Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): 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. Let's jump right in and take a look at part three of a message called Letting God Meet My Needs.

Pastor Rick Warren: You remember when you were a little kid? Your parents would go on an outing, you'd go on a picnic or a hike or you go hunting or fishing or you go to Disneyland. At the end of the day, your little legs are so tired. Mom or dad has to carry you out to the car because you're just pooped out. Your legs give out as a little kid. And that's what happens during the week sometimes. You say, God, I am just pooped out. I'm worn out. I don't think I can put one foot in front of the others. I need you to carry me right now. Carry me to the car, take me home, get me home.

And he says, I'm your shepherd. I'll care for you, I'll bless you, I'll protect you, I'll save you, I'll guide you, I'll direct you, I'll discipline you when you need it, I'll defend you. I will do all of these things. And when you're worn out and you're tired and you can't put one foot in front of the others, I'll carry you. Just hop on and I'll take you. I'll take you to the car, I'll take you home. That's what you do every day, ask him to be my shepherd.

Number two. Second is very important. I give him, Jesus, first place in every area of my life. This is extremely important, that I give Jesus first place in every area of my life. Now, if you're a believer, you've given him first place in your life. You said, I want you to be number one, but there's different parts of your life that are not under his control. And when you say, Jesus, come into my house, you need to say, have the whole house.

You've got access to the bedroom, you've got access to the bathroom, you've got access to the kitchen in my life. You've got access to that closet over there where I've got all kinds of stuff hidden. You've got access to the garage, to the living room, to the dining room. It's all yours. Jesus, take over the whole house. Have you ever said that? Not just, yeah, God, I want you to just get me to heaven. I want you to be number one in every area of my life.

The Bible says this in Matthew 6:31-33: Your heavenly father already knows perfectly well what you need. Let me stop right there. Your heavenly father perfectly knows already what you need. So any need you mention to God, he already knows. Someday I'm going to do a message called Phrases You'll Never Hear God Say, like, oops. You never want to hear a surgeon say that when you're laying on a table. Oops. God never says oops. God never says, well, I didn't know that. Well, slap me. I didn't see that one coming. God will never say that. God knows your needs better than you do.

You've got needs you don't even know you've got needs. But God says, man, that's a big need. That's a big need in their life. They don't even see it. They're blind to it. They've got a blind spot. They have no idea how many needs they've got. God knows your needs better than you do. Anytime you come to God with a need, he's not going to go, whoa, I never saw that one coming. He knew it before he made you.

God allows needs in your life so you'll come to him, so he can answer that need, so you'll trust him. We looked at that circle last week. You get a need, and then you ask God to meet that need, you cry out, God meets that need, and then you trust God more and you do that circle thousands of times. That's how you learn to trust God. If you didn't have needs, you'd never trust God. God allows needs in your life so you can learn to trust him.

But he says, I already know what you need before you even ask. And he says he will, not might, he will give you what you need if, here's the condition, if you give him first place in your life and you live as he wants you to. So you give God first place in every area of your life. Anytime you worry, that is a warning light that that particular area of your life you have not given him first place. Every time you worry, you go, oh, that's an area where God's not number one.

Any area of your life where God's not number one, you're going to worry about it. Any area of your life where God's not number one, that's going to be a source of insecurity in your life, your job or anything else. Any area in your life that is not under the lordship of Christ, is not given first place to God, that's going to be a constant source of worry and insecurity your entire life. If God is first place in no area of your life, you've got everything to be worried about.

You might hold on to a couple of areas. God, you can have the whole house but don't have the bedroom. Then you're going to worry about that area. God, you can have every area of the house except the kitchen. Then you're going to worry about that area. It's the sign that he's not number one. It's an indication that you've got mixed-up values. When you make Jesus Christ number one in every single area of your life, it really simplifies your priorities and it also gives you a whole lot less to worry about.

When it's given to God, then you don't have to worry about it. Too often we worry about things. We worry about physical possessions. If you have fewer possessions, you have less to worry about. I never, never worry about getting barnacles on my yacht because I don't have a yacht. So I've never worried about how am I going to get those barnacles off that yacht. I don't have to worry about it because my life is simplified, and the things that are in my life, I've given them to God.

As long as you love anything else in your life more than God, that area is going to become a source of worry to you. Count on it. It's going to become a source of stress and a source of insecurity if you love it more than God. You're going to be victimized by worry and anxiety. Eventually, everybody has to decide, what am I going to live for and who am I going to live for? Whatever that answer is becomes your Lord.

For some of you, your job is your Lord. For some of you, your marriage is your Lord. For some of you, your children are your Lord. Those are all good things. Nothing wrong with them. They just don't deserve God's place. And when anything takes the place of God, that's called an idol and it creates stress, worry, and insecurity. One of the things we worry about the most, of course, is money. What I've discovered is that no matter how much or how little you've got of it, you still worry about it.

I've been in 164 countries and I've seen the poorest of the poor of the poorest of the poor. On the other hand, I know a number of billionaires and multi-multi-billionaires. You know what I've discovered at both ends? They both worry about money. If you don't have it, you worry about getting it. If you've got it, you worry about keeping it, saving it, spending it, investing it, protecting it. God says, I don't want you worrying about that. I'll take care of all your needs.

Every day I ask Jesus to be my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Say it 50 times a day. Then I give him first place in every area of my life. Here's the third thing. This third thing God wants to say to you, and we're going to cover this more in detail next week: relax. Relax and give him my worries in prayer. God wants you to relax. He wants you to give him your worries in prayer. You say, Jesus, just take these things I'm worried about, and you just hand them over to him.

Last week we talked about counting your blessings. I said, look at all the things God has done for you in your life that are good. Make a list. Make a list of all the good things God's done for you and when you start getting down, pull out that list and read. Wow, God really has been good to me. The freedom I have. I have a brain, I can see, I can hear, all of the many things that you take for granted. You make a list of blessings.

But sometimes you know what you need to do? You need to make a list of worries. Sometimes you have this sense of, I just feel anxious. I have this general anxiety. I feel a little uptight, a little nervous, and I don't really know what's causing it. You can just say, God, I give you my generalized worry, but it's even better to stop and go, what is it that's really bugging me? Am I worried that somebody's going to disapprove of me? Then you write that down.

Am I worried that I'm going to be rejected? You write that down. Am I worried that I'm going to be insecure and not have enough? You write that down. Am I worried that I'm going to be lonely the rest of my life? You write them all down and then you give God your worries. Say, here's the list, Lord. Here's some stuff that's on my mind today. I'm not going to keep them. I'm going to give them to you. Notice this next verse, 1 Peter 5:7: Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.

Give them to him. You weren't made to worry. Remember, it's unnatural to worry, so you shouldn't swallow your worries. When you swallow your worries, your stomach keeps score, as I just said. When you are worried, it doesn't work to try to deny it or ignore it or push it down. I'm not worried, I'm not worried. That doesn't work because in your mind, it's going, yeah, you're worried. You keep pushing it out of the way and it's like putting it under the carpet. The carpet pile gets bigger and bigger and you start stumbling over it.

When you are worried, don't repress it. Don't suppress it. Express it to God. Confess it to God. Say, God, here's my list of worries. If you try to push down the worries in your life, you're going to get sick. It's like taking a can of Coke, shaking it all up real violently, and then putting it in the freezer. What's going to happen to that can of Coke? It's going to explode. It's going to expand, it's going to explode, and it's going to come out sideways.

It will come out sideways in your life in a broken relationship, an explosion at work, and all these other areas when we take so much worry onto ourselves. Eventually, it comes out. You relax and you give him your worries. Say, God, here are the things I'm worried about. You remember earlier we read that verse where Jesus said don't worry about anything, I'm going to meet your needs. Well, right before that he had said this. Look up on the screen. Matthew 6:32 says, for the people who don't know God, the unbeliever, they run after all these things.

He says, do I look good? Do I feel good? Do I have the goods? Am I living the good life? Do I have the clothes? Do I have the food? Do I have the appearance? Do I have the car? Do I have the right jewelry? Do I have the accessorizing myself and all these different things? He said the people who don't know God run after all these things. I don't have to go into this because you know what people are running after: material goods, keeping up with the Joneses, all those things.

They run after all these things. It's interesting, I looked up this word 'run'. It says these people who don't know God run after these things. It actually means in Greek 'frantically seeking'. Frantically seeking materialism, passions, pleasures, possessions. It's scurrying to get about. When I think of this verse, I think of shopping crowds at the mall on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. They're running after these things. I'm afraid I'm not going to get the deal, and there's a limited number of items on sale, so I've got to get there and I've got to elbow you and push you.

Unbelievers, people who don't know God, they're like this. They're frantic. Get, get, get, grabbing. He said they run after all these things. They're hurrying and scurrying all the time. I want you to write this down: hurry creates worry. Hurry creates worry. The faster you go in life, the more likely you are to worry. You need to slow down. You need to relax. You need to take a little bit slower pace. Hurrying and scurrying, you're going to end up worrying.

The Bible says this in Philippians 4:6 and 7: Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Don't panic, pray. Tell God about all your needs, and thank him for all he's done. If you do this, you'll experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. The Bible calls this the peace that passes understanding. What is the peace that passes understanding? It's when you're at peace and you have no logical rational reason to be at peace.

I just lost my job. Somehow, I'm at peace about it. Why? The Lord is my shepherd. You just got the dreaded word and report from the doctor: it's cancer. But for some reason, I've got peace about it. Why? Peace that passes understanding because the Lord is my shepherd. I just found out some bad news that a dear friend of mine just died. Somehow, I'm at peace about it in my heart. Why? Because the Lord is my shepherd. He feeds and he leads and he meets my needs.

That's the peace that understands it. That's a witness to the world. People go, man, I want to be like that guy. I want to be like that woman. She's at peace in the middle of chaos. Anybody can be at peace when you're out fishing. But if you're at peace in the middle of chaos, that's the peace that passes understanding. He says don't worry about it. God's peace will give you what you need.

Every day I start the day and throughout the day I say, the Lord is my shepherd. I ask him to be my shepherd. Then I give him first place in every area of my life, not just this area but every single compartment of my life. Then I relax. Every time a worry comes up, I say the Lord's my shepherd, and I give that worry to God. I don't hold on to it. I don't think I've got to think about it later. I say, God, take that one. I don't have time to think about that worry. Take that worry, God. You just keep loading them on. He can handle it.

Guest (Male): I don't know about you, but I am encouraged after that message. And let's keep the encouragement going with a letter from one of our listeners. Here's Rick.

Pastor Rick Warren: I love hearing from Daily Hope listeners like you, and here's one note that I got from Raymond in New York. "Dear Pastor Rick, I'd like you to know how much I appreciate the Daily Hope broadcast. The nuggets that I get I share with my lunch group at work. And my family benefits as well because at dinner time, my wife and my son hear the nugget that I learned during the day and we discuss it. It's awesome."

Raymond, thanks for writing me and thanks for sharing your story. You encouraged me just now. I'm happy to hear that you're sharing Daily Hope with your coworkers and with your family. If God has used this broadcast in your life, would you let me know about it and tell your story? It'll be good for you, it'll be good for me, and it'll be good for all the others who hear it. I love you and I thank God for you. Join me next time as we continue to look into God's word for our daily hope.

Guest (Male): Now if you'd like to let Rick know how much this broadcast has blessed you, please feel free to send him an email. He loves it. Send it to Rick at pastorrick.com. That's Rick at pastorrick.com. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries and your generous financial support.