Speaker 1: Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Today we embark on
Speaker 1: a journey through a powerful series called God's Amazing Promises.
Speaker 1: In the upcoming lessons, you'll discover some of the most
Speaker 1: profound promises that God has made to you. These promises
Speaker 1: are not mere words. They are the keys to a
Speaker 1: renewed life, inner peace, and a hopeful future. But before
Speaker 1: we get started, we want to let you know that
Speaker 1: very generous friends of the ministry are offering a one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars matching grant. That means every dollar you
Speaker 1: give right now to help Daily Hope share the hope
Speaker 1: of Jesus around the world will be matched up to
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars, making your gift go twice as far.
Speaker 1: You can find out more by going to Pastorick dot
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Speaker 1: six hundred five thousand and four. Right now, here's Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick Warren with part one of a message called God's
Speaker 1: Promises about giving.
Speaker 2: And I want to begin by telling you that the
Speaker 2: words promise and promises are actually used over a thousand
Speaker 2: times in different English translations of the scripture. One scholar
Speaker 2: did a study and he counted over eight thousand different
Speaker 2: promises of God in the Bible. The Bible tells us
Speaker 2: that God is a promise making and a promise keeping God.
Speaker 2: He makes promises in the Bible to literally everybody. Now,
Speaker 2: God's promises are like a divine insurance policy. And in
Speaker 2: an insurance policy, when you know what's covered, then you
Speaker 2: don't sweat it when that circumstance happens in your life
Speaker 2: or that illness of that accident. When you know what's
Speaker 2: covered in the policy, you relax. On the other hand,
Speaker 2: if you don't know what's covered in the insurance policy,
Speaker 2: if you're ignorant of it, you worry. And one of
Speaker 2: the problems that we have today is people don't know
Speaker 2: the promise of God, so they spend a lot of
Speaker 2: time worrying. Today, we're going to begin a new series
Speaker 2: that I'm calling God's Amazing Promises, and each week We're
Speaker 2: going to look at a different set of God's promises
Speaker 2: to you. We'll look at promises of God's help, promises
Speaker 2: of wisdom, of power, promises of forgiveness and guidance, promises
Speaker 2: of salvation and blessing and heaven, promises of guidance, and salvation,
Speaker 2: of success, of victory, and many many other benefits. You
Speaker 2: can't afford to miss this series on God's Amazing Promises. Now,
Speaker 2: I want to begin the series by explaining three fundamental
Speaker 2: facts about the promises of God. The first one is this,
Speaker 2: God wants me to build my life on his promises.
Speaker 2: God doesn't want you to live a life built on
Speaker 2: petty rules. He wants you to live a life built
Speaker 2: on great promises. And we're going to look at many
Speaker 2: of these eight thousand promises in God's Word to you,
Speaker 2: God's Insurance Policy to you. Number two. God makes two
Speaker 2: kinds of promises in scripture, and we're going to look
Speaker 2: at both. First, he makes unconditional promises, and then he
Speaker 2: makes conditional promises. The unconditional promises there are no strings attached,
Speaker 2: and no matter what you do, when God promises something unconditionally,
Speaker 2: it's going to happen. For instance, God has made an
Speaker 2: unconditional promise about the second coming of Jesus Christ. It's
Speaker 2: not going to be dependent on anything that you or
Speaker 2: I do. That's an unconditional promise, and we'll look at
Speaker 2: many of those. But God also makes conditional promises, and
Speaker 2: these promises are based on your faith and your obedience,
Speaker 2: and God says, if you do this, then I will
Speaker 2: do this. It's not automatic. These promises aren't automatically yours.
Speaker 2: You have to meet a requirement or a circumstance or
Speaker 2: a condition. And if you don't meet that requirement and
Speaker 2: you forfeit the promise. In other words, there's a premise
Speaker 2: to every promise that's conditional, and we'll look at what
Speaker 2: some of those conditions are now. The third thing I
Speaker 2: want to say about God's promises is that God makes
Speaker 2: promises for us for two different reasons. The first reason
Speaker 2: God gives us all these eight thousand promises in the
Speaker 2: Bible is to teach us to trust Him in difficult times.
Speaker 2: To teach us to trust Him in difficult times. The
Speaker 2: Bible says in Psalm one nineteen, verse fifty, when I'm hurting,
Speaker 2: I find comfort in your promises that lead to life.
Speaker 2: You know, if you weren't in ever bad circumstances, you
Speaker 2: wouldn't need the promises of God. If everything went great
Speaker 2: in your life, you wouldn't need the promises of God.
Speaker 2: Psalm one nineteen one fourteen says this you God, You're
Speaker 2: my refuge and shield, and your promises are my only
Speaker 2: source of hope. So, as I said, if things always
Speaker 2: went great in your life, and everything always looked great,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't need any promises. It's when the situation looks
Speaker 2: hopeless that's when you need a promise of God. It's
Speaker 2: when situations seem like they're all falling apart, that's when
Speaker 2: you need a promise of God. So God first gives
Speaker 2: us promises to help us get us through the tough
Speaker 2: times in life, the difficult times, the times when we're hurting,
Speaker 2: or it just looks like maybe he's not even around,
Speaker 2: we hold on to his promises. The second reason God
Speaker 2: gives us promises is to make us more like him.
Speaker 2: We've talked about this many times that God's number one
Speaker 2: goal in your life is to make you like Jesus.
Speaker 2: One of the ways that he does that is through
Speaker 2: the promises. In this book. The Bible says that God,
Speaker 2: and first excuse me, second Peter, Chapter one, verse four,
Speaker 2: God has made great and marvelous promises so that his
Speaker 2: nature would become part of us. Look at that verse again.
Speaker 2: God has made great and marvelous promises. Okay, all of
Speaker 2: these promises are in the Bible, so that here's the
Speaker 2: reason his nature would become part of us. The more
Speaker 2: you trust in God's promises, the more it's going to
Speaker 2: change your life. That's where we're going to do the
Speaker 2: series on God's amazing promises. You grow more like Jesus
Speaker 2: through God's promises. In fact, I'll just be real, Frank,
Speaker 2: you can't become like Jesus without trusting God's promises. The
Speaker 2: Bible tells us that God works in our lives through promises. Now,
Speaker 2: let me give you a quiz. Can you guess what
Speaker 2: subject in the Bible God makes more promises about than
Speaker 2: anything else? Can you guess what subject in the Bible
Speaker 2: God makes more promises about than anything else. It's not faith,
Speaker 2: it's not prayer, it's not love, it's not patience. It
Speaker 2: may surprise you that God makes more promises in the
Speaker 2: Bible about generosity or giving than anything else.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be
Speaker 1: back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.
Speaker 1: You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional
Speaker 1: at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 3: Every year, people tell us how much they benefit from
Speaker 3: the Bible verses found in the Daily Hope prayer Journal.
Speaker 3: So for the very first time, Pastor Rick created a
Speaker 3: special scripture card said with fifty two life changing verses
Speaker 3: found in this year's prayer Journal. These verses will encourage
Speaker 3: you in difficult times and help you experience the piece
Speaker 3: you can only find in Jesus. This set of beautifully
Speaker 3: designed cards will help you a scripture so you can
Speaker 3: recall God's word when you need it most. You can
Speaker 3: also use them to minister to others. Give one to
Speaker 3: a friend and write a personalized note of encouragement on
Speaker 3: the back. If a scripture really speaks to you, frame it,
Speaker 3: put them in places where you can read them during
Speaker 3: the day for encouragement. And today, when you give a
Speaker 3: gift to help Daily Hope take the Hope of Jesus
Speaker 3: to a world in need, we'll send you the Experiencing
Speaker 3: God's Peace Scripture Card set to say thanks. Visit Pastororck
Speaker 3: dot com or call eight hundred six hundred five zero
Speaker 3: zero four to get your copy of Experiencing God's Peace
Speaker 3: Scripture Card set. And all this month, any gift you
Speaker 3: give will be matched by very generous friends up to
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand dollars. There's only three days left to
Speaker 3: have your gift matched and receive your Experiencing God's Peace
Speaker 3: scripture card set, So please contact us right away again,
Speaker 3: that's Pastorick dot com or call eight hundred six hundred
Speaker 3: five zero zero four. Thank you so much for your support,
Speaker 3: and don't forget to mention that you heard Daily Hope
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Speaker 1: Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: God makes more promises in the Bible about generosity or
Speaker 2: giving than anything else. Why is that? Why does God
Speaker 2: make more promises about being generous and being giving? Well,
Speaker 2: there's a couple of reasons. First, because God is generous
Speaker 2: and he wants us to become like him. God wants
Speaker 2: his children to take on his qualities. Everything we have
Speaker 2: in life is because of the generosity and grace and
Speaker 2: giving of God. In John Chapter one, verse sixteen, I
Speaker 2: love this In the message prayer phrase look up on
Speaker 2: the screen, it says we live off his generous bounty.
Speaker 2: Gift after gift after gift. Everything you and I have
Speaker 2: in life is because of God's generosity. So God just
Speaker 2: wants us to become like him. He wants his children
Speaker 2: to be like father, like son, like father like daughter.
Speaker 2: Second reason God wants us to learn generosity is because
Speaker 2: giving is hard. And the reason giving is hard is
Speaker 2: because it challenges our selfishness. I don't want to give
Speaker 2: anything to anybody else or to God. I want to
Speaker 2: spend it all on me, So it's hard. So God
Speaker 2: gives rewards for us learning to be like him. God
Speaker 2: is a generous God. Everything you have in life is
Speaker 2: because of the generosity of God, and he wants us
Speaker 2: to become like him. So to kick off this series
Speaker 2: on God's amazing promises, We're going to start with the
Speaker 2: most frequent promises in the Bible, the promises about generosity.
Speaker 2: In fact, there are so many of them we couldn't
Speaker 2: possibly cover the hundreds and hundreds of promises about this.
Speaker 2: So I've just picked out nine categories. That's all we
Speaker 2: have time for. We're gonna have to go through this
Speaker 2: fairly quickly anyway, But let me give you nine rewards
Speaker 2: that God promises to me and promises to you if
Speaker 2: we learn to be generous with our money. All right,
Speaker 2: let's look at nine different rewards that God promises to
Speaker 2: us if we learn to be generous with our money.
Speaker 2: As I said, I could give you hundreds of promises
Speaker 2: about generosity, but we only have time for these nine.
Speaker 2: We're going to go through the pretty quickly, all right,
Speaker 2: So write these down fast. Number one, God promises good
Speaker 2: things will happen to me when I'm generous. When I
Speaker 2: learned to give like God gives. God promises that good
Speaker 2: things will happen to me. Psalm one twelve, verse five
Speaker 2: says good will come to him who is generous. Good
Speaker 2: good things come to him who is generous. Proverbs twenty two,
Speaker 2: verse nine, Generous people will be blessed. That's a promise
Speaker 2: of God. So if you want God's blessing in your life,
Speaker 2: and you want God's goodness in your life, and you
Speaker 2: want good things to happen to you, the Bible says
Speaker 2: giving generosity unlocks the key. God promises that good things
Speaker 2: will happen to me when I'm generous. Number two, God
Speaker 2: promises my children will be blessed if I learned how
Speaker 2: to give like God gives. That's covered in Psalm thirty seven,
Speaker 2: verse twenty six. It says they're in the NIV translation,
Speaker 2: the Godly are always generous. That's a mark of Godliness.
Speaker 2: If you're not generous, you're not Godly Because God is generous.
Speaker 2: The Godly are always generous, and notice their children will
Speaker 2: be blessed. I want you to notice that when you
Speaker 2: learn to be generous, when you learn to be to
Speaker 2: give the way, God gives that blessing. Not only blesses you.
Speaker 2: Now good comes into your life, but God that says
Speaker 2: it gets passed on to the next generation. Now, do
Speaker 2: you want your kids to be blessed by God? Do
Speaker 2: you want the next generation in your family to be blessed?
Speaker 2: Then you need to learn how to be generous. I'm
Speaker 2: expecting God's blessing on my kids and on my grandkids
Speaker 2: because Kay and I have been generous all of our lives.
Speaker 2: We learn generosity early on. God says, I will bless
Speaker 2: your kids if you are generous. Third promise of God.
Speaker 2: God promises he will bless my work and my business
Speaker 2: if I learned to be generous, not just my family,
Speaker 2: but also my business. Let me show you a couple
Speaker 2: of verses about this. Proverbs three, verse nine says, this
Speaker 2: honor the Lord by giving him the first part of
Speaker 2: all your income. We honor God by giving him the
Speaker 2: first part of all our income. That's called tithing. We'll
Speaker 2: talk about that later. But he says, then that was
Speaker 2: the premise. Here's the promise. Then your barns will be
Speaker 2: filled to overflowing, and your vats will overflow with the
Speaker 2: finest wines. Now, I doubt any of you have a
Speaker 2: barn to fill or vats to fill with the finest wine.
Speaker 2: But let's put this in a cultural context. In the
Speaker 2: Bible times, everybody was a farmer. Almost everybody was farmer.
Speaker 2: So when you looked inside a person's barn and you
Speaker 2: looked inside their vats, that represented their business, it represented
Speaker 2: their investments, it represented their livelihood. And what God is
Speaker 2: saying here is if you learn to be generous. God says,
Speaker 2: I will bless your business. I will bless your work,
Speaker 2: I will bless your career, I will bless your investments.
Speaker 2: I will bless how you make a living. A verse
Speaker 2: that goes right along with that, as Proverbs eleven twenty
Speaker 2: five that says a generous man will prosper, will prosper.
Speaker 2: A generous man will prosper. And he who refreshes others
Speaker 2: will himself be refreshed. Question, those of you who have
Speaker 2: your own business or your own store or your own shop.
Speaker 2: Do you want your career your business to prosper well,
Speaker 2: of course you do. Do you want your business to
Speaker 2: be more profitable? Of course you do. Well. If you
Speaker 2: want God's help in your business, not just your family,
Speaker 2: but in your business, you have to fulfill the premise
Speaker 2: of his promise. And God says, the person who is
Speaker 2: generous will profit, will be blessed in what he does.
Speaker 2: Let me show you another verse here on the screen, Deuteronomy,
Speaker 2: chapter fifteen, verse ten. I love this in the message,
Speaker 2: it says this, give freely and give spontaneously. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: the premise. Don't have a stingy heart. The way you
Speaker 2: handle matters like this triggers God's blessing. Look at that
Speaker 2: on the screen. The way you handle matter if you're
Speaker 2: generous with your money, you're not a stingy art. It
Speaker 2: triggers God's blessing in everything you do, in all your work,
Speaker 2: that's your job, that's your business, and ventures. Some of
Speaker 2: you are venture capitalists, some of you are serial entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2: Do you want God's blessing to be triggered in your work,
Speaker 2: in your ventures, in everything you do?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: The Bible says generosity triggers God's blessing on your work.
Speaker 2: These are amazing promises. God says good will come to you.
Speaker 2: Your kids will be blessed, and your work, your career,
Speaker 2: your job will be blessed. Generosity triggers God's blessing on
Speaker 2: your job. Let me give you a fourth promise. God's
Speaker 2: promises that if I learned to give like he does,
Speaker 2: I'll be happier. Now, everybody knows this except people with
Speaker 2: the stingy heart. You already know this already, Sesus said
Speaker 2: in Acts, chapter twenty, verse thirty five. Paul R. Lucas
Speaker 2: talking here, and he says, remember the words of our
Speaker 2: Lord Jesus himself, who said there is more happiness in
Speaker 2: giving than in receiving. You know, when I was a
Speaker 2: little kid, I honestly didn't believe that verse because I'd
Speaker 2: rather get Christmas gifts when I was a little kid
Speaker 2: than when I was older. I didn't want to give him.
Speaker 2: I wanted to get them. But that's a mark of maturity,
Speaker 2: and maturity comes when you realize that they're actually more
Speaker 2: happiness in giving than in receiving. So here's the fourth promise.
Speaker 2: If you learn to give generously, God says, you'll be happier.
Speaker 2: You'll be happier you get your your business blessed, you
Speaker 2: get your family blessed, your children blessed, and you get blessed.
Speaker 2: Good will come to your life. Number five, God promises
Speaker 2: that if I learned to give like he does generously,
Speaker 2: my influence will increase. My influence will increase. Here's another promise,
Speaker 2: Proverbs eleven twenty four. The message says this, the world
Speaker 2: of the generous gets larger and larger, the world of
Speaker 2: the stingy gets smaller and smaller. If you want your
Speaker 2: world to get larger, learn to be generous. If you
Speaker 2: want your world to get smaller and more compact and harder,
Speaker 2: heart and build walls around you and just be a
Speaker 2: stingy person. But if you learn to be generous, the
Speaker 2: Bible says, the more generous you are, the larger and
Speaker 2: larger your world will get. I could give a personal
Speaker 2: testimony about this one, how that God teaching me generosity
Speaker 2: in my life actually expanded my influence into areas I
Speaker 2: never ever thought would be possible, into fields and into
Speaker 2: countries and around the world, simply because I was faithful
Speaker 2: in little things. Then God gave me more, and I
Speaker 2: was faithful in that God gave me more, and I
Speaker 2: was generous with that and more and more. And I
Speaker 2: could tell your personal you a personal testimony that this
Speaker 2: promise is true. Your world expands the more generous you become.
Speaker 2: All right. Number six, God promises that if I learned
Speaker 2: to give like he gives, and if I learn to
Speaker 2: be generous, I will end up with more. This is
Speaker 2: part of the economy of God. Now, we don't give
Speaker 2: to get. I don't give to get a blessing. I
Speaker 2: actually give to be a blessing. But the truth is
Speaker 2: you can't outgive God. And God plays this little game
Speaker 2: and says, let's see who who can outgive the other person.
Speaker 2: You give to me, and I'll give to you, and
Speaker 2: you give to other people and I'll give you, and
Speaker 2: we'll see who wins. God says, I promise you, and
Speaker 2: he says this over and over and over in scripture,
Speaker 2: that I will end up with more if I learned
Speaker 2: to be generous. Let me show you some verses Luke six,
Speaker 2: verse thirty eight. These are the words of Jesus himself.
Speaker 2: Jesus says, give and it will be given back to you.
Speaker 2: And notice in full measure. You don't get a little back,
Speaker 2: you get it all back and more given. It will
Speaker 2: be given back to you in full measure. God's gonna
Speaker 2: make sure he out gives you given. It will be
Speaker 2: given to you in full measure, and what you receive
Speaker 2: will need to be pressed down and shaken together. What's
Speaker 2: that talking about. Well, let's say if you're getting grained
Speaker 2: and people are pouring grain in your sack, and you've
Speaker 2: paid for a whole sack, you're gonna shake it like this,
Speaker 2: and then you're gonna press it down so you can
Speaker 2: get the maximum amount of grain or coins or anything
Speaker 2: else into that sack. And he's saying, God wants to
Speaker 2: give you so much, you have to press it down.
Speaker 2: You have to shake it together to make more room,
Speaker 2: because God wants to give you more than your sack
Speaker 2: can hold.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
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Speaker 2: Friends. I love it when you write me, and today
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Speaker 2: Your teachings about putting God first at the first part
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