn't deserve to write Purpose Driven Life. I don't deserve all these places I've been invited to speak all around the world and meet with famous people." None of that. It's all just God's mercy in spite of my weaknesses. And when you do that, then God can use you. You realize it's not about you.

Pastor Rick: You see, humility is not denying your strengths. Humility is being honest about your weaknesses. God only uses humble people. God does not use prideful people. But pride is not going out and saying, "Well, I'm just not good at this," when you really are. No, that's fake pride. That's false pride. That's actually, uh, uh, you know, a false humility. It's that's actually pride. A false humility says, "I'm not really good at this," when you really are and you know you are good at it.

Pastor Rick: It's okay to say, "Hey, I'm good at this." There's some things in your life you're good at, and it's okay to admit it, "I'm good at this." But it's the mercy of God that made me good at this. I was just, I didn't ask for my talents, it's just what God gave me. So thank God, I'm good at this. But then at the same time, you go, "But I'm not good at this, or this, or this." That's true humility. Not putting yourself down. It's humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

Pastor Rick: And, and, and all of a sudden the focus is not on you, you focus on everybody else. I've told you this before. You walk into a party, and if the first thing you're thinking is, what does everybody think about me? That's pride. When you walk into a room, the same room, and you go, "What do these people need that I might be able to give them? Who's in pain here that I might be able to help?" That's humility. You're not thinking less of yourself, you're thinking of yourself less. And so, you admit that it's not about me.

Pastor Rick: Now, here's number four. And this is a really big one. And if you get this, God will use you and bless you in ways you cannot possibly imagine. Paul talks about this in the next passage, and it is this, "Use my pain to help others." This is a secret of being used by God. "Use my pain to help others." If you do this, God will bless you in ways you cannot possibly imagine. Use the things you're ashamed of. Use the things that have hurt you the most.

Pastor Rick: Use the things that have been problems in your life in order to help other people going through those same things. Use my pain to help others. Now, Paul went through enormous pain in his life, which was why Paul could be used by God in enormous ways. Look up here on the screen. Later in the same book, Second Corinthians, he says this. He's given his testimony about pain.

Pastor Rick: He says, "I've worked much harder. I've been in prison more frequently. I've been flogged more severely and been exposed to death again and again in my ministry," in other words, the work that God has me doing. I, I he says, "Five times I've received 39 lashes." Now, think about how many scars were on the back of Paul, five times 39. That's how many stripes, how many scars he had on his back. "Five times I received 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned." And it's not the kind of stone you're thinking of.

Pastor Rick: He says, "Three times I was shipwrecked out in the Mediterranean, you know, sea." Not once, not twice, three times I was shipwrecked. He said, "I spent a night and a day in the open sea," one day just holding on to driftwood after one of those shipwrecks before I floated ashore at Cyprus. Uh, and he says, "I've worked much harder. I've been in prison more frequently. I spent a night and a day in the open sea and I've been constantly on the move." He said, "I'm never able to settle down. I'm always on the move because I'm trying to help other people."

Pastor Rick: He said, "I've been in danger from rivers, I've been in danger from bandits, from my own countrymen, from Gentiles. I've been in dangers in the city, in the country, at sea. I've been in danger from false brothers, people who betrayed me and cheated me. He said, "I've often gone without sleep. I I I've known hunger, and I've known thirst, and I've often gone without food. I've been cold, I've been naked, they took my clothes away. Besides everything else, I face the daily pressure of my concern for all the churches." And tell me again your problem?

Pastor Rick: And you think you got problems? Paul was used in an enormous way because he had enormous pain, and he used it for good and God. Now, if we were to bring Paul here on this stage today and say, "Paul, why did you put up with all that? Why did you go through all those beatings, and all those whippings, and allow yourself to be thrown into prison so many times, and, and robbed, and, and, and, and why did you travel by foot all over, you know, the Roman Empire and, and why did you put up with shipwrecks and go without food and and go without water and and why did you put up with going without sleep and without comfort and without safety and and why did you never give up?" And he would say the same thing, "I'm using my pain to help others.

Pastor Rick: I want to bring people to Jesus Christ. I'm using my pain to help others." Here's his response, verse 8 and 9. He says, "We often suffer, but we're never crushed. And even when we don't know what to do, we never give up. In times of trouble, God is with us. And when we're knocked down, we get up again." Now, you're going to go through pain in your life. You may as well use it for good. Don't waste your pain. You're going to have pain in your life. Use it to help others.

Pastor Rick: In next verse, verse 15, he says this, "Now, all of these sufferings that he's gone through, all of these sufferings of ours are for your benefit." This is called redemptive suffering. It's suffering for the benefit of other people. In life, there are three kinds of suffering. Three kinds of suffering. The first is the kind of suffering that we bring on ourselves. We do this all the time. You know, eat the wrong food, you don't exercise, your body is going to suffer from it.

Pastor Rick: Um, we we we bring a lot of problems, a lot of suffering we cause because of our poor decisions, words we say, things we do, responses we make in relationships, and bad decisions. And so a lot of suffering we we we just bring on ourselves from our own poor judgment. That's one kind of suffering. God can even use that though to help other people. The second kind of suffering is innocent suffering. Through no fault of yours, you're hurt by somebody else. You may have been molested, you may have been raped. I'm sorry.

Pastor Rick: You may have been abandoned, you may have been rejected. And, and many people, all of us have been have suffered innocently at the hands of other people. You may have been scammed, you may have been ripped off, you may have been cheated on, somebody who was unfaithful to you. And we're all hurt by the sins of other people, and that's innocent suffering. God can use that too for good. But the highest form of suffering is redemptive suffering where you choose to put up with pain and problems in order to help other people.

Pastor Rick: In order to bless others. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, he was doing redemptive suffering. He was redeeming the world. He was paying the redemption for your sins. He wasn't dying for his sins, he was dying for your sins. That's redemptive suffering, suffering on the benefit of others. Now, God can use all three of them for good, even the ones you bring on yourself. He can use it all for good, if you'll give it to him and say, "God, I want you to use my pain to bring benefit to others."

Pastor Rick: He says, "All of these sufferings are for your benefit." That's why I put up with all this. And he says, "And the more of you who are one to Christ, he said, "The more there are to thank him for his great mercy and the more God gets glory." Now, you know, Kay and I have tried to do this with our lives. We've tried to use our pain to help other people. We're not going to waste our pain. Many of you know that our our marriage was a wreck in the early years.

Pastor Rick: And, and we we could have been in divorce court early on in our marriage. And we did not get along. But we went and got counseling. And then we said, "We're going to use our pain to save other people's marriage." And so we talked openly about our problems and our less than perfect marriage, and how God used that to help others. Kay's had cancer twice. I had a father-in-law with cancer, had a father with cancer, Kay had cancer, had a child who had cancer. And, and, uh, we've used that for good.

Pastor Rick: And, and you know, even having a son who was mentally ill, who took his life. We said, "We're not going to waste our pain. We're going to even use that." And all this last week, Kay was on a road trip back on the East Coast, speaking at universities and things on mental health, because we're not going to waste our pain. We're going to use it for good and God. And, Paul says, "I keep going because I know it's helping others. And I know it's bringing people to Christ."

Pastor Rick: Now, why does Saddleback Church keep growing? I mean, how big does Saddleback Church need to get? Couldn't we, like, just stop and say, 10,000 people go, "That's enough." Last weekend for Easter, 54,000 people came to a Saddleback campus. 54,000. Right? More important than that, 1,864 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ. Okay? 1,864 people. Now, that took ten thousands of hours of volunteer time.

Pastor Rick: People who did all kinds of volunteer work at every campus in order for that to happen. Why do we do it? We do it for Jesus' sake and we do it because people need the Lord. We do it for the benefit of others. We're not doing this for our benefit. We don't grow for our benefit. We don't need a bigger church. We grow it because people need the Lord. God has never made a person he doesn't love and that he doesn't want in heaven. Now, in verse 16 and 17, Paul says this.

Pastor Rick: "This is why we never give up." Even though it gets tough. He says, "Though our bodies are dying," and literally in the Greek there it says they're decaying, they're they're wasting away. "Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurable great glory that will last forever." Now, he says, "You know, let's just be obvious. Your physical physique is not getting better. It's decaying.

Pastor Rick: Have you looked in the mirror lately? You know, bifocals and baldness and bulges. Okay? Wrinkles, aches, pains. Many of you now have furniture problems. Your chest has dropped into your drawers. Okay? I'm talking to the men, the men, okay, let me clarify this, okay? I don't want to I don't want to get any trouble with all the ladies there. I'm talking to the men. Okay? Your chest has dropped into your drawers. All right? You can't stop the aging process, no matter how many Botox things you go to.

Pastor Rick: But you can stay fresh on the inside spiritually. Paul says, "Though our bodies are, they're dying, they're wasting away, our spirits are being renewed every day." The Bible tells us that Moses in his old age was just as full of vim and vigor and energy and love and commitment and closest to the Lord as he was as a young man. You can't keep your body from aging, but you can keep your spirit from aging. He says, "We're they're being renewed every day by the mercy of God."

Narrator: What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to tell you how you can help support this ministry.

Pastor Rick: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives according to five specific purposes. He said, "You've got to love God with all your heart." That's worship. "And love your neighbor as yourself." That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment. And then Jesus said, "Go make disciples." That's evangelism. "Baptize them into the family of God." That's fellowship, a sign of fellowship. And then he said, "Teach them to obey everything I've taught you." That's discipleship. And we call that the Great Commission.

Pastor Rick: We believe at Daily Hope that a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company, a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just across America, but all around the world. And we want people to know that God's Word is filled with hope and truth and the power that we need to follow him every day is available to every single one.

Pastor Rick: You know as well as I do that the Word of God changes lives. It's alive, it's active, it breathes new life and new love into all of our lives. So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on the website, whether you listen on a radio station, or whether you listen through a podcast, you're a part of the Daily Hope family. And I need your help. We could not do this without your support. We're 100% listener funded. Would you continue to pray for this broadcast and would you continue to support us? And let right to me.

Pastor Rick: Let let me hear from you. I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me. So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry. And God will bless it, and God will bless you, and we'll get to heaven, and we'll thank God for all the people going to be in heaven because you cared.

Narrator: Hey, if you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, just go to pastorrick.com. That's pastorrick.com, or you can text the word HOPE to 70309. That's the word HOPE to 70309. And really, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere. Hey, be sure to join us next time when 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.