Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is
Speaker 1: the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, we're so
Speaker 1: glad you've joined us. Today, we're continuing a powerful series
Speaker 1: called Radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots. And in this series, Rick
Speaker 1: will show you how to grow deep in your faith,
Speaker 1: stay grounded in God's word, and become everything He created
Speaker 1: you to be. And now here's part two of a
Speaker 1: message called Radical Joy.
Speaker 2: What's heaven going to be like.
Speaker 3: You're gonna be reunified, reunion with the people you love.
Speaker 2: There's going to be rewards in heaven.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be rest, and there's gonna be responsibilities that
Speaker 3: you love to do. One of my favorite things in
Speaker 3: the Bible is that it tells us is that in heaven,
Speaker 3: I'm going to get a new body. Now, the truth
Speaker 3: is the reason you were made, the reason the universe
Speaker 3: exists is God wanted a family, and he wanted that
Speaker 3: family to not just be with him here on earth,
Speaker 3: but to be with him forever, his forever family. The
Speaker 3: Bible says in advance, God already knew who would choose
Speaker 3: to accept him, and he still chose to make all
Speaker 3: of us. He gives us that choice. The Bible says
Speaker 3: this in Romans eight twenty nine. For God knew his
Speaker 3: people in advance, those who would want to be a
Speaker 3: part of his family. It's a choice, and He chose
Speaker 3: them then to become like his son, so that his
Speaker 3: son would be the first born with many brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3: God is our father, Jesus is our older brother, and
Speaker 3: we are brothers and sisters in the family of God.
Speaker 2: No friends.
Speaker 3: If we just ended with those two things, and I said,
Speaker 3: that's all we're going to talk about this week, let's
Speaker 3: go home, and we just ended with that our sins
Speaker 3: have been completely forgiven and that we're going to have
Speaker 3: a permanent home in heaven, that would be enough to
Speaker 3: be joyful the rest of your life. If God never
Speaker 3: did another thing for you, you owe him your praise,
Speaker 3: you owe him your worship, and you have every reason
Speaker 3: for joy because number one, you live on under no condemnation,
Speaker 3: and number two, you're going to heaven when you die
Speaker 3: if you are in Christ. Now there's a third reason
Speaker 3: why we can be joyful in life no matter what happens. One,
Speaker 3: all my sins are forgiven, and number two, I'm going
Speaker 3: to heaven, and nothing's going to stop that. Number three
Speaker 3: if I'm in Christ. Third reason for radical joy, God
Speaker 3: is working all things for good, all things.
Speaker 2: For my good.
Speaker 3: Now, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 3: and one of the messages where we looked word for
Speaker 3: word at Romans eight twenty eight, which is one of
Speaker 3: the great promises of the Bible. The Bible tells us
Speaker 3: that God doesn't make mistakes. We make mistakes, but God doesn't.
Speaker 3: And God says, you know what, I can even fit
Speaker 3: my mistakes in your mistakes into my plan. God says,
Speaker 3: My purpose for your life is bigger than your problems.
Speaker 3: And even when you make dumb decisions, and when other
Speaker 3: people make decisions, says, yeah, I can fit that into it.
Speaker 3: All for good. What a reason to be joyful. The
Speaker 3: Bible says this in Romans eight twenty eight. We know
Speaker 3: that in all things, that's everything that happens in your life,
Speaker 3: the good, the bad, the ugly. In all things, God
Speaker 3: works for the good. Not all things are good, but
Speaker 3: He works for the good of those who love him,
Speaker 3: those who've been called according to His purpose. Now, this
Speaker 3: is not a promise for everyone. We've talked about this
Speaker 3: for all things do not work together for good for everybody.
Speaker 3: If I'm living and rebellion against God, if I'm thumbing
Speaker 3: my nose to God, if I'm saying I'm going to
Speaker 3: be my own God, I reject Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: I reject God's purpose for my life.
Speaker 3: I'm going to live my own life the way I
Speaker 3: want to. Then all things are working for bad in
Speaker 3: my life. They're not working for good. God owes you nothing.
Speaker 3: But when you come to him and say, God, I
Speaker 3: want to live for your purpose. I don't always get
Speaker 3: it right, but I want to live for your purpose.
Speaker 3: I want to do the right thing, and I want
Speaker 3: to follow you, and I want to trust you. God says,
Speaker 3: you know what, Then I'm going to take everything in
Speaker 3: your life and I'll work it for good.
Speaker 2: That is a reason for joy. What does it mean?
Speaker 3: It means once I place my life in Christ's hands
Speaker 3: and I'm in Christ.
Speaker 2: In Christ, my life is almost goof proof.
Speaker 3: What does that mean that I don't make bad decisions?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I still make bad decisions that other people
Speaker 3: don't make them.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they do too.
Speaker 3: But God says, you know what, I can fit that
Speaker 3: into the plan. There is no plan b for your life.
Speaker 3: God says, I knew before you were born all the
Speaker 3: mistakes you were going to make.
Speaker 2: I still have it in your plan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll fit that into this allows me to be
Speaker 3: sovereign and allows you to have free choice at the
Speaker 3: same time, and I'll use it for good. Now what
Speaker 3: does that mean. It means I can relax. I can
Speaker 3: stop being angry anxious, which, by the way, anxiety is
Speaker 3: a killed joy. It is a thing that kills the joy.
Speaker 3: You can't be anxious. Am I making the right decision?
Speaker 3: Am I doing the right thing? Have I made the
Speaker 3: right decision? Am I gonna You're always fretting about that
Speaker 3: there's not going to be any joy in your life.
Speaker 3: But if you sit back and go, you know what,
Speaker 3: I'm going to do the best I can with what
Speaker 3: I have for Jesus today.
Speaker 2: But even if I.
Speaker 3: If I don't get it all right, God says, I'm
Speaker 3: going to still work it for good.
Speaker 2: How cool is that? How cool? I mean? That is
Speaker 2: a reason for joy.
Speaker 3: It is a reason for joy that no matter how
Speaker 3: bad things are in my life, I can know God
Speaker 3: is even using it for good. So how do I
Speaker 3: be joyful even in tough times? Like this last year. Well,
Speaker 3: there are two things you do. First, you look past
Speaker 3: the problem. You look past the pain, and you look
Speaker 3: toward God and his solution. This, by the way, is
Speaker 3: how Jesus was able to endure the cross. How did
Speaker 3: Jesus put up with the pain, the agony, the suffering,
Speaker 3: and the cruel death of the cross.
Speaker 2: He looked beyond it.
Speaker 3: The Bible says it like this in Hebrews chapter twelve,
Speaker 3: verse two. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. That
Speaker 3: means focus focus on God, not your problem. Fix our
Speaker 3: eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
Speaker 3: He's using everything in your life to perfect your faith.
Speaker 3: Who for the joy set? There's that word, the joy
Speaker 3: set before him endured the cross? How did he endure
Speaker 3: the cross? Because he looked past it to see the
Speaker 3: joy of all the people who are going to be
Speaker 3: saved through it. He looked past the pain and saw
Speaker 3: the purpose. He looked past the pain and saw God's plan.
Speaker 3: He looked past the pain and saw the reward. That's
Speaker 3: how you do it. When you're going through tough time,
Speaker 3: you go, yeah, you know, I don't like what's going
Speaker 3: on right now. It doesn't it's terrible, But I know
Speaker 3: that God is working all things for good in my life,
Speaker 3: and that's the reason for joy. The second thing you
Speaker 3: do to experience joy no matter what happens, is that
Speaker 3: you keep on doing the right thing, even when you
Speaker 3: don't feel like doing it. When you do the right thing,
Speaker 3: it brings joy in your life. The Bible says this
Speaker 3: in PSI one nineteen, Verse one, p.
Speaker 2: Forty three.
Speaker 3: As pressure and stress bear down on me, let me
Speaker 3: stop right there. Does anybody identify with this verse? As
Speaker 3: pressure and stress bear down on me? I find joy
Speaker 3: in watching television. Now, that's not what it says.
Speaker 2: I find joy in going shopping. I find no.
Speaker 3: It says I find joy in your commands. Joy comes
Speaker 3: from doing the right thing at the right place time.
Speaker 3: Years ago, Ricky wrote the song Heal and Grace, which
Speaker 3: says there's a line that says, and I can see
Speaker 3: that there are good things only suffering can bring. There's
Speaker 3: got to be a story behind that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Years ago, I used to go and I still do this.
Speaker 4: I sneak into Pastor's library and I read through some
Speaker 4: of his great books that he's got there, and there
Speaker 4: was a line from aw Towzer that said that very thing.
Speaker 4: I can see that there are good things only suffering
Speaker 4: can bring.
Speaker 3: Now, let me ask you a question specifically about this.
Speaker 3: Most of us in the church family know that one
Speaker 3: of your boys was born with a congenital heart defect.
Speaker 3: He's had six.
Speaker 4: This August tenth was his sixth open.
Speaker 3: Sixth open heart surgery, every one of them life or death.
Speaker 3: I can see that they are good things only suffering
Speaker 3: can bring. What did you learn out of that?
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I really appreciate all the prayers
Speaker 4: and the support from our church family. So you learn
Speaker 4: that there's people that really believe and they support others
Speaker 4: and giving people. I learned that having God's presence in
Speaker 4: my life is the most important thing that could ever have.
Speaker 4: That it does create a sense of joy and even
Speaker 4: in the midst of really difficult And that's all relative,
Speaker 4: isn't it, because we all go through different things. But
Speaker 4: for me and this last one, we were there for
Speaker 4: twenty four days and he had a stroke and all
Speaker 4: kinds of complications, and the stress all around with the
Speaker 4: different parents and many of them who lost their children.
Speaker 4: Having God's presence, just knowing that God was with me
Speaker 4: helped me to walk through this time. And I do
Speaker 4: want to say this that a lot of people they
Speaker 4: think God is a genie that you rub the lamp
Speaker 4: and you get what you want. More important than that,
Speaker 4: he gives you his presence.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 3: There's a fourth reason why we can always be joyful
Speaker 3: no matter what happens in our lives.
Speaker 2: And this is a big one.
Speaker 3: The Bible says, if I'm in Christ, God is for me.
Speaker 2: God is for me. He's not just with me, He's
Speaker 2: for me. He's on my side.
Speaker 3: And the Bible says this in Romans eight, verse thirty one.
Speaker 3: What can we say about such wonderful things as these?
Speaker 3: If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
Speaker 3: I mean, like, you got God on your side, what
Speaker 3: more do you need? One plus God equals a majority.
Speaker 3: If God likes you, and you like you. If others
Speaker 3: being don't like you, that's their problem. One plus God
Speaker 3: equals a majority. God says, if God is forced, who
Speaker 3: can be against us? Psychologists have discovered that there are
Speaker 3: six hundred and forty five different known fears that people
Speaker 3: can have.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of fears.
Speaker 3: Fear is a universal problem, and fear like guilt, like shame,
Speaker 3: like anxiety is a killed joy. You cannot be afraid
Speaker 3: and full of joy at the same time. And yet
Speaker 3: God says, look, I'm on your side, I'm for you,
Speaker 3: I'm going to protect you. What are you worried about?
Speaker 3: What are you afraid of? If God is forced, who
Speaker 3: can be against us? I wonder what your greatest fear is.
Speaker 2: Is it? I don't know.
Speaker 3: The fear of embarrassment, the fear of death, the fear
Speaker 3: of losing your mind, maybe the fear of failure. Studies
Speaker 3: have shown that one of the most common universal fears
Speaker 3: is the fear of rejection. Now comes out in a
Speaker 3: lot of different ways. The fear of not being loved,
Speaker 3: the fear of disapproval, the fear of disappointing people, the
Speaker 3: fear of embarrassing yourself, the fear of not fitting in,
Speaker 3: the fear of not being a part of the crowd,
Speaker 3: the fear of not being like, the fear of not
Speaker 3: being popular. It is the fear of rejection, and Satan
Speaker 3: uses this fear to rob you of your joy. Satan
Speaker 3: knows all the things that will make you joyful, so
Speaker 3: he tries to create a fear that opposes it. For instance,
Speaker 3: Satan knows that doing the right thing will always bring
Speaker 3: you joy in your life. So he makes you afraid
Speaker 3: if I do the right thing, other people will think
Speaker 3: I'm weird. If I do the right thing, I won't
Speaker 3: be popular. If I do the right thing, people will
Speaker 3: think I'm a religious fanatic. If I do the right thing,
Speaker 3: people will think I'm nuts.
Speaker 2: I do this.
Speaker 3: He's trying to get you afraid so you won't do it.
Speaker 3: Satan knows that one of the greatest sources of joy
Speaker 3: in life is when you share Jesus Christ and the
Speaker 3: love of Christ with an unbeliever. It creates enormous joy.
Speaker 3: So it's your also your greatest fear. You're afraid to
Speaker 3: talk to anybody about Jesus. Why because Satan put that
Speaker 3: fear there to keep you from the greatest joy. And
Speaker 3: you'll think, well, man, people think I'm nuts. And he
Speaker 3: creates a fear to keep you away from the very
Speaker 3: things that bring you the most joy. It's why you're
Speaker 3: so afraid to share Jesus with others, the fear of rejection.
Speaker 3: Satan knows that speaking the truth in love brings joy,
Speaker 3: and so he's going to make you afraid to speak
Speaker 3: the truth. And he'll say well, how can you tell
Speaker 3: anybody else that truth? Look at your life, You're not perfect,
Speaker 3: and he'll start accusing you. And if he'll say, you know,
Speaker 3: if you talk to other people about doing the right
Speaker 3: thing and say well, who are you, and they'll start
Speaker 3: accusing you all the things that are bad in your life.
Speaker 3: Here's what the Bible says about that Romans eight thirty three.
Speaker 3: Who can accuse the people of God? The people God
Speaker 3: has chosen? No one, because God is the one who
Speaker 3: makes them right. Now, doesn't it say you're perfect? Doesn't
Speaker 3: mean you don't sin. When he says, who can accuse you?
Speaker 2: No one? Because God makes them right? What you do
Speaker 2: is somebody says.
Speaker 3: But you can't talk about that you did this, this
Speaker 3: and this, and you say, yep.
Speaker 2: I'm a trophy of grace.
Speaker 3: When somebody starts to accuse you of all the things
Speaker 3: you've done wrong, and you're right, say yep, I'm a
Speaker 3: trophy of grace. Okay, I'm not perfect, but God is
Speaker 3: I'm under no condemnation because I deserve it.
Speaker 2: No, because I'm a trophy of grace.
Speaker 3: You know, God says, I want you to get over
Speaker 3: this fear of reject the Bible says in the world,
Speaker 3: you will have persecution. He said, count on it. The
Speaker 3: Bible says, beware when all men speak.
Speaker 2: Well of you.
Speaker 3: In other words, if people are always nobody ever says
Speaker 3: anything against you, it means runs things that you're not
Speaker 3: standing for anything. Beware when all men speak well of you.
Speaker 3: The Bible says, all who live godly in Christ Jesus
Speaker 3: will experience persecution. Why because there are some people in
Speaker 3: the world who are one hundred percent opposed to what
Speaker 3: you believe.
Speaker 2: They are. I don't know if you'd noticed this or not.
Speaker 2: I get criticized a lot.
Speaker 3: Have you noticed this TV, radio, newspaper?
Speaker 2: Well? Why is that? Well?
Speaker 3: One reason is I deserve some of it. Nobody's perfect,
Speaker 3: so there's something to criticize about everybody.
Speaker 2: So some of the stuff I deserve.
Speaker 3: But also I am a face that represents what some
Speaker 3: people are adamantly opposed to, and so they're going to criticize.
Speaker 3: Now let's take the last one. God works everything for good.
Speaker 3: How does God work everything for good when you're being criticized.
Speaker 2: Oh, there's lots of ways.
Speaker 3: For one thing, it's an opportunity for me and for
Speaker 3: you to grow to be more like Christ. You see,
Speaker 3: you are most like Christ when you were silent in
Speaker 3: the face of false criticism. You're most like Christ when
Speaker 3: you are silent and you refuse to retaliate in the
Speaker 3: face of criticism. Jesus was a perfect person. None of
Speaker 3: us are. And yet he was constantly criticized, constantly misunderstood,
Speaker 3: constantly lied about. Constantly they condemned him, and at the crucifixion,
Speaker 3: before that, at the arrest, they were accusing of all
Speaker 3: all these things that he had never done. And it says,
Speaker 3: and Jesus spake not a word unto them. He remains silent.
Speaker 3: Why if God is for us, who can be against us?
Speaker 3: He really doesn't matter what other people think. What matters
Speaker 3: is what God says about you. And that's what's going
Speaker 3: to last in the long run. In fact, the Bible
Speaker 3: says this on the screen Matthew twenty seven fourteen.
Speaker 2: Jesus made no reply even to a.
Speaker 3: Single charge, all the trumped up charges and all the
Speaker 3: things against him, to the great amazement of the governor.
Speaker 2: Who is pilot.
Speaker 3: When you respond to accusations with love and kindness and
Speaker 3: refuse to retaliate, it makes you more like Jesus.
Speaker 2: That's a good thing. God brings good in that. You know.
Speaker 3: I was about a year ago praying about this, and
Speaker 3: I said, Lord, I understand the good. That doesn't mean
Speaker 3: does it help anybody else? And God says, if you
Speaker 3: can be a model of how criticism cannot rob you
Speaker 3: of your joy, that's a good thing.
Speaker 2: Nobody can rob me of my joy.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter what other people say, doesn't matter what
Speaker 3: other people think, doesn't matter whether they're right, they're wrong,
Speaker 3: they're ridiculous, or whatever. Nobody can rob me of my joy.
Speaker 3: Let me give you a little advice, as your pastor
Speaker 3: who loves you, You'll never be able to please everybody.
Speaker 3: Just about the time you get crowd a, please, crowd
Speaker 3: B gets ticked off, and about the time you get proud,
Speaker 3: crowd B please, crowda gets ticked off. One minute you're
Speaker 3: the hero, the next minute you're the zero. But here's
Speaker 3: the good news. You don't need other people's approval to
Speaker 3: be happy. If you've been spending your life still trying
Speaker 3: to earn the approval of your dad or your mom,
Speaker 3: or your friends, or your peers or some teacher in
Speaker 3: the past and prove them wrong, that's stupid. If you
Speaker 3: haven't gotten their approval. If I now, you're not gonna
Speaker 3: get it. And it's not your fault, it's their fault.
Speaker 3: But here's the good news. You don't need it. You
Speaker 3: don't need the approval of anybody to be joyful. You
Speaker 3: don't need the approval of anybody to be happy. All
Speaker 3: you need to do is live.
Speaker 2: For an audience of one for God.
Speaker 3: And if God likes you and you're doing, and He
Speaker 3: likes what you're doing, then it's always the right thing
Speaker 3: to do, not only that you're gonna be rewarded in eternity.
Speaker 3: Do you remember the last beatitude we covered when we
Speaker 3: went through life's healing choices. It goes like this, Blessed
Speaker 3: are you. That means happy, Happy are you? When men
Speaker 3: shall revile you, That means put you down and persecute you,
Speaker 3: and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my.
Speaker 2: Sake, rejoice. There's the word rejoice, Joy, Rejoice.
Speaker 3: And be exceeding overflowing joy, For great as your reward
Speaker 3: in heaven. That's a good thing. This is what Jesus
Speaker 3: told us. He said, in the world, you'll have tribulation.
Speaker 3: They said, you don't have to worry about it because
Speaker 3: I love you. In fact, Romans eight thirty seven says this,
Speaker 3: none of this phases us, because Jesus loves us. Don't
Speaker 3: ever let anybody rob your joy. Don't ever let anybody
Speaker 3: take it away from you.
Speaker 2: They don't have a right to.
Speaker 3: Now. Jesus also said this on the screen. I say
Speaker 3: these things while I'm still in the world, so that
Speaker 3: they That means all of us, the followers, may have
Speaker 3: the full measure of my joy within them. Did you
Speaker 3: know that Jesus prayed that you would have the full
Speaker 3: measure of the joy he had inside you. That's extravagant joy,
Speaker 3: that's irrational joy, that's exuberant joy.
Speaker 2: That's on speakable joy.
Speaker 1: What a special message from Pastor Rick. And now let's
Speaker 1: hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here's Rick
Speaker 1: with a letter from one of our listeners today.
Speaker 3: I've got a quick note from a listener in Minneapolis.
Speaker 3: His name is Bill, and Bill wrote to me, Rick,
Speaker 3: I want to let you know that I prayed with
Speaker 3: you this morning, accepting God into my life.
Speaker 2: Wow. That's great.
Speaker 3: Daily Hope has become the way that I start each
Speaker 3: day listening to your podcast so much has changed in
Speaker 3: my life over the past year. I had a job loss,
Speaker 3: I had a transition, I had a divorce, my dad
Speaker 3: passed away, cancer, and my faith all in the same year.
Speaker 2: I'm so thankful for all that you do well.
Speaker 3: Bill, I want to tell you, I know you've been
Speaker 3: going through some really tough times this past year, but
Speaker 3: there's no greater news than hearing that you've accepted Jesus
Speaker 3: into your life. And the fact that God used a
Speaker 3: Daily Hope podcast to lead you to Him is such
Speaker 3: a blessing. And I want you to know that as
Speaker 3: you continue to study God's word every day, you're going
Speaker 3: to find that your faith is growing and you'll see
Speaker 3: God actively working in your life. And I really am
Speaker 3: as excited to think about what the next year is
Speaker 3: going to bring. Year two in your life will be
Speaker 3: very different than the last year. And to the rest
Speaker 3: of you, all of our Daily Hope listeners, I just
Speaker 3: want to thank you because we're able to provide the
Speaker 3: Daily Hope podcast to people like Bill because of your
Speaker 3: generous support. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 3: thank you, thank you for helping us share the good
Speaker 3: news all around the world.
Speaker 2: We love you and imagine.
Speaker 3: What it's going to be to get to heaven and
Speaker 3: see all these people who came to know Christ because
Speaker 3: of your giving.
Speaker 2: God, bless you.
Speaker 1: Be sure to 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