Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hey friends, thanks for spending some time here at Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. And today, we're continuing our series with Rick Warren called Time to Dream, trusting God to open doors. Maybe you've been waiting for a breakthrough, an opportunity, or just some clarity about what's next. If so, you're in the right place. Rick will turn to the Bible, and you'll see how God opens doors when we trust him with our future. Now over to Rick for part two of a message called Living God's Dream Despite Past Poor Decisions.

Rick Warren: So, the first step in recovering God's original dream is just to humbly or honestly accept responsibility for my poor choices. Yeah, that was a dumb one, and that was a dumb one, and that was a dumb one, and that was a very hurtful one. And that was an evil choice that I made. Uh and I made it out of pride, and I made it out of fatigue, and I may have made it out of fear of what other people think. I may have made it out of choosing short-term pleasure over long-term character. Here's the second step.

Now I move to the second step. After I honestly accept responsibility, number two, I humbly ask for God's mercy and forgiveness. I humbly ask for God's mercy and forgiveness. Now I don't have to explain this a whole lot cuz it just means humbly ask. If you don't know what to pray, I would highly recommend you learn and read Psalm 51. Write that down. Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is David's prayer of confession after he'd had a guy murdered so he could steal his wife. Pretty significant sin. Adultery and murder in the same thing. And in Psalm 51, if you don't know what to pray when you need to confess to God something you've really blown up, here's here's what to pray.

Psalm 51 verses 1 to 3, verse 6, and verse 10. David said, Have mercy on me, oh God, because of your unfailing love. In your great compassion, please wipe out the stain of all my wrongdoing. Wash away all my guilt. Cleanse me from my sins. For I am haunted by my failures, and I can't forget the evil things I've done. Just I can't forget it. I'm haunted by it. I know, he says. I know you love complete honesty from my heart. So, help me see what's deep inside me. What made me do this? What caused me to make this dumb decision?

Help me to see what's deep inside me. Then, God, create a new pure heart in me and renew my spirit with the right desires. I I want to do the right thing. I want to do what's right. And restore the joy of your salvation. Then, he says, I'll help bring others back to you too. Now I want you to notice that in this thing, David in this just small passage, the whole chapters are terrific. He mentions eight things he asked God to do. I want you to circle them all. First, he says, have mercy. Circle that.

Have mercy. And then he says, uh wipe out. Circle wipe out. Wipe out the stain of all my wrongdoing. Then he says, not only have mercy and wipe out, he says, wash away. Wash away. Circle that. All my guilt. And cleanse me. Circle that. Cleanse me from my sins. And then he says down a little bit further, he says, help me see. Circle that. Help me see. These are things you could ask God whenever you've blown it. Help me see what's deep inside of me. Then he says, create a new pure heart in me. Circle that.

Create a new pure heart in me. And then he says, and renew my spirit with the right desires. Renew my spirit. Circle that. And restore the joy. Circle that. These are eight things you can ask God to do in your prayer when you have committed any kind of mistake or sin or evil or whatever. You can say these eight things to God. And then notice circle what David promises to do back. He says, then I'll help bring others back to you too. Isn't this interesting that David promises to do to God the very thing that Jesus told Peter to do when he was restored.

He said, Peter, I know you're going to blow it, but when you come back, I want you to help other people with what you've learned from your mistakes. I want you to help other people with what you've learned from your sins. I want to bring good out of bad. I want you to help other people. And this is exactly what David promises to do here. He goes, God, I have totally blown it. And I don't deserve any of this, but I'm asking you to do this, this, and this because you're a good loving God. And he says, you know, if you do that, then he says, I'm going to do what he Jesus later told Peter to do.

And that is he says, I I'll help other people with the pain I've been through. Who could better help somebody through the pain of a broken relationship than somebody who went through the pain of a broken relationship? Who can better help somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody went through an addiction? Who could better help somebody who who who went through a fiasco of a marriage than somebody who went through a fiasco of a marriage? And on and on. I'm telling you that God says your past is part of the plan. That I want to even use the bad parts in your life for good.

You're going to go through pain in life. Don't waste it. This is the difference between believers and non-believers. Everybody in the world has the same kind of pain. The difference is believers use it to help others. We use it for good. We redeem it. And God says, that's what I want to do. Now I want you to write. I didn't leave you much room on this outline, but I want you to write down three important statements. If you only get this, you got the message, okay? Write these three things down. Number one. There is no plan B for my life.

Write that down. There is no plan B for my life. You're still on plan A. But but but what about You're still on plan A. But but but what about You're still on plan A. God has not revoked his original dream for your life. There's no plan B. You're like, but what about Doesn't matter what other people did to you, what you've done to others, what mistakes, what poor decisions. You're still on plan A. Number two. Write this down. My mistakes are part of God's plan. My mistakes are part are part of God's plan. Now this will set you free if you'll learn it because it'll set you free to dream and stop thinking, well, I'm not worthy to dream, and I I I I I'm not I don't deserve to have a big dream, and I messed up so much.

No no no no no. There is no plan B for my life. My mistakes are part of God plan. Look up here on the screen. One of those famous verses in the Bible, Romans 8 28. We know, we don't guess. We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose or his dream for them. We know that God causes everything. What's in everything? The good, the bad, the evil, the poor decisions, the sins. Yeah, that's sins are included in everything. God causes everything to work together for the good.

It doesn't say it's all good. It's not. There's a lot of bad in the world. There's a lot of sin in the world. There's a lot of evil in the world. It's not all good. But God causes it all to work together for good. For everybody? No. Not for everybody. Everything is not working together for good for everybody, but only for those who love God and are called according to his purpose, his dream for them. When you say, God, I am giving you all the pieces of my life, he puts them back together in the right way.

People say, well, you can unscramble an egg. God can. God who created the universe can do anything. So, God can God can do anything. You think you're God? He'll make it all fit together and work it together for good. That means I can relax and know, okay, even my mistakes are part of the plan. And here's the third thing I want you to write down. God expects me to use them to help others. I'm talking about my mistakes. I am talking about my sins. I'm talking about my embarrassments. I'm talking about my failures. God expects me to use them, the troubles and the trials that I that come into my life, whether somebody else brought them into my life or whether I brought them on myself.

It God doesn't really care about the source of your problems. He said just says, I will use them all. I don't care if you caused the problem yourself from your dumb decision or I don't care if the problem is caused by somebody else's dumb decision. I don't really care about the source. God says, I'll still use it for good in your life, and I expect you to use it to help others. On the screen, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 6. If we have troubles, and of course we do, it is for your benefit and salvation.

When you have troubles for somebody else's benefit, that is called redemptive suffering. If we have troubles, it's for your benefit and salvation. You're helping somebody else with your pain. For when God helps us recover, then we can encourage you so you can patiently endure the same things we did. This by the way is the 12th step in 12 step celebrate recovery is you're not recovered till you're helping somebody else. You are not recovered from your pain until you're helping somebody else with it. Are you helping anybody with the pain you've gone through in your life?

Let let me ask you a couple problem. Can you put that verse back up there for just a minute? If we have troubles, it's for your benefit. And then he says, it then God helps us recover so you can patiently endure the same things that that we did. All right. Two questions. I want you to think, what are the biggest troubles you've had in your life? Uh you're not going to think them all right now, but I would encourage you to go home and think through. Rick said, think through, what are the biggest troubles in my life that I've had?

What are the starting from a little child? What have been the biggest troubles in my life? The second question I want to ask you is to consider maybe make a list of what have you had to patiently endure? What have you had to patiently endure? A physical handicap, a mental handicap, a relationship that's broken. What have you had to physically or emotionally endure, patiently endure? The answer to those two questions are a vital part of your life ministry and your life dream. God doesn't want you to waste your hurt. I've told you this so many times.

We always help people more through our weaknesses than through our strengths. You have some great strengths. You also have some massive weaknesses. We're all a bundle of both. I've got some really great strengths in my life. I got some really great weaknesses in my life. We're all a bundle of both. And and and and I if if I got up here and I tried to tell you all the great things that I'm good at, that wouldn't help you at all. It wouldn't help you at all. But if I get up here and I share with you how I went through this problem and I went through that problem and how I recovered from that stupid mistake and how I made uh uh progress even in my weakness in that particular area, then you go, oh, well, then maybe God could use me.

That's the point. God wants to use you, not when you're perfect. God wants to use you now. And God wants you to to use you even in areas that you have been embarrassed about. This is the power of the gospel. This is the power of the gospel that they're part of your vital dream that we help people not simply through the gifts and the strengths that we have, but we help people through the problems and the pain we have. One of the biggest pains in my life was the death of my youngest son who took his life after struggling with mental illness for 27 years.

I can't think of anything more painful for a dad. And I didn't ask for that ministry, but almost not a day goes by that somebody calls me, often very unknown, often famous from around the world asking for help on either mental health illness or suicide. I didn't ask for that ministry. I didn't ask I didn't think that would be a part of my dream, but I'm not going to waste my pain. So, I'm going to help other people. And and I I I if I gave you a list of the people who who have called me, you'd be shocked.

You'd know many of their names. But they figured out that guy must be safe because he went through it. And he talks about it. What are you not talking about in your life? All right. Now this is very important. This next part of the message is really important because I don't want you to ever forget this. Why does my sin not invalidate God's dream for me? Well, first, let me let me give you uh the important part of this. Here's the third step. Okay? The third step. First, I honestly accept responsibility for my poor choices.

Two, I humbly ask God for his mercy and forgiveness. Number three. I gratefully accept God's grace and forgive myself. Big ending. I gratefully, number three, accept God's grace, God's amazing grace. Okay? And notice Write this down. And forgive myself. Put that on it. And forgive myself. Cuz a lot of people don't do that last part. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7 says this on the screen. Christ sacrificed his life's blood on the cross to set us free, which means that all our sins Look at the all. All our sins are now forgiven. And when when were they forgiven?

When he died on the cross. That's 2,000 years ago. When were your sins forgiven? 2,000 years ago. Christ sacrificed his life's blood on the cross to set us free, which means that all of our sins are now forgiven. God did this because of his generous grace to us. All right. On the cross, Jesus Christ died for every sin you'll ever commit, even the ones you haven't committed yet. So, what's the daily implication of that? Romans 8 1. We're going to memorize this verse up here on the screen. So, now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Huh? Wait. Shouldn't I feel guilty? No. What does that say? No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now let me pause here. The reason I decided to do this message is I talked to a number of different people this week who are struggling with their past keeping them from dreaming in the future. And and one guy told me a while back a couple days ago, said um you know, I I I know that God has forgiven me. I just can't forgive myself. A lot of people feel that way. I know that I'm forgiven.

I know Jesus Christ paid for all my sins on the cross. I just can't forgive myself. Now let me say this to you. When you say that, I can't forgive myself, you're saying that you doubt the power of the cross. You're saying, I don't really believe God forgave me because if I really believed it if if God forgives me, who am I to argue with God? When you are doubting God's forgiveness, then you hold on to not forgiving yourself cuz you're like, I still have to pay for it. No, you don't. Actually, not forgiving yourself is a sin because you're saying, I don't believe that the cross paid it all.

I don't believe that Jesus covered all my sin. I don't believe that I'm totally free. I still got to pay for it. And that in itself is a sin. So, forgive yourself and stop sinning. Did that make sense? Okay. That when you refuse to forgive what God has forgiven, you're really doubting the power of the cross. You're doubting that Jesus blood was enough. You're doubting that salvation was not fully paid for. And so you have to pay for it yourself. You can stop nailing yourself to the cross because Jesus already was. He was hung up for your hangups.

So, you got to forgive yourself. Now why does my sin, no matter what I've done, not invalidate Why does my sin not invalidate God's dream for me? Three reasons. I want you to write these down. Three reasons that no there is no sin you can commit that invalidates God's dream for your life. Number one. Because Jesus already paid for all my sins. Because Jesus already paid for all my sins. They were paid for before you even knew God had a dream for your life. 1 John 2 2 says this. When Jesus served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for God.

Not only our sin, but the whole world's sin. All right? So, remember when Jesus died on the cross, he he paid for the sins that you haven't even done yet. So, he's already paid for all your sins. There's no way you need to pay for them. That's called double jeopardy. It's saying that that wasn't enough. Do you understand why we take communion to remember the cross? That in the cross, everything I've ever done wrong was wiped out. All those words that David said wiped out, forgiven, cleansed, purified, eliminated, forgotten. Number two. Second reason. My sin doesn't invalidate God's dream for my life is because God's goodness isn't based on my performance.

God's goodness to you is based on the fact that God is a good God. It's not based on the fact that you deserve it. It's just because God is a good God. So, God is good to you, and it isn't based on my performance. Titus 3 verse 5. He, Jesus, saved us not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. So, everything that God does good in my life is not cuz I deserve it. It's cuz he's a merciful God.

Guest (Male): Wow, some powerful words from Pastor Rick. And now this really is one of my favorite parts of the broadcast. Letters from our listeners. Here's Rick.

Rick Warren: Friends, it's exciting to get letters from all over the world from people whose lives are being transformed by God's word as they listen to the Daily Hope broadcast. Here's one from Raphael in Brazil who says listening to the podcast is a regular part of his morning routine. He wrote, Dear Pastor Rick, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the Daily Hope podcast. I listen to it every single day. I started listening to it to improve my English skills. Good idea. But then it turns out that it improved me as a servant of God.

I use it as my daily devotional, and it's become one of the first things I do in my routine every day. It has changed my spiritual life. And every day when I get up, my first thought is, what am I going to receive from God today through the Daily Hope podcast? Pastor Rick, I also try to share the messages that impact me the most with my family and with my parents and with the people from my church. I've shared some messages with my father cuz he's also learning from it. Sadly, he doesn't know English. Because of that, sometimes I translate the message into Portuguese for him so he can understand it.

Wow. Thanks for writing, Raphael. And I'm really blessed to hear how you wake up every day expecting God to speak to you. Psalm 130 verse 5 says, I wait expectantly, trusting God to help for he has promised. You know, it's wonderful to know that God's using Daily Hope to strengthen your faith and that you are using it to help your friends and family learn to hear from God too. So, Raphael, thank you for taking the time to translate Daily Hope for your father. That shows that you really care about him, and you care about others learning the hope that we have in Jesus.

Now our team I'm going to say this to everybody. Our team is working really hard to translate Daily Hope teaching. And as new languages uh become available, we're going to post them for free on rickwarren.org. That's rickwarren.org. You can go and see the translations we've already got. And if you can help us uh by financially supporting a translation, that would make all the difference in the world. So, I'd like to encourage all of our listeners to share Daily Hope with your friends and your family. We want everybody to keep hearing that there's hope in God's word and in God's son.

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.