Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. This is Pastor Rigg'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. And
Speaker 1: now here's part two of a message called from Overwhelmed
Speaker 1: to Overflowing.
Speaker 2: Now, how do I experience an overflowing life? For daily habits?
Speaker 2: Write these down very quickly. If you'll do these, they
Speaker 2: will change your life. Here's the first habit for living
Speaker 2: an overflowing life and stop living an overwhelmed life. Number one,
Speaker 2: stay connected to Jesus every day. You got to stay
Speaker 2: connected to Jesus every day. In John chapter fifteen, verse five,
Speaker 2: Jesus compares this to like a grapevine, and he says this,
Speaker 2: I am the vine and you are the branches. If
Speaker 2: you stay connected to me, you'll produce a lot of fruit.
Speaker 2: But you can't do anything without me. I grew up
Speaker 2: in northern California, in the Wine country. Everybody had vineyards
Speaker 2: in their backyard, and every season I would harvest grapes
Speaker 2: and I learned something real quick. If a cluster of
Speaker 2: grapes happens to be on a branch that's been cut off,
Speaker 2: it dies. You can tag on, you can tie on
Speaker 2: grapes to dead branches, but if they've been cut off
Speaker 2: from the root, cut off from the branch, from the vine,
Speaker 2: they're gonna die.
Speaker 3: And the same thing is true with you.
Speaker 2: If you try to go through life on your own power,
Speaker 2: you're gonna be overwhelmed. But if you're connected to the vine,
Speaker 2: if you're plugged into Jesus, you're gonna have power.
Speaker 3: I've told you this before.
Speaker 2: A toaster cannot fulfill its purpose unless it's plugged into
Speaker 2: the power. And a vacuum cleaner cannot fulfill its purpose
Speaker 2: unless it's plugged into the power. And you, as a
Speaker 2: human being, as a woman, as a man, cannot fulfill
Speaker 2: your purpose unless you're plugged into the power. And if
Speaker 2: you're cut off like a great branch from the vine,
Speaker 2: you're gonna shrivel up and die. You're gonna be overwhelmed.
Speaker 2: He says you got to stay connected. He says you
Speaker 2: can do nothing without me. He said, I'm the energy,
Speaker 2: I'm the power. How do you stay connected? How do
Speaker 2: I stay connected Jesus on a daily basis, You spend
Speaker 2: some time with him. We talked about this in a
Speaker 2: previous message on having a banquet in the Bible. Then
Speaker 2: every day when you get up in the morning, you
Speaker 2: sit down, you read the Bible for a little bit.
Speaker 2: Let God talk to you. You talk to God. That's
Speaker 2: called prayer. You listen, you be quiet, You spend some time.
Speaker 2: If you want to have a relationship with anybody, you
Speaker 2: got to spend time with him. You can't have a
Speaker 2: relationship with your husband or your wife, or your best
Speaker 2: friend or God if you don't spend time with them.
Speaker 2: If you're not spending any time with God, you don't
Speaker 2: have a relationship with God. You have to have a relationship.
Speaker 2: You have to have proximity, and you have to have frequency.
Speaker 2: And the way you stay connected is to have that
Speaker 2: daily time alone with God, and then throughout the day
Speaker 2: you just review it and you go back over it.
Speaker 2: Jesus continued about this in John fifteen, verse seven. He
Speaker 2: says this, if you stay connected.
Speaker 3: To Me.
Speaker 2: And my words remain in you, you may ask, you
Speaker 2: may request, ask any request you like that's in prayer,
Speaker 2: and it will be granted.
Speaker 3: Circle that it will be granted. That's promise.
Speaker 2: My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings glory to
Speaker 2: my father. So stay connected, stay connected to my love,
Speaker 2: he says, you stay connected to my love when you
Speaker 2: obey me. I've told you this so that you will
Speaker 2: be filled with my joy. Yes, your cup of joy
Speaker 2: will overflow.
Speaker 3: There's that word.
Speaker 2: The overflowing life rather than overwhelmed. Life comes from being
Speaker 2: connected to God. That means you've got to spend time
Speaker 2: with him. Now circle the phrase my words remain in
Speaker 2: you says if you stay connected to me, you spend
Speaker 2: some time with me every day, and my word stays
Speaker 2: connected to you.
Speaker 3: How do you do that?
Speaker 2: There's a word for that in the Bible. It's called
Speaker 2: the word meditation. Now, when I say the word meditation,
Speaker 2: I'm not talking.
Speaker 3: About what most you're thinking of.
Speaker 2: If you're thinking about sitting in a lotus position with
Speaker 2: your hands out like this and you're going um and
Speaker 2: contemplating the lent in your navel or whatever, No, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: that's Eastern meditation. Okay, that's New Age meditation. Meditation simply
Speaker 2: means seriously thinking about God's word, what God has said.
Speaker 2: You get a verse, You read it and you think
Speaker 2: about it over and over and over. Question, how many
Speaker 2: of you know how to worry? Can I see your hands?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 2: If you know how to worry, you are already you
Speaker 2: pro at meditation. When you take a negative subject and
Speaker 2: you go over and over and over in your mind,
Speaker 2: that's called worry. When you take a verse from the
Speaker 2: Bible and you go over and over in your mind,
Speaker 2: that's called meditation. So if you are good at worrying,
Speaker 2: you're going to be great at meditation. You're already some
Speaker 2: of you are professional meditators and don't even know it.
Speaker 2: Instead of taking a worry or a fear or an anxiety,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about it over and over and over. How
Speaker 2: am I going to do that? Which leads to overwhelming?
Speaker 2: You take a verse from the Bible and you think
Speaker 2: about it over and over and over, and that leads
Speaker 2: to overflowing, big, big difference. One takes you down, one
Speaker 2: builds you up. He says, if you let my word
Speaker 2: remind remain in you. He noticed the promise, He says,
Speaker 2: I will. You may ask any request you like and
Speaker 2: it will be granted. WHOA, that's like a blank check
Speaker 2: for prayer. He said, well, wait a minute, Rick, I'm
Speaker 2: not seeing this in my life. I pray a lot
Speaker 2: and I don't see a lot of answers because you're
Speaker 2: not connected. When was the last time you spent an
Speaker 2: extended period of time just alone with God saying Hey, God,
Speaker 2: is there anything you want to tell me? When was
Speaker 2: the last time you were alone with God for more
Speaker 2: than two minutes? You're not connected, he says, You've been
Speaker 2: cut off from the vine, and no way you're gonna
Speaker 2: have any fruit in your life. You're not gonna be overflowing.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be overwhelming because you're not connected to me.
Speaker 2: The more connected you are, the more fruit you're gonna bear,
Speaker 2: the more success in your life, the more good fortune
Speaker 2: God says you're gonna have in your life.
Speaker 3: You gotta stay connected to me.
Speaker 2: It's a simple principle, but it's one that we overlook
Speaker 2: over and over and over. Now, let me give you
Speaker 2: a second key. Each of these steps get a little
Speaker 2: bit harder. Here's the second key to over prolga. First
Speaker 2: is stay connected on a daily basis to God, to Jesus.
Speaker 2: Number two, stop griping and start being grateful. Stop griping,
Speaker 2: stop grumbling, and start being grateful. Did you know that
Speaker 2: science has proven that each of these attitudes actually that
Speaker 2: the Bible talks about, are good and bad for your health.
Speaker 2: That complaining is a very, very unhealthy emotion for you.
Speaker 2: Griping is unhealthy for you, but gratitude. Study after study
Speaker 2: of study have shown gratitude is the healthiest emotion. You
Speaker 2: want to be healthy, learn gratitude. When you are grateful,
Speaker 2: it changes the chemistry of your brain. Studies have shown
Speaker 2: that when you are thankful, when you're grateful, it produces
Speaker 2: serotonin in your brain, it produces dopamine in your brain,
Speaker 2: and it produces oxytocin in your brain. Now, don't confuse
Speaker 2: that's not OxyContin. Oxytocin is the feel good hormone. When
Speaker 2: a husband and wife make love, it releases oxytocin in
Speaker 2: both of their lives. When a mother nurses her, it
Speaker 2: releases oxytocin.
Speaker 3: In both the mom and the infant.
Speaker 2: Studies have shown that if you pet a dog or
Speaker 2: a pet for thirty minutes, you pet the dog for
Speaker 2: thirty minutes, it releases oxytocin.
Speaker 3: In the dog and in you.
Speaker 2: You want this drug, You want this hormone, You want
Speaker 2: this chemical in your life, and one of the key
Speaker 2: things that's produced for smarts, for peace, and for happiness.
Speaker 2: Those chemicals dopamine, serotonin, and oxydosin happen every time you're grateful.
Speaker 2: So you got to get up in the morning, before
Speaker 2: you get out of bed, you make a list of
Speaker 2: ten things you're grateful. God, I'm grateful for air. God,
Speaker 2: I'm grateful for this bed. God, I'm grateful that I'm
Speaker 2: not in a war right now.
Speaker 3: God, And you just.
Speaker 2: Start and that will change the chemistry in your brain.
Speaker 2: Study after studies proven this. In fact, one study showed
Speaker 2: that if you try to make a list of ten
Speaker 2: things you're grateful for and you can't even think anything up,
Speaker 2: just think up. Trying to think of things to be
Speaker 2: grateful for changes the brain chemistry in your mind, even
Speaker 2: if you can't even think of anything, but just the
Speaker 2: attitude of trying to be grateful in your mind. Philippians
Speaker 2: two fourteen says this in the Bible. In everything you do,
Speaker 2: stay away from complaining and arguing. Hmm, because that's the
Speaker 2: exact exact opposite of gratitude. Let me ask you, what
Speaker 2: do you complain about? No, don't tell me. Second, don't
Speaker 2: don't tell me, Let me ask this. When you complain
Speaker 2: about something, how does that help you? Does that work
Speaker 2: out pretty good? Claim complain about the weather, does it
Speaker 2: change the weather? You complain about the way you look?
Speaker 2: Does that change the way you look? You complain about
Speaker 2: your spouse, or your children, or your job or anything.
Speaker 2: Complaining is a total waste of time. It's doing without doing.
Speaker 2: It's worthless. You should stop complaining and start being grateful.
Speaker 2: Stop grumbling, stop griping, and start being grateful because you're
Speaker 2: not going to feel better from complaining. Colossians two seven
Speaker 2: says this let your lives overflow. There's that word with
Speaker 2: thanksgiving for all God has done. I suggest that you
Speaker 2: start your day with gratitude for God. Well God has
Speaker 2: done for it and for others, and just go through that.
Speaker 2: In fact, did you know I read a study recently
Speaker 2: that if in the morning you get up and you
Speaker 2: send the first thing you do is you send an
Speaker 2: email of gratitude to somebody you love or somebody who's
Speaker 2: helped you, it actually lowers your stress for the rest
Speaker 2: of the day because of the chemicals that are released
Speaker 2: in your mind. It'll actually lower your stress. If you'll
Speaker 2: start your day with good news, not bad news. And
Speaker 2: if you actually start with gratitude, send the email a day.
Speaker 2: It will help you be healthier. First Thessalonians five eighteen.
Speaker 2: No matter what happens, always be thankful for this is
Speaker 2: God's will.
Speaker 3: For you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2: You have people come to me all the time and say,
Speaker 2: you know, Pastor Rick, I just want to know God's will.
Speaker 2: I just want to know what does God want me
Speaker 2: to do in marriage? What does he want me to
Speaker 2: do in my career? What does he want me to
Speaker 2: do with school? What does he want me to do?
Speaker 2: I just want to know God's will? Well, here it is.
Speaker 2: This is God's will for you that in everything you
Speaker 2: give thanks? Why would God teach you step two when
Speaker 2: you haven't done step one? You want to know God's
Speaker 2: will and who to marry? God saying, why don't you
Speaker 2: start with step one? Are you being grateful and everything?
Speaker 2: That's my will? That is my will? God says, do
Speaker 2: step one and then we'll move to step two, and
Speaker 2: then we'll move to step three, and then we'll move
Speaker 2: to step four.
Speaker 3: What is my will for you in every specific situation?
Speaker 2: But if you're not doing what I've already told you do.
Speaker 2: Why should I tell you step two? If I want
Speaker 2: to be living an overflowing life rather than an over life, I.
Speaker 3: First stay connected to Jesus. I make that a habit.
Speaker 2: Every day I spend time you can't get to know
Speaker 2: somebody you don't spend time with. And then number two,
Speaker 2: I stop griping and I start being grateful. All right,
Speaker 2: here's the third thing the Bible says to do. If
Speaker 2: you want to live an overwhelming life overflowing life, stop
Speaker 2: comparing and start being content. Stop comparing yourself to other
Speaker 2: people and start being content. Each of these gets a
Speaker 2: little bit harder. The Bible says, anytime I compare myself
Speaker 2: to anybody else that I'm foolish. It's a waste of energy.
Speaker 2: Anytime you see, God made you to be you. He
Speaker 2: doesn't want you to be anybody else. When you compare,
Speaker 2: you get envious, you get resentful, and you often start
Speaker 2: trying to copy somebody.
Speaker 3: Else, because wait a minute, I made you to be you.
Speaker 2: If you don't be you, who's going to be you.
Speaker 2: God has never made a clone. Human beings make clones.
Speaker 2: God only makes originals, even identical twins. They're different in
Speaker 2: thousands of ways. When you get to heaven, God isn't
Speaker 2: gonna say, why don't you more like your sister or
Speaker 2: your mom, or your dad or your brother, or why
Speaker 2: aren't you more like some famous person?
Speaker 3: He does, Wait a minute, I made you to be you.
Speaker 2: If you're not gonna be you, got you, Just go
Speaker 2: ahead and kill you right now, because we don't need
Speaker 2: too of anybody else. God wants you to be you,
Speaker 2: but comparing gets you in trouble. Look at this verse
Speaker 2: on the screen. Here's what the Bible says, Tewod Corinthians
Speaker 2: ten twelve. We do not make the mistake of comparing
Speaker 2: ourselves with others, because when we compare ourselves, we are foolish.
Speaker 2: I'm acting like a fool anytime I compare with anybody else. Now,
Speaker 2: there's two problems with comparing yourself to other people. And
Speaker 2: we do it all, you know, Americans, We've made this
Speaker 2: in indoor sport.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: We compare how we look. We compare our careers, we
Speaker 2: compare our grade point average, we compare academic ability, we
Speaker 2: compare our kids, We compare our spouse's shoot, we compare
Speaker 2: the green, how green the lawn is their's?
Speaker 3: Is greener than our lawn.
Speaker 2: And that just always causes you to be overwhelmed, not overflowing.
Speaker 2: God says, don't do it. It's foolish. And there are
Speaker 2: two reasons. One, you'll always find somebody in life who's
Speaker 2: doing a better job than you, and you're gonna get
Speaker 2: full of discouragement. They got more money, they've got more talent,
Speaker 2: they're better looking, and you get full of discouragement. Number two,
Speaker 2: you can always find somebody you're doing a better job then,
Speaker 2: and you get full of pride. Pride and discouragement will
Speaker 2: also set you on the bench. They take you out
Speaker 2: of the game. In fact, you don't even get in
Speaker 2: the game when you're full of pride or ego, or
Speaker 2: when you're full of discouragement or resentment because of somebody else. Now,
Speaker 2: Bible says, stop comparing and start being more contented, and
Speaker 2: you'll live an overflowing life. And yet today it's easier
Speaker 2: than in any other time in human history to compare
Speaker 2: yourself to other people. Why two words social media. It's
Speaker 2: right in your face every day if you're on social media,
Speaker 2: you see, oh look what they did, Oh look what
Speaker 2: they're wearing. Shoot, we compare what we do. We compare
Speaker 2: what we wear, We even compare what we eat.
Speaker 3: On social media.
Speaker 2: I've just got a caramel macchioto frappuccino cappuccino. Well I
Speaker 2: don't have one of those. I better run out and
Speaker 2: take a picture too of mine. So I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: get the caramel macchiato frappucino cappuccino al Pacino because that's
Speaker 2: the really exclusive one and you got to know the
Speaker 2: owner to get that.
Speaker 3: At Starbucks, you can tell.
Speaker 2: Those people don't even know about the Alpacino cappuccino frappuccino.
Speaker 2: But it's a good one and it makes me feel
Speaker 2: better because I posted on Instagram.
Speaker 3: Ha ha ha ha.
Speaker 2: And we do this all the time. It is so
Speaker 2: easy because of social media to get start stuck in
Speaker 2: staging your so called pretend perfect life. Everybody knows you
Speaker 2: don't have a perfect life. We know it, you know it,
Speaker 2: and you know everybody else doesn't. But on social media,
Speaker 2: everybody's trying to put their best foot forward, and we
Speaker 2: were living for the approval of other people. Like, oh man,
Speaker 2: I haven't posted in a day, I'd better put something
Speaker 2: out there so people will think it's the fear of
Speaker 2: missing out fomo, the fear of missing I'd better get
Speaker 2: something out there show how cool I am. And there's
Speaker 2: two downsides. I'm not saying social media you should just
Speaker 2: leave it. Some of you should go on to social
Speaker 2: media fast to break the addiction. You know, fasting is
Speaker 2: good for your body, gives your body rest. Social media
Speaker 2: fasting is a good thing too, because the truth is
Speaker 2: they're that kind of always putting yourself in front of
Speaker 2: other people. It's your own little reality show. And it
Speaker 2: does two things. It feeds your narcissism. It's all about me.
Speaker 2: It's all about me. Look at me, look at me,
Speaker 2: look at me. You know when a little kid, a
Speaker 2: three year old comes up to me and say, Papa, Papa,
Speaker 2: look at me, look at lee, look at me. That's
Speaker 2: cute as a three year old. It sucks as a
Speaker 2: thirty year old. Okay, okay, look at me, look at me,
Speaker 2: look at me, look at me, look at me, look
Speaker 2: at me. And that's what you're doing on Instagram, and
Speaker 2: that's what you're doing on Twitter and Facebook and look
Speaker 2: at me, look at me. Come on, be a grown up.
Speaker 2: It's okay as a baby, but not for everybody else.
Speaker 2: It creates narcissism in you, and it creates envy and
Speaker 2: everybody else. And by the way, you know what the worst,
Speaker 2: the worst his self righteousness showing off in a spiritual way,
Speaker 2: Like notice how I'm raising my hands in prayer and
Speaker 2: my new sweater too, or or see me highlighting my
Speaker 2: notes in my quiet time alone with God that I
Speaker 2: just shared with one million people. If you're having a
Speaker 2: quiet time to impress other people on Instagram, stop it.
Speaker 2: That's the worst form of hypocrisy. And I'm showing how
Speaker 2: spiritual I am. It's the humble brag like you know,
Speaker 2: please pray for me. I've got to go pray for bono,
Speaker 2: like putting in a little name dropping there or something.
Speaker 2: All of the you know you're if you're a worship leader,
Speaker 2: and all the you know you post the picture where
Speaker 2: all the lights make.
Speaker 3: You look like a rock star. Don't that's the overwhelming life.
Speaker 2: That's not the overflowing life.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and
Speaker 1: listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I hope that you
Speaker 1: were just as blessed as I was. From today's broadcast.
Speaker 1: Right now, here's Pastor Rick with a special message you.
Speaker 2: Know, when I started Saddleback Church over forty years ago,
Speaker 2: just a handful of people in our living room, I
Speaker 2: also began writing a simple devotional just for the people
Speaker 2: in our church to help them start each day with
Speaker 2: hope and with truth and with peace that comes from
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Well, you know, that little devotional grew and
Speaker 2: grew and grew, and today Daily Hope is one of
Speaker 2: the largest email devotions in the whole world. And each
Speaker 2: day people all around the globe are reconnecting with God's
Speaker 2: promises and finding fresh strength in His word to face
Speaker 2: whatever comes their way. Here's the best part. It's absolutely free. Okay,
Speaker 2: we don't have any charge for this. Every day you'll
Speaker 2: get a quick devotional read and a podcast that you
Speaker 2: can listen to.
Speaker 3: On the go.
Speaker 2: Now, you know, in a world that's more distracted and
Speaker 2: uncertain than ever, I want to help you start your
Speaker 2: day centered on what never changes, and what never changes
Speaker 2: is a God's love, his unconditional love for you, and
Speaker 2: his promises to you. You know, if you'll just spend
Speaker 2: just a few minutes a day in the morning with
Speaker 2: the Lord, it can bring so much more clarity, more purpose,
Speaker 2: more peace to everything that happens in your day. Particularly,
Speaker 2: a psychologist has said that what you do with the
Speaker 2: first five minutes of your day pretty much sets the tone. So, friend,
Speaker 2: you were never meant to go through life alone. I
Speaker 2: want to personally invite you to just sign up for
Speaker 2: the Daily Hope devotional.
Speaker 3: Do it today.
Speaker 2: I think it's going to bring fresh encouragement to your
Speaker 2: walk in God.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to sign up for the daily devotional,
Speaker 1: it's easy. Just go to pastorick dot com. That's pastorik
Speaker 1: dot com. Be sure to join us next time as
Speaker 1: we look into God's Word for our daily hope. This
Speaker 1: program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your
Speaker 1: generous financial support.