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.

Guest (Male): Right now, here’s the final part of a message called Living an Anointed Life.

Rick Warren: The fifth thing that we learn in the scriptures is this: God anoints my life to bless others. God blesses you not just so you could feel good. God blesses you so you could be a blessing to other people. We’ve done an entire series on this at Saddleback where we talked about how we’re blessed to be a blessing.

God doesn’t give you money, talent, good looks, abilities, opportunities, or networks simply for your benefit. God says, "I want you to be a blessing to other people." You get blessed at the same time, no doubt about it. You’re going to enjoy the blessing of being a channel. When you’re a channel of God’s power and blessing to other people, it blesses everybody. You’re not the only one who gets blessed. God doesn’t give you His anointing just so you can feel good. God gives you His anointing to help others, and when you do, it helps you.

In Isaiah, who was a prophet in the Old Testament, in chapter 61, Isaiah says, "I know I’m anointed by God." He comes up with a list of six different kinds of people in pain, and he says, "I know this is what God’s calling me to do. I’m to use my anointing not just to make a name for myself. God is giving me this anointing to help six kinds of people in pain."

Isaiah says, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, and he has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering and the afflicted. He’s anointed me to comfort the brokenhearted. He’s anointed me to announce freedom to people who are captives." They’re in a prison, maybe a self-imposed prison of resentment, an addiction, a compulsion, a fear, or an anxiety. A lot of people are in self-imposed prisons.

He says he’s anointed me to bring good news to the suffering, comfort the brokenhearted, and announce freedom to people who are enslaved to an addiction or a habit. He’s anointed me to open the eyes of the blind. He’s talking about helping people see stuff that they’ve never seen before, helping them see God. Maybe they’ve never seen God in their life or seen God at work. He sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of God’s favor to them has come.

He says, "He has anointed me to tell all who mourn—and everybody has losses in life. You’re going to have them if you haven’t already. You’ll have major losses in your life, which means you’re going to mourn." He says God sent me to use the anointing I’ve got to tell these people who have had a loss that God will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, and praise instead of heaviness for those who are depressed.

What an amazing God we have, that God is interested in your emotional needs. God is interested in your hurts, in your habits, and in your hang-ups. God is interested in all the stuff that pulls you down. He says when you get anointed, God wants you to help other people in pain. When you do that, God helps you in your pain.

This passage, Isaiah 61, is the text that Jesus read for his very first publicly recorded sermon. In Luke chapter four, Jesus goes back to his hometown of Nazareth. He picks up the scroll of the Old Testament and opens to this passage, Isaiah 61. Jesus reads it and says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he’s appointed me to preach good news to the suffering and the afflicted and the poor. He sent me to comfort the brokenhearted."

He reads this, rolls the scroll up, goes over, and sits down. It was the shortest sermon on record, certainly not one of mine. He sits down and says, "Today this passage is fulfilled right in front of you. I am the answer. I’m the Savior. I’m the guy who’s come to comfort the afflicted and the brokenhearted and the people who are enslaved to habits and the people who don’t know how to get out of debt and the people who are blind and can’t see the way out of where they are and all these different things." Jesus says, "I’m it. But I’m anointed to do this."

In Acts chapter 10, another verse says God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit’s power. There’s the Trinity in one sentence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit’s power, and Jesus went around doing good. That’s the purpose of anointing: to make the world a better place. When you get anointed, you start helping other people. You get blessed by it, but you’re helping other people. He went around doing good and healing people who were beaten down by the devil. When you get anointed, God’s going to do that with you.

God wants to work in your life this same way. You’re a priest. You’re anointed to go around doing good and healing people who have been beaten up by the devil. The sixth thing we learn about anointing as I summarize the Bible is that for every new challenge, I need a fresh anointing.

Anointing by the Holy Spirit in your life cannot be stored up. You can't say, "Oh yeah, I remember way back in 1992, I went to a service and I really felt close to God. I got a quiver in my liver and I even cried. It was an emotional experience." You can't still live on that. It doesn't work that way. You can't store it up. God’s anointing and His blessing on your life is like manna, that bread that God fed them in the wilderness for 40 years. It only lasted a day, and then it spoiled because God wants you to depend on Him every day for His anointing and His power in your life.

The prayer is not to pray, "Give us this day our monthly bread." It’s daily. He gives you just enough for that day. Tomorrow you’re going to need a fresh anointing, and the day after that you’re going to need a fresh anointing, and the day after that you’re going to need some fresh oil in your lamp. You need it fresh.

You can lose the anointing. We’ve all seen people who were greatly used by God. They were on fire and they were gifted and talented. Then two years later, they’re on the shelf doing nothing. How did they lose God’s blessing on their life? How did they lose the anointing on their life? You can lose it lots of ways: by taking it for granted, by not depending on God, or by not spending time alone with God every day.

You can lose the anointing through pride or through greed. You can lose the anointing by refusing to forgive somebody you need to forgive. You can lose it from gossip. You can lose it from out-of-control anger. You can lose it from all kinds of different things that you let become a god in your life that you begin to idolize. All of a sudden, that person or that thing or that job or that money is more important than God, and you can lose God’s blessing on your life.

History is littered with people who had God’s anointing and God’s blessing and were seeing success and results in their life, and then suddenly, they’re nothing because they took it too lightly and too loosely. For every new challenge, I need a fresh anointing. That anointing that you had last year or 10 years ago or at a youth camp is not any good for today. It doesn't do you any good today. You need a fresh refilling.

God wants to fill you with His power, His love, His Spirit, and His grace. The problem is we all leak. You get filled, but you leak. You can lose the passion and the power and the grace and the vision. You leak like a balloon that’s been blown up for a birthday party, and three days later it’s losing it all and going flat in the corner. We leak, so you need a fresh filling of God’s Spirit on a regular basis. You cannot handle today’s problems with yesterday’s anointing, and you certainly can’t handle the problems you’re going to have tomorrow and next week and next year with yesterday’s anointing. You’ve got to stay in touch with God so that He’s filling you constantly with His grace, His love, and His power.

How do I stay filled? How do I get a fresh anointing? Hosea chapter 10, verse 12 says, "Sow new seeds of righteousness and you’ll reap the fruit of my love, and break up your old hardened ground." That’s a metaphor for prayer. He’s talking about if you’re a farmer, you’ve got some ground out there that hasn’t been plowed in years. It’s gotten hard, dry, and crusty. Maybe your heart has gotten cold and dry and crusty, and you don’t feel the joy of the Lord anymore. You don’t feel close to God anymore. Your heart is hard toward other people, and your heart is hard even maybe toward God.

He says you need to do a little plowing. You need to do a little spadework. Break up the hardened, the fallow ground, the hardened ground in your life. It’s time to turn to me and seek the Lord, and then He says, "I’ll come and I’ll shower new blessings." That’s anointing. "I’ll shower new blessings on you." How does God turn hard ground into soft ground so something can sprout from it? He sends a storm. Have you got any storm going on in your life? God may be breaking up the dirt clods in your heart, the hardened soil that’s gotten dry and barren and can’t bear fruit of anything.

In that passage, he says four things. He says you want my anointing? You’ve got to pray, sow the seeds of righteousness, and spend some time talking to God. He says you need to break up the hardened ground. That’s humility and confession. "God, I haven’t been close to you. I haven’t been connected to you like I used to be." He says turn back to God, seek God, and as a result, I’ll come and shower new blessing, a new anointing on your life.

The number one way you get God’s anointing back in your life, or maybe for the first time, is you ask. You ask. The Bible says you have not because you ask not. You do not have because you don’t ask God. If you don’t have God’s power in your life, if you don’t have God’s blessing and anointing in your life, you’re not waiting on God. He’s waiting on you. You just haven’t asked.

When was the last time you asked God to make your career successful, and then you said, "I’ll do it anyway you tell me to do it"? When was the last time you asked God to make your marriage or your relationships or your friendships successful, and then you said, "God, I’ll do it anyway you tell me to do it, even if it doesn't make sense"? When was the last time you said, "God, my finances are so messed up, they suck, and I need you to bless my finances. I’m willing to do it the way you tell me to do it"? That is to break up the clods and to say, "God, you have not because you ask not. I’m asking you right now."

God wants to bless your life in ways you have not even imagined. If God were to show you what He could have done with your life to this point but hadn’t been able to, you’d be sad. But if God were to show you what He could do with the rest of your life, however many years you’ve got left, it would blow your mind if you just say, "God, I’m asking for your anointing. I want to do it your way." We’re not waiting on God for a revival of our hearts; He’s waiting on us.

Psalm 84:11 says the Lord generously gives. God is the most generous person in the universe. He teaches us to give because He’s generous. The Lord generously gives us His favor. Favor is another word for anointing. It means His blessing, His favor, His grace, His anointing. The Lord generously gives us His favor and honor. When you have the favor of God, you’re a favorite. God says, "She’s my favorite." Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt the favor of God on your life? I have, and there’s nothing to compare to it when you know God has shown favor on you. You go, "I’m a favorite of God. I’m a friend of God. I don’t deserve it, but it’s just God’s grace."

He says the Lord generously gives us His favor and honor. God wants to affirm you. God wants to applaud you in front of other people. Favor and honor. No good thing will He withhold from those who live right. He said there’s nothing that’s good for you that I’ll hold back. Anything you could possibly think of that would be good for you, I’m going to give it. No good thing will God hold back from you if you will just trust Him and live in His anointing.

You might write this down: when God anoints your business, it brings success. I could give you a hundred examples out of the Bible of this, but let me just give you one. Genesis 39:2 talks about Joseph, who was a businessman. It says because the Lord was with Joseph—that phrase "was with Joseph" means he is under the anointing and blessing of God—it says he was greatly blessed, so that everything he did succeeded. How many of you would like that to be true in your career, that every single thing you did succeeded? That ought to be unanimous. Where does that come from? It comes from the anointing of God.

When God anoints your body, it brings health. Over and over again, anointing for healing is one of the most common practices in the entire Bible. Not only did Jesus do it everywhere he went, he modeled it for us, but he authorized his followers to do the same, to anoint with oil as a symbol of God’s anointing and to pray the prayer of faith for people who are sick. Jesus did it. The Bible tells us Jesus went into every village and town preaching, teaching, and healing. One-third of his ministry was healthcare, helping people. He cares not just about your soul going to heaven; He cares about your mind and He cares about your body.

Jesus not only modeled anointing with oil as a symbol of God’s blessing, but he actually taught the disciples and commanded us to do so also. The Bible says in Mark 6:13 that his followers, the disciples, anointed with oil those who were sick, and people were healed.

There are three kinds of illnesses. A lot of illness in the world is simply because we make bad choices. If I eat wrong, I don’t exercise, and I don’t take care of my body, I’m going to reap what I sow. If I get sick because I have too much sugar and I get diabetes or whatever, that’s my fault. A lot of the illnesses we bring on ourselves from not enough rest, too much stress, and not eating right or exercising.

The Bible talks about three kinds of illness. The first is for learning. God allows illness to teach us things that we would never learn any other way. So some illness actually is allowed in our lives by God when God wants to teach us something. Psalm 119:71 says, "It was good for me to be afflicted so I could learn your truth." How many of you have learned some things in life through pain? That’s 100% of us. In fact, some things we only learn through pain. David, who wrote "The Lord is my Shepherd," said, "It was good for me to be afflicted that I might learn your statutes." I’ve learned a lot of things through illnesses in my life. So sometimes God allows an illness for learning.

The second reason for illness is for death. If every illness you had was healed, you’d never go to heaven, and neither would anybody else. So there is a sickness unto death. The purpose is to end your life here so you can go on to the real life in the hereafter. You will only get the sickness unto death one time in your life. You’re not going to get it over and over and over. If you get well, it wasn't the sickness unto death. But there is an illness that every one of us will get, otherwise we’d all stay on Earth. Thank God I don’t have to stay on Earth for eternity where there’s suffering, sorrow, sickness, sadness, stress, wars, violence, and racial prejudice. Thank God we don’t have to stay here. There is a sickness unto death when God says it’s time for you to come be with me.

There’s a third kind: sickness for bringing glory to God. Jesus talked about this third kind of illness in John chapter 11, verse four. They brought a sick man to Jesus, and he said, "Now the purpose of his illness is not for death." That’s the second kind, sickness unto death. "Instead, the purpose of this illness is so that God will receive glory from this situation."

How in the world can God get glory from my sickness, from my illness? Well, there’s two different ways. One is you get healed, and there’s a miracle and there’s a testimony of God’s healing power. The other way God can get glory is you’re not healed, but you, with strong moral character and commitment and faith, stay true to Christ in spite of all your pain. If you know anything about Christian history, the greatest saints of all times were the ones who endured basically chronic pain throughout their entire lives. It shaped their character in such a way that they were far deeper than the shallow people who never had much pain in their life.

God can get glory in your illness either way: through a miraculous healing—and who cares if He does it through medicine or a miracle? They’re both healings of God. The other way is if you’re not healed, but you stay true to God and you let that suffering deepen you, build your character, grow your soul, and develop your dependence on God. That brings glory to God, too.

Now, we know that when we pray for people, not everybody gets healed. Not everybody I’ve prayed for gets healed. Why? I don’t know. When I get to heaven, we’ll know. That’s in God’s book. We know that God determines when people get healed. He determines how people get healed, and He determines where people get healed. His job is to figure out the when, where, and how, and God has all of eternity to answer His promises. But my job and your job is to do what He commanded us to do. Over and over in scripture, we’re commanded to pray for each other. We’re commanded to pray for each other’s healings. The Bible tells us in James chapter five that we are to pray for each other and anoint each other with oil as a symbol of God’s anointing.

James 5:14 says, "If you’re sick, ask your church leaders to pray for you and anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord." Now there’s nothing magical or mystical about the oil. There’s nothing supernatural, no properties that make it special. It’s just oil, it’s olive oil, but it is the faith. Anoint with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer that is offered in faith will bring healing. Notice, not the oil, but the prayer in faith will bring healing, and the Lord will restore your health. He says, "And pray for each other so that you will be healed. The prayer of a godly person is powerful and effective."

Heavenly Father, it’s amazing that many people will be within inches of a miracle and will walk away from it out of fear. I pray nobody will leave here missing out on an opportunity to receive your anointing, your blessing, your power, whether it’s in their business or in their body, whether it’s in their family or their finances. Wherever they need, you know what that need is, and you are a healing God, whether physical, relational, financial, mental, emotional, or any other area. You’ve brought us to this moment. The question is, will we trust you to do what you told us to do? Lord, it’s all in your hands. We’re just going to do what you tell us to do as an evidence of trust. I ask your blessing on every person in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And everybody said, "Amen." God bless you everybody.

Guest (Male): What a special message from Pastor Rick. Now let’s hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here’s Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

Rick Warren: Today I want to introduce you to Agatha, who is translating Daily Hope into German for her husband. She writes, "Pastor Rick, your preaching is bringing many souls to God. My husband, who is an unbeliever, is drawing closer and closer to God. Every day I translate what I hear on Daily Hope into German because he can’t speak and understand English. Pastor Rick, your teaching has changed his life, and I can see his progress and eagerness to follow Jesus."

Agatha, thank you so much for sharing your story with me. This is a wonderful story to hear, that you’re translating what you hear on Daily Hope for your husband and that he’s growing closer to Jesus. I’m so happy for that. We’re always looking for translators to help us in new languages as we take the message of God to more people around the world. So you will keep praying for your husband and you keep praying for us that God allows us to take the good news of God’s hope all around the world.

Guest (Male): If you’d like to let Rick know how this broadcast has blessed you, he would love it. Please feel free to send him an email at rick@pastorrick.com. That’s rick@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 Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support.