Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

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. First up, we'll start with part one of a message called Letting God Meet My Needs.

If you take out your message notes, we're in a series I started last weekend called Living in the Goodness of God. If you missed that first message, please go listen to it online because it's the foundation of everywhere we're going for the next 10 weeks. When you don't understand how good God really is, it creates all kinds of problems in your life. We specifically talked about four sources of stress in your life that you don't need when you understand the goodness of God.

Now what I want to do today is we're going to start verse by verse through the most famous chapter in the entire Bible, Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd. This is a perfect picture of the goodness of God and it shows you the antidote to the nine greatest sources of stress in your life. Today we're going to look at worry, and specifically I want you to see why God says you should never have to worry about anything, and then second, how do you connect with God meeting the needs that are in your life?

Now before we look at that, I want to just give you three facts about the goodness of God. So I want you to write these down. These are just three fundamental truths you can base your life on. Number one, God is the source of everything I need to live. You don't have to look anywhere else. You don't have to look to Wall Street, you don't have to look to the government, you don't have to look to your spouse or your individual retirement account or your social security or your job. God is the source of everything I need to live.

Now the point I want to make here is that if you're going to put your security in something, you need to put it in something that can never be taken from you. Because if you put your security in something that can be taken from you, you're not secure. You can lose your health. You can lose your job. You can lose your good looks, some of you already have. You can lose your family, you can lose your life, you can lose your mind, you can lose all of those things. Don't put your security in any one or anything. You put your security in something that cannot be taken from you and that is your relationship to God. Nobody can take that away from you.

Now Psalm 23 verse one, the first verse of this chapter, says, "The Lord is my shepherd," and then read it with me, "I will lack nothing." Nothing. That's a place where he says, "I will be your security in every area." Now obviously the first question is, what's a shepherd? Most of you did not grow up on a sheep farm, but shepherds are the people who care for sheep.

You probably don't know a lot about sheep, but sheep are incredibly defenseless animals. They have a lot of natural predators. They're not fast, they can't run. They don't have claws, they don't have teeth with sharp incisors that can bite, and on top of that, they're not very smart animals. They're not very intelligent. They fall off cliffs and they get lost and all kinds of things, but they really need a defender. They need a shepherd. Left on its own, a sheep's probably going to get eaten.

So what does a shepherd do? Well, you might write this down, because this is what God wants to do for you. A shepherd feeds, leads, and meets needs. That's what a shepherd does. A shepherd feeds, leads, and meets needs. And God says, "I will be your shepherd throughout, I will feed you, I will lead you, and I will meet your needs."

Now your needs are various. Sometimes you need protection. Sometimes you need comfort. Sometimes you need encouragement. Sometimes you need a little discipline. Sometimes you need direction. We're going to look at all the different needs that God has promised to meet in your life. By the way, if you're a parent, listen, if you're a parent, you're a shepherd. Dads, it is your job to feed, lead, and meet needs. Mom, it is your job to feed, lead, and meet needs of those children. So you have a shepherd's role.

If you are ever in any management position in a business, in your career, and you have people under you that you are supervising, that you are caring for, that has shepherding capabilities or responsibilities to it. As a manager, it's your job to feed information, motivation, things like that. It's your job to lead and it is your job to meet needs of the people. As a leader, you serve them, not they serve you.

By the way, do you know what the Greek word for shepherd is? Pastor. I am a shepherd. That is my job. It is my job to feed you through this book. It is my job to lead you. It is my job to meet your needs. That's what shepherds do. So if you have any kind of caring capacity where you are over a small group as a leader, you're a shepherd. Or you work in some ministry, you're a shepherd. So the very things that God does with us, feed, lead, and meet needs, God wants you to do with other people.

Now the second truth I want you to write down. First, God is the source of everything I need to live. Number two, there is nothing I need that God can't supply. There is nothing that I need, that you need, that God cannot supply. We're going to look at this in depth, but in Philippians chapter four it says this, verse 19, "God will supply all you'll ever need from His glorious resources in Christ Jesus." If you're taking notes, you might circle "in Christ Jesus," we'll come back to that.

God's goodness is not based on your goodness. It's based on His goodness. You don't have to be good for God to be good to you. God is good to you because of what Jesus did on the cross. Number three, third thing I want you to write down is this. God doesn't want me worrying about anything. Nothing, nada, zip, zero. In fact, worry may be the most common sin on the planet.

God says, you don't need to worry. I don't want you worrying. In Philippians 4:6, "Don't worry about anything." That's pretty clear. I looked up that word, "don't worry about anything," and it actually means anything. Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything. We've talked about this many times. You can pray or you can panic. If you're not praying, you're panicking. You can worry or you can worship. If you're not worshipping, you're worrying. You invite worship in the front door, worry goes out the back door. You invite worry in the front door, worship goes out the back door.

God says, I don't want you worrying about anything. Now why? Why does God not want me worrying about anything? In the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us five reasons why worry is worthless. I'm going to go through these pretty quickly and then we're going to look at what difference it makes in your life. Write these down. Five reasons God says you should never, ever worry about anything. Number one, He says worry is unreasonable. It's unreasonable. In other words, it doesn't make sense. It's illogical. It is irrational.

The Bible says this in Matthew chapter six, verse 25. "Don't worry about your life, what you'll eat or drink, and don't worry about your body or what you'll wear. Your life is far more important than clothes." For some of you that's a big revelation, but that's true. Clothes don't make the man or the woman. He says don't worry about these minor issues here. He's saying that worry is unreasonable.

Now why is worry unreasonable? Let me give you three reasons it's unreasonable. In the first place, we typically worry about the wrong thing. We worry about the little stuff: how I look, how I appear, what I said, who I'm talking to. Am I going to be late for this meeting? Stuff that isn't going to matter in five years. It's all temporary. If you're really going to worry, and God says you shouldn't, worry about things that are eternal, not external. Worry about stuff that's going to matter in 10 years or 100 years or 1000 years or for eternity. Don't worry about stuff that's not going to matter tomorrow. Most of the things we worry about are temporary things, like, "In the next five minutes, I'm worried about this."

He says it's unreasonable because you pick the wrong things to be concerned about. The second reason is to worry about something you can change is useless. If you can change it, change it. If you can't change it, so what? You can't do anything about it. Worry will not change it at all. He says it's irrational because we think that worry is actually a form of control. We think by worrying about something we're actually controlling them. By worrying about your kids who are out late at night, you think you're controlling them. You're not. It doesn't change anything.

The third reason why it's irrational, and you've noticed this, is that anytime you worry about something, it keeps getting bigger in your mind. It's not logical, it's irrational. If you start worrying about somebody criticizes you, says an unkind word to you, says an off-the-wall comment, it hurts your feelings and you worry about that. You think, "What did they mean?" They've already forgotten it and they probably didn't even mean it. It was just some stupid thing they said.

But if you keep going over a worry in your mind, it doesn't get smaller. When you worry, it gets bigger. And if you keep thinking about it, pretty soon you think the whole world hates me. No, they don't hate you. That's the irrationality of worry. Worry is unreasonable. Number two, Jesus says you should never worry, not only because it's unreasonable, it's unnatural. Nature does not worry. It's unnatural. Human beings are the only thing in nature, human beings are the only thing God has created in all the universe that worry.

Ants don't worry, cows don't worry, plants don't worry, rocks don't worry, horses don't worry. The only thing that worries are human beings in rebellion against God. It's unnatural. You weren't made to worry. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us a couple of lessons. He uses a biology lesson and a botany lesson. Look at this, verse 26 in Matthew 6. Jesus said, "Look at the birds. Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or reap or store away in barns." They're not worried about, "Do I have enough to live on?" He said, "And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than birds?" If God takes care of birds, is He not going to take care of you?

Then He says in verse 28 and 29, Matthew 6, "And why do you worry about your clothes? Go out and look at the flowers. Look at the field lilies. They don't worry about how they look, yet King Solomon in all of his glory was not clothed as beautifully as they are." I don't know if you've ever looked at a flower real close, an orchid or a rose or any kind of flower, the intricacy in the design and the detail and the beauty of just an ordinary wildflower. God says, "Look, they're beautiful the way they are." They don't have to put on makeup, they don't have to get fancy, they don't have to worry about how they appear to everybody else. They're not worried about their appearance. They're just who they are, and it's beautiful.

What He's doing here is He's giving us a couple of lessons from nature. He says, okay, let's look at bird watching. If anybody's on God's welfare plan, it's birds, because birds really don't do anything. What do they contribute to the world? All they do is tweet and poop. But you do a lot more than that. Birds, what? I mean, you don't eat birds. They don't provide sustenance for human beings. He says they're on God's welfare system. God just made them because they're beautiful and sweet to listen to. He says, look, they're not worried. And aren't you more valuable than the birds? I take care of them, I'll take care of you.

Then He gives a botany lesson. He says look at these flowers and how God makes them beautiful just the way they are. You're beautiful just the way you are. Animals don't worry, plants don't worry, nothing in all creation worries. The only thing I've created that worries that doesn't trust Me are human beings. All of creation trusts My care except humans. He's saying worry isn't natural.

Did you know you weren't born to worry? You weren't made to worry. Now some of you think, "Well, I was a born worrier." No, you weren't. Worry is learned. You learned it by watching other people worry. No baby worries. They learn to worry watching other people worry. Anything that is learned can be unlearned. You don't have to go the rest of your life being a worrywart, being so uptight, having your stomach in a knot, getting a tight and tense back, having to go get a massage, getting a migraine headache, all these other symptoms of worry. God says you don't need to worry about that. Worry is unreasonable and worry is unnatural.

You have to, by the way, not only do you have to learn it, you have to practice it to get good at it. But some of you are pros at worrying. You can unlearn it. Notice in verse 26 there, He says your Father sees what the birds, He says your Father takes care. It doesn't say the birds' Father, it says your Father. You're in a different category. God created everything else, but He made you His child. God is not the Father of cows. God is not the Father of ants. God is not the Father of horses, because they weren't made in God's image.

You and I are distinctly different from all the other plants and animals because we were made in God's image, which gives us the capacity to trust Him, to love Him. You never see a cow praying. You never see a doggy going to worship unless you brought him. He's saying it's not natural. God cares for you as a father. Children get special privileges, even more than the other things in creation. Worry is unreasonable, worry is unnatural. Number three, Jesus says worry is unhelpful.

What does He mean by that? It's useless. It doesn't work. Worry is worthless. It doesn't change anything when you worry. Matthew 6:27, Jesus says, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Worry can't make you an inch taller, worry can't make you an inch shorter, can't make you bigger or smaller, thinner or fatter. Worry doesn't work. He says you can't add even a single hour to your life. In fact, worry can shorten your life. If you're worried you may not live long enough, the tension and stress could actually shorten your life.

Worry about any problem in your life will never move you one step toward that situation. Worry is worthless. It's stewing without doing. It's investing a lot of emotional energy for something that isn't going to do anything. It's like sitting in a rocker and you can rock back and forth, back and forth, and you expend a lot of energy, but you're not one inch further. You have made no progress at all.

Worry cannot change anything. In fact, the only thing worry can change is you. It'll make you miserable and that's what it does. It won't change that person you're worried about. It'll only change you, make you more miserable. Follow me on the logic of this. Worry cannot change anything in your past. It's already done. Your past is past, so why are you worrying about it? Worry cannot control your future. No matter how much you think you can, you're not controlling it by worrying about it. If it can't change the past and it can't control the future, what does it do? Messes up today. It saps the strength out of your body. It is not only unreasonable and unnatural, it's unhelpful.

Guest (Male): Man, I love hearing Pastor Rick. What a great message. We also love hearing from our listeners. Here's Rick with a very encouraging letter.

Rick Warren: Let me close this broadcast by sharing a letter from a listener in Rome, Italy. Her name is Hishan and she says, "Pastor Rick, I've relocated to Rome, Italy, where I'm currently working at the World Food Program. I really love listening to your sermons and I also love reading your daily devotionals, which I share with many of my colleagues serving in the field offices in Africa and other hardship duty stations. They appreciate receiving the message very much. God bless you, Hishan in Rome."

Now did you get this? A message that is starting in Southern California in the United States of America is being sent to Europe in Rome, Italy, and then it is being resent out to other continents like Africa. That is the amazing age of technology that we live in today. And that's why your gifts go much further than they used to go even 20 or 30 years ago. Our ability to reach listeners like Hishan and her friends, not just in Europe but in Africa, is a direct result of your prayers and your support for Daily Hope. So thanks so much. And by the way, join me next time when we continue looking into God's word for our daily hope.

Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.