Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you're here.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: We're continuing our series from Psalm twenty three called living
Speaker 1: in the Goodness of God. It's all about how God's
Speaker 1: goodness meets you right where you are and brings hope
Speaker 1: even in difficult seasons. And today we have the final
Speaker 1: part of a message called letting God meet My needs.
Speaker 2: Now, the fourth thing is this very important.
Speaker 3: Trust him, Trust God, Trust Jesus for one day at
Speaker 3: a time.
Speaker 2: Trust him for one day at a time.
Speaker 3: Don't try to steal the whole future into the day
Speaker 3: and bring it back here. Have worries about all this
Speaker 3: kind of stuff that's coming up. Trust him for one
Speaker 3: day at a time. Matthew, Chapter six, verse thirty four.
Speaker 3: Jesus says this, so don't worry about tomorrow. But just
Speaker 3: tomorrow we'll have its own worries. Each day has enough
Speaker 3: trouble of its own. Anybody agree with that verse Yeah,
Speaker 3: you don't need to borrow trouble. He's saying, don't borrow
Speaker 3: trouble for tomorrow. I'm gonna give you enough grace for today.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna give you the grace for tomorrow until
Speaker 3: you get to tomorrow. You don't need it today, he's saying,
Speaker 3: don't open your umbrella until it starts to rain. Okay,
Speaker 3: don't start worrying that stuff hadn't happened yet. Can't change
Speaker 3: the future, can't change the path. Just work on today.
Speaker 3: There are two days of every week. You should never
Speaker 3: worry about yesterday and tomorrow because you can't do anything
Speaker 3: about them. And you don't worry about the future until
Speaker 3: you successfully learn to manage today. Some of you aren't
Speaker 3: doing that good a job on that one. So why
Speaker 3: are you borrowing trouble and worry about something's happening in
Speaker 3: two weeks.
Speaker 2: See, when you think about it.
Speaker 3: Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday, And
Speaker 3: so yesterday you messed up yesterday because you worry about today.
Speaker 3: Now today you're messing up today because you're worrying about tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
Speaker 3: Take one life, Take one day at a time through
Speaker 3: your life.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Why why does God say that you should only live
Speaker 3: your life one day at a time. Well, because it's true.
Speaker 3: It's the only thing you can do. You can't live
Speaker 3: in the past, you can't live in the future. You
Speaker 3: can only live today. But there's a couple of reasons
Speaker 3: why you should only live one day at a time. First,
Speaker 3: when you worry about tomorrow's problems, you miss all the
Speaker 3: blessings of today.
Speaker 2: Some of you you got.
Speaker 3: Something coming up in two weeks or a week or month,
Speaker 3: and it's scaring you to death, and you're making it
Speaker 3: worse because you're ruining every day between now and then
Speaker 3: by worrying about it. What is that worrying doing. It's unhelpful,
Speaker 3: it's unuseful, all of those different things, And so you're
Speaker 3: missing today's blessing. Some of you are so worried about retirement,
Speaker 3: you're not enjoying today. You're missing the blessing of today.
Speaker 2: And he says, I don't want you doing that. Think it.
Speaker 3: Take it one day at a time. And the other
Speaker 3: reason is you cannot solve tomorrow's problems with today's power.
Speaker 3: When you get there tomorrow, God will give you the
Speaker 3: power and the perspective and the grace and the wisdom.
Speaker 3: He'll give you what you need when you need to
Speaker 3: get there, But he's not going to give you the
Speaker 3: power and promise and purpose and all those things for
Speaker 3: tomorrow today. So you're taking.
Speaker 2: On a problem.
Speaker 3: God says, I'm not giving you power for that, because
Speaker 3: I want you to trust me one day at a time.
Speaker 3: The Bible does not say, give us this day our
Speaker 3: weekly bread. Now you're to pray, give me today my
Speaker 3: daily bread. Give me just enough strength to make it
Speaker 3: through today. He wants you to depend on him one
Speaker 3: day at a time. Now, let me be clear as
Speaker 3: your pastor. Because I love you. It's okay to plan
Speaker 3: for tomorrow. It's okay to plan for the future. Just
Speaker 3: don't worry about the future. Planning is good, Worrying is bad.
Speaker 3: Jesus highly recommends planning. There's a whole book in the
Speaker 3: Bible about planning. It's called the Book of Proverbs. God says,
Speaker 3: it's foolish, not the plan, Like only a fool would
Speaker 3: go all the way through life unprepared for something you
Speaker 3: know is inevitable called death.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: You haven't made your peace with God. You know you're
Speaker 3: going to die. You don't know when it's going to happen.
Speaker 3: To go through life unplanned for death, You're not ready
Speaker 3: to live till you're ready to die, So you ought
Speaker 3: to plan. Planning is good. Worrying is bad. You can
Speaker 3: plan for tomorrow, but you can't live in tomorrow. You
Speaker 3: can only live today.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I know that the future can often seem, you know,
Speaker 3: very overwhelming.
Speaker 2: But God graciously divided it.
Speaker 3: Up into twenty four hour segments, so you don't get
Speaker 3: all the future at once.
Speaker 2: You get it twenty four hours time.
Speaker 3: And if God gave you all the future at one time,
Speaker 3: it would overwhelm you.
Speaker 2: But you're not there yet, You're not ready.
Speaker 3: For it, and so God gives it to you in
Speaker 3: twenty four our increments. Think of your life like an
Speaker 3: hour glass. Remember where the sand goes through the hourglass.
Speaker 3: There's all this sand up here, but it goes through
Speaker 3: one grain at a time. You can handle that. You
Speaker 3: can handle one grain a time. You can't handle all
Speaker 3: the sand at once. So it's not going to come
Speaker 3: at you all at once. You're going to hit the
Speaker 3: future one day at a time. You can handle that.
Speaker 3: Why Because the Lord is my shepherd now. Psalm Matthew six,
Speaker 3: verse thirty four says this, I love this. In the
Speaker 3: message a translation, it says this, give your entire attention
Speaker 3: to what God is doing right now, yesterday, not tomorrow,
Speaker 3: Right now, don't get worked up about what may or
Speaker 3: may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with
Speaker 3: whatever hard things come up when the.
Speaker 2: Time comes, when the time comes.
Speaker 3: Now, having said all this, is it possible that worry
Speaker 3: may be one of your most chronic sins. It's unhelpful,
Speaker 3: it's unreasonable, it's unbiblical, it doesn't work, it's irrational, it's unbelief,
Speaker 3: and maybe disease. Say God, I'm sorry. I haven't been
Speaker 3: saying the Lord is my shepherd. I have been saying
Speaker 3: I'm worried.
Speaker 2: I'm worried. Now, let me just add.
Speaker 3: Here, if you struggle with chronic anxiety, and you've had
Speaker 3: it for years and years and years, you need more
Speaker 3: than just this h and you need a care team
Speaker 3: around You need to support team around you. Because if
Speaker 3: you have chronic anxiety, you needed first, you need a doctor.
Speaker 3: You need to go and get some tests on and
Speaker 3: you may need some meds.
Speaker 2: That's okay.
Speaker 3: It's a chemical issue. When people's chemistry is messed up.
Speaker 3: Some people are chronically anxious, like others are chronically angry,
Speaker 3: or others are conically depressed. So you need a doctor
Speaker 3: and you need to go get that. Then second, you
Speaker 3: need a coach, You need a counselor, you need somebody
Speaker 3: to talk with about it. So you need you need
Speaker 3: a doctor, You need a coach, a counsel, counselor. And
Speaker 3: the third thing, you need a support group and uh
Speaker 3: and and you need at least those three things to
Speaker 3: make it through because if you're having a chemical imbalance
Speaker 3: in your mind, and for me to just say, well,
Speaker 3: just trust God, it's like cutting off the wing of
Speaker 3: a bird and say well, just fraw fly and he
Speaker 3: goes all I'll say, and all you want fly fly.
Speaker 3: If it doesn't have a wing, it's not gonna fly.
Speaker 3: And so you might have to get your your brain stabilized. Now,
Speaker 3: let me give you one last principle I want to
Speaker 3: share on this. It's not on your outline, but you
Speaker 3: want you to write it down. God is a good
Speaker 3: shepherd who will give you what you need. And here's
Speaker 3: what I will say. What God gives to me, he
Speaker 3: wants to give through me. What God gives to me,
Speaker 3: he wants to give through me. In other words, everything
Speaker 3: God gives you, he wants you to share with others.
Speaker 3: The Lord is my shepherd. When he meets your needs.
Speaker 3: God wants to use you to meet the needs of
Speaker 3: other people. The fact is, I don't know if you've
Speaker 3: ever realized this, but God is constantly testing how much
Speaker 3: you trust him. Every day of your life. Your faith,
Speaker 3: your trust is being tested by God. He's going to
Speaker 3: see are you going to trust me? And He does
Speaker 3: it in many many ways. By the way, do you
Speaker 3: know what is the number one way God tests your
Speaker 3: trust in your faith?
Speaker 2: Money? Money finances?
Speaker 3: Why, because we spend so much of our life trying
Speaker 3: to earn it, make it, spend it, use it, save it,
Speaker 3: invest it, whatever. And what I've learned is that the
Speaker 3: more you have, the less likely you are to trust God.
Speaker 3: Why because you start trusting your bank account. And this
Speaker 3: is a test. It's a test. But when I meet
Speaker 3: other people's needs with what God has blessed me with,
Speaker 3: God gets extremely happy because God is a generous God,
Speaker 3: and he gives nine promises. I'm going to close with
Speaker 3: a verse you may have never read. It's not on
Speaker 3: your outline, so write it down, because I wont't you
Speaker 3: go home and read this verse again. Isaiah chapter fifty eight.
Speaker 3: Isaiah fifty eight, verses seven to eleven. And in this
Speaker 3: passage God makes some amazing, astounding promises as our shepherd,
Speaker 3: And he says, if you'll do these certain things, I'll
Speaker 3: make sure all of your needs are met.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read it to you.
Speaker 3: Okay, it's up here on the screen Isaiah fifty eight
Speaker 3: seven to eleven. Now he's He starts off with what
Speaker 3: he wants you to do. God says this, I want
Speaker 3: you to share your food with the hungry. Okay, you're
Speaker 3: eating well. He says, I want you to share your
Speaker 3: food with the hungry. Then he says, and I want
Speaker 3: you to welcome the homeless poor into your homes. That
Speaker 3: could even include immigrants. I want you to put clothes
Speaker 3: on those who need them.
Speaker 2: Great, got it.
Speaker 3: And then he says, and I want you to help
Speaker 3: your relatives who need your help. Oh, come on, God,
Speaker 3: the first three I can get. Okay, I don't want
Speaker 3: to help that crazy uncle. He's such a flake. But
Speaker 3: God says, I want you to help your relatives who
Speaker 3: needs your help. This is a test. Then he says,
Speaker 3: if you do these things, and he makes nine promises.
Speaker 3: These are amazing.
Speaker 2: Look at this.
Speaker 3: If you do these things. Number one, my favor will
Speaker 3: shine on you like the morning sun. God smiles on
Speaker 3: your life, your business, your career. Number two, your wounds,
Speaker 3: the things where you're hurting. Your wounds will be quickly
Speaker 3: healed because you're helping somebody else. Number three, I will
Speaker 3: always be with you to save you all right. Number four,
Speaker 3: My presence will protect you on every side. I like that.
Speaker 3: Number five. Fifth promise, when you pray, I will answer you.
Speaker 3: Now he goes back a little more. He says, now,
Speaker 3: I'll do this if you put an end to oppression,
Speaker 3: and that would include racial prejudice and bigotry. Put an
Speaker 3: end depression. And if you stop every gesture of contempt
Speaker 3: of others.
Speaker 2: Including people who are politically different from you.
Speaker 3: Uh oh, he said, you got to stop pointing the
Speaker 3: other side with contempt. If you stop every gesture of
Speaker 3: contempt of others and you indure vicious talk and pointing
Speaker 3: fingers on social media, I just.
Speaker 2: Thought i'd throw that in.
Speaker 3: Okay, he says, Okay, if you stop being such a gripey,
Speaker 3: complaining person, you stop saying they're nuts, they're dumb, they're stupid,
Speaker 3: and I don't care who your favorite group is to
Speaker 3: say that about, he said, If you'll do that, and instead,
Speaker 3: if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry, and
Speaker 3: you take care of the needs of the oppressed, then
Speaker 3: darkness around you will turn into the brightness of noon.
Speaker 3: He said, your light's gonna shine like crazy. And he said,
Speaker 3: and I the Lord will here's the other promises, always
Speaker 3: guide you. And I will satisfy your needs. That's number eight.
Speaker 3: And I will keep you strong and well.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 3: Okay, now, if that's not true, God's a liar. You
Speaker 3: should go home and never come back to church again,
Speaker 3: because I'm not gonna worship of God who's a liar.
Speaker 3: But God has said, if you do these things, I'll
Speaker 3: do these things in your life because I am your shepherd.
Speaker 2: Let's bow our heads.
Speaker 3: Dear God, you are the source of everything we need
Speaker 3: to live, and yet we look everywhere else and there's
Speaker 3: nothing that we need that you can't supply. And it's
Speaker 3: really clear in your word that you do not want
Speaker 3: us to ever ever worry about anything.
Speaker 2: You said it repeatedly.
Speaker 3: You've told us that worry is unreasonable, it doesn't make sense,
Speaker 3: it's illogical, it blows things out of proportion.
Speaker 2: You've told us that worry is unnatural.
Speaker 3: Nothing else that you've created worries everything else in creation
Speaker 3: trusts you. And you told us that worry is unhelpful,
Speaker 3: that it's not going to add a single hour to
Speaker 3: our life, not make us taller or shorter. Cannot change
Speaker 3: the past, cannot control the future. You told us at
Speaker 3: worry is unnecess that you have promised to meet our
Speaker 3: needs if we'll just trust you. And you've told us
Speaker 3: that worry is unbelief. That when we worry, we're actually
Speaker 3: acting like atheists. We're acting like orphans that don't have
Speaker 3: a loving heavenly father, don't have a shepherd. He said,
Speaker 3: don't be worried. Believe in God and believe in Jesus. So, Lord,
Speaker 3: today we want to learn to trust you to meet
Speaker 3: our needs, and we want to practice it this week.
Speaker 2: Now you pray.
Speaker 3: Say God every day. I want to ask you to
Speaker 3: be my shepherd. And if I have to say it
Speaker 3: twenty times a day, the Lord is my shepherd. I'll
Speaker 3: remember that when I worry, you're going to feed, you're
Speaker 3: going to lead, and you're going to meet my need.
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ, I'm going to give you first place in
Speaker 3: every area of my life. Have access to every room
Speaker 3: in my home, no drawer, no you know, closet. No
Speaker 3: room is off limits to you. And whenever I worry,
Speaker 3: help me to realize that that area is an area
Speaker 3: that's not under your control, that I've held it back,
Speaker 3: and that I love it more than I love you.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 3: This week and during this entire series, teach me to
Speaker 3: relax and do not hold onto my worries, not to
Speaker 3: stuff them or repress them, but to confess them. To
Speaker 3: give you my worries in prayer, to not hold on
Speaker 3: to them. Say God, here's a worry. I'm worried about this,
Speaker 3: and give it to you. And then Jesus helped me
Speaker 3: to trust you for one day at a time. Do
Speaker 3: not worry about tomorrow. It'll have enough trouble of its own.
Speaker 3: But depend on your power today to solve today's problems
Speaker 3: and your power tomorrow to solve tomorrow's problems. I just
Speaker 3: want to trust you in every single area. If you've
Speaker 3: never said it before, say Jesus Christ, I want you
Speaker 3: to become the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Jesus
Speaker 3: be the Lord of my life. And I humbly ask
Speaker 3: this in your name.
Speaker 2: I pray. Amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick, to accept
Speaker 1: Jesus in your life. Rick would love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. And now here's
Speaker 1: a closing thought from Pastor Rick.
Speaker 3: God has five purposes for your life. He wants you
Speaker 3: to know and love Him. That's called worship. He wants
Speaker 3: you to belong to his family that's called fellowship. He
Speaker 3: wants you to grow in Him that's called discipleship. He
Speaker 3: wants you to serve Him with your gifts and talents.
Speaker 3: That's your ministry. And he wants you to share the
Speaker 3: good News with other people. That's your mission. Now today,
Speaker 3: as we close, I want to talk to you about
Speaker 3: the third purpose, discipleship or personal growth. How do we
Speaker 3: grow well, we grow through the nourishment of God's Word.
Speaker 3: It's how we get to know God. To know God's
Speaker 3: Word is to know God's will. God's Word is the
Speaker 3: source of God's will. And God's ultimate goal for your
Speaker 3: life is for you to become like Jesus Christ. To
Speaker 3: do that, you have to fill your life with the
Speaker 3: word of Jesus Christ. Two Timothy three seventeen says through
Speaker 3: the Word, we're put together and shaped for the tasks
Speaker 3: that God asked for us. I remember in the Old Testament,
Speaker 3: the Bible says that job treasured God's Word more than
Speaker 3: his daily bread. That's how I want you to treat
Speaker 3: God's Word. That's how you grow in discipleship. Get into
Speaker 3: His word every day, study it, memorize it, and meditate
Speaker 3: on it. Apply it. Never take it for granted. God's
Speaker 3: word is as essential to your soul as food is
Speaker 3: to your body. So get into the Word today. God
Speaker 3: bless you.
Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's Word for our day Daily Hope. This program
Speaker 1: is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous
Speaker 1: financial support.