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 forty Days in the Word. In these messages, Pastor
Speaker 1: rickshare's practical Bible study tools that will reignite your passion
Speaker 1: for God's Word and revolutionize your life as you grow
Speaker 1: closer to Jesus. First, we're excited to let you know
Speaker 1: that very generous friends of Daily Hope have stepped forward
Speaker 1: with a special fifty thousand dollars matching grant that means
Speaker 1: any gift you give to help Daily Hope share God's
Speaker 1: Word with people everywhere will be doubled. So contact us
Speaker 1: right away. Go to Pastorick dot com or text the
Speaker 1: Word Daily to eight hundred, six hundred five thousand and four.
Speaker 1: Here's Pastor Rick Warren with part one of a message
Speaker 1: called how the Bible Changes Us.
Speaker 2: The Bible is unlike any other book. It's why we
Speaker 2: call it the Holy Bible. There are a lot of
Speaker 2: good books in the world. In fact, there are a
Speaker 2: lot of great books in the world, and there are
Speaker 2: some really super great books.
Speaker 3: I've been a reader all my life.
Speaker 2: I have a library over twenty thousand volumes some of
Speaker 2: them as old as four or five hundred years old,
Speaker 2: that I've been collecting since I was seventeen, and use
Speaker 2: bookstores in every city I went into in the world,
Speaker 2: and there are a lot of really good books. But
Speaker 2: this book is unlike any other book. It has a power,
Speaker 2: a supernatural power in it that no other book has
Speaker 2: to change lives. And the reason it has the power
Speaker 2: to change lives is because it is the Word of God.
Speaker 2: Last week we looked at the seven reasons we can
Speaker 2: know for certain that this is God's Word, That it's
Speaker 2: not just a human book, it's not just an ordinary book.
Speaker 2: It's not just a bunch of fairy tales, or for
Speaker 2: that matter, even just a history of Israel. That it
Speaker 2: is theoneustosis. The Bible calls it God breathed. And the
Speaker 2: reason why the Bible has the power to change our
Speaker 2: lives is because it's not just words in print. It's
Speaker 2: not just human ideas, it's not just pop psychology.
Speaker 3: It is the Word of God.
Speaker 2: Now, the word of God is the most powerful thing
Speaker 2: in the universe. In fact, the Bible says the entire
Speaker 2: universe was created by the word of God. God spoke
Speaker 2: it into existence, that God gave us the universe by
Speaker 2: simply speaking it and over and over again. God speaks
Speaker 2: and it happens. God speaks and it happens. You know,
Speaker 2: for thousands of years, scientists believed that the universe was
Speaker 2: infinite and that it was eternal, that it had no
Speaker 2: beginning and had no end. We know that's not true anymore,
Speaker 2: you know, Einstein and the theory of relativity, and then
Speaker 2: later the calculations of people like Stephen Hawkings and many
Speaker 2: others have proven we now know. Scientists widely accept that
Speaker 2: the universe had a definite beginning and has will have
Speaker 2: a definite end. We don't know when that's going to happen.
Speaker 2: But the Bible of course said that, you know, thousands
Speaker 2: of years ago that the Bible, the world was created,
Speaker 2: the universe is created, and that there will be an
Speaker 2: end to it, that God has other plans after the universe,
Speaker 2: and things like that. Now the scientists call the beginning
Speaker 2: of the universe the big Bang. I don't have a
Speaker 2: problem with that, you know, I don't have a problem
Speaker 2: with that. I mean, because wherever you got a big bang,
Speaker 2: you got a big banger. And the Bible says this
Speaker 2: Psalm thirty three six, The Lord merely spoke and the
Speaker 2: heavens were created. He breathed the word and all the
Speaker 2: stars were born. If you want to call that a
Speaker 2: big bang, that in the split seconds all those stars
Speaker 2: were spewed out all over. Fine, but I'm going to
Speaker 2: tell you behind that bang was the Word of God.
Speaker 2: It wouldn't have happened unless it just didn't happen. By well,
Speaker 2: it takes enormous amount of faith to believe it was
Speaker 2: just an accident.
Speaker 3: That something comes out of nothing.
Speaker 2: We disproved spontaneous generation back in you know past yurs
Speaker 2: Day and Curry and all these other guys that a
Speaker 2: doesn't things don't son't happen out of nothing. That when
Speaker 2: there is a cause and effect, there's the cause that
Speaker 2: creates the effect. So the Word of God spoke. And
Speaker 2: when you find the scriptures, the Bible says, God says,
Speaker 2: let there be light. Bam, there's light. God says, let
Speaker 2: there be this, and bam, there's that. And God says,
Speaker 2: let there be this, and over and over, and God
Speaker 2: speaks life into people. When Jesus was walking on the
Speaker 2: planet two thousand years ago, he brought people back to
Speaker 2: life simply by his word. These were widely seen miracles,
Speaker 2: not attested to by two or three people, but four
Speaker 2: or five hundred people at a time, sometimes thousands, in
Speaker 2: what the Bible calls multitudes would see Jesus speak and
Speaker 2: see people be healed, and see people be brought back
Speaker 2: to life, and things like that. This is the power
Speaker 2: of God's word. I don't have a power like that.
Speaker 2: You don't have a power like that because we're not God.
Speaker 2: But the power of God's word is God can create
Speaker 2: things and bring them into existence. That's enormous power. Jesus
Speaker 2: said that his words were more than just words, that
Speaker 2: they were spirit and life. The Bible says this, and
Speaker 2: John sixt' sixty three it says, the words I have
Speaker 2: spoken to you are spirit and they are life. In
Speaker 2: other words, when Jesus says when I talk, it's not
Speaker 2: his words. We're talking about spiritual power. We're talking about
Speaker 2: spiritual life. Things that can transform society, transform history, transform people,
Speaker 2: can do the impossible. Hebrews four twelve says it like this.
Speaker 2: The word of God is living and active. The word
Speaker 2: of God is actually a lie. It is living and active.
Speaker 2: The word living there in Greek is the word zoo zoo.
Speaker 2: We get the word zoo from it, or zoology. A
Speaker 2: girl's name Zoe comes from that. It means to live,
Speaker 2: and it says the Word of God is living. It
Speaker 2: is alive. It's not just words, and it is active.
Speaker 2: The Greek word there is the word inner goths or
Speaker 2: inner ghosts, which is the word we.
Speaker 3: Get energy from.
Speaker 2: It has energy, It has power to change things. The
Speaker 2: Bible says it is sharper than any double edged sword.
Speaker 2: It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
Speaker 2: It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Speaker 3: What's he's saying, He says.
Speaker 2: Sharper than any surgeon's skilled scalpel. The Word of God
Speaker 2: has the bariability to cut right to the heart of
Speaker 2: the issue. The ability of the Word of God has
Speaker 2: the ability to point out what's wrong in my life,
Speaker 2: what needs to be corrected in my life, and what
Speaker 2: I need, what I own. It's not a skill saw,
Speaker 2: it's not a chain saw. It's like a scalpel. It
Speaker 2: can do the fine work that needs to be done
Speaker 2: in my life. Is exactly what I need. Now, what
Speaker 2: do I need in my life? Well, I need the
Speaker 2: same thing in my life that you need in your life.
Speaker 2: What is that change the things in your life you
Speaker 2: don't like, things in your life that you don't want.
Speaker 3: There are things that you know.
Speaker 2: Need changing in your life, and you may have even
Speaker 2: tried to change them, but they haven't changed. The Bible
Speaker 2: says the word of God can change.
Speaker 3: Things that you cannot change on your own. D. L. Moody,
Speaker 3: who was a.
Speaker 2: Very famous pastor in Chicago one hundred years ago, said,
Speaker 2: the Bible wasn't given to increase our knowledge. The Bible
Speaker 2: was given to change our lives. And what I want
Speaker 2: us to do this weekend is look at seven specific
Speaker 2: ways God wants to change your life with his word.
Speaker 2: Seven changes that you want in your life that God says,
Speaker 2: if you'll invest your life in my word, it will
Speaker 2: change you. So how does the God's living word change me?
Speaker 2: You might write these down. There's seven reasons, seven ways.
Speaker 2: The first way that God's word changes me is it
Speaker 2: recreates my life. It recreates my life. What does that mean?
Speaker 2: It means when my life has fallen apart, when my
Speaker 2: life has gone to the dogs, when my life is
Speaker 2: I feel like it said at the end of the road.
Speaker 2: God comes in and recreates my life. He gives me
Speaker 2: a whole new life. He gives me a fresh start.
Speaker 2: He lets me begin again. The Bible calls it being
Speaker 2: born again. It's that dramatic. Born again is simply meaning
Speaker 2: you get a whole new life. You don't turn over
Speaker 2: a new leaf. You get a whole new life. You
Speaker 2: get to start over slatest clean Now. The Bible says
Speaker 2: in James one eighteen, he chose to give us birth
Speaker 2: through the word of Truth. Notice that this spiritual birth,
Speaker 2: this salvation, comes through the word of Truth. You see,
Speaker 2: without the word of God, you couldn't be saved. I
Speaker 2: couldn't be saved Without the word of God. We wouldn't
Speaker 2: be headed for heaven. Why, we wouldn't even know there
Speaker 2: was a heaven. If it wasn't for this book. We
Speaker 2: wouldn't know about Jesus dying the cross. We wouldn't know
Speaker 2: how to trust him. We wouldn't know that God has
Speaker 2: a purpose for our lives. We wouldn't know any of
Speaker 2: the things that we need to know in order to
Speaker 2: get to know God. Without his word. God is not silent.
Speaker 2: God has chosen to reveal himself because he wants us
Speaker 2: to know him. God knows everything about us. He wants
Speaker 2: us to know about him. Paul told Timothy and two
Speaker 2: Timothy three point fifteen. He says, you know from a child,
Speaker 2: you have known the Holy scriptures, which you're able to
Speaker 2: make you wise under salvation.
Speaker 3: It's this book that's going to show you the path
Speaker 3: to Heaven.
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: You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional
Speaker 1: at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 4: Pastor Rick says, the Bible isn't meant to just inform us,
Speaker 4: It's meant to transform us. That's why it's so important
Speaker 4: to study God's Word. Maybe you've never studied the Bible
Speaker 4: and you don't even know where to start. Or maybe
Speaker 4: you read the Bible every day, but you're not getting
Speaker 4: all God has for you out of the time you
Speaker 4: spend with him. That's why Pastor Rick created a very
Speaker 4: special Bible study called forty Days in the Word. This
Speaker 4: life changing resource will ignite your passion for God's Word
Speaker 4: and revolutionize your relationship with Jesus. The Forty Days in
Speaker 4: the Word Study Kid includes six videos, sessions on DVD,
Speaker 4: and a two hundred and six page, two color work book.
Speaker 4: In the workbook, you'll find six easy to learn methods
Speaker 4: for reading and meditating on Scripture. These are the very
Speaker 4: methods faster Rick uses in his own personal daily quiet time.
Speaker 4: You'll also find interactive journaling pages and Bible verse cards
Speaker 4: with the twenty Bible versus every Believer should Memorize. There's
Speaker 4: even a special section called how can we know the
Speaker 4: Bible came from God? And a guide for choosing which
Speaker 4: translation of the Bible is right for you. Will send
Speaker 4: you a copy of The Forty Days in the Word
Speaker 4: Study Kid to say thanks for your gift to help
Speaker 4: more people learn love and live God's Word through Daily Hope.
Speaker 4: By the way, right now, when you give a gift
Speaker 4: to Daily Hope to help take the Hope of Jesus
Speaker 4: to a hurting world, generous friends of Daily Hope are
Speaker 4: going to match your gift up to fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: But you only have till midnight on June thirtieth to
Speaker 4: make your gift go twice as far to pastor Rick
Speaker 4: dot com or call eight hundred six hundred at five
Speaker 4: zero zero four and as a special thank you, we'll
Speaker 4: send you the forty days in the word Bible steady kit. Again,
Speaker 4: that's Pastor Rick dot com or call eight hundred and
Speaker 4: six hundred five zero zero four.
Speaker 1: Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: Now, the Bible is often compared to a seed. We
Speaker 2: talked about this a couple of weeks ago, that it's
Speaker 2: like a seed planet in your life. And once it
Speaker 2: takes root in your heart, it begins to sprout, it
Speaker 2: begins to grow, and then it begins to bear fruit,
Speaker 2: and then you see all these changes for the good
Speaker 2: in your life. The Bible says it like this one
Speaker 2: Peter one twenty three, You have been born again, not
Speaker 2: of perishable seed, but of imperishable, in other words, eternal,
Speaker 2: through the living and enduring Word of God. You might
Speaker 2: circle that living and enduring the Word of God is
Speaker 2: not just words. It is alive, the living and enduring
Speaker 2: Word of God. And so we, as James says, humbly,
Speaker 2: accept the word planeted you, which can save you. So
Speaker 2: it starts off by recreating my life, but it's got
Speaker 2: a lot more to do than that.
Speaker 3: Let me give you the others. Number two.
Speaker 2: The second thing that the Word of God can do
Speaker 2: in my life is it eradicates my guilt.
Speaker 3: This is a big one.
Speaker 2: I don't have to live have any guilt anymore in
Speaker 2: my life. I don't have to go around with regrets
Speaker 2: in my life. I don't have to go around with
Speaker 2: shame in my life. Most people are stuck with memories
Speaker 2: from the past. They can't seem to get over either
Speaker 2: people who've hurt them and they have resentment, or they've
Speaker 2: hurt others and they have guilt. Did you know that
Speaker 2: God doesn't want you going through life caring a baggage
Speaker 2: of guilt in your life? Did you know that God
Speaker 2: wants you to be free from guilt? And did you
Speaker 2: know that the Bible was given so you could become
Speaker 2: guilt free? That God uses the word to eradicate your guilt.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget. Many many years ago, I was in
Speaker 2: another city and at the end of a service I
Speaker 2: had spoken and a young woman came up to me
Speaker 2: and she just began to pour out a really sad
Speaker 2: story and all of the bad mistakes she'd made with
Speaker 2: her life, and she was distraught she was weeping profusely,
Speaker 2: and she was saying, I feel so guilty, and she
Speaker 2: was literally sobbing with these deep heaves. I feel so guilty.
Speaker 2: And I said, have you got a minute for me
Speaker 2: to show you what the Bible says, what God's word
Speaker 2: says about guilt.
Speaker 3: And I began to take her through scripture after scripture.
Speaker 2: On John chapter one, verse nine, if we confess our
Speaker 2: sins to God, He's faithful and just to forgive us
Speaker 2: and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I call that the
Speaker 2: soap dish verse. God says, I'm gonna give you a bath.
Speaker 2: I'm not only gonna just forgive you, I'm gonna wipe
Speaker 2: it out. We're gonna get rid of all of dirt
Speaker 2: in your life. That's a cleaning verse. That's a disinfecting verse.
Speaker 2: And I took it to verses like Romans eight, verse
Speaker 2: one that says there's now no condemnation. That means none, zero,
Speaker 2: zip none. There is no condemnation for those who are
Speaker 2: in Christ. Jesus, you mean all the things I've done
Speaker 2: wrong in my life, God's not gonna punish.
Speaker 3: Me for it. Nope.
Speaker 2: Why because Jesus already took that punishment on the cross.
Speaker 2: What about the sins I commit tomorrow? Those two no condemnation.
Speaker 2: That is such a guilt reliever, that is such a
Speaker 2: shame reducer, that is such a regret elimination and eradicator.
Speaker 2: The Bible was given to cleanse our lives from guilt.
Speaker 2: Let me show you a couple verses Ephesians chapter five,
Speaker 2: Verse twenty five or twenty six. Christ loved the church
Speaker 2: and he gave himself up for her to make her holy,
Speaker 2: cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.
Speaker 2: Circle that phrase, through the word. What is he saying
Speaker 2: is that when I take the word of God and
Speaker 2: I fill my mind with it, it washes my mind,
Speaker 2: it washes my body. It cleanses the dirt, the junk,
Speaker 2: the grime, the grit, the shame, the sin, all out
Speaker 2: of my life. That's what God's word does. It makes
Speaker 2: me clean inside. It is the spiritual cleansing, so my
Speaker 2: guilt is eradicated. Jesus once told the twelve followers his
Speaker 2: disciples this John fifteen three. You are all ready clean
Speaker 2: because of the word I have spoken to you. There
Speaker 2: is a cleansing power in this book that when I
Speaker 2: read it, it removes the guilt out of my life
Speaker 2: by teaching me the truth. So the Word of God
Speaker 2: can recreate my life and it can eradicate my guilt.
Speaker 2: Number three, this is a big one. It activates my faith.
Speaker 2: It not only eliminates or eradicates my guilt, it activates
Speaker 2: my faith. And that is so important because it gives
Speaker 2: me confidence. You know, I've discovered today most people are
Speaker 2: not confident. Most people are not courageous. Most people are
Speaker 2: flat out scared to death. They're afraid to take risks.
Speaker 2: They're fear of failure, they're afraid of dying. They're filled
Speaker 2: with all kinds of fears. They're not walking confidently because
Speaker 2: they're not people of faith. Now, faith is word activated.
Speaker 2: The Bible says this Romans ten seventeen. Faith comes from
Speaker 2: hearing the message, and the message is heard through the
Speaker 2: Word of Christ. Now, if you've ever read a verse
Speaker 2: in the Bible and all of a sudden it hits you,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden you thought, I can do this,
Speaker 2: I can do this, you have just had your faith
Speaker 2: activated by the word of God. If you've ever been
Speaker 2: in a service where Pastor Tom or I or some
Speaker 2: other pastor was teaching, or you've been in a Bible
Speaker 2: study and you heard the word of God and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden you thought, I can do this, I
Speaker 2: can do all things that Christ you strength to me.
Speaker 2: You just had your faith activated by the word of God.
Speaker 2: See this is the difference between the Bible and self
Speaker 2: help books. Self help books often tell you some good stuff.
Speaker 2: They can tell you the right thing to do, they
Speaker 2: just don't give you the power.
Speaker 4: To do it.
Speaker 2: I mean, you read a self help book says now,
Speaker 2: if you really want to succeed in life, you need
Speaker 2: to stop worrying. Oh that's helpful. Okay, give up all
Speaker 2: your bad helbits. Oh that's too And it'll tell you
Speaker 2: all the right things to do. And they're right about
Speaker 2: a number of those things. Stop thinking it's on negatively,
Speaker 2: But you don't know how to stop it. You don't
Speaker 2: have the power because those books aren't living. They're not alive.
Speaker 2: But the power of God's word is. It not only
Speaker 2: shows you what to do, it gives you the power
Speaker 2: to do it, and it increases your faith. When I
Speaker 2: read these thousands of promises in the Bible where God says,
Speaker 2: if you do this and this, I will do this,
Speaker 2: this and this that increases my expectation. It gives me confidence.
Speaker 2: You know, some of you know this story that at
Speaker 2: the end of the first year of Saddleback Church, when
Speaker 2: Kay and I started the church in nineteen eighty at
Speaker 2: the end of the first year, I was standing up
Speaker 2: speaking and I fainted. I just passed out, and I
Speaker 2: went into a period of depression. It was literally my burnout.
Speaker 2: I had my midlife crisis at age twenty five. You know,
Speaker 2: I wanted to get it over early, so when I
Speaker 2: hit my forties, I just went right through it. But
Speaker 2: I was working so hard and working eighteen hours a
Speaker 2: day and loving every minute of it and not taking
Speaker 2: time off, and I just burnt out physically, emotionally, spiritually.
Speaker 2: And during nineteen eighty one, for that entire month, I
Speaker 2: was depressed for the entire year. It's like I was
Speaker 2: walking around with a cloud over my head and I
Speaker 2: really didn't know how to get out of it. And
Speaker 2: I was doing everything I could, but I was just
Speaker 2: going to keep moving forward. You know, as I've said,
Speaker 2: many times, what do you do when you're going through hell?
Speaker 2: You keep going. You don't want to stay there, You
Speaker 2: certainly don't want to make camp You don't park in hell.
Speaker 2: When you're going through hell, you just keep going. And
Speaker 2: so my prayer was not, Oh, God, do something really
Speaker 2: great in my life. My prayer was God, get me
Speaker 2: through the weekend. And I just kept doing that. But
Speaker 2: during that time I was learning things that was preparing
Speaker 2: me in that year of darkness.
Speaker 3: Prayer me to.
Speaker 2: Handle enormous levels of stress that would break most people,
Speaker 2: and to be able to manage all kinds of balls
Speaker 2: at the same time. I learned some skills and some
Speaker 2: character development there I would have never learned if I
Speaker 2: hadn't gone through a year depression, because during that your depression.
Speaker 3: I was forced to read this book, and I was.
Speaker 2: Reading it and reading it and reading it and reading
Speaker 2: it and reading it because I needed my faith activated.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. If you've missed any
Speaker 1: part of this message, or if you'd like to find
Speaker 1: out more about Pastor Rick Warren in this ministry, just
Speaker 1: visit Pastorick dot com, where you can listen online anytime.
Speaker 1: That's Pastor Rick with two rs in Thethemiddle dot com,
Speaker 1: and be sure to sign up for Rick's free daily
Speaker 1: email devotional. While you're there, Rick will be back to
Speaker 1: close out our time today. But first we have some
Speaker 1: really exciting news. Generous friends of Daily Hope have offered
Speaker 1: a fifty thousand dollars matching grant. Here's Rick to tell
Speaker 1: you more.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, thanks so much for listening today. You know,
Speaker 2: my hope is that God uses this broadcast to help
Speaker 2: deepen your relationship with Jesus. Now, these Daily Hope messages
Speaker 2: are distributed on radio stations and digital platforms all across
Speaker 2: the globe, and listeners are writing and letting us know
Speaker 2: that their lives are being changed. They're telling us that
Speaker 2: they're walking with Jesus and that guilt and fear has
Speaker 2: been chased from their lives by God's love. You know,
Speaker 2: relationships are being restored and marriages are being healed, and
Speaker 2: many people are saying that they've found their life purpose.
Speaker 2: I want to say thank you to you, because we're
Speaker 2: only able to carry the hope of Jesus to these
Speaker 2: people all around the world because of gifts from generous
Speaker 2: listeners like you. I just wanted to say I am
Speaker 2: so grateful for your prayers and your financial support. Now,
Speaker 2: I understand in times like these, many of you are
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Speaker 2: because I never want anybody to give unless God leads
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Speaker 3: Throughout the whole world. I love you so much.
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Speaker 1: God's Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored
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