Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: We are so glad you're here with us. Today.
Speaker 1: We're going to continue our series called The Keys to
Speaker 1: a Blessed Life. And in these messages, Rick walks through
Speaker 1: Jesus's Sermon on the Mount and shows us how to
Speaker 1: live a truly hopeful and purpose filled life. And now
Speaker 1: here's the final part of it. Depends on who you
Speaker 1: depend on.
Speaker 3: Now listen to me very closely. You're most like Christ.
Speaker 3: You're most like Jesus when you say nothing in the
Speaker 3: face of attack, in the face of unjust, unfair criticism,
Speaker 3: in the face of lies about you. You're most like
Speaker 3: Jesus when you say nothing and you remain silent, and
Speaker 3: you just say, I'm going to put this in the
Speaker 3: hands of God and let him be my defender, and
Speaker 3: I'm going to try and myself and defend myself.
Speaker 2: Back in One Peter two twenty three.
Speaker 3: We talked about last week jesus crucifixion and his resurrection.
Speaker 3: It says when they hurled insults at him, Jesus he
Speaker 3: did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats back. Instead,
Speaker 3: he entrusted himself to God to set things right. That
Speaker 3: means I depend on God to me my defender. You know,
Speaker 3: I told you last week that they did six trials
Speaker 3: for Jesus, three Romans, three Jewish trials. All of them
Speaker 3: were sham trials, are all fake phony trials. And one
Speaker 3: time the religious leaders take Jesus to Pilot, who was
Speaker 3: the Roman governor of Israel at that time Palestine, and
Speaker 3: they bring him in and they make a false charge
Speaker 3: of Jesus and they said, this guy's trying to overthrow you.
Speaker 3: He wants to be king. He wants your job, Pilot.
Speaker 3: He wants to overthrow you. He thinks he's the king.
Speaker 3: And Pilot looks at him and goes, is that true.
Speaker 3: He's asking Jesus, you want my job? You're trying to
Speaker 3: overthrow me. I'm the Roman appointed governor. You claim to
Speaker 3: be the king of Israel, not when they don't have
Speaker 3: a king. Do you want my job? Is that what
Speaker 3: you're saying? And the Bible says Jesus would not even
Speaker 3: dignify that false accusation with an answer. It said he
Speaker 3: remained totally silent. He spake not unto them, He said
Speaker 3: not a word under them. You are most like Jesus
Speaker 3: when you face flack and don't defend it and don't
Speaker 3: attack back.
Speaker 2: Now here's an interesting thing. When people don't like.
Speaker 3: You, they get what's called motivated reasoning, and so often
Speaker 3: they'll just look. If people don't want to like you,
Speaker 3: they'll believe anything negative.
Speaker 2: Isn't that true?
Speaker 3: If people don't want to like you, they are quick
Speaker 3: to believe the name, and they do not believe anything positive.
Speaker 2: They only want to believe the negative. Now here's the problem. Today.
Speaker 3: On the Internet, anybody can say anything about you, and
Speaker 3: it's global, it's searchable, and it's permanent and it's never
Speaker 3: going on. So somebody can say something bad about you
Speaker 3: and it's there and nobody's ever taken it down. And
Speaker 3: ten years from today, somebody can google your name and
Speaker 3: find that and it wasn't true today, it won't be
Speaker 3: true ten years of today, but they'll believe it. That's
Speaker 3: the kind of world you're going to live in. So
Speaker 3: you've got to learn how to depend on God's defense,
Speaker 3: not your own. Why Because to be a leader is
Speaker 3: to be misunderstood. If you're going to be a leader
Speaker 3: in your home, if you're going to believe leader at
Speaker 3: your school, in your community, in your church, or anywhere else.
Speaker 3: To be a leader means somebody's going to misunderstand you.
Speaker 3: You can spend all your time trying to correct those misunderstandings.
Speaker 3: But here's what happens. If they don't like you, just
Speaker 3: and they have motivated reason. A lot of people say, well,
Speaker 3: if I teach them the truth, then they'll like me.
Speaker 3: But if actually you teach them the truth, it just
Speaker 3: makes them more mad. It makes them more mad because
Speaker 3: you've disproven they were wrong, and now I really don't
Speaker 3: like you, and so they go and they find out
Speaker 3: something else. The more effective you are in life, the
Speaker 3: more you're going to be attacked. You know, I decided
Speaker 3: a long time ago that I'm not going to spend
Speaker 3: any of my time trying to answer every lie, every criticism,
Speaker 3: every rumor, every gossip, every false misrepresentation. You know, I'm
Speaker 3: just going to leave it to God. Why Because if
Speaker 3: I did spend my time trying to correct all those things,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have any time for anything else. The more
Speaker 3: influence you have, the more you're going to be criticized
Speaker 3: in life. Just count on it, and pioneers get the
Speaker 3: arrows in the back. If you're going to call the shots.
Speaker 3: You're going to take the shots. So to be a
Speaker 3: leader in a business means you're going to be criticized.
Speaker 3: To be a leader in a church means you're going
Speaker 3: to be criticized, community, anywhere else. I want you to
Speaker 3: be fearless. What God wants is a generation of fearless
Speaker 3: men and fearless women who say, I'm gonna do the
Speaker 3: right thing. Doesn't really matter what anything else, because I'm
Speaker 3: living for an audience of one, well done, now, good
Speaker 3: and faithful servant.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm living for. Now, you just leave it.
Speaker 3: To God because you can't correct it all. And even
Speaker 3: if you did, it's not they're not going to change
Speaker 3: your attitude. Now let me show you a couple verses,
Speaker 3: Psalm chapter two, verse twelve. God blesses and God protects
Speaker 3: everyone who runs to him, not everybody who defends himself,
Speaker 3: not everybody who fights back, not everybody who you know
Speaker 3: goes tit for tatten And and you know you hit me,
Speaker 3: I hit you back. No, God blesses those who run him.
Speaker 3: So you let God be your defender against accusations and
Speaker 3: against critics. The next verse, Psalm sixty two on your
Speaker 3: outline gives us five metaphors for God's protection.
Speaker 2: I want you to.
Speaker 3: Underline him, he says David's And by the way, David,
Speaker 3: who wrote this, was criticized his entire life. He was
Speaker 3: attacked his entire life. In fact, most of his life,
Speaker 3: people wanted to kill him because they were jealous. And
Speaker 3: a lot of people are going to be jealous of
Speaker 3: your success and they're going to want to attack you
Speaker 3: for many different reasons. David says this, I depend on
Speaker 3: God alone. I put my hope in him. He alone protects, underlines,
Speaker 3: he alone protects, He alone saves. Underline saves. He alone
Speaker 3: protects and saves me. He is my defender. Underline that
Speaker 3: my defender. I shall not be defeated. Underlined not be defeated.
Speaker 3: My salvation and honor depend on God. What's your honor,
Speaker 3: it's your reputation, reputation. My salvation and my reputation depend
Speaker 3: on God. He is my strong protector, and he is
Speaker 3: my shield. Undersigned underside under aligne my shield. Now notice
Speaker 3: the five metaphors. God says, He's my protector, He's my savior,
Speaker 3: he's my defender, he's my victor, and he's my shelter,
Speaker 3: he said, let me handle it. When you do that,
Speaker 3: you are being poor in spirit. You're saying God, I'm
Speaker 3: not depending on myself. I'm depending on you. I depend
Speaker 3: on your wisdom. I depend on your strength. I depend
Speaker 3: on your timing and your plan. And I depend on
Speaker 3: your defense, not mine. And when God sees a person
Speaker 3: like that, he goes, that's my boy, that's my girl,
Speaker 3: that's who I want to bless. You're most like Jesus
Speaker 3: when you don't defend yourself. Now, one of the greatest
Speaker 3: sources of stress you're going to have in your life
Speaker 3: is anxiety about money. In fact, studies show it's the
Speaker 3: number one cause of divorce financial pressure. It's the number
Speaker 3: one anxious anxiety producing issue.
Speaker 2: Money.
Speaker 3: Am I going to have enough to survive? Am I
Speaker 3: going to have enough to make it? Financial worries. It
Speaker 3: keeps people awake at night, and it causes people to
Speaker 3: all kinds of stupid things because they start worrying about money.
Speaker 3: So let me just give you one more way to
Speaker 3: depend on God, and that is this number five. I
Speaker 3: depend on God's wealth, not mine, for my own safety,
Speaker 3: for my own security. I depend on God's wealth, not
Speaker 3: my wealth. For my security. If you put your security
Speaker 3: in your bank account, you are an insecure person because
Speaker 3: you can lose everything you got in the bank.
Speaker 2: If you put your.
Speaker 3: Security in your job, you are a very insecure person
Speaker 3: because you can lose your job. Put your security in
Speaker 3: your investments, you're a very insecure person because you can
Speaker 3: lose your investments. You have to put your security in
Speaker 3: something that cannot be taken from you, and that is God.
Speaker 3: Here's what the Bible says about God's wealth, not yours
Speaker 3: Philippians four nineteen. And my God will supply all my needs.
Speaker 3: My God will supply all my needs from his abundant wealth.
Speaker 3: Circle that is God's wealth, not your wealth. That makes
Speaker 3: you secure from his abundant wealth because of what Christ
Speaker 3: Jesus has.
Speaker 2: Done for me.
Speaker 3: So I depend on God's wealth, not my wealth. I
Speaker 3: depend on how much God's got, not how much I've got.
Speaker 3: To be secure and to not be anxious, I want
Speaker 3: you to write this down. Write it down on your line.
Speaker 3: My job is a channel, but God is my source.
Speaker 3: Explain this very important. If you understand this, you'll have
Speaker 3: so much less stress in your life. My job is
Speaker 3: a channel, but God is the source of my supply.
Speaker 3: Let me give you an example. If I were to
Speaker 3: go home from this service and I were to turn
Speaker 3: on the faucet in our kitchen and no water came out,
Speaker 3: what would I do?
Speaker 2: Would I say, Oh, my, the world has run out
Speaker 2: of water.
Speaker 3: There's no water left in the whole wide world. I
Speaker 3: turned on the faucet, there is no more water left.
Speaker 3: Of course not, I'd know. The problem is not with
Speaker 3: the source. The problem is with the distribution point. The
Speaker 3: problem is not the source. There's plenty of water in
Speaker 3: the world. The problem is the channel. The channel has
Speaker 3: gotten blocked.
Speaker 2: One way or another.
Speaker 3: And you know what, if one channel gets blocked in
Speaker 3: your life and this faucet stops working, God can turn
Speaker 3: on another faucet just as easy. And if God closes
Speaker 3: a door in your life, he can open another door.
Speaker 3: And if another door closes, he can open a window
Speaker 3: and you can crawl through it. God is not limited
Speaker 3: to your ability and capacity. Your job is a channel.
Speaker 3: If you think that your job is what keeps you
Speaker 3: financially secure, you are going to be insecure.
Speaker 2: Your entire life.
Speaker 3: Living poor in spirit means I realize that God is
Speaker 3: the source of my supply, and I depend on God's wealth.
Speaker 3: My God shall supply all your needs according to his
Speaker 3: riches in Glory, in Christ, Jesus, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: trust in him that is going to handle me. Jobs
Speaker 3: may come and go, bank accounts may come and go,
Speaker 3: Economies can go up and down. Stock mar market's going
Speaker 3: to go, bowl or bear, doesn't matter. My source of
Speaker 3: supply is in God. And the more you do that,
Speaker 3: the more blessed you're going to be. So here's the
Speaker 3: first key to blessing. I don't depend on my wisdom.
Speaker 3: I don't depend on my wealth. I don't depend on
Speaker 3: my strength. I don't depend on my plan and timing.
Speaker 3: And I don't depend on my defending myself. Instead, I
Speaker 3: trust God in all of those areas.
Speaker 2: So here's what I do.
Speaker 3: Let's take this and I want you to rate yourself
Speaker 3: on each of these five. I want you to give
Speaker 3: yourself a plus.
Speaker 2: Or a minus.
Speaker 3: Let's go back over all five and a plus means
Speaker 3: I'm doing pretty good in this area. I'm trusting God
Speaker 3: really well. A minus means I need to work on
Speaker 3: this one this week. Okay, how about the first one.
Speaker 3: I depend on God's wisdom, not mine. Okay, here's the test.
Speaker 3: Are you talking to God constantly throughout the day and
Speaker 3: are you reading the Bible every day? If you're not,
Speaker 3: you are not depending on God's wisdom. You're depending on
Speaker 3: your wisdom because you're not talking to him about your decisions.
Speaker 3: You've given first choice to every decision, and you're not
Speaker 3: reading his word. So you're either doing those things and
Speaker 3: depending on him or you're not. So give yourself plus
Speaker 3: or minus. How about second one, I depend on God's.
Speaker 2: Strength not mine. Are you doing that?
Speaker 3: Are you walking in the strength of the Lord or
Speaker 3: those are you those who trust in the Lord will
Speaker 3: renew their strength?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Give yourself a plus or minus. How about number three?
Speaker 3: I depend on God's timing, not mine. How impatient are you?
Speaker 3: Plus or minus?
Speaker 2: Am I going? God?
Speaker 3: You are? You're You're too slow. I'm going to take
Speaker 3: matters into my own hands. I'm gonna find me a man. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm taking it in.
Speaker 2: Okay, you know.
Speaker 3: And are you just saying God, I'm gonna make sure
Speaker 3: that I'm gonna make this job happen or whatever? Are
Speaker 3: you depending on God's timing? Are you depending on your timing?
Speaker 2: Okay? Number four?
Speaker 3: I depend on God's defense, not mine. How well are
Speaker 3: you doing on that one? Somebody says something mean to
Speaker 3: you on Instagram, you immediately slam them back. On anything else,
Speaker 3: I depend on God's defense, not mine. And how about
Speaker 3: where are you looking for your source of security? Are
Speaker 3: you depending on man? I'm so nervous because I don't
Speaker 3: have any money? Or are you depending on God to
Speaker 3: meet your needs? Give yourself a plus or minus on
Speaker 3: each of those. Now, what's the first step you need
Speaker 3: to take in this first condition of the blessings of God? Well,
Speaker 3: you need to make a public declaration of dependence. You know,
Speaker 3: in America we have the Declaration of Independence, and that's
Speaker 3: a good thing. But for you personally, you need to
Speaker 3: make a declaration of dependence God. I'm depending on you
Speaker 3: in all five of these areas. By the way, do
Speaker 3: you know what the public demonstration of your dependence on
Speaker 3: God is.
Speaker 2: It's baptism.
Speaker 3: Baptism is saying to the whole world, I am totally
Speaker 3: depending on God.
Speaker 2: I'm going to depend on God for my strength. I'm
Speaker 2: going to depend on God.
Speaker 3: For my wisdom, my wealth, my defender, my plan in life.
Speaker 3: I'm all in. I'm totally submersed into this will and
Speaker 3: I am in, and God says, that's the person that
Speaker 3: I want to bless. Let me show you this last verse.
Speaker 3: The Bible says this in Romans chapter six. This is
Speaker 3: what happens in baptism. By the way, did you know
Speaker 3: that baptism is actually a Greek word. It's baptizo, and
Speaker 3: the word baptism simply means to dip or submerge. Baptism
Speaker 3: isn't actually a word, it's a transliteration. The translation of
Speaker 3: the word baptism is dip, So like chips and dips.
Speaker 3: So you go home to parties say I'd like some
Speaker 3: chips and baptism please, Because the word baptism literally means dip.
Speaker 3: That's what it means. It means the dip under. Okay,
Speaker 3: this is what happens in baptism. When we went under
Speaker 3: the water, we left the old sin behind, and when
Speaker 3: we came up out of the water, we entered into
Speaker 3: a new life of grace. Then Romans six is this.
Speaker 3: When we're lowered into the water, it's like the burial
Speaker 3: of Jesus, and we're raised up out of the water.
Speaker 3: It's like the resurrection of Jesus. We are raised to
Speaker 3: live a new life. Now, if you've never been baptized
Speaker 3: like Jesus modeled and in the way Jesus.
Speaker 2: Was baptized as an adult.
Speaker 3: He was thirty three years old and he is baptized,
Speaker 3: you need to do that as your public declaration of
Speaker 3: He said, well, I was baptized a baby. I'm not
Speaker 3: talking about that. Lots of us were baptized as babies.
Speaker 3: Lots of us were dedicated confirmed his baby. There's nothing
Speaker 3: wrong with that. But that was your parent's decision, not yours.
Speaker 3: You don't even remember it. When Jesus was a baby,
Speaker 3: they took him to the temple and he was dedicated.
Speaker 3: That's what his parents did, and there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 3: That's a good thing to dedicate your baby to Jesus.
Speaker 3: But when Jesus was a full grown adult, he went
Speaker 3: out and made his decision to be publicly baptized.
Speaker 2: Have you done that? Have you fought?
Speaker 3: Jesus commanded it. He commanded it that we'd be baptized.
Speaker 3: And he said, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be
Speaker 3: ashamed of you. Little boy asked for me on time,
Speaker 3: pastor Rick, when can I get advertised? And that's what
Speaker 3: baptism is. It's an advertisement for Jesus baptism, says, I
Speaker 3: am all in. I'm totally submerged. I'm really into this.
Speaker 3: I'm not just tinkling in here, twink, I'm just tippling in.
Speaker 2: I know. I am all in.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to depend on God for my strength.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to depend on God for my wisdom
Speaker 3: and for my wealth, and for my defense and for the.
Speaker 2: Plan of my life. If you haven't done that, what
Speaker 2: are you waiting on? Really? Do you? Why not? Why not? Now?
Speaker 3: I mean, could it be that your pride is keeping
Speaker 3: you from being baptized. That's the exact opposite of being
Speaker 3: humble in spirit. It's the exact opposite of the attitude
Speaker 3: that God blesses. That's power ahead. I'm going to pray
Speaker 3: a prayer and you can follow me in it. Dear God,
Speaker 3: thank you for sending Jesus to teach us how to live.
Speaker 3: Just say that, Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus
Speaker 3: to teach us how to live and to die for
Speaker 3: my sins. I want your blessing on my life. So
Speaker 3: today I want to take this first step of learning
Speaker 3: to depend on You more. Just pray this. I want
Speaker 3: to depend on your wisdom this week, your wisdom, not mine,
Speaker 3: so you can replace my confusion with your confidence. I
Speaker 3: want to depend on your strength, not mine, so your
Speaker 3: power can show up in my weakness. I want to
Speaker 3: depend on your timing. Help me to be patient and
Speaker 3: quietly trust. I know that at the right time, you
Speaker 3: can change things instantly. And Lord, when people misunderstand me
Speaker 3: or criticize me, I want to quietly trust you for
Speaker 3: my defense.
Speaker 2: I don't want to retaliate. I want to be like Jesus.
Speaker 3: Finally, Lord, I want to look to you as a
Speaker 3: source to meet all my needs.
Speaker 2: Help me this week.
Speaker 3: To walk in the strength of the Lord. Help me
Speaker 3: to walk in the strength of the Lord. And as
Speaker 3: my public declaration of dependence, I want to be baptized,
Speaker 3: and I pray this in Jesus' name.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I've
Speaker 1: got some great news to share with you today. We've
Speaker 1: got some generous friends of Daily Hope that have offered
Speaker 1: a fifty thousand dollars matching grant, and now here's Rick
Speaker 1: to tell you more about it.
Speaker 3: You know, I just want to take a quick second
Speaker 3: to say thank you everybody, because of your generosity, we're
Speaker 3: able to take the hope of Jesus Christ into places
Speaker 3: where there are no Bibles, no believers, and nobody of Christ,
Speaker 3: no churches at all. Now, as you pray about giving,
Speaker 3: I want to ask you to ask God about sending
Speaker 3: a gift that's the largest you're able to give, because
Speaker 3: at this point of the year, we have a donor
Speaker 3: who is offered to match your gift. That means what
Speaker 3: you give will be doubled. We get twice the bang
Speaker 3: for the buck, in other words, So please respond quickly
Speaker 3: and a give in such a way that we can
Speaker 3: maximize it through this matching gift. And I want to
Speaker 3: ask you this, would you pray for us at Daily Hope.
Speaker 3: Pray as we reach out to people around the globe
Speaker 3: with hope that people will find Christ by the thousands
Speaker 3: and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. So thank
Speaker 3: you for being a partner with me to getting the
Speaker 3: message out.
Speaker 1: You know, when you give a gift to Daily Hope,
Speaker 1: you're helping share the hope of Jesus with people everywhere,
Speaker 1: and during the month of June, your gift will be
Speaker 1: doubled by the fifty thousand dollars matching grant. Go to
Speaker 1: pastorick dot com or text the word hope to seven
Speaker 1: oh three oh nine. Again, that's Pastorick dot com. Or
Speaker 1: just text the word hope to seven oh three oh nine.
Speaker 1: We hope you'll join us next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's word for our daily hope. This program is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial
Speaker 1: support