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 join Rick right now for part one of a message called Why You Don’t Need to Fear the Future.

Rick Warren: Today we continue in our series of Psalm 23, the most important or most famous chapter in the entire Bible. It's only six verses, but it gives us a dozen pictures of the goodness of God. As I've been teaching this psalm to you, I've studied all the scholars and I've read all the commentaries. A lot of biblical commentaries actually get this psalm wrong. They say this is a psalm of David's confidence and David's faith.

Absolutely not. They're all wrong about that. It's not even about David. It's not about a shepherd or David being a shepherd. It's not about sheep. It's about the goodness of God. It's all about God. A lot of times we talk about you being committed to Jesus or you being committed to God. This psalm turns that upside down. This psalm is not about your commitment to God. It's about God's commitment to you.

In this psalm, God says, "I'm going to do 12 things for you." They're metaphors, and you have to explain them, but He says, "I'm going to do these 12 things for you because I'm a good God, and I love you. And these are the things I've committed to do for you." It's 100% about God. Now we're drawing toward the end of this series. I want us to read the whole psalm again together. It's only six verses, but I want you to read it aloud with me.

I want you to emphasize the 12 times it talks about God because this psalm is not about you. It's about what God does for you. So up here on the screen, let's read this together: "The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the right paths for His name's sake. Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me.

Your rod and Your staff comfort me. You prepare a banquet for me in front of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Now I want you to notice first that this psalm begins and ends with the Lord. "The Lord is my shepherd," and it ends with, "and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

This psalm is all about God. It's all about His goodness to you. If you missed any in this series, I would encourage you to go back and listen to the 12 things that God has said He wants to do for you because He is a good God. Today we look at this last verse. "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." That's a promise. "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." That's heaven. That's future.

Anytime you start worrying, you need to remember the last verse of Psalm 23. If you have difficulty with the future, you tend to get anxious, fearful, or worried about the future. If you feel anxiety welling up within you over the future, you need to remember this last verse. It tells us the three reasons you never need to fear the future if you're a believer. You never need to fear the future because of the three things that it tells us in this last verse.

If you're taking notes, you might just write this down. Here's the first reason: I don't need to fear the future because God's goodness is watching over me. The Bible says, "Surely goodness will follow me all the days of my life." Did you know that God in His goodness is always paying attention to you? You've never had a second of your life where God was not watching you. God is always paying attention to you because He created you to love you and He's a good God.

How in the world can God be interested in me? There are seven and a half billion people in the world. The God who created trillions of stars can surely care about seven billion people all at the same time. You don't understand how big God is if you don't understand that God can pay 100% attention to you while paying 100% attention to everybody else too. He's God. There has never been a moment in your life where God was not watching.

He knows every detail of your life. He knows when you get acid indigestion and when you get a few other things in your stomach. He knows the highs and lows, the goods and the bads, the ups and downs. He's paying attention to you right now. In fact, God knows you better than you know yourself. God knows the details of your life, every one of them. He knows more details about you than you do.

He is a good God, and the goodness of God is following me all the days of my life. Psalm 145, verse 20 says this: "The Lord watches over all who love Him." God's goodness is watching over you. He doesn't miss any details. And not only does He watch over you, He actually protects you. You are protected from thousands of things you don't even know you missed: accidents you could have gotten into or problems you could have created.

Perhaps you made a decision and God said, "No, we're not going to let the consequences of that one happen right now." How does God watch over you? How does God protect you? One of the ways that may shock you is angels. The Bible says God created angels to watch over you. Are angels real? Oh, yes, they're very real. The Bible tells us that. I don't have time to teach a whole message on it, but I will sometime. We'll come back and cover angels.

There's a lot of phony baloney about angels out there. There are a lot of myths, lies, and misconceptions. There are things that people think about angels that just aren't true. We'll have to come back and study that, but let me just say a couple of things. When you die, you're not going to become an angel. When you go to heaven, you're going to be a person. You're not going to have any wings. I hate to tell you that, but you're not going to have wings.

In the first place, angels don't have bodies. They don't have human physical bodies. They are spiritual beings. You don't talk to them. I have walked with the Lord now for over 50 years. I've never had personal contact with an angel, never, except Kay. I thought I'd throw that in there. They don't have physical bodies and you don't talk to them. You'll probably never have any interaction with them in your life, but they're out there watching over you.

They are protecting you. They are created by God to encourage circumstances that encourage you. The Bible says in Psalm 91, verse 11, "God orders His angels to protect you wherever you go." They're like invisible helpers, and there are many ways they do this. One of the ways is they create circumstances where you don't even know how in the world that happened. Well, an angel was in action.

I could give you thousands of examples of this that I've seen over the years. Let me just give you one. Several years ago a young woman who was pregnant came to me for counsel. She came to the church office after discovering that she was carrying a Down syndrome child. She was debating, "Am I going to terminate this pregnancy, get an abortion, or am I going to keep the baby? Am I going to give it up for adoption? Will I raise the child?"

She was very, very fearful, as is understandable. I showed her some scripture like Psalm 139 that says God planned you before you were born. God planned every day of your life when you were in your mother's womb. Abortion short-circuits the will of God. God wanted you made. You were a person because He created you and thought you up. She made the decision she was going to keep the baby.

She went home, and I decided I would just write her a little note of encouragement. I took out a postcard and wrote some Bible verses on it. I wrote a little prayer and a couple words of encouragement, containing some of the stuff I'd shared with her, and I mailed that postcard to encourage that woman. The post office sent it to the wrong address, so she didn't get it. But the woman who did get it read it and decided that she would hand-deliver it to that other woman.

She looked up the address on the postcard and went to the woman's house. She knocked on the door and said, "Your pastor wrote you a word of encouragement, but it came to me and I'm going to give it to you right now. But I want you to know I have a Down syndrome child and I'm going to help you." I think an angel rerouted that postcard because that kind of stuff just doesn't happen. Think about how rare a Down syndrome child is and that card going to somebody else who could help her.

You don't even know how many times you've been helped by the goodness of God. But God says, "My mercy and my goodness will be with you always." It says, "Surely goodness will follow me all the days of my life." What does that mean? It doesn't mean that only good things will happen to you. Obviously, that's not true. A lot of bad things happen and a lot of disappointments happen. David had bad things happen, the guy who wrote this.

When the Bible says God's goodness will follow me every day of my life, it means that God will ensure that good will come out of everything that happens to me, even the bad stuff. That's the promise. Not everything that happens to you is good, but "Surely goodness will follow me" means God will bring good even out of the bad stuff, the evil stuff that happens to you. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can be sure of this: if the Lord is your shepherd, God will always bring good out of bad.

Anybody can bring good out of good. God specializes in bringing good out of bad. That's the great promise of Romans 8:28: "We know that all that happens to us is working for our good." It doesn't say it's all good. It says it's working for our good if we love God and are fitting into His plans. All things do not work together for good for everybody. If you're going in the opposite direction of God, if you're ignoring God's plan for your life, or if you're not trying to live in God's love, all things are not working for good.

But this is a promise that those who love God and those who really want to go God's way, who want to follow God's purpose, He says, "Okay, if you really want my will in your life, even the bad stuff that happens to you, I will bring good even out of that." Of course, when you're going through a bad time, you never see the good in the moment. When my son Matthew, my youngest one, took his life from mental illness, in the moment of that, I could not see any good out of it.

It was a bad thing and it's still a bad thing. But has God brought good out of it? I couldn't tell you all the good that God has brought out of it and how it's helped other people. I've seen how God has used Kay, used me, and used our family to help other people through crises and problems. In the situation, you don't see any good, but God is working because His goodness follows me every day of my life.

The second reason that you never need to fear the future, no matter what happens, is because God's grace is working in me. While goodness is working around me and watching out for me, God's grace is working in me at that moment. The Bible says surely not just goodness but mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Mercy is grace in action. Isaiah 60, verse 10 says this: "I will have mercy on you through my grace."

What's the difference between God's goodness and God's mercy? In the first place, God's goodness is when God gives me what I don't deserve. God's goodness is His grace. I don't deserve all the blessings I have in life, and you don't either. The air you just breathed, did you deserve that? The fact that your heart just took a beat, do you deserve that? Most of the things in your life are simply gracious gifts, and everything you have is a gift from God.

Grace is when God gives me what I don't deserve. What's mercy? It's the exact opposite. Mercy is when God doesn't give me what I do deserve. I've been mean, I've been wrong, I've sinned, I've failed, I've flubbed up, and I've been self-centered. I deserve punishment, discipline, and retribution for that. If God gave me everything I deserved, I wouldn't be standing before you right now. If God gave you everything you deserved, you wouldn't take your next breath.

Goodness is God giving me what I don't deserve. Mercy is God not giving me what I do deserve. He says both of these are going to follow me. Because God is a good God, I can expect both His provision and His pardon. His provision—He gives me all kinds of good things in life. His pardon—He forgives all kinds of bad things in my life. Because God is good, I can expect both. Why do you need mercy? Why do I need mercy?

We're all imperfect. We all make mistakes. We all sin. We're in a broken world. We don't always do the right thing, and we even know that when it happens. I need forgiveness all the time. You need God's mercy all the time. Aren't you glad that it says God's goodness and God's mercy will follow me all my life? It doesn't say God's justice will follow me all my life. If you got what you deserved, you wouldn't be sitting where you are right now.

God doesn't follow you with His justice; He follows you with His mercy. He is a good God. Psalm 103 lists a number of ways that God shows His mercy. There are 10 or so things in this passage that are examples or definitions of God's mercy to you: "I will not forget the glorious things that God does for me. He forgives all my sins. He heals me. He ransoms me from hell. He surrounds me with lovingkindness. He fills my life with good things.

He is merciful and tender toward those who don't deserve it. He's slow to get angry. He never bears a grudge." Aren't you glad for that one? Some of you don't believe that. You think that something you did a long time ago, God's still trying to get even with you for it. Anytime anything bad happens in your life, you go, "God's getting even with me." God does not carry a grudge. He's not getting even.

God is not mad at you. He's mad about you. No man will ever love you like Jesus Christ. No woman will ever love you like Jesus Christ. Any human love is minuscule in comparison to the Creator who created you and made you simply to love you. He follows your life with goodness, giving you the things you don't deserve, and mercy, not giving you the things that you do deserve. He has not punished us as we deserve for our sins.

His mercy is as great as the height of the heavens. He's like a father to us, tender and sympathetic to those who reverence Him. Because God's mercy is following you every day of your life, it means you can come to God with any problem, fault, failure, or sin. God has a 24-hour drop-in service because His mercy is constantly following you. There's never a moment He's not showing mercy to you.

You can always come to Him no matter what you're going through. That takes away your fear. Hebrews 4:16 says, "We can come before God's throne where we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it." Sometimes you have sins in your life that are habitual. We've all got these. They are areas that you continually stumble over. If you have a problem with anger, you tend to lose your temper over and over, or you tend to clam up and swallow it.

Maybe you have a problem with lust, jealousy, or your mouth. You gossip all the time, you criticize all the time, and you say mean things and then you go, "Why did I say that?" If you have an area of habitual sin, sometimes you start feeling a little guilty that you keep coming back to God for the same sins. You think you're going to come to God and say, "God, I did this again," and God's going to go, "Oh, come on, can't you come up with a new sin?

You're going to give me the same old one I've already forgiven 5,000 times? I'm so bored with that sin. Give me something really to chew on here." Sometimes you're embarrassed. You go, "You know, God, five minutes ago I just confessed this, and guess what? I just did it again." And you think God is getting tired. God never gets tired of forgiving you. Don't hold back because His mercy follows you every day of your life.

It is God's nature to be merciful. He loves to show His mercy. He doesn't get tired of it, He doesn't get bored with it, and He doesn't get frustrated that you keep coming back. God loves showing mercy. You don't have to come embarrassed. "We can come before God's throne where we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it." This phrase, "Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life," gives us two pictures.

First, "The Lord is my shepherd." You drive cattle, but you lead sheep. When cattle are driven on a cattle drive, the cowboys drive the cattle from behind. They push them forward. With sheep, you lead sheep. The shepherd is out in front of the sheep and he's walking with his rod and staff and they're following the shepherd. But at the back of the flock are a couple little sheepdogs.

Those little sheepdogs are nipping at the heels of the sheep making sure they don't run off into the ravine. These two sheepdogs keep you on track following the shepherd. The sheepdogs in your life are God's goodness and God's mercy. One doggy's called Mercy, and one doggy's called Goodness. God's goodness and God's mercy are following you as you follow Jesus, the Shepherd. They are the sheepdogs that keep you moving in the right direction.

Guest (Male): Hey, if you're looking for daily encouragement from God's word, I'd like to invite you to download the Daily Hope app. It's designed to help you grow in your faith every day. It has easy access to devotionals, audio messages you can listen to anywhere, and video teaching right at your fingertips. You can even search for topics that matter to you and set a daily reminder so you never miss time with God. Just search "Daily Hope" in the Apple App Store or Google Play. I hope it's a real blessing to you. 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.