Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry
Speaker 1: of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue with a series
Speaker 1: called how to Get Through what You're going Through. In
Speaker 1: this study, Pastor Rick and Kay Warren share biblical wisdom
Speaker 1: and their life experiences to help you find God's path
Speaker 1: to peace in even the most difficult seasons of life. First,
Speaker 1: if you are someone you know needs some powerful Bible
Speaker 1: based encouragement, then stay with us because in a few
Speaker 1: minutes we're going to tell you about the Journey Toward
Speaker 1: Hope guided Bible study. It's full of encouraging Bible verses, exercises,
Speaker 1: and journaling pages to help you draw close to God
Speaker 1: and renew your sense of hope. You can find out
Speaker 1: more by going to Pastorick dot com while you listen
Speaker 1: to today's message, or just text the word daily to eight
Speaker 1: hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's pastorig dot com.
Speaker 1: Or just text the word daily to eight hundred six
Speaker 1: hundred five thousand and four. Right now, here's the final
Speaker 1: part of a message called how We're Getting Through Hope.
Speaker 2: I want to talk to you a little bit about
Speaker 2: hope because I would be lying to you completely lying
Speaker 2: to you if I said that hope didn't disappoint me.
Speaker 2: In fact, I was crushed by hope that didn't come true.
Speaker 2: But that takes us two point three, which is the
Speaker 2: next thing that you and I need to know. Life
Speaker 2: is a battle, but we can have hope because we
Speaker 2: know that there's more to the story. There's more to
Speaker 2: the story. When Matthew's mental illness, his borderline personality disorder
Speaker 2: and excuse me, major depression disorder, when it began to
Speaker 2: get worse about five years ago, I found myself frantic
Speaker 2: trying to find a treatment, to find medication, to find
Speaker 2: a physician, to find a psychiatrist, find a hospital, to
Speaker 2: find anything that would make a difference in his worsening condition.
Speaker 2: A lot of sleepless nights, a lot of agonizing moments
Speaker 2: of darkness as we watched helplessly as our son just
Speaker 2: spiraled slowly, slowly down. And so I enlisted a group
Speaker 2: of confidential friends and family who would commit to pray
Speaker 2: for Matthew and for us, and I began to send
Speaker 2: them very specific prayer requests week after week, and these
Speaker 2: incredible people would pray for him and for us, and
Speaker 2: they would send back encouraging notes. They would send back
Speaker 2: verses of scripture that would give us hope to hold
Speaker 2: on to the belief that God was going to heal
Speaker 2: Matthew's mind. And our dear friend gave me this box.
Speaker 2: It looks like alabaster or marble. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 2: it's plastic, but it looks good. And on in the
Speaker 2: middle of this box is the word hope. And I
Speaker 2: began to take those scriptures that others had sent to me,
Speaker 2: those verses that had been so enormously comforting that held
Speaker 2: my faith streng and I wrote them on cards, and
Speaker 2: I put him inside this box, and it became part
Speaker 2: of a daily ritual of my time with God. Is
Speaker 2: I would spend time. Every morning, I would pick up
Speaker 2: this box and I would open it. I would read
Speaker 2: verse after verse that inspired and built my faith and
Speaker 2: my hope. Verses like the verses in Psalm one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixteen and Psalm eighteen where it says that the
Speaker 2: cords of the grave have encompassed me and I'm held
Speaker 2: out tightly. And then it would go a few weather
Speaker 2: verses and would say, but God, you have removed the
Speaker 2: tears from my eyes and kept my feet from stumbling
Speaker 2: so that I can live in the land of the
Speaker 2: living again. And then April fifth came and Matthew died.
Speaker 2: With his death, my hopes for a healed mind here
Speaker 2: on earth died too. I felt bruised by hope. So
Speaker 2: what do you do? What do we do when hope
Speaker 2: doesn't turn out the way we're expecting it to? What
Speaker 2: do we do when we've gone out on those audacious
Speaker 2: limbs of faith and things in life and situations don't
Speaker 2: turn out the way we were so convinced they were
Speaker 2: going to? Two Corinthians four, eight, nine, and fourteen says
Speaker 2: we often suffer, but we're never crushed. Even when we
Speaker 2: don't know what to do. We never give up in
Speaker 2: times of trouble. God is with us, and when we
Speaker 2: are knocked down, we get up again because we know
Speaker 2: God raised the Lord back to life, and just as
Speaker 2: he raised Jesus, he will also raise us back to
Speaker 2: life and bring us into His presence together. So I'm
Speaker 2: rebuilding hope. You can't live without hope because I know
Speaker 2: this isn't the end of the story. I know that
Speaker 2: Matthew's story isn't at the end. My story isn't at
Speaker 2: the end. God is still writing it and because of that,
Speaker 2: I'm willing to try hope again. And so I have
Speaker 2: a new set of songs. There aren't quite as many,
Speaker 2: but there's one that I love. It's called not for
Speaker 2: a Moment by Meredith Andrews, and some of the lyrics go,
Speaker 2: not for a moment, have you forsaken us? Not for
Speaker 2: a moment, have you abandoned us? And my hope is
Speaker 2: that not for a second. Did God abandoned my beautiful boy?
Speaker 2: Not for a second, And not for a second, has
Speaker 2: God abandoned or forsaken us? Rebuild your hope. Don't be
Speaker 2: afraid to have hope again. Don't be afraid to trust again.
Speaker 2: God is good. God is not finished writing the story.
Speaker 2: Please believe with all that you have that what has
Speaker 2: been broken can be restored. It is not the end
Speaker 2: of our.
Speaker 3: Good job.
Speaker 4: Many you know, one of the most suspenseful TV shows
Speaker 4: that was ever on was twenty four.
Speaker 3: Everybody remember that.
Speaker 4: I mean, Jack Bower could solve three world problems in
Speaker 4: every single episode. I wanted to be Jack Bauer, but
Speaker 4: I have to admit that I never even watched a
Speaker 4: show until it went off the air and went into
Speaker 4: DVD because I hate watching commercials. But then I bought
Speaker 4: the entire I think it was like six or seven
Speaker 4: more seven years a series or five years.
Speaker 3: Whatever it was.
Speaker 4: And I remember Cay and I were watching the first
Speaker 4: year of twenty four and we're sitting on the couch
Speaker 4: and Jack is getting into one of his predictable, really
Speaker 4: bad messes, like five seconds to save the whole world,
Speaker 4: and I'm I and I started to get a little tense,
Speaker 4: and I started to think, is Jack gonna make it?
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, is this it? I mean, is
Speaker 4: this it's the end for our hero? Is Jack gonna
Speaker 4: make it? And a little voice said in my ear, Relax, Rick,
Speaker 4: there's five more seasons. Your tension goes down when you
Speaker 4: know the end of the story. You're reading the mystery
Speaker 4: novel and you're scared to death, but if you know
Speaker 4: the end, you know it's gonna work out. This is
Speaker 4: why believers grieve so very, very differently than the rest
Speaker 4: of the world. We grieve with hope because we know
Speaker 4: the end of the story. Now we grieve. Christians, believers,
Speaker 4: people who know Jesus grieve just like everybody else. And
Speaker 4: that we sorrow when we loved loved ones. I told you,
Speaker 4: I've cried every single day since my son died. But
Speaker 4: I'm not grieving for him. I'm grieving for me. I
Speaker 4: miss him, I'm not grieving for him. He's in a
Speaker 4: far better place. No more sorrow, no more torture, no
Speaker 4: more problems in his life. He's where we're meant to
Speaker 4: be forever. We're not made to stay on this earth forever.
Speaker 4: We're made to be in Heaven forever. You were made
Speaker 4: to last forever. God has long range plans for you.
Speaker 4: And so when we grieve, we grieve for ourselves. But
Speaker 4: were we grieve with hope because we know the end
Speaker 4: of the story. Now, let me tell you I know
Speaker 4: the difference that makes, because as a pastor, I've done
Speaker 4: the funeral of people who didn't have any hope. And
Speaker 4: I have looked into the faces and into the eyes
Speaker 4: of people who don't have a relationship with Christ, who
Speaker 4: don't have the hope of Heaven, who don't know what
Speaker 4: we know, what we've learned, and the fear and the
Speaker 4: panic and the hopelessness in the eyes of people.
Speaker 3: Who don't have that hope is crushing. It's just crushing.
Speaker 4: I have seen it in their faces, and it is
Speaker 4: not something you want. But we grieve with hope now
Speaker 4: to live with hope in a life of pain. And
Speaker 4: by the way, i'm sorry to say this to you.
Speaker 4: You're gonna have pain the rest of your life, but
Speaker 4: in that pain, you can have hope. How you're gonna
Speaker 4: have to get a bigger perspective. You're gonna have to
Speaker 4: have a longer view. You're gonna have to refocus your attention.
Speaker 4: You're gonna have to stop thinking about just here and now,
Speaker 4: and you're gonna have to start living in light of eternity.
Speaker 3: This is not all there is. And if you just
Speaker 3: look at today.
Speaker 4: And what's happening right now, you're gonna be hopeless that
Speaker 4: if you can see in light of eternity, you realize
Speaker 4: that this life is preparation of the net next. You
Speaker 4: get it the most one hundred years on this planet,
Speaker 4: but you get trillions and trillions of years in eternity.
Speaker 4: This is simply the get ready stage for the real show.
Speaker 4: Here's what the Bible says there on your outline two
Speaker 4: Corinthians four eighteen. So so we don't focus on the
Speaker 4: troubles we see right now. Instead we look forward to
Speaker 4: what we don't see yet. For the troubles we see
Speaker 4: now are temporary, Thank god, they're only temporary. I mean,
Speaker 4: even if I had a problem my entire life, it's
Speaker 4: only temporary because it's not going to last an eternity.
Speaker 4: For the problems, the troubles we see now are only temporary,
Speaker 4: but the joys to come will last forever. You know
Speaker 4: a lot of people when they have a loved one die,
Speaker 4: they have a celebration of their life at a funeral
Speaker 4: and they remember all the happy times.
Speaker 3: That's a good thing. In fact, I.
Speaker 4: Encourage you to do that, remember all the happy times
Speaker 4: of your loved ones. But that's not my comfort. It
Speaker 4: is not my comfort because Matthew's life was not a
Speaker 4: happy life. In many ways, it was a tragic life.
Speaker 4: He was tortured. He had a tender heart, but he
Speaker 4: had a tortured mind. He was very he had Matthew
Speaker 4: had an ability to walk into a room at a
Speaker 4: party and instantly know who was in the most pain,
Speaker 4: and he would make a beeline for that person and
Speaker 4: spend the entire evening with them, comforting, consoling, and incourage him.
Speaker 4: He would have made an incredible counselor. He had a very,
Speaker 4: very tender heart, but he had a tortured mind. And
Speaker 4: so as a father, my comfort doesn't come from thinking
Speaker 4: about the happy moments of Matthew's life. There were some,
Speaker 4: but not that many. My comfort comes not from thinking
Speaker 4: about happy moments on earth, but holy moments in heaven
Speaker 4: he's having now, and that is a comfort to me.
Speaker 4: You see, friends, the biggest epidemic in our society, in
Speaker 4: our world today is hopelessness. It's an epidemic proportion for
Speaker 4: persons it is. It's the biggest problem on the planet.
Speaker 4: The biggest problem on the planet is not poverty. We're
Speaker 4: trying to do something about that with the Peace Plan.
Speaker 4: The biggest problem on the planet is not disease. We're
Speaker 4: trying to do something about that with the Peace Plant.
Speaker 4: The biggest problem on the planet is not illiteracy or
Speaker 4: ignorance and lack of education. We're trying to do something
Speaker 4: about that. The biggest problem on our planet is hopelessness.
Speaker 4: People are living and dying without any hope, and we
Speaker 4: are in a battle for hopelessness against hopelessness. Now, when
Speaker 4: something happens and you have a major loss in your life,
Speaker 4: you tend to think this is the end of the world. No,
Speaker 4: it's not the end of the world. It's an end
Speaker 4: of the moment, and in your life you're going to
Speaker 4: have many ends of the moment. It's not the end
Speaker 4: of the world. I don't know what you're going through,
Speaker 4: and I don't care. How I do care, But I
Speaker 4: don't know how important I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't, I don't.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter how deep you think your problem is
Speaker 4: right now, the one you're going through right now, it
Speaker 4: isn't the end of the world. Why because when the
Speaker 4: real end of the world comes, Jesus shows up.
Speaker 3: Then you know it's the end of the world.
Speaker 4: The one day Jesus is going to settle the score,
Speaker 4: even the odds, pay off the debts, and heal the hurts.
Speaker 4: And the Bible says what it's going to be like
Speaker 4: in heaven when it's all over here on earth. The
Speaker 4: last chapter in the in the Last Book of the Bible,
Speaker 4: Revelation twenty one, verse four says this, then God, this
Speaker 4: is in the future. Then God will wipe away every
Speaker 4: tear from their eyes. This is in heaven, wipe away
Speaker 4: every tear from their eyes, and there will be no
Speaker 4: more death, no more death, And there will be no
Speaker 4: more mourning, and there will be no more crying, and
Speaker 4: there will be no more pain, for the old order.
Speaker 3: Of things will pass away. I'm looking forward to that day.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be
Speaker 1: back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.
Speaker 1: If you've missed any part of today's teaching, you can
Speaker 1: listen online anytime at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 5: Life can sometimes be challenging, isolating, and painful. Do you
Speaker 5: or someone you know need some powerful encouragement right now,
Speaker 5: then let me tell you about the Journey Toward Hope.
Speaker 5: This guided Bible study book takes you on a journey
Speaker 5: to discover the five truths about who you are. You
Speaker 5: are loved, you have a purpose, you belong, you have
Speaker 5: a choice, and you are needed. This full color, vegan
Speaker 5: leather study tool is filled with scriptures, prayers, exercises, spaces
Speaker 5: to journal, and personal stories to help you uncover the
Speaker 5: hidden reasons you may lose hope and teach you how
Speaker 5: to maintain and bolster that hope for a lifetime. Will
Speaker 5: send you your very own copy of Journey Toward Hope.
Speaker 5: When you give a gift today to daily Hope, to
Speaker 5: take the hope of Jesus to a herding world. Just
Speaker 5: go to Pastororrick dot com right now to get your copy,
Speaker 5: or you can call eight hundred six hundred five zero
Speaker 5: zero four that's Pastorick dot com. Or call eight hundred
Speaker 5: six hundred five zero zero four and be sure to
Speaker 5: let us know the call letters of this station. Thank
Speaker 5: you so so much for your support. There's only two
Speaker 5: days left to get this great resource, so don't wait.
Speaker 1: Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 4: One day Jesus is going to settle the score, even
Speaker 4: the odds, pay off the debts, and heal the hurts.
Speaker 4: And the Bible says what it's going to be like
Speaker 4: in heaven when it's all over here on earth. The
Speaker 4: last chapter in the in the Last Book of the Bible,
Speaker 4: Revelation twenty one, verse four says this, then God, this
Speaker 4: is in the future. Then God will wipe away every
Speaker 4: tear from their eyes.
Speaker 3: This is in heaven. Wipe away every tear from.
Speaker 4: Their eyes, and there will be no more death, no
Speaker 4: more death, and there will be no more mourning, and
Speaker 4: there will be no more crime, and there will be
Speaker 4: no more pain, for the old order of things will
Speaker 4: pass away. I'm looking forward to that day, but we're
Speaker 4: not there yet. And what do we do now in
Speaker 4: this little parenthesis between the sweet bye and bye and
Speaker 4: the nasty now and now where everything is broken and
Speaker 4: then life doesn't make sense and it's an incredible battle.
Speaker 4: What do we do during this middle time? We live
Speaker 4: in peace even when life doesn't make sense, because we
Speaker 4: know that God is with us, and God loves us,
Speaker 4: and he'll never stop loving us, and he'll never forget us.
Speaker 3: And we live with joy.
Speaker 4: Even when everything on this planet is broken, because we
Speaker 4: know that God is good and God has a good plan,
Speaker 4: and God has a plan that is greater than the
Speaker 4: problem you're going through.
Speaker 3: His purpose is greater than your problem. And we live
Speaker 3: with hope.
Speaker 4: Why we live with hope even when we know life's
Speaker 4: a battle and everything's hard and there's a lot of conflict.
Speaker 3: But we live with hope because we know.
Speaker 4: It is more to the story than just here and now.
Speaker 4: Let's vow for prayer in your mindset. Dear God, I
Speaker 4: want to know you better. I want to become a
Speaker 4: man or woman a faith. I want to fulfill the
Speaker 4: purpose that you made me for. Help me to remember
Speaker 4: that this is not the end of the story, that
Speaker 4: we win in the end, that ultimately there will be
Speaker 4: no more tears, no more sorrow, no more morning, no
Speaker 4: more crying, no more death.
Speaker 3: Say this in your heart, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 4: As much as I know how, I give you every
Speaker 4: area of my life. I open up myself to you.
Speaker 4: Make yourself real to me. I want to learn to
Speaker 4: love you more. I want to learn to trust you.
Speaker 4: And I pray this in your name.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 4: Hi everybody, this is Rick and I hope you enjoyed
Speaker 4: today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed that prayer
Speaker 4: for the very first time, or you just recommitted your
Speaker 4: life to Jesus again today, would you let me know
Speaker 4: about it. Write me Rick at pastor rick dot com
Speaker 4: and say, Rick, I prayed that prayer of commitment. I
Speaker 4: gave my life to Christ. And I'll send you some
Speaker 4: material that will help you on your journey with Jesus.
Speaker 4: And I'll also pray for you. God bless you. This
Speaker 4: his pastor Rick's daily hope. If you've missed any part
Speaker 4: of this message, or you'd like to find out more
Speaker 4: about Pastor Rick Warren and this ministry. Just visit Pastororick
Speaker 4: dot com where you can listen online anytime. That's Pastor
Speaker 4: Rick with two Rs in the Middle dot com and
Speaker 4: be sure to sign up for ricks free daily email devotional.
Speaker 4: While you're there, Rick will be back to close out
Speaker 4: our time today. But first life can sometimes be challenging, isolating,
Speaker 4: and painful. Do you or someone you know need a
Speaker 4: powerful encouragement right now, then let me tell you about
Speaker 4: the Journey Toward Hope. This guided Bible study book takes
Speaker 4: you on a journey to discover the five truths about
Speaker 4: who you are. You are loved, you have a purpose,
Speaker 4: you belong, you have a choice, and you are needed.
Speaker 4: This full color vegan leather study tool is filled with scriptures, prayers,
Speaker 4: exertion sizes, spaces to journal, and personal stories to help
Speaker 4: you uncover the hidden reasons you may lose hope and
Speaker 4: teach you how to maintain and bolster that hope for
Speaker 4: a lifetime. We'll send you your very own copy of
Speaker 4: Journey Toward Hope when you give a gift today to
Speaker 4: daily Hope. To take the Hope of Jesus to ahrting world,
Speaker 4: Just go to Pastororrick dot com right now to get
Speaker 4: your copy, or you can call eight hundred six hundred
Speaker 4: five thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com. Or call
Speaker 4: eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four and be
Speaker 4: sure to let us know the call letters of this station.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for your support. There's only two
Speaker 4: days left to get this great resource, so don't wait.
Speaker 4: Here's Pastor Rick with a special message you know. Here
Speaker 4: at Daily Hope, we use the Internet and podcasts and
Speaker 4: email and as many other different channels as possible to
Speaker 4: share God's hope and love with as many people as
Speaker 4: we can. Now, one of the ways that we use
Speaker 4: is by broadcasting on radio stations just like the one
Speaker 4: you're listening to right now.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: You may not know this, but purchasing radio airtime is
Speaker 4: a significant expense for our ministry. But we want to
Speaker 4: bring this teaching to you, and we believe you are
Speaker 4: worth it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: In order to be good stewards of the gifts that
Speaker 4: God has given us, we're only able to continue on
Speaker 4: the air on stations we're listener supporters let us know
Speaker 4: that they're listening to the programs. That's why it's very
Speaker 4: important that you let us know the call letters and
Speaker 4: the city of your radio station when you give any
Speaker 4: kind of gift or support to Daily Hope. This is
Speaker 4: very important. Let us know your call letters and the
Speaker 4: name of the city that you are hearing this broadcast. Now,
Speaker 4: I realize that some of you can't afford to help
Speaker 4: us out financially. That's okay. We love you, We thank
Speaker 4: God for you. We want to minister and serve you.
Speaker 4: Everybody in the Body of Christ has different gifts to
Speaker 4: share at different times in life. You can pray for
Speaker 4: us and there will be others of you who can
Speaker 4: give generously so that God can continue to spread this
Speaker 4: message throughout the world. You need to know that Daily
Speaker 4: Hope is one hundred percent funded by the daily gifts
Speaker 4: and offerings that you give with your generous support. You
Speaker 4: also need to know that I don't take any salary
Speaker 4: from Daily Hope.
Speaker 3: All of the.
Speaker 4: Gifts given to this broadcast go directly toward fulfilling our
Speaker 4: mission of reaching people with the certain hope that we
Speaker 4: can only find in Jesus. So I'm going to ask
Speaker 4: you to do something today. Will you pray for me
Speaker 4: and will you pray for this Daily Hope Ministry help
Speaker 4: us to reach every person in the world with the
Speaker 4: certain hope that only comes from believing and receiving Jesus Christ.
Speaker 4: You know, it's only by hearing the word of God
Speaker 4: and by putting out the practice that we discover and
Speaker 4: we fulfill the purposes God has for each of our lives.
Speaker 4: So I want to just say thank you. Thank you
Speaker 4: so much for your financial support that you're able to
Speaker 4: give whenever you're able to give it. And may God
Speaker 4: bless your generosity.
Speaker 1: When you give a gift to Daily Hope, you're helping
Speaker 1: share the hope of Jesus with people in your community
Speaker 1: and all around the world. Call eight hundred six hundred
Speaker 1: five thousand and four or you can visit pastorig dot
Speaker 1: com and we'll send you the Journey Towards Hope Guided
Speaker 1: Bible study to say thanks again. That's eight hundred six
Speaker 1: hundred five thousand and four or pastorig dot com. Be
Speaker 1: sure to join us again next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's Word for our daily hope. This program is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries and your generous financial support