Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry
Speaker 1: of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series
Speaker 1: called the Awesome Power of Vision. In these lessons, Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick shows us how to pursue God's amazing vision for
Speaker 1: each of our lives so that we can see our
Speaker 1: future with faith and not fear. But first, do you
Speaker 1: ever feel like you've lost your spark your joy? In
Speaker 1: just a few moments, We're going to tell you about
Speaker 1: an exciting new resource that will deepen your relationship with God.
Speaker 2: And restore your joy.
Speaker 1: You can take a sneak peek right now by going
Speaker 1: to Pastororick dot com while you listen, and if you want,
Speaker 1: you can just text the word Daily to eight hundred
Speaker 1: six hundred five thousand and four to find out more.
Speaker 1: Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part two of
Speaker 1: a message called My pardon Fulfilling Christ Vision.
Speaker 3: In the Church at Corinth, they were having a lot
Speaker 3: of conflict and they started having conflict and division in
Speaker 3: their church family for many many different reasons, but the
Speaker 3: biggest one of all was because they started placing their
Speaker 3: loyalty and giving their loyalty to leaders over their common
Speaker 3: loyalty to Christ and each other, and all of a
Speaker 3: sudden they started dividing up over well, I like this
Speaker 3: leader and I like that leader, and I'm of that party,
Speaker 3: and I'm of this party, and that's my guy and
Speaker 3: that's your guy. And then they brought it all into
Speaker 3: the church. So Paul actually had to write a letter
Speaker 3: to them.
Speaker 2: To rebuke them.
Speaker 3: That book, that letter is called First Corinthians, and it's
Speaker 3: filled with rebukes to Christians who had started acting like unbelievers.
Speaker 3: In fact, in every chapter in First Corinthians, Paul deals
Speaker 3: with a different cause of division in the church. And
Speaker 3: let me just show you want. In chapter three, he's
Speaker 3: talking about when you're showing favoritism of different leaders. He
Speaker 3: says this First Corinthians three, verses two to five. He says,
Speaker 3: you're acting talking about in the church, you're acting in
Speaker 3: the same way unbelievers act in the world. He says,
Speaker 3: the proof of your immaturity is you're arguing and quarreling.
Speaker 3: The proof of immaturity is you're arguing and quarreling, and
Speaker 3: the divisions you've created. He says, whatever you find create
Speaker 3: a division, quarreling, arguing. Says, the people that are immature,
Speaker 3: He says, still proves proves that you still belong to
Speaker 3: the world and that you're living by worldly values. And
Speaker 3: then he gives an example. He says, you know when
Speaker 3: one of you says, you know, I support Paul, I'm
Speaker 3: from the party of Paul, and another says, I support Apollos,
Speaker 3: I'm from the party of Apollos. He said, you're acting
Speaker 3: like unbelievers, not like Christ. He says, is a fall
Speaker 3: is important? No, he says, if Paul is Paul important? No,
Speaker 3: So he says, here when you start, when when you
Speaker 3: start having personality issues and people are choosing up, well,
Speaker 3: I like this leader, but I don't like that leader.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 3: You know what, then you're going to have division. If
Speaker 3: you let me listen, if you ever let me, or
Speaker 3: a TV preacher or a radio preacher, or a politician,
Speaker 3: or even yourself cause division in a church, you're going
Speaker 3: to know that worldly values have seeped into the church. Okay,
Speaker 3: So avoid bringing what the world thinks is important into
Speaker 3: the church. Second thing to avoid to work at unity
Speaker 3: is this, don't be sucked into the world's fights. Don't
Speaker 3: be sucked into the world's fights. Now I don't have
Speaker 3: to tell you there's a lot of conflict out there
Speaker 3: in society, in our culture, in the world, people are
Speaker 3: arguing about everything, and today it's gotten worse because we
Speaker 3: have the communication tools through the Internet where anybody can
Speaker 3: argue about anything, and they do and they do. You know,
Speaker 3: I was interviewed the other day and one of the
Speaker 3: first questions they always want to ask you about politics,
Speaker 3: and I couldn't care less about that. But the first
Speaker 3: question they asked was what did Jesus think and say
Speaker 3: about politics? And my answer was not much. Not much.
Speaker 3: In fact, in all my studies of jesus ministry, and
Speaker 3: I've read through the Gospels hundreds of times, I've only
Speaker 3: found two statements that Jesus made that were political statements.
Speaker 3: In three and a half years now, I distinguished between
Speaker 3: moral statements, which are about right or wrong, political statements
Speaker 3: which are offen a matter of opinion. But moral statements
Speaker 3: you can back up with scripture. But there's no verse
Speaker 3: in the Bible. For instance, there's no verse in the
Speaker 3: Bible tells you that taxes should be higher or lower.
Speaker 2: This is not a verse.
Speaker 3: But I do know that Jesus said this in John
Speaker 3: eighteen thirty six, when he was asked a political question,
Speaker 3: he said, my kingdom is not of this world. If
Speaker 3: it were, my servants would fight. My kingdom is not
Speaker 3: of this world. If it were, my servants would fight.
Speaker 3: This is not our fight. The fight and that's going
Speaker 3: on out there, that's not our fight. We got a battle,
Speaker 3: but it's not that one, okay, And our weapons are
Speaker 3: different too. Now, as Christians, we are called to speak
Speaker 3: up for the truth. We are called to speak up
Speaker 3: for the vulnerable. We are called to speak up for
Speaker 3: the elderly, for the unborn, for the poor. We are
Speaker 3: called in scripture to speak up for those imprisoned, for immigrants,
Speaker 3: as the Bible calls them foreigners or strangers or aliens.
Speaker 3: We are called to speak up for those denied justice. Now,
Speaker 3: those are moral issues that can be backed up with
Speaker 3: hundreds of verses in the Bible. In fact, did you
Speaker 3: know they're over two thousand verses in the Bible about
Speaker 3: taking care of the poor two thousand, and they're about
Speaker 3: that same number about making sure everybody is treated fairly
Speaker 3: and justly. Justice has a couple thousand verses two. So
Speaker 3: we got to wonder about what are we going to
Speaker 3: do with those? But there are a lot of issues
Speaker 3: out there that people are fighting over. The Bible is
Speaker 3: silent about It just says nothing. If it's not our fight,
Speaker 3: it's not our fight. Now, if you've ever been on
Speaker 3: social media, you know that there are a lot of
Speaker 3: Christians out there who are ready to pick a fight
Speaker 3: with you because they're addicted to anger as much as
Speaker 3: some people are addicted to drugs. What do you do
Speaker 3: with those people? Now, I'm trying to be practical in
Speaker 3: this message. What do I do with internet trolls? They
Speaker 3: just want to pick a fight, and many of them
Speaker 3: are Christians. Well, here's what the Bible says. We always
Speaker 3: go back to the word. It's not my opinion is worthless.
Speaker 3: What matters is what does God say about these questions?
Speaker 3: And in tewod Timothy chapter two, verses twenty three and
Speaker 3: twenty four, it says this about dealing with people who
Speaker 3: are just like to fight, like to get in arguments.
Speaker 3: Second Timothy two, twenty three and twenty four says this
Speaker 3: don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments.
Speaker 3: That's pretty clear. Don't have anything to do with foolish
Speaker 3: and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels, and
Speaker 3: then it says this, listen, the lord's servant must never quarrel.
Speaker 2: Are you a servant of God?
Speaker 3: Well, that's scripture, and the Bible says the lord's servant
Speaker 3: must never quarrel. As a servant of God, I am
Speaker 3: not allowed to quarrel. The lord's servant must never quarrel. Instead,
Speaker 3: it says, you must be kind to everybody. If you're
Speaker 3: going to be a servant of God, if you're going
Speaker 3: to be a woman of God, you're going to be
Speaker 3: a man of God. The lord's servant must never quarrel. Instead,
Speaker 3: you must be kind to everybody, able to teach, and
Speaker 3: patient with everyone. You must be humble, gently teaching those
Speaker 3: who oppose the truth.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope rip will be
Speaker 1: back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.
Speaker 1: If you've missed any part of today's teaching, you can
Speaker 1: listen online anytime at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 4: How do you feel spiritually right now? Maybe you feel
Speaker 4: spiritually dry, like you're in a desert, or like you're
Speaker 4: just going through the motions. Maybe you've lost your spark
Speaker 4: your joy. God knows how you feel right now. You
Speaker 4: are not alone. He knows even David and the Bible
Speaker 4: felt like that and Jeremiah twenty nine thirteen. God said,
Speaker 4: you will seek Me and find Me when you seek
Speaker 4: Me with all your heart. When you seek God intentionally,
Speaker 4: it leads to a renewal of your relationship with Him.
Speaker 4: That's why Pastor Rick created a very special, brand new
Speaker 4: resource called Going Deeper with God, a Personal Renewal Retreat,
Speaker 4: and it He'll personally leave you on a spiritual journey
Speaker 4: to help you seek God. Together, you and Pastor Rick
Speaker 4: will go through a series of audio lessons and after
Speaker 4: each session you'll take a little time to complete exercises
Speaker 4: in the Companion workbook. You can do this at home
Speaker 4: in short sessions, or you can get away for a
Speaker 4: day and do it in one sitting. Through this retreat,
Speaker 4: you'll experience a renewal of life within you. God will
Speaker 4: restore your joy. As he renews, refreshes, invigorates, and revives
Speaker 4: your spiritual life. You'll never be the same again. Will
Speaker 4: send you Going Deeper with God, a personal renewal retreat,
Speaker 4: as our way of saying thanks when you give a
Speaker 4: gift today to help daily hope, share the hope of
Speaker 4: Jesus with a hurting world. Just call eight hundred and
Speaker 4: six hundred at five zero zero four or go to
Speaker 4: Pastorick dot com to get your copy of this great resource.
Speaker 4: That's eight hundred at six hundred five zero zero four
Speaker 4: or Pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Once again, here's Rick.
Speaker 3: If you're going to be a servant of God, if
Speaker 3: you're going to be a woman of God, you're going
Speaker 3: to be a man of God. The Lord's servant must
Speaker 3: never quarrel. Instead, you must be kind to everybody, able
Speaker 3: to teach, and patient with everyone. You must be humble,
Speaker 3: gently teaching those who oppose the truth. So what does
Speaker 3: that mean? It means in the in the world where
Speaker 3: everybody likes to argue. Today, don't start arguments, don't get
Speaker 3: into arguments, don't get hooked in to an argument, don't
Speaker 3: participate in an argument.
Speaker 2: In many, many.
Speaker 3: Places, in Scripture, particularly Psalms and Proverbs, particularly Proverbs, we
Speaker 3: are told to stay clear of argumentative people.
Speaker 2: Did you know that?
Speaker 3: Just go read Proverbs. We are told to stay clear
Speaker 3: people who like to quarrel, liked to argue. And yet
Speaker 3: you know I heard actually heard of small groups and
Speaker 3: churches that split up because they argued over secondary issues,
Speaker 3: and they allowed non essentials to take precedent over our
Speaker 3: commitment to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Speaker 3: That makes our heavenly father sad. But it's not new, No,
Speaker 3: it's not new. It's been going on for two thousand years.
Speaker 3: In fact, then the church meeting in Rome, the church
Speaker 3: that met in Rome, and Paul had to write to them.
Speaker 3: They got into a big conflict. And you know what
Speaker 3: the conflict over was there in the church in Rome.
Speaker 2: Food.
Speaker 3: The Church in Rome started having a split because they
Speaker 3: had a conflict over rules about what you could and
Speaker 3: couldn't eat. And Paul had to write them this word
Speaker 3: Romans twelve twenty.
Speaker 2: It's a word we need.
Speaker 3: In twenty twenty one, Romans twelve twenty says this, don't
Speaker 3: tear apart the work of God. Don't tear apart the
Speaker 3: work of God over a rule about food. Now, it
Speaker 3: may not be a rule about food. It may be
Speaker 3: who you voted for, it may be some other issue.
Speaker 3: Don't tear apart the work of God over a secondary issue.
Speaker 3: You know, as I mentioned earlier, the church in Corinth
Speaker 3: was a very divided church, and they fought over everything,
Speaker 3: but their favorite conflict was over leadership. And so in
Speaker 3: chapter three, Paul had to remind them that if we
Speaker 3: allow our support of any leader of any kind to
Speaker 3: create division or tension in the church between us and
Speaker 3: our brothers and our sisters, God says, our priorities are
Speaker 3: out of whack. God, it's not christ like and it's
Speaker 3: a sin. A God will judge now. First Corinthians, Chapter three,
Speaker 3: verse two to five. Paul says, you know what, I
Speaker 3: wanted to teach you some deeper truths from the Word
Speaker 3: of God, but I couldn't because you were arguing all
Speaker 3: the time. And he said, it just showed your level
Speaker 3: of maturity. In fact, here's what scripture says. First Corinthians three,
Speaker 3: two to five. Paul says, I had to feed you
Speaker 3: with milk, not solid food, for you still aren't mature.
Speaker 3: You're not mature enough to digest it. You're acting in
Speaker 3: church the same way unbelievers act in the world, and
Speaker 3: this proof of your immaturities. You're arguing, quarreling, and the
Speaker 3: divisions you're created, and it proves you still.
Speaker 2: Belong to the world. You're living by worldly values.
Speaker 3: So he's talking about this thing about who says, well,
Speaker 3: I'm of this club and I'm of that club, and
Speaker 3: I'm supporting this guy, and I'm supporting that guy.
Speaker 2: It doesn't really matter now.
Speaker 3: The third step, the third step in creating unity in
Speaker 3: your small group, unity in your church, unity in your family,
Speaker 3: unity in your marriage. Here's a big one. Be realistic
Speaker 3: in my expectations. Be realistic in my expectations. All of
Speaker 3: us had unrealistic expectations when we got married. All of
Speaker 3: us bring unrealistic expectations to church. And to expect any
Speaker 3: church to always do everything right and to minister perfectly
Speaker 3: to everyone all the time.
Speaker 2: That's fantasy.
Speaker 3: In the first place, the church is filled with imperfect people,
Speaker 3: sinners like me. You're looking at number one. I'm the
Speaker 3: chief of sinners. The church is filled with imperfect people.
Speaker 3: So a group of imperfect people will never be able
Speaker 3: to create a perfect community. It's like in a marriage.
Speaker 3: I'm a sinner, my wife's a sinner. She married a
Speaker 3: bigger sinner me and can't create a perfect relationship. We
Speaker 3: need to remember Psal one, nineteen ninety six. It says
Speaker 3: this nothing is perfect except your word. So one nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety six. Nothing is perfect except your words. Everything is
Speaker 3: broken on this planet, the weather, the economy, our bodies, marriages,
Speaker 3: our relationships, our minds. Nothing on this planet works perfectly
Speaker 3: except God's word it's perfect. So to expect perfection in
Speaker 3: your church is to set yourself up for a massive disappointment. Now,
Speaker 3: a church can be healthy without being perfect. Okay, just
Speaker 3: like your kids are grandkids. Okay, my kids are not perfect,
Speaker 3: but they're healthy. They're healthy. My grandkids have never been perfect,
Speaker 3: but they're healthy. And a church can be healthy without
Speaker 3: being perfect. You know, one of the things I've noticed
Speaker 3: is that when people read a lot of books about
Speaker 3: the ideal church and the way it ought to be,
Speaker 3: it just makes them cynical. Why because they're hoping for
Speaker 3: something that doesn't exist. And when you discover that what
Speaker 3: God intends in real fellowship to be, it's easy to
Speaker 3: get discouraged by the gap between the ideal.
Speaker 2: And the real.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, you know, you read all these books
Speaker 3: about the ideal church and then you go live in
Speaker 3: the real church, you just get cynical. But let me
Speaker 3: say this, and I want you to listen closely. Even
Speaker 3: with all its faults and all its favors, failures, and
Speaker 3: all its mistakes and all its sin. Jesus passionately loves
Speaker 3: his church, and he wants us to do the same.
Speaker 3: If we're going to be christ Like a lot of
Speaker 3: people use the church but don't love it, we must
Speaker 3: passionately love the church in spite of its perfections. Longing
Speaker 3: for the ideal while criticizing the real is evidence of
Speaker 3: spiritual immaturity. On the other hand, set settling for the
Speaker 3: real without striving for the ideal is complacency. You know
Speaker 3: what maturity is. Maturity is living with the tension. For
Speaker 3: forty one years, I have lived with the tension of
Speaker 3: saddle backed church between the ideal what I knew it
Speaker 3: could be, and the real what it was. I have
Speaker 3: loved our church deeply at every stage of its growth.
Speaker 3: When we had five people, I loved it. When we
Speaker 3: had fifteen people, I loved it. When we had thirty people,
Speaker 3: I loved it. When we had thirty thousand, I loved it.
Speaker 2: But I, of all.
Speaker 3: People, can see the glaring weaknesses in our church because
Speaker 3: I'm intimate. I've seen it from day one, and I
Speaker 3: have lived for forty one years with the tension between yeah,
Speaker 3: it's really good. This is good, but it could be here.
Speaker 3: See it's like parenting. In parenting, you don't wait for
Speaker 3: your kids to grow up before you start loving them.
Speaker 3: You don't wait for your kids to be mature before
Speaker 3: you start loving them. You love them at every stage
Speaker 3: of maturity. When my kids would bring me a picture
Speaker 3: at two years old and it would be just scribbling,
Speaker 3: and I'd say, that's perfect, honey, that's just perfect. What
Speaker 3: I mean by that, it's perfect for that stage of maturity. Now,
Speaker 3: if Amy brought that to me, you know, in her thirties,
Speaker 3: I go, there's a problem here. But it's perfect at
Speaker 3: each stage. You need to learn to love people at
Speaker 3: every stage of their growth. And you need to learn
Speaker 3: to love our church as a whole in every stage
Speaker 3: of growth. To be honest with you, as somebody who
Speaker 3: has walked with Jesus now for over sixty years. Now,
Speaker 3: I'll just tell you this from experience. Other believers will
Speaker 3: disappoint you. Other believers are gonna let you down in life.
Speaker 3: But that's no excuse to stop fellowshiping with them. It's
Speaker 3: no excuse to stop loving them. God wants you to
Speaker 3: love the real Church, not the ideal church. These people,
Speaker 3: the people you have a hard time with. They're your family.
Speaker 3: You're going to live with them for eternity, and when
Speaker 3: they don't act like it, you can't just walk out
Speaker 3: on them. Instead, God tells us this Ephesians four to two,
Speaker 3: New Living Translations. Be patient with each other, making allowances
Speaker 3: for each other's faults because.
Speaker 2: Of your love.
Speaker 3: Believe me, in all of the counseling that I've done
Speaker 3: with people in our church, people can become disillusioned with
Speaker 3: the church for many understandable reasons, and the list could
Speaker 3: be what quite long. I could give you a long
Speaker 3: list of legitimate reasons for becoming disillusioned with the church.
Speaker 3: But rather than being shocked and surprised, we just got
Speaker 3: to remember the churches made up of real people, sinners,
Speaker 3: including ourselves, and because of that we hurt each other,
Speaker 3: sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. But if you walk out of
Speaker 3: every situation in a church that you have difficulty with,
Speaker 3: where are you going to build christ like character? You see,
Speaker 3: becoming like Christ requires problems and pressure and pain and
Speaker 3: persecution and a lot of other things we don't like.
Speaker 3: But as they told you many times, God's not interested
Speaker 3: in your comfort as much as he's interested in your character,
Speaker 3: because you're not taking your comfort to heaven. You're taking
Speaker 3: your character to heaven, and the comfort is going to
Speaker 3: be in heaven. This is the get ready stage.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's daily hope. We're so thankful that
Speaker 1: you've chosen to spend some time with us. If you've
Speaker 1: missed any part of this broadcast, just go to Pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com and listen online. Anytime. Rick will be back
Speaker 1: to close out our time today. But first, how do
Speaker 1: you feel spiritually right now? Maybe you feel spiritually dry,
Speaker 1: like you're in a desert, or like you're just going
Speaker 1: through the motions. Maybe you've lost your spark, your joy.
Speaker 1: God knows how you feel right now, and you're not alone.
Speaker 1: He knows even David and the Bible felt like that
Speaker 1: and Jeremiah twenty nine thirteen. God says you will seek
Speaker 1: me and find Me when you seek Me with all
Speaker 1: your heart. When you seek God intentionally, it leads to
Speaker 1: a renewal of your relationship with him. And that's why
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick created a very special, brand new resource called
Speaker 1: Going Deeper with God, a personal renewal retreat. In it,
Speaker 1: he'll personally lead you on a sp spiritual journey to
Speaker 1: help you seek God. Together, you and Pastor Rick will
Speaker 1: go through a series of audio lessons, and after each
Speaker 1: session you'll take a little time to complete exercises in
Speaker 1: the Companion workbook. You can do this at home in
Speaker 1: short sessions, or you can get away for a day
Speaker 1: and do it in one sitting. Through this retreat, you'll
Speaker 1: experience a renewal of life within you. God will restore
Speaker 1: your joy. As he renews, refreshes, reinvigorates, and revives your
Speaker 1: spiritual life, You'll never be the same again. We'll send
Speaker 1: you going deeper with God a personal Renewal retreat as
Speaker 1: our way of saying thanks when you give a gift
Speaker 1: today to help daily hope, share the hope of Jesus
Speaker 1: with a hurting world. Just call eight hundred six hundred
Speaker 1: five thousand and four or go to Pastorick dot com
Speaker 1: to get your copy of this great resource. That's eight
Speaker 1: hundred six hundred five thousand and four or Pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: Hi, everybody today, I want to share a note that
Speaker 3: we received from Darren.
Speaker 2: He wrote me.
Speaker 3: He calls daily hope his morning cup of God because
Speaker 3: it helps him stay focused on God throughout the day.
Speaker 3: Darren wrote me this, he said, Pastor Rick, I thank
Speaker 3: God for Daily Hope. I support daily Hope because Christ
Speaker 3: Hope is for me and in me, and I support
Speaker 3: it because it sends Christ's message.
Speaker 2: To people all over the world. He wrote. You know,
Speaker 2: I've dealt with my share of demons in my life.
Speaker 3: I've had cancer, huge financial losses, addictions, permanent disability, chronic pain,
Speaker 3: and depression. But Daily Hope gets me going in the morning.
Speaker 3: It's like a cup of coffee for me. But if
Speaker 3: I haven't had my cup of God in the morning,
Speaker 3: then I feel like I'm less able to pass on
Speaker 3: the good news to others. So thank you, Pastor Rick.
Speaker 3: You know, daily Hope helps people like get their lives
Speaker 3: back on track because it connects them not just with God,
Speaker 3: but with God's Word. And it is so important for
Speaker 3: each of us to spend time with God and in
Speaker 3: God's Word every day. So I want to encourage every
Speaker 3: one of you to make a daily habit of opening
Speaker 3: the Bible.
Speaker 2: Sit down and open the Bible.
Speaker 3: You may open it on a iPad or on your phone,
Speaker 3: but open the Bible to see what God says about
Speaker 3: how we're meant to live.
Speaker 2: God bless you everybody.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to let Rick know how this broadcast
Speaker 1: has blessed you, feel free to send him an email
Speaker 1: at Rick at pastorrick dot com. That's Rick at pastorrick
Speaker 1: dot com. Be sure to join us next time as
Speaker 1: we look into God's word for our daily hope. This
Speaker 1: program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your
Speaker 1: generous financial support