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. And 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. I can't wait to dive into today's message. So, here's the final part of a message called "Happiness Can Be Learned."

Pastor Rick Warren: Number two. Not only do I live with integrity, I keep my promises. This is the other way you learn this second quality: keep my promises. Psalm 15:4 talks about, "These people always do what they promise, no matter how much it may cost them."

I actually like this verse better in the King James English where it says, "God blesses the person who sweareth to his own hurt." What does that mean? He means you keep a promise and then you find out it's going to cost me more than I thought it was going to cost, but I still keep my promise. I said I'd do it for that price and I'm going to take a bath on it, but I'm going to do it because I keep my word. And I'm going to keep my promise no matter how much it costs.

So, if I want to be happy, then I've got to first shift the focus away from myself. It's not about me. And second, I've got to become somebody that people trust. And we see those from Timothy. Now, Paul is a superstar. I mean, this is the guy who wrote most of the New Testament part of the Bible. Paul is a superstar, yet Paul knows that we get more done by working together.

So, here's the third skill that you've got to learn in order to be happy in life, and that is this: Number three, learn how to work well with others. And you know what? They don't teach you that anymore. And if parents don't teach their kids this, they may not learn it in school. You must learn how to work well.

By the way, parents, these are four things you need to teach your kids. If you want your kids to be happy, they've got to learn to switch the focus away from themselves, they've got to learn to become someone that is trustworthy, and they've got to learn how to work well with others. What am I talking about here? I'm talking about the skill of being a team member, the skill of collaboration, the skill of working together. If you don't know how to work with other people, you're going to be unhappy much in your life.

What do I need to learn in order to work with other people? You need to learn two things, the Bible says. Write these down. First, learn to cooperate. And that's not something you automatically do. That's one of the goals of parenting, is teaching your children how to share their toys. Teaching your children how to put away the toys together. Teaching your children how to cooperate, often with people who are very different in personality.

Learn to cooperate. And Paul gives this second guy, Epaphroditus, as an example of this quality. In verse 25, he says this, "I send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, my fellow worker, and my fellow soldier." Circle those three terms; we're going to come back to it: brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier. "Who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs." Remember, this is the guy that the church in Philippi sent with an offering, a gift of money, financial support to help Paul while he was in prison in Rome.

Paul says he's my brother, my fellow worker, my fellow soldier. He's worked and fought by my side. What is Paul saying here? This guy knows how to be a team member. This guy knows how to work in a group. He's not a lone ranger. He's not a prima donna. He's not a maverick. This is a guy who knows how to work with other people.

Now, I just want to tell you real seriously, the better you learn this skill, the happier you're going to be in life. If you don't know how to work with people different from you, you're in deep, deep guacamole because let me tell you something: most of the world is different from you. And if you don't know how to work with people who are different from you, then you've just shut yourself off to most of the world.

Now, Paul uses here in this passage three relational metaphors. They're teamwork terms. And he says, "My brother, my fellow worker, and my fellow soldier." What is he saying? He's saying that life and ministry, life is a family, it's a fellowship, and it's a fight. It's a family, it's a fellowship, and it's a fight.

It's family. He says he calls him "my brother." The church is the family of God. That means every one of you are related to each other. If you know the Lord, the people you're sitting next to are your brothers and sisters. In fact, for thousands of years, when people went to church, they used to call each other brother and sister: Brother so-and-so, Brother Bob, Sister Sue, Brother Tom, Sister Janice. And maybe we ought to bring that back because we've kind of lost the attitude of we are family. 133 times in the Bible, God uses family terms to refer to the church.

So, we're a family. He says, "My brother." Then he says we're a fellowship, "a fellow worker." We're to work together, to serve together. We've been given the same tasks. We have the same great commission. We have the same common goal. We're a family, we're a fellowship, and we're a fight. He says, "My fellow soldier." Would you agree that life's a battle? Would you agree that sometimes you feel like you're at war? Yeah. And that forces are against you? Yeah.

Well, he says, you know what? It's a battle and we all have the same enemy, Satan, and we need to support each other. We need to defend each other. We need to encourage each other. And there's a word for that; it's called small groups. Where do I learn to be a family, a fellowship, and to fight for each other? In a small group. You don't learn it in a big meeting like this; you learn it in a small group. And we support and we defend and we encourage each other.

I love what Jesus said. I love this Message paraphrase of one of the beatitudes. Jesus said, "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight." Why? If you learn to cooperate with others, your happiness is going to go up exponentially. Now, not only do I need to learn to cooperate, here's the second one: I need to learn to be considerate.

The more considerate you are of other people in life, the happier you're going to be. The more inconsiderate you are of people in your life, including clerks and people who serve you at fast food places, the more inconsiderate you are of waiters and waitresses and people who serve you, the more unhappy you're going to be. When you see somebody in a restaurant being inconsiderate to a waiter or waitress, at that point are they being happy? No, they are not. They are unhappy because those two things don't go together.

And Paul's saying you've got to learn to be thoughtful. You've got to learn to be kind, sympathetic, and understanding of others. And again, he gives Epaphroditus as an example. Verse 26, there in your outline. He says, "Now I must send him," that's Epaphroditus, "I must send him back to you because he longs to see all of you and he's been worried about your distress." That's called consideration. He's worried about not his distress, worried about your distress since you heard that he was sick.

Now, notice in this verse, we see two examples of consideration. Paul is considerate of his co-worker's concern. And he said, "Epaphroditus really is homesick. He wants to come back home. He longs to see you." Paul is considerate of his co-worker's concern and Epaphroditus is considerate of the Philippians' concern. They had heard that Epaphroditus on the way to Rome had gotten sick and nearly died and they were afraid their friend had died.

And the Bible says in Message, "He wants to get back and reassure you that he's fine." This is a key to happiness. The more considerate you learn to be of other people's needs, other people's doubts, their fears, the more considerate you learn to be as a husband, as a wife, the happier your marriage is going to be. If you are inconsiderate, you're going to have an unhappy marriage.

Now, 1 Corinthians 1:10 says this, "You must," this is not an option, "you must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate." Circle the word "learn." "You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common." I think every marriage ought to learn that verse. We all ought to memorize that one. "You must learn to be considerate," because you are by nature not naturally considerate. And you have to cultivate, circle that word "cultivate," a life in common.

He's saying it takes work. You know I grow a garden of vegetables every year and it takes cultivation. They don't just grow on their own. I have to go out and prepare the soil, break up the dirt clods, add in the nutrients, water, weed, feed. I cultivate. And he's saying it takes work to cultivate a life in common. You know what the problem with most marriages today is? They've stopped working. They've stopped working on the marriage, so the marriage stops working. When you don't work on the marriage, then the marriage doesn't work. That's obvious. And a lot of people would rather give up on a marriage than work on a marriage.

He says you've got to cultivate a common life together. And what is it? He says it's through consideration. We have to be thoughtful of the effect of our words and the effect of our actions. That does not come natural to me. Maybe it comes natural to you; it doesn't come natural to me. I don't naturally think about how are my words going to affect you or how are my actions going to affect you.

Now, sometimes you'll hear people say, "Well, I just believe in... I just say what I think." Well, there's a word for you: rude. You're proud of that? A parrot can say what it thinks. It takes intelligence and it takes character to be considerate. To not just run off at the mouth. To not just say whatever you think but to stop and before you say it go, "How will this affect somebody else?"

Paul is an example. 1 Corinthians 10:33, he says, "I don't just do what I like. I don't just do what I like or what's best for me, but I do what's best for everyone so that they may be saved." Paul says, "I put the conversion of others before my comfort. I put their conversion before my comfort."

Now, there's a fourth quality. If I want to be happy, I've got to learn these things. I've got to learn how to shift the focus away from me to others. I've got to learn to become the person a person that people trust by doing what I say I do and keeping my promises. Then I've got to learn how to work well with others, learning to cooperate, learning to be considerate at work, at home, in the neighborhood, whatever. And that will increase my happiness.

There's one other one and this is a really big one if I genuinely want to be happy in life. The fourth choice you need to make to be happy in life is to live for something worth dying for. Until you have that, you will not have the ultimate happiness in your life. I must learn to live for something worth dying for. Most people are giving first-class allegiance to second-class causes and those causes are betraying them.

I talked one time to a guy who said, "I climbed the ladder of success and when I got to the top, I found it was leaning against the wrong wall." And a lot of times we give big-time commitment to small-time causes that aren't going to last. The question you need to ask yourself that you're giving all your time, all your energy, all your thoughts... Whatever you think about most and you're giving all your time and energy and money to these things, ask, "How much is this going to matter five years from today? How much is it going to matter ten years? How much is it going to matter in a thousand years?"

The best use of your life is to invest it in that which outlasts it. You need to live for something worth dying for and you are not ready to live, you're not ready to live to really live, until you know what's worth dying for. If you've never figured that out, you're coasting. You're not really living; you're existing. You're not ready to live until you know what's worth dying for.

Now, Paul ends with these words about Epaphroditus. Verse 27 and verse 30. He says, "Indeed," talking about Epaphroditus, "he was very ill and he almost died. He risked his life," that's live for something worth dying for, "risked his life for the work of Christ and he was at the point of death while trying to do for me the things you, you my friends back in Philippi, couldn't do because you were far away."

Now, let me give you the background again in this. Paul is in prison in Rome. The Philippian church is in Greece. It's 800 miles away. The Philippian church decides to send a care package to Paul in prison. There are no planes, there are no trains, there are no automobiles, and it's 800 miles. And there's only one way you can get to Rome: walk. It's going to be an 800-mile walk to deliver this offering that the Philippians have decided to take.

Epaphroditus, a member of that church, raises up and says, "I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll walk 800 miles through thick and thin, through robbers, thieves, battling armies, and all kind of things like that. I'll walk 800 miles just to take a gift from our church to a guy who's in prison 800 miles away." It says he risked his life. The Greek there literally says he hazarded his life. It's a gambling term. Epaphroditus is God's godly gambler. He gambled his life for Jesus Christ.

Now, on this 800-mile walk to take this offering to Rome, it doesn't tell us what he got or what kind of disease or what happened, but he got so sick he nearly died. And that's what everybody was worried about: he nearly died. But in spite of persistent pain, he completes his mission and he finishes what he starts.

Now, let me ask you two very personal questions for you this year, 2,000 years later. Here are my two questions for you. What commitment have you started that you haven't yet finished? What if Epaphroditus in the middle got sick and just said, "I give up. I'm going back to Philippi"? He wouldn't have completed his mission. What commitment have you made that you need to keep?

Maybe it's a commitment to your spouse. A commitment you made to your husband. A commitment you made to your wife, that "I'm going to do this. I'm going to work on that." But you haven't. Maybe a commitment you made to one of your children or to a friend. Maybe it's, I don't know, a commitment you made to God. What have you started that you need to complete? You made a commitment to God and you need to keep that commitment. You need to finish it. You need to be consistent and you need to be reliable.

Let me ask a second question. Is your commitment to Christ deep enough to cause you to risk your life? This is why these people, Timothy and Epaphroditus, are so rare; there aren't many people like this. I mean, if your church, if Saddleback Church, asked you to walk 800 miles to deliver a gift, would you do it? Would you do it? There aren't many people like this guy. "Sure, I'll do it. I'll go walk 800 miles to take a gift to a guy in need." Would you do that?

There aren't many people like this. He's rare. That's why the Bible says "honor them." He says you're to honor Timothy, you're to honor men like this. See, most people say, "Well, I'll live for Christ as long as it's convenient." But right now there's a good game on; excuse me. Most people would be happy to live for Christ as long as it's convenient and it's comfortable. Are you willing to live for Christ at work when it's inconvenient and it's uncomfortable? Well, no. Then you're not much of a Christian.

This is why God says honor people like this. God says honor those who take risks sharing the Gospel. I want to honor you. If you went on a peace plan anywhere, would you stand up right now? I want us to honor you. Just stand up if you've gone on a peace plan trip anywhere. God bless you. And at all of our campuses, I want you to stand up at all of our campuses too, people who've gone on a peace trip. God bless you.

And I honor you for that. And let me give you a little secret. Whether you stood or you didn't, God is not finished testing your faith. So, get ready. You think God's going to let you just coast the rest of your life? Really? You think God's going to say, "Oh, all of the big risks in your life are behind you now"? Are you kidding me? As long as you're alive, God's going to keep testing you with risky decisions for His sake to test your faith.

God is going to call you to be a part in some way, to play some role of what He wants to do through this church. I'm absolutely certain of it, or He wouldn't have called you here. And all I'm asking you to do is to pray this week, say, "God," the most dangerous prayer in the world, remember it's two words: "Use me." I dare you to pray the most dangerous prayer in the world: "Use me."

"I'm afraid to pray that prayer." Pray it. Use me because it is the secret of happiness. You don't know really how to live until you know what's worth dying for. I want you to write this down, the last thing to write down. Happiness comes from putting service before security. Happiness comes from putting service before security. God blesses those who serve Him even when it's inconvenient and uncomfortable. Happiness comes from putting service before security. Not doing the safe thing but doing the thing that stretches your faith. And if you say, "God, use me," He'll figure out what that is for you and He'll let you know.

Now, we'll end with Jesus' secret of happiness which sums up what we've looked at this weekend. Mark 8:35, Jesus said this, "Only those who give away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the good news will ever know what it means to really live. Only those who give away their lives," live for something worth dying for, "for my sake and for the sake of the good news will ever know what it means to really live." You just exist until you have a purpose greater than yourself to get out of bed for in the morning.

Now, let me summarize. The happiest people on earth are caring, consistent, cooperative, considerate, and courageous. It's what we just looked at. They're caring; they get the focus off themselves. They're consistent; they learn to be trustworthy. They're cooperative and considerate; they know how to work with other people on a team. And they're courageous; they're willing to take risks in faith.

Let's bow our heads. If you want to be happy, I invite you to pray this prayer with me. Dear God, I want to be like these guys. I want to learn to be happy. I realize that happiness isn't a matter of luck; it's a matter of learning. That I can choose to be happy. I can make decisions to be happy. I can develop character that will make me happy.

Help me to get the focus off myself, Lord. I'm really sick and tired of looking at me. Help me to become somebody that people can trust. Reliable, dependable, trustworthy. Help me to do what I say I do. Help me to keep my promises.

And Lord, I need to learn how to get along better with others. I need to learn how to cooperate and I need to learn how to be considerate. I need to learn how to be a team member. How to work with people who are different from me. I want to be like Paul who said, "I don't just do what's best for me, what's best for everybody."

If you're married, say, "Lord, help me to cultivate a life in common with my spouse." Say, "Lord, help me to learn to be considerate of my spouse and my kids." And Lord, help me to live for something worth dying for. I'm going to pray the most dangerous prayer right now, Lord: "Use me." I don't know what that means, but I'm open and I trust that You'll show me what You want to do in my life that will stretch my faith. Use me. The way You plan, not the way somebody else planned, but Your plan.

If you've never invited Jesus Christ in your life, say, "Jesus Christ, come into my life and save me and forgive my sins. Change me and make me the person You want me to be." Father, I thank You for these who've prayed this prayer today. We know that holiness leads to happiness, that happiness actually comes from holiness. And as we become more like You, we become more happy. I pray a blessing on every person here, that whatever You've called us to do, we will do. Whatever commitments we've made, we will keep. And I pray this blessing in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Rick Warren: You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the very first time, or you just recommitted your life to Jesus again today, would you let me know about it? There's something real about sharing your commitment. So, write me: rick@pastorrick.com. And say, "Rick, I prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ." And I'll send you some material that'll help you on your journey with Jesus, and I'll also pray for you. God bless you.

Guest (Male): What a moving message from Rick, and I'm also so moved when we hear from you. In fact, here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

Pastor Rick Warren: Have you ever taken a step of faith with no idea what's next? Well, with the help of Daily Hope, Nicole did just that. She wrote this note to me: "Hello Pastor Rick, a close friend of mine suggested I listen to Daily Hope four years ago. And while I had faith and I loved the Lord, I was lost. But Daily Hope rescued me. My relationship with Jesus grew in ways that I never knew possible. I was soon baptized and over the next four years, I grew in boldness and in faith in the Lord and I even left a high-powered and high-salaried position to follow a different purpose-driven path with the Lord's guidance. It's been a literal step forward in faith without knowing the next steps. Certainly not something I was capable of years ago and already God is showing me His goodness. You know, as my husband explores his own relationship with Jesus, again your ministry is literally a godsend. Your ability to teach the good news in ways that are easy to understand and apply it is just amazing. We also follow your suggestion to find a good local church. So, thanks for all you do for believers and those who are seeking Christ around the world. Rick, you're loved and appreciated and no doubt a vessel of God's grace and mercy. Signed, Nicole."

Well, Nicole, I'm so glad that you've grown in your relationship with Jesus and you've taken the important step of getting baptized. What an important step this is. Finding a church home, really listening to the Lord, and living a purpose-driven life. All of that happens when you take time to listen to God's word. I love how your friend shared Daily Hope with you and now you've shared it with your husband. You know, any of you can do this. Anybody can do this. You can share Daily Hope with your friends and with your relatives and with people you don't even know, and then watch how God brings life to others through His word.

Guest (Male): 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.