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Today on Daily Hope with Pastor Rick
Warren, we continue in our riveting journey

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through the series The Invisible War.
In it will explore the unseen world of

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good and evil and see how it
impacts our day to day existence. Join

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us for eye opening biblical insights into
the spiritual dimensions that influence our lives in

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ways we never imagined. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final

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part of a message called making the
Hard Changes in Me. Now, God

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wants you to learn to think like
Jesus. How do you do that?

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Well, again, it's a choice. You've got to make a choice and

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say, Lord, how would Jesus
think about this? And the more you

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fail your mind with the word of
God, the easier that's going to be.

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I want you to hear how God
is helping her think in new ways

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and be free from defects in our
life. Would you give Victoria a warm

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welcome. Hi. My name is
Victoria, and I'd like to share my

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story about how Jesus's helping me make
changes in my life that I never thought

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would be possible by learning new ways
of thinking. As a child, I

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grew up here in Saddleback Valley,
then Right before I started kindergarten, my

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family and I left Mission Viejo and
headed up north to a town called Camerio.

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I had heard all the Bible stories
growing up, but I didn't really

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have a close relationship with God.
Mostly I just enjoyed seeing my friends at

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Sunday on Sunday since a lot of
my classmates went to church. Then in

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nineteen ninety eight, my mom was
diagnosed with breast cancer. That shocked me

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into realizing that life was not going
to be easy. It was an extremely

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hard time for my family, but
since I was so young, I wasn't

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able to comprehend everything that was happening. Now, looking back, I don't

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know how my parents would have gotten
through that time without the support of our

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physical family and church family, and
of course trusting in God. Then the

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next year, my sister was diagnosed
with diabetes. Still being so young,

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I didn't understand why my sister had
to poke herself with needles multiple times a

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day. But with par and support, her diabetes became more manageable and not

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the death sentence I thought it was
going to be. Then, when I

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was ten years old, I publicly
committed my life to Jesus by being baptized

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and started living my life for Christ
well as best as I knew how at

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the time. Of course, there
were the normal hurts of growing up.

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During elementary school, the girls I
hung out with were really mean to me.

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They'd run away from me at recess
and pretended to be allergic to me

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when I came to sit with them
at lunch. It just got worse and

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followed me to middle school. I
began to develop ways to try and protect

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myself, but the pains still hurt. In eighth grade, I got my

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first boyfriend. I was so excited
because he was smart and play guitar.

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I mean, what more could a
junior high girl want. I realized now

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looking back that our relationship was defective
and pretty dysfunctional. It wasn't that he

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was a bad guy, it was
just that we didn't know how to relate,

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and since our relationships with God were
not strong, we didn't know how

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to put him first in our dating. When we were together, I felt

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loved and wanted, but as soon
as we were apart, I felt lonely

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and unloved again. There was a
big hole in my heart. So I

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lived for the approval of my friends
and because I didn't understand how much loved

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and accepted me. I looked for
it in others. When that boyfriend and

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I inevitably broke up, I was
devastated, just as I started to really

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be myself. It really set me
back. I decided to withdraw into a

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more protective shell. From that moment
on, I never wanted to show who

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I truly was. I got good
at faking it by not being honest with

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myself, with God and with others. My relationship with God became lukewarm at

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best, and I drifted further away. I started to feel avoid in my

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life, which I thought I could
fill with more relationships to guys who could

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give me attention. The ironic thing
is that living in that shallow way just

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made me feel even emptier. I
finally settled down with one boyfriend, and

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we were together for a year,
but that year was the darkest year of

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my life. In the middle of
my darkness, my dad, who had

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been unemployed for a year, got
a job down here in Orange County.

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The thought of moving again from all
the connections scared me to death. I

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was so mad at God for taking
away my home from me. I lived

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with my grandparents to finish school.
My relationships with my friends became strained,

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and my relationship with my boyfriend became
more unhealthy and displeasing to God. To

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say everything was defective is no exaggeration. Finally, I made the right decision

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to do the right thing, and
I broke off the harmful relationship. Five

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months ago, I started attending Crave
here at Saddleback Church. Crave is Saddleback's

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outreach to young adult in their twenties. From that first night of attending Crave,

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God has been renewing my mind and
helping me see my life from his

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perspective. He's helped me to become
more honest about the areas of my life

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I need to work on, and
He's giving me the strength to make changes

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I never thought would be possible.
I am a completely new person and a

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far better one because of the truth
I've been learning at Saddleback Church. I've

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learned new ways of thinking through Crave
and especially with the support of my small

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My small group. My small group
is amazing. I have never felt more

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loved when I'm with those girls.
We took a trip to Utah this past

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February that was life changing. On
Sunday, February twentieth was the best night

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of my life. During worship,
God broke into my heart in a deeper

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level and healed my heart. I
could honestly feel his arms holding me tight,

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telling me that everything was okay.
At that moment, I fully recommitted

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my life to Jesus Christ and the
Thought Call. On Thursday, I was

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baptized, knowing that I really understood
and meant my commitment. I was tired

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of living the Christian life without having
the relationship I needed with God. I

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now know that God moved my family
back to Orange County, and I know

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it was because He loves me.
As I keep learning new things about God,

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he keeps changing my perspective on things. I've learned the simple truth that

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I need other believers in my life
to become all God wants me to be.

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Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven through thirteen, which it's become my life verse.

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For I know the plans I have
for you, declares the Lord plans

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to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you a hope

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in a future. Then you will
call on me and pray to me,

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and I will listen to you.
You will seek and find me when you

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seek me with all your heart.
God has a plan, and he's always

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had one. It's now up to
me to fall after them and continue seeking

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after God. Thank you and God
bless you. All right, quickly write

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these other three down. The fourth
change that is required is that change requires

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the Holy Spirit. You need more
power than just willpower in your life.

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You need God's power in your life. Again, we talked about this in

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detail last week. You might get
that message in Romans, chapter eight,

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verse twenty fourth says this, you
must put on your new nature, and

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you can't do that with willpower.
You must put on your new nature because

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you are a new person created in
God's likeness, righteous, holy, and

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true. Now what's he talking about
here is what the Bible calls the fruit

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of the Spirit. These are the
qualities that God puts in your life when

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the Holy Spirit lives through you.
And the Bible says there are nine of

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those qualities. There love and joy, and peace, and gentleness and patience

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and kindness and goodness and meekness and
self control and faithfulness. There are nine

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of these qualities. And how does
God produce the fruit in your life?

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Not by willpower. You don't go
out and say I'm gonna be a more

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patient person. Doesn't work. I'm
gonna be a more joyful person doesn't work.

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I'm gonna be a more loving person. Willpower does not work. Fruit

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is an inside job. The Holy
Spirit has to grow it on the inside.

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You trying to say I'm gonna be
more patient, I'm gonna be more

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loving. It's like saying I think
I'm gonna go out and tie a bunch

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of apples out in my tree outside, and you got these apples tied on.

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I'm gonna go out and take my
you know, the eucalyptus tree in

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the front, and we're gonna tie
some oranges on it and call it an

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orange tree. It doesn't work that
way. Fruit can only come from the

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inside. It's got to be His
spirit through you. Now, how does

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the Holy Spirit work in your life? The answer is gradually a little bit

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of the time. Look at this
next verse. As the Spirit of the

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Lord works within us, we become
more and more like him, circle more

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and more. That means it's a
gradual process. It's step by step.

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It's not instant. It's incremental.
Now, when God wants to make a

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mushroom, he takes six hours.
When God wants to make an oak tree,

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he takes sixty years. The question
is do you want your life to

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be a mushroom or an oak tree? As your pastor who loves you,

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I can help you get from here
to here. I can help you grow

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to be the person you want to
be. But I cannot show you how

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to do it overnight. There is
no such thing as instant maturity. It

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takes time. It is a small, step by step, gradual, incremental,

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more and more process. You see, you didn't collect your hurtz,

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habits and hang ups overnight. It
took you a long time to get as

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messed up as you are. I
mean, it just didn't happen overnight.

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Sometimes I'm out on the patio and
somebody come and says, Pastor Ricka,

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I need you to solve my marriage
problem. I said, well, how

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long have you been married? Fifteen
years? How long have you had this

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problem ten years? And you want
a five second answer, it ain't gonna

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happen. You got to peel that
onion, that baby, one layer at

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a time. The Holy Spirit works
within us become gradually more and more like

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him. You've got to develop new
habits to change. And that's what your

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character is, the sum total of
your habits. And we call these habits

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the spiritual disciplines. These spiritual disciplines, they're the building blocks of defeating the

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defects in your life. Number five, This is a bid one. Change

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requires honest community. In other words, you're gonna have to have some people

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in your life who tell you the
truth and you listen to it. You're

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not gonna get well on your own. You're gonna need other people in your

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life. You're gonna need support,
You're gonna need a small group. Change

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requires honest community. There are some
things in your life you're never ever going

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to be able to change on your
own. Now, Typically, the things

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that are most difficult in your life
you don't want anybody else to know about.

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They are the things you want to
hide in the closet. They are

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the things you don't want to tell. They're the things you're most embarrassed about.

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They're the most deep seated problems and
fears in your life. And you

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know what, You're never getting over
them until you share it with one other

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person. Now, you don't have
to tell everybody. You don't have to

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tell the whole world. You just
need to find one person. That's why

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we have small groups who will trust
you. You trust them. They're confidential,

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they're gonna love you unconditionally, they're
not gonna judge you. They're gonna

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support you. They're gonna pray for
you, and you're gonna pray for them.

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But revealing your feeling is the beginning
of healing. You got to have

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one person, gut level. Honest. You don't have to have a lot

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of people, but you need to
have at least one. Some things are

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so big in your life you have
to team tackle them to take them down.

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You gotta have two linemen tackling that
guy to pull him down. Because

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one guy isn't enough. You're gonna
need some small, small groups. You're

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gonna need support. But it's not
just a small group where you get together

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go hey, how's it going.
Well, that's going great, and everybody

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lives a superficial level. You've got
to get to that level of maturity where

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you're saying, you know what,
I had a tough week this week,

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and here's what happened. No,
we're not talking about therapy groups. We

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don't have therapy groups in this church. We're not trying to psychologize each other

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out. What we have is people
who love each other. And when times

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are tough, I need to tell
you what's tough in my life. And

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when you're having a tough time,
you need to have somebody to talk to

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you. Gut level authenticity. This
is verse twenty five. It says,

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put away all falsehood. That means
all the fake in it, all the

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phoniness, all the pretending like you
got it all together, put away all

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falsehood, and tell your neighbor the
truth about you, because we belong to

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each other. Circle the word belong
If you're a believer, you're also a

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belonger. You belong in the family
of God, and every other believer belongs

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to you. They're your brother,
they're your sister, and we belong to

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each other. You cannot become until
you belong. You can't become what God

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wants you to be until you belong
in a group that's going to have gut

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level honest community. Put away falsehood, Talk to your neighbor, tell your

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friend the truth, because we belong
to each other. And let me just

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say it this way, listen closely. If you are serious about changing the

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deepest hang ups in your heart,
the deepest defects in your life. You're

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going to have to face the fear
of being honest. You've got to stop

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faking it. You got to put
away falsehood. You gotta be real.

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Now. You can go through life
with one or two choices, pretending you've

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got it all together or getting it
all together. But you'll never get it

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all together. As long as you
pretend you've got it all together, and

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you're never going to get well,
get healed, get rid of that area

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that's bugging you in your life till
you talk to somebody about it. So

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why God wired it that we need
each other. So you don't get healed

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on your own. You don't get
well on your own. You don't grow

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on your own. You got to
face up to your fear of being honest

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with maybe just one or two,
not a lot of people. Now,

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as your pastor, I want you
to succeed. I pray for your success

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in all seven key areas. I
pray for that. But here's what the

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Bible says on the screen. You'll
never succeed. You will never succeed in

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life if you try to hide your
sense, confess them and give them up,

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then God will spank your pants.
Now that's what I says. It

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says, then God will what show
mercy? A lot of times I'm afraid

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to tell God my sense. Oh, like he doesn't know. He's just

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waiting to show mercy. He's just
waiting to show mercy, says confess,

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then you'll be succeeded. Somebody say, why am I not succeeding because you

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got hidden sin? Why am I
not succeeding because you're hiding your defects?

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Why am I'm doing my best and
I'm not succeeding. The Bible says,

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as long as you try to hide
those hang ups, you're not going to

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succeed. Change requires honest community.
We waste enormous energy covering up. And

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if you took all the energy you
spend trying to cover up your hidden secrets

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and you invested it in being honest, you know what, you would be

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liberated and be a thing of the
past. Our biggest hurdle to holiness,

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My biggest hurdle to holiness is my
desire to want to look good. But

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in a small group with a few
friends, three four, five friends,

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I don't have to look good.
I don't have to look good. I

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can just be myself with those people. Now, if you're not in a

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group, there are areas of your
life you're never gonna get victory over now

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Glatian six' to two. By
helping each other with your troubles, you

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truly obey the law of Christ.
What does the law of Christ? Love

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your neighbor as yourself. So you
get a group, and then in your

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small group you establish some ground rules. And one of the ground rules is

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what's set in the group stays in
the group. Okay, you don't have

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a safe group until people go,
okay, we can share anything here and

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it's not gonna get reported on Facebook. You don't wait for prayer time in

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your small group and then start tweeting. Okay, Now, what's set in

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the group stays in the group.
And another ground rule is you don't try

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to fix people. We're not psychologists. We're not trying to fix each other.

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And another principle is you don't minimize
other people's pain. Is you know

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you don't say you know? It's
like I heard about a guy. A

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woman said my husband dying. A
guy says, I'm sorry my hamster died.

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You see I don't think he got
it. You know, he just

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didn't get it. You don't minimize
other people's pain, guys. You share

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your deep as sears with other guys
and gals. You share your deepers search

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with other gals and in a small
group. I don't focus on changing you.

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I focus on changes I need to
make now. That leads us to

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the last thing that happens has to
happen, and that is change requires overcoming

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temptation. And that is a skill
most people have never learned. They don't

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know how to overcome, how to
defeat temptation. Ephesians four twenty six and

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twenty seven says this, don't let
the sun go down while you're still angry,

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for anger gives a mighty foothold to
the devil. Circle the phrase mighty

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foothold? What does that mean?
Did you know that you can be a

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believer, you can be a follower
of Christ, and you can give the

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devil a foothold in your life?
What is a foothold in your life?

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A mighty it's when Satan gets a
beachhead in your life. In World War

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Two, when the Marines would go
into the islands of the South Pacific,

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goal Number one was simply to establish
a beachhead. All they wanted to do

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is land on the island and establish
a beachhead one hundred yards deep and a

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couple hundred yards wide. Once they
had that, once we were on an

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island the Marines, the rest of
the battle was taken over by the army,

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and they would slowly take over the
entire island. But you got establish

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a beachhead first. And the Bible
says, don't let Satan do that in

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your life. Don't let him get
a beachhead in your life. Anytime you

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have a seat secret Sin, that's
a beachhead in your life. He said,

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what creates a stronghold in my life? I'm going to be a Christian

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and Satan can have a stronghold in
my life. What is it? Well,

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here he says, it's anger,
But I can tell you in many

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other passages what creates a stronghold in
your life? Is any negative emotion you

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hold on to write that down.
A negative emotion will give Satan a stronghold

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in my life. It can be
anger. So he says, don't hold

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onto anger. You hold on the
anger overnight, you're allowing Satan to get

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a stronghold in your eye. You
deal with that conflict before you go to

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bed, and if you have to
stay up all night, you stay up

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all night. Do not give a
strong stronghold a foothold to Satan in your

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life by holding on to a negative
emotion. But it doesn't have to be

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anger. It could be worry,
It could be fear. When you hold

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on to a secret, fear,
that creates a stronghold, a foothold in

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your life. When you hold on
to resentment, when you hold on to

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bitterness or grudge, that it creates
a stronghold in your life. When you

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hold on to loneliness, when you
hold on to guilt, when you hold

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on to shame, when you hold
on to regret, when you hold on

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to anxiety. Any negative emotion allows
Satan to get a stronghold in your life.

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And in this series on a Temptation, I'm going to talk to you

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about how to defeat that. Now, let me close with this question,

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how serious are you about really changing? Do you intend to be emotionally stronger

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in three years? Do you intend
to be spiritually deeper in three years?

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Do you intend to be financially sounder? Do you intend to be more mentally

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alert, intellectually smart. The sad
thing is some of you won't be,

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why because you never intended to be
and you weren't willing to do what the

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Bible requires us to do for lasting
change. Let's bow our heads, Father,

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because none of us is perfect.
We all have defective areas of our

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lives. And some of the areas
that are defective in our lives are so

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painful we can hardly even stand to
think about them. We're embarrassed by it,

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and we're stuck in fear and stuck
in secrets. And I know everybody

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here has struggled with some kind of
defects emotional, relational, spiritual, mental.

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Some of us are in defective relationships
that are stuck or cold, or

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dying or maybe even strange separated.
Many others of us are struggling with habits,

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secret hurts, or fears that are
out of control in our lives,

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and we're afraid that they're out of
control. Give every person here the courage

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to take the first step in making
the hard changes in me. Now,

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would you pray this in your heart? God? Will hear you? Just

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say, Dear God, I want
to learn the truth. I don't want

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to build my life on lies.
But I want to learn the truth.

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I want to know the path to
walk on. I want to know when

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I'm off the path, how to
get back on it, and how to

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stay on it. I want to
begin spending time in your word every day

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so I can learn the foundation of
truth. Lord, you said that change

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requires making choices. This there's some
things I've got to let go of.

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Help me to have the courage to
let go of those things. And I'm

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going to ask you to help me
to work out what you're working in my

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life. Give me the will and
the power that I don't have greater than

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willpower. I want to begin thinking
in a new way. I want to

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fill my mind daily so that there's
a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.

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I want to have the same mind
and attitude of Jesus. I know

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I can't do this on my own, Holy Spirit, I want you to

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help me put on this new nature, be a new person. And as

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you work within me, I want
to become more and more like Jesus Christ,

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more solid, more stable, more
strong, more successful the way you

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intend me to be. Help me
to have the courage to be a part

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of an honest community. Lord,
if I'm not in a small group right

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now, I commit to being in
a small group, to starting a group,

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to beginning one today. And if
you're in a group, say Lord,

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help me to be honest in my
group. That might break down the

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wall that people could really find help
and encouragement because we're all in the same

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boat. Help us to obey the
law of Christ and love each other's we

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love ourselves, and Lord, use
this small group series to teach me the

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skills of overcoming temptation and how to
not let a negative emotion become a foothold

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00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:29.000
for the devil in my life.
If you've never invited Jesus Christ into your

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life, say Jesus Christ. I
don't understand it all, but as much

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00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:34.559
as I know how, I'm saying
yes to you. I want to invite

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you into my life today in your
name, I pray Amen. Hi everybody,

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This is Rick and I hope you
enjoyed today's broadcast. You know,

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if you just prayed that prayer for
the very first time, or you just

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00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:59.920
recommitted your life to Jesus again today, would you let me know about it.

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00:25:00.279 --> 00:25:04.240
There's something real about sharing your commitment
so write me Rick at pastor Rick

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00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:07.880
dot com and say, Rick,
I prayed that prayer of commitment. I

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00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.759
gave my life to Christ. And
I'll send you some material that will help

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00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:15.759
you on your journey with Jesus.
And I'll also pray for you. God

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00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:23.480
bless you. You're listening to Pastor
Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy you've

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00:25:23.559 --> 00:25:29.160
chosen to study along with us today. Here's Pastor Rick to tell you how

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00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:33.319
you can support this ministry. Jesus
told his disciples that they should live their

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00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:37.480
lives according to five specific purposes.
He said, you've got to love God

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00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:42.119
with all your heart. That's worship, and love your neighbors yourself. That's

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ministry. That's called the Great Commandment. And then Jesus said, go make

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00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:51.440
disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize them
into the Family of God. That's fellowship,

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a sign of fellowship. And then
he said, teach them obey everything

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00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:59.240
I've taught you. That's discipleship.
And we call that the Great Commission.

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00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:04.559
We believe it Daily Hope that a
great commitment to the Great Commandment and the

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00:26:04.599 --> 00:26:11.160
Great Commission will produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,

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00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:15.119
a great community. You know,
I started Daily Hope so I could

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00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:18.799
spread the good news about Jesus not
just across America, but all around the

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00:26:18.839 --> 00:26:23.680
world. And we want people to
know that God's word is filled with hope

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00:26:25.079 --> 00:26:29.519
and truth and the power that we
need to follow him every day is available

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00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:32.440
to every single one. You know
as well as I do, that the

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00:26:32.440 --> 00:26:36.119
Word of God changes lives. It's
a live it's active, and it breathes

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00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:41.039
new life and new love into all
of our lives. So wherever you listen

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to this, whether you listen on
the website, whether you listen on a

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radio station, or whether you listen
to a podcast, you're a part of

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the Daily Hope family, and I
need your help. We could not do

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this without your support. Now,
you know, I don't take any funds

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from this broadcast. We don't have
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giving big gifts to this. It
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We're one hundred percent listener funded.
Would you continue to pray for this

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broadcast and would you continue to support
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me hear from you. I absolutely
love reading the stories that are sent to

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me, So write me pray for
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will bless it, and God will
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and we'll thank God for all the
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you cared. You can give right
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Again, that's pastorrig dot com.
Or text the word hope to eight hundred

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six hundred five thousand and four,
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Be sure to join us next time
as we look into God's Word for

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our daily hope. This program is
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your generous financial support