Speaker 1: Hello, everybody, This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you're here today. We're continuing our series
Speaker 1: from 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. So
Speaker 1: let's get to it and open with part one of
Speaker 1: a message called Relaxing in God's Goodness.
Speaker 2: One of the big myths in Southern California is that
Speaker 2: everybody here is laid back and easy going. Yeah right,
Speaker 2: you know that Southern California vibe.
Speaker 3: The beach boys. It's all copasetic. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's also a haven for workaholics. And surveys have shown
Speaker 2: that Southern California residents would actually rather work than pray, play,
Speaker 2: or pray for that matter. And studies actually have shown
Speaker 2: surveys show that we actually prefer employment over enjoyment. And
Speaker 2: all this good weather, it creates a lot of workaholics.
Speaker 2: And the truth is a lot of people don't know
Speaker 2: how to relax. We are addicted to adrenaline. We don't
Speaker 2: know how to slow down. And that's true of actually
Speaker 2: all of Americans. Studies have shown that the average American
Speaker 2: today is sleep deprived, that the average American today gets
Speaker 2: two hours less sleep a night than we did fifty
Speaker 2: years ago. We don't know how to relax. We don't
Speaker 2: know how to rest. We love to work. A lot
Speaker 2: of Americans are like job twenty verse eighteen. Here on
Speaker 2: the screen, it says message paraphrase. They are unable to
Speaker 2: relax and enjoy anything. They've worked for so busy getting
Speaker 2: more to you A little quiz to see if you
Speaker 2: are a workaholic.
Speaker 3: Be truthful, no cheating. Now you don't have to raise
Speaker 3: your hand on this. Okay?
Speaker 2: Are you always in a hurry? Is your to do
Speaker 2: list always unrealistically long?
Speaker 3: Me? Yeah, that's me.
Speaker 2: Do you use day off days off to catch up
Speaker 2: on unfinished work? Has more than one person ever told
Speaker 2: you to slow down? Do you feel guilty when you relax?
Speaker 3: I've got so much to do.
Speaker 2: Do you have to get sick to get time off?
Speaker 2: You know you're a workaholic when all your Christmas cards
Speaker 2: come back.
Speaker 3: From business associates.
Speaker 2: You know you're a workaholic when you head out for
Speaker 2: back to school and you don't know which one your
Speaker 2: kid attends. You know you're a workaholic when your family
Speaker 2: refers to you as occupant. And you know you're a
Speaker 2: workaholic when you take business related reading material into the bathroom.
Speaker 2: I remember many times, many years ago, a lady said
Speaker 2: to me, she said, you know, Pastor, I tried to
Speaker 2: call you all day Monday. And I said, well, I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: but Monday it's my day off.
Speaker 3: It's my Sabbath.
Speaker 2: And she said, well, the devil never takes a day off.
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, and if I didn't, I'd be just
Speaker 2: like the devil.
Speaker 3: So you want me to take a day off.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget the first year of Saddle Backed Church,
Speaker 2: I really was working eighteen hours a day and K
Speaker 2: was two to begin this baby church. And the first
Speaker 2: two years of Saddleback Church, actually twice a week, cake
Speaker 2: cooked meals to have people in our home.
Speaker 3: From the church.
Speaker 2: We had every member of our church in our home
Speaker 2: at least once the first two years of saddle Back Church.
Speaker 2: That ain't gonna happen anymore, friends, not all thirty five
Speaker 2: thousand of you. But I remember she cooked the same
Speaker 2: meal Tuesday and Thursday twice a week for two years.
Speaker 2: I learned to like it, but We were working hard, hard, heart,
Speaker 2: eighteen hours a day. And at the end of the
Speaker 2: first year, I stood up to speaking the last thud
Speaker 2: of the year and fainted.
Speaker 3: And I was just worn out.
Speaker 2: From exhaustion, physical, emotional, spiritual, relational in every area. And
Speaker 2: over the next year God had to teach me some
Speaker 2: things about balance in life, which I actually have had
Speaker 2: to learn over and over and over again. I don't
Speaker 2: think you ever permanently learned these things. But God gave
Speaker 2: me a verse at the end of the first year
Speaker 2: of Saddleback.
Speaker 3: It's up here on the screen.
Speaker 2: It's Exodus twenty three, and this is what God said
Speaker 2: to the Israelites when they were going to go into.
Speaker 3: The Promised Land.
Speaker 2: He said, I'm not going to give you everything I've
Speaker 2: promised you in a single year, because you're not prepared
Speaker 2: to handle that much blessing and it would be too
Speaker 2: much for you to manage. Instead, you'll take possession of
Speaker 2: what I want to give you, little by little so
Speaker 2: that you can grow. Then you'll be strong enough to
Speaker 2: handle it. All. That verse changed my life. It's what
Speaker 2: I call pacing growth. Rome isn't built in a day,
Speaker 2: and neither as a church or anything else worthwhile, And
Speaker 2: God doesn't want you to accomplish it all at once.
Speaker 2: He wants you to learn pacing growth, little by little,
Speaker 2: that while God is growing your business, he's growing you.
Speaker 2: And while God is growing your children, he's growing you.
Speaker 2: And while God is growing your career or whatever else
Speaker 2: is in your life, it's important to you growing you,
Speaker 2: And He says, I want you to learn this little
Speaker 2: by little, pacing growth. The fact is God considers rest
Speaker 2: as important as work. Some people think only God smiles
Speaker 2: on them when they're working or praying or doing spiritual things.
Speaker 3: God smiles on you when you rest. Did you know that.
Speaker 2: If you've ever, as a parent, gone in and watched
Speaker 2: your children's sleep, and the joy that gives you just
Speaker 2: watching them sleep. God enjoys watching you sleep. God rests,
Speaker 2: God rests. Are you busier than God? The Bible tells
Speaker 2: us this on the screen Exodus thirty one, verse seventeen.
Speaker 2: One day a week, God says, will always serve as
Speaker 2: a reminder that I made the heavens and the earth
Speaker 2: in six days, and then on the seventh day I
Speaker 2: rested and relaxed. Now, why did God rest and relax
Speaker 2: on the seventh day? Well, He certainly wasn't tired, because
Speaker 2: God doesn't get tired. God God never gets started. But
Speaker 2: he was modeling for us what he wanted us to
Speaker 2: do to rest and to relax, to keep a sabbath,
Speaker 2: to balance and to relax in the goodness of God.
Speaker 2: Now we're in this series we've just started called Living
Speaker 2: in the Goodness of God, and we're looking at Psalm
Speaker 2: twenty three, which actually models for us keen ways that
Speaker 2: a good shepherd takes care of sheep, he feeds, he leads,
Speaker 2: he meets their needs, and the ten ways God's goodness
Speaker 2: wants to benefit you, how God wants to take.
Speaker 3: Care of you.
Speaker 2: And a lot of your worry and a lot of
Speaker 2: your hurry, and a lot of your scurry, and a
Speaker 2: lot of your restlessness actually comes from not understanding the
Speaker 2: goodness of God in your life. And when you understand
Speaker 2: what God has done for you and wants to do
Speaker 2: for you in the future, you can relax. You can
Speaker 2: learn to rest, you can learn to let down, you
Speaker 2: can learn to let go. Oh, you can live in
Speaker 2: the goodness of God. Now and that Psalm the Lord
Speaker 2: is my Shepherd's palm. He gives us ten things that
Speaker 2: the shepherd does. And one of the things that a
Speaker 2: good shepherd does is they make sure the sheep get
Speaker 2: enough rest in order to stay healthy. And that takes
Speaker 2: us to verses one and two. Let's look at it again.
Speaker 2: The Lord is my shepherd, Psalm twenty three. The Lord
Speaker 2: is my shepherd, so I have everything I need. He
Speaker 2: makes me lie down in green pastures and he leads
Speaker 2: me beside quiet waters. Now you might want to write
Speaker 2: this down. These images are actually a metaphor. They represent
Speaker 2: rest and refreshment. When he makes me lie down in
Speaker 2: green pastures, that's rest, and when he leads me beside
Speaker 2: quiet waters, that's refreshment.
Speaker 3: Now, notice I want.
Speaker 2: You to circle the word he makes me. Has God
Speaker 2: ever had to make you lay down for your own
Speaker 2: health's sake? So because you wouldn't slow down, if you
Speaker 2: won't lay down, God will make you lay down.
Speaker 3: And sometimes the.
Speaker 2: Only way God can get you to look up is
Speaker 2: lay you flat on your back with an illness. And
Speaker 2: God will do that because he's a good shepherd and
Speaker 2: he cares about your health, your physical, emotional, spiritual, every
Speaker 2: area of health. I want you to write this down
Speaker 2: on your outline to give God my best requires rest.
Speaker 2: To give God my best requires rest. If you don't
Speaker 2: have rest, then you're going to be stressed. In fact,
Speaker 2: the difference between being blessed and being stressed is often rest.
Speaker 2: Isn't amazing how much better things look after a good
Speaker 2: night's sleep. The difference between being stressed and being blessed
Speaker 2: is often rest. The Lord is my shepherd. He makes
Speaker 2: me lie down. Well, I don't even want to have
Speaker 2: you ever seen a kid, a child frantically trying to
Speaker 2: stay awake. You know what I'm talking about, and their
Speaker 2: eyes are closed, but they're trying to stay awake.
Speaker 3: Resistance to rest is immaturity. It's immaturity.
Speaker 2: Now, I've got a confession to make because I always
Speaker 2: preach every week. I always preach these messages.
Speaker 3: To me first. If it doesn't hit me, I don't
Speaker 3: figure it's going to help you.
Speaker 2: But if it helps me, I go, okay, that'll probably
Speaker 2: help somebody else. And so this message I need to hear,
Speaker 2: this message on relaxing in God's goodness. I've had a
Speaker 2: couple of very frantic weeks where I had eight outside
Speaker 2: messages to deliver speaking engagements outside of the area I
Speaker 2: told you last week, I was at the National Prayer Breakfast,
Speaker 2: and I spoke five times at that and then I
Speaker 2: went to another place and I spoke to the Coalition
Speaker 2: of Christian Colleges and Universities, to all the leaders of
Speaker 2: the Christian schools around America. Then I went and I
Speaker 2: spoke to a youth pastor's gathering. And I have been
Speaker 2: overstretched the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: I need this message.
Speaker 2: So if you get anything out of congratulations, but I'm
Speaker 2: really preaching it for me.
Speaker 3: Okay, So if you want to take.
Speaker 2: A nap, you might get more benefit out of it.
Speaker 2: Then just put your head on the shoulder the person
Speaker 2: next to you, with their permission, and I'll wake you up. Then,
Speaker 2: as I said, rest is often the difference between being
Speaker 2: blessed or stressed. And when we look at Scripture, we
Speaker 2: see that God rests. We see that Jesus rested many, many,
Speaker 2: many times. He had advances and retreats, advances and retreats,
Speaker 2: seven of them in his three and a half year ministry.
Speaker 3: Jesus rested.
Speaker 2: If you're going to be like God, if you're going
Speaker 2: to be like Jesus, you got to.
Speaker 3: Learn how to rest.
Speaker 2: I have to learn how to rest, how to really
Speaker 2: how to relax in the goodness of God. Now that's
Speaker 2: what I wants to look at today. How do you
Speaker 2: relax in God's goodness? Before we do that, I just
Speaker 2: want to mention why do people overwork? I mean, we
Speaker 2: need to get to the source of our stress. Why
Speaker 2: do we overwork? Why do we not get enough rest? Well,
Speaker 2: the Bible's full of many, many examples and reasons why
Speaker 2: you get stressed instead of blessed because you're not at rest.
Speaker 2: And the Bible gives us many many examples of reasons.
Speaker 2: Let me just give you five from the Word of God,
Speaker 2: and let's see if any of these might be causing
Speaker 2: you to not get the rest you need to not
Speaker 2: relax like God wants you to relax in life. There
Speaker 2: are just some of the common reasons for the Bible.
Speaker 2: Number one, the first reason the Bible tells us that
Speaker 2: people don't relax is this misplaced identity, and that is
Speaker 2: basing my worth on my work. Basing my worth on
Speaker 2: my work. Now we fall for this all the time.
Speaker 2: One of the reasons why people can't relax is they
Speaker 2: confuse their work and their worth. They confuse their net
Speaker 2: worth with their self worth, their value with their valuables,
Speaker 2: and they think, you know, if I work real hard,
Speaker 2: I succeed at work, then I am valuable. If I
Speaker 2: don't work, I don't produce, I'm not productive, then I'm
Speaker 2: not valuable.
Speaker 3: And that's a total lie. It's a total myth.
Speaker 2: But in Western culture, our identity often revolves around our work.
Speaker 2: So we overwork and attempt to prove ourselves. And if
Speaker 2: I achieve a lot, then I must be worth a lot.
Speaker 2: I must be valuable, I must be important, I must
Speaker 2: be significant. But your significance has nothing to do with
Speaker 2: your job, or your career or your achievements. In fact,
Speaker 2: Ecclesiastes ten, verse fifteen says this, only too stupid to
Speaker 2: find his way home would wear himself out with work. Hmm,
Speaker 2: that's pretty frank. You might want to put that on
Speaker 2: a card and put it on your windshield there. Okay,
Speaker 2: at least I, too stupid to find his way home,
Speaker 2: would wear himself out with work. He says, life is
Speaker 2: more than work. Yeah, it's important, but your life is
Speaker 2: far more than the work you do. It's just a
Speaker 2: portion of your life. But when we have a misplaced
Speaker 2: identity and we think our worth is based on our work.
Speaker 2: Then we're going to put all of our time, our money,
Speaker 2: our energy, our effort into our work. Number two second
Speaker 2: reason people don't relax is materialism. This is obvious, always
Speaker 2: wanting more things. And when I got to have more things,
Speaker 2: then I got to make more money. And when I've
Speaker 2: got to make more money, I've got to work harder
Speaker 2: and longer hours. And yet the Bible says not to
Speaker 2: do this. Proverbs twenty three, verse four and five Warmans
Speaker 2: warns us about materialism, and it says this, do not
Speaker 2: wear yourself out trying to get rich. Have the wisdom
Speaker 2: to show some restraint. Your money can be gone in
Speaker 2: a flash, as if it had grown wings and flown
Speaker 2: away like an eagle. You know you can lose your money.
Speaker 2: Don't spend all of your life trying to get something
Speaker 2: you could lose so quickly so you can fly away
Speaker 2: like an eagle. Now, evidently America's founding fathers wanted you
Speaker 2: to remember this, because they put an eagle on.
Speaker 3: Every dollar bill as a reminder of this verse.
Speaker 2: It has been my observation, having counseled thousands of people,
Speaker 2: that we spend the first half of our life sacrificing
Speaker 2: our health overworking in order to get wealth, and we
Speaker 2: spend the second half of our life sacrificing wealth in
Speaker 2: order to get our health back. Have you ever thought
Speaker 2: about that. The first half of life you give up
Speaker 2: your health in overwork in order to get wealth, but
Speaker 2: in the second half you spend all that wealth trying
Speaker 2: to get healthy again. This is not wise, always wanting
Speaker 2: more things. In Luke twelve, verse fifteen, Jesus says this
Speaker 2: watch out. Always be on your guard against all kinds
Speaker 2: of greed, because your life is not defined by how much.
Speaker 3: You make or how many things you own.
Speaker 2: So materialism, just like misplaced identic, can cause.
Speaker 3: Me to overwork.
Speaker 2: A third cause in the Bible, it says that envy
Speaker 2: can cause you to overwork, and that is wanting to be.
Speaker 3: Like other people.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to keep up with the Jones, I'm trying
Speaker 2: to keep up with my neighbors.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to keep up.
Speaker 2: With everybody else, and that will cause me to do
Speaker 2: things that I don't really have the time to do.
Speaker 2: Too busy trying to keep up with others, And that's envy.
Speaker 2: You know, their kids have dance lessons, so we have
Speaker 2: to have dance lessons for our kids, and their kids
Speaker 2: are involved in these five extracurricular events, and so our
Speaker 2: kids have to be involved in these five extracurricular not necessarily.
Speaker 2: You know, my girlfriend is on social media all the time,
Speaker 2: so I better be on social media all the time.
Speaker 2: And we do things we don't need to do because
Speaker 2: other people are doing them.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: Solomon noticed this problem of envy literally thousands of years ago.
Speaker 2: In Ecclesiastes four or four, he says this, I've learned
Speaker 2: why people work so hard, why they work so hard
Speaker 2: to succeed, It is because they envy the things their
Speaker 2: neighbors have. I want to be like them. I want
Speaker 2: to have what they've got. I want to do what
Speaker 2: they do. I want to go where they go. Well,
Speaker 2: they may be under stress more than you, so make
Speaker 2: sure you're following the right model.
Speaker 3: Envy number four.
Speaker 2: A fourth reason why people don't relax court in Scripture
Speaker 2: is when we value achievement over relationships. When we value
Speaker 2: achievement over relationships, and men we're more prone to do
Speaker 2: this than women. But everybody can do this, where you
Speaker 2: put your career above everything else, including relationships. We all
Speaker 2: known people who've walked away from marriages because of their career,
Speaker 2: or they've walked away from being a good parent or
Speaker 2: just being a good friend because the career was more important,
Speaker 2: the work was more important. And when goals are more
Speaker 2: important than people in my life, or when goals are
Speaker 2: more important than people in your life, you're skating on
Speaker 2: thin ice.
Speaker 1: What a special message from Pastor rec and now let's
Speaker 1: hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here's Rick
Speaker 1: with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 2: I want to introduce you to Agatha, who's translating Daily
Speaker 2: Hope into German for her husband. She writes, Pastor Rick,
Speaker 2: your preaching is bringing many souls to God. My husband,
Speaker 2: who is an unbeliever, is drawing closer and closer to
Speaker 2: God every day. I translate what I hear on Daily
Speaker 2: Hope into German because he can't speak and understand English.
Speaker 2: Pastor Rick, your teaching has changed his life and I
Speaker 2: can see his progress and eagerness to follow Jesus.
Speaker 3: Agatha.
Speaker 2: Well, Agatha, thank you so much for sharing your story
Speaker 2: with me. This is a wonderful story to hear that
Speaker 2: you're translating what you hear on Daily Hope for your
Speaker 2: husband and that he's growing closer to Jesus. I'm so
Speaker 2: happy for that. We're always looking for translators to help
Speaker 2: us in new languages as we take the message of
Speaker 2: God to more people around the world. So you will
Speaker 2: keep praying for your husband and you keep praying for
Speaker 2: us that God allows us to take the good news
Speaker 2: of God's hope all around the world.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to let Rick know how this
Speaker 1: broadcast has blessed you, he would love it. Please feel
Speaker 1: free to send him an email at Rick at pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com. Be sure
Speaker 1: to join us next time as we look into God's
Speaker 1: word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.