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. And
Speaker 1: now here's part two of a message called letting God
Speaker 1: Meet My Needs.
Speaker 2: Proverbs twelve twenty five. The Bible says, worry weighs us down.
Speaker 2: Anybody want to give a testimony about that. Has worried
Speaker 2: ever weighed you down? Of course it has. And you
Speaker 2: get so you think about so many things that you're
Speaker 2: worried about. You start to get discouraged, You start to
Speaker 2: get depressed, you start to get in despair. You see,
Speaker 2: God tells us that your body was not designed for worry. Remember,
Speaker 2: it's unnatural. You weren't made to worry. And every time
Speaker 2: you swallow your worry, your stuff keep score. Every time
Speaker 2: you swallow your worry you say, oh my aching back,
Speaker 2: Oh I got a headache, Oh my stomach's upset. Why
Speaker 2: because you weren't made to internalize worry. It's unnatural and
Speaker 2: it's unhelpful. It's actually unhealthful, and it is bad for
Speaker 2: your health. People who worry don't live as long as
Speaker 2: other people. People say, well, I'm worried sick, Yes you are.
Speaker 2: You worry You can worry yourself sick and cause all
Speaker 2: kinds of problems in your stomach, insomnia and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: In fact, I'll tell you this, worry causes more fatigue
Speaker 2: than work. Worry causes more fatigue than work. You go
Speaker 2: to work, put in a full day's work, come home,
Speaker 2: you're tired, but you're not stressed out. But if you
Speaker 2: go to work and all day you're worrying, worrying, worrying, worrying,
Speaker 2: you come home, you're not just tired, you're drop dead fatigued.
Speaker 2: Worry wears you out more than work. And yet the
Speaker 2: Bible says in Proverbs fourteen, a heart at peace gives
Speaker 2: life to the body. You want to be healthier, I mean, really,
Speaker 2: you want to be healthier. Stop worrying. You got to
Speaker 2: learn to trust God. Worry is unhelpful, it is unnatural,
Speaker 2: it is unreasonable. Number four, worry is unnecessary. That's the
Speaker 2: fourth thing Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 2: He says worry is unnecessary. Why are you worrying about this?
Speaker 2: He says, there's no need to worry because God has
Speaker 2: promised to take care of you. The Lord is your shepherd.
Speaker 2: He feeds, he leads, and he meets needs. And he says,
Speaker 2: there's no need to worry because your heaven the Father,
Speaker 2: will take care of you. You know, when I was
Speaker 2: a kid, if I had any need in my life,
Speaker 2: I didn't worry about it. I just went to my
Speaker 2: dad and the data I need this, or Mom, I
Speaker 2: need this. And if I needed money to buy something,
Speaker 2: to say, data, I need some money to buy this.
Speaker 2: I never once worried about where he was going to
Speaker 2: get the money. That was his worry. You're worrying about
Speaker 2: a lot of things that are God's responsibility. Worry is
Speaker 2: assuming responsibility that God never intended for you to have.
Speaker 2: Every time you worry, it's a warning light. I'm playing God.
Speaker 2: I'm acting like God. I'm thinking that it all depends
Speaker 2: on me. That I don't have a heavenly Father, that
Speaker 2: I don't have a shepherd who will feed and lead
Speaker 2: and meet my need. So you never worry if you
Speaker 2: understand that God is your heavenly Father, and you understand
Speaker 2: the goodness, the goodness of God. Matthew six verse thirty
Speaker 2: says this, if God cares so wonderfully even for the
Speaker 2: flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow. In other words,
Speaker 2: they're only gonna bloom for a few days and then
Speaker 2: they're gone, But your life last decades. If God cares
Speaker 2: the one well even for the flowers that are here
Speaker 2: today and gone tomorrow, won't he surely care for you?
Speaker 2: See what he's saying here is that God has assumed
Speaker 2: responsibility for the needs in your life, and he cares
Speaker 2: for you because He says you are valuable, You have value.
Speaker 2: You want to know how much you value. Look at
Speaker 2: the cross. Jesus died for you on the cross. That
Speaker 2: shows how much value you have to God. You're not junk,
Speaker 2: You're not worthless. No, No, you are valuable to God
Speaker 2: because you're his child. My children are valuable, My grandchildren
Speaker 2: are valuable to me. You are the child of God,
Speaker 2: and you're valuable to God. He says, I'm going to
Speaker 2: take care of your needs. I'm your loving heavenly father.
Speaker 2: I am your shepherd, And like the shepherd takes care
Speaker 2: of the defensive sheep, when you need it. I'm there.
Speaker 2: What am I saying? I'm saying that worry in your life.
Speaker 2: Every time you worry, it comes from the fact that
Speaker 2: you misunderstand the goodness of God. Worry is a warning sign.
Speaker 2: It's a yellow caution like going that's saying at this point,
Speaker 2: I've forgotten how good God is. I've forgotten the promises
Speaker 2: of God. I've forgotten what God has promised to do
Speaker 2: in my life to meet all my needs. He says
Speaker 2: that over and over and over, I will meet all
Speaker 2: your needs. There's no need that God will not meet
Speaker 2: if you trust him. Now, if you don't trust him,
Speaker 2: you're out there on your own. But if you trust him,
Speaker 2: he says, I will meet every need in your life.
Speaker 2: And worry means I've forgotten that the goodness of God
Speaker 2: comes from misunderstanding what God is really like. And you
Speaker 2: know what, we always get into trouble every time whenever
Speaker 2: we start doubting God's goodness when we start thinking God's
Speaker 2: not going to take care of me, God doesn't really
Speaker 2: love me, God isn't a good God. Every time you
Speaker 2: start thinking like that, and you know where those thoughts
Speaker 2: came from, you're gonna get in trouble, You're gonna go
Speaker 2: down a blind alley, hit a dead end, have all
Speaker 2: kinds of discouragement in your life, and it doesn't even
Speaker 2: make sense. Most of you here, sitting here in this
Speaker 2: day are believers. You've stepped across the line spiritually. You said,
Speaker 2: you know, I've put my trust in Jesus Christ because
Speaker 2: i know heaven's perfect and I'm not. There's no chance
Speaker 2: I'm getting to Heaven on my own goodness because I'm
Speaker 2: not good enough. So I'm trusting Jesus Christ to forgive
Speaker 2: me and to save me by his grace, not by
Speaker 2: my words. But I'm just trusting God to say, because
Speaker 2: he loves me, he wants to forgive me. He sent
Speaker 2: Jesus to die for me. When Jesus died in the
Speaker 2: cross for you, he solved your biggest problem. You don't
Speaker 2: have any bigger problem than eternal salvation. But if that's
Speaker 2: your biggest problem, why do you doubt his taking care
Speaker 2: of the smaller things in your life? What's the logical
Speaker 2: saying I'm going to trust God to get me to heaven,
Speaker 2: but I'm not going to trust him help me make
Speaker 2: my car payment. What's the logic in that. It makes
Speaker 2: no sense. Why would you trust God with something so big,
Speaker 2: eternal salvation, but not trust him with who am I
Speaker 2: supposed to marry? Am I ever going to get married?
Speaker 2: Or am I going to get a job? Or what
Speaker 2: school should I go to? And all the other major
Speaker 2: questions in life? Why don't you trust him with those
Speaker 2: things too? It doesn't make sense. They say, Oh, I
Speaker 2: don't doubt him for my salvation, but I do doubt
Speaker 2: that he's going to care for my health. I do
Speaker 2: doubt that he's going to care for my career. It
Speaker 2: doesn't make sense at all. If God can be trusted
Speaker 2: for salvation, he'll carry everything else. Parah walking down you
Speaker 2: know a street out here, say or take a highway
Speaker 2: and you come buying a car. I've got a backpack
Speaker 2: on my light on my back and you stop and say, hey, Rick,
Speaker 2: you want to ride, and say, yeah, I'd appreciate that.
Speaker 2: So I get in the car with you, and about
Speaker 2: five minutes later you look over and you see I'm
Speaker 2: still wearing the backpack on my back. He said, Rick,
Speaker 2: you can just toss that in the back seat and say, oh, no,
Speaker 2: it's enough for you to carry me. I'll carry the backpack.
Speaker 2: That's the kind of stupid logic we do with our lives.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, God, you can save my life, but I'll
Speaker 2: worry about my money and my sex life, and my
Speaker 2: social life and my career life, and you know all
Speaker 2: the other things, my friendships, my relationship. No, no, you
Speaker 2: don't need to carry the backpack either. If he's going
Speaker 2: to carry you to heaven, he'll carry everything else while
Speaker 2: you're here on earth. He's saying, worry is unnecessary. And
Speaker 2: then number five, worry is not only unreasonable, it's unnatural,
Speaker 2: it's unhelpful, it's unnecessary. It's unbelief. Number five worry, Jesus says,
Speaker 2: is unbelief. Worry is doubting God. God has promised to
Speaker 2: take care of every need in your life if you
Speaker 2: trust Him over and over and over. And when you
Speaker 2: doubt that, you are an unbeliever. At that moment, you're
Speaker 2: an unbeliever. Every time you worry, you act like an unbeliever.
Speaker 2: Look at this verse on the screen Philippians four nineteen.
Speaker 2: Love this and the message and the LIVII. You can
Speaker 2: be sure, I mean certain, it's not a wish, not
Speaker 2: a hope. You can be sure that God will take
Speaker 2: care of most things you need. No, I didn't say
Speaker 2: that God will take care of everything everything. What's not
Speaker 2: included everything nothing, everything you need because of what Jesus
Speaker 2: has done for us. Again, God is good to you,
Speaker 2: not because you're good. God is good to everybody. He's
Speaker 2: good to even bad people in the world. They get
Speaker 2: the same life. They get oxygen, they get blood, they
Speaker 2: get food, they get the sunshine. God is good based
Speaker 2: on his goodness, not based on your goodness. Now he's
Speaker 2: saying here, if God's going to take care of every
Speaker 2: your need, you every time you worry, you are doubting God.
Speaker 2: Have you ever thought about that. That's why worry is
Speaker 2: a sin. It's doubting God. Look at this verse Matthew
Speaker 2: six thirty two. People who don't know God, people who
Speaker 2: don't know God and the way he works, they worry
Speaker 2: over these things. Now, let me be honest with you.
Speaker 2: If you haven't stepped across the line, if you're not
Speaker 2: a believer in Christ, if you haven't made Jesus the
Speaker 2: good shepherd, are the Lord is my shepherd of your life.
Speaker 2: You ought to worry. You ought to worry because you're
Speaker 2: up a creek without a paddle. You're out there on
Speaker 2: your own. You're not depending on your heavenly Father. You're
Speaker 2: not depending on God's goodness and grace and love. You're
Speaker 2: depending on yourself. You ought to worry. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of reasons to worry if you don't have God in
Speaker 2: your life, because you've got to face all those battles
Speaker 2: on your own. You've got to find all the solutions
Speaker 2: on your own. And you're not God, and neither am I.
Speaker 2: Which is not And so it's the starting point is
Speaker 2: the humble attitude. God is God and I'm not. When
Speaker 2: I understand that, all of a sudden, the worry starts
Speaker 2: draining out of my life. People who don't know God
Speaker 2: and the way he works, they worry about these things.
Speaker 2: Non believers ought to worry. But Christians are different because
Speaker 2: we have a heavenly Father, a good God who promises
Speaker 2: to care for us. And God says, hey, you guys,
Speaker 2: what are you worrying about. You're not plants, you're not animals,
Speaker 2: you're not birds, you're my children. You see, it's actually
Speaker 2: an insult to God. Every time you worry, you're acting
Speaker 2: like an orphan. Every time you worry, you're acting like
Speaker 2: you don't have a heavenly father who has promised over
Speaker 2: and over again, over three thousand promises in this book
Speaker 2: to take care of your needs. You're acting like you're
Speaker 2: an orphan. You know, there's a beautiful phrase we just read.
Speaker 2: He said your father knows you need them, He knows
Speaker 2: what you need. How many times do you act like
Speaker 2: God doesn't know what you need? God? You know about
Speaker 2: my sexual needs? Do you know about my physical needs?
Speaker 2: My social needs? I don't think God knows about my
Speaker 2: career needs. Really, that's doubting God. Worry is unbelief. You
Speaker 2: don't think God sees it all. What I'm telling you
Speaker 2: is this when you worry. Every time you worry, you're
Speaker 2: acting like an atheist, fact like there is no God.
Speaker 2: There is no promises in the scripture. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: just out here on my own. Worry is practical atheism.
Speaker 2: I saying I don't really believe God will help me
Speaker 2: out of this mess. And we start depending on ourselves,
Speaker 2: and we start taking matters into their own hands, and
Speaker 2: we assume that we have to figure it all out
Speaker 2: rather than it's trusting. That's called playing God. And you
Speaker 2: know what, that's a poor testimony. If you claim to
Speaker 2: be a follower of Jesus Christ and you're worried all
Speaker 2: the time. That's a lousy witness to the world. It's saying,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm just like you. I don't have a
Speaker 2: God who takes care of my needs. I'm playing God.
Speaker 2: And by the way, you know what the worst kind
Speaker 2: of worry is when you say you know things are
Speaker 2: going too good. Oh, I'm just waiting for the other
Speaker 2: shoe to drop because things are going to That's the
Speaker 2: worst kind of worry you could possibly have. I don't
Speaker 2: really believe God is a good god because things are
Speaker 2: going too good, so something is bound to happen. That's
Speaker 2: what Jobs. This whole book of the Bible about that
Speaker 2: kind of word. It's called the Book of Job. Job
Speaker 2: was enormously successful. He was wealthy, he was well known,
Speaker 2: he was beloved, he was popular, he was famous. He'd
Speaker 2: be a billionaire today. And he kept going, mm, things
Speaker 2: are going too good. And when everything fell apart, he goes,
Speaker 2: that which I have feared has happened. It was a
Speaker 2: self fulfilling prophecy. When we get to heaven, you're going
Speaker 2: to see how many times you set yourself up for
Speaker 2: failure by worrying instead of trusting. Instead of trusting, you
Speaker 2: think God's ever worried. No, and God made you in
Speaker 2: this immage. She doesn't want you to worry. John chapter fourteen,
Speaker 2: Verse one. Jesus says, this, don't be worried. What do
Speaker 2: I do instead of worrying? He says, believe in God
Speaker 2: and believe in me? Now, how do you do that?
Speaker 2: How do you trust God to meet your needs? Okay,
Speaker 2: so how do I do that? How do I trust
Speaker 2: in God? Well, it's not rocket science, friends, It's just
Speaker 2: three or four things. And God makes it very clear
Speaker 2: in the Bible that if you'll do these four things,
Speaker 2: worry is going to drain out of your life. I
Speaker 2: don't want you worrying anymore. Every time you worry is
Speaker 2: a wasted second of your life. It's wasted energy. They said,
Speaker 2: it doesn't change anything. It's unreasonable, it's unhelpful, it's unnatural,
Speaker 2: it's unbelief, it's unhealthy. So how do I trust God
Speaker 2: for my needs instead of worrying about my needs? Well,
Speaker 2: the Bible says, you do four things. Write these down
Speaker 2: number one, and you do this every day. It's not
Speaker 2: a one time thing. Every day ask him to be
Speaker 2: my shepherd. Every day I ask Jesus to be my shepherd.
Speaker 2: The Lord is my shepherd. And if I ask in
Speaker 2: you my shepherd, then he's gonna feed and he's gonna lead,
Speaker 2: and he's gonna meet my need in that day. By
Speaker 2: the way, he'll not only feed, lead and meet your need.
Speaker 2: He can also forgive your misdeed and help you succeed
Speaker 2: if you just trust him. So what do you do?
Speaker 2: You do this every morning when you get up, you
Speaker 2: sit on the side of your bed and you say,
Speaker 2: the Lord is my shepherd. Jesus Christ. I'm expecting you
Speaker 2: to feed me, to lead me, and to meet my needs. Today,
Speaker 2: telp me succeed, forgive my misdeeds. I will trust you today.
Speaker 2: And I start every day by saying, the Lord is
Speaker 2: my shepherd. You're a good God. And then I say
Speaker 2: it throughout the day. Every time you go into a meeting,
Speaker 2: the Lord is my shepherd. He's gonna help me in
Speaker 2: this meeting. You've got a parent teach your conference. The
Speaker 2: Lord is my shepherd. Well, I'm about to hear. I
Speaker 2: may not want to hear, but he's gonna feed me,
Speaker 2: lead me, and meet my needs. And you got a
Speaker 2: major decision to make. The Lord is my shepherd. You
Speaker 2: might say it ten or fifteen times a day, but
Speaker 2: if you'll start saying that phrase, your worry will go down.
Speaker 2: Every time you start to worry, you need to say,
Speaker 2: the Lord is my shepherd. I asking Jesus Christ to
Speaker 2: feed me, to lead me, to meet my needs. And
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna worry about it, because says I've promised
Speaker 2: I will take care of your needs if you will
Speaker 2: trust me. Now. In John chapter ten, Jesus says this
Speaker 2: verse fourteen fifteen, I am the good shepherd. Let me say,
Speaker 2: the Lord's my shepherd. Who is that? Jesus says, I'm it,
Speaker 2: I am the Lord. I am the good shepherd. And
Speaker 2: I know my own sheep, and they know me, and
Speaker 2: I lay down my life for my sheep. That's what
Speaker 2: he did on the cross. He gave his life for you,
Speaker 2: and if you loved you enough to die for you,
Speaker 2: he certainly loves you enough to feed, lead and meet
Speaker 2: your need. Every day. You need to pray the prayer
Speaker 2: that David prayed. It's this next verse ps I'm twenty
Speaker 2: eight verse nine, Come Lord save us and bless us,
Speaker 2: be our shepherd and always carry us in your arms.
Speaker 2: He says, you can pray these things. The Lord's my shepherd.
Speaker 2: So I need to say, Lord, I need you to
Speaker 2: save me today. I need you to bless me today.
Speaker 2: I need you to be my shepherd today. I need
Speaker 2: to carry you, to carry me in your arms.
Speaker 1: What a great and timely message today. Let's end our
Speaker 1: show with a closing thought from Pastor Rick.
Speaker 2: If you've been blessed by this message today, here's what
Speaker 2: I want you to do. Share it, Tell somebody about
Speaker 2: it now. There's a lot of great ways you can
Speaker 2: share daily hope. One of the easiest is by posting
Speaker 2: it on social media on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn
Speaker 2: or Instagram. But you'll find a share button today next
Speaker 2: to the message on my website Pastorick dot com. Don't
Speaker 2: keep the good news to yourself. It's too good to
Speaker 2: keep to ourselves. We've got to pass it on to others.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening today and join me next time as
Speaker 2: we continue to look into God's word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: We'd love for you to share this broadcast. Just go
Speaker 1: to Pastorrick dot com. That's pastorreg 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.
Speaker 2: Rob