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. Okay, so let's jump in for part one of a message called Living an Anointed Life.

Rick Warren: If you take out your message notes, we're going to continue in the series we've been in now. It's a 12-part series, Living in the Goodness of God. We're looking at the most important or famous chapter in the Bible, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. It's only six verses, but it's taking us 12 sessions to get through it because there are so many rich, 12 different metaphors, 12 different pictures of the way God is good to us.

Today we come to the fifth verse, Psalm 23, verse five, and we're just looking at one phrase where he says, talking about the goodness of God, "You anoint my head with oil." Now what in the world does that mean? "You anoint my head with oil." This was written 3,000 years ago. How in the world could it possibly have any relevance to my life today and the goodness of God?

Well, you’ve got to understand what anointing is. What does it mean to be anointed? Well, that depends on who's doing the anointing. If you had your next-door neighbor come over to you tomorrow to your house and walk in and they had some oil, and they anointed you and they said, "I now proclaim you the king of the universe," would that change your life? No. Why? Because they don't have any authority to do anything about it. They could say you're the king of rock and roll or whatever, and it wouldn't make any difference because it depends on who's doing the anointing.

Now, I've put down a definition here, and there's anointed by God, which is internal, and there's anointed by people, which is external. Let me explain this so we can unwrap it and see all the benefits to your life. Anointed by God is something that happens internally, and I've written here when God's Holy Spirit gives you insight or ability—this is supernatural insight, ability, or stamina or authority or protection that you don't normally have in order to do a job that he, God, has chosen you to do. That's anointing.

When you are anointed by God, God gives you supernaturally ability that you don't have, or insight, wisdom you don't have, stamina to hold up under something you don't have, authority, or even protection that you don't normally have in order to do a job that God has chosen you to do. That's called anointing in the Bible. Now, anointing by people is something different. It's an outward symbol of the inward thing we just talked about. It's the external symbol. Anointing by people means when somebody prayerfully applies some oil to your skin as an outward sign of what God is doing inside you.

Now God often does this. He gives us an external symbol of an internal process. The Lord's Supper, communion, is an external symbol of the death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, this is my body and this is my blood, using bread and wine, crackers and juice, using symbols that say this is an outward sign of an inward spiritual truth. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward truth. It says I have died to my old way of living, we put them under the water, we bring them back up, and I'm beginning a brand-new life. It's a new life. I've been born again, not turn over a new leaf, I've got a new life. All my sins have been forgiven, washed away. That's an outward sign, baptism, of an inward commitment.

Now neither communion nor baptism save you. It's like I call them the wedding ring of the Christian life. This ring was given to me many years ago, 42 years specifically, when I said two words at a ceremony that changed my life. Two words: I do. When I said those two words, I had no idea what I was doing when I said I do. And the rest of my life I'm working out the implications of two words, I do. And Kay will often tell me, this is in the fine print of I do, and I go, "Oh, that's included too? Yeah, okay." I did and I still do.

She gave me this ring. Now I could lose this ring and I'd still be married. Kay would be upset and I would actually too, but this doesn't make me married. It's just the symbol. When someone anoints you with oil, there's nothing mystical or magical properties in the oil. It's simply, like the water in baptism is not a special kind of water, it's just water. And an oil in anointing is just olive oil, but it is the symbol of something far more significant and the faith in the fact that God has anointed you on the inside.

Now in the Bible, olive oil specifically is used as a symbol of a lot of things. It's a symbol of God's spirit, the Holy Spirit. It's a symbol of God's presence. It's a symbol of God's blessing on your life. When someone is anointed with oil, it's a symbol that God approves of you. It's a symbol of God's presence, of God's protection, of God's promises. It's a symbol of prosperity. There are a lot of different meanings to being anointed with oil. It's comfort, it's healing, it's joy. The Bible talks about the oil of joy, the oil of gladness, the oil of salvation, the oil of deliverance. And so it's a symbol of many different things.

Now in the Bible, in the Old Testament, the old part of the Bible, only three kinds of people got anointed with oil. You had to be a priest, you had to be a prophet, or you had to be a king. And even today, kings are still anointed with oil, even thousands of years later, as a symbol of God's blessing, God's approval, God's giving them authority and things like that. And the only people who could actually do it were the priests. Nobody else was allowed to anoint in the Old Testament. In fact, you weren't even allowed to have anointing oil in your home. It was supposed to be that sacred.

But when Jesus Christ came and died on the cross, he broke up the old system, and the Bible says the veil in the temple was torn in half, which means you can go directly to God now. You don't need a priest. In the Old Testament you had to go through a priest to get to God. You had to pray through a priest, you had to have him confess your sins for you, you confessed to a priest, they confessed to God. You don't have to go to a priest anymore. You don't have to confess to a priest. You can confess directly to God. You don't have to pray through a priest anymore. You can pray directly to God.

That's what Jesus did on the cross. In fact, the Bible says, this may shock you, if you're a follower of Jesus, you're a priest. It says it over and over and over. It's called the priesthood of the believer. At Saddleback we use the phrase every member is a minister. It's the same thing. That you don't need somebody between you and God. You now, because of what Jesus did, have direct access. And because you, you may have never thought about this, are a priest, whether you're a man or a woman, old or young, if you're a follower of Christ, you have the authority to anoint people with oil. You have the authority to pray for people's healing. You have the authority to do all the things that the priest used to do in the Old Testament.

Now to understand what it means to live an anointed life, and that's what we want to look at, "You anoint my head with oil," and what is the meaning of that, what is the blessing of being anointed by God? We need to go back to the very basic. You're not an accident. You were made by God and for God. Until you understand that, life won't make sense. We've talked about this many times. God has a plan for your life, a purpose for your life, and the significance and meaning of your life comes from figuring out God's plan on your life.

God has a purpose, and the Bible says before you even born, God planned what he wanted to do with your life. It's called your calling, your calling. And the word in Latin is vocatio or Greek is kaleo, means to call out, and we get our vocal, vocalize, voice. It is God calling you. Did you know that you're called by God to do something with your life? You may be called to be a marine biologist, but it's a calling. You may be called to be a taxi driver or a banker or an investor or a homemaker or a teacher or a nurse or an artist or a musician. Everybody who's alive has a calling by God on their life.

Now, many people miss that calling and they go off and do their own thing, and that's why they're unhappy, that's why they're unsatisfied, that's why they're unfulfilled, because you'll never be fulfilled doing your plan. You're only going to be fulfilled if you figure out what is God calling me to do? Some people think that God only calls missionaries and priests and nuns and pastors and people who do church work. No, no, no, no, no. Everybody has a calling on their life. You could be called to be a businessman, you could be called to be a politician, you could be called to be a salesperson.

And what God calls you to do, listen, he wants to anoint you to do. Let me show you some verses. First look up here on the screen. The Bible says this in the book of Ephesians, that God made us what we are. He wired you. Some people like sales, you like math, you like music, you like instrumentation, you like organizing, you're an administrator. God made you what you are. And in Christ Jesus, God created us, each of us, to do good works, which he planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. Do you realize that before you even born, God planned the calling on your life? He planned the purpose on your life. Now, that's very, very important, and this is where fulfillment and meaning and purpose come from.

But here's the catch: you cannot fulfill your calling the way God wants you to on your own power. You need what is called God's anointing. And anointing is the power and the insight and the energy and all those things that I mentioned earlier that allow you to do what God wants you to do. If God has a job, he's going to give you the ability to do it. And so what I want to do real quickly is summarize the entire Bible and what it has to say about anointing and anointed life in about six statements. Can you write fast?

Okay, this is CliffNotes on the Bible on anointing. So take your notes out. This is very important because until you understand your calling and until you get your anointing, you're not going to be fulfilled in life. Okay, number one, here are six things I've learned about God's anointing on my life. Number one: when God appoints me, he anoints me. That's the first thing we learn. When God appoints me, he anoints me. God never asks you to do something without providing what you need to do it. And when he gives you assignment, he's going to give you the empowerment. When he gives you a plan, he's going to give you the power to do it. When he gives you a strategy, he's going to give you his spirit.

God's anointing comes with God's appointing, and the anointing that God wants to give you in your life, new power, new energy, new insight, only happen when you start doing using it for what he wants to give it to you for. God has promised to help you out. If God calls you to do something and you're scared to death, you feel incompetent or incapable or inadequate, God says it's okay. Look at these verses. 1 Thessalonians 5:24, "The one who calls you," that's God, "is faithful," God is faithful, "and he will do it."

What does that verse mean? Whatever God calls you to do, he's going to give you the ability to do, he's going to help you do it, he's going to put his spirit in you, and if God says to do it, you can count on his anointing. The faithful, the one who calls you, he's going to do it. A good example of this would be when God gave the very first assignment to his very first followers, the first 12 disciples. Look up here on the screen, Acts chapter one, verse eight, says this: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you." That's anointing. "And you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth."

Now that, when Jesus gave that assignment to the disciples, was an impossible assignment. There was no way they could possibly go to the ends of the earth. There were no planes, trains, automobiles, no ocean-bearing vessels. How in the world were they going to get to Australia from the Middle East? How are they going to get to South America or North America? It was physically impossible. God will often give you an assignment that physically looks impossible, but he says, "I'm going to make it possible and we're going to figure out a way to do this and I am going to empower you." So God says my appointment comes or my assignment comes with an anointing that goes right along with it.

Okay, number two, here's the second thing we learn. God's anointing makes me a better person. Now if you think you're good now, it's nothing compared to what you could be with God's anointing on your life. God's anointing transforms you. It changes you from the inside out. It gives you abilities you did not have on your own. Now again, there are many, many examples of this, that when somebody is anointed as a king or prophet or whatever, that all of a sudden they got new abilities and their life was turned around and changed because of the anointing.

Here's a good example: in 1 Samuel chapter 10, Samuel is a prophet and the first king of Israel is a guy named Saul. Saul felt very inadequate. He thought, "I could never be a king." And in verse one of chapter 10, it says this: "Then Samuel took oil and poured it on Saul's head." And he said, "God has anointed you," there's this outward symbol of an inward commitment, "God has anointed you to be the leader of his people." Now Saul is anointed, but he still doesn't believe it. He's still insecure.

And so Samuel goes, "I'm going to give you several signs." And over the next several verses he says, "This is going to happen and this is going to happen and this is going to happen." And then down in verse six, he says, "Here's the thing that's going to confirm your calling." Verse six of 1 Samuel 10: "God's spirit will come on you in power and you're going to speak like a prophet." He said you're actually going to be walking with some prophets when this happens, some spiritual men. And he says, "You will be changed into a different person." Circle that. You're going to be changed into a different person. "And after this happens, you, whatever you do, whatever you think is best, do whatever you think is best because God will be with you."

Now what does this verse teach us? That when God actually anoints your life, when you receive God's anointing on your life, it changes you. You see, how does it change me? You're going to be more competent, you're going to be more confident, and you're going to be more calm. You're going to be more confident about what God's called you to do, you're going to be more competent about what God's called you to do, and you're going to be more calm about it.

When you are worried, when you're nervous about your job, about your calling, about your vocation, then guess what? You don't have the anointing of God on your life at that moment. You don't feel competent, you don't feel confident, and you don't feel calm. When God comes into your life, it changes you and all of a sudden you’ve got a whole lot more confidence about what you know you're supposed to do with your life.

Okay, number three. Third thing we learn in the Bible is that God's anointing makes difficult tasks easier. This is a good one. It makes the difficult tasks in your life easier because now you're not just doing it on your own power, you're doing it on God's power. And the difference between serving God in your power versus serving God in his power is night and day.

Let me show you the difference between an anointed life and an unanointed life. Look up here on the screen, Ephesians chapter three, verse 16, says this: "From his unlimited resources, God will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit." Circle "mighty inner strength." Now, my resources are limited. My energy is limited. My knowledge is limited. My wisdom is limited. My talent is limited, and so is yours. But God is not. And when you have God's anointing on your life, he puts mighty strength in you that you didn't know you had.

You can handle things better, you can last longer, you can go farther because you have God's anointing on your life. How do you know when you don't have God's anointing on your life? You're tired all the time. You're tired all the time. Why? Because you're trying to solve your problems, you're trying to live your life, you're trying to fulfill your purpose on your own power. Now he says God will give you mighty strength through his Holy Spirit. One of the Holy Spirit's jobs is to anoint you. That's his job, to give you the power and the energy and the wisdom and the resources and all the stuff you need to get it done, to get done what God put you on this planet to get done.

Philippians 4:13 is one of the most famous verses in the Bible. You could probably quote it. "I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need." Now, if you're not dependent on Christ, you're depending on yourself and you're going to end up fatigued. Let me ask you a very personal question: are you trying to do everything you need to do in life based on adrenaline or based on anointing? Hmm. Because your adrenaline runs out and you get tired and you get fatigued and you get worn out and you want to give up. When you're walking in the anointing, when God's power is flowing through you, it's limitless. It is limitless. It gives you supernatural energy.

"I can do everything with the help of Christ." I wonder what you're filling in that blank. "I can do everything with the help of my medication. I can do everything with the help of my team. I can do everything with the help of my bank passport and my savings account." None of those, there's only one thing that doesn't run dry. Every other well in your life is going to run dry. If you ask or expect other people to meet needs in your life that only God can meet, you're going to be disappointed, they're going to be frustrated, and you're going to have conflict because you can, they, nobody could possibly meet all the needs in your life. Your wife can't, your husband can't, your best friend can't, your boyfriend can't. Nobody can meet all your emotional, physical, spiritual needs. Only God can.

And if you look to him, he says, "Then I will give you my anointing. I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need." By the way, do you know what "Christ" means, that word, Christ? Some people think Christ is Jesus' last name. Jesus' first name, Christ's last name. No, no. Do you even know, you may have been a Christian 30 years, do you even know what Christ means? It's the Greek word for "anointed one." That's what Christ means, anointed one. It is the anointed one who gives you your anointing that gives you the power to do all the things God wants you to do with your life.

Christ means anointed one. By the way, do you know what the word "anointed one" is in Hebrew, the other language in the Bible? It's the word "Messiah." Messiah means anointed one. So Christ and Messiah are the exact same word, just in Hebrew or in Greek. And he says it is the Messiah, it is the anointed one, who's going to give you the anointing to get done everything you need to get done in life that God wants you to do. Now, God doesn't give you his anointing to do things you want to do. He gives you the things he put you on, he gives you the ability to do what he wants you to do.

Okay, number four. And let's review: when God appoints me, he anoints me. God's anointing makes me a better person and it makes difficult tasks easier. Number four: God's anointing makes the impossible possible. Because God can do stuff you would never be able to do and I would never be able to do. This is a big deal because in your business you're going to come up against insurmountable problems. You're going to need the anointing of God. When you're going to have problems in your marriage that seem insurmountable, you're going to have problems with your health that seem insurmountable, what do you depend on there? Not your own power. You depend on God's anointing.

Look at these verses. Luke 18:27, Jesus says, "What is impossible for men is possible with God." I can't do everything, but God can. Ephesians 3:20: "God's power at work within us is able to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask for or even imagine." Now, I don't know about you, I'm a pretty big dreamer. Nobody's ever accused me of being a small thinker or a small dreamer. And yet this verse says God says to me, "Hey Rick, think of the greatest thing I could do in your life. Just blow the top off. What are you afraid to even ask? What are you afraid to even imagine? What's the greatest thing you could imagine happening in your life?" And God says, "I can top that. I can top that. I'm better. I'm bigger. My anointing can do more than you even think."

What's the greatest thing you'd like to see done in your life? You go, "Man, I'm even afraid to even imagine it, I'm afraid to even think of it. It might be too over-think of the biggest thing God could do in your life." And God says, "With my anointing, I can do bigger than that." He says, "God's power at work within us is able to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask or even imagine for our families, for your business, for your career, for your education, for your dream." God's anointing makes the impossible possible.

Guest (Male): Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's show. Rick wants to encourage you with a closing thought.

Rick Warren: God has five purposes for your life. He wants you to know and love him, that's called worship. He wants you to belong to his family, that's called fellowship. He wants you to grow in him, that's called discipleship. He wants you to serve him with your gifts and talents, that's your ministry. And he wants you to share the good news with other people, that's your mission.

Now today as we close, I want to talk to you about the third purpose: discipleship or personal growth. How do we grow? Well, we grow through the nourishment of God's word. It's how we get to know God. To know God's word is to know God's will. God's word is the source of God's will. And God's ultimate goal for your life is for you to become like Jesus Christ. To do that, you have to fill your life with the word of Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 3:17 says, "Through the word we're put together and shaped for the tasks that God has for us." I remember in the Old Testament, the Bible says that Job treasured God's word more than his daily bread. That's how I want you to treat God's word. That's how you grow in discipleship. Get into his word every day. Study it, memorize it, meditate on it, apply it, never take it for granted. God's word is as essential to your soul as food is to your body. So get into the word today. God bless you.

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.