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 Pastor Rick
Speaker 1: dot com. Or just text the word Daily to eight
Speaker 1: hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Right now, here's
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick with part two of a message called how
Speaker 1: We're getting.
Speaker 2: Through in Heaven. No one's going to have any scars
Speaker 2: except Jesus and He's going to have the hands, the
Speaker 2: feet aside the head. Why because he wants to always
Speaker 2: remember this is how much I love you. It is
Speaker 2: impossible for God to forget how much he loves you.
Speaker 2: And so we know that no matter how we don't
Speaker 2: understand what's going on in our lives, we do know this.
Speaker 2: I don't have the solutions, I don't have the answers,
Speaker 2: I don't have the reasons. I don't have the explanations.
Speaker 2: But I do have the presence of God, and I
Speaker 2: do have his love in my life. And when life
Speaker 2: doesn't make sense, you need to hold onto the promises.
Speaker 2: You know what occurred to me the day Matthew died.
Speaker 2: God knows what it's like to lose a sun. I've
Speaker 2: had many people ask me his pastors, pastor Rick, where
Speaker 2: was God when my son died the same place he
Speaker 2: was when his son died, weeping? Grieving? You know what
Speaker 2: the Bible says that God weeps? Do you know that
Speaker 2: the Bible says God has stored up every tear you've
Speaker 2: ever cried. You don't even know that, but God does.
Speaker 2: He knows more about you than you do. As I said,
Speaker 2: Matthew lived a very tortured life. And part of the
Speaker 2: problem was he was incredibly bright. A lot of people
Speaker 2: are mentally ill don't know their mentally ill. Matthew did,
Speaker 2: and growing up he said, why can't I be normal?
Speaker 2: Because he was so smart, he knew what wasn't right.
Speaker 2: He felt odd, and he felt on the outskirts. He
Speaker 2: felt like he didn't fit in, He felt like nobody
Speaker 2: understood him. He just why can't I be normal? And
Speaker 2: he had he had a tenderheart, but he had a
Speaker 2: tortured mind. And he struggled all through life with the
Speaker 2: unanswered questions about his illness because it didn't make sense.
Speaker 2: But I want to tell you this. One second into heaven,
Speaker 2: all of Matthew's questions were answered and all of a
Speaker 2: sudden he understood it. All life doesn't make sense, but
Speaker 2: we can still have peace because we know God loves
Speaker 2: us and he's with us. There's the second thing you
Speaker 2: need to know, and you need to remember. Everything on
Speaker 2: earth is broken. Everything on earth is broken, but we
Speaker 2: can still have joy because we know God is good
Speaker 2: and He's got a greater plan. Everything on earth is broken. Now.
Speaker 2: The fact is, since sin and evil entered the world,
Speaker 2: it messed up everything, and nothing on this planet is perfect.
Speaker 2: Everything on the planet is broken. Nothing works perfectly. The
Speaker 2: weather does not work perfectly. We have tsunamis, and we
Speaker 2: have earthquakes, and we have fires and floods and all
Speaker 2: kinds of natural disasters. God didn't want that. He created
Speaker 2: a garden of Paradise, a garden of Eden. Sin broke
Speaker 2: the planet. It broke the weather, It broke the climate.
Speaker 2: The economy doesn't work perfectly. None of your plans work perfectly.
Speaker 2: Have you noticed that not one of your plans works perfectly.
Speaker 2: Your body doesn't work perfectly. Anybody agree with that one? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 2: No relationship works perfectly. Anybody want to give a testimony.
Speaker 2: No matter how much you love, you still have this.
Speaker 2: No brain works perfectly. We all have broken brains, and
Speaker 2: we have thoughts that we can't control, and compulsions and
Speaker 2: desires and attractions and fears and depressions and worries and rage,
Speaker 2: and you know, you name it. Everything is broken in
Speaker 2: this world. Isaiah twenty four says this. By the way,
Speaker 2: if you ever want to read a perfect description of
Speaker 2: modern culture, you need to go study in detail Isaiah
Speaker 2: twenty four. Because Isaiah twenty four explains all of the
Speaker 2: problems in our culture.
Speaker 1: Today, you're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will
Speaker 1: be back in just a moment with the rest of
Speaker 1: today's lesson. If you've missed any part of today's teaching,
Speaker 1: you can listen online anytime at pastorick dot com. That's
Speaker 1: pastorick dot com.
Speaker 3: Life can sometimes be challenging, isolating, and painful. Do you
Speaker 3: or someone you know need some powerful encouragement right now,
Speaker 3: then let me tell you about the Journey Toward Hope.
Speaker 3: This guided Bible study book takes you on a journey
Speaker 3: to discover the five truths about who you are. You
Speaker 3: are loved, you have a purpose, you belong, you have
Speaker 3: a choice, and you are needed. This full color vegan
Speaker 3: leather study tool is filled with scriptures, prayers, exercises, spaces
Speaker 3: to journal, and personal stories to help you uncover the
Speaker 3: hidden reasons you may lose hope and teach you how
Speaker 3: to maintain and bolster that hope for a lifetime. Will
Speaker 3: send you your very own copy of Journey Toward Hope
Speaker 3: when you give a gift today to Daily Hope. To
Speaker 3: take the Hope of Jesus to a herding world, Just
Speaker 3: go to Pastorerrick dot com right now to get your copy,
Speaker 3: or you can call eight hundred six hundred five zero
Speaker 3: zero four that's Pastorick dot com. Or call eight hundred
Speaker 3: six hundred five zero zero four and be sure to
Speaker 3: let us know the call letters of this station. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much for your support. There's only three days
Speaker 3: left to get this great resource, so don't wait.
Speaker 1: Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick
Speaker 1: Warren Isaiah twenty four, verse five and verse nineteen.
Speaker 2: The earth suffers. Everything's broken. The earth suffers for the
Speaker 2: sins of its people, for they have twisted the instructions
Speaker 2: of God, violated his laws, and broken his covenant. Therefore,
Speaker 2: the earth has broken down and has utterly collapsed. Everything
Speaker 2: is lost. We're all lost spiritually. Everything's abandoned and confused.
Speaker 2: We have confusion about everything, Confusion about the economy, confusion.
Speaker 2: There's confusion in every area, about money, about sex, about life,
Speaker 2: about time. There's confusion everywhere. Now, why is there brokenness
Speaker 2: and suffering in the world because of sin and evil?
Speaker 2: Why is there sin and evil in the world? Because
Speaker 2: God allows you and me a free choice. We can
Speaker 2: choose to not love him. We can choose to go
Speaker 2: our own way. He said, well, why doesn't God eliminate
Speaker 2: all the sin and on the earth. Well, God could
Speaker 2: easily eliminate all the sin on the earth, get rid
Speaker 2: of you and me, and we've been hurting each other
Speaker 2: for thousands and thousands of years. You get enough sin
Speaker 2: in habitual lives of people. It affects the environment, It
Speaker 2: affects your DNA, your genetics, it affects everything is broken. Well,
Speaker 2: if everything is broken, how can we have joy? Because
Speaker 2: we know God is good, and because we know He
Speaker 2: has a better purpose and a greater plan. Romans eight
Speaker 2: twenty eight, one of the greatest promises in the Bible,
Speaker 2: says this, But we know circle that we know, we know.
Speaker 2: It's the second thing you need to know. We know
Speaker 2: that in all things, not some things, not the good things.
Speaker 2: We know that in all things God works for the
Speaker 2: good of those who love Him and have been called
Speaker 2: according to his purpose. Now, this is a great promise,
Speaker 2: but I once you to notice it's not a promise
Speaker 2: for everybody, but everybody. He works for the good of
Speaker 2: those who love Him and have been called according to
Speaker 2: his purpose. If you love God, everything that happens in
Speaker 2: your life God is using it. He's going to work
Speaker 2: for good, even the bad. Anybody can bring good out
Speaker 2: of good. God specializes in bringing good out of bad. Now,
Speaker 2: if you don't love God, all things are not working
Speaker 2: for good in your life. In fact, all things are
Speaker 2: working for bad in your life because you're going against
Speaker 2: your creator, and that's gonna Your arms are too short
Speaker 2: to box with God. You're going to lose that one. Now,
Speaker 2: let me This is one of the most misunderstood, misinterpreted,
Speaker 2: and misused versus in the Bible. Notice what it doesn't.
Speaker 2: It doesn't say everything that happens is good. No, it
Speaker 2: says all things God works for the good. Doesn't say
Speaker 2: it's all good. Doesn't say everything happens to me. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of bad stuff in the world. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of evil in the world. Racism is bad, rape
Speaker 2: is bad, bigotry is bad, terrorism is bad, cancer and
Speaker 2: leukemia that's bad. God is not the author of evil.
Speaker 2: Doesn't say that everything that happens is good. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of bad stuff. It doesn't even say everything that
Speaker 2: happens is God's will. Now, that's nonsense. Friends. A lot
Speaker 2: of people confuse heaven and earth. This this is not heaven.
Speaker 2: In heaven everything is perfect. Why because God's will is
Speaker 2: done perfectly. So everything is perfect in heaven. It's all
Speaker 2: perfect because God's done is all. God's will is always done.
Speaker 2: On earth, everything is broken because God's will well is
Speaker 2: rarely done, rarely done. That's why Jesus said, we are
Speaker 2: to pray Thy will be done on earth as it
Speaker 2: is in heaven. Because in heaven it's done perfectly and instantly,
Speaker 2: and on earth it's done rarely or never.
Speaker 3: Not.
Speaker 2: Everything that happens on this planet is God's will. I
Speaker 2: mean when some people I've been at funerals and people say, well,
Speaker 2: it must have been God's will, or they'll say, you know,
Speaker 2: God must have needed Matthew more than you. There's a
Speaker 2: word for that. Nonsense, just nonsense. God needed that baby
Speaker 2: more than me, so he took him home early. Are
Speaker 2: you kidding me? God doesn't need anything, so don't blame
Speaker 2: God for that. Death is the result of sin and evil.
Speaker 2: It entered the world because of that. God is not
Speaker 2: the author of it. Matthew's life was robbed by mental illness.
Speaker 2: It was robbed by mental illness. And you need to
Speaker 2: understand that you have an enemy on this planet. His
Speaker 2: name is Satan. Satan is not your friend. He's not
Speaker 2: your friend. In fact, the Bible says he came to
Speaker 2: kill and destroy. He wants to destroy your life. Why
Speaker 2: because he hates God. Satan cannot hurt God. God cannot
Speaker 2: be hurt like that. So what happens He tries to
Speaker 2: hurt God's children, to hurt God. If you can't get
Speaker 2: to me, the quickest way to hurt me is hurt
Speaker 2: my kids. Satan wants to destroy your life. He wants
Speaker 2: to mess up your life. He wants to keep you
Speaker 2: away from God because that makes God grieve. God grieves
Speaker 2: when you don't love him the way he loves you,
Speaker 2: when you don't know him the way he knows you.
Speaker 2: So God is not the author evil. You know, when
Speaker 2: Matthew died, Satan thought he'd won, but he had lost
Speaker 2: big time. Why because he couldn't torture Matthew anymore his
Speaker 2: entire life. He went through mental torture. But now he's
Speaker 2: out of reach of that torture. Now in heaven, there's
Speaker 2: no more pain, there's no more sorrow, there's no more
Speaker 2: He's at peace. What's he doing today? He's in heaven
Speaker 2: in the grandstands cheering me on right now. On the
Speaker 2: day that Matthew died, we were suspecting, because we hadn't
Speaker 2: heard from him all day, he hadn't texted all day,
Speaker 2: that our greatest fear had probably happened, the day I
Speaker 2: prayed would never happen, the day I feared might that
Speaker 2: he would take his life. We went over to his
Speaker 2: house and we couldn't get into his house because we
Speaker 2: didn't have a key to his house. His car was there,
Speaker 2: and he wasn't answering the door. When we were worried
Speaker 2: that our deepest, greatest fear had happened. And as we
Speaker 2: stood there in the driveway waiting for police to come
Speaker 2: to break in and to see what inevitably was true,
Speaker 2: Kay and I stood there in the driveway, hugging each other, sobbing.
Speaker 2: Our hearts were breaking into a million pieces. And as
Speaker 2: we stood there, trembling and sobbing loud, Kay reached up
Speaker 2: and grabbed her necklace which had two words on it,
Speaker 2: and she showed it to me. It was the words
Speaker 2: of a book that she wrote. The title of a
Speaker 2: book she wrote, choose Joy, And I thought, are you
Speaker 2: kidding me? How in the world. Do you choose joy
Speaker 2: in the deepest grief? How do you choose joy in
Speaker 2: the worst pain? How do you choose joy when your
Speaker 2: greatest fear is being realized? Well, I'll let Kate tell
Speaker 2: you that. Would you welcome her?
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Saddleback, I've missed you.
Speaker 4: As Rick said, I was wearing a necklace that says
Speaker 4: choose joy after I wrote that several years ago. And
Speaker 4: I wrote the book because I've struggled with low levels
Speaker 4: of depression my whole life. And yet here's a verse
Speaker 4: like Romans five three to five on your outline that
Speaker 4: says we can have joy even in our troubles because
Speaker 4: we know that these troubles produce endurance, and endurance produces character,
Speaker 4: and character produces hope. And this hope will not disappoint
Speaker 4: us because God has poured his love to fill our hearts.
Speaker 4: I began to look for some jewelry that I could
Speaker 4: wear on a daily basis to remind me that I
Speaker 4: could choose joy, that there could be joy even in troubles.
Speaker 4: The day that Matthew passed away, as Rick said, I
Speaker 4: in particular, had a terrible sense of foreboding, and I
Speaker 4: had very good reasons to believe that that might be
Speaker 4: that he had taken his life, but we had to
Speaker 4: wait hours before it could be confirmed. And so when
Speaker 4: I got up that morning, I deliberately went to my jurybox,
Speaker 4: and with my hands shaking and my heart pounding and
Speaker 4: my stomach heathing, I picked this necklace out of the
Speaker 4: jury box. I wasn't really thinking very clearly, but I
Speaker 4: knew that by putting it on, in some way, I
Speaker 4: was fighting back against the nightmare that I was pretty
Speaker 4: sure that was going to unfold that day. And as
Speaker 4: Rick said, as we stood at Matthew's house together waiting
Speaker 4: for the police to confirm this terrible news, I don't
Speaker 4: know why, but in a moment I looked down and
Speaker 4: saw it, and then I raised it to him in
Speaker 4: a very tiny, feeble attempt to affirm one I knew
Speaker 4: to be the truth, even as he said, our hearts
Speaker 4: were shattering. How could I do that? How could I
Speaker 4: even wear the necklace that day? How could I lift
Speaker 4: it to him in a gesture of belief in God,
Speaker 4: a belief that joy could be chosen even in our
Speaker 4: darkest moments. How could I do that? And how could he,
Speaker 4: through his tears, receive it, and not push me away
Speaker 4: and not tell me I was crazy, and to stop
Speaker 4: it and to just stop doing that. It's because of
Speaker 4: what we know, because we know that joy is still present.
Speaker 4: We know it because God is good, and because we
Speaker 4: have spent the last fifty years of our lives putting
Speaker 4: our spiritual roots down deep into the rich soil of
Speaker 4: God's grace, his mercy, his faithfulness, and his goodness. And
Speaker 4: because of that, because of those roots that have gone
Speaker 4: deep into the soil of who God is, getting to
Speaker 4: know him when troubles have come our way, we have
Speaker 4: been able to produce endurance. It has been produced and
Speaker 4: hopefully character, and from that character hope and joy verse
Speaker 4: five of Romans three again, look at that, excuse me.
Speaker 4: Romans five, Verse five says, and this hope will not
Speaker 4: disappoint us because God has poured his love to fill
Speaker 4: our hearts. I was learning a lot about joy in
Speaker 4: the last few years, and so I could say somehow, yes, God,
Speaker 4: I trust you, and I'm going to have joy even
Speaker 4: in this very dark day. But Hope, I want to
Speaker 4: talk to you a little bit about hope, because I
Speaker 4: would be lying to you completely, lying to you if
Speaker 4: I said that hope didn't disappoint me. In fact, I
Speaker 4: was crushed by hope that didn't come true.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. In this study, Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick and Kay Warren share biblical wisdom and their life
Speaker 1: experiences to help you find God's path to peace in
Speaker 1: even the most difficult seasons of life. If you've missed
Speaker 1: any part of this message, or you'd like to find
Speaker 1: out more about Pastor Rick Warren and this ministry, just
Speaker 1: visit Pastororick dot com where you can listen online anytime.
Speaker 1: That's Pastor Rick with two rs inthemiddle dot com, and
Speaker 1: be sure to sign up for Rick's free daily email
Speaker 1: devotional While you're there. Rick will be back to close
Speaker 1: out our time today. But first life can sometimes be challenging, isolating,
Speaker 1: and painful. Do you or someone you know need a
Speaker 1: powerful encouragement right now, then let me tell you about
Speaker 1: the journey toward hope. This guided Bible study book takes
Speaker 1: you on a journey to discover the five truths about
Speaker 1: who you are. You are loved, you have a purpose,
Speaker 1: you belong, you have a choice, and you are needed.
Speaker 1: This full color vegan leather study tool is filled with scriptures, prayers, exercises,
Speaker 1: spaces to journal, and personal stories to help you uncover
Speaker 1: the hidden reasons you may lose hope and teach you
Speaker 1: how to maintain and bolster that hope for a lifetime.
Speaker 1: We'll send you your very own copy of Journey Toward
Speaker 1: Hope when you give a gift today to Daily Hope
Speaker 1: to take the Hope of Jesus to a herding world.
Speaker 1: Just go to Pastororick dot com right now to get
Speaker 1: your copy, or you can call eight hundred six hundred
Speaker 1: five thousand and four. That's Pastororrick dot com. Or call
Speaker 1: eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four and be
Speaker 1: sure to let us know the call letters of this station.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your support. There's only three
Speaker 1: days left to get this great resource, so don't wait.
Speaker 1: Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: Today. Want to share with you a letter from Debbie
Speaker 2: that really truly touched my heart. She wrote, Pastor Rick,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how many times I thought about emailing you,
Speaker 2: but I didn't. I'm not sure why, but today I
Speaker 2: listened to your Daily Hope message on facing giants and
Speaker 2: life and work and I knew that I needed to
Speaker 2: say thank you. My story started when my husband of
Speaker 2: almost twenty four years died suddenly at our home of
Speaker 2: a blood clot He was just forty nine years old.
Speaker 2: My daughter was the one who called nine one one,
Speaker 2: and life just seemed to stop. We were in shock
Speaker 2: after that death. At the funeral, my brother told me
Speaker 2: about your message series, How to get Through what You're
Speaker 2: going Through. So I listened and I held on to
Speaker 2: those words and what Kay had spoken, not knowing how
Speaker 2: significant they would become. My own son had been struggling
Speaker 2: with what we now think was undiagnosed bipolar disorder. He'd
Speaker 2: been struggling for about three years, and eleven weeks after
Speaker 2: my husband died, he took his life. Life stopped again.
Speaker 2: I have an incredible family and a group of friends,
Speaker 2: and they, along with my faith, got me and my
Speaker 2: daughter through things I never thought I could live through.
Speaker 2: But the resource that I kept turning to and listening
Speaker 2: to over and over again was your series How to
Speaker 2: get Through what You're going Through When you lost your son,
Speaker 2: you and Kay truly understood how I felt and how
Speaker 2: I still feel. We're part of a club that nobody
Speaker 2: wants to be a member of RICK. I've learned so
Speaker 2: many things through this journey of grief, but the most
Speaker 2: important is that God keeps his promises and he does
Speaker 2: bring beauty out of ashes. So I want to thank
Speaker 2: you and Kay from the bottom of my heart for
Speaker 2: sharing your story and not wasting your pain, even though
Speaker 2: we've never met, though we're friends, well we are, and
Speaker 2: I ask God daily to help me use my pain
Speaker 2: to help others. I still struggle some days with guilt
Speaker 2: and grief, but I know that God is faithful with
Speaker 2: me every step of the journey. With a thankful heart. Debbi, Well, Debbie,
Speaker 2: my dear sister. This touched me obviously your message and
Speaker 2: as somebody who's walked in your shoes having lost the sun,
Speaker 2: I can tell you without a doubt that God is faithful.
Speaker 2: And I just want to say that I'm so proud
Speaker 2: of you that God does not want us to waste
Speaker 2: our hurts. Never waste a hurt. You're going to go
Speaker 2: through the pain, so you may as well use it to
Speaker 2: help other people. And in Second Corinthians one, the Bible
Speaker 2: says God takes us through problems and comforts us, so
Speaker 2: we can then comfort others with the same comfort we've
Speaker 2: been given, and that's the motivation behind everything we do
Speaker 2: at Daily Hope. Friends, if you can give a gift
Speaker 2: to help Daily Hope, you can help people like Debbie
Speaker 2: who's walking through the grief of having lost a husband
Speaker 2: and a son, but found new hope through this broadcast,
Speaker 2: which shares the message of Jesus. You who gave helped
Speaker 2: Debbi find healing, and you who gave have helped thousands
Speaker 2: and thousands of other people find hope and healing in
Speaker 2: Christ because of your gift. So thank you for your
Speaker 2: gifts today, God bless you.
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 pastor rick dot com. Be sure to join us
Speaker 1: again next time as we look into God's word for
Speaker 1: our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Daily Hope
Speaker 1: Ministries and your generous financial support.