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 how to Get Through what You're going Through. In
Speaker 1: this study, Pastor Rick and Kay Warren share biblical wisdom
Speaker 1: and their life experiences to help you find God's path
Speaker 1: to peace in even the most difficult seasons of life. First,
Speaker 1: if you are someone you know needs some powerful Bible
Speaker 1: based encouragement, then stay with us because in a few
Speaker 1: minutes we're going to tell you about the Journey Toward
Speaker 1: Hope guided Bible study. It's full of encouraging Bible verses, exercises,
Speaker 1: and journaling pages to help you draw close to God
Speaker 1: and renew your sense of hope. You can find out
Speaker 1: more by going to Pastorick dot com while you listen
Speaker 1: to today's message, or just text the word Daily to eight
Speaker 1: hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's pastorrig dot com.
Speaker 1: Or just text the word Daily to eight hundred six
Speaker 1: hundred five thousand and four. Right now, here's Pastor Rick
Speaker 1: with part one of a message called how We're Getting Through.
Speaker 2: Since mental illness took Matthew's life, one of the passages
Speaker 2: of the bible that has encouraged me the most, the
Speaker 2: Second Corinthians, Chapter one. I want to begin with it today.
Speaker 2: It's there in your outline Verses three to eleven. Praise
Speaker 2: be to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
Speaker 2: the father of all compassion and the God of all comfort,
Speaker 2: who comforts us in our troubles, so that we can
Speaker 2: comfort others with the same comfort that we've received from God.
Speaker 2: In other words, we go through problems, God comforts us,
Speaker 2: and then we pass it on. For just as the
Speaker 2: sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also
Speaker 2: through Christ, our comfort overflows. If we're distressed, it's for
Speaker 2: your salvation, and if we're comforted, it's for your comfort.
Speaker 3: Our hope. Now, I want you to notice a sentence.
Speaker 2: Our hope for you is firm because we know we're.
Speaker 3: Going to come back to that.
Speaker 2: Our hope is firm because we know our hope for
Speaker 2: you is firm, because we know that just as you
Speaker 2: have shared in our sufferings, so also you will share
Speaker 2: in our comfort. Now, we don't want you to be uninformed,
Speaker 2: brothers and says about the hardships that we have suffered.
Speaker 2: We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure.
Speaker 2: This is Paul talking here far beyond our ability to dure,
Speaker 2: so that we despaired even of life itself. In other words,
Speaker 2: I'm so depressed. I'm ready to kick the bucket. I'm
Speaker 2: ready to throw in the towel. I'm ready to give
Speaker 2: up and die. That's depression. We despaired even of life itself. Indeed,
Speaker 2: in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But
Speaker 2: but but this happened so that we might not rely
Speaker 2: on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead, and
Speaker 2: he has delivered us, and we've set our hope on him,
Speaker 2: that he will continue.
Speaker 3: To deliver us.
Speaker 2: As you help us, As you help us by your prayers.
Speaker 2: Then Paul says, many will give thanks to God for
Speaker 2: the gracious favor granted to us an answer to your
Speaker 2: many prayers.
Speaker 3: I love that last sentence.
Speaker 2: Then many will give thanks to God for the gracious
Speaker 2: favor granted to us in answer to your many prayers.
Speaker 2: Now let's go back to the text. Look at that
Speaker 2: on your outline, and I want you to circle three phrases.
Speaker 2: I put them in caps. Our hope is firm because
Speaker 2: we know would you circle those Our hope is firm
Speaker 2: because we know. What I want to say is that
Speaker 2: what you know is what you get what gets you
Speaker 2: through in life. You might write that down. What you
Speaker 2: know is what gets you through. If you don't know
Speaker 2: the right things, when the rogue winds of life come
Speaker 2: and the tsunamis of life come, you're gonna fall over,
Speaker 2: You're gonna cave, you're gonna crumble, And when the great
Speaker 2: tragedies and the losses of life, which are inevitable.
Speaker 3: Come into your life.
Speaker 2: If you don't know the right truths, you're not gonna
Speaker 2: stand spiritually strong.
Speaker 3: What you know is what gets you through.
Speaker 2: Probably the question I've been asked more than the other
Speaker 2: question is how is your family getting through this?
Speaker 3: And the answer is it's because of what we know.
Speaker 2: Because our lives are not built on the shifting sands
Speaker 2: of popularity and popular culture.
Speaker 3: Which changes every month.
Speaker 2: But our lives are built on rock solid bedrock truth
Speaker 2: of the Bible, so that no matter what hits us,
Speaker 2: we have a solid foundation. We know some unchanged Today,
Speaker 2: I want to just mention three of those truths if
Speaker 2: ever you need it to take notes.
Speaker 3: It's this week.
Speaker 1: You're listening to pastor Rick's Daily Hope rip 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: Life can sometimes be challenging, isolating, and painful. Do you
Speaker 4: or someone you know need some powerful encouragement right now,
Speaker 4: then let me tell you about the Journey Toward Hope.
Speaker 4: This guided Bible study book takes you on a journey
Speaker 4: to discover the five truths about who you are. You
Speaker 4: are loved, you have a purpose, you belong, you have
Speaker 4: a choice, and you are needed. This full color, vegan
Speaker 4: leather study tool is filled with scriptures, prayers, exercises, spaces
Speaker 4: to journal, and a personal stories to help you uncover
Speaker 4: the hidden reasons you may lose hope and teach you
Speaker 4: how to maintain and bolster that hope for a lifetime.
Speaker 4: Will send you your very own copy of Journey Toward
Speaker 4: Hope when you give a gift today to Daily Hope
Speaker 4: to take the Hope of Jesus to a hurting world.
Speaker 4: Just go to Pastororik dot com right now to get
Speaker 4: your copy, or you can call eight hundred, six hundred
Speaker 4: at five zero zero four. That's Pastorick dot com. Or
Speaker 4: call eight hundred at six hundred five zero zero four
Speaker 4: and be sure to let us know the call letters
Speaker 4: of this station. Thank you so much for your support.
Speaker 1: Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: Now, I don't like to say this is your pastor
Speaker 2: because I love you, but you're gonna go through tough
Speaker 2: times and you too will experience major losses in life.
Speaker 2: There is no growth without change. There is no change
Speaker 2: without loss. There is no loss without pain, and there
Speaker 2: is no pain without grief. You're going to go through
Speaker 2: losses in life, and you need to know these things
Speaker 2: that we're going to talk about this morning, and you
Speaker 2: need to remember them to make it through. How do
Speaker 2: you get through what you're going through? Let's get right
Speaker 2: into it.
Speaker 3: Number one.
Speaker 2: The first thing we know is this. We know that
Speaker 2: life doesn't make sense. We know that life doesn't make sense,
Speaker 2: but we know we can have peace because we know
Speaker 2: God is with us and he loves us.
Speaker 5: Life doesn't make.
Speaker 2: Sense, but we can still have peace because we know
Speaker 2: God is with us and God loves us. Now you
Speaker 2: have noticed, I'm sure that life is often confusing. There
Speaker 2: are a lot more questions and answers, and there are
Speaker 2: a lot of unanswered questions.
Speaker 3: And the truth is.
Speaker 2: We simply don't know why things happen the way they do,
Speaker 2: and we're not gonna know.
Speaker 3: But we're always asking the.
Speaker 2: Question, why, why is this happening? Why is this happening now?
Speaker 2: Why is this happening to me?
Speaker 5: Why? Why?
Speaker 2: Why did my husband walk out on me? Why did
Speaker 2: my wife die of cancer? Why did I lose my job?
Speaker 2: Why didn't I get that promotion? Why was my baby
Speaker 2: born with mental illness? And we're not going to know
Speaker 2: on this side of eternity the answer to those white questions,
Speaker 2: You're just not going to know. Life does not make
Speaker 2: sense when you just look at it. Bad people prosper,
Speaker 2: good people suffer, and all kinds of different things happen.
Speaker 2: You know, in my grieving, I'm not just grieving, but
Speaker 2: I'm observing my own grief because I'm a teacher. And
Speaker 2: as I looked at what I was going through, I
Speaker 2: could see six discernible stages of reaction to loss. You
Speaker 2: might to write these down because you're going to go
Speaker 2: through them, and you can go through them all at once, and.
Speaker 3: You can go back and forth.
Speaker 2: But here are the stages, what I call the six
Speaker 2: stages of loss. Now, the first one is shock, shock,
Speaker 2: and your world has just thrown upside down. You lose
Speaker 2: your job, you're in shock. A loved one dies, you're
Speaker 2: in shock. The shock over Matthew's suicide lasted not days,
Speaker 2: It lasted at least a month. In my life, at
Speaker 2: least a month, and I was in shock for a month.
Speaker 2: But then you move to stage two, which I call sorrow.
Speaker 2: You move from shock to sorrow, and now you begin
Speaker 2: to grieve. Now, sorrow is a godly emotion. Shock is
Speaker 2: a purely human emotion. God has never shocked because God
Speaker 2: knows everything, so God never goes wow.
Speaker 3: I didn't see that one coming. So God has never shocked.
Speaker 2: That's a human emotion. But sorrow is a godly emotion.
Speaker 2: The Bible says God grieves. The only reason you're able
Speaker 2: to grieve is because you're made in the image of God.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, Jesus wept. The Bible says Jesus was
Speaker 2: a man acquainted with sorrows. He understood sorrow. Grieving is
Speaker 2: a good thing. Grieving is the way we get through
Speaker 2: the transitions of life. Then you move from shock to sorrow.
Speaker 2: And the third stage is struggle now, and struggle is
Speaker 2: where you ask the why questions, Why?
Speaker 5: Why? Why me? Why now? Why this?
Speaker 3: Why did this happen? And not now? You're not going
Speaker 3: to get the answers.
Speaker 2: To the wise, but it's still okay to ask them.
Speaker 2: Even Jesus asked why. On the cross, Jesus cries out,
Speaker 2: my God, my God, why, Even Jesus asked the why
Speaker 2: question because we don't always know what's going on in
Speaker 2: that moment. So it's okay to ask why. But the
Speaker 2: test of your faith is what do you do when
Speaker 2: you don't get the answer, because you're not going to
Speaker 2: get it. The fourth phrase is if you want to
Speaker 2: get out of the struggle into peace, you've got to
Speaker 2: go to stage which I call surrender. And in surrender,
Speaker 2: it's where you just stop asking and start submitting and
Speaker 2: start surrendering and start accepting. Surrender is the only path
Speaker 2: to peace. It is the only path to peace. And
Speaker 2: you just say, you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 2: give it up. I'm gonna give it up. Then you
Speaker 2: come to stage five. This is a big Bible word,
Speaker 2: but it's the word sanctification. Sanctification is when God starts
Speaker 2: bringing good out of bad, When God starts making changes
Speaker 2: in you, when your personality, when your character starts being
Speaker 2: transformed like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly.
Speaker 2: Sanctification is when God makes you more godly. Now you're
Speaker 2: never gonna be God. You're never gonna be a God,
Speaker 2: not even a little God. You'll say, you know, a
Speaker 2: New Age movement says you're a god. Oh really, if
Speaker 2: you're a God, why don't you solve all the world's problems.
Speaker 2: You can't even solve your own. You're not a God,
Speaker 2: You're not even a mini me God. But you can
Speaker 2: become godly where you become more like God in love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithful.
Speaker 2: That's all those qualities the fruit of the spirit. And
Speaker 2: then once you get into the sanctification where God is
Speaker 2: working on you, then you come to stage six, which
Speaker 2: is service. And it's this God wants to take your
Speaker 2: greatest pain and turn it into your life message. He
Speaker 2: wants to use your mess for a message. He wants
Speaker 2: to use your test for a testimony. He wants to
Speaker 2: take the thing that you're most embarrassed about, that you're
Speaker 2: most ashamed of, that you most regret hadn't happened, and
Speaker 2: He wants to use it for good in the lives
Speaker 2: of others. Who can better help someone parents of a
Speaker 2: down syndrome child than parents who had a down syndrome child,
Speaker 2: Who could better help somebody struggling with an addiction than
Speaker 2: somebody who struggled with an addiction. The very thing you
Speaker 2: want to least talk about is the very thing God
Speaker 2: wants to use most in your life to help other people.
Speaker 2: Your ministry comes out of your pain. Now we're in the.
Speaker 5: Next six weeks.
Speaker 2: We're going to look at each of these stages individually
Speaker 2: in detail. But what I want you to get today
Speaker 2: is this one concept. No matter what stage you're in,
Speaker 2: you're not in it by yourself. You're not alone. God
Speaker 2: is with you, and God loves you. And that's why
Speaker 2: we can have peace even when life doesn't make sense
Speaker 2: because God is with me and God loves me. You're
Speaker 2: not going to go through any of these stages on
Speaker 2: your own. There are over six thousand promises in the Bible.
Speaker 2: Let me just show you a few of them. The
Speaker 2: first one is Isaiah chapter forty three, Verse two. God
Speaker 2: says this, when you go through deep waters, I will
Speaker 2: be with you. When you pass through rivers of difficulty,
Speaker 2: you will not drown. When you walk through the fire,
Speaker 2: you will not be burned up. It will not consume you.
Speaker 2: Somebody asked Kay about two weeks after Matthew died, how
Speaker 2: are you doing? She said, We're devastated, but not destroyed.
Speaker 2: It will not consume you. It will not consume you.
Speaker 5: Know.
Speaker 2: For twenty seven years, I prayed every day that God
Speaker 2: would heal the mental illness of my son because he
Speaker 2: lived a very tortured, painful life. His life was not
Speaker 2: a happy life. It was a painful life. And yet
Speaker 2: that prayer was never answered, and.
Speaker 5: It didn't make sense.
Speaker 2: We went to the best doctors in the nation. We
Speaker 2: had the best medications, we had the best therapies, we
Speaker 2: had prayer, we had healing, we had thousands, tens of
Speaker 2: thousands of people praying, and just.
Speaker 5: It didn't make sense.
Speaker 2: We had an incredibly strong family, deeply loving, supportive, full
Speaker 2: of faith, strong family.
Speaker 5: It just didn't make sense.
Speaker 2: And I remember after Matthew died, writing in my journal,
Speaker 2: I would rather walk with God with none of my
Speaker 2: questions answered, and to walk through life without him and
Speaker 2: know all the answers why, Because when in pain, explanations
Speaker 2: don't help.
Speaker 3: They don't help you.
Speaker 2: See, whenever you have a major loss, your tendency is
Speaker 2: to immediately look for cause, a reason, or an explanation.
Speaker 2: You go why, I gotta figure this out? Why did
Speaker 2: she leave me? Why did I lose my job? Why
Speaker 2: did I get cancer?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 5: Why?
Speaker 2: And you're looking for explanation of friends. Explanations don't help.
Speaker 2: You don't need an explanation. You need God, the comfort
Speaker 2: of God. You need the presence of God. If K
Speaker 2: were to drop dead tomorrow and I knew the reason,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't lessen the pain any bit. So stop looking
Speaker 2: for an explanation, Stop looking for the why.
Speaker 5: It's not gonna make.
Speaker 3: You feel any better. You don't need an explanation.
Speaker 5: You need God.
Speaker 3: You need his presence. Now.
Speaker 2: One day you're going to understand why everything happens. But
Speaker 2: right now your brain isn't big enough, and neither is mine.
Speaker 2: God has not promised to give you an explanation for
Speaker 2: why everything happens in the world, but he has promised
Speaker 2: You're not going to go through anything on your own.
Speaker 2: Look at this next verse Hebrews thirteen to five. I
Speaker 2: this is God talking. I will never leave you, and
Speaker 2: I will never abandon you. He says this over and
Speaker 2: over and over again, from Genesis to the end of
Speaker 2: the Bible, all scriptures. God says, I will never abandon you. Now,
Speaker 2: you may have been abandoned in life by a spouse
Speaker 2: or parent, You maybe have been rejected, but God's never
Speaker 2: going to abandon you. God is never going to reject you.
Speaker 2: You See, when we're going through intense pain, like the
Speaker 2: pain I've been in, we are tempted to think that
Speaker 2: God has forgotten us. It is impossible for God to
Speaker 2: forget you. He created you as an object of his love.
Speaker 2: You were made to be loved by God. In fact,
Speaker 2: here's what the Bible says. Isaiah forty nine, verse fifteen.
Speaker 2: God says, this, can a mother forget the baby at
Speaker 2: her breast or with child that she has borne?
Speaker 3: The answer is obviously no.
Speaker 2: No woman could not be nursing a baby and forget
Speaker 2: the baby at the same time.
Speaker 3: Obviously not.
Speaker 2: He said, even if that were possible, I will never
Speaker 2: forget you. Look, I have engraved you on the palms
Speaker 2: of my hands and look up here. God says, I
Speaker 2: have engraved you on the palms of my hands, so
Speaker 2: I can't forget you. A lot of people get tattoos
Speaker 2: to remember somebody they love. God has a tattoo of you.
Speaker 2: I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
Speaker 3: Where did he get that tattoo? On the cross?
Speaker 2: With nails pierced hands outstretched arms, He said, this is
Speaker 2: how much I love you. I love you this much.
Speaker 2: I love you so much it hurts. I love you
Speaker 2: so much. I'd rather die than live without you. I
Speaker 2: love you so much. This is how much sacrifice in heaven.
Speaker 2: No one's going to have any scars except Jesus, and
Speaker 2: he's going to have the hands, the feet, the.
Speaker 3: Side, the head.
Speaker 2: Why because he wants to always remember this is how
Speaker 2: much I love you. It is impossible for God to
Speaker 2: forget how much he loves you. And so we know
Speaker 2: that no matter how we don't understand what's going on
Speaker 2: in our lives, we do know this. I don't have
Speaker 2: the solutions, I don't have the answers, I don't have
Speaker 2: the reasons, I don't have the explanations, but I do
Speaker 2: have the presence of God.
Speaker 3: And I do have his love in my life.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. If you've missed any
Speaker 1: part of this message, or you'd like to find out
Speaker 1: more about Pastor Rick Warren and this ministry, just visit
Speaker 1: Pastorick dot com where you can listen online anytime. That's
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick with two Rs in the Middle dot com,
Speaker 1: and be sure to sign up for ricks free daily
Speaker 1: email devotional. While you're there. Rick will be back to
Speaker 1: close out our time today. But first life can sometimes
Speaker 1: be challenging, isolating, and painful. Do you or someone you
Speaker 1: know need a powerful encouragement right now, then let me
Speaker 1: tell you about the journey toward hope. This guided Bible
Speaker 1: study book takes you on a journey to discover the
Speaker 1: five truths about who you are. You are loved, you
Speaker 1: have a purpose, you belong, you have a choice, and
Speaker 1: you are needed. This full color, vegan leather study tool
Speaker 1: is filled with scriptures, prayers, exercises, spaces to journal, and
Speaker 1: personal stories to help you uncover the hidden reasons you
Speaker 1: may lose hope and teach you how to maintain and
Speaker 1: bolster that hope for a lifetime. We'll send you your
Speaker 1: very own copy of journey toward hope when you give
Speaker 1: a gift today to daily hope, to take the hope
Speaker 1: of Jesus to a hurting world. Just go to Pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com right now to get your copy, or you
Speaker 1: can call eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.
Speaker 1: That's Pastorick dot com. Or call eight hundred six hundred
Speaker 1: five thousand and four and be sure to let us
Speaker 1: know what station you hurt us on. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for your support. Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from
Speaker 1: one of our listeners today.
Speaker 2: I want to introduce you to David, who, despite living
Speaker 2: with depression, is learning to take his attention off himself
Speaker 2: and put it on others. David wrote me this, Hey,
Speaker 2: Pastor Rick, I've been listening to your sermons via podcast
Speaker 2: almost daily for three years now. I can't begin to
Speaker 2: tell you the growth that I've had in my spiritual
Speaker 2: life by you choosing a life of service. I hope
Speaker 2: my story will be an encouragement to you and others.
Speaker 2: I've struggled for years through depression. Yesterday I was feeling
Speaker 2: down after recently experiencing depression again and going through medication changes.
Speaker 2: Instead of choosing my go to late night TV show
Speaker 2: to drownd out my thoughts. I made a decision to
Speaker 2: turn to God. By watching your interview lessons from Pastor
Speaker 2: Rick's life. Your words made me realize how self centered
Speaker 2: my prayers in life have been for quite some time.
Speaker 2: I've been wasting the hurt of depression on myself by
Speaker 2: focusing on all my prayers and energy on me. I
Speaker 2: confess this, and I asked for forgiveness and the wisdom
Speaker 2: to recognize who needs help around me, and also having
Speaker 2: the courage to act. The next morning, I woke up
Speaker 2: to a text from an old friend who I had
Speaker 2: left behind in a haze of depression ten years ago.
Speaker 2: Now that text was confrontation. Unlike so many of people
Speaker 2: who are suffering from depression, they know it's easy to
Speaker 2: avoid these kind of things. Then everything I had prayed
Speaker 2: the night before hit me. I told him everything, and
Speaker 2: I asked for forgiveness and it was given, and he
Speaker 2: explained that he too suffers from depression and had thought
Speaker 2: about suicide. He thought he was all alone and no
Speaker 2: one cared. What started out as an angry text turned
Speaker 2: into a great hour long conversation. During our goodbyes, he
Speaker 2: expressed how talking with him meant the world.
Speaker 3: I even cried.
Speaker 2: Who thought a depressed guy who felt no emotion for
Speaker 2: so long good cried tears of joy.
Speaker 3: Not me. Rick.
Speaker 2: Your words about cur agent never wasting a hurt help
Speaker 2: me stand up to what I felt was a giant
Speaker 2: problem and turn it into an answered prayer. I won't
Speaker 2: ever waste this hurt again, David.
Speaker 3: Well, David, I'm.
Speaker 2: Thrilled to hear how God is helping you use your
Speaker 2: hurt to help others. That's the way God intends for
Speaker 2: it to be. God is so faithful to take our
Speaker 2: pain and make something useful from it. So keep your
Speaker 2: eyes focused on the Lord, and keep your eyes focused
Speaker 2: on the needs of other people. God bless you, David.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to let Rick know how this broadcast
Speaker 1: has blessed you, please feel free to send him an
Speaker 1: email at Rick at pastor Rick dot com. That's Rick
Speaker 1: at Pastorrick dot com. Be sure to join us again
Speaker 1: next time as we look into God's word for our
Speaker 1: daily hope. This program is sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries
Speaker 1: and your generous financial support