Speaker 2: Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. I'm
Speaker 1: really glad you're here today. We're continuing our series from
Speaker 1: 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. Let's
Speaker 1: jump right in and take a look at part three
Speaker 1: of a message called letting God Meet My Needs.
Speaker 2: You remember when you were a little kid, your parents
Speaker 2: would go on an outing. You go on a picnic
Speaker 2: or a hike, or you know, you go hunting or fishing,
Speaker 2: or you go to Disneyland, and at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, your little legs are so tired. Mom or
Speaker 2: Dad has to carry you out to the car because
Speaker 2: you're just pooped out. Your legs give out as a
Speaker 2: little kid, and that's what happens during the week sometimes,
Speaker 2: and you say, God, I am just pooped out, I
Speaker 2: am worn out. I don't think I can put one
Speaker 2: foot in front of the use. I need you to
Speaker 2: carry me right now, carry me the car, take me home,
Speaker 2: get me home. And he says, I'm your shepherd, I'll
Speaker 2: care for you, I'll bless you. I'll protect you, I'll
Speaker 2: save you, I'll guide you, I'll direct you, I'll discipline
Speaker 2: you when you need it, I'll defend you. I will
Speaker 2: do all of these things. And when you're worn out
Speaker 2: and you're tired, and you can't put one foot in
Speaker 2: front of the others, I'll carry you. Just hop on
Speaker 2: and I'll take you. I'll take you to the car.
Speaker 2: I'll take you home. That's what you do every day.
Speaker 2: Ask him to be on my shepherd. Number two. Second
Speaker 2: is very important. I give him Jesus first place in
Speaker 2: every area of my life. This is extremely important that
Speaker 2: I give Jesus first place in every area of my life. Now,
Speaker 2: if you're a believer, you've given him first place in
Speaker 2: your life. Said, I want you to be number one.
Speaker 2: But there's different parts of your life that are not
Speaker 2: under his control. And when you say Jesus, come into
Speaker 2: my house, you need to say have the whole house.
Speaker 2: You got access to the bedroom, you got access to
Speaker 2: the bathroom, you got to ask access to the kitchen.
Speaker 2: In my life, you got access to that closet over
Speaker 2: there where I've got all kinds of stuff hidden. You
Speaker 2: got access to the garage, to the living room, to
Speaker 2: the dining room. It's all yours, Jesus, take over the
Speaker 2: whole house. Have you ever said that? Not? Yeah, God,
Speaker 2: I want you to just get me to heaven. I
Speaker 2: want you to be number one every area of my life.
Speaker 2: The Bible says this, Matthew six, verse thirty one thirty three.
Speaker 2: Your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well what you need.
Speaker 2: Let me stop right there. Your heavenly Father perfectly knows
Speaker 2: already what you need. So any need you mentioned to God,
Speaker 2: he already knows. Someday, I'm going to do a message
Speaker 2: called phrases. You'll never hear God say like oops. You
Speaker 2: know you never want to hear a surgeon say that
Speaker 2: when you're laying on a table. Oops. God never says oops.
Speaker 2: God never says well, I didn't know that. Well, slap me.
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't see that one coming. I didn't
Speaker 2: see that one coming. God will never say that. God
Speaker 2: knows your needs better than you do. You got needs.
Speaker 2: You don't even know you've got needs. God says, man,
Speaker 2: that's a big need. That's a big need in their lives.
Speaker 2: They don't even see it. They're blind to it. They
Speaker 2: got a blind spot. They have no idea, how many
Speaker 2: needs they've got. God knows your needs better than you do.
Speaker 2: So anytime you come to God with the deeds, he's
Speaker 2: not gonna go whoah. I never saw that one coming.
Speaker 2: He knew it before he made you. God, listen, allows
Speaker 2: needs in your life so you'll come to him so
Speaker 2: he can answer that need, so you'll trust him. We
Speaker 2: looked at that circle last week. You get a need
Speaker 2: and then you ask God to meet that need. You
Speaker 2: cry out, God meets that need, and then you trust
Speaker 2: God more and you do that circle thousands of times.
Speaker 2: That's how you learn to trust God. If you didn't
Speaker 2: have needs, you'd never trust God. So God allows needs
Speaker 2: in your life so you can learn to trust him.
Speaker 2: But he says, I already know what you need before
Speaker 2: you even ask. And he says, and he will not
Speaker 2: might he will give you what you need if here's
Speaker 2: the condition. If you give him first place in your
Speaker 2: life and you live as he wants you to. So
Speaker 2: you give God first place in every area of your life. Now,
Speaker 2: let me just tell you something. Anytime you worry, that
Speaker 2: is a warning light that that particular area of your
Speaker 2: life you have not given him first place. Every time
Speaker 2: you worry. You go, Oh, that's an area where God's
Speaker 2: not number one. Any area of your life where God
Speaker 2: is not number one, you're going to worry about it.
Speaker 2: Any area of your life where God's not number one,
Speaker 2: that's going to be a source of insecurity in your life,
Speaker 2: your job, or anything else. Any area in your life
Speaker 2: that is not under the lordship of Christ is not
Speaker 2: given first place to God, that's going to be a
Speaker 2: constant source of worry and insecurity your entire life. So
Speaker 2: if nothing first God is first place in no where
Speaker 2: of your life, you got everything to be worried about.
Speaker 2: You might hold on to a couple of airs. God,
Speaker 2: you can have the whole house, but don't have the bedroom,
Speaker 2: Then you're gonna worry about that area. God, you can
Speaker 2: have every air of the house except the kitchen, then
Speaker 2: you're gonna worry about that area. It's the sign that
Speaker 2: he's not number one. It's an indication that you've got
Speaker 2: mixed up values. When you make Jesus Christ number one
Speaker 2: in every single area of your life, it really simplifies
Speaker 2: your priorities and it also gives you a whole lot
Speaker 2: less to worry about. See, when it's given to God,
Speaker 2: then you don't have to worry about it. Too often
Speaker 2: we worry about things. We worry about physical possessions, and
Speaker 2: it's just like that. If you have fewer possessions, you
Speaker 2: have lest you know, I never, never, never, never, never
Speaker 2: worry about getting barnacles on my yacht because I don't
Speaker 2: have a yacht, So I've never never worried about how
Speaker 2: am I going to get those barnacles off that yacht.
Speaker 2: I don't have to worry about it because my life
Speaker 2: is simplified and the things that are in my life,
Speaker 2: I've given them to God. Now, as long as you
Speaker 2: love anything else in your life more than God, that
Speaker 2: area is going to become a source of worry to you.
Speaker 2: Just count on it. It's going to become a source
Speaker 2: of stress and a source of insecurity if God. If
Speaker 2: you love it more than God, you're going to be
Speaker 2: victimized by worry and anxiety. And eventually everybody has to decide,
Speaker 2: you and me and everybody else what am I going
Speaker 2: to live for? And who am I going to live for?
Speaker 2: And whatever that answer is becomes your lord. Some of you,
Speaker 2: your job is your lord. For some of you, your
Speaker 2: marriage your lord. For some of you, your children, is
Speaker 2: your Lord. Those are all good things, nothing wrong with it,
Speaker 2: They just don't deserve God's place. And when anything takes
Speaker 2: place God, that's called an idol. And it creates stress,
Speaker 2: and it creates worry, and it creates insecurity. You know,
Speaker 2: one of the things we worry about the most, of course,
Speaker 2: is money. What I've discovered is it no matter how
Speaker 2: much or how little you've got about it, you still
Speaker 2: worry about it. You know, I've been in one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty four countries and I've seen the poorest of
Speaker 2: the poor, of the poor of the poorest of the poor.
Speaker 2: And on the other hand, I know a number of
Speaker 2: billionaires and multi multi billionaires. You know, I've discovered it
Speaker 2: both ends. They both worry about money. And if you
Speaker 2: don't have it, you worry about getting it. If you've
Speaker 2: got it, you're worrying about keeping it, saving it, spending it,
Speaker 2: investing it, protecting it. And God says, I don't know
Speaker 2: what you're worrying about. That I'll take care of all
Speaker 2: your needs. So every day I ask Jesus to be
Speaker 2: my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Say it fifty
Speaker 2: times a day, and then I give him first place
Speaker 2: in every area of my life. Here's the third thing.
Speaker 2: This is the third thing God wants to say to you.
Speaker 2: And we're going to cover this more in detail. And
Speaker 2: next week. Relax, Relax and give him my worries in prayer.
Speaker 2: God wants you to relax. He wants you to give
Speaker 2: him your worries in prayer. And you say, Jesus, just
Speaker 2: take these things I'm worried about, and you just hand
Speaker 2: them over to him. You know, last week we talked
Speaker 2: about counting your blessings. I said, you know, look at
Speaker 2: all the things God has done for you in your
Speaker 2: life that are good. I said, make a list. Make
Speaker 2: a list of all the good things God's done for you.
Speaker 2: And when you start getting down, pull out that list
Speaker 2: and read, Wow, God, it really has been good to me.
Speaker 2: The freedom I have. I have a brain, I can see,
Speaker 2: I can hear all of the many things that you
Speaker 2: take for granted. So you make a list of blessings.
Speaker 2: But sometimes you know what you need to do. You
Speaker 2: need to make a list of worries. And he said,
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes you have a sense of I just
Speaker 2: feel anxious. I have this general anxiety. I feel a
Speaker 2: little uptight, a little nervous, and I don't really know
Speaker 2: what's causing it. Well, you can just say, God, I
Speaker 2: give you my generalized worry. But it's even better to
Speaker 2: stop and go, what is it that's really bugging me?
Speaker 2: Am I worried that somebody's going to disapprove of me?
Speaker 2: Then you write that down. Am I worried that I'm
Speaker 2: going to be rejected? And you write that down. Am
Speaker 2: I worried that I'm going to be insecure and not
Speaker 2: have enough? You write that down. Am I worried that
Speaker 2: I'm going to be lonely the rest of my life?
Speaker 2: You write that down. You write them all down, and
Speaker 2: then you give God your worries to say, here's the list, Lord,
Speaker 2: here's some stuff that's on my mind day. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to keep them. I'm going to give them to you.
Speaker 2: Notice this next verse one Peter five seven. Give all
Speaker 2: your worries and cares to God. In other words, don't
Speaker 2: stuff them. He cares about what happens to you. Just
Speaker 2: give them to Not You weren't made. Remember your it's
Speaker 2: unnatural to worry, so you shouldn't swallow your worries. When
Speaker 2: you swallow your worries, your stomach keep scores. I just said,
Speaker 2: and so you need when you are worried, it doesn't
Speaker 2: work to try to deny it or ignore it, like
Speaker 2: push it down. I'm not worried. I'm not worried. I'm
Speaker 2: not worried. I'm not worried. That doesn't work because in
Speaker 2: your mind it's going, yeah, you're worried, Yeah, you're worried, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're worried. Yeah, you're worried, and you keep pushing it
Speaker 2: out of the way, and it's like putting it under
Speaker 2: the carpet, and then the carpet pile gets bigger and
Speaker 2: bigger and you start stumbling over it. Now, when you
Speaker 2: are worried, don't repress it, push it down, don't suppress it,
Speaker 2: deny it. I'm not worried. Yeah you are. Don't repress it,
Speaker 2: don't suppress it. Express it to God, Confess it to God,
Speaker 2: and say God, here's my list of worries. If you
Speaker 2: try to push down the worries in your life, you're
Speaker 2: gonna get sick. It's like taking a can of coke,
Speaker 2: shaking it all up real violently and then putting it
Speaker 2: in the freezer. What's going to happen to that cann
Speaker 2: of coke? It's gonna explode. It's gonna expand it's gonna explode,
Speaker 2: and it's gonna come out sideways, and it'll come out
Speaker 2: sideways in your life, in a broken relationship, an explosion
Speaker 2: at work in all these other areas when we take
Speaker 2: so much worry onto ourselves and eventually it comes out.
Speaker 2: So you relax and you give him your worries and
Speaker 2: you just say, God, hear, are the things I'm worried about? Now?
Speaker 2: You remember earlier we read that verse where Jesus said,
Speaker 2: you know, don't worry about anything. I'm going to meet
Speaker 2: your needs. Well, right before that he had said this,
Speaker 2: look up on the screen, Matthew six point thirty two.
Speaker 2: He says, for the people who don't know God, the unbeliever,
Speaker 2: the people who don't know God, they run after all
Speaker 2: these things. He said, you know, do I look good?
Speaker 2: Do I feel good? Do I have the goods I'm
Speaker 2: going to live in the good life? Do I have
Speaker 2: the clothes? Do you have the food? Do I have
Speaker 2: the appearance? You have the car? Have the right jewelry?
Speaker 2: Do I have accessorizing myself? And all these different things.
Speaker 2: So the people who don't know God run after all
Speaker 2: these things. Now, I don't have to go into this
Speaker 2: because you know what, people are running after material goods,
Speaker 2: keeping up with the joneses, all those They run after
Speaker 2: all these things. You know, it's interesting. I looked up
Speaker 2: this word run says these people who don't know God
Speaker 2: run after these things. It actually means in Greek frantically seeking,
Speaker 2: frantically seeking materialism, you know, passions, pleasures, possessions, the frantically seeking.
Speaker 2: It's scurrying to get about. When I think of this
Speaker 2: verse date run after these things, I think of shopping
Speaker 2: crowds at the mall on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. They're
Speaker 2: running after these things. I'm afraid I'm not gonna get
Speaker 2: the deal, and there's a limited number of items on sale.
Speaker 2: So I got to get there, and I got to
Speaker 2: elbow you and push you, he says. Unbelievers, people who
Speaker 2: don't know God, they're like this. They're frantic, get get,
Speaker 2: get grabbing, he said, they run after all these things.
Speaker 2: They're hurrying and scurrying all the time. I want you
Speaker 2: to write this down. Hurry creates worry. Hurry creates worry.
Speaker 2: And the faster you go in life, the more likely
Speaker 2: you are to worry. You need to slow down. You
Speaker 2: need to relax. You need to take a little bit
Speaker 2: slower pace. Hurry creates worry. Hurrying, and if you're hurrying
Speaker 2: and scurrying, you're going to end up worrying. Now, the
Speaker 2: Bible says this, we looked at the first earlier, but
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go back to on the screen Philippians four,
Speaker 2: verses six and seven. It says this, don't worry about anything. Instead,
Speaker 2: pray about everything. Don't panic, pray, tell God about all
Speaker 2: your needs. That's give it to God and thank him
Speaker 2: for all He's done for you. If you do this,
Speaker 2: If you do this, you'll experience God's peace. God's peace,
Speaker 2: not your own peace, God's peace, which is far more
Speaker 2: wonderful than the human mind can understand. The Bible calls
Speaker 2: this the peace that passes understanding. What is the peace
Speaker 2: that passes understanding. It's when you're at peace and you
Speaker 2: have no logical, rational reason to be at peace. I
Speaker 2: just lost my job. Somehow I'm at peace about it.
Speaker 2: Why the Lord is my shepherd. You just got the
Speaker 2: dreaded word and report from the doctor it's cancer. For
Speaker 2: some reason, I got peace about it. Why peace that
Speaker 2: passes understanding? Because the Lord is my shepherd. I just
Speaker 2: found out some bad news that a dear friend of
Speaker 2: mine just died. Somehow I'm at peace about it in
Speaker 2: my heart. Why. Because the Lord is my shepherd. He
Speaker 2: feeds and he leads and he meets my needs. That's
Speaker 2: the peace that understand it. And that's a witness to
Speaker 2: the world. And people go, man, I want to be
Speaker 2: like that guy. I'm going to be like that woman.
Speaker 2: She's at peace in the middle of chaos. Anybody can
Speaker 2: be at peace when you're out fishing, you know. But
Speaker 2: if if you're at peace in the middle of chaos,
Speaker 2: that's the peace that passes understanding. He says, don't worry
Speaker 2: about God's peace. Will will give you what you need.
Speaker 2: So every day I start the day, and throughout the day,
Speaker 2: I say, the Lord is my shepherd. I ask you
Speaker 2: to be my shepherd. Then I give him first place
Speaker 2: in every area of my life, not just this area,
Speaker 2: but every single compartment of my life. And then I relax.
Speaker 2: And every time a worry comes up, I say, the
Speaker 2: Lord's my shepherd, and I give that worry to God.
Speaker 2: I don't hold on to it, and I don't think
Speaker 2: I got to think about it. Later, I said, God,
Speaker 2: take that one. I don't have time to think about
Speaker 2: that worry. Take that worry. God, Take that worry. God,
Speaker 2: and you just keep loading them on. He can handle it.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I am encouraged after
Speaker 1: that message. And let's keep the encouragement going with a
Speaker 1: letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: Here's Rick. You know I love hearing from Daily Hope
Speaker 2: listeners like you, And here's one note that I got
Speaker 2: from Raymond in New York, Your pastor, Rick, I'd like
Speaker 2: you to know how much I appreciate the Daily Hope broadcast.
Speaker 2: The nuggets that I get I share with my lunch
Speaker 2: group at work, and my family benefits as well, because
Speaker 2: at dinner time, my wife and my son hear the
Speaker 2: nugget that I learned during the day and we discuss it.
Speaker 2: It's awesome. Well, let me just say this, Raymond, thanks
Speaker 2: for writing me, and thanks for sharing your story. You
Speaker 2: encouraged me just now. I'm happy to hear that you're
Speaker 2: sharing Daily Hope with your co workers and with your family.
Speaker 2: If God has used this broadcast in your life, would
Speaker 2: you let me know about it and tell your story.
Speaker 2: It'll be good for you. It'll be good for me,
Speaker 2: and it'll be good for all the others who hear it.
Speaker 2: I love you, and I thank God for you. And
Speaker 2: join me next time as we continue to look into
Speaker 2: God's word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: Now, if you'd like to let Rick know how much
Speaker 1: this broadcast has blessed you, please feel free to send
Speaker 1: him an email. He loves it. Send it to Rick
Speaker 1: at pastorrick dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's.
Speaker 2: Word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: This program is sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries and your
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