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 forty Days in the Word. In these messages Pastor
Speaker 1: Rickshaw's practical Bible study tools that will reignite your passion
Speaker 1: for God's Word and revolutionize your life as you grow
Speaker 1: closer to Jesus. First, we're excited to let you know
Speaker 1: that very generous friends of Daily Hope have stepped forward
Speaker 1: with a special fifty thousand dollars matching grant That means
Speaker 1: any gift you give to help Daily Hope share God's
Speaker 1: Word with people everywhere will be double. So contact us
Speaker 1: right away, go to Pastorick dot com or text the
Speaker 1: word Daily to eight hundred, six hundred five thousand and four.
Speaker 1: Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part
Speaker 1: of a message called how the Bible Changes Us.
Speaker 2: Whenever you get discouraged, you don't need a coffee break,
Speaker 2: you need a word break. God gave us the Bible
Speaker 2: to encourage us. It is a mood elevator. You say,
Speaker 2: how do you know that? Look at this next verse
Speaker 2: Romans fifteen, verse four. Everything that was written in the past.
Speaker 2: He's talking about the Bible was written to teach us
Speaker 2: so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures,
Speaker 2: we might have hope. Now I want you to circle
Speaker 2: four words in this verse. First everything, second encouragement, third scriptures,
Speaker 2: and fourth hope. Everything in the scriptures is for our encouragement.
Speaker 2: And oh everything, Yes, everything that was written in scriptures
Speaker 2: is meant to encourage you. It's meant for your encouragement.
Speaker 2: It is meant to be a mood elevator. Even the
Speaker 2: tough parts are there to ultimately encourage your life in
Speaker 2: the right direction. The next time you get discouraged, the
Speaker 2: next time you feel fatigued, you run out of energy,
Speaker 2: You're just out of you know, pizazz. Why don't you
Speaker 2: come home and instead of turning on the television, try
Speaker 2: reading the Bible and see if that doesn't have a
Speaker 2: little bit more Why because this has the power to
Speaker 2: change your life. It has the power in it, the
Speaker 2: God's power to make changes. Television can tell you what
Speaker 2: to do, it doesn't have the power to give you
Speaker 2: to do it. Now, this will elevate your mood. And
Speaker 2: that's why every day you need to spend a little
Speaker 2: bit of time alone with God. We call it a
Speaker 2: quiet time. I don't care what you call it, daily, devotional,
Speaker 2: personal inspiration. Time doesn't matter. It's a little time when
Speaker 2: you get quiet and you spend time with God and
Speaker 2: you think about his word, you read his word, and
Speaker 2: you talk to him and you just listen. A good
Speaker 2: verse is this verse back to Psalm one nineteen one fourteen.
Speaker 2: I love this in the message paraphrase, you're my place
Speaker 2: of quiet retreat. I wait for your word to renew me.
Speaker 2: The word of God is meant to renew you. The
Speaker 2: word of God is meant to encourage you. The word
Speaker 2: of God is meant to give you hope. Now, if
Speaker 2: you're discouraged and you've lost hope, and tells me one thing,
Speaker 2: you're certainly not in this book, because if you were,
Speaker 2: you would not be discouraged, and if you were, you
Speaker 2: would have hope. Because the more you read this book
Speaker 2: when you feel things are hopeless, the more you need
Speaker 2: to get in the Bible. The more you feel discouraged,
Speaker 2: the more you need to get in the Bible. Because
Speaker 2: all of these things, and it recreates my life, gives
Speaker 2: me a fresh start when my life's fall apart. It
Speaker 2: eradicates my guilt for all the stupid things I've done.
Speaker 2: It activates my faith, It stimulates my growth, It illuminates
Speaker 2: my mind, and it elevates my mood. That's a good thing.
Speaker 2: One more, it liberates my potential. It liberates my potential.
Speaker 2: Now this is so important because only God, your creator,
Speaker 2: knows your potential fully. You don't even know your potential fully.
Speaker 2: Your parents don't know your full potential. Your husband or
Speaker 2: your wife doesn't know your full potential. Your friends don't
Speaker 2: know your potential. Your boss doesn't really know your full potential.
Speaker 2: You don't even know the greatness inside you. Only God
Speaker 2: knows what you are truly capable of. And so you've
Speaker 2: got to spend time with God's word to get out
Speaker 2: of the boxes that other people have put you in.
Speaker 2: Right now, most people live for the expectations of others.
Speaker 2: They live for the approval of others. They worry what
Speaker 2: will other people think? Your life has been so limited
Speaker 2: by tapes of people who lied to you. Sometimes they
Speaker 2: didn't even mean to do it, but they did it.
Speaker 2: And sometimes growing up, you heard things like you can't
Speaker 2: do that, you'll never be good at that. Why can't
Speaker 2: you be like your brother? You're not going to be them.
Speaker 2: You're not worth much, you'll never amount to anything. And
Speaker 2: you were told all these things, and you believe those tapes,
Speaker 2: and you've played them over and over and they lied.
Speaker 2: You don't even know the potential you're capable of. You
Speaker 2: use such a small fraction of your brain. You don't
Speaker 2: need more intelligence. You just need to use the intelligence
Speaker 2: you've got. And only God knows the full potential of
Speaker 2: your greatness, of the impact of your life. And only
Speaker 2: he can unlock that potential. Only he can set you free.
Speaker 2: Why because He's got the truth. Jesus said this John
Speaker 2: eight thirty one and thirty two. If you continue in
Speaker 2: my word, then you are truly disciples of Mine, and
Speaker 2: you'll know the truth. And the truth will set you free.
Speaker 2: It will unlock you, it will liberate you. It will
Speaker 2: make you able to do things you never thought you
Speaker 2: could ever possibly do. It'll set you free.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: Now, let me just summarize. Would you like to have
Speaker 2: your life recreated if it fell apart, your guilt eradicated
Speaker 2: for everything you've ever done wrong, your faith activated so
Speaker 2: you'll have more confidence and courage, your growth stimulated so
Speaker 2: you'll become all you're meant to be your mind illuminated
Speaker 2: so you can make wise decisions, your mood elevated so
Speaker 2: you're not down in the dumps, and your potential liberated.
Speaker 2: Is anybody interested in those seven things? Yeah? Okay, I am.
Speaker 2: I certainly am. It's all right here. You got to
Speaker 2: get in this book. This is why we're doing forty
Speaker 2: days in the Word. You're not going to have any
Speaker 2: of that done for you by television. You're not going
Speaker 2: to have any of that done for you by the internet.
Speaker 2: You're not going to have any of that even done
Speaker 2: for you by your friends. The only way you're going
Speaker 2: to have the eradication and the illumination and the liberation
Speaker 2: and the elevation and all these different things that God
Speaker 2: has said is by getting into this book. It's all
Speaker 2: in the Word. So how do I gain these benefits? Well,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about that in depth over the
Speaker 2: next several weeks, but let me just give you a preview.
Speaker 2: Write these three things down. I've got to learn it,
Speaker 2: and I've got to accept it, and I've got to
Speaker 2: do it. Number one, I've got to learn it. I've
Speaker 2: got to learn the Word of God. You can't do
Speaker 2: something you've never learned about. Now Jesus said in Mark
Speaker 2: twelve twenty four, your trouble is that you don't know
Speaker 2: the scriptures. And it says this to the Pharisees, says,
Speaker 2: you know, you, guys, you know what your trouble is.
Speaker 2: You just don't know the scriptures. Now follow me on
Speaker 2: this logic. What you think is your problem is not
Speaker 2: really your problem. Your problem is never your problem. Your
Speaker 2: problem is always your response to your problem. Because you
Speaker 2: can take two people and they have the exact same problems,
Speaker 2: and one overcomes and one fails, one succeeds and one doesn't.
Speaker 2: Why the problem is never the problem. The problem is
Speaker 2: always your response to the problem. Every problem is an opportunity.
Speaker 2: This depends on how you respond to it. It's an
Speaker 2: opportunity for growth, opportunity for prayer. It's an opportunity to
Speaker 2: trust God more. It's an opportunity to develop in character.
Speaker 2: It's an opportunity to see God do a miracle. I
Speaker 2: can give you dozens of different opportunities in the problem
Speaker 2: that you think it's a problem. The problem is not
Speaker 2: the circumstance. The problem is your response. And the reason
Speaker 2: why we get into so many problems is we don't
Speaker 2: know how to respond correctly to our problems, so we
Speaker 2: typically do the opposite of the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: There's a book a verse in Proverbs that says, there's
Speaker 2: a way that seems right to men, to human beings,
Speaker 2: but it always ends in death. In fact, usually if
Speaker 2: you want to know what God's will and subject, take
Speaker 2: what you naturally do and do the opposite. That's usually
Speaker 2: God's will, because what our natural inclination is is almost
Speaker 2: always wrong. For instance, if somebody hurts me, they say
Speaker 2: something mean to me, or they hit me in the face,
Speaker 2: my natural reaction is I'm going to hurt him back,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to hurt him back hard. What's that do?
Speaker 2: Just upscales the thing. It's not my natural reaction to
Speaker 2: forgive it and let it go. And yet that's the
Speaker 2: way that you get set free from the past, not
Speaker 2: by escalating it. When you hold a grudge, you don't
Speaker 2: really hold a grudge. It holds you. It holds you
Speaker 2: in a self imposed prison of pain. You are only
Speaker 2: hurting yourself when you hold on the grudge. You're not
Speaker 2: hurting anybody else. You're hurting you. But it's natural to
Speaker 2: do that, Okay, we think that the way to be
Speaker 2: liked is to fake it and to pretend that we're
Speaker 2: not really who we are, and to try to impress
Speaker 2: people by bragging, when the exact opposite, the Bible says
Speaker 2: before honors humility. The more you humble yourself, the more
Speaker 2: honest you are about your mistakes, the more people you're
Speaker 2: endeared to. The exact opposite of human nature is usually
Speaker 2: what God wants you to do.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Rip will be
Speaker 3: back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.
Speaker 3: You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional
Speaker 3: at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 4: Fast Rick says, the Bible isn't meant to just inform us,
Speaker 4: It's meant to transform us. That's why it's so important
Speaker 4: to study God's Word. Maybe you've never studied the Bible
Speaker 4: and you don't even know where to start, or maybe
Speaker 4: read the Bible every day, but you're not getting all
Speaker 4: God has for you out of the time you spend
Speaker 4: with him. That's why Pastor Rick created a very special
Speaker 4: Bible study called forty Days in the Word. This life
Speaker 4: changing resource will ignite your passion for God's Word and
Speaker 4: revolutionize your relationship with Jesus. The forty Days in the
Speaker 4: Word Study Kid includes six video sessions on DVD and
Speaker 4: a two hundred and six page, two color workbook. In
Speaker 4: the workbook, you'll find six easy to learn methods for
Speaker 4: reading and meditating on Scripture. These are the very methods
Speaker 4: Pastor rick us in his own personal daily quiet time.
Speaker 4: You'll also find interactive journaling pages and Bible verse guards
Speaker 4: with the twenty Bible versus every believer should memorize. There's
Speaker 4: even a special section called how can we know the
Speaker 4: Bible came from God? And a guide for choosing which
Speaker 4: translation of the Bible is right for you. We'll send
Speaker 4: you a copy of the Forty Days in the Word
Speaker 4: Study Kit to say thanks for your gift to help
Speaker 4: more people learn, love and live God's Word through Daily Hope.
Speaker 4: By the way, right now, when you give a gift
Speaker 4: to Daily Hope to help take the hope of Jesus
Speaker 4: to a hurting world, generous friends of Daily Hope are
Speaker 4: going to match your gift up to fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: But you only have till midnight on June thirtieth, to
Speaker 4: make your gift go twice as far. Go to Pastororrick
Speaker 4: dot com or call eight hundred six hundred five zero
Speaker 4: zero four, and as a special thank you, we'll send
Speaker 4: you the forty days in the Word Bible study kit. Again,
Speaker 4: that's Pastororrick dot com or call eight hundred and six
Speaker 4: hundred five zero zero four.
Speaker 1: Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: Usually, if you want to know what God's will and subject,
Speaker 2: take what you naturally do and do the opposite. That's
Speaker 2: usually God's will because what our natural inclination is is
Speaker 2: almost always wrong. For instance, if somebody hurts me, they
Speaker 2: say something mean to me, or they hit me in
Speaker 2: the face, my natural reaction is I'm going to hurt
Speaker 2: him back, and I'm going to hurt him back hard.
Speaker 2: What's that do? Just upscales the thing. It's not my
Speaker 2: natural reaction to forgive it and let it go. And
Speaker 2: yet that's the way that you get set free from
Speaker 2: the past, not by escalating it. When you hold a grudge,
Speaker 2: you don't really hold a grudge. It holds you. It
Speaker 2: holds you in a self imposed prison of pain. You
Speaker 2: are only hurting yourself when you hold on the grudge.
Speaker 2: You're not hurting aybody else you're holding not hurting you.
Speaker 2: But it's natural to do that. Okay. We think that
Speaker 2: the way to be liked is to fake it and
Speaker 2: to pretend that we're not really who we are, and
Speaker 2: to try to impress people by bragging, when the exact opposite,
Speaker 2: the Bible says before honors humility. The more you humble yourself,
Speaker 2: the more honest you are about your mistakes, the more
Speaker 2: people you're endeared to, the exact opposite of human nature
Speaker 2: is usually what God wants you to do. Now, we
Speaker 2: don't respond to problems correctly, so we make the problems
Speaker 2: worth That's why Jesus says, you know what your problem is.
Speaker 2: You don't know the scripture, because if you did, then
Speaker 2: you'd know how to respond correctly, and you wouldn't be
Speaker 2: making the problem worse, you'd be making the problem better.
Speaker 2: So you got to learn. Because the Bible tells you
Speaker 2: how to act in every situation. Then I not only
Speaker 2: learn it, I have to accept it, and that means
Speaker 2: I accept its authority in my life. We talked a
Speaker 2: little bit about this in their first week. There are
Speaker 2: things in the Bible I don't understand, but I accept it.
Speaker 2: There are things in the Bible I don't like, but
Speaker 2: accept it. There are things in the Bible that are inconvenient,
Speaker 2: but accept it. There are things in the Bible I
Speaker 2: wish God had not said, but I accept it because
Speaker 2: God is God and I'm not. And for me, trying
Speaker 2: to understand why God does what he does is like
Speaker 2: an aunt trying to understand the Internet. I don't have
Speaker 2: the brain capacity. If I understood why God did everything
Speaker 2: he did and tells us to do everything he tells do,
Speaker 2: i'd be God. But I'm not, and neither are you.
Speaker 2: And it's quite arrogant for me to say, I know, God,
Speaker 2: you've said this, but I think I know better. And
Speaker 2: so to accept the word of God means to say, God,
Speaker 2: this is going to be the guidebook for my life
Speaker 2: for the rest of my life. I may not like it.
Speaker 2: I may not agree with it. It may not be popular,
Speaker 2: it may be politically incorrect, it may be hard to do.
Speaker 2: I may think it's impossible, but I'm still going to
Speaker 2: accept it as that's the right way to do it,
Speaker 2: because you're God and this is your word, and I'm
Speaker 2: not God, and I'm not setting myself up as my
Speaker 2: words better than God's word. So I accept the word
Speaker 2: of God. The Bible says this in First Thesalonians two.
Speaker 2: When you received the word of God which you heard
Speaker 2: from us, Paul says, you accepted it not as the
Speaker 2: word of men, but as it actually is the word
Speaker 2: of God, which is at work in you who believe.
Speaker 2: You got to believe it for God to work it
Speaker 2: in your life. So I learn it, and then I
Speaker 2: accept it as my authority. And the third thing I
Speaker 2: do is I act on it. I act on it.
Speaker 2: Jesus said this in John chapter thirteen, verse seventeen. Now
Speaker 2: that you know these things, you will be blessed since
Speaker 2: you know them. That's not what he says, is it.
Speaker 2: Now that you know these things, you will be blessed
Speaker 2: if you write them down in your notebook. No, now
Speaker 2: you know these things, you will be blessed if you
Speaker 2: what you do them. You don't get blessed for the
Speaker 2: parts of the Bible you know. You get blessed for
Speaker 2: the parts of the Bible you do. So I got
Speaker 2: to learn it, then I got accepted. Then I've got
Speaker 2: to act on it. When I do that, you know
Speaker 2: what happens. My life gets recreated, my guilt gets eradicated,
Speaker 2: my moods get elevated, my faith gets activated, my spiritual growth,
Speaker 2: it just keeps growing and growing. It gets stimulated, my
Speaker 2: potential is liberated. All these things happen when I learn
Speaker 2: it and I accept it and I do it. Let's
Speaker 2: bow our heads. Would you pray in your heart? God,
Speaker 2: I want your word to be the authority of my life.
Speaker 2: I don't always agree with it. I don't always like it.
Speaker 2: It doesn't always make sense. It certainly isn't always convenient.
Speaker 2: Some of what you say, God is not very popular today.
Speaker 2: But you don't lie, and the truth never changes. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to accept your word even when I don't
Speaker 2: understand it, even if it doesn't make sense to my
Speaker 2: puny little mind. I'm going to believe that you know
Speaker 2: what you're talking about. And God, I not only want
Speaker 2: to accept your word, I want to learn it and
Speaker 2: I want to do it. And as I learn it
Speaker 2: and do it, will you recreate my life? Would you
Speaker 2: make the rest of my life the best of my life?
Speaker 2: I want to be born again through the word of truth.
Speaker 2: And would you set me free from the past by
Speaker 2: eradicating my guilt. Would you cleanse me with your word,
Speaker 2: use that soap brush and just wash the dirt out
Speaker 2: of my life, and the guilt and the shame out
Speaker 2: of my life. I don't want to hang on that
Speaker 2: garbage anymore. You've said faith comes from your word. Would
Speaker 2: you activate my faith as I study and read and
Speaker 2: learn your word? Stimulate my growth, build me up with
Speaker 2: the word of God and Lord. A lot of times
Speaker 2: I get confused and I don't know which way to turn.
Speaker 2: But understanding your word brings light to the minds of
Speaker 2: ordinary people. And your word is a lamp to my
Speaker 2: feet and the light to my path. Would you illuminate
Speaker 2: my mind? And when I get down, and when I
Speaker 2: get discouraged, and when I feel like giving up, would
Speaker 2: you elevate my mood as I look to your word
Speaker 2: for incurag as I find the promises that give me hope.
Speaker 2: You be the place of quiet retreat. As I wait
Speaker 2: for your word to renew my life and father all
Speaker 2: the stuff that has me stuck and hold me back
Speaker 2: and hinder my progress. I want you to unlock my potential,
Speaker 2: liberate my potential, set me free as I continue in
Speaker 2: your word. If you've never invited Jesus Christ in your life,
Speaker 2: said Jesus Christ, come into my life point the right direction.
Speaker 2: I want to learn to love you and trust you
Speaker 2: and follow you. I need you in my life. I
Speaker 2: want to go your way, not my own. From this
Speaker 2: day forward. I want to be born again through the
Speaker 2: living Word. Help me to understand you more name I pray.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 2: Hi everybody, This is Rick, and I hope you enjoyed
Speaker 2: today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed that prayer
Speaker 2: for the very first time, or you just recommitted your
Speaker 2: life to Jesus again today, would you let me know
Speaker 2: about it. There's something real about sharing your commitment. So
Speaker 2: write me Rick at pastorick dot com and say, Rick,
Speaker 2: I prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life
Speaker 2: to Christ. And I'll send you some material that will
Speaker 2: help you on your journey with Jesus. And I'll also
Speaker 2: pray for you. God bless you.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. If you've missed any
Speaker 1: part of this message, or if you'd like to find
Speaker 1: out more about Pastor Rick Warren in this ministry, just
Speaker 1: visit Pastorick 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 we have some really
Speaker 1: exciting news. Generous friends of Daily Hope have offered a
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars matching grant That means whatever amount you
Speaker 1: give to help share the hope of Jesus worldwide will
Speaker 1: be matched up to fifty thousand dollars, So twenty five
Speaker 1: becomes fifty one hundred dollars becomes two hundred and five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars becomes one thousand. Whatever amount you give will
Speaker 1: be doubled by the grant. But don't wait because this
Speaker 1: opportunity will be gone at the end of this month
Speaker 1: and will miss out on any amount left over from
Speaker 1: the grant if not matched. Here's Pastor Rick to tell
Speaker 1: you more.
Speaker 2: You know, I started Daily Hope so I could spread
Speaker 2: the good news about Jesus, not just across America but
Speaker 2: all around the world. And we want people to know
Speaker 2: that God's word is filled with hope and truth, and
Speaker 2: the power that we need to follow him every day
Speaker 2: is available to every single one you know as well
Speaker 2: as I do that the Word of God changes lives.
Speaker 2: It's a live it's active, and it breathes new life
Speaker 2: and new love into all of our lives. So wherever
Speaker 2: you listen to this, whether you listen on the website,
Speaker 2: whether you listen on a radio station, or whether you
Speaker 2: listen to a podcast, you're a part of the Daily
Speaker 2: Hope family and I need your help. We could not
Speaker 2: do this without your support. Now, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: take any funds from this broadcast. We don't have any
Speaker 2: giant million dollar donor who's giving big gifts to this.
Speaker 2: It comes from donations from listeners like you. We're one
Speaker 2: hundred percent listener funded. Would you continue to pray for
Speaker 2: this broadcast and would you continue to support us? And
Speaker 2: let write to me, let me hear from you. Absolutely
Speaker 2: love reading the stories that are sent to me. So
Speaker 2: write me, pray for me, and support this ministry, and
Speaker 2: God will bless it, and God will bless you, and
Speaker 2: we'll get to heaven and we'll thank God for all
Speaker 2: the people going to be in heaven because you cared.
Speaker 1: When you give a gift to Daily Hope, you're helping
Speaker 1: share the hope of Jesus with people everywhere and right now.
Speaker 1: Your gift will be doubled by the fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: matching grant. Call eight hundred, six hundred five thousand and four,
Speaker 1: or you can visit Pastorrick dot com and we'll send
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Speaker 1: Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by
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