Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you're here today. We're continuing our series
Speaker 1: from Psalm twenty three called living in the Goodness of God.
Speaker 1: It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where
Speaker 1: you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. Okay,
Speaker 1: now here's the final part of a message called from
Speaker 1: Overwhelmed to Overflowing.
Speaker 2: First Corinthians, Chapter four, verse seven. Who says you're better
Speaker 2: than others? What do you have that was not given
Speaker 2: to you by God? Everything you've got is a gift
Speaker 2: of God's goodness. The air you're breathing right now, the
Speaker 2: heart that is beating right now, is a gift of
Speaker 2: God's goodness.
Speaker 3: And if it wasn't given to.
Speaker 2: You, why do you brag as if you didn't receive
Speaker 2: it as a gift. It's all a gift, folks. Let
Speaker 2: me ask a real serious question. You want to be healthy,
Speaker 2: you want to live longer. Look at the next verse.
Speaker 2: Proverbs fourteen thirty. The Bible says it's healthy to be content,
Speaker 2: but envy will eat you up. And the more you
Speaker 2: go out there and you look at what other people doing.
Speaker 2: The more envious you get, the more jealous you get,
Speaker 2: and the more resentful you get. He said, it will
Speaker 2: eat you up Ecclesiastes four to six. It's better to
Speaker 2: be content with what you have than to always be
Speaker 2: struggling for moral more. That's like chasing the wind. In
Speaker 2: the New Testament, Paul says, I've learned to be content.
Speaker 2: It has to be learned. You see, by nature, I'm
Speaker 2: not a naturally contented person.
Speaker 3: Neither are you.
Speaker 2: By nature, you are not a naturally contented woman. You're
Speaker 2: not a naturally contented man. By nature, you are naturally discontented.
Speaker 2: And that creates a lot of overwhelmingness in your life.
Speaker 2: But if you listen and do it what God says
Speaker 2: you learn to be content, that's a good thing. You see,
Speaker 2: all those negat the things that stress you out, worry, jealousy, resentment, anger, fear, insecurity,
Speaker 2: feeling unloved, feeling unworthy, feeling ashamed, feeling guilty.
Speaker 3: All those different things. Guess what they're all learned now.
Speaker 2: Anything you can learn, you can unlearn, and the stuff
Speaker 2: you need to learn, like learn to be content is
Speaker 2: what life's all about. Learn to be unselfish, learn to
Speaker 2: be grateful, learn to connect to God every day of
Speaker 2: your life. He said, that's going to help you learn contentment.
Speaker 2: Get your eyes off other people. You know, the richest people.
Speaker 3: In the world.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people who are very rich.
Speaker 2: I probably know a dozen or so billionaires, and they
Speaker 2: would tell you themselves, there is no amount that will
Speaker 2: bring you at happiness because you always want just.
Speaker 3: A little bit more, just a little bit more.
Speaker 2: And the wealthiest this person in the world is not
Speaker 2: the one with the most money. The wealthiest person in
Speaker 2: the world is the one who's most contented with.
Speaker 3: What they've got.
Speaker 2: Because you can have a ton of money and still
Speaker 2: be miserable. God says, I want you to stop griping
Speaker 2: and start being grateful. And I want you to stop
Speaker 2: comparing and start being contented. And then there's one more.
Speaker 2: This one's the hardest of all. Stop being stingy and
Speaker 2: start being generous. If you want to move from the
Speaker 2: overwhelmed lifestyle, I can't tell you how important this key
Speaker 2: is in your life. If you want to move from
Speaker 2: being overwhelmed all the time to being overflowing all the time,
Speaker 2: you must move from being stingy to being generous and
Speaker 2: I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about your time.
Speaker 2: Generous with your energy, generous with your compliments. Stinginess is
Speaker 2: evidence of a shortage mentality. Stinginess is evidence of a
Speaker 2: shortage mindset. I only enough, and if I give it away,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna have enough for me. That's a shortage mentality.
Speaker 2: It means you don't trust the goodness of God when
Speaker 2: you say I can't afford to tithe, I can't afford
Speaker 2: to be generous with the guy on the street. I
Speaker 2: can't afford to give money away to other people. I
Speaker 2: needed all for me. You don't understand how the universe
Speaker 2: operates because God wired a universal law into the universe,
Speaker 2: and it's this, the more you give away.
Speaker 3: The more you're gonna get.
Speaker 2: And God wired the universe in that way that the
Speaker 2: more you give, the more you get. He did that
Speaker 2: because he wants you to become like him. God is
Speaker 2: a giver. The most generous being of all is God.
Speaker 2: Everything we have is a gift of God's generosity, and
Speaker 2: God wants you to learn to be like him.
Speaker 3: Like father, like son, like father like daughter.
Speaker 2: God so loved the world that he gave. You can
Speaker 2: give without loving but you cannot love without getting. This
Speaker 2: really upsets some people when you hit the stingy nerve
Speaker 2: in them. It just irritates them because they don't understand
Speaker 2: the universe is. The more generous I am, the more
Speaker 2: God is gonna bless me in every single area of life.
Speaker 2: You're gonna overflow. When I'm afraid to give away, it
Speaker 2: means I'm living a shortage mentality. I'm not living a
Speaker 2: surplus mentality. It's like, well, if I give away my
Speaker 2: piece of the pie, then then you get more. No,
Speaker 2: that's not what it's that about at all. Look at
Speaker 2: what the Bible says Two Corinthians, Chapter nine. Remember this,
Speaker 2: A stingy planner will only reap a small crop. You know,
Speaker 2: I grow vegetables.
Speaker 3: I'm a farmer.
Speaker 2: Last year I grew fifty six kinds of vegetables and
Speaker 2: eighteen kinds of fruit. Now, how about if I got
Speaker 2: a package of tomato seas, I gotta well, I got
Speaker 2: two hundred seed this pact, I'm only gonna plant one
Speaker 2: seed because I bet I better hold onto these. I
Speaker 2: might lose them. The only way I'm gonna benefit from these,
Speaker 2: I'll lose them if they keep and see they'll just die.
Speaker 2: But if I plant them in the ground, I'm going
Speaker 2: to get far more back than I plant it. You
Speaker 2: plant one kernel of corn, do you get back one kernel? No,
Speaker 2: you get back stalks of corn with thousands of kernels
Speaker 2: on them.
Speaker 3: You always get back more than you put out. He says.
Speaker 2: Remember this, A stingy planter will only reap a small crop,
Speaker 2: But anyone who sows generously will also reap generously. So
Speaker 2: each of you should give serious consideration to what you
Speaker 2: want to give God, he says. Don't ever give emotionally.
Speaker 2: He says, think about it, be rational, Give serious consideration
Speaker 2: what you want to give God, not reluctantly or under pressure.
Speaker 2: For God loves a cheerful giver. Now you heard me
Speaker 2: say this many times. Never give under pressure. If anybody
Speaker 2: ever pressures you to give, don't give because you don't
Speaker 2: get any credit for it. If you felt pressure for me,
Speaker 2: don't give because you don't get any credit for it.
Speaker 2: God loves cheerful giver. You only get it when you.
Speaker 2: God doesn't need my money. God doesn't need your money.
Speaker 2: He's got He's the source of all his supply. He
Speaker 2: wants what it represents your heart. Do you trust him.
Speaker 2: Do you have a shortage mentality or do you have
Speaker 2: a surplus mentality? Do I think if I give away anything,
Speaker 2: I've got my energy, my time. If I give away compliments,
Speaker 2: maybe I won't get complimented.
Speaker 3: He says, you can be sure.
Speaker 2: Here's the promise that God is able to bless you
Speaker 2: with all grace, so that in all things, at all times,
Speaker 2: you will always have all you need, and you'll also overflow.
Speaker 2: That's the overflowing life, so that you can give to
Speaker 2: every good work.
Speaker 3: Good night. That's like seven alls. Let's circle him.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a pretty cut and dried promise from God.
Speaker 2: Those He says, God is able to bless you with
Speaker 2: all his grace. Circle that all is grace, so that
Speaker 2: in all things. Circle that at all times. Circle that
Speaker 2: you will always circle that have all you need. Circle
Speaker 2: that you'll also overflow that circle that so that you
Speaker 2: can give to every good work. Circle that that's a
Speaker 2: pretty amazing promise.
Speaker 3: He said.
Speaker 2: If you'll learn to be generous with your time, if
Speaker 2: you'll learn to be generous with your money, that's the
Speaker 2: acid test of do you trust God? You have a
Speaker 2: shortage mentality or surplus mentality? Most of you know, Kay
Speaker 2: and my testimony on this. Forty two years ago and
Speaker 2: can I got married, we started tithing. Tithe means ten percent.
Speaker 2: God says first ten percent goes back to God. So
Speaker 2: we when we're just really young, forty two years ago,
Speaker 2: we start giving ten percent. I was only making like
Speaker 2: two hundred dollars a week. I was in school, and
Speaker 2: so if we made two hundred, twenty bucks went to God.
Speaker 2: We made one thousand dollars, one hundred bucks went to God.
Speaker 2: We said, we may be in debt to other people,
Speaker 2: we're not gonna be in debt to God, Okay, because
Speaker 2: we trust him. He's gonna He's our source, not us.
Speaker 2: He's not We're not the faucet. He's the source. And
Speaker 2: at the end of our first year marriage, we raised
Speaker 2: our giving to eleven percent. Nobody told us to do this,
Speaker 2: doesn't even stay in the Bible do it. We just
Speaker 2: wanted to do it to be more generous. Second year
Speaker 2: of marriage, we raised our giving to twelve percent. Third
Speaker 2: year we raised it to thirteen percent. Now, we weren't
Speaker 2: bragging on this. We never told anybody about for thirty years,
Speaker 2: and we weren't trying to show off we're just I
Speaker 2: wanted to grow in generosity.
Speaker 3: Every time I.
Speaker 2: Give, it breaks the grip of materialism in my life.
Speaker 3: The antidote to get get, get, get get is give, give, give,
Speaker 3: give get.
Speaker 2: Every time I give, my heart grows bigger. Every time
Speaker 2: I give, I become more loving. Every time I give,
Speaker 2: I become more like Jesus. And so every year we
Speaker 2: just raise our giving. Now some years I'm out of
Speaker 2: work or I'm in graduate school, the cupboard is bear,
Speaker 2: we'd still raise our giving quarter of a percent because
Speaker 2: we wanted to be more generous the next year, the
Speaker 2: new were the previous. Some years we've had a landfall.
Speaker 2: I'd get a job, or get a raise, or have
Speaker 2: a royalty or something, and we'd raise our givings sometimes
Speaker 2: three or four percent. And I can't tell you what
Speaker 2: a joy that is. I don't take a salary from
Speaker 2: this church. You know that I've served this church for
Speaker 2: free for thirty eight years. But I've trusted God, and
Speaker 2: I've played this game with God for thirty eight years
Speaker 2: where God are at forty two years, where God says, rick,
Speaker 2: you give to me, and I'll give to you and
Speaker 2: we'll see who wins. And I've lost that game for
Speaker 2: forty two years. You cannot outgive God. I remember one
Speaker 2: time Kay and I took Matthew, you and our son
Speaker 2: who had the mental health issues, took him up to
Speaker 2: Pasadena for counseling to a doctor. And in Ca said,
Speaker 2: I'll go in with a doctor, and I said, well,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna go get some deep. So it's downtown Pasadena,
Speaker 2: and I walked a little burger shack and I got
Speaker 2: a burger and some fries, something to drink, and I
Speaker 2: went over and I sat down on the steps of
Speaker 2: an old church church downtown right off Colorado Boulevard. I'm
Speaker 2: just sitting there on the steps, start to eat my lunch,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden they turn around and realize
Speaker 2: there are three homeless people sitting on these same steps.
Speaker 2: So I look around and go, hey, would you guys
Speaker 2: like to share my lunch? What am I doing? I'm
Speaker 2: just trying to be generous, a simple thing.
Speaker 3: You guys want to share my lunch? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So I took my lunch and I divided into the
Speaker 2: burger into four pieces and handed him there and handed
Speaker 2: each one in equal number fries. I did not share
Speaker 2: my drink, but I shared all of that, and we
Speaker 2: had a good time. We just told a bunch of jokes,
Speaker 2: had a good time talking, having fun, And about thirty
Speaker 2: minutes later I got afraid to leave and I started
Speaker 2: walking away. One of the guy goes, I know who
Speaker 2: you are? And I go, how do you know who
Speaker 2: I am?
Speaker 3: He goes, you're pastor. Rick said, how do you know
Speaker 3: who I am?
Speaker 2: He said, because five years ago, on the other side
Speaker 2: of town in Santa Monica, about forty five to fifty
Speaker 2: minutes from here, he said, I was sitting outside a
Speaker 2: taco joined at midnight, and you were up at UCLA
Speaker 2: visiting somebody in the hospital, and you'd gone out to
Speaker 2: get some meals and you stopped and as you got
Speaker 2: out of the car, you saw me sitting there by myself,
Speaker 2: kind of huddled, and you go, hey, can I buy
Speaker 2: you lunch?
Speaker 3: Can I buy you dinner?
Speaker 2: And you brought me in a toll stranger and bought
Speaker 2: me food and drink. He says, I've never forgotten that. Now,
Speaker 2: what's the likelihood of me meeting the same homeless guy
Speaker 2: five years later, fifty minutes away on the other side
Speaker 2: of la As I walked away, I said, God, what
Speaker 2: are you doing here, He goes, I just want you
Speaker 2: to know I notice, I noticed the little stuff, and
Speaker 2: the more generous you are, the more I'm going to
Speaker 2: be generous with you. Have you ever wondered why you
Speaker 2: don't have enough? You remember the story of Daniel. We
Speaker 2: studied Daniel for about twelve weeks when God took the
Speaker 2: nation of Israel and they were taken captive in Babylon
Speaker 2: for seventy years. And then later God said you can
Speaker 2: go back home. But he said this here's the key.
Speaker 2: I want you to put me first in your time,
Speaker 2: in your life, in your money, in your day. And
Speaker 2: he goes, when you go back home, just to prove it,
Speaker 2: the first thing I want you to do is I
Speaker 2: want you to rebuild the temple which was destroyed, which
Speaker 2: is a symbol that worship comes first. God comes first
Speaker 2: in my life. All those people went back home to Israel,
Speaker 2: and you know what they did. They forgot it and
Speaker 2: they didn't put God first. They didn't build a temple.
Speaker 2: And there's a whole book in the Bible about this
Speaker 2: mixed priorities. God says, if you put me first, I'll
Speaker 2: bless you. It's called the book of Hagi. Look up
Speaker 2: here on the screen. Here's what hag I said. You know,
Speaker 2: you spend a lot of money, but you don't have
Speaker 2: much to show for it. You got food, but you
Speaker 2: don't have enough to fill you up. You have drink,
Speaker 2: but not enough to satisfy your thirst. You have clothes
Speaker 2: but not enough to stay warm. You earn money, but
Speaker 2: it disappears as fast as if you had holes in
Speaker 2: your pocket, he said, in the income that you bring home,
Speaker 2: it just gets blown away. Consider Have you considered why
Speaker 2: this is happening because you're too busy building your own
Speaker 2: fine house that you haven't built my temple, the house
Speaker 2: of worship, And that's why I'm withholding your blessing.
Speaker 3: WHOA, We'll just.
Speaker 2: Let that one set there, Okay. Could this be the
Speaker 2: reason that I don't have that I'm overwhelmed instead of overflowing,
Speaker 2: that I don't have enough? Have you ever read God's
Speaker 2: challenge versus the Bible? I call it the Pepsi challenge verse.
Speaker 2: Look at this verse Malachi three to ten. This is
Speaker 2: bring your full tide to my storehouse, so there will
Speaker 2: be food.
Speaker 3: In my house.
Speaker 2: Talking about where you worship, test me in this he says,
Speaker 2: I dare you I dare you test me in this,
Speaker 2: says the Lord. And see if I won't open up
Speaker 2: for you the windows of heaven and pour out for
Speaker 2: you a blessing until it read the word with me
Speaker 2: over flows. That's the overflowing life, he says, I dare
Speaker 2: you put me first in your time? See if I
Speaker 2: don't bless your time, put me first in your relationship.
Speaker 2: See if I don't bless that, Put me first in
Speaker 2: your money. See if I don't bless that. Whatever you
Speaker 2: want God to bless you, put him first in you
Speaker 2: trust Jesus, he said, Well, I trust him to get
Speaker 2: me to heaven. Do you trust him for anything else?
Speaker 2: How much we'll close to this verse here on the screen.
Speaker 2: Jesus says this words of Jesus, if you give, you
Speaker 2: will receive back. Your gift will be returned to you
Speaker 2: in full measure. Pack down, shaking us like when you're
Speaker 2: shaking a thing to get all the air out of it,
Speaker 2: shaken to make room for more, and running over that
Speaker 2: phrase right there, running it's the same phrase as David
Speaker 2: in the Lord's in the Psalm twenty three.
Speaker 3: My cup runs over. It's the overflowing life. How do
Speaker 3: you get that? Life. He just says it.
Speaker 2: Whatever measure you use in giving, large or small, it'll
Speaker 2: be used to measure whatever is given back to you.
Speaker 2: And finally, Jesus says this on the screen, Matthew nine
Speaker 2: twenty nine, according to your faith, it would be done
Speaker 2: to you. Let's bow our heads. Are you tired of
Speaker 2: being overwhelmed? Have you had a shortage mindset? Then I
Speaker 2: won't have enough time. I won't have enough money, I
Speaker 2: won't have enough energy, I won't have enough contexts. Let
Speaker 2: me ask you, what are you lacking? What do you
Speaker 2: need more of? More time, more money, more energy, more knowledge,
Speaker 2: more opportunity. I want to challenge you to commit to
Speaker 2: the four daily habits of an overflowing life. Would you say,
Speaker 2: right now, Dear God, I will connect with you every day.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be like the vine in the branch.
Speaker 2: I want to bear fruit. I gotta stay connected. I
Speaker 2: gotta spend time with Jesus every day through prayer and meditation.
Speaker 2: There's not going to be a day of my life
Speaker 2: that I don't spend some time with you. How can
Speaker 2: I have a relationship to God if I never spend
Speaker 2: any time with him? You say, I will connect, I
Speaker 2: will do that habit of daily connecting with God. I
Speaker 2: have a class on it, Class two oh one. Will
Speaker 2: you say I'm going to stop complaining and start being
Speaker 2: more grateful every day? Say God, I want to start
Speaker 2: every day with a list of ten, twelve, fifteen things.
Speaker 2: I just get up and start by being grateful, not grumpy,
Speaker 2: grateful not griping, grateful, not complaining, And then say God,
Speaker 2: I want to develop this habit of stop comparing myself
Speaker 2: and start being contented. Stop comparing, start being contented every day.
Speaker 3: Stop living my.
Speaker 2: Life for the approval of others, whether in the neighborhood,
Speaker 2: at school, or on the internet. Help me to be me,
Speaker 2: not somebody else. And God, I'm going to stop being
Speaker 2: stingy and start being generous every day, Generous with my
Speaker 2: words of praise, generous with my time, generous with my talent,
Speaker 2: generous with my treasure, generous in every area of my life.
Speaker 2: Maybe I need to start tithing Lord, just to trust
Speaker 2: you and your goodness. If you've never opened your life
Speaker 2: to Christ, say Jesus Christ, I want to learn to
Speaker 2: trust you. I'm tired of living an overwhelmed life. Don't
Speaker 2: want to live an overflowing life. Help me to do
Speaker 2: it your way because you are a good God and
Speaker 2: you want what's best for me. And I pray this
Speaker 2: in your name. Amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept
Speaker 1: Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. Right now, here's
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, today, I want to share a very powerful
Speaker 2: letter from a listener named Michael.
Speaker 3: Michael experienced terrible trauma.
Speaker 2: As a child, but he says that Daily Hope is
Speaker 2: helping him overcome his past and now he's looking to
Speaker 2: the future with his kids. Let me read you just
Speaker 2: a little bit of Michael's story. Dear Pastor Rick, you
Speaker 2: and Daily Hope have brought God into my life and
Speaker 2: it has saved me. I am a twenty nine year
Speaker 2: old father of five children, and I try my hardest
Speaker 2: to teach my children to know God and to love
Speaker 2: Jesus and how to pray. I do my best to
Speaker 2: be a good example and be worthy of all the
Speaker 2: good gifts that God has given to me. But you know,
Speaker 2: because of my childhood and the insecurities and abandonment issues
Speaker 2: that were created in my life from years of mental abuse,
Speaker 2: physical abuse, verbal abuse, and yes, even sexual abuse. I've
Speaker 2: always had a hard time trusting God. I woke up
Speaker 2: every day feeling unworthy, and I suffered from feelings of
Speaker 2: anxiety and depression, and I felt like God couldn't possibly
Speaker 2: love me because no one else had ever loved me.
Speaker 2: And I carried that pain inside of me for so long,
Speaker 2: craving for a close, better intimate relationship with God. Now
Speaker 2: listening to Daily Hope has helped me achieve.
Speaker 3: That and more.
Speaker 2: I'm not only better, but I'm now better for everybody
Speaker 2: else around me. Spreading all that I've learned and the
Speaker 2: good news of Jesus Christ. I know God better than
Speaker 2: ever and I now have more faith than I ever
Speaker 2: new possible because I feel His love.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Daily Hope does such a great work in the name
Speaker 2: of Jesus, and I will forever be in your debt
Speaker 2: for bringing the fire of faith into my heart and
Speaker 2: helping me know God. I love you, and I hope
Speaker 2: you continue to bring change in the world through the
Speaker 2: message of Jesus Christ. You know, Michael, I absolutely love
Speaker 2: how you're teaching your five kids to know Jesus that
Speaker 2: is a real man, a real dad, a real father.
Speaker 2: It's so important to pass it on to the next generation.
Speaker 2: And I'm encouraged that Daily Hope is helping you with
Speaker 2: the trauma of all your past and helping you work
Speaker 2: through those issues and keeping you growing in the love
Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ. You know, stories like the one you
Speaker 2: wrote to me are what keep me going. It's why
Speaker 2: we do this change lives now. I want to pray
Speaker 2: for you. I want to pray, Dear Lord, pour out
Speaker 2: your love on Michael, help him to sense your love
Speaker 2: so that he never doubts it. Pour out your blessing
Speaker 2: and your peace on his family. I pray that they
Speaker 2: will continue to grow in their faith and that they
Speaker 2: will experience the peace that passes understanding as they follow you.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you for his faithfulness in Jesus name.
Speaker 2: I pray Amen. You know if God is blessing you
Speaker 2: through Daily Hope, would you share your story with me?
Speaker 2: Write me rickat pastorick dot com.
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 support,