Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. We are so glad you're here today. We're going to continue our series called The Keys to a Blessed Life. In these messages, Rick walks through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and shows us how to live a truly hopeful and purpose-filled life. And now, here's the final part of It Depends On Who You Depend On.

Rick Warren: Now, listen to me very closely. You're most like Christ, you're most like Jesus, when you say nothing in the face of attack, in the face of unjust, unfair criticism, in the face of lies about you. You're most like Christ when you say nothing and you remain silent and you just say, "I'm going to put this in the hands of God and let him be my defender and I'm not going to try and defend myself back."

In 1 Peter 2:23, we talked about last week Jesus' crucifixion and his resurrection. It says, "When they hurled insults at him, Jesus, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats back. Instead, he entrusted himself to God to set things right." That means I depend on God to be my defender.

I told you last week that they did six trials for Jesus. Three Roman, three Jewish trials. All of them were sham trials. They were all fake, phony trials. And one time, the religious leaders take Jesus to Pilate, who was the Roman governor of Israel at that time, Palestine. And they bring him in and they make a false charge of Jesus. And they said, "This guy's trying to overthrow you. He wants to be king. He wants your job, Pilate. He wants to overthrow you. He thinks he's the king."

And Pilate looks at him and goes, "Is that true?" He's asking Jesus. "You want my job? You trying to overthrow me? I'm the Roman-appointed governor and you claim to be the king of Israel and they don't have a king? You want my job? Is that what you're saying?" And the Bible says Jesus would not even dignify that false accusation with an answer. It said he remained totally silent. He spake not unto them. He said not a word unto them. You are most like Jesus when you face flak and don't defend it and don't attack back.

Now, here's an interesting thing. When people don't like you, they get what's called motivated reasoning. And so often, they'll just—if people don't want to like you, they'll believe anything negative. Isn't that true? If people don't want to like you, they are quick to believe the negative and they do not believe anything positive. They only want to believe the negative.

Now, here's the problem. Today on the internet, anybody can say anything about you and it's global, it's searchable, and it's permanent. And it's never going off. So somebody can say something bad about you and it's there and nobody's ever taken it down. And ten years from today, somebody can Google your name and find that, and it wasn't true today, it won't be true ten years from today, but they'll believe it.

That's the kind of world you're going to live in. So you've got to learn how to depend on God's defense, not your own. Why? Because to be a leader is to be misunderstood. If you're going to be a leader in your home, if you're going to be a leader at your school, in your community, in your church, or anywhere else, to be a leader means somebody's going to misunderstand you. You can spend all your time trying to correct those misunderstandings, but here's what happens.

If they don't like you and they have motivated reasoning, a lot of people think, "Well, if I teach them the truth, then they'll like me." But if actually you teach them the truth, it just makes them more mad. It makes them more mad because you've disproven they were wrong and now they really don't like you. And so they go out and they find out something else. The more effective you are in life, the more you're going to be attacked.

I decided a long time ago that I'm not going to spend any of my time trying to answer every lie, every criticism, every rumor, every gossip, every false misrepresentation. I'm just going to leave it to God. Why? Because if I did spend my time trying to correct all those things, I wouldn't have any time for anything else.

The more influence you have, the more you're going to be criticized in life. Just count on it. And pioneers get the arrows in the back. If you're going to call the shots, you're going to take the shots. So to be a leader in a business means you're going to be criticized. To be a leader in a church means you're going to be criticized, community, anywhere else. I want you to be fearless.

What God wants is a generation of fearless men and fearless women who say, "I'm going to do the right thing. Doesn't really matter what anything else, because I'm living for an audience of one. Well done, thou good and faithful servant." That's what I'm living for. Now, you just leave it to God because you can't correct it all, and even if you did, they're not going to change their attitude.

Now let me show you a couple of verses. Psalm chapter two, verse 12. "God blesses and God protects everyone who runs to him." Not everybody who defends himself, not everybody who fights back, not everybody who goes tit-for-tat and you hit me, I hit you back. No, God blesses those who run to him. So you let God be your defender against accusations and against critics.

The next verse, Psalm 62, gives us five metaphors for God's protection. I want you to underline them. David, and by the way, David, who wrote this, was criticized his entire life. He was attacked his entire life. In fact, most of his life people wanted to kill him because they were jealous. And a lot of people are going to be jealous of your success and they're going to want to attack you for many different reasons.

David says this: "I depend on God alone. I put my hope in him. He alone protects," underline protects. "He alone saves," underline saves. "He alone protects and saves me. He is my defender," underline that, "my defender. I shall not be defeated," underline "not be defeated." "My salvation and honor depend on God." What's your honor? It's your reputation. "My salvation and my reputation depend on God. He is my strong protector and he is my shield," underline "my shield."

Now notice the five metaphors. God says he's my protector, he's my savior, he's my defender, he's my victor, and he's my shelter. He's saying, "Let me handle it." When you do that, you are being poor in spirit. You're saying, "God, I'm not depending on myself, I'm depending on you. I depend on your wisdom, I depend on your strength, I depend on your timing and your plan, and I depend on your defense, not mine." And when God sees a person like that, he goes, "That's my boy, that's my girl. That's who I want to bless." You're most like Jesus when you don't defend yourself.

Now, one of the greatest sources of stress you're going to have in your life is anxiety about money. In fact, studies show it's the number one cause of divorce, financial pressure. It's the number one anxiety-producing issue. Money. Am I going to have enough to survive? Am I going to have enough to make it? Financial worry keeps people awake at night and it causes people to do all kinds of stupid things because they start worrying about money. So let me just give you one more way to depend on God. And that is this, number five: I depend on God's wealth, not my own.

For my own safety, for my own security, I depend on God's wealth, not my wealth for my security. If you put your security in your bank account, you are an insecure person because you can lose everything you've got in the bank. If you put your security in your job, you are a very insecure person because you can lose your job. If you put your security in your investments, you're a very insecure person because you can lose your investments.

You have to put your security in something that cannot be taken from you, and that is God. Here's what the Bible says about God's wealth, not yours. Philippians 4:19. "And my God will supply all my needs from his abundant wealth." Circle that. It's God's wealth, not your wealth that makes you secure. "From his abundant wealth because of what Christ Jesus has done for me."

So I depend on God's wealth, not my wealth. I depend on how much God's got, not how much I've got to be secure and to not be anxious. Now I want you to write this down, write it down. My job is a channel, but God is my source. Let me explain this. It's very important. If you understand this, you'll have so much less stress in your life. My job is a channel, but God is the source of my supply.

Let me give you an example. If I were to go home from this sermon and I were to turn on the faucet in our kitchen and no water came out, what would I do? Would I say, "Oh my, the world has run out of water. There's no more water left in the whole wide world. I turned on the faucet, there is no more water left"? Of course not. I'd know the problem is not with the source, the problem is with the distribution point.

The problem is not the source. There's plenty of water in the world. The problem is the channel. The channel has gotten blocked one way or another. And you know what? If one channel gets blocked in your life and this faucet stops working, God can turn on another faucet just as easily. And if God closes a door in your life, he can open another door. And if another door closes, he can open a window and you can crawl through it.

God is not limited to your ability and capacity. Your job is a channel, God is a source. If you think that your job is what keeps you financially secure, you're going to be insecure your entire life. Living poor in spirit means I realize that God is the source of my supply and I depend on God's wealth. "My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." And I'm going to trust in him. That is going to handle me. Jobs may come and go, bank accounts may come and go, economies can go up and down, stock markets can go bull or bear. Doesn't matter. My source of supply is in God.

And the more you do that, the more blessed you're going to be. So, here's the first key to blessing. I don't depend on my wisdom, I don't depend on my wealth, I don't depend on my strength, I don't depend on my plan and timing, and I don't depend on my defending myself. Instead, I trust God in all of those areas.

So, here's what I want us to do. Let's take this and I want you to rate yourself on each of these five. I want you to give yourself a plus or a minus. Let's go back over all five. A plus means I'm doing pretty good in this area, I'm trusting God really well. A minus means I need to work on this one this week, okay?

How about the first one? I depend on God's wisdom, not mine. Okay, here's the test. Are you talking to God constantly throughout the day and are you reading the Bible every day? If you're not, you are not depending on God's wisdom, you're depending on your wisdom because you're not talking to him about your decisions, you've given first choice to every decision, and you're not reading his word. So you're either doing those things and depending on him or you're not. So give yourself a plus or minus.

How about the second one? I depend on God's strength, not mine. Are you doing that? Are you walking in the strength of the Lord? For those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength. Okay, give yourself a plus or minus. How about number three? I depend on God's timing, not mine. How impatient are you? Plus or minus. Am I going, "God, you are too slow. I'm going to take matters into my own hands. I'm going to find me a man. I'm taking it in—I'm going to make sure I'm going to make this job happen," or whatever. Are you depending on God's timing or are you depending on your timing?

Okay, number four. I depend on God's defense, not mine. How well are you doing on that one? Somebody says something mean to you on Instagram, you immediately slam them back, or on anything else. I depend on God's defense, not mine. And how about where you're looking for your source of security? Are you depending on, "Man, I'm so nervous because I don't have any money," or are you depending on God to meet your needs? Give yourself a plus or minus on each of those.

Now, what's the first step you need to take in this first condition of the blessings of God? Well, you need to make a public declaration of dependence. You know, in America, we have the Declaration of Independence. And that is a good thing, but for you personally, you need to make a declaration of dependence. "God, I'm depending on you in all five of these areas."

By the way, do you know what the public demonstration of your dependence on God is? It's baptism. Baptism is saying to the whole world, "I am totally depending on God. I'm going to depend on God for my strength. I'm going to depend on God for my wisdom, my wealth, my defender, my plan in life. I'm all in. I'm totally submerged into this will and I am in." And God says, "That's the person that I want to bless."

Let me show you this last verse. The Bible says this in Romans chapter six: "This is what happens in baptism." By the way, did you know that baptism is actually a Greek word, *baptizo*? And the word baptism simply means to dip or submerge. So baptism isn't actually a word, it's a transliteration. The translation of the word baptism is "dip." So, like chips and dip, so you go home to a party, say, "I'd like some chips and baptism, please." Because the word baptism literally means dip. That's what it means. It means to dip under.

Okay, this is what happens in baptism. "When we went under the water, we left the old sin behind. And when we came up out of the water, we entered into a new life of grace." And then Romans 6 says this: "When we're lowered into the water, it's like the burial of Jesus, and when we're raised up out of the water, it's like the resurrection of Jesus. We are raised to live a new life."

Now, if you've never been baptized like Jesus modeled and in the way Jesus was baptized, as an adult—he was 30 years old when he was baptized. You need to do that as your public declaration of dependence. And you say, "Well, I was baptized as a baby." I'm not talking about that. Lots of us were baptized as babies. Lots of us were dedicated, confirmed as babies. There's nothing wrong with that, but that was your parents' decision, not yours. You don't even remember it.

When Jesus was a baby, they took him to the temple and he was dedicated. That's what his parents did. And there's nothing wrong—that's a good thing to dedicate your baby to Jesus. But when Jesus was a full-grown adult, he went out and made his decision to be publicly baptized. Have you done that? Have you followed—Jesus commanded it. He commanded it, that we be baptized. And he said, "If you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of you."

Little boy asked me one time, "Pastor Rick, when can I get advertised?" And that's what baptism is. It's an advertisement for Jesus. Baptism says, "I am all in. I'm totally submerged. I'm really into this. I'm not just tinkling in here, twinkling in. I'm just tippling in. No, I am all in and I'm going to depend on God for my strength and I'm going to depend on God for my wisdom and for my wealth and for my defense and for the plan of my life."

If you haven't done that, what are you waiting on? Really? What are you—why not? Why not now? I mean, could it be that your pride is keeping you from being baptized? That's the exact opposite of being humble in spirit. It's the exact opposite of the attitude that God blesses. Let's bow our heads. I'm going to pray a prayer and you can follow me in it.

"Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus to teach us how to live." Just say that. "Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus to teach us how to live and to die for my sins. I want your blessing on my life." So today I want to take this first step of learning to depend on you more.

Just pray this. "I want to depend on your wisdom this week. Your wisdom, not mine, so you can replace my confusion with your confidence. And I want to depend on your strength, not mine, so your power can show up in my weakness. I want to depend on your timing. Help me to be patient and quietly trust. I know that at the right time you can change things instantly.

And Lord, when people misunderstand me or criticize me, I want to quietly trust you for my defense. I don't want to retaliate. I want to be like Jesus. Finally, Lord, I want to look to you as the source to meet all my needs. Help me this week to walk in the strength of the Lord. Help me to walk in the strength of the Lord. And as my public declaration of dependence, I want to be baptized." And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I've got some great news to share with you today. We've got some generous friends of Daily Hope that have offered a $50,000 matching grant. And now here's Rick to tell you more about it.

Rick Warren: You know, I just want to take a quick second to say thank you everybody. Because of your generosity, we're able to take the hope of Jesus Christ into the places where there are no Bibles, no believers, and no body of Christ, no church at all.

As you pray about giving, I want to ask you to ask God about sending a gift that's the largest you're able to give because at this point of the year, we have a donor who has offered to match your gift. That means what you give will be doubled. We get twice the bang for the buck, in other words. So please respond quickly and give in such a way that we can maximize it through this matching gift.

And I want to ask you this. Would you pray for us at Daily Hope? Pray as we reach out to people around the globe with the hope that people will find Christ by the thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. So thank you for being a partner with me to getting the message out.

Guest (Male): You know, when you give a gift to Daily Hope, you're helping share the hope of Jesus with people everywhere. And during the month of June, your gift will be doubled by the $50,000 matching grant. Go to PastorRick.com or text the word HOPE to 70309. Again, that's PastorRick.com or just text the word HOPE to 70309. We hope you'll 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.