Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, I'm so glad you're here with us today.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren, and
Speaker 1: today we start a series called The Keys to a
Speaker 1: Blessed Life. In these messages, Rick walks through Jesus's Sermon
Speaker 1: on the Mount and shows us how to live a
Speaker 1: truly hopeful and purpose filled life. Now, let's get started
Speaker 1: with part one of it depends on who you depend on.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Probably the most common greeting that you know you hear,
Speaker 2: particularly among believers, is God bless you. And we say
Speaker 2: it not just when people sneeze. We say God bless you.
Speaker 2: Have you ever thought of what in the world does
Speaker 2: that mean? What's a blessing? How do you define a blessing?
Speaker 2: Would you know a blessing if it slapped you in
Speaker 2: the face. I mean, the Bible says it sometimes a
Speaker 2: problem is a blessing. So when you say God bless them,
Speaker 2: really great, you say, given a bunch of problems, Really,
Speaker 2: what in the world is a blessing? And if you
Speaker 2: pray for God to bless somebody, how do you even
Speaker 2: know if it's happened or not. If you don't know
Speaker 2: what a blessing is? The word blessed in the Bible
Speaker 2: is the Greek word macarios macarios, and macarios is the
Speaker 2: word for happy, happy. It is the word for happiness.
Speaker 2: To be blessed is to be happy. To have a
Speaker 2: blessing is to have happiness in your life. And when
Speaker 2: Jesus talks about you're blessed if you do this, he's
Speaker 2: saying you're going to be happy if you do this.
Speaker 2: It's the exact same word. Now, today we're going to
Speaker 2: begin quite a long series through Jesus' most famous sermon.
Speaker 2: It's called the Sermon on the Mountain. And Jesus begins
Speaker 2: the Sermon on the mount by talking about eight ways
Speaker 2: to be blessed by God to receive God's blessing on
Speaker 2: your life. You could call it eight ways to be happy.
Speaker 2: The truth is, I want you as your pastor. I
Speaker 2: love you. I love you, and I want God to
Speaker 2: bless your life. I want him to bless your relationships.
Speaker 2: If you're in school, I want him to bless your studies.
Speaker 2: If you're married, I want you to bless your marriage.
Speaker 2: I want him to bless your finances. I want God
Speaker 2: to bless your health. I want God to bless your talent.
Speaker 2: I want God to bless your future. So I'm extremely
Speaker 2: interested in how to receive the blessings of God. Now,
Speaker 2: as we study scripture, we find that the problem isn't
Speaker 2: with God. The problem is with us. God wants to
Speaker 2: bless your life. You just have to get blessable, and
Speaker 2: a lot of us don't live lives in ways that
Speaker 2: God can bless. God isn't going to bless sin. God
Speaker 2: isn't going to bless arrogance. God isn't going to bless indifference,
Speaker 2: A lot of things God will not bless. And so
Speaker 2: when Jesus starts his most famous sermon, the first thing
Speaker 2: he begins with, I'm going to teach you the eight
Speaker 2: conditions for receiving God's blessing in your life. And for
Speaker 2: the next eight weeks, we're going to look at each
Speaker 2: of those eight conditions in detail. We're calling at the
Speaker 2: keys to a blessed life. Now, let me read the
Speaker 2: first verses in Matthew chapter five. The Sermon on the
Speaker 2: Mount is in Matthew chapter five, chapter six, and chapter seven.
Speaker 2: We're going to go through all three of those chapters,
Speaker 2: verse by verse in the days ahead. And chapter five
Speaker 2: starts like this when Jesus saw the crowds. He went
Speaker 2: up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his
Speaker 2: disciples came to him and he began to teach them. Now,
Speaker 2: notice in Bible times, the teacher always sat and the
Speaker 2: people the audience always stood. I think that's a good idea.
Speaker 2: I want to be like Jesus. So maybe I'll just
Speaker 2: sit down right now, and I'm going to ask all
Speaker 2: of you to stand up for the next forty five minutes.
Speaker 2: All right now, No, we won't do that, but you know,
Speaker 2: I want to be like Jesus. Jesus doesn't wear socks,
Speaker 2: so I don't wear socks. But Jesus, it says, sat down.
Speaker 2: That was the way they taught in those days. The
Speaker 2: teacher sat and everybody else stood. And then he gives
Speaker 2: the first of these eight conditions for being blessed by God.
Speaker 2: And he says this, blessed are the poor in spirit,
Speaker 2: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Now that doesn't
Speaker 2: tell me a whole lot because I don't understand most
Speaker 2: of the words in that verse. First, I don't know
Speaker 2: what poor in spirit needs, and I don't know what
Speaker 2: the Kingdom of Heaven is. So we've got to unpack
Speaker 2: this for you to understand the benefit to your life. First,
Speaker 2: what is the Kingdom of Heaven? Is that different from
Speaker 2: the Kingdom of God. Well, I'm going to ask you
Speaker 2: to hold your questions on this because I promise you
Speaker 2: in this series we're gonna deal in depth with this issue.
Speaker 2: We're going to look at what is the Kingdom of
Speaker 2: God and why it is so incredibly important to your
Speaker 2: life and why you definitely want to be a part
Speaker 2: of it. And we're going to go into that in detail,
Speaker 2: explaining what is the Kingdom of God. But this week,
Speaker 2: as we start the series, I want to want us
Speaker 2: to look at just the first six words of Jesus'
Speaker 2: most famous sermon, and the first six words he starts with.
Speaker 2: The first word he starts with blessed. Now, I like
Speaker 2: that God starts teaching with a blessing. He doesn't start
Speaker 2: with let me give you eight curses. He gives you
Speaker 2: eight blessing. That's my kind of preacher. And he says,
Speaker 2: let me tell you eight ways to be happy. That's
Speaker 2: the first things Jesus talks about in the Sermon on
Speaker 2: the Mount. Here's what he says, Blessed of the poor
Speaker 2: in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So
Speaker 2: the first word out of his mouth to you is
Speaker 2: a blessing. Now, what does it mean to be poor
Speaker 2: in spirit? Well, he's not talking about physical power. He
Speaker 2: doesn't say blessed to the poor. He says blessed to
Speaker 2: the poor in spirit. He's not talking about economic poverty.
Speaker 2: He's not talking about material poverty. He's not talking about
Speaker 2: physical poverty. He's talking about spiritual poverty. He's talking about
Speaker 2: maintaining a certain kind of attitude. For you to understand this,
Speaker 2: I put there on your outline several other translations of
Speaker 2: this verse so you could actually see a fuller understanding
Speaker 2: of what it means to be poor in spirit. For instance,
Speaker 2: the New Living translation says God blesses those who realize
Speaker 2: their need for Him. The God's Word translation says God
Speaker 2: blesses those who recognize their spiritually helpless. The Common English
Speaker 2: version says God blesses those who are who depend only
Speaker 2: on Him. And New Century version says God blesses those
Speaker 2: who know they have a great spiritual have great spiritual needs.
Speaker 2: You can see pattern development here. He's saying, I recognize
Speaker 2: that I am inadequate to live my life without God.
Speaker 2: Without God in my life, I am spiritually poor. Without
Speaker 2: God's help in my life, I am spiritually poor. I
Speaker 2: am inadequate. A good verse that helps clarify this is
Speaker 2: someone forty six there in your outlined verse five. The
Speaker 2: Lord blesses everyone who trusts him and depends on him.
Speaker 2: Circle the word trust and the word depend. This is
Speaker 2: the first condition for God's blessing on your life. You've
Speaker 2: got to trust him, You've got to depend on Him.
Speaker 2: And that's what it means to be poor in spirit. Fact,
Speaker 2: let me give you a definition. Why don't you write
Speaker 2: this down? To be poor in spirit, which is the
Speaker 2: first condition for God's blessing on your life, means I
Speaker 2: humbly depend on God instead of myself. That's what it means.
Speaker 2: To be poor in spirit means I humbly depend on
Speaker 2: God instead of myself because I know I'm inadequate to
Speaker 2: handle all the problems that face me in life. So
Speaker 2: if I want God's blessing on my relationship to my girlfriend,
Speaker 2: my boyfriend, my husband, and my wife or anybody else,
Speaker 2: then I've got to be dependent upon God. If I
Speaker 2: want God's blessing in my work, in my career, in
Speaker 2: my studies. If I want God's blessing in my finances
Speaker 2: and my health, I have to humbly depend on God
Speaker 2: instead of myself. So then the question becomes, how do
Speaker 2: you do that? How do I actually depend on God
Speaker 2: on a daily basis and on a moment by moment basis. Well,
Speaker 2: this weekend, I want to give you five practical ways
Speaker 2: to do this from the Word of God. And these
Speaker 2: are five practical ways. You can practice every one of
Speaker 2: them this week. And if you practice these, you will
Speaker 2: become a woman or a man who is poor in spirit,
Speaker 2: which means you depend on God rather than yourself. You
Speaker 2: understand your need for God in your life. And then
Speaker 2: that's the kind of woman, that's the kind of man
Speaker 2: that God says I like to bless. So let me
Speaker 2: just get right into it. You might write this first
Speaker 2: one down five ways to express my dependence on God.
Speaker 2: Number one, to be blessed by God. First, I depend
Speaker 2: on God's wisdom, not mine. I depend on God's wisdom,
Speaker 2: not my wisdom, not my own. Other words, I listen
Speaker 2: to what God says, I follow what God says to do,
Speaker 2: and I do what he says to do. Now, let's
Speaker 2: look at some verses together from the Bible, Proverbs, chapter fourteen,
Speaker 2: Verse twelve says this, there is a way, There is
Speaker 2: a way that seems right to a man. In the end,
Speaker 2: it leads to death. Now a circle, the word seems
Speaker 2: there's a way that seems right to us, to human beings,
Speaker 2: but an end, it's a dead end, he said. Our
Speaker 2: ideas often lead to dead ends. It leads to death.
Speaker 2: Have you ever in your life had this feeling that
Speaker 2: something was so very very very right and you just
Speaker 2: knew it was the right thing to do, and you
Speaker 2: felt it with all your heart, and then you did
Speaker 2: it and it ended up being so very very wrong,
Speaker 2: or it became a total fiasco and a failure. That's
Speaker 2: what this verse is all about. There's a way that
Speaker 2: seems right to us, but it often ends, he says,
Speaker 2: in a dead end. And every one of us could
Speaker 2: give a testimony on this, where you've had this feeling,
Speaker 2: this hunch that this is the perfect job and it
Speaker 2: ends up being a dead end. This is the peronaked relationship,
Speaker 2: the one I've always needed, the one I've always wanted,
Speaker 2: and that relationship ends up a dead end. This is
Speaker 2: the perfect person that I should marry and I know
Speaker 2: this is the person, and we all know people who
Speaker 2: made that decision and it flopped miserably. Parents will often think,
Speaker 2: I know this is the right thing to say to
Speaker 2: my kids, and then it has the exact opposite effect
Speaker 2: on the kids. It happens in friendships. It can happen investments.
Speaker 2: I know this is where I should put my money.
Speaker 2: This is a sure winner, this is a big deal.
Speaker 2: I know if I invest in this man, I'm going
Speaker 2: to clean house. It's gonna be great. And then it
Speaker 2: just totally flops. You could probably and we could probably
Speaker 2: spend the rest of the night doing this. Think of
Speaker 2: painful examples where you wish that you would listen to
Speaker 2: God instead of your gut, because God is filled with
Speaker 2: truth and your gut is filled with pea. So your
Speaker 2: gut's off and wrong. Just because you think it doesn't
Speaker 2: make it right, and just because you feel it certainly
Speaker 2: doesn't make it right. Feelings lie, They lie to you
Speaker 2: all the time. I mean, there used to there's an
Speaker 2: old country Western song that says, how could it be
Speaker 2: wrong when it feels so right? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: There are a lot of things that are wrong that
Speaker 2: feel so right at the moment, Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: That's about the most immature, stupid thing you could say,
Speaker 2: because a lot of stuff feels so right and it
Speaker 2: ends up being so bad. And six months later you're
Speaker 2: saying about that relationship, what was I thinking? How in
Speaker 2: the world did I get messed up in that one?
Speaker 2: How did I get my life so entangled in something
Speaker 2: so stupid? And now I'm scarred and I'm hurt, and
Speaker 2: I'm burdened, and I'm going Am I going to recover
Speaker 2: from this? The Bible says there's a way that seems right,
Speaker 2: but it ends in a dead end. So the first
Speaker 2: way to get God's blessing in your life is I
Speaker 2: depend on God's wisdom, not my feelings, not my thoughts,
Speaker 2: not whatever else is telling me. I depend on God's wisdom,
Speaker 2: not mind. Now, if you want to have fewer dead
Speaker 2: ends in your life, you want to have fewer defeats,
Speaker 2: fewer failures in your life. This is verse next verses
Speaker 2: for you. Proverbs three five to seven. Trust the Lord
Speaker 2: with all your heart. Do not depend on your own
Speaker 2: understanding others. Don't depend on your wisdom. Don't depend on
Speaker 2: what you think is the right thing. To do. Don't
Speaker 2: depend on your hunches and your feelings. Those are often
Speaker 2: lead you astray. Do not depend on your understanding. Seek
Speaker 2: his will. God's will in all you do and everything
Speaker 2: you do, how you spend your time, your money, your relationships, everything,
Speaker 2: and he God promises he will direct your paths. Don't
Speaker 2: be impressed with your own wisdom. What he's staying there.
Speaker 2: Don't go around saying I got this all figured out,
Speaker 2: I can handle this. I'm a big girl, I'm a
Speaker 2: big guy. I know what I'm doing. I've got it
Speaker 2: all figured out. I got a plan. He's saying, don't
Speaker 2: be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, respect the Lord
Speaker 2: and turn your back on evil. So, if I really
Speaker 2: want God's blessing, the first thing is I depend on
Speaker 2: God's wisdom, not what my feelings say, not what my
Speaker 2: gut says, not what my friends say, not what I think.
Speaker 2: But I trust in the Lord with all my heart
Speaker 2: and lean not on my own understanding. Now, how do
Speaker 2: I get God's wisdom? Two ways? You pray and you read.
Speaker 2: You pray, you talk to God and you read the Bible.
Speaker 2: You let him talk to you, and that's how you
Speaker 2: get God's wisdom. Look at this next verse. The Bible
Speaker 2: says in James Chapter one, verse five, if any of you,
Speaker 2: any of you lacks wisdom, you should pray and ask God,
Speaker 2: who gives it grudgingly and sparingly to all. That's not
Speaker 2: what it says. If any of you lacks wisdom, you
Speaker 2: should pray and ask God who gives it. Read it
Speaker 2: with me, generously and graciously at all. Now, notice he
Speaker 2: gives it to everybody all. You got to just ask
Speaker 2: for it. You don't have to be qualified for it.
Speaker 2: I have to just ask for it. You see, God
Speaker 2: doesn't want you to hit dead ends. God doesn't want
Speaker 2: you to go through failure after failure after failure after
Speaker 2: failure in your life. God wants you to succeed in
Speaker 2: your life. He wants you to be wise. He wants
Speaker 2: you to make smart decisions with your time, your money,
Speaker 2: your relationships, and everything else. And it's not like you're
Speaker 2: waiting on him. He's waiting on you. God saying, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm here and I'll give you wisdom, and I'll give
Speaker 2: it generously, and I'll give it graciously. I'm not grudging
Speaker 2: about it. I love to give you. I want to
Speaker 2: make you wise. But you just got it. Ask now,
Speaker 2: how do you know when you are living on God's
Speaker 2: wisdom rather than on your wisdom? How do you know
Speaker 2: if you're really depending on God's wisdom you're talking to
Speaker 2: God throughout your entire day and you're reading His word
Speaker 2: on a daily basis. If you're not talking to God
Speaker 2: throughout your whole day, God, I'm getting ready to go
Speaker 2: into this meeting, I'm getting ready to go into this class.
Speaker 2: I'm getting ready to go meet with some friends. What
Speaker 2: do I do? What do I say? And you're not
Speaker 2: talking to God like that all day? And if you're
Speaker 2: not reading God's word on a daily basis, you are
Speaker 2: depending on your own wisdom. You're just fooling yourself. You're
Speaker 2: not depending on God's wisdom, You're depending on your own.
Speaker 2: And it's why you have so many problems and why
Speaker 2: so many things fall through and why you end up
Speaker 2: with so much pain in your life because you're not
Speaker 2: depending on God's wisdom. By reading the book and talking
Speaker 2: to the author, would you write this down. God's wisdom
Speaker 2: and God's will are in God's word. God's wisdom and
Speaker 2: will is in God's word. They're in God's word, God's
Speaker 2: wisdom and will are in God's Word, and if you're
Speaker 2: not in the Word, you don't know God's will. And
Speaker 2: if you're not in the Word, you don't have God's wisdom.
Speaker 2: And if you don't have God's wisdom, you can't be blessed.
Speaker 2: So that's the starting point. I got to pray talk
Speaker 2: to the Lord, and I gotta let him talk to me.
Speaker 2: Let me give you another one number two. If I
Speaker 2: really want God's blessing on my life and not only
Speaker 2: depend on God's wisdom, I depend on God's strength, not mine.
Speaker 2: I depend on God's strength, God's power, God's energy, not mine.
Speaker 2: Now you've probably noticed that you often get tired. In fact,
Speaker 2: you're tired a lot, and at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: you're kind of worn out and you run out of energy.
Speaker 2: And the reason why he's real simple. You're a human being.
Speaker 2: Your strength is limit. God's strength is unlimited. Your strength
Speaker 2: is finite. God's strength is infinite. Your strength is exhaustible.
Speaker 2: That's why you get exhausted. God's strength is inexhaustible. God
Speaker 2: never runs out of energy. God never gets tired, And
Speaker 2: so I need to depend on God's strength, not my own.
Speaker 2: Let me show you some verses Psalm eighty four, verse five.
Speaker 2: God says you bless all who depend on you for
Speaker 2: their strength. You want God's blessing in your life, You
Speaker 2: need to depend on God for your strength. Now what
Speaker 2: do you do when your strength evaporates. You're at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, and you know, I'm just out
Speaker 2: of steam. I'm abount of energy. I don't have the
Speaker 2: energy to go into this next week. I got too
Speaker 2: many things to do and not enough energy to do it.
Speaker 2: Here's a good promise, Isaiah forty thirty one. Those who
Speaker 2: trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed.
Speaker 2: They will rise on wings like eagles. They will run
Speaker 2: and not get weary, they will walk and not grow weak.
Speaker 2: And I'll give you a personal testimony on this one.
Speaker 2: I have been living this verse this one Isaiah forty
Speaker 2: thirty one, because there's no way I could face the
Speaker 2: loss of my son on my own energy, on my
Speaker 2: own strength. I needed God to pull me through many,
Speaker 2: many dark times. Now, let me just say this, in
Speaker 2: the darkest moments of your life, when you cannot see
Speaker 2: your way forward, it doesn't matter what they are, where
Speaker 2: they came from. In the darkest moments of your life.
Speaker 2: You need God's strength to get you through. And the
Speaker 2: reason why most people never get through it is they
Speaker 2: don't have God's strength. I've seen people go through a
Speaker 2: divorce and they never recover. I've seen people go through
Speaker 2: a breakup and they never recover. I've seen people go
Speaker 2: through a major illness. I've seen them go through a
Speaker 2: bankruptcy or getting fired, are getting laid off, or getting arrested.
Speaker 2: I've seen people go through all kinds of different things
Speaker 2: and you know, abuse, and they never recover. Why because
Speaker 2: they're depending on their own strength. You're not going to
Speaker 2: get through it on your own strength. You're gonna get
Speaker 2: stuck at that stage and you get miserable the rest
Speaker 2: of your life. The only way you get through the
Speaker 2: darkest days of your life, it's on God's strength. You
Speaker 2: got to depend on him.
Speaker 1: Such a great message by Rick today and every day.
Speaker 1: I sure hope you were just as encouraged as I was.
Speaker 1: And now here's Rick with an important message.
Speaker 2: Hi everybody, thanks so much for listening today. You know,
Speaker 2: my hope is that God uses this broadcast to help
Speaker 2: deepen your relationship with Jesus. Now these daily Hope messages
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Speaker 2: that their lives are being changed. They're telling us that
Speaker 2: they're walking with Jesus and that guilt and fear has
Speaker 2: been chased from their lives by God's love. You know,
Speaker 2: relationships are being restored and marriages are being healed, and
Speaker 2: many people are saying that they've found their life purpose.
Speaker 2: I want to say thank you to you, because we're
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