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. Okay, and now here's part one of a message called Happiness Can Be Learned.

Pastor Rick Warren: Many people think that happiness is simply a matter of luck, and they think if you're happy, you're just lucky. You had happy circumstances, and so congratulations for you. But actually, happiness can be learned. It is a quality that you can learn. There are certain qualities that if you learn them, your happiness in life is going to go up exponentially. If you don't have these qualities in your life, your unhappiness will go up exponentially.

Now, you've probably never thought about this, but if I mention it to you, you ought to automatically know what I'm talking about because you could instinctively pick out qualities that cause you to be happy and qualities that cause you to be unhappy. For instance, if we made two columns, the happiness column and the unhappiness column, and I said, now, which column would impatience go in? Unhappiness, yeah. Impatient people tend to be unhappy people. Would you agree with that? The more patient you are, if you learn patience, you're going to be happier in life. That obviously makes sense.

If I said, for instance, cruelty, that would go in the unhappiness column. Kindness would go in the happiness column. This is kind of obvious and we could make an entire list. If I said, if I'm arrogant, I'm going to tend to be unhappy, and if I am humble, I'm going to tend to be more happy. So, what we're going to do this weekend as we go through the book of Philippians is look at four very important qualities you need to build into your life.

Happiness is a serious business, and if you really want to be happy, then you need to build these qualities in your life. We're starting in chapter two of Philippians, verses 19 down to verse 30. Let me read it to you and then we'll look at it. Paul says this: "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon." Let me stop here and remind you of the background. Paul is in prison in Rome. He's writing a letter to a church in Greece in a city called Philippi. So we call it the Philippian letter.

Paul is writing to these church members of a church he started in Greece, and they have been sending him care packages. They actually sent him an offering while he was in prison awaiting to appeal his execution before Caesar, who was Nero in Rome at the time. Paul is writing back to the Philippians, and this book is actually a thank you letter. It is a thank you letter for a financial gift. In the middle of this letter, he gives some personal information.

So let me read it again. "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him, this is Timothy, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everybody else looks after his own interest, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel, the good news. I hope therefore to send him, Timothy, as soon as I can see how things go with me. And I'm confident that I myself will come soon."

In other words, I hope I'm going to get out of jail and come back to see you in Philippi. "But," he says, "I think it is necessary to also send back to you Epaphroditus." That's a long Greek name for a man, but that's another guy like Timothy. Epaphroditus, my brother, my fellow worker, and my fellow soldier, who is also your messenger whom you sent to me to take care of my needs. When the Philippians sent a financial gift to help Paul while he was in prison in Rome, they sent it through a guy named Epaphroditus. And he says, "I'm going to send this guy back to you."

"For he longs for all of you," because this was his home church, "and he's distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed, he was ill and he almost died in trying to get to Paul in that trip to Rome. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but also on me to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore, I am all the more eager to send him back to you so that when you see him again, you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. So, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor men like him because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me."

At a first glance, that doesn't seem to be a very deep passage. You're going, "It sounds like Paul's talking about two guys who are with him in Rome that he's going to send back to Greece." And when you read this letter, you might ask, why in the world did God include that in the Bible? Why is that even there? It's just a personal note about two guys the church of Philippi knows and that Paul knows and they've helped each other. You might think, you know, this is one of those passages in the Bible just kind of read over real quick and just get to the good parts.

And you would be wrong. You would be wrong because the Bible says everything in the Bible is there to teach us by example. In this passage that I just read you, are the examples of the four things you must build into your life if you want to really be happy, if you want to live consistently happy. He has an example of these four choices that lead to happiness in these two guys named Timothy and Epaphroditus.

Here's the background. Paul intends to send two guys who are with him in Rome while he's there in prison back to the Philippian church. He says in verse 19, "I'm going to send you Timothy," and in verse 25, he says, "I'm going to send back to you Epaphroditus who's a member of your church." Paul endorses these two guys as role models. He says in verse 20 of Timothy, "I got nobody else like him." Now let me just stop right there for a minute.

If Paul the Apostle, who wrote most of the New Testament, says, "I don't know anybody like him in the whole world," you better pay attention to this guy. When Paul says, "I don't have anybody in my life like Timothy," then you better pay attention to him. In fact, two of the books of the Bible are called First and Second Timothy, written to this guy. So he's a very important character. He says, "I don't have anybody like him." Then he says about the other guy, Epaphroditus, "I want you to welcome him when I send him and honor him because he nearly died for my sake."

Paul says, and here's the reason why we're looking at it in this series on the habits of happiness, Paul says, "I'm going to send these guys to you for three reasons." He said in verse 19, "so that I may be cheered, so that I can be happy." In verse 28, he says, "so that you may be happy, so that you may be glad, you may be happy." And then he says in verse 28, "so that I may have less anxiety."

Whatever these guys are doing, however they are living, it's a way that's going to make you glad, it's going to make me glad, and it's going to make us all have less anxiety. As your pastor, I want you to be happy, I want me to be happy, and I want us all to have less anxiety. So we're going to look at this passage. Does that make sense? We're going to say, what is it about these two guys that are so worthy they're in the Bible in a little footnote that looks like kind of just a personal, "Hey, I'm sending these guys." He says in the Living Bible, "These guys will make me happy and lighten my cares."

What this passage teaches us is that there are four qualities you need to have in your life in order for your happiness to go up and for the happiness of people around you to go up too. The first thing that you have to learn is this. You're going to have to learn to shift the focus away from myself. That is the starting point for all happiness. I must shift the focus away from myself. I have to care about more than just me. I've got to care about the needs of those around me.

If all I think about is me, me, me, me, me, myself, and I, I'm going to be a pretty miserable person. If I truly want to be happy in life, I've got to move the focus off myself. Paul gives Timothy as an example of this. In verse 20 and 21, he says this: "I have nobody else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everybody else looks out for his own interest." Would you say that's true today of most people? Everybody looks out for their own interest.

Not that many people are looking after your interest. Could you name the people who are looking after your interest? Not many. Most people are looking after their own interest, not yours. Naturally, I tend to look at my own interest. I don't tend to look at your interest. I don't get up in the morning and think, "Hmm, I wonder if you're having a hard time today." No, I'm always thinking about me. You tend to think about you. Paul says, "I've got nobody like this guy because he actually takes a genuine interest in you, not simply in himself. Everybody else looks out for his own interest."

Notice in that phrase there. He says "no one else." In other words, unselfish people are very, very rare. Nobody else is like him. He says "who takes a genuine interest." There are many people who fake interest in you. It's so funny sometimes I go to these parties or these important diplomatic events and people are standing there talking to you and they've got one of those little toastette things and a drink in their hand and they're talking to you but the whole time they're looking over your shoulder like is there anybody else more important I should be talking to.

They're pretending to take an interest in me but they're not really interested in me. They're looking over who else could I talk to instead of this guy. Because they are pretending that. He says, "He takes a genuine interest." The Good News translation says, "He genuinely cares about you. Others care only about themselves." Then I want you to circle the phrase it says "looks out." "Everyone else looks out for his own interest." Circle that phrase "looks out." What we're talking about here is a matter of focus.

The first key to happiness is you've got to change your focus. You have to shift your focus away from yourself onto other people. You've got to look out for others. Now, do you normally do that? Not normally. That's something you have to learn to do. When you walk into a room, you're not normally thinking, "Who in this room needs my help?" You walk into the room and think, "How do I look?" That's what you do. You walk into the room and go, "How do I look? Am I put together just right?"

You have to intentionally train yourself to do the opposite, to shift the focus away from myself. The Phillips translation of this verse says, "People aren't interested in you. They're all wrapped up in their own affairs." Circle that phrase "wrapped up." For those of you who are single adults, let me just give you a little fatherly advice. It's better to sit at home without a date than go date somebody who's all wrapped up in themselves. Single women, a man wrapped up in himself is no gift. Guys, a woman wrapped up in herself is no gift.

He says they're wrapped up in their own affairs, so they're not caring, they're not looking out for the needs of others. Confession's good for the soul. I have to admit to you that it saddens me how many times I have missed the needs around me of people that I love. I just totally missed them because I wasn't paying attention. I just wasn't paying attention. I wasn't looking out. I hadn't shifted the focus from me to the others in the room. When I wasn't looking out for their needs, I missed their needs. And that grieves me a lot.

Philippians 2:4, we looked at this verse last week, but I love it in the Message paraphrase. It says here: "Don't be so obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand." If you did that, you think you'd be happier? Yes, you would. This isn't easy to do because everything in our culture and everything in our nature teaches us to be self-centered. America is becoming more and more self-centered.

I read a report this week in a psychology, a scientific journal, that said they studied one million books in print over the last 200 years in American history and they compared the words that were used then and words that are used now. And the words that have increased in number today are I, me, my, choice, unique, special. These words are being overused today. Words you don't hear much today are responsibility and prayer. Those are words that were used a lot in the past. We're increasingly becoming more self-centered.

In fact, I thought I'd just show you a few ads that illustrate this because we don't realize how we're being brainwashed. This first ad here on the screen is a Coca-Cola ad that says that happiness is something you drink. See, it says, here's a Coke bottle, says "Open happiness." So if you just buy that product, you drink it, then you will be happy. Happiness is something you drink. Audi came out with one that says, not only that, joy is something you drive. And it says there, "Joy finally has meaning."

That's good to know. And what is it? You know, it's an Audi. That is an audacious goal is what that is right there, Audi. What Pepsi tells us is this: "All that matters is today, live for now." In other words, don't plan about tomorrow, don't care about other people, just live for now. Sprite tells us this: "Obey your thirst." In other words, give in to any urge you have. You're hearing these messages subliminally all the time. It's all about you, it's all about you, it's all about you.

Burger King, "Have it your way." Have it your way. That's about as, you know, perfect. Now, that's not bad advice when you're ordering a hamburger, but that's terrible advice for relationships. Here's a perfume product: "It's all about me." Yeah, yeah, it's all about me. And then for smart counterculture programming or positioning, the donut company did this one: "I love donuts because they're not self-centered at all." Little counterculture spin on advertising.

The bottom line is everything in culture teaches you to think about you, you, you, you, you, me, me, me, me, me, I, I, I, I, I. And so I have to intentionally shift the focus away if I want to be happy. Number two, the second thing you're going to need to learn to be happy is this. If you want to be happy, you're going to have to become someone that people trust. You're going to have to become someone that people trust.

Proverbs 13:15 says, "Those who can't be trusted are on the road to ruin." Now, it's really obvious that the more people trust you, the happier you're going to be. And if people don't trust you, you're not going to be happy. If nobody trusts you, you're living a pretty miserable life. So, here's another quality you can learn. If you learn to be trustworthy, you learn to be reliable, you learn to be consistent, you learn to be dependable, and you develop that quality in your life, you're going to be a whole lot happier than people who aren't worthy of trust.

If you want to be happy, you've got to become somebody that people trust. Paul uses Timothy as an example of this, verse 22. He says, "Timothy has proved himself because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel." Again, he's giving this guy as an example and he says, "I've watched this guy in action. I've seen this Timothy. I've seen him in all kinds of circumstances." He says, "This guy Timothy, he's the real deal. He's the real McCoy. He's authentic, he's genuine, he's trustworthy, he's dependable, he's reliable. You can count on this guy."

God's Word translation says, "You know what kind of person Timothy proved to be." Do people know what kind of person you really are? And are you trustworthy? If you're not, then you're not very happy because the more people trust you, the more your happiness goes up. Now he says about this guy Timothy, he's proven trustworthy. He has been proven. He has been proved over time, tested, verified, checked out. He is credible, he is creditable.

Anytime you go to a bank for a loan, before they loan you any money, they're going to do a thing on you called a credit check. A credit check. They're going to say, are you worthy of being trusted with credit? Are you creditable? Do you pay your bills back? Are you paying them back on time? Do you have a track record of keeping your word? Do you have a track record of doing what you say? Can you be depended on that if we loan you this money, you're not going to flake out on us and we're going to lose it? They do a credit check on you to see if you are credible or creditworthy.

I want to tell you a little secret. Everybody around you is doing a credit check on your life every moment of your life. Not just the banks, but everybody around you is constantly doing a credit check on you. Are you what you say you are? Are you the real deal? Or are you just some phony baloney you wear a mask here and wear a mask over here? That's what they used to do in the Greek theater. One actor would play many parts, and he'd come out and he'd wear a mask and he'd play a part and then he'd go back behind the stage. This is in the days of Plato.

He'd get another mask, he'd come out and he'd wear that mask and he'd play a part and he'd go back. So he's wearing he's being different roles to different groups of people, playing different parts. Same guy but wearing different masks. The word for that guy in Greek is called a hypocritos. That's where we get the word hypocrite. Hypocrite means somebody who he acts this way on the golf course and this way with his kids and this way at church and that way with his wife, and you don't really know is what you see what you get.

He's saying you know the kind of person Timothy was. He proved he was checked out. He got a credit reference done. If you're going to be happy, you've got to learn to be consistent. You've got to learn to be dependable, trustworthy, reliable. How do you develop a reputation for reliability? Two things, write them down. The Bible tells us. Number one, live with integrity. Live with integrity. What I mean by that is make sure that my actions match my words. I don't talk a good game and then live another different way.

He says what you see is what you get. Integrity doesn't mean you're perfect. If perfection was required for integrity, none of us have integrity because nobody's perfect. We're all flawed. But integrity means what you see is what you get. It's the real deal. Make sure my actions match my words. Proverbs 25:13 says this: "Reliable friends who do what they say are like cool drinks in sweltering heat, refreshing." Isn't that a great verse? It says that you know, can people count on you or do you flip-flop? Are you two-faced? You're wishy-washy.

Look at the opposite, Proverbs 25:19 says this: "Putting confidence in an unreliable person is like chewing with a toothache or walking on a broken foot." I like that. What is he saying? The greatest ability is dependability. It's more important than any other ability in life. The greatest ability is dependability. Are you dependable? Are you creditworthy? Are you worthy of trust? If you are, then you're going to be a happy person because the more people who trust in you, the more happy you're going to be.

The greatest ability is dependability. Proverbs 28:20 says, "Honest people will lead a full happy life." You want to be happy? Honest people lead a full happy life. Number two, not only do I live with integrity, I keep my promises.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Did you know that most people look for happiness in all the wrong places? You won't find it through money, fame, or power. You'll only find real lasting happiness by following God's commands. And that's why Rick created the Habits of Happiness Bible Study. You'll discover how happiness runs deeper than any circumstance, feeling, or relationship because of God's unconditional love for you.

This interactive full-color hard-cover book is filled with biblical truths, scripture, practical lessons, application exercises, and prayers to guide your journey. It's a comprehensive study tool that will help you experience the biblical habits that lead to true and lasting happiness. This Bible study is only available on Daily Hope and quantities are limited, so be sure to request the Habits of Happiness Bible Study today when you give a gift to help Daily Hope take the hope of Jesus to a hurting world.

It's our way of saying thanks. Just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's pastorrick.com, or you can just text the word hope to 70309. Again, that's the word hope to 70309. And thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere. 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.