Speaker 1: Today on Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren, we continue
Speaker 1: in our riveting journey through the series The Invisible War.
Speaker 1: In it will explore the unseen world of good and
Speaker 1: evil and see how it impacts our day to day existence.
Speaker 1: Join us for eye opening biblical insights into the spiritual
Speaker 1: dimensions that influence our lives in ways we never imagined.
Speaker 1: Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part
Speaker 1: of a message called why is life in this world
Speaker 1: so hard?
Speaker 2: Number four?
Speaker 3: The fourth damage is in relationships, and sin results in
Speaker 3: relational distance and discord. Relational distance and discord. In other words,
Speaker 3: you have conflict with people. In a perfect environment, where
Speaker 3: there is no sin, you're not going to have any conflict.
Speaker 3: But in a marriage where you take one person who
Speaker 3: is imperfect and another person who's imperfect, two imperfect people
Speaker 3: cannot make a perfect relationship.
Speaker 2: It is impossible.
Speaker 3: One sinner marrying another sinner cannot create a perfect relationship. Guys,
Speaker 3: you married a sinner and she married a bigger one,
Speaker 3: and so you're not gonna have a perfect relationship. You're
Speaker 3: gonna have problems in any relationship. Now Solomon mentions this too.
Speaker 3: He says, you know what In Ecclesiastes, he said, I've
Speaker 3: looked out and I've been watching people in the world.
Speaker 2: You know what I discovered.
Speaker 3: They're not nice to each other. People don't treat each
Speaker 3: other kindly. People misuse each other, people abuse each other,
Speaker 3: people lie to each other, people fake each other out.
Speaker 3: People are phoning in their relationships. People wear masks, they
Speaker 3: cover up, they abuse, they take advantage of each other,
Speaker 3: and all of these things, and they hurt each other,
Speaker 3: sometimes intentionally unintentionally. What because nothing works on this planet
Speaker 3: because Sin broke it all. When we don't follow God's will,
Speaker 3: it causes damage. And he says, we have all these
Speaker 3: messed up relationships. Why are mess Why is it so
Speaker 3: easy to mess up a relationship causes pain because we
Speaker 3: don't follow what God says to do. Look at this
Speaker 3: verse Ecclesiastes. For one, I saw all the people who
Speaker 3: were mistreated here on earth, and I saw their tears,
Speaker 3: and I saw that they had no one to comfort them. Now,
Speaker 3: how did it get so messed up? Well again, you
Speaker 3: go back to the first couple, to Adam and Eve.
Speaker 3: Adam and Eve rebelled, and when they said, we're gonna
Speaker 3: do the one thing that God said not to do.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 3: Not only disconnected them from God, it disconnected them from
Speaker 3: each other. Now, listen, you cannot have intimacy the kind
Speaker 3: of intimacy God wants you to have with your spouse
Speaker 3: without intimacy with God first. When you're disconnected from God,
Speaker 3: there's no way you're going to be fully connected the
Speaker 3: way God meant for you to be as a husband
Speaker 3: and wife. It is interesting to me that when Adam
Speaker 3: and Eve got disconnected from God by blowing it and sinning,
Speaker 3: what's the first thing they did? They made clothes, They
Speaker 3: sewed fig leaves together.
Speaker 2: And how does that happen?
Speaker 3: How is it that being disconnected from God disconnects me
Speaker 3: from you and causes me to want to cover up.
Speaker 3: How is it that when I'm out of whack with God,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I'm out of whack with you,
Speaker 3: and I want to pretend and cover up my faults.
Speaker 3: How is it that when I'm out of whack with God,
Speaker 3: I am ashamed of my sexuality? How is it when
Speaker 3: I'm out of whack with God, I don't really want
Speaker 3: you to see the real me. I don't want to
Speaker 3: be exposed, and I don't want to be vulnerable because
Speaker 3: if I'm not right with God, then I cannot be
Speaker 3: right with you. And so we cover up and we
Speaker 3: sew fig leaves. What's your fig leaf? You got one?
Speaker 3: And it's it's the way you act and the attitudes
Speaker 3: that you have. It's emotions that cover up the things
Speaker 3: that you're most embarrassed about, are most afraid of in
Speaker 3: your own life.
Speaker 2: Notice this verse.
Speaker 3: It says in Genesis three, they suddenly felt ashamed of
Speaker 3: their nakedness, so they strung fig leaves together to cover
Speaker 3: themselves up. Out of whack with God, out of whack
Speaker 3: with other people Genesis three. Ten later, God says, what
Speaker 3: are you guys doing? You're wearing clothes Genesis God. Adam says,
Speaker 3: I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.
Speaker 3: Sin always makes you defensive, Sin always makes you distant,
Speaker 3: and sin always makes you demanding in a relationship.
Speaker 2: You know, I remember a.
Speaker 3: Guy who was preaching on this passage one time Genesis three,
Speaker 3: about Adam and Eve covering up because they were embarrassed,
Speaker 3: and he had one of these loose leaf bibles. I
Speaker 3: don't know if you've ever seen these, but pastors have
Speaker 3: loose leaf bible sometimes, so they can put their sermon
Speaker 3: notes in there. So and they walk around with their Bible,
Speaker 3: they can see their notes that they're trying to teach too.
Speaker 3: And this guy had a loose leaf Bible, and as
Speaker 3: he got up to speak from his chair, he walks
Speaker 3: over to the podium, the page he's going to teach
Speaker 3: on falls out on the floor.
Speaker 2: He doesn't know it. He doesn't know it.
Speaker 3: So he gets up and he starts to read the text,
Speaker 3: and he says, and Adam said to Eve, and he
Speaker 3: flips the page and obviously it's gone. It's out of order,
Speaker 3: and so he says, because it's laying there on the floor.
Speaker 2: And Adam said to Eve, and Adam said to he,
Speaker 2: very interesting. It looks like a leaf is missing.
Speaker 3: Now that's kind of result when you have you know,
Speaker 3: so I used the real thing. I don't have one
Speaker 3: of his phony, bolowny loose leaf Bibles. Okay, there it is. Okay,
Speaker 3: Number five financial and vocational difficulties. Sin has damaged this
Speaker 3: area too. He's damaged the area of your finances and
Speaker 3: the area of your career. Sin has done that. How
Speaker 3: do economies get broken? Oh's real simple. By ignoring the
Speaker 3: biblical principles of finance that God has said in his word.
Speaker 3: God has given us the principles for money management in
Speaker 3: the Bible. They're very clear. We've covered them many, many,
Speaker 3: many times. The principle of accounts, of accounting, keep good records,
Speaker 3: the principle of spending budget you're spending, the principle of saving,
Speaker 3: the principle of giving and tithing, the principle of investing,
Speaker 3: the principle of being satisfied with what you have. I
Speaker 3: could go on and on. There are many, many principles
Speaker 3: of finance in scripture. When you and I ignore them
Speaker 3: and we do not delay gratification, and we think I
Speaker 3: got to have it now, even though I can't afford it,
Speaker 3: and you spend what you cannot afford.
Speaker 2: You're going to get in debt.
Speaker 3: And all of the economic problems we have that the
Speaker 3: government can't seem to put together and agree on is
Speaker 3: because of irresponsible living, spending money we didn't have, and
Speaker 3: not obeying God's financial principles. Now here's what he says
Speaker 3: in Ecclesiastes. Here's a terrible thing I've seen in the world.
Speaker 3: People save up their money for a time when they
Speaker 3: may need it, and then they lose it all and
Speaker 3: some bad deal or bad economy or bad market. They
Speaker 3: lose it all and some bad deal and end up
Speaker 3: with nothing left to pass on to their children. That's
Speaker 3: because the world is broken financially too. And then in life,
Speaker 3: work is not meaningful. It's not purposeful, it's not satisfying
Speaker 3: because it's broken.
Speaker 2: Look at the next verse.
Speaker 3: I hated life because the work I did under the
Speaker 3: sun was meaningless to me, because they just felt like,
Speaker 3: I'm not putting in punching my time card. It was
Speaker 3: meaningless to me, so I turned in despair from hard work.
Speaker 3: It was not the answer to my search for satisfaction
Speaker 3: in this life. He said, you know, I thought, if
Speaker 3: I just make a really good career and I succeeded
Speaker 3: my career, then I'm really going to be satisfied. He goes,
Speaker 3: that didn't satisfy me. It's broken too. Guy told me
Speaker 3: one time, He said, you know, Rick, I climbed the
Speaker 3: ladder of success, and I got to the top. But
Speaker 3: when I got to the top, I realized the ladder
Speaker 3: was leaning against the wrong wall, and I had wasted
Speaker 3: all that effort on something that didn't matter. Number six,
Speaker 3: the sixth area is spiritual discontent and darkness. Spiritual discontent
Speaker 3: and darkness. There are not only emotional, relational, financial, vocational,
Speaker 3: physical consequences to ignoring what God says, but there are
Speaker 3: spiritual consequences. There's discontent and darkness. Have you ever felt like,
Speaker 3: you know, I feel like God's a million miles away.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm praying and he's not listening. My
Speaker 3: prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. I'm not I don't
Speaker 3: feel close to God. Well, of course you don't. Here's
Speaker 3: what why, Isaiah fifty nine up here on the screen.
Speaker 3: Your iniquities have separated you from your God, because God's holy,
Speaker 3: and your sins have hidden his face from you so
Speaker 3: that he will not hear. If you feel far from God,
Speaker 3: guess who moved. God didn't move, but you moved away
Speaker 3: by saying, I'm going to do my thing, be my
Speaker 3: own God, call my own shots. I'm not going to
Speaker 3: obey what the Bible says. I know what the Bible says,
Speaker 3: but I'm going to do what I want to do.
Speaker 3: And you move away from God and then you wonder
Speaker 3: why God feels distant, and then you start searching, and
Speaker 3: you start looking for God in all the wrong places,
Speaker 3: and a lot of people don't even know they're looking
Speaker 3: for God. They call it happiness. I'm looking for happiness.
Speaker 3: I'm looking for peace. I'm looking for security, I'm looking
Speaker 3: for fulfillment. I'm looking for meaning and purpose. What they're
Speaker 3: looking for is God and they don't know it, and
Speaker 3: they still have it found what they're looking for. Job
Speaker 3: says it like this, and Job six here on the screen.
Speaker 3: I'm like a caravan lost in the desert searching for
Speaker 3: water because I haven't the slightest idea where I'm headed,
Speaker 3: where I'm going. I'm in the middle of a dry desert.
Speaker 3: I don't know which way I'm going, and I'm thirsty.
Speaker 3: And you start looking for all kinds of things to
Speaker 3: quench that thirst, looking for God in all the wrong places,
Speaker 3: and what does it do. It leads to more darkness
Speaker 3: and more discontent and more discouragement. The next verse says this,
Speaker 3: they have refused for so long to deal with God,
Speaker 3: and they just keep putting it off. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to deal with God. They've refused for so long to
Speaker 3: deal with God that they have lost touch not only
Speaker 3: with God but with reality itself. And friends, if you
Speaker 3: don't believe that. Turn on the television. A lot of
Speaker 3: television has lost total touch with reality. They're not only
Speaker 3: out of touch with God, they don't even know what
Speaker 3: life's all about. They haven't the foggiest idea what life's
Speaker 3: all about. They're spinning around in circles, making little tiny
Speaker 3: things enormous issues.
Speaker 2: They're majoring on the miners.
Speaker 3: They don't know what life is all about, and they
Speaker 3: are out of touch and they're in the dark. Now, friends,
Speaker 3: that is not a pretty picture what I just shared
Speaker 3: with you. And when I see that picture of what
Speaker 3: sin does to the world, do you know what it
Speaker 3: makes me want to do? Hate sin? You know the
Speaker 3: problem today? We don't hate sin. We laugh at it.
Speaker 3: We think it's a joke. We think it's a comedy line.
Speaker 3: If you don't believe me, go home and turn on
Speaker 3: HBO and any comedy show, and half the comedy is
Speaker 3: going to be making fun of things that are wrong
Speaker 3: and laughing about drug use, sexual promiscuity, all kinds of
Speaker 3: sexual innuendos, immaturity, immorality, making fun of people who are
Speaker 3: trying to do the right thing and celebrating the wrong
Speaker 3: and we laugh at it like that's funny.
Speaker 2: Friend.
Speaker 3: When I hear about something that causes disasters and deformity,
Speaker 3: death and decay, distress and disappointment, relational distance and discord,
Speaker 3: financial and vocational difficulties, and spiritual discontent and darkness, that's
Speaker 3: not a laughing matter. If you want to know how
Speaker 3: bad sin is, you look at the cross. Jesus with
Speaker 3: his arms outstretches. This is how bad the sin is.
Speaker 3: I had to die for it. Now, that's not a
Speaker 3: pretty picture. That's why you need a savior, because there's
Speaker 3: no way you can undo all this damage in the world,
Speaker 3: in your family, or in your own.
Speaker 2: Personal life by yourself. You need a savior.
Speaker 3: If you didn't need a savior for all of these things,
Speaker 3: believe me, God wouldn't have wasted the time sending Jesus
Speaker 3: as your savior. He sent you to save you and
Speaker 3: to begin the restoration process in these six areas. Now
Speaker 3: we're in the dark, he says, We're just totally in
Speaker 3: the dark.
Speaker 2: So what do I do? Well, there are two things
Speaker 2: you need to do.
Speaker 3: Number One, you need to accept I need to accept
Speaker 3: Jesus as my savior.
Speaker 2: That's the starting point.
Speaker 3: Now in the week said we're going to talk in
Speaker 3: detail about the answers to how.
Speaker 2: To get along in a broken world.
Speaker 3: But the first thing I've got to do is I've
Speaker 3: got to accept Jesus as my savior because he's the
Speaker 3: only one who can help me undo some of the
Speaker 3: damage on this side of heaven.
Speaker 2: John sixteen, verse thirty three.
Speaker 3: Jesus says this in this world, in this world, you
Speaker 3: will circle, will not might not could happen.
Speaker 2: You will.
Speaker 3: You can count on it. You will have trouble. But
Speaker 3: he says, take heart, I have overcome the world. And
Speaker 3: in the next few weeks, I'm going to teach you
Speaker 3: how Jesus helps you overcome the world. In all of
Speaker 3: these areas that have done damage in your life. You
Speaker 3: got to accept Jesus as your savior. The second thing
Speaker 3: I have to do is this, I must follow his light.
Speaker 3: I must follow his light because a lot of times
Speaker 3: I'm in the total dark about what I should do.
Speaker 2: With the damage that's been done in my life. You know,
Speaker 2: one of my favorite.
Speaker 3: Vacations the number of years ago, we did a family vacation.
Speaker 3: We went up to Montana and can and I and
Speaker 3: then we went down to Yosemite, our Yellowstone and had
Speaker 3: them fund. But right there in the corner of Montana
Speaker 3: is a little known national park called Lewis and Clark Caverns.
Speaker 3: It's underground caverns. I love this place. I think it's
Speaker 3: better than Carlsbad Caverns. Carlsbad's a little too commercial for me.
Speaker 3: Loosing car Caverns is still very rustic. You climb up
Speaker 3: this mountain and then you go down this little shaft
Speaker 3: on hundreds of rickety stairs and you're just walking down down, deeper, deeper,
Speaker 3: hundreds of feet underground into the earth. And we got
Speaker 3: down in the middle of this one of the big caverns,
Speaker 3: hundreds of feet below, and they said, we're going to
Speaker 3: show you what total darkness really looks like, because most people.
Speaker 2: Have never seen total darkness.
Speaker 3: And so they turn out a couple of the lamps,
Speaker 3: the lamps that are there, and it's flat out pitch black.
Speaker 3: I can hold my finger like this and I can't
Speaker 3: see it. Kind of spooky total darkness. And then the
Speaker 3: park ranger lights a match and lights a candle, and
Speaker 3: that one little candle, all of a sudden, you go, okay,
Speaker 3: maybe we are going to get out of here. Has
Speaker 3: a little bit of hope. A little candle in darkness
Speaker 3: gives me hope. It's not a big light, but it's
Speaker 3: a light. And then he turns on his flashlight and
Speaker 3: he says, follow me out.
Speaker 2: Now, what do you think I'm gonna do? Go this way?
Speaker 2: Not unless I'm an idiot, I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna follow the guy who's got the light.
Speaker 2: If I'm in the.
Speaker 3: Dark, I'm not gonna say I don't need you, mister ranger.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna figure my own way out of this mess. No,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna follow the guy who's got the light. That's
Speaker 3: the only rational, reasonable, logical.
Speaker 2: Thing to do.
Speaker 3: Last verse John eight twelve, Jesus said, I am the
Speaker 3: light of the world.
Speaker 2: If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the.
Speaker 3: Darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.
Speaker 2: That's a bow our heads for prayer. Father.
Speaker 3: We look at the world and we are disappointed. So
Speaker 3: much of the time, we're disappointed in the events of life.
Speaker 3: We're disappointed that things don't go the way we want
Speaker 3: them to. We're disappointed with other people, and yeah, we're
Speaker 3: disappointed with ourselves. Help us to realize that this is
Speaker 3: not your plan. This is not your goal, but that
Speaker 3: you want to restore that which was broken. Now you
Speaker 3: pray in your heart, say, dear God, I admit that
Speaker 3: I have rebelled against you. I've done things that I
Speaker 3: wanted to do instead of what you wanted.
Speaker 2: Me to do. I've gone my way.
Speaker 3: I've gone days without even talking to you, and I've
Speaker 3: been disconnected from you. So I'm disconnected from other people.
Speaker 3: I have sinned and transgressed, and I've hurt other people,
Speaker 3: and nothing works perfectly in my life. I ask you
Speaker 3: to work on these areas in my life. Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: I affirm you once again as my savior. Just say that, Jesus,
Speaker 3: I affirm you once again as my savior. If you've
Speaker 3: never asked him to be your savior, say, Jesus Christ,
Speaker 3: I ask you to become my savior today and restore
Speaker 3: physical health in my body, emotional help in my feelings,
Speaker 3: relational health where there's distance and conflict. I want you
Speaker 3: to work on financial health in my life. And I
Speaker 3: want to have a healthy career and job. Most of all,
Speaker 3: I want to be spiritually healthy. I don't want to
Speaker 3: be connected to you. I don't want to walk in
Speaker 3: darkness anymore. Jesus, You've got the flashlight. You are the flashlight,
Speaker 3: so I accept you as my savior and I want
Speaker 3: to follow your light as best I know how. Use
Speaker 3: this series to help me get some healing in the
Speaker 3: areas that are.
Speaker 2: Broken in my life. I pray this in your name. Amen.
Speaker 3: Hi everybody, this is Rick and I hope you enjoyed
Speaker 3: today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed that prayer
Speaker 3: for the very first time, or you just recommitted your
Speaker 3: life to Jesus again today, would you let me know
Speaker 3: about it. There's something real about sharing your commitment. So
Speaker 3: write me Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick,
Speaker 3: I prayed that prayer of commitment, I gave my life
Speaker 3: to Christ. And I'll send you some material that will
Speaker 3: help you on your journey with Jesus.
Speaker 2: And I'll also pray for you.
Speaker 3: God bless you.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy
Speaker 1: you've chosen to study along with us today. Why is
Speaker 1: everything in life so hard? Why does the right thing
Speaker 1: often feel like a battle. It's because every day there's
Speaker 1: a spiritual war raging all around you. Here's Pastor Rick
Speaker 1: to tell you more.
Speaker 3: You know, we all face temptations every day. It's a
Speaker 3: spiritual battle that takes place inside us, and it makes
Speaker 3: us vulnerable, particularly if we don't know how to fight it.
Speaker 3: To overcome temptation is absolutely essential that you know the
Speaker 3: tactics that Satan uses to trip us up, and it's
Speaker 3: vital to learn the biblical defenses that God gives us.
Speaker 3: He has told us in his Word how to handle
Speaker 3: and how to manage the acts of Satan. In order
Speaker 3: to help you learn how to respond to the predictable
Speaker 3: patterns that Satan uses to tempt you, I've created a
Speaker 3: study kit called The Invisible War, Winning the Battle of Temptation.
Speaker 3: This kit, The Invisible War Winning the Battle of Temptation,
Speaker 3: includes a DVD with seven different sessions and a simple
Speaker 3: booklet that will help you learn how to overcome and
Speaker 3: defeat temptation in your life. You really need this. In
Speaker 3: the series, I will teach you the three kinds of temptation,
Speaker 3: God's antidote to temptation, and even how to avoid temptation
Speaker 3: in the first place. It is a steady guide that
Speaker 3: you can use by yourself, but you'll actually get more
Speaker 3: out of it if you'll gather a small group of
Speaker 3: friends together and study it together as a small group. Now,
Speaker 3: I want to send you the Invisible War Winning the
Speaker 3: Battle for Temptation study kit as my gift to say
Speaker 3: thanks for your support of Daily Hope. With your financial gift,
Speaker 3: we can't do this without you, and your generosity helps
Speaker 3: us take the Hope of Christ into places all around
Speaker 3: the world and now to places that have no Bible,
Speaker 3: no believer, and no body of Christ.
Speaker 1: Go to Pastorick dot com right now to get your copy.
Speaker 1: That's pastorick dot com. Or you can just text the
Speaker 1: word hope to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.
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