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: Rickshaw'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 double. 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: Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part
Speaker 1: of a message called building My Life on the Bible.
Speaker 2: Many times the Bible is compared to a mirror. In scripture,
Speaker 2: the Bible compares itself to mirror. What's the purpose of
Speaker 2: a mirror? The purpose of a mirror is to evaluate ourselves,
Speaker 2: and the Bible helps us do that. It's the mirror
Speaker 2: of God's Word that helps us evaluate ourselves. Every one
Speaker 2: of you did it sometime today when you got up
Speaker 2: this morning, at some point, most likely before you walked
Speaker 2: out the door, you paused and looked at a mirror
Speaker 2: to assess the damage from last night, and then you
Speaker 2: evaluated what needed to be changed before you walked out
Speaker 2: that door. You may have run a brush or combed
Speaker 2: through your hair, or he said I.
Speaker 3: Have time to do that.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put on a ball cap, or you
Speaker 2: washed your face, or maybe you took the time to
Speaker 2: put on some makeup. By the way, did you know
Speaker 2: that the first Queen Elizabeth during you know, shakee Sphere time,
Speaker 2: that as she got older that she lost her beauty.
Speaker 2: She had all of the mirrors removed from Buckingham Palace
Speaker 2: because she did not want to see the fact that
Speaker 2: she was growing older. Now, there are two ways to
Speaker 2: look at a mirror. There's you can glance at a mirror,
Speaker 2: or you can gaze at a mirror. Glance at a mirror.
Speaker 2: Is anybody remember happy days that show happy days? Remember
Speaker 2: Phonsie'd he'd walk past a mirror and he'd stop and
Speaker 2: he let me go.
Speaker 3: Hey, he didn't need to do anything because he was
Speaker 3: pure perfection.
Speaker 2: He didn't have to, you know, Koma's there or anything.
Speaker 2: He would, he would glance. Now, you don't want to
Speaker 2: do that with this mirror. You can't just glance at
Speaker 2: the word of God. That's a quick you know, I'm rushed. Lord,
Speaker 2: I've got two minutes. I'm gonna look at it real
Speaker 2: quick and then leave.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Glancing at the mirror of God's word isn't going to
Speaker 2: help you change. You've got to gaze at it. You
Speaker 2: got to gaze intently. You look at the details. And
Speaker 2: God wants us not the glance at his words, but
Speaker 2: to gaze at his word, to look intently. Number three,
Speaker 2: the third way to build your life on the Bible
Speaker 2: is I build my life on the Bible. I research it.
Speaker 2: I research it with my hands and my mouth. Now
Speaker 2: I'll need to explain this to you. I research the
Speaker 2: Word of God with my hands and my mouth. This
Speaker 2: is Bible study. Researching is Bible study. Is there a
Speaker 2: difference between Bible reading and Bible study. Yes, Reading the
Speaker 2: Bible is reading the Bible. Studying the Bible is studying
Speaker 2: the Bible. It's not study unless you have a pen
Speaker 2: or a pencil and you're writing it down in fact,
Speaker 2: there are two components of study, writing it down and
Speaker 2: talking about it.
Speaker 3: With somebody else.
Speaker 2: That's turns reading into study. When I write something down
Speaker 2: and I talk about somebody else, now I am studying.
Speaker 2: That's why we believe in small groups, why we have
Speaker 2: over five thousand small groups here at Saddleback, because the
Speaker 2: way you study the Bible best is actually in a group.
Speaker 2: And you you listen, and you write, and you read
Speaker 2: and you talk, and you use your hands and you
Speaker 2: use your mouth to study the Word of God. Now
Speaker 2: look at these two verses John chapter five, Verse thirty nine.
Speaker 2: Jesus says this, you search the scripture circle the word search.
Speaker 2: He's talking about Bible study here, he's talking about research.
Speaker 2: You research the scriptures. You search the scriptures because you
Speaker 2: believe they will give you eternal life. And the scriptures
Speaker 2: point to me. And we're going to show you how
Speaker 2: you can see Jesus all through the Old Testament, not
Speaker 2: just in the New Testament. You search the scriptures. That's
Speaker 2: researching with my hands in mouth. And that's Chapter seventeen.
Speaker 2: Luke talks about a group of people in a city
Speaker 2: called Berea. Berea was a little city in Greece, and
Speaker 2: he says the people of Berea were more open minded
Speaker 2: than those in Thesalonaika. Fessalonaka was another city in Greece.
Speaker 2: He said, those Bereans, they were more open minded the
Speaker 2: people who lived in the city of Theessalonaika, and they
Speaker 2: listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the scripture circle
Speaker 2: that word again, searched. They searched the scriptures. That's studying it,
Speaker 2: not just reading it day after day to check up
Speaker 2: on Paul and Silas to see if they were really
Speaker 2: teaching the truth. And see, these guys are searching the scripture.
Speaker 2: They're reading, and not just reading, they're studying, they're writing
Speaker 2: it down, they're talking, they're having a small group discussion.
Speaker 2: That's what's going on here. These people are listening to
Speaker 2: Paul preach and then they're going over and they're having
Speaker 2: a small group discussion about it, which is what we
Speaker 2: do in our small groups. The third way is I
Speaker 2: researched with my hands and mouth. Now, the fourth way
Speaker 2: to build my life on the Bible is I review
Speaker 2: and remember with my mind. I review it and I
Speaker 2: remember it with my mind. I review the word of God,
Speaker 2: and I remember the word of God with my mind now.
Speaker 2: The Bible says this in verse twenty five James, Chapter one.
Speaker 2: The man who looks intently, that's reading into the perfect
Speaker 2: Law and continues.
Speaker 3: To do this.
Speaker 2: That's reviewing, not forgetting what he's heard. That's remembering. He
Speaker 2: will be blessed in what he does. If you're going
Speaker 2: to be blessed in what you do, you got to
Speaker 2: learn how to review and remember with your mind. Now
Speaker 2: review you continually do this. You're pondering, you're thinking about
Speaker 2: it over and over, and you're remembering, not forgetting. I
Speaker 2: want everybody to look up here for just a minute.
Speaker 3: If you're serious.
Speaker 2: About being spiritually strong and mature, you don't want to
Speaker 2: be a spiritual baby anymore. You don't want to be
Speaker 2: a spiritual whimp. You don't want to still be on
Speaker 2: the bottle ten years from now. You want to be
Speaker 2: a godly man. You want to be a godly woman.
Speaker 2: You want to be spiritually and emotionally strong. The single
Speaker 2: greatest habit you can develop is the habit of memorizing
Speaker 2: some scripture by hiding the word in your heart, by
Speaker 2: putting it in your mind. Why Because when you need
Speaker 2: the Bible. It's never around when you're tempted. You don't
Speaker 2: have a Bible open or by your side, when you're witnessing,
Speaker 2: when you're under stress, when you need comfort, when you
Speaker 2: have a crisis, there's not a Bible around. You need
Speaker 2: to have it in your mind so you can remember
Speaker 2: it and review it. Right then, now you say, oh, Rick,
Speaker 2: I can't I have a terrible memory. I can't remember anything.
Speaker 2: You remember what's important to you.
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: If you've missed any part of today's teaching, you can
Speaker 1: listen online anytime 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 video sessions on DVD
Speaker 4: and a two hundred and six page, two color workbook.
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 guards
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. Go to Fastererrik
Speaker 4: dot com or call eight hundred six hundred five zero
Speaker 4: zero four and as a special thinking you will send
Speaker 4: 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: You remember what's important to you. You remember the phone
Speaker 2: numbers that important to you. You remember the dates that
Speaker 2: are important to you. Somebody said I can't remember anything,
Speaker 2: but you can quote me songs from the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2: Are you know baseball statistics on your favorite player or
Speaker 2: you know stock quotes? You remember what's important now. Memory
Speaker 2: is a skill that you can get good at, and
Speaker 2: we're going to teach you some simple ways to improve
Speaker 2: your memory.
Speaker 3: Memory is like.
Speaker 2: A muscle, and you can actually get better at it.
Speaker 2: You may have a terrible memory, but you can improve
Speaker 2: your memory. And actually memorizing scripture will cause your brain
Speaker 2: to have a stronger memory in other areas. I guarantee it.
Speaker 2: Study after study has shown this that if you will
Speaker 2: learn to memorize scripture. It actually develops your memory. You'll
Speaker 2: have a better memory in other areas too. During forty
Speaker 2: days in the word, we're going to memorize one simple
Speaker 2: verse a week on the weekend together, so that you
Speaker 2: know these because when you need them, then God can
Speaker 2: call them to mind. Now, you can't review it unless
Speaker 2: you remember it. In other words, if I get in
Speaker 2: bed at night, I can think about it because I've
Speaker 2: remembered that verse. If I'm driving to an appointment, I
Speaker 2: can think of it because.
Speaker 3: I remember that verse.
Speaker 2: But if I haven't memorized any verse, then I can't
Speaker 2: remember and review it. Now, in the Bible, there's a
Speaker 2: word for what we're talking about here. The skill of
Speaker 2: remembering and reviewing is called write this down meditation. That's
Speaker 2: all meditation is. Meditation is simply remembering and reviewing the
Speaker 2: scripture in your mind. That's all it means. This word
Speaker 2: is so misunderstood. Many people don't understand meditation.
Speaker 3: They're scared of it. They think it's like.
Speaker 2: Some whewoo, you know, and like it's some new age thing.
Speaker 3: No no, no, no no.
Speaker 2: In fact, even some well meaning Christians have said we
Speaker 2: shouldn't meditate well, they're talking about the time where you
Speaker 2: sit in a lotus position and put your mind in
Speaker 2: neutral and contemplate the lent in your navel and go ummm, well, no,
Speaker 2: that's not going to get you where you want to go.
Speaker 2: But if you learn to remember and review the Bible,
Speaker 2: then you can do it anywhere.
Speaker 3: Now you know why this is so important. Let me
Speaker 3: show you.
Speaker 2: Look at this verse on your outline, Joshua, Chapter one,
Speaker 2: verse eight. Do not let this book of the law,
Speaker 2: that's the Bible, God's law, God's word. Let this book
Speaker 2: of the law depart from your mouth. That means meditate.
Speaker 2: That means talk about it all the time. Meditate on it?
Speaker 2: How often day and night? Now circle the word meditate,
Speaker 2: God tells you. God commands you to meditate on the
Speaker 2: Bible day and night. In other words, when you're eating,
Speaker 2: when you're sleeping, when you're drinking, when you're playing, when
Speaker 2: you're running.
Speaker 3: So that here's the benefit.
Speaker 2: You will be careful to do everything written in it.
Speaker 2: Then you will be underline these prosperous and successful. Now, friends,
Speaker 2: the only promise of prosperity and success in the Bible
Speaker 2: is this verse. And God says, if you do what
Speaker 2: I tell you to do in this verse, you will
Speaker 2: be prosperous. You will be successful. I didn't say that.
Speaker 2: God said it. You will be prosperous and successful. And
Speaker 2: what does he say? If you meditate on my word
Speaker 2: day and night, In other words, you remember it and
Speaker 2: you review it. If you remember it and review it,
Speaker 2: you will be successful in all you do. Now, there's
Speaker 2: one more way that I build my life on the Bible.
Speaker 2: I receive it with my ears. I read it with
Speaker 2: my eyes. I research it with my hands. I write
Speaker 2: down notes and mouth I talk about it. I review
Speaker 2: and remember it with my mind. And the fifth way
Speaker 2: is I respond to it with my actions. And that's
Speaker 2: the fifth thing that James tells us to do with
Speaker 2: the Bible. I respond to it with my actions. James,
Speaker 2: Chapter one, verse twenty two. Do not merely listen to
Speaker 2: the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says,
Speaker 2: turn it into action. And he says, don't deceive yourself.
Speaker 2: How do we deceive ourselves? We think, if we've heard something,
Speaker 2: we've got it.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I could talk to you about how to be a
Speaker 2: good father, but if you don't do it, it doesn't help.
Speaker 2: You're just deceiving yourself. I could talk to you about
Speaker 2: how to build a balanced budget based on sciritual principles.
Speaker 2: But if you don't do it, you're just deceiving yourself.
Speaker 2: You don't really know it. You see, you only believe
Speaker 2: the parts of the Bible you actually do. I only
Speaker 2: believe the part of the Bible I actually do.
Speaker 3: We are to be doers of the word. That's why.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever noticed or not, but
Speaker 2: in the message outlines I give you every weekend here
Speaker 2: at Saddleback Church, every point, almost every time, not all
Speaker 2: the time, but almost every point has a verb in it.
Speaker 2: Why because we are to be doers of the word,
Speaker 2: not hearers only. And in a lot of times we
Speaker 2: hear message after message after message. We just hear it,
Speaker 2: but there's nothing to do about it. There's nothing to
Speaker 2: do about it. So every week I give you something
Speaker 2: to do about what we have just looked at, and
Speaker 2: I put the points with verbs. Why don't merely listen
Speaker 2: to the word so deceive yourselves?
Speaker 3: Do what it says.
Speaker 2: Now, let's go back to that story that I started with,
Speaker 2: where Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew
Speaker 2: twenty four.
Speaker 3: Look at this verse.
Speaker 2: Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them
Speaker 2: into practice. Underlying that puts them into practice in the words,
Speaker 2: you're a doer of the word. You're an applier of
Speaker 2: the word. You respond to it. Everyone who hears these
Speaker 2: words and puts them into practice is like a wise
Speaker 2: man who built his house on the rock, and the
Speaker 2: rains came down, and the streams rose, and the winds
Speaker 2: blew and beat against the house.
Speaker 3: But it did not fall because it had its foundation
Speaker 3: on the rock.
Speaker 2: But but everybody who hears these words of mine come
Speaker 2: to church, you listen to them, but you.
Speaker 3: Don't put him into practice. It's like a foolish.
Speaker 2: Man who built his house on sand, and the rains
Speaker 2: came down, and the streams rose, and the winds blew
Speaker 2: and beat against that house, and it fell with a
Speaker 2: great crash.
Speaker 3: I don't want that to happen to you. And I'll
Speaker 3: say it again.
Speaker 2: We don't know the storms that are going to come
Speaker 2: into your life or into our nation, but I do
Speaker 2: know this, you'll crumble if you don't have a solid
Speaker 2: foundation for your life. And the solid foundation for your
Speaker 2: life is not the opinions of others. It's not what's
Speaker 2: popular on TV. It's not prevailing culture because that changes,
Speaker 2: like shifting sands. You must build your life on the
Speaker 2: unchanging word. And when you build your life on truth,
Speaker 2: if it was true one thousand years ago, it'll be
Speaker 2: true a thousand years from today, because truth does not change.
Speaker 3: It's a rock, and you need a rock to build
Speaker 3: your life.
Speaker 2: If your life is not built on the rock, I'll
Speaker 2: tell you how you.
Speaker 3: Know you have stress.
Speaker 2: You're stressed out because the sands are shifting and the
Speaker 2: house is tilting, and you feel stressed and worried and
Speaker 2: anxious about that because your house isn't solid and steady,
Speaker 2: because it's not built on something that doesn't change. Now,
Speaker 2: let me give you a simple tool to remember. These
Speaker 2: five ways to get God's word into your life. Many
Speaker 2: years ago, a guy named Dawson Trautman, who founded the Navigators,
Speaker 2: came up with a thing called the hand illustration of
Speaker 2: five ways to get a grip on the Word. I
Speaker 2: want to adapt that this morning. Let's make each of
Speaker 2: you the fingers of your hand represent one of the
Speaker 2: ways to get God's word of your life. Your little
Speaker 2: finger will be hearing it. I receive it with my ears.
Speaker 2: I read it with my eyes, I research it with
Speaker 2: my mouth and my hands. I review and remember it
Speaker 2: with my mind, and I respond to it with my actions. Now,
Speaker 2: let's say this is your Bible. If all you do,
Speaker 2: if all your Bible intake is is simply hearing it,
Speaker 2: you don't ever get any Bible in your life except
Speaker 2: when you come to church. Then you're holding on to
Speaker 2: the Bible with your pinky. That's all the grip you've got.
Speaker 2: And you know what, Satan can come along and before
Speaker 2: you get to the parking lot, bam, he stole it
Speaker 2: out of your life because you've forgotten ninety five percent of.
Speaker 3: It, of what you hear.
Speaker 2: If all you do is hear the word of God,
Speaker 2: you have no grip on the truth. You're not built
Speaker 2: on the rock. Let's say if you're going to say, well,
Speaker 2: I don't just come to church and hear the Bible,
Speaker 2: I read it every day. Well that's better. It's a
Speaker 2: little bit better grip. But still just hearing and reading
Speaker 2: it is not enough. It can be pulled out of
Speaker 2: your hand quite easily. But if I hear the word
Speaker 2: of God and I remember it, and I read the
Speaker 2: word of God, and I research. I study the Word
Speaker 2: of God with some friends in a small group, and
Speaker 2: I review the Word to God and remember it. I
Speaker 2: meditate on it, and I respond to it. I've got
Speaker 2: a grip. Nobody's taking this out of my hand. Nobody's
Speaker 2: pulling the truth out.
Speaker 3: Of my hand.
Speaker 2: And I am solid and i am secure, and I
Speaker 2: am not stressed because I'm built on the rock. That's
Speaker 2: my goal for you in the next forty days. Let's
Speaker 2: bow our heads. I want to ask you to pray
Speaker 2: a simple prayer and follow me in it. Right now,
Speaker 2: Dear God, I want to build my life on the rock,
Speaker 2: not on sand. I want a solid foundation of truth.
Speaker 2: I want to build my life on the Bible. So
Speaker 2: I commit the next forty days to learning how to
Speaker 2: do these things. I want to receive your word with
Speaker 2: my ears. I want to hear God speak to me.
Speaker 2: I want to read your word word with my eyes.
Speaker 2: And I want to become a regular habit of Bible reading.
Speaker 2: I want to learn to remember and review your word
Speaker 2: throughout my day so that when I'm starting to get upset,
Speaker 2: you can bring that verse to mind. And I want
Speaker 2: to respond to your word and do what it says.
Speaker 2: If you've never invited Jesus Christ into your life, say
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, I ask you to come into my life
Speaker 2: and make me what you want me to be.
Speaker 3: Save me.
Speaker 2: I don't understand it all, but I know I need you.
Speaker 2: I know I've done wrong things and I ask you
Speaker 2: to forgive me, and I want to turn from those things.
Speaker 2: I want to go your way, not my way, and
Speaker 2: I want to learn to love you and trust you.
Speaker 2: And by faith, I ask you to accept me into
Speaker 2: your family.
Speaker 3: In your name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 2: Hi everybody, this is Rick and I hope you enjoyed
Speaker 2: today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed that prayer
Speaker 2: for the very first time, or you just recommitted your
Speaker 2: life to Jesus again today, would you let me know
Speaker 2: about it. There's something real about sharing your commitment. So
Speaker 2: write me Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick,
Speaker 2: I prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life
Speaker 2: to Christ. And I'll send you some material that will
Speaker 2: help you on your journey with Jesus. And I'll also
Speaker 2: pray for you. God bless you. This is Pastor Rick's
Speaker 2: daily hope. If you've missed any part of this message,
Speaker 2: or if you'd like to find out more about Pastor
Speaker 2: Rick Warren in this ministry, just visit Pastorick dot com
Speaker 2: where you can listen online anytime. That's Pastor Rick with
Speaker 2: two rs in the Middle dot com and be sure
Speaker 2: if you're to sign up for Rick's free daily email
Speaker 2: devotional while you're there. Rick will be back to close
Speaker 2: out our time today. But first we have some really
Speaker 2: exciting news. Generous friends of Daily Hope have offered a
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars matching grant. Here's Rick to tell you more.
Speaker 2: You know, I just want to take a quick second
Speaker 2: to say thank you everybody. Because of your generosity, we're
Speaker 2: able to take the hope of Jesus Christ into places
Speaker 2: where there are no Bibles, no believers, and nobody of Christ,
Speaker 2: no churches at all. Now, as you pray about giving,
Speaker 2: I want to ask you to ask God about sending
Speaker 2: a gift that's the largest you're able to give, because
Speaker 2: at this point of the year we have a donor
Speaker 2: who is offered to match your gift. That means what
Speaker 2: you give will be doubled. We get twice the bang
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Speaker 2: maximize it through this matching gift. And I want to
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Speaker 2: Pray as we reach out to people around the globe
Speaker 2: with the hope that people will find Christ by the
Speaker 2: thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. So
Speaker 2: thank you for being a partner with me to getting
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Speaker 1: look into God's Word for our Daily hope. This program
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