Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is
Speaker 1: the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren and we're.
Speaker 2: So glad that you've joined us.
Speaker 1: Today we're gonna kick off a powerful new series called
Speaker 1: radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots. And in this series, Rick will
Speaker 1: show you how to grow deep in your faith, stay
Speaker 1: grounded in God's word, and become everything He created you
Speaker 1: to be. I don't know about you, but I can't
Speaker 1: wait to get started. So here's part one of a
Speaker 1: message called Radical Gratitude.
Speaker 3: I want to begin with a letter that I received
Speaker 3: recently that I think actually represents the way a lot
Speaker 3: of people feel. And it goes like this, Dear Pastor Rick,
Speaker 3: I am so tired of going through the motions. I'm
Speaker 3: fed up with business as usual. Nothing really excites me
Speaker 3: or energizes me anymore. I've been in a slump for
Speaker 3: so long now I don't know if I can get
Speaker 3: out of it. But I don't like it one bit.
Speaker 3: I'm filled with a jumble of emotions. I'm frustrated, I'm bored,
Speaker 3: I'm unfulfilled. I tend to focus on what's wrong, and
Speaker 3: I can be cynical about everything. The bad news is
Speaker 3: that I take out my frustration on the people I
Speaker 3: love the.
Speaker 2: Most, my family, Paster Rick.
Speaker 3: I need a major change in my life. They need
Speaker 3: a radical change in their life, is what they need.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: This week I had the TV on while we were
Speaker 3: cleaning up, and there was this wonderful documentary on the
Speaker 3: Sci Fi Channel on zombies.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: As a pastor, I thought I need to know about zombies.
Speaker 3: So I watched this spoof documentary on the Walking Dead,
Speaker 3: and as I watched it, I realized a lot of
Speaker 3: people in life are spiritual zombies. They're just going through
Speaker 3: the motions. They're mindlessly sleepwalking through life. They don't really
Speaker 3: have any plans, they don't really have any goals, they
Speaker 3: don't really put their heart into what they're doing. They're
Speaker 3: spiritual zombies. They're sleepwalking through life. Now, Friends, and if
Speaker 3: I were to ask you, and you were to be honest,
Speaker 3: would you change something looking back if you could, how
Speaker 3: many of you'd say?
Speaker 2: Yes, that's true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's pretty universal all of us would.
Speaker 3: The problem is you can't. You can't change the past.
Speaker 3: You can't do anything about it. It's over, it's dead,
Speaker 3: it's done with your past. Is past, and nothing is
Speaker 3: going to change the past decade, but you can change
Speaker 3: the next one. Are you going to be a better
Speaker 3: person ten years from now you say, well, I don't know,
Speaker 3: Well I can tell you.
Speaker 2: If you say I don't know.
Speaker 3: You won't be because it's got to be intentional. If
Speaker 3: you want to grow, if you want to develop, if
Speaker 3: you want to be better tomorrow, you got to make
Speaker 3: some radical changes.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: You need radical change in your life now. This word
Speaker 3: radical is a word that's misunderstood today because people don't
Speaker 3: know the original meaning of it. Today radical means fanatical.
Speaker 3: We don't need any more fanatics in the world. We
Speaker 3: need more radicals, but we don't need any more fanatics today.
Speaker 3: Radical A lot of people think it means over the top,
Speaker 3: It means excessive, it means extreme, It means on the edge,
Speaker 3: either religious wise or political wise, that you know, they're
Speaker 3: the extremists, they're the radicals. Or we use it as
Speaker 3: a as a synonym for cool, for hip, for you know,
Speaker 3: that's rad that's radical. But actually the word rat comes
Speaker 3: from the fourteenth century Latin word radicalus, which means from
Speaker 3: the roots, and what radical means is to be rooted
Speaker 3: in the original. That's what radical means rooted in the original.
Speaker 3: You know, we get the word radish from the same
Speaker 3: word radics in Latin is the word for root. We
Speaker 3: get the word radish, which is basically just a big root.
Speaker 3: When we talk about eradicating something that means to pull
Speaker 3: it up by its roots, it's the same word radical.
Speaker 3: And in every area of life, radical doesn't mean extreme,
Speaker 3: it means rooted in the original source. For instance, in medicine,
Speaker 3: when we talk about radical surgery, that means you root
Speaker 3: out the disease at its root. You are going to
Speaker 3: cut it out. You're not going to let You're not
Speaker 3: putting a band aid over it. You're rooting out the
Speaker 3: root source of the disease, radical surgery. In botany, the
Speaker 3: radical leaves are the leaves closest to the root. They're
Speaker 3: at the bottom of the stem. Those are called the
Speaker 3: radical leaves on any plant. In mathematics, the radical number
Speaker 3: is the root of the equation, and the radical sign
Speaker 3: in math is the square root or the cube root.
Speaker 3: The radical in math is the root of the equation.
Speaker 3: In chemistry, a radical is two atoms. It's the smallest units.
Speaker 3: It's the unit of the smallest amount. And a free
Speaker 3: radical you've heard about that is an unpaired electron. It's
Speaker 3: the smallest root you can get.
Speaker 2: In a molecule.
Speaker 3: In linguistics, the radical means two or three consonants that
Speaker 3: form the root of a word, and in grammar, the
Speaker 3: radical word is the root word once you've taken off
Speaker 3: the prefixes or the suffixes. What we need today are
Speaker 3: radical believers, not finatal believers, but radical believers who go
Speaker 3: back to the New Testament, who go back to the Bible,
Speaker 3: who go back to what God intended for us to
Speaker 3: do in the first place, without all the trappings, and
Speaker 3: out all of the traditions and out all the rules
Speaker 3: and regulations and restrictions, to go back to the original
Speaker 3: words of Jesus. That's a radical believer. And I want
Speaker 3: you to be that kind of believer in the next decade.
Speaker 3: When I wrote the book Purpose Driven Life in two
Speaker 3: thousand and two, I personally paid for the cover. I
Speaker 3: hired an artist from the Midwest to design a woodcut
Speaker 3: of an oak tree with the roots exposed. It's very
Speaker 3: well known. Here is on the screen. You know that
Speaker 3: oak tree with the roots exposed. When I showed that
Speaker 3: to the publishing department at Zondervan.
Speaker 2: They hated it.
Speaker 3: They said, those roots look ugly. You can't just have
Speaker 3: roots flying out in the air. Why don't you just
Speaker 3: have a pretty picture of a tree. I said, you
Speaker 3: don't understand. This is intentional. This is a book about
Speaker 3: the root of living. Purpose driven life is about being
Speaker 3: rooted and the five purposes that God created every human being.
Speaker 3: It's going back to the roots of Christianity. So I
Speaker 3: want the roots exposed. It's intentional and purpose driven life
Speaker 3: was about radical living. I just never used the word
Speaker 3: because I didn't think people would understand it. But I
Speaker 3: want you to be rooted in God, to rooted in love,
Speaker 3: rooted in faith, rooted in hope. Now, the Bible has
Speaker 3: a lot to say about having spiritual roots. If you
Speaker 3: look on your outline, the Bible says in Colossians chapter two,
Speaker 3: just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you
Speaker 3: must continue to live in obedience to him. Let your
Speaker 3: roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from him.
Speaker 3: No notice, He says, just as you accepted Christ, you
Speaker 3: live in in the same way. In other words, the
Speaker 3: way you become a believer is the way you can
Speaker 3: continue as a believer. The way you're saved is the
Speaker 3: way you live the Christian life. The way you've become
Speaker 3: a part of the family of God is the way
Speaker 3: you continue.
Speaker 2: How did you become a believer?
Speaker 3: Not by promising to do good, not by working real hard,
Speaker 3: not by keeping a bunch of rules and regulations. There's
Speaker 3: only one way to become a part of God's family.
Speaker 3: Accept his love, accept his grace, accept his forgiveness.
Speaker 2: Put your faith in his love.
Speaker 3: And the Bible says, just as you were saved, you
Speaker 3: live the Christian life the same way. It's not saved
Speaker 3: by grace, live by works. A lot of people think, well,
Speaker 3: accept God's love and I become a believer, then I
Speaker 3: work real hard the rest of my life to prove
Speaker 3: that I'm worthy of it. No, he says, just as
Speaker 3: that means the same way you become a believer, you continue.
Speaker 3: And what is it You're rooted in God's love. Most
Speaker 3: people don't get this, Even people who've been believers for
Speaker 3: a long time don't understand what it means to be
Speaker 3: rooted radically rooted in God's love. Look of the next verse,
Speaker 3: the Bible says, and Ephesians three May your roots go
Speaker 3: down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And
Speaker 3: may you have the power to understand how wide and
Speaker 3: how long, and how high and how deep His love
Speaker 3: really is. And may you experience this love in other words,
Speaker 3: not just know it all. Yeah yeah, yeah, I know
Speaker 3: God loves me, he says, May you feel it at
Speaker 3: the gut level. I want you to experience. I want
Speaker 3: you to experience daily what it means to really feel
Speaker 3: loved by God, unconditionally loved by God, so that you know,
Speaker 3: no matter what happens in your life, God is never
Speaker 3: going to stop loving you, and you love him back
Speaker 3: with that same kind of love. He said, That's what
Speaker 3: it means to be rooted. May your roots go down
Speaker 3: in the soil of his love. May you experience the
Speaker 3: love of Christ. Though it is so great you'll never
Speaker 3: fully understand it. Our brain capacity isn't big enough. But
Speaker 3: he says, Then if you do these things, if you
Speaker 3: your life radically root your life in how much God
Speaker 3: loves you, and you think about that every day, he says,
Speaker 3: then you will be filled with the fullness of life.
Speaker 3: That means a fulfilling life, a meaningful life, a significant life,
Speaker 3: a purpose driven life, a life of compassion and completion,
Speaker 3: a life where you get up in the morning with
Speaker 3: renewed energy and new vigor and new vim and new
Speaker 3: vitality because you go, man, I know what my purpose is,
Speaker 3: I know what God made me to do. And you
Speaker 3: don't lose that spark. And you're not a spiritual zombie.
Speaker 3: You're not just sleep walking through life, kind of letting
Speaker 3: life tell you where to go instead of knowing where
Speaker 3: you're going. He says, Then you'll be filled with the
Speaker 3: fullness of life and power that comes from God. Most
Speaker 3: people live powerless lives. They have no power to change
Speaker 3: their habits, they have no power to change their circumstances,
Speaker 3: they have no power to change their own lives.
Speaker 2: Why because they're not rooted in the love of God.
Speaker 3: Now, the Bible, as I said, has much to say
Speaker 3: about growing spiritual roots. He says, I want you rooted, radically,
Speaker 3: rooted in God's love. In fact, every single problem in
Speaker 3: your life comes because you don't have the deep enough
Speaker 3: spiritual roots. How do you know when you don't have
Speaker 3: deep spiritual roots? Worry, fear, anxiety, stress, guilt, shame, boredom, loneliness, resentment, bitterness.
Speaker 3: These are the results of not having deep spiritual roots.
Speaker 3: One of Jesus' most famous stories in the Bible is
Speaker 3: called the Parable of the Sower, and he tells this
Speaker 3: story about a farmer who goes out onto his field
Speaker 3: and he takes his seed and he's kind of throwing
Speaker 3: it out.
Speaker 2: He's broadcasting the seed.
Speaker 3: He's not planning one at a time, and he says,
Speaker 3: says he throws the seed out on his field, it
Speaker 3: falls on four different kinds of soil, and Jesus said,
Speaker 3: this represents four kinds of hearts of receptivity we can
Speaker 3: have toward God. He says, there's the hard heart that
Speaker 3: doesn't even let the seed grow. And he said, there's
Speaker 3: the shallow heart that the roots don't go down deep enough.
Speaker 3: And he says, there's the crowded heart where the roots
Speaker 3: get choked out. And he says, then there's the good
Speaker 3: soil where deep spiritual roots are built. And Jesus says,
Speaker 3: the reason why people start off good in life and
Speaker 3: then blow it, why they start off so well and
Speaker 3: then they lose their joy and they get stuck in
Speaker 3: a funk and they get in this spiritual zombie thing,
Speaker 3: is they don't have spiritual roots, so they're blown away
Speaker 3: by everything that happens. Notice this verse on the screen.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in Matthew thirteen, Jesus said they don't
Speaker 3: have deep roots.
Speaker 2: So they don't last very long.
Speaker 3: As soon as life gets hard, like a recession, or
Speaker 3: the message gets them in trouble, they give up. You
Speaker 3: ever felt like giving up? Whenever you feel like giving up,
Speaker 3: it is a sign your roots aren't deep enough, Your
Speaker 3: spiritual roots aren't radical enough. They're not ingrown into the
Speaker 3: soil of God's loving up. If you've been feeling like
Speaker 3: giving up, and a lot of people do at the
Speaker 3: end of the year, For December is often the most
Speaker 3: depressing month for many people because they look at all
Speaker 3: of what they didn't get accomplished. They feel like giving
Speaker 3: up on their marriage, are giving up on their dream,
Speaker 3: or giving up on their desire to ever get married
Speaker 3: or have a baby, or giving up on their desire
Speaker 3: to have some big.
Speaker 2: Goal in life. Don't do that. I can help you
Speaker 2: develop spiritual roots.
Speaker 3: Now, contrast the person who has no roots, who says
Speaker 3: he just withers and wilts whenever problems and difficulties and
Speaker 3: trials and troubles and temptations come. Contrast that with a
Speaker 3: person who has deep spiritual roots. Jeremiah talks about that
Speaker 3: kind of person in chapter seventeen of Jeremiah on the Screen.
Speaker 3: Here's what he says. By the way, this verse Jeremiah
Speaker 3: seventeen is the first verse in purpose driven Life. Before
Speaker 3: the first chapter, I was writing about this, I just
Speaker 3: wasn't using the word radical. The Bible says, Blessed are
Speaker 3: those you want to be blessed by God. Blessed are
Speaker 3: those who trust in the Lord and have made the
Speaker 3: Lord their.
Speaker 2: Hope and confidence.
Speaker 3: In other words, their confidence isn't in their job, their
Speaker 3: hope isn't in their marriage, their trust isn't in other people.
Speaker 3: Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have
Speaker 3: made him their hope and confidence. And then he gives
Speaker 3: a metaphor. He says, they're like trees planted along the
Speaker 3: river banks. He said, with roots that reach deep into
Speaker 3: the water. And then he says, people who have deep
Speaker 3: spiritual roots, there are four things you can see in
Speaker 3: their lives. And he gives it here in this metaphor.
Speaker 3: He says, such trees who have deep roots, he says
Speaker 3: they're not bothered by the heat.
Speaker 2: Number one, he said.
Speaker 3: Number two, they're not worried by long months of drought.
Speaker 3: He said, Number three, their leaves stay green. And number four,
Speaker 3: they go right on producing delicious fruit no matter what happens.
Speaker 3: Now this verse, God is talking about you, and he's saying,
Speaker 3: there are four things here that if you'll develop deep
Speaker 3: spiritual roots, will be true in your life.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 3: Number one, he says that when the heat's on, you
Speaker 3: don't wilt. He says, they do not. They do not wilt.
Speaker 2: They do they're not bothered by the heat. And what's
Speaker 2: he talking about there? He's talking about pressure.
Speaker 3: How do you know when somebody doesn't have spiritual roots,
Speaker 3: they crumble under stress, They cave in under pressure. When
Speaker 3: you don't have deep spiritual roots, pressure comes on and
Speaker 3: it baffles and batters and bushes you around and you
Speaker 3: just get drawn along like a tumble weed because you
Speaker 3: don't have any roots, and you get blown this way
Speaker 3: and that way, and this way and that way, and
Speaker 3: the pressure's on and the heat's on, and you get fried.
Speaker 3: He says, if you got deep roots, heat doesn't bother you.
Speaker 3: Bring it on. I can handle the heat. Why because
Speaker 3: I've got deep roots. I'm not depending on it to rain,
Speaker 3: he said. That's the second thing he said, not only that,
Speaker 3: they're not worried by drought. People have deep spiritual roots.
Speaker 3: They're not worried about the recession. They don't care if
Speaker 3: it goes on ten years, because their source is not
Speaker 3: in their job. Their hope is not in the economy,
Speaker 3: their trust is not in the stock market. Their roots
Speaker 3: are in the love of God. And he goes, when
Speaker 3: the drought's on, I'm not worried about it. Why because
Speaker 3: my source of nutrition and nourishment and strength and refreshment
Speaker 3: is coming from the river, not from the rain. And
Speaker 3: we don't know when it's going to rain again. He says,
Speaker 3: you're not baffled by circumstances, and you got roots.
Speaker 2: And he says, your leave stay green year round. You're
Speaker 2: in evergreen.
Speaker 3: You don't dry up in the winter, in the fall,
Speaker 3: and he says, you keep on producing fruit.
Speaker 2: That's what God wants to do.
Speaker 3: He wants you to be productive year round, no matter
Speaker 3: what kind of circumstances you're going through. Now, what is
Speaker 3: the fruit that he's talking about here? The Bible calls
Speaker 3: spiritual fruit the fruit of the spirit It's listed in
Speaker 3: Galatians five, twenty two and twenty three, and there are
Speaker 3: nine qualities. The spiritual fruit are love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, meekness,
Speaker 3: self control. I want to have more self control. I
Speaker 3: want to be more joyful. I want to be more
Speaker 3: at peace. I want to be more loving. I want
Speaker 3: to be overflowing in patience. That's spiritual fruit. How do
Speaker 3: you know when somebody has spiritual roots real you can
Speaker 3: see the fruit. Here's the equation. No root, no fruit. Okay,
Speaker 3: really hard to understand. No root, no fruit. Any garden goes.
Speaker 3: You got the root off a plant there, it isn't
Speaker 3: gonna be fruit on the vine. And if you don't
Speaker 3: have spiritual roots, you will have no fruit of love
Speaker 3: and joy and peace overflowing in your life. Our culture
Speaker 3: is spiritually rootless, and as a result, we get blown
Speaker 3: away by this bad and that therapy and that instance
Speaker 3: and that circumstance and that problem. And we can see
Speaker 3: society decaying in many areas. We can see conflict in
Speaker 3: many areas, we can see crime in many areas. All
Speaker 3: these things it comes from a lack of spiritual roots.
Speaker 3: So what we're gonna do in this series is talk
Speaker 3: about radical living, not fanatical, radical living rooted in God's love.
Speaker 3: So you're stable, you're strong, you can take anything that
Speaker 3: comes at you, no matter what happens.
Speaker 2: And none of us knows what's gonna happen.
Speaker 3: In the next decade, we're gonna look at what does
Speaker 3: it mean to radically follow Christ? What would happen in
Speaker 3: your life if you really took Jesus seriously, I mean
Speaker 3: not casually, but really took him seriously and God's plan
Speaker 3: for your lives? What kind of fruit would happen in
Speaker 3: your life? How productive would you be? How much more
Speaker 3: productive if you had deeper roots. There's a story in
Speaker 3: the Bible, in the Book of Second Kings about a
Speaker 3: king named Hezekiah. He was the king of Israel and
Speaker 3: everything was going wrong for Israel. But the worst thing
Speaker 3: that was happening was the enemy nation of Syria had
Speaker 3: a huge army, and they were coming at him, and
Speaker 3: they were going to kick their butts, they were gonna
Speaker 3: take over, they were gonna annihilate and uproot Israel. And
Speaker 3: King Hezekiah is devastated, and he goes to the Temple
Speaker 3: of God and he lays out flat on the ground
Speaker 3: and he prays it goes God, you got to help me.
Speaker 3: I'm in a no win situation. You know, time's up,
Speaker 3: the last inning's over. We're in overtime and I'm way behind,
Speaker 3: and we're gonna get We're gonna get killed.
Speaker 2: So you got to help me. God, Please help.
Speaker 3: And through God's prophet a man named Isaiah, God gives
Speaker 3: Hezekiah this promise. It's a wonderful promise. Up here on
Speaker 3: the screen. Second King's nineteen thirty. It says the surviving remnant,
Speaker 3: those who make it through that tough year, whether it's
Speaker 3: recession or war or whatever, the surviving remnant of Judah
Speaker 3: shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. The
Speaker 3: Bible says in Colossians, look there on your outline Colossians two,
Speaker 3: verse seven, in God's Word translation, sink your roots into him.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about Christ and build on him. Be strengthened
Speaker 3: by the faith that you were taught. And read it
Speaker 3: with me. Overflow with thanksgiving, circle overflow with thanksgiving. The
Speaker 3: first characteristic of deep roots. How do you know when
Speaker 3: somebody has deep spiritual roots? You can write this down.
Speaker 3: Continuous gratitude the first characteristic that you know you are
Speaker 3: not shallow, you are not superficial.
Speaker 2: That you have deep.
Speaker 3: Spiritual roots, is you are continually grateful. You overflow with thanksgiving.
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving is not to be a day that we celebrate
Speaker 3: once a year. It is to be a habit of
Speaker 3: a lifestyle of the radical believer. If you have deep roots,
Speaker 3: the deeper you understand God's love, the more grateful you're
Speaker 3: going to be.
Speaker 1: What a special message from Pastor Rick. And now let's
Speaker 1: hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here's Rick
Speaker 1: with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 3: I've got a quick note from a listener in Minneapolis.
Speaker 3: His name is Bill, and Bill wrote to me Rick,
Speaker 3: I want to let you know that I prayed with
Speaker 3: you this morning, accepting God into my life.
Speaker 2: Wow. That's great.
Speaker 3: Daily Hope has become the way that I start each
Speaker 3: day listening to your podcast. So much has changed in
Speaker 3: my life over the past year. I had a job lost,
Speaker 3: I had a transition, I had a divorce, my dad
Speaker 3: passed away, cancer, and my faith all in the same year.
Speaker 2: I'm so thankful for all that you do. Well.
Speaker 3: Bill, I want to tell you I know you've been
Speaker 3: going through some really tough times this past year, but
Speaker 3: there's no greater news than hearing that you've accepted Jesus
Speaker 3: into your life. And the fact that God used a
Speaker 3: Daily Hope podcast to lead you to Him is such
Speaker 3: a blessing. And I want you to know that as
Speaker 3: you continue to study God's Word every day, you're going
Speaker 3: to find that your faith is growing and you'll see
Speaker 3: God actatively working in your life. And I really am
Speaker 3: as excited to think about what the next year is
Speaker 3: going to bring. Year two in your life will be
Speaker 3: very different than the last year. And to the rest
Speaker 3: of you, all of our Daily Hope listeners, I just
Speaker 3: want to thank you because we're able to provide the
Speaker 3: Daily Hope podcast the people like Bill because of your
Speaker 3: generous support. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 3: thank you, thank you for helping us share the good
Speaker 3: news all around the world.
Speaker 2: We love you and imagine.
Speaker 3: What it's going to be to get to heaven and
Speaker 3: see all these people who came to know Christ because
Speaker 3: of your giving.
Speaker 2: God, bless you.
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,