Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching.
Speaker 2: Ministry of Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: And today we're continuing with this powerful series called the
Speaker 1: Jesus Model. In this series, Rick will walk you step
Speaker 1: by step through the process of true biblical discipleship. Rick's
Speaker 1: giving you practical tools to grow spiritually, experience God's peace,
Speaker 1: live with greater purpose, and become more like Jesus in
Speaker 1: every area of your life. Well, I can't wait to
Speaker 1: get started. So here is part two of a message
Speaker 1: called Succeeding in your Mission.
Speaker 3: Then number three third principle, he says, simplification. And this
Speaker 3: is the principle on any mission, whether you're doing it
Speaker 3: at work, at school, or an overseas. Keep it simple,
Speaker 3: don't complicate it, keep it simple. This is the principle
Speaker 3: of simplification. You see a lot of times. In sure,
Speaker 3: you have to understand that some of the scriptures the
Speaker 3: hardest understand, have the deepest truth in them, but you
Speaker 3: have to understand the application. Bridge When you look at
Speaker 3: a passage in scripture, you say, what did it mean
Speaker 3: for them? That's the interpretation, Then the implication, what's the
Speaker 3: timeless principle? That's the bridge, and then the application.
Speaker 2: What does it mean to us? Now?
Speaker 3: Now, notice the second thing Jesus says. He says, don't
Speaker 3: take a traveler's bag or even an extra pair of
Speaker 3: sandals when you go on your mission trip. He's sending
Speaker 3: them out on short term mission. Don't take a traveler's
Speaker 3: bag or even an extra pair of sandals.
Speaker 2: Down.
Speaker 3: What does he saying here, Well, he's not saying don't
Speaker 3: take any luggage. He's not saying only the clothes on
Speaker 3: your back. Here's the point you might write this down.
Speaker 3: Travel light, travel light, don't overpack, don't take a lot
Speaker 3: of extra stuff, don't take extra pairs of shoes, extra
Speaker 3: you know, why does they say do this? Well, a
Speaker 3: lot of luggage just slows you down. And on top
Speaker 3: of that, it can be misplaced. Anybody ever had any
Speaker 3: misplaced luggage in life? Yeah, I've left it in every continent.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 3: You can slow you down, and it can be misplaced,
Speaker 3: it can be stolen. But there's a deeper reason. It
Speaker 3: says you don't want to show off wealth. You don't
Speaker 3: want to show off wealth. You're not going out on
Speaker 3: a fashion show. You're going out to serve the people
Speaker 3: in need and you want to blend in. You don't
Speaker 3: want to draw attention to yourself, and it would be insensitive.
Speaker 3: For instance, if you took a whole bunch of pairs
Speaker 3: of shoes that you're used to wearing different shoes every day,
Speaker 3: and you go to a place where they don't even
Speaker 3: wear shoes or they only have one pair for a person,
Speaker 3: would that be insensitive. Yes, And so he's saying, just
Speaker 3: make it, keep it simple. Don't take a lot of
Speaker 3: extra clothes, don't take a lot of extra stuff.
Speaker 2: Just keep it simple. Wear plain clothes.
Speaker 3: When I travel around the world, I f be very
Speaker 3: plain clothed, not the fashion plate that I am in
Speaker 3: front of you. Oh you laugh, you laugh. The point,
Speaker 3: here's the point that Jesus is making. Here's the timeless principle.
Speaker 3: When it comes to your mission in life. It's how
Speaker 3: you love, not how you look that matters. It's how
Speaker 3: you love, not how you look. It's not your apparel.
Speaker 3: It's your attitude. It's not your appearance. It's your attitude.
Speaker 3: And it's your attitude that gets due to people. It's
Speaker 3: the attitude of love. So he says, get a partner,
Speaker 3: depend on God, and keep it simple. Now the fourth
Speaker 3: thing that Jesus says is the principle of concentration, and
Speaker 3: it's stay focused. Stay focused on your purpose. Remember what
Speaker 3: you're going to do, he says. You know, Remember you're
Speaker 3: not out there just for it's not for gospel tourism. Okay,
Speaker 3: you're not on vacation. You're going to help the poor.
Speaker 3: You're going to help the sick, You're going to help
Speaker 3: share the good news. You're going to represent Christ. The
Speaker 3: fourth thing Jesus says, because he says, don't stop to
Speaker 3: greet anyone by the way, it's not great. It's greet
Speaker 3: to greet anyone on the road.
Speaker 2: And what does that mean?
Speaker 3: Do you mean I am supposed to be rude to everybody? No,
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to be discourteous. I'm to be impolite, I'm
Speaker 3: to be uncivil to people. I shouldn't be friendly when
Speaker 3: I'm on mission for God. No, No, he's not saying
Speaker 3: that at all. In fact, the Bible says the exact opposite.
Speaker 3: It says, show respect to everybody there. You must be
Speaker 3: polite and respectful to everyone. But what he says when
Speaker 3: he says don't stop to greet, you need to understand
Speaker 3: that in the Middle East, particularly in New Testament days,
Speaker 3: greeting could take hours, maybe even a day, and a
Speaker 3: greeting meant long conversation, It meant a lot of rituals
Speaker 3: that maybe meant some food. It could take hours of storytelling.
Speaker 3: And if you greeted everybody you happened to come across
Speaker 3: in Middle Eastern hospitality, you had to go to their
Speaker 3: house and you would never get to where you were going.
Speaker 2: That's what he's saying here. Here's the point. Write this down.
Speaker 3: Don't be distracted when you're on mission for God. Don't
Speaker 3: be distracted. Remember your mission as a service. Say you're
Speaker 3: not on vacation, You're not a tourist.
Speaker 2: It's not about you.
Speaker 3: And so you want to make every moment count. You
Speaker 3: want to have a sense of urgency. You don't loiter around,
Speaker 3: You don't wait precious time. People are dying, people are needing,
Speaker 3: people need your message.
Speaker 2: You need to be purpose driven. Now.
Speaker 3: The number one reason why people miss their mission in
Speaker 3: life is they get distracted. They get distracted and they
Speaker 3: get delayed and they start thinking themselves, well, I'm going
Speaker 3: to serve God when this happens. After I get business
Speaker 3: to a certain stage, after I get married, after I
Speaker 3: get out of school, after I have kids, after the
Speaker 3: kids leave home, after I retire, someday i'll and then
Speaker 3: you never get to it, and your life is over.
Speaker 3: Mission is not something you do later on in life,
Speaker 3: after you've done everything you wanted to do. God's mission
Speaker 3: for your life is what you do now during your life,
Speaker 3: in the middle of life. And he says, don't get distracted,
Speaker 3: don't get delayed. So let me ask you, what is
Speaker 3: it that distracts you from the suffering all around you?
Speaker 3: What is it that gets your attention so much that
Speaker 3: your eyes can't see the people who are hurting in
Speaker 3: your office, who are hurting next door to you where
Speaker 3: you live, who are hurting at school, who are hurting
Speaker 3: on at the bus stop, who are hurting in the
Speaker 3: grocery store. What is it that causes you to get
Speaker 3: distracted and not see that the whole world is hurting.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, don't allow that to happen. Don't get distracted.
Speaker 3: Number five, The principle of affirmation, and the principle of
Speaker 3: affirmation is very important when you're on mission for God,
Speaker 3: and that is begin with a blessing. I need to
Speaker 3: explain this to you. You begin with a blessing. Now,
Speaker 3: this is how you get effective in making a difference
Speaker 3: with your life. You begin with a blessing. And the
Speaker 3: next thing that Jesus tells his peace teams when he's
Speaker 3: sending about he says, when you enter a house in
Speaker 3: those days, there weren't any hotels or motels, plays like that.
Speaker 3: When you enter a house, first say peace be to
Speaker 3: this house. Was one of the reasons we call this
Speaker 3: the peace plan. If a man of peace is there,
Speaker 3: your peace will rest on him. If not, it will
Speaker 3: return to you. Now what's he saying there the new
Speaker 3: living translation, that's versus. When you enter a home, give
Speaker 3: it a blessing. When you say peace be under this house,
Speaker 3: that is a blessing. You go anywhere in the Arab world,
Speaker 3: you hear people say a Salama lekum, which means peace
Speaker 3: be under you. It means I'm blessing you with the
Speaker 3: peace of God. And He's saying whenever you go and
Speaker 3: you want to make a difference in some of these
Speaker 3: life you don't start by telling them they're a sinner.
Speaker 3: You start by blessing them. You start by affirming them.
Speaker 3: You start by saying God's peace be upon you. Now,
Speaker 3: what does he mean by this? Well, let's just take
Speaker 3: this in a practical situation, because this applies not only
Speaker 3: globally if you go overseas, it applies when you go
Speaker 3: to work tomorrow, or when you go to a school,
Speaker 3: or wherever you do it. He's saying to you first,
Speaker 3: when you go into a new situation. Let's say you've
Speaker 3: got a new job and you don't know anybody there,
Speaker 3: and you're wondering, Lord, is there anybody here you could
Speaker 3: use me in their life? Or you go to a
Speaker 3: new school, you got a new class you, Lord, is
Speaker 3: there anybody in here that you'd like for me to
Speaker 3: minister to? You're gonna use me as your agent for
Speaker 3: good in their life? Are you going your neighborhood? You
Speaker 3: get in a new situation, he says, the first thing
Speaker 3: you do is you look for a person of peace.
Speaker 3: Now circle the phrase man of peace. If a man
Speaker 3: of peace is there? Who is a man of peace? Well,
Speaker 3: first play. He doesn't have to be a man. He
Speaker 3: could be a woman. But a person of peace has
Speaker 3: two things. They're receptive and they're respected. They're receptive to you,
Speaker 3: they'll listen to you, and they're respected by other people.
Speaker 3: They're open, and they're influential. You can find a man
Speaker 3: of peace or a person of peace in every village.
Speaker 3: You can find one in every office, in every business.
Speaker 3: You can find one in every school. You can find
Speaker 3: them in every government. You can find him in every neighborhood.
Speaker 3: They're all around you. And he says, if you're going
Speaker 3: to start a ministry or a mission, you start with
Speaker 3: the most receptive person. Don't worry about the person who's
Speaker 3: not interested. You start with a person who's receptive and
Speaker 3: respected by other people. Find that person of peace. And
Speaker 3: he said, that's where you begin. He said, well, how
Speaker 3: do you find that person? He said, You offer a
Speaker 3: blessing and you see how they respond. You offer a
Speaker 3: blessing and you see other responders and say, well, how
Speaker 3: do you do that? How do you give a blessing? Okay,
Speaker 3: listen to me very closely, because you use us this week,
Speaker 3: every day this next week. Here's how you bless people.
Speaker 3: You do it the way Jesus did. And Jesus always
Speaker 3: blessed people with a look, a word and a touch,
Speaker 3: a look, a word and a touch, a look, a
Speaker 3: word and a touch. He would give a look of understanding,
Speaker 3: I understand what you're feeling. He would give a word
Speaker 3: of encouragement, and then he would give a touch of affirmation,
Speaker 3: a touch of friendliness, you know, a handshake, a pat
Speaker 3: on the back, you know, a squeeze on the hand,
Speaker 3: something like that. And that's how you bless other people.
Speaker 3: Jesus did this with everybody. He'd give them a look
Speaker 3: of understanding, I understand where you are. He would give
Speaker 3: them a word of encouragement, and he would you know,
Speaker 3: you're gonna make it. God is with you, and he
Speaker 3: would give them an affirming touch, you know, pat on
Speaker 3: the back. Why because everybody in the planet is starving
Speaker 3: for three things. Everybody is starving for understanding. Everybody is
Speaker 3: starving for encouragement, and everybody is starving for affection. And
Speaker 3: when you give those three things to a little child
Speaker 3: or a senior citizen or anybody in between, you are
Speaker 3: fulfilling the mission of God. You are blessing other people.
Speaker 3: You are blessing them the way Jesus would bless people.
Speaker 3: You give them a look, a word, and a touch,
Speaker 3: and he says, start with a blessing, and he says,
Speaker 3: you go out, and you go into that new office
Speaker 3: or you go into that new school classroom, or you
Speaker 3: go into the new neighborhood, or you got and you
Speaker 3: offer a blessing, and if the person responds to that,
Speaker 3: you know they're a person of peace.
Speaker 2: And you start with them. He said.
Speaker 3: If they don't, they just turn it off. They shut
Speaker 3: it down. He goes, don't worry about it. I'm still
Speaker 3: gonna bless you anyway. It'll bounce back to you. Notice
Speaker 3: what the verse said again, look there on your outline.
Speaker 3: When you enter a house, say peace be to this house,
Speaker 3: that's the blessing. And if a man is of peace
Speaker 3: is there, your peace will rest on him. If not,
Speaker 3: it will what return to you. You know what God's
Speaker 3: saying there. He's saying. If you go out and you'd
Speaker 3: be nice to people, and you give a look, a word,
Speaker 3: and a touch and they don't respond to God says,
Speaker 3: that's okay, I'm just going to bounce that blessing right
Speaker 3: back to you. Because you cared about blessing somebody else,
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you that blessing.
Speaker 2: Isn't that cool? God?
Speaker 3: So it doesn't really matter how they respond if you respond,
Speaker 3: if you treat people the way Jesus would he said,
Speaker 3: whether they respond and openness or not. He said, I'm
Speaker 3: going to bounce that blessing right back to you. I
Speaker 3: wonder who you could bless this week? Who do you
Speaker 3: know in your life is going through a tough time.
Speaker 3: They just had a rough they just lost their job,
Speaker 3: or their parent just died, or they got a bad
Speaker 3: help report, or their marriage is in trouble, or they
Speaker 3: got a kid who's having difficulties, or on and on
Speaker 3: and on.
Speaker 2: They're all around you, They're all around you. Who could
Speaker 2: I bless this week?
Speaker 3: That leads us to the principle number six, which is
Speaker 3: the principle of incarnation. And the principle of incarnation is
Speaker 3: invest time to build a relationship. Invest the time to
Speaker 3: build relationships. Now, what does the word incarnation mean. Incarnation
Speaker 3: comes from the wordcarnate. Now, if you know Spanish, you
Speaker 3: know what carne means. It's meat chili cone carnate, not
Speaker 3: just plain old chili. It's got with the meat added in.
Speaker 3: And in the Greek it's the same thing. Carne means flesh.
Speaker 3: And the Bible, when we use the word incarnation, it's
Speaker 3: what Jesus did. God became flesh, God, the spirit came
Speaker 3: in a human body. That's called the incarnation. Jesus became flesh.
Speaker 3: He became a human being with real skin and bones.
Speaker 3: And Jesus said, that's the way you minister to people.
Speaker 2: See. The thing I love about Jesus is.
Speaker 3: That Jesus just didn't facts in his love. He came
Speaker 3: in person. Okay, he came in person. And this is
Speaker 3: what God wants us to do. Now, he says, here,
Speaker 3: first incarnation, invest the time to build relationships. Notice to
Speaker 3: the point here, he says, when you enter a town,
Speaker 3: don't move around from home to home. Stay in one place.
Speaker 3: And he says, settle down, stay in one place. Don't
Speaker 3: go looking for better accommodations. This place doesn't have any
Speaker 3: air conditioning. Don't be fickle, don't be hard to please,
Speaker 3: Just stay in one place. Now, why does he say this, Well,
Speaker 3: there's several good reasons. First, it's good for your character.
Speaker 3: It's good for your character to not always have first
Speaker 3: class stuff. It's good for your character because you learn contentment.
Speaker 3: Paul said this, I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
Speaker 3: I know what it is to be in need, and
Speaker 3: I know what it is to have plenty he saying,
Speaker 3: I know what it's like to stay in a five
Speaker 3: star hotel, and I know what it's like to stay
Speaker 3: in the roach motel. And you know, I can be
Speaker 3: happy in either place. Okay, you know a military bunk
Speaker 3: bed or you know a nice suite whatever he said,
Speaker 3: I've learned to be content and everything. It's it's good
Speaker 3: for your character. But there's a deeper reason when Jesus
Speaker 3: says when you go into an area, stay in one place.
Speaker 3: It's the only way you build relationships. It's how you
Speaker 3: build relationships. And this is what we call the presence principle.
Speaker 3: What is the presence principle is that in order for
Speaker 3: you to make a difference in somebody's life, you got
Speaker 3: to show up. And a lot of ministry and a
Speaker 3: lot of missions is simply showing up. You don't have
Speaker 3: to do anything spectacular. You just show up. You be there,
Speaker 3: You get in their life. You can't help somebody unless
Speaker 3: you're there with them.
Speaker 2: You show up. You can't.
Speaker 3: You know, it's so important. It's how you build relationships.
Speaker 3: You see, you cannot win your enemies to Christ, you
Speaker 3: can only win your friends. And the way you win
Speaker 3: friends is by spending time with them. Let me say
Speaker 3: it this way. You have to be with people in
Speaker 3: order to win people. You can't do it long distance.
Speaker 3: You can't do it distracted and disconnected. You've got to
Speaker 3: be with people in order to win them. You got
Speaker 3: to spend time with them. I've been to China many times.
Speaker 3: In in Asia, they have the old saying that missions involves a.
Speaker 2: Lot of tea drinking. And it's true.
Speaker 3: You spend a lot of time just drinking tea, just sitting.
Speaker 2: And why.
Speaker 3: This is what Jesus did. When God wanted to tell
Speaker 3: us that he loved us. He didn't send a letter.
Speaker 3: He didn't send a Hallmark card. Actually he's like hallmart
Speaker 3: and that he cared enough to send the very best.
Speaker 2: He came himself.
Speaker 3: And when God wanted to tell you that he loved you,
Speaker 3: he simply showed up. He said, I'm coming to Earth.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be there. I'm not faxing this in,
Speaker 3: I'm not emailing you. I'm going to be there. The
Speaker 3: Bible says this, the Word became flesh incarnay. The Word
Speaker 3: became flesh incarnation and made his dwelling among us. And
Speaker 3: we have seen his glory, the glory of the one
Speaker 3: and only who came from the Father full of grace
Speaker 3: and truth. And that's what we want to say, get
Speaker 3: grace into Sometimes it was Christ's length. Thing you can
Speaker 3: do for somebody in that office, somebody in your neighborhood,
Speaker 3: somebody in your family, somebody at school is simply show up.
Speaker 3: You know, when they're going through a tough time. You go, man,
Speaker 3: I you know, I'm embarrassed. I don't know what to say.
Speaker 3: They just had this terrible christis I don't know to say.
Speaker 3: You don't say anything, Just show up, Sit in the
Speaker 3: corner of the room and sit there. Just being present
Speaker 3: with somebody in their pain reduces the pain it has
Speaker 3: the pain. I've talked to people in Africa, in many
Speaker 3: countries there who say, you know, when Americans come to Africa,
Speaker 3: they always want to do something. Americans are such doers.
Speaker 3: They always want to build something, They always want to
Speaker 3: create something. They always want to fix something, They always
Speaker 3: want to reorganize somethings that just show up. Being there
Speaker 3: is the sacrament of presents. Chill out, relax, build a
Speaker 3: relationship before you start working on activities. Now, that's true
Speaker 3: whether you're going across the street or across the ocean.
Speaker 2: Build the relationship, and you build.
Speaker 3: A relationship between your heart and their heart, and Jesus
Speaker 3: Christ can walk across. That's how you do your mission
Speaker 3: in life. This relax, don't try to do everything. Just
Speaker 3: showing up means your care, means your care. And what
Speaker 3: we discover is when peace teams actually brought their kids,
Speaker 3: they go you brought your kids.
Speaker 2: That means you really care.
Speaker 3: Actually, actually, you know, knocked it up a bunch. How
Speaker 3: do you know when you're building a relationship, Well, globally,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you this, when you get home, you still
Speaker 3: remember their name. That's one of the ways they weren't
Speaker 3: just a fathless person. You remember their names and you
Speaker 3: learn to do that and you build that relationship. And
Speaker 3: the peace plan that we do is built on what
Speaker 3: we call the baton model. Is that when a team
Speaker 3: goes in and then when they leave, they pass the
Speaker 3: baton off to another team, and then a new team
Speaker 3: goes in and they continue the relationship.
Speaker 1: That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick. And
Speaker 1: now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter
Speaker 1: from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: You know, I really like to end these broadcasts by
Speaker 3: reading some of the letters that come in from you,
Speaker 3: they always encourage me, and I think when I read
Speaker 3: and they encourage you. This one's from a woman named Joy.
Speaker 3: She says, thank you so much, Pastor Rick for the
Speaker 3: daily hope devotional messages that are emailed to me. They
Speaker 3: helped me get through tough times. She said, I feel
Speaker 3: like I didn't have the right to question God, but
Speaker 3: I wondered why He was letting me experience all these things.
Speaker 3: But now, through these devotionals, I look on what's happening
Speaker 3: as a challenge for my betterment. And I may not
Speaker 3: know all of God's reasons in this moment, but I
Speaker 3: believe that God will not let me down, and instead,
Speaker 3: I believe He'll guide me in the right path where
Speaker 3: his help, his guidance, his forgiveness, and his blessings and
Speaker 3: his prayers are always abundant. Thank you, signed Joy. Well,
Speaker 3: thank you, Joy. I'm encouraged by your faith and I
Speaker 3: know other people will be too who hear this letter.
Speaker 3: You know, we can always trust that God's in control
Speaker 3: even when we don't understand why things are happening. And
Speaker 3: it blesses me when I hear people like you finding hope.
Speaker 3: That's the whole purpose of this program. Thanks for listening
Speaker 3: today and join me next time as we continue looking
Speaker 3: in God's Word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: To sign up for ricks free daily devotional, go to
Speaker 1: pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com. Be sure to
Speaker 1: join us next time as we look into God's Word
Speaker 1: for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support