Speaker 2: Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. I'm
Speaker 1: really glad you're here today. We're continuing our series from
Speaker 1: Psalm twenty three called living in the Goodness of God.
Speaker 1: It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where
Speaker 1: you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. And
Speaker 1: as we get started, here's part one of a message
Speaker 1: called how God's Goodness can restore you.
Speaker 2: Welcome to part four in this series through Psalm twenty
Speaker 2: three that we're calling living in God's Goodness. Now, you know,
Speaker 2: it would really be a waste of us for us
Speaker 2: to study Psalm twenty three and not memorize it. Oh,
Speaker 2: it's only six verses and you've heard it all your life,
Speaker 2: so you need to get this down. But I want
Speaker 2: you to take your outline and let's just read the
Speaker 2: first three verses, allow together. Okay, The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 2: Let's start over. The Lord is my shepherd. I have
Speaker 2: everything I need, now stop there. The original King James
Speaker 2: version says I shall not want, but literally it means
Speaker 2: in the Hebrew and which was RIGI written? And I
Speaker 2: don't lack anything. I have all I need and almost
Speaker 2: every modern translation translated the Lord is my shepherd. I
Speaker 2: have everything that I need. Okay, so let's say that
Speaker 2: one again, The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything
Speaker 2: that I need. Okay. Now you already know one verse.
Speaker 2: So turn to the person. Actually, you say, you're brilliant. Okay,
Speaker 2: you're brilliant. You got one verse down. These are not
Speaker 2: long verses anyway. Now let's read verse two. He makes
Speaker 2: me lie down in green pastures. He leaves me beside
Speaker 2: still waters. All right, and then the next line is
Speaker 2: the beginning of verse three. So let's read that. He
Speaker 2: restores my soul. Now what you just read talks about
Speaker 2: what the good Shepherd, your heavenly father, and Jesus calls
Speaker 2: himself the good Shepherd wants to do in your life.
Speaker 2: And he says, I want to give you rest and
Speaker 2: I want to give you refreshment, and I want to
Speaker 2: give you restoration. He says, first, I want to give
Speaker 2: you rest. He makes me lie down, and he says, first,
Speaker 2: I want to give you rest, And he says, I'm
Speaker 2: want to give you a refreshment. He leaves me beside
Speaker 2: still waters, quiet waters. You know, it's why people like
Speaker 2: to go to parks and sit by a lake. It
Speaker 2: has a trinquile ising effect in your life. And then
Speaker 2: he says, he restores my soul. So rest refreshment and restoration.
Speaker 2: This weekend, we're going to look at the third. But
Speaker 2: let's get into it right here at the beginning. Now,
Speaker 2: he says, he restores my soul. What does that mean? First?
Speaker 2: What's your soul? What is your soul? Well, the Bible
Speaker 2: says that you have a spirit, you have a soul,
Speaker 2: and you have a body, just like the tabernacle in
Speaker 2: the Temple, where a three part dwelling place of God,
Speaker 2: the inner Court, the outer Court, and the Holy of Holies.
Speaker 2: God dwells in you in three parts, in your spirit,
Speaker 2: in your soul, and in your body. What's the difference
Speaker 2: between your spirit and your soul? Well, the Bible even
Speaker 2: says itself that only the Bible can discern the difference.
Speaker 2: That it is the word of God that is sharper
Speaker 2: than a two edged sword, dividing even asunder a soul
Speaker 2: and spirit. And so I don't want to get into that,
Speaker 2: but I do want to tell you what your soul is.
Speaker 2: Your soul is your mind. It is your will and
Speaker 2: is your motion. So why don't you write this down
Speaker 2: if you're taking notes. My soul is the part of
Speaker 2: me that thinks, chooses, and feels. My soul is the
Speaker 2: part of me that thinks, that chooses, and that feels.
Speaker 2: It's your mind, it's your will, and your emotion. Now,
Speaker 2: if you don't have a soul, you don't have a
Speaker 2: whole lot. But these three parts of who you are,
Speaker 2: the way you think, the way you feel, and the
Speaker 2: choices that you make your mind, will, and your emotions
Speaker 2: really determine who you are. And it's very easy to
Speaker 2: get these damaged. Can your mind be damaged? Of course
Speaker 2: it can. Yeah, by what you put in it, by experiences,
Speaker 2: by trauma, chemistry, all kinds of things. Your mind can
Speaker 2: be damaged. You don't always think straight, and neither do I.
Speaker 2: And how about your emotions? Can your emotions be damaged? Yes?
Speaker 2: Your emotions can get raw, you can get depleted emotionally,
Speaker 2: you can be out of emotion, you could be over emotional.
Speaker 2: And yes, our minds are broken, our emotions are broken.
Speaker 2: And actually, can your will be broken? Yes? Can it
Speaker 2: be damaged? Yes? Have you ever had a chance to
Speaker 2: look at your life and you think, I really know
Speaker 2: the right thing to do, and I want to do
Speaker 2: the right thing, but I never do choose it because
Speaker 2: our choosers are broken. Our choosers are broken. We're all
Speaker 2: flawed in many ways, and that's why there are addictions.
Speaker 2: And that's why you do things that you don't want
Speaker 2: to do, and you don't do things that you want
Speaker 2: to do. That's part of your will power doesn't always work.
Speaker 2: How many agree, willpower doesn't always work. Yeah, right. And
Speaker 2: so when we talk about our soul, the way we think,
Speaker 2: the way we feel, and the way we choose the
Speaker 2: decisions that we make, God says, I want to restore
Speaker 2: that in your life. I want to restore you to wholeness.
Speaker 2: I want to restore your mind and will and emotions
Speaker 2: to health. That's one of the things the good shepherd
Speaker 2: does for the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd. I
Speaker 2: have everything I need well. Sometimes I need to think straighter,
Speaker 2: and sometimes I need to feel correctly because my emotions
Speaker 2: aren't always right. Sometimes they lie. And sometimes I need
Speaker 2: my will fixed because I don't have enough willpower to
Speaker 2: do what I need to do. Now, what is it
Speaker 2: that damages your soul? What I want us to do
Speaker 2: this week? And is ask a couple questions, what damage
Speaker 2: is our soul? Because you can't get it restored unless
Speaker 2: you know what's causing the problem. What damages my soul?
Speaker 2: We'll look at that, and then we're going to look
Speaker 2: at what Jesus does to restore it. How does Jesus
Speaker 2: restore right thinking, right feeling, and right deciding? And then
Speaker 2: finally we'll look at, just very briefly, how do I
Speaker 2: make the right decisions to let my soul be restored?
Speaker 2: In other words, what's my response to what God wants
Speaker 2: to do in my life? Okay, now let's begin with
Speaker 2: what is it that damages your soul? Why don't you
Speaker 2: always think right? Why don't you always feel right? And
Speaker 2: why don't you always choose right? There are many things
Speaker 2: that could damage your soul, but I want to focus
Speaker 2: on the three most common, three most common. You might
Speaker 2: write these down. Number one. The first thing that damages
Speaker 2: the way you think, the way you feel, and the
Speaker 2: way you decide is under or unaddressed grudges. Unaddressed grudges
Speaker 2: when you get resentful, when you get bitter, when you
Speaker 2: start thinking about retaliation or revenge in somebody who's hurt you.
Speaker 2: It damages your soul. Now, there are a lot of
Speaker 2: verses about this, but let me first talk about the background.
Speaker 2: The fact is, in life you're going to be hurt.
Speaker 2: Why this is not heaven, this is earth, and we're
Speaker 2: all broken people, we're all imperfect. Sometimes we hurt each
Speaker 2: other intentionally, sometimes we hurt each other unintentionally. But the
Speaker 2: truth is you're going to be hurt in life. And
Speaker 2: sometimes people hurt you and sometimes you hurt them, and
Speaker 2: so when that happens, we start to build up grudges. Now,
Speaker 2: let me just start at the bedrock. Life is not fair.
Speaker 2: God never said that life would be fair. This is
Speaker 2: not heaven, where everything has done perfectly. God's will is
Speaker 2: always done instantly, perfectly and completely. On earth, a lot
Speaker 2: of times we choose not to do God's will. That's
Speaker 2: called sin. And because life is in fair, the Bible
Speaker 2: tells us that innocent people suffer. This is not something new.
Speaker 2: Everybody can see it. That good guys don't always win,
Speaker 2: bad guys often are successful. That there is injustice in
Speaker 2: the world, there's racism in the world, there's prejudice in
Speaker 2: the world, there is unfairness in the world, and every
Speaker 2: one of us in different ways have experienced unfairness or
Speaker 2: prejudice or treatment against you in some way, and you
Speaker 2: shouldn't be surprised by that because the world is broken.
Speaker 2: Everything is broken. What I'm interested in is not so
Speaker 2: much the fact that you're going to be heard in life.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry for it, But what I'm more interested in
Speaker 2: is how you respond to it, because your response to
Speaker 2: how you get hurt in life is far more important
Speaker 2: than the hurts you have, because they can either make
Speaker 2: you bitter or they can make you better. And when
Speaker 2: God wants to restore your soul, he wants to take
Speaker 2: all of the bitter things in your life and turn
Speaker 2: them into better things in your life. We'll come to
Speaker 2: that in just a minute now. When you have grudges
Speaker 2: when people hurt you, you can either let it go
Speaker 2: or you can start dwelling on it and stewing and
Speaker 2: spewing and worrying about all things, and you start planning
Speaker 2: how to retaliate, how to resent them, how to get
Speaker 2: even with them. When somebody hurts you, that puts them
Speaker 2: beneath you morally when they hurt you, But when you
Speaker 2: try to get even, it just puts you on the
Speaker 2: same level. You know better than they are. When you
Speaker 2: let it go and you forgive them, it actually puts
Speaker 2: you in a superior position. You don't want ever get
Speaker 2: even with people because that means you're the same as
Speaker 2: they are. If you get even with them, you're no
Speaker 2: better than they are. So what do you do when
Speaker 2: you're hurt? Resent? Retaliate, sec revenge? No, no, you don't
Speaker 2: let me show you why. A couple verses Job five,
Speaker 2: verse two says this, to worry yourself to death with
Speaker 2: resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do, And
Speaker 2: in Job eighteen, verse four, it says this, you're only
Speaker 2: hurting yourself with your anger. You're only hurting yourself. We've
Speaker 2: talked about this many times, that when you hold on
Speaker 2: to a grudge, it's not hurting them, it's only hurting you.
Speaker 2: They're out there having a good time. They're watching movies,
Speaker 2: they're going to nice restaurants, they're, you know, going to
Speaker 2: ball games, having a whole lot of fun. They're totally oblivious.
Speaker 2: Who gets hurt when you're resentful? You do. It's like
Speaker 2: drinking poison and hoping it kills them. It is like
Speaker 2: taking fire into your you know, in your stomach or
Speaker 2: your chest and hoping they get burned. Resentment is worthless.
Speaker 2: He says, to worry yourself to death with resentment would
Speaker 2: be a foolish thing to do. Now, the Bible does
Speaker 2: say that one day God's going to even the score.
Speaker 2: The Bible says that there is a judgment day and
Speaker 2: that God is not just a loving God, He's a
Speaker 2: just God. If God was not a just God, people
Speaker 2: like Hitler could get away with everything they did. I'm
Speaker 2: glad that God is aust God. Now you can get
Speaker 2: around that judgment by accepting the grace of God and
Speaker 2: accepting the salvation that Jesus Christ paid for your sins.
Speaker 2: But there is going to be a judgment day for everybody,
Speaker 2: and God is going to be just in measuring out
Speaker 2: what people deserve based on their sinfulness. God says, I
Speaker 2: don't want you to have to go through the judgment.
Speaker 2: God doesn't like to judge. He likes to show mercy
Speaker 2: all through scripture. God is very patient, and God is
Speaker 2: very reluctant to judge, and he'll wait and wait and
Speaker 2: wait and wait before he judges a nation or person
Speaker 2: things like that. He'd rather be merciful. But there is
Speaker 2: a judgment coming one day, and God is going to
Speaker 2: even the odds and people who were mistreated and misjudged
Speaker 2: and treated unfairly. There will be an equaling out, a
Speaker 2: time of justice. But that's not your job. If you
Speaker 2: try to show justice yourself and you take matters in
Speaker 2: your hands and get revenge, God says, fine, that's all
Speaker 2: we're going to do on that. So what do you
Speaker 2: do in the meantime? You let it go? You see,
Speaker 2: But Rick, you don't know how much they've hurt me.
Speaker 2: You let it go. Why not because they deserve it?
Speaker 2: They don't. You don't deserve to be forgiven. You don't
Speaker 2: deserve to be forgiven at all, either, But God has
Speaker 2: forgiven you. You forgive people not because they deserve it.
Speaker 2: You forgive people because you don't want to carry the
Speaker 2: pain around anymore. You don't want to be stuck with
Speaker 2: unaddressed grudges because it's not going to hurt them. It's
Speaker 2: only going to hurt you, you know. Martin Luther King
Speaker 2: Wants said, bitterness is blindness. Bitterness is blindness, And I
Speaker 2: like that because when I get bitter against somebody over here,
Speaker 2: I get blind A whole lot of other things I
Speaker 2: get blind to how much God has done good in
Speaker 2: my life. I get blind to the truth. I get
Speaker 2: blind to all the needs of people around me. I'll
Speaker 2: just say this, You're never gonna stop hurting. Your soul
Speaker 2: will not be restored until you learn to forgive and
Speaker 2: let it go. You gotta drop it. We'll come back
Speaker 2: that in a minute. The second thing that destroys your
Speaker 2: soul from the inside, I said first unaddressed grudges. The
Speaker 2: second is unconfessed guilt. Grudges and guilt are two of
Speaker 2: the biggest things that warp your soul. And grudges have
Speaker 2: to do with what people have done to you, and
Speaker 2: guilt is what you've done to other people. And we
Speaker 2: have both. We've heard others and other people have heard us,
Speaker 2: And so unconfessed guilt. Nothing damages your life more, your
Speaker 2: soul more. Nothing will rob your happiness quicker than to
Speaker 2: go around carrying a load of guilt. A lot of
Speaker 2: people have a misconception of God. They think that God
Speaker 2: wants us to walk around feeling guilty. He does not.
Speaker 2: God hates guilt. In fact, God loves to forgive guilt.
Speaker 2: God doesn't want you to be guilty all the time.
Speaker 2: In fact, he didn't make your body to handle guilt.
Speaker 2: You should only handle guilt for about five seconds. That's
Speaker 2: long enough to realize that was wrong. And I confessed
Speaker 2: it to God and I let it go. You don't
Speaker 2: carry all your sins around in your life unconfessed. If
Speaker 2: you do that, it's like carrying a garbage bag of
Speaker 2: junk with you into the each new year. Many years ago,
Speaker 2: I remember there was a couple in our church who
Speaker 2: they are singles, and they found each other in our
Speaker 2: church and they got married. And that's when the church
Speaker 2: was much smaller, and I actually was able to do
Speaker 2: their wedding. About ten years later, they came back and
Speaker 2: they said, can we take you out to dinner? And
Speaker 2: we had a dinner with them, and I said, so,
Speaker 2: tell me what's happened in the last ten years. And
Speaker 2: I remember the woman told me, she said, you know, Rick,
Speaker 2: I never realized that when I was walking down that
Speaker 2: aisle in that beautiful white dress, that I was carrying
Speaker 2: a sack of garbage with me into this marriage. We
Speaker 2: all do that. I listen closely. Marriage does not create problems.
Speaker 2: It reveals them. It reveals them and the things that
Speaker 2: need correcting in your life show up real quick when
Speaker 2: somebody else is living with you and what needs correcting,
Speaker 2: and their life shows up real quick when they live
Speaker 2: with you. Marriage doesn't create problems, it reveals things that
Speaker 2: need to be worked onne. And the purpose of marriage
Speaker 2: is not just to make you happy, to make you holy.
Speaker 2: And the number one tool if you're married, the number
Speaker 2: one tool that God uses in your life is your spouse's. Oh, brother,
Speaker 2: my spouse isn't even a believer. It doesn't matter. God
Speaker 2: will still use them in your life. And so we
Speaker 2: start having guilt over all of the things that we've
Speaker 2: done to other people. Look at this verse Psalm thirty eight,
Speaker 2: David talks about guilt. He says, my guilt has overwhelmed
Speaker 2: me like a burden too heavy to bear. God doesn't
Speaker 2: want you to carry that around. I'm bowed, bowed below down,
Speaker 2: and I've brought low, and all day long I go
Speaker 2: about mourning. Now there's a couple problems with guilt. One
Speaker 2: of them is every one of us have a good
Speaker 2: reason to have it. It's legit because we don't always
Speaker 2: do what's right. We always hurt other people, we do
Speaker 2: selfish things. I don't know if it bothers you, but
Speaker 2: it bothers me. I often say the most unkind things
Speaker 2: to the people I love the most, and just being
Speaker 2: honest with you, yeah, that ever happened to any of you?
Speaker 2: Are you all so holy? Oh? No? I never say
Speaker 2: anything mean to my kids or my spouse. Yeah right, yeah?
Speaker 2: Why is that? Because at root we're selfish. I want
Speaker 2: what I want when I want it, and your spouse
Speaker 2: wants what they want when they want it. And when
Speaker 2: two very self centered people get together, it's going to
Speaker 2: cause problems, and that creates guilt. And you cannot have
Speaker 2: two imperfect people and all of a sudden they're going
Speaker 2: in the same direction and they're going to create a
Speaker 2: perfect relationship. There are no perfect relationships. And that's why
Speaker 2: we need forgiveness, because I'm confessed guilt causes a lot
Speaker 2: of problem. Now look at this verse Proverbs twenty. Verse
Speaker 2: twenty seven tells us the other reason why we have
Speaker 2: problem with guilt. It's because we run from our own
Speaker 2: con Proverbs verse twenty seven. The Lord gave us a
Speaker 2: mind and a conscience, and we can't hide from ourselves.
Speaker 2: You see, you can hide all kinds of stuff from me,
Speaker 2: and I'll never know about it. You might even hide
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of things from a friend or your boss,
Speaker 2: or your spouse or your kids, but you're not hiding
Speaker 2: anything from God. And not only that, you're not hiding
Speaker 2: anything from yourself. And when you try to hide it,
Speaker 2: it just starts eating you on the inside. Because the
Speaker 2: Lord gave us a mind and a conscience, we can't
Speaker 2: hide from ourselves. And if you think, well, you know,
Speaker 2: I just feel bad, I'm going to go to you know,
Speaker 2: take a vacation, but you take yourself on vacation, and
Speaker 2: so you take that same stress that's in your mind,
Speaker 2: the grudges you have toward other people, and the guilt
Speaker 2: that you have about the stuff you've done wrong. Now,
Speaker 2: what do you do with guilt? What do you do
Speaker 2: with gilt? Well, the answer is the same thing as grudges,
Speaker 2: and it's forgiveness. And grudges you got to forgive them.
Speaker 2: But in guilt, you've got to ask God for forgiveness.
Speaker 2: Then you've got to forgive yourself. Now, normally we do
Speaker 2: everything except that. Let me show you all the ways
Speaker 2: that don't work and why our soul, the way we think,
Speaker 2: the way we feel, the way we choose is often
Speaker 2: broken because when you feel guilty, you don't make smart decisions,
Speaker 2: and neither do I. Now, sometimes we just try to
Speaker 2: deny our guilt. We just pretend like it doesn't exist.
Speaker 2: And what we do in denial is we just try
Speaker 2: to pretend that it doesn't exist, and we say, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to bury my past. You know. The
Speaker 2: problem with bearing your past it resurrects itself at the
Speaker 2: most inopportune times, and it comes back, and it resurrects,
Speaker 2: and it comes back to haunt you like the living dead,
Speaker 2: and something that happened twenty years ago, all of a
Speaker 2: sudden it's back in your face again. So denial doesn't work.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we just try to minimize it. And when we
Speaker 2: minimize our guilt, it's kind of like, well, it's no
Speaker 2: big deal. I mean, everybody else does it. You know,
Speaker 2: it wasn't that bad. It's just a little teeny tiny,
Speaker 2: teeny tiny sin. Well if it's so tiny, why do
Speaker 2: you still remember it? Wow?
Speaker 1: Some powerful words from pastor Rick today. And now this
Speaker 1: is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.
Speaker 1: This is letters from our listeners and now here's Rick.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody today, I want to share a very powerful
Speaker 2: letter from a listener named Michael. Michael experienced terrible trauma
Speaker 2: as a child, but he says that Daily Hope is
Speaker 2: helping him overcome his past and now he's looking to
Speaker 2: the future with his kids. Let me read you just
Speaker 2: a little bit of Michael's story. Dear Pastor Rick, you
Speaker 2: and Daily Hope have brought God into my life and
Speaker 2: it has saved me. I am a twenty nine year
Speaker 2: old father of five children, and I try my hardest
Speaker 2: to teach my children to know God and to love
Speaker 2: Jesus and how to pray. And I do my best
Speaker 2: to be a good example and be worthy of all
Speaker 2: the good gifts that God has given to me. But
Speaker 2: you know, because of my childhood and the insecurities and
Speaker 2: abandonment issues that were created in my life from years
Speaker 2: of mental abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and yes, even
Speaker 2: sexual abuse, I've always had a hard time trusting God.
Speaker 2: I woke up every day feeling unworthy, and I suffered
Speaker 2: from feelings of anxiety and depression, and I felt like
Speaker 2: God couldn't possibly love me because no one else had
Speaker 2: ever loved me. And I carried that pain inside of
Speaker 2: me for so long craving for a close, better, intimate
Speaker 2: relationship with God. Now listening to Daily Hope has helped
Speaker 2: me achieve that and more. Not only better, but I'm
Speaker 2: now better for everybody else around me. Spreading all that
Speaker 2: I've learned and the good news of Jesus Christ. I
Speaker 2: know God better than ever and I now have more
Speaker 2: faith than I ever knew possible because I feel His love.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Daily Hope does such a great
Speaker 2: work in the name of Jesus, and I will forever
Speaker 2: be in your debt for bringing the fire of faith
Speaker 2: into my heart and helping me know God. I love you,
Speaker 2: and I hope you continue to bring change in the
Speaker 2: world through the message of Jesus Christ. You know, Michael,
Speaker 2: I absolutely love how you're teaching your five kids to
Speaker 2: know Jesus that is a real man, a real dad,
Speaker 2: a real father. It's so important to pass it on
Speaker 2: to the next generation, and I'm encouraged that Daily Hope
Speaker 2: is helping you with the trauma of all your past
Speaker 2: and helping you work through those issues and keeping you
Speaker 2: growing in the love of Jesus Christ. You know, stories
Speaker 2: like the one you wrote to me are what keep
Speaker 2: me going. It's why we do this change lives now.
Speaker 2: I want to pray for you. I want to pray,
Speaker 2: Dear Lord, pour out your love on Michael. Help him
Speaker 2: to sense your love so that he never doubts it.
Speaker 2: Pour out your blessing and your peace on his family.
Speaker 2: I pray that they will continue to grow in their
Speaker 2: faith and that they will experience the peace that passes
Speaker 2: understanding as they follow you God. I want to thank
Speaker 2: you for his faithfulness in Jesus name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 2: You know if God is blessing you through Daily Hope,
Speaker 2: would you share your story with me? Write me rickat
Speaker 2: pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's word for our daily hope. This program is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial
Speaker 1: support