Speaker 1: Today on Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren, we continue
Speaker 1: in our riveting journey through the series The Invisible War.
Speaker 1: In it will explore the unseen world of good and
Speaker 1: evil and see how it impacts our day to day existence.
Speaker 1: Join us for eye opening biblical insights into the spiritual
Speaker 1: dimensions that influence our lives in ways we never imagined.
Speaker 1: Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part one of
Speaker 1: a message called why is life in this world so hard?
Speaker 2: Now? We spent about four weeks looking at the battle
Speaker 2: inside Why do I struggle with what's inside me? Why
Speaker 2: do I do the things I don't want to do
Speaker 2: and don't do the things that I want to do?
Speaker 2: And why don't I do the stuff that's good for me?
Speaker 2: And why is it such a battle inside me? Now
Speaker 2: we're going to move to the second phase, and I'm
Speaker 2: very excited about this as we look at how do
Speaker 2: I live in a broken world? Before we can look
Speaker 2: at God's strategy for you to succeeding, survive and actually
Speaker 2: be fulfilled in a broken world, we need to look
Speaker 2: at what happened first. So if you have a message notes,
Speaker 2: if you'll take them out, I want us to deal
Speaker 2: with this question this weekend, Why is it so hard?
Speaker 2: Why is life so hard? In this world? Everything seems
Speaker 2: to be a battle. Nothing is easy, And the fact
Speaker 2: is life is difficult. Would everybody agree with that? It's
Speaker 2: not easy. Life is difficult. It just doesn't come handed
Speaker 2: to you on a plattern. And so we asked this question,
Speaker 2: why is life so hard? Why is there suffering in
Speaker 2: the world? Now, friends, that's one of the most important
Speaker 2: questions you'll ever ask in life. It's been asked by
Speaker 2: thousands millions of people, and has actually asked thousands of
Speaker 2: years ago by a guy named Job in Job chapter seven,
Speaker 2: verse one, he says this, why is life so hard? Why?
Speaker 2: Why is life so hard? And why do we suffer?
Speaker 2: This weekend, I want us to look at the reason,
Speaker 2: the results, and the right response to the difficulties you
Speaker 2: face in life. Now. I want to begin by first
Speaker 2: looking at the cause, the reason, why is it so
Speaker 2: difficult to live on this planet? You might write this down.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, rebellion against God broke everything. Rebellion against
Speaker 2: God has broken literally everything in life. Now. It all
Speaker 2: started back with the first couple, Adam and Eve in
Speaker 2: the Garden of Eden. When God created the world, everything
Speaker 2: was perfect. It was paradise, and Adam and Eve had
Speaker 2: no problems, no pain, no sorrow, suffering, sadness, sickness, no trials, temptations, troubles,
Speaker 2: no defeats, distractions, discouragements, despair, depression. None of this was
Speaker 2: in the garden of Eden. It was all perfect. It
Speaker 2: was paradise. But one day Adam and Eve decided that
Speaker 2: they wanted to do what they wanted to do. Now,
Speaker 2: God had said, you can do everything you want to
Speaker 2: do in paradise, but just one thing. That's the minimum
Speaker 2: temptation possible. He said, you can do anything you want
Speaker 2: to in this paradise except one thing. What does man
Speaker 2: and woman do? Immediately do the one thing God says,
Speaker 2: don't do? Now, why did he even give him a choice,
Speaker 2: because without a choice, they can't choose to love God
Speaker 2: if you have to, if you're forced to love God.
Speaker 2: If you have no choice, then it's not real love.
Speaker 2: Adam and Eve said, we know better, we know what
Speaker 2: will make us happy. We're going to do what we
Speaker 2: want to do. We want to be God's and they
Speaker 2: chose to do the one thing God said don't do,
Speaker 2: and the Bible says this Romans chapter five. Sin came
Speaker 2: into the world because of what one man did, and
Speaker 2: with sin came death. Before there was no death in
Speaker 2: the world, there was no sadness in the world. There
Speaker 2: was no sorrow, there was no difficulty in the world.
Speaker 2: People would not die. Adam and Eve could have lived
Speaker 2: forever as long as it was a perfect environment. It
Speaker 2: is only when everything got broken that sin had brought
Speaker 2: death into the world. Now, not only did Adam and
Speaker 2: Eve make that choice, I've made it, and you've made it,
Speaker 2: and everybody else in the world has made it. We
Speaker 2: have all said I don't want to do the right thing.
Speaker 2: I want to do the easy thing. We've all said
Speaker 2: I don't want to say the truth. I want to
Speaker 2: say what's convenient. We've all said I don't want to
Speaker 2: be what God wants to me be. I want to
Speaker 2: be what I want to be. I want to be
Speaker 2: my own boss. I think I know what will make
Speaker 2: me happy more than God does. We've all done this,
Speaker 2: and the Bible says in Isaiah chapter fifty three, all
Speaker 2: of us, all of us have strayed away like sheep.
Speaker 2: You know you don't have to teach a sheep to stray.
Speaker 2: It's natural, it's in their nature. They just naturally are
Speaker 2: prone to wander. And it says like sheep, all of
Speaker 2: us have straight away. We have left God's path to
Speaker 2: follow our own paths, and that means we've all done
Speaker 2: our own thing. We've all said many times in our lives, God,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do what I want to do, even though
Speaker 2: I know what you said to do is the right thing.
Speaker 2: I don't want to do the right thing. I want
Speaker 2: to do what I want to do. The Bible says
Speaker 2: in Proverbs twenty verse nine. In the next verse, no
Speaker 2: one can say I'm innocent. I've never done anything wrong.
Speaker 2: So we've all broken God's laws. We've all done wrong things.
Speaker 2: We don't measure up to our standards, much less God's,
Speaker 2: and we have all not done what God told us
Speaker 2: to do. The Bible calls that rebellion. Anytime God tells
Speaker 2: you to do something you don't do it, you're actually
Speaker 2: in a war with God because God created you to
Speaker 2: do certain things. When you say no, I don't think so,
Speaker 2: I don't think so, it's like a little kid's sun
Speaker 2: in those I don't think so, I'm going to do
Speaker 2: what I do. I know Mommy told me to do this.
Speaker 2: I know Dabby told me that. I don't think so
Speaker 2: that's called rebellion. Now, I don't want to go too
Speaker 2: detailed into this, but there are three kinds of rebellion.
Speaker 2: And you need to know this. So you know these
Speaker 2: terms because one of them is real familiar, but the
Speaker 2: other two aren't familiar to you. There are three kinds
Speaker 2: of ways that we rebel against God. Would you write
Speaker 2: these down? The first one, you know this one. It's
Speaker 2: called sin. Sin. Now, that's a very common term sin.
Speaker 2: What's the middle letter of the word sin? And that's
Speaker 2: what sin is all about. I want what I want,
Speaker 2: and I want it now, and I'm going to be
Speaker 2: the center of my own life. I am in charge.
Speaker 2: Sin is all about I, me, myself and I. But
Speaker 2: actually the word sin means to fall short, It means
Speaker 2: to miss the mark. It's actually an archery term. It
Speaker 2: comes from like shooting a bow and arrow. Sin is
Speaker 2: actually an archery term. If you were to set up
Speaker 2: a bullseye here on this stage, and you had a
Speaker 2: bow and arrow, and you were to aim for the
Speaker 2: bulls eye, and you shoot the arrow, and if that
Speaker 2: arrow didn't have enough energy, and it fell short. In archery,
Speaker 2: that's called a sin. It means you missed the mark.
Speaker 2: It means you fell short. It means you didn't reach
Speaker 2: the goal. And sin means I don't measure up to
Speaker 2: God's perfect goal. For me, I missed the mark. I
Speaker 2: fall short. I don't quite make it. I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2: I am inadequate to make perfection in my life. I
Speaker 2: fall short. Yesterday afternoon, I was watching one of my
Speaker 2: favorite shows on TV, the old Robin Hood reruns, and
Speaker 2: I've watched him a dozen times, and there's one episode
Speaker 2: where the Sheriff of not to Hand decides he's going
Speaker 2: to smoke out Robinhood to capture him by planning a
Speaker 2: archery competition because he knows Robinhood's the best archer in
Speaker 2: the land and he cannot not show up at a competition,
Speaker 2: so he plans this competition. Robin Hood shows up dressed
Speaker 2: in disguise. Of course, everybody knows who Robinhood is except
Speaker 2: the king, who's kind of blind. And Robinhood gets up
Speaker 2: and he starts shooting, and he pulls his bow and
Speaker 2: arrow and he shoots and it hits the target bullseye
Speaker 2: dead on. Then he pulls out another arrow, and he
Speaker 2: shoots it again, and that arrow splits the arrow in
Speaker 2: the bullseye. Nice story, but you've never done that with
Speaker 2: your life, and neither have I. We all fall short
Speaker 2: and we don't make it to the standard of perfection.
Speaker 2: Now that's called sin. Now there's a second word that
Speaker 2: you're probably not familiar with, but it's just as important,
Speaker 2: and it's called transgression. Would you write that word down? Transgression? Now,
Speaker 2: transgression is the exact opposite of a sin. It doesn't
Speaker 2: mean you fall short. It means you go too far.
Speaker 2: It means you go past the boundary, you break the law.
Speaker 2: It is an intentional, deliberate disobedience. And it can be
Speaker 2: I just didn't measure up. I wasn't good enough, I
Speaker 2: wasn't perfect. But transgression means I intentionally break the law.
Speaker 2: I go past the boundary. If I'm driving down the
Speaker 2: freeway and the speed limit says fifty five miles an
Speaker 2: hour and I'm going eighty five, that is not a sin.
Speaker 2: That's a transgression because I'm breaking the law intentionally. You
Speaker 2: see what I'm saying. It's not like I'm not measuring up,
Speaker 2: not that I fall short. It's that I'm breaking the law.
Speaker 2: I go. I know it's the law, but I'm still
Speaker 2: gonna go eighty five. Anyway, that's called a transgression. And
Speaker 2: you go deliberate disobedience, willful defiance, breaking God's laws. Now
Speaker 2: there's a third word, and I want you to get
Speaker 2: this one, and it's called iniquity. Iniquity. Now this one's
Speaker 2: not used at all in English today, but iniquity means
Speaker 2: intention to hurt, intention to hurt somebody, intention to damage,
Speaker 2: intention to do evil. Maybe because you're mad, or you're jealous,
Speaker 2: or you're envious, or you're bitter, or you're prideful, or
Speaker 2: somebody's offended you, you want to hurt them back. That's
Speaker 2: not a sin. That's not a transgression. That's an iniquity.
Speaker 2: It is an intentional desire to hurt somebody else. When
Speaker 2: Hitler and the Nazis killed six million Jewish people in
Speaker 2: the death camps, that was not a sin, that was
Speaker 2: not a transgression. That was an iniquity. They intended intentionally
Speaker 2: to hurt those people. They wanted to kill them, They
Speaker 2: wanted to eradicate that entire race, and that was evil.
Speaker 2: That was iniquity. It wasn't measuring not in just measuring enough.
Speaker 2: It was it was intentionally meant to hurt, caused by anger, resentment,
Speaker 2: and be hatred, bitiness whatever. Let me explain these three
Speaker 2: in football terms. If I'm in football and I want
Speaker 2: to know the difference between a sin, a transgression, and
Speaker 2: an iniqolity. A sin would be kicking a field goal
Speaker 2: and it misses, it falls short, or it hits the
Speaker 2: goal post and it goes over to the side. That
Speaker 2: is a sin would be I have missed the mark.
Speaker 2: I fell short. Kicking a goal and I don't make
Speaker 2: the field goal. That's I've missed the mark. A transgression
Speaker 2: would be off sides if I jump off sides before
Speaker 2: the snap is taken. In football, I intentionally was going
Speaker 2: after to get you and I'm out of bounds, I'm offside.
Speaker 2: If I go out of bounds with the ball and
Speaker 2: I step out of bounds, that's not a sin. That's
Speaker 2: a transgression. Does that make sense, I've gone out of bounds.
Speaker 2: I've broken The law says you stay within these boundaries
Speaker 2: if you're playing football. But I'm going to go out
Speaker 2: of bounds, and that's called a transgression. Now, if I
Speaker 2: come up and I head butt you, and I kick
Speaker 2: you in the face and I break your that's a
Speaker 2: personal foul, that's an iniquity. I want to intentionally hurt you.
Speaker 2: I want to take you out of the Jesus once
Speaker 2: told three stories in Luke chapter fifteen, the Parable, the
Speaker 2: Story of the Lost Sheep, the Story of the Lost Coin,
Speaker 2: and the story of the Lost Son or the Prodigal Son.
Speaker 2: Each of those stories explains one of the three kinds
Speaker 2: of rebellion, sin, transgression, iniquity. Now David in Psalm thirty
Speaker 2: two talks about all three of them. In fact, here's
Speaker 2: what he says. Look here on the screen, and it's
Speaker 2: on your outline. I acknowledge my sin circle that to you.
Speaker 2: I did not cover up my iniquity circle that, and
Speaker 2: I confessed my transgressions circle back, and you forgave my guilt,
Speaker 2: he said. You know, really, it didn't matter which one
Speaker 2: it was, whether I didn't measure up or I missed
Speaker 2: the mark, or I went out of bounds, or I
Speaker 2: intend fly meant to hurt somebody. You're still going to
Speaker 2: forgive me if I confess it to you. If I
Speaker 2: confess it to you, now, let me just summ up
Speaker 2: what I'm trying to say in this introduction, we all
Speaker 2: have broken God's laws. We have all rebelled by sins,
Speaker 2: transgressions of nicolays. We've all done it, all three of them.
Speaker 2: We break God's laws, and then sin has broken the world.
Speaker 2: And that's why nothing works correctly. Your marriage, your health,
Speaker 2: your finances, your body, your relationships. Nothing works correctly because
Speaker 2: sin broke everything. Now, what I want to do this
Speaker 2: weekend is help you understand this and fully, because when
Speaker 2: you understand what I'm going to teach you this weekend,
Speaker 2: you will never again have to ask the question why
Speaker 2: is this happening? Or why is this happening to me?
Speaker 2: Those questions are questions that reveal you don't understand what
Speaker 2: I want to teach you this weekend. What the Bible says.
Speaker 2: When you understand why life in the world is so hard,
Speaker 2: you're no longer going to be surprised by it. You're
Speaker 2: not going to be surprised when things don't go your way,
Speaker 2: You're not going to be surprised when plans don't pan out,
Speaker 2: You're not going to be surprised when things actually go bad,
Speaker 2: and you will be able to handle the hard times
Speaker 2: of life. The difficulties of life much much easier. So
Speaker 2: why is life so hard? Now? Why do we suffer?
Speaker 2: Why is everything a battle? Well, the answer is rebellion
Speaker 2: against God broke everything. That's the reason. Now what's the result.
Speaker 2: What's the damage? Well, the damage, friends, is significant, because
Speaker 2: it's in every single area of your life. You might
Speaker 2: write this down. Nothing works perfectly because I have made
Speaker 2: poor choices. You have made poor choices. The entire human
Speaker 2: race has made poor choices. Everything's broken, and nothing and
Speaker 2: this planet works perfectly. Sin has damaged everything. Sin has
Speaker 2: ruined everything. Sin has destroyed everything. Sin has corrupted and
Speaker 2: spoiled everything. Sin has injured everything. Every relationship, every idea,
Speaker 2: every dream, every human body, everything has been touched by
Speaker 2: this damage. Now, the Bible is very specific and it
Speaker 2: mentions six dimensions of your life where sin has damaged
Speaker 2: stuff in your life and it's not perfect, and if
Speaker 2: you expect it to be perfect, you're going to be
Speaker 2: severely disappointed. These six areas or dimensions of your life
Speaker 2: are talked about intensively in a book called Ecclesiastes. Now,
Speaker 2: Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. He was
Speaker 2: the wealthiest man who ever lived, and at one point
Speaker 2: he was the king of Israel, and Solomon wrote book
Speaker 2: three Books of Wisdom, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Songs of Solomon.
Speaker 2: They're in the middle of the Bible. But in Ecclesiastes,
Speaker 2: one of these books, he mentions six dimensions of life
Speaker 2: that are damaged on our broken planet. Let's look at
Speaker 2: them real quickly. The first result, the first damage is
Speaker 2: natural disasters and deformities. The world has natural disasters and deformities,
Speaker 2: not because that's what God wants, because that's what sin
Speaker 2: does in the world. The environment has suffered from human
Speaker 2: sin and human poor choices, and we're on a broken planet.
Speaker 2: It's not perfect anymore. We're not living in Eden anymore.
Speaker 2: As John Milton wrote a very famous poem, Paradise was lost.
Speaker 2: We don't live in Paradise. We live on a broken planet.
Speaker 2: And as a result, we have hurricanes and typhoons and
Speaker 2: wacky weather and earthquakes and all and droughts and floods.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's amazing to me that insurance calls
Speaker 2: all these things acts of God, but doesn't call the
Speaker 2: birth of a baby an act of God. In other words,
Speaker 2: an act of God is only the negative stuff that happens.
Speaker 2: God does not want these things happening in the world.
Speaker 2: The world was broken when sin damaged everything, and so
Speaker 2: now we have all of these natural disasters happening all
Speaker 2: around us, and God is as upset by him as
Speaker 2: we are. The Bible says in Romans eight twenty creation
Speaker 2: was condemned to lose its purpose. Everything on this planet
Speaker 2: has lost its original purpose, and that's why we have
Speaker 2: to get it back. It has to be restored. In
Speaker 2: the CEV version, it says creation is confused. You know,
Speaker 2: when you look and you see the birth of, for instance,
Speaker 2: a pair of Siamese twins who are joined at the head,
Speaker 2: that's confusing, and you go, what was God thinking there?
Speaker 2: That wasn't what God wanted. That's what God never planned.
Speaker 2: That's the result because everything in the world is damaged,
Speaker 2: including your DNA, your parents' DNA, their parents' DNA, and
Speaker 2: everything else. Have you figured this out? Your body doesn't
Speaker 2: work right, doesn't If everybody's body work pritically, there would
Speaker 2: be no need for doctors. And so we have defects
Speaker 2: and disabilities in animals and in people. There are emotional disabilities,
Speaker 2: there are mental disabilities, There are physical disabilities. Every one
Speaker 2: of us have defective parts of our mind, our bodies,
Speaker 2: and our spirits because sin has broken everything. Creation is confused,
Speaker 2: and you go, why do animals do that? Because creation
Speaker 2: is confused? And why is there that kind of deformity
Speaker 2: to the fact? Because creation is confused. Romans eight twenty
Speaker 2: two says, all of creation groans with pain. You know
Speaker 2: what that means. It means that the earth needs salvation,
Speaker 2: not just people. The environment needs to be saved, not
Speaker 2: just people, because it's all been damaged by poor decisions
Speaker 2: and rebellion against God.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy
Speaker 1: you've chosen to study along with us today. Why is
Speaker 1: everything in life so hard? Why does the right thing
Speaker 1: often feel like a battle. It's because every day there's
Speaker 1: a spiritual war raging all around you. Here's Pastor Rick
Speaker 1: to tell you more.
Speaker 2: You know, we all face temptations every day. It's a
Speaker 2: spiritual battle that takes place inside us, and it makes
Speaker 2: us vulnerable, particularly if we don't know how to fight it.
Speaker 2: To overcome temptation is absolutely essential that you know the
Speaker 2: tactics that Satan uses to trip us up and it's
Speaker 2: vital to learn the biblical defenses that God gives us.
Speaker 2: He has told us in his Word how to handle
Speaker 2: and how to manage the attacks of Satan. In order
Speaker 2: to help you learn how to respond to the predictable
Speaker 2: patterns that Satan uses to tempt you, I've created a
Speaker 2: study kit called The Invisible War Winning the Battle of Temptation.
Speaker 2: This kit, The Invisible War Winning the Battle of Temptation,
Speaker 2: includes a DVD with seven different sessions and a simple
Speaker 2: booklet that will help you learn how to overcome and
Speaker 2: defeat temptation in your life. You really need this. In
Speaker 2: the series, I will teach you the three kinds of temptation,
Speaker 2: God's antidote to temptation, and even how to avoid temptation
Speaker 2: in the first place. It is a steady guide that
Speaker 2: you can use by yourself, but you'll actually get more
Speaker 2: out of it if you'll gather a small group of
Speaker 2: friends together and study it together as a small group. Now,
Speaker 2: I want to send you the Invisible War Winning the
Speaker 2: Battle for Temptation study Kit as my gift to say
Speaker 2: thanks for your support of Daily Hope with your financial gift.
Speaker 2: You know we can't do this without you and your
Speaker 2: generosity helps us take the hope of Christ into places
Speaker 2: all around the world, and now to places that have
Speaker 2: no Bible, no believer, and no body of Christ.
Speaker 1: Go to Pastorick dot com right now to get your copy.
Speaker 1: That's pastorick dot com. Or you can just text the
Speaker 1: word hope to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.
Speaker 1: That's the word hope to eight hundred six hundred five
Speaker 1: thousand and four, and thanks so much for your support.
Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's Word for our daily hope. This program is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.