Speaker 1: Hi, this is Pastor Rick, and I want to say
Speaker 1: thank you for your faithfulness and supporting Daily Hope all
Speaker 1: over this past year, and I'm looking forward to all
Speaker 1: the exciting things God's going to do in our lives
Speaker 1: as we work together in this coming new year. Happy
Speaker 1: New Year, everybody.
Speaker 2: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry
Speaker 2: of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series
Speaker 2: called Transformed. In these lessons, Rick uncovers key principles found
Speaker 2: in God's.
Speaker 1: Word that will completely.
Speaker 2: Transform our lives from the inside out in every area
Speaker 2: including spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial, and vocational. Now,
Speaker 2: if you can improve in any of these areas I
Speaker 2: just mentioned, stay with us, because in just a few
Speaker 2: moments we're going to let you know how you can
Speaker 2: have your very own Transformed study kit from Pastor Rick,
Speaker 2: which includes US seven session DVD and workbook. You can
Speaker 2: take a sneak peek right now by going to pastor
Speaker 2: Rick dot com while you listen, and if you want,
Speaker 2: you can just text the Word Daily to eight hundred
Speaker 2: six hundred five thousand and four to find out more.
Speaker 2: Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part one of
Speaker 2: a message called from Stressed to Bless.
Speaker 1: When my two boys, josh and Matthew were young, they
Speaker 1: were budding entrepreneurs and it seemed like every week they
Speaker 1: had a different business deal. They were coming up with
Speaker 1: something to sell, something that they were going to make
Speaker 1: money at. Joshua was the entrepreneur and Matthew was the salesman.
Speaker 1: And one day they decided to capitalize on the increasing
Speaker 1: level of stress they saw in our society. So they
Speaker 1: created this thing called homemade stress balls. Well, what they
Speaker 1: did is they took balloons and filled them with sand
Speaker 1: and tied a knot in it, and then when you
Speaker 1: got under tension, you were supposed to squeeze this and
Speaker 1: it would relieve the tension in your life and in
Speaker 1: your body. And so they came in one day to
Speaker 1: my office. They had a bucket of these, and Matthew said, Dad,
Speaker 1: would you like to buy a stress ball? And I
Speaker 1: said no. They said would you like one for free?
Speaker 1: He said, I said yes. He said great, because when
Speaker 1: you buy one, you get one free. That's salesmanship. That
Speaker 1: is salesmanship. Now, It's true, we spend an awful lot
Speaker 1: of money on relieving stress in our lives. Stress at
Speaker 1: its core is simply a threat, real or perceived. Whenever
Speaker 1: your body feels threatened by something, an emotional, physical, spiritual,
Speaker 1: mental threat, stress responses take place in your body and
Speaker 1: your blood pressure goes up, your pulse quickens, your adrenaline
Speaker 1: shoots into your body, and all kinds of other physiological effects. Now,
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that's pretty be good.
Speaker 1: If you're standing in the road and a truck comes
Speaker 1: after you in your stress response is get out of
Speaker 1: the road. You get that extraverst of energy. That's a
Speaker 1: good thing. The problem is, in chronic stress, your body
Speaker 1: never shuts down, and many, if not most, of you
Speaker 1: are living under chronic stress. We're going to deal with
Speaker 1: that today because hundreds and hundreds of scientific and medical
Speaker 1: studies have shown that chronic stress in your life is
Speaker 1: dangerous and devastating to your physical health. It's damaging to
Speaker 1: your brain to always be under chronic stress, and it's
Speaker 1: deadly to your body stress. Chronic stress can kill you. Now.
Speaker 1: Last week we look at transforming your spiritual health, and
Speaker 1: we looked at the habits for spiritual health. This week,
Speaker 1: I want us to turn the dial a little bit
Speaker 1: and we're going to look at the habits for physical health. Now,
Speaker 1: what I want us to do this week in is
Speaker 1: specifically look at the effect of stress on your body.
Speaker 1: And what the Bible says is the antidote to the
Speaker 1: most common stresses in your life. So, if you're a
Speaker 1: little tired, a little worn down, little stressed out, you
Speaker 1: picked a good week to come to church, because we're
Speaker 1: going to help you out as we look at the
Speaker 1: most famous psalm in the Bible, Psalm twenty three. Now,
Speaker 1: before we look at the text, let me just identify
Speaker 1: the seven most common sources of stress in modern life.
Speaker 1: These are the seven things that cause stress most often
Speaker 1: in today's lifestyle. Number one is worry, and the reason
Speaker 1: why worry is number one is because there's a lot
Speaker 1: more things to worry about than there used to be.
Speaker 1: Nobody worried about identity theft twenty years ago. Nobody worried
Speaker 1: about losing their cell phone years ago. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of things we worry about today that your parents
Speaker 1: didn't have to worry about because of their new worries
Speaker 1: in an increasingly complex world. Worry. The second greatest source
Speaker 1: of stress is hurry, and hurry comes from the increasing
Speaker 1: pace in our life. Would you agree that seems like
Speaker 1: the world's going faster and faster. We live in a
Speaker 1: microwave nanosecond world where everybody wants it now, and they
Speaker 1: want it yesterday, and they want it immediately, and everything
Speaker 1: is going faster and faster. That creates stress. Speed creates stress. Obviously,
Speaker 1: when you're running through a town, it's a whole lot
Speaker 1: more stressful than simply walking slowly through a town. The
Speaker 1: third thing that causes stress is crowds. Crowds, and as
Speaker 1: the world gets more crowded, people are getting more stressed
Speaker 1: out and wise. We have a thing called urbanization, and
Speaker 1: that is people are moving to the cities. They're moving
Speaker 1: to the cities. Life used to be rural, but now
Speaker 1: it is definitely urban. Eighty three percent of America lives
Speaker 1: in a large city. Eighty three percent. You know, in
Speaker 1: eighteen hundred, there was only one city in the world
Speaker 1: that had one million people in it. There's the city
Speaker 1: of London. There's the only city on the planet that
Speaker 1: had a million people in it. Today, there are over
Speaker 1: five hundred cities in the world that have over a million,
Speaker 1: and thousands and thousands that have half a million and
Speaker 1: they're even now what we call mega cities like Mumbai, India,
Speaker 1: which has you know, thirty two million, Tokyo which has
Speaker 1: thirty six million, Mexico City thirty five million. These are
Speaker 1: enormous cities and you can go block after block after
Speaker 1: block without ever seeing any dirt. It's all been paved.
Speaker 1: And this crowding and this urbanness creates additional stress in
Speaker 1: our lives. It causes traffic stress. You know, I read
Speaker 1: one study that said in the seventy five largest cities
Speaker 1: in America that last year Americans spent are wasted over
Speaker 1: four billion hours waiting in traffic jams. Just imagine amount
Speaker 1: of productivity lost on that. And that wasted over six
Speaker 1: billion gallons of gasoline while you were stuck in traffic.
Speaker 1: That's a stress Number four. A fourth modern stress is
Speaker 1: multiple choice, or more choices than ever before. And actually
Speaker 1: the more choices you have in life, we think that's
Speaker 1: more freeing, more liberating, but actually it's more paralyzing because
Speaker 1: it creates indecision. You know, you used to walk into
Speaker 1: a grocery store and there'd be a couple kinds of toothpaste.
Speaker 1: There's now sixty kinds of toothpaste. Out there, I really
Speaker 1: have to choose. I mean I only needed to use
Speaker 1: the minty fresh and the non minty fresh. But now
Speaker 1: they've got fourteen different ingredients and every one of them
Speaker 1: has well, this one's left out and this one's added in,
Speaker 1: and you go, how do I know? And so the
Speaker 1: more choices you have, I mean, it used to be
Speaker 1: like there was cough syrup. Now there's like fifty kinds
Speaker 1: of cough syrup. How do I know which one is
Speaker 1: the right one? And the more choices you have can
Speaker 1: be paralyzing. When you think of all the different ways
Speaker 1: you can get your coffee in Starbucks, that could be
Speaker 1: a little overwhelming. I just need a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1: That's all there is. Choice. The number five is the
Speaker 1: loss of privacy. The loss of privacy. Actually, any loss
Speaker 1: is stressful, but in the modern world, the loss of
Speaker 1: privacy is that there are not just the government, but
Speaker 1: all kinds of corporations keeping their number on you, and
Speaker 1: they want to know where you are and who you are,
Speaker 1: and what you've said and what you've bought. And every
Speaker 1: time you know, you buy some now somebody rings it
Speaker 1: up and they're keeping a record on how many Pampers
Speaker 1: you've bought when you need to move to depens you
Speaker 1: know you move from hot wheels to wheelchair.
Speaker 3: Okay, you're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Rip will
Speaker 3: be back in just a moment with the rest of
Speaker 3: today's lesson. You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free
Speaker 3: email devotional at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 4: Have you ever noticed that the world has ever changing?
Speaker 4: So called answers to your relationship struggles, solutions to your
Speaker 4: financial troubles, and explanations to your search for meaning? But
Speaker 4: what the world offers often leaves us empty and searching
Speaker 4: for more. The good news is God's Word contains timeless
Speaker 4: truths that can transform every area of your life from
Speaker 4: the inside out. That's why Pastor Rick created a very
Speaker 4: special Bible study called Transformed. In it, he'll help you
Speaker 4: discover the key Biblical principles that will completely transform you
Speaker 4: by changing the way you think. Pastor Rick covers every
Speaker 4: area of your life spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial,
Speaker 4: and vocational, filled with weekly lessons, daily devotions, and exercises
Speaker 4: to help you go deeper in God's Word. This seven
Speaker 4: week DVD and workbook study is perfect to do on
Speaker 4: your own or with a small group of friends. We'll
Speaker 4: send you the transformed study Kid as our way of
Speaker 4: saying thanks when you give a gift to Daily Hope
Speaker 4: to help take the certain hope of Jesus to people
Speaker 4: around the world. To get your copy of this great resource,
Speaker 4: call eight hundred six hundred five zero zero four or
Speaker 4: go to Pastorick dot com. That's eight hundred six hundred
Speaker 4: five zero zero four or Pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Once again, here's Rick. The loss of privacy, actually, any
Speaker 1: loss is stressful, but in the modern world, the loss
Speaker 1: of privacy is that there are not just the government
Speaker 1: but all kinds of corporations keeping their number on you,
Speaker 1: and they want to know where you are and who
Speaker 1: you are, and what you've said and what you've bought.
Speaker 1: And every time you know, you buy something, now somebody
Speaker 1: rings it up and they're keeping a record on how
Speaker 1: many Pampers you've bought. And when you need to move
Speaker 1: to depens you know, you move from hot wheels to
Speaker 1: wheelchair okay, And so the more choices there are, and
Speaker 1: the loss of privacy that causes stress. Number six, the
Speaker 1: word I put down is pluralism. And what is pluralism.
Speaker 1: Pluralism is we now live in a world where the
Speaker 1: people around you often have very different beliefs, convictions, lifestyle, cultures,
Speaker 1: and things like that. One hundred years ago, America was
Speaker 1: pretty much a homogeneous place that were commonly held values
Speaker 1: people shared in common. But that's just not true anymore.
Speaker 1: Technology has shrunk the globe and we are now a
Speaker 1: melting pot, but we're really more like a stew and
Speaker 1: people who live all around you and who work all
Speaker 1: around you often have very different beliefs than you, often
Speaker 1: have very different cultural values and things like that. What
Speaker 1: does that mean. It means that there's going to be conflict,
Speaker 1: and conflict comes from this being around people of different things.
Speaker 1: And of course the media feeds on conflict and it's
Speaker 1: created this culture of incivility where people are just rude
Speaker 1: to each other. Then number seven is the fear of
Speaker 1: the future, the what ifs, the fear of the future.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to look at these things, but I
Speaker 1: want to read you Psalm twenty three because all of
Speaker 1: the antidotes are in Psalm twenty three and it's just
Speaker 1: six verses long. But we find the seven antidotes in
Speaker 1: these six verses. The Lord is my shepherd, so I
Speaker 1: have all I need. He makes me lay down in lush,
Speaker 1: green meadows, and he leads me beside calm, quiet waters.
Speaker 1: He restores my soul. He guides me in the right
Speaker 1: paths for his name's sake. And even though I walk
Speaker 1: through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
Speaker 1: fear no evil for you or with me. Your rod
Speaker 1: and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table
Speaker 1: before me in the presence of mine enemies, and you
Speaker 1: anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness
Speaker 1: and mercy, Surely goodness and love of will follow me
Speaker 1: all the days of my life, and I will dwell
Speaker 1: in the house of the Lord forever. That is the
Speaker 1: most beloved psalm in the Bible. And it's not by accident,
Speaker 1: because it's given comfort to people for thousands of years.
Speaker 1: But when you really dig into it, and when you
Speaker 1: understand each of these metaphors, it is telling you how
Speaker 1: to lower your stress. It is a model of stress management.
Speaker 1: How many of you would like to be healthier? Proverbs
Speaker 1: fourteen thirty says peace of mind makes the body what healthy.
Speaker 1: It's not always what you eat, it's what eats you.
Speaker 1: That makes you unhealthy. And so we've got to figure
Speaker 1: out how to lower the stress and raise the peace
Speaker 1: of mind. How many of you would like to live longer? Cout,
Speaker 1: I see your hands. Yeah, okay. Look at the next verse.
Speaker 1: In the Living New Living translation, it says a relaxed
Speaker 1: attitude lengthens a man's life. So it's all about attitude. Now,
Speaker 1: I want us to today, in Psalm twenty three, take
Speaker 1: this passage and tear it apart, line by line, and
Speaker 1: I want us to see that there are seven spiritual
Speaker 1: habits for reducing stress. They actually parallel the seven sources
Speaker 1: of stress that I just gave you in the modern world.
Speaker 1: And I said that the first cause of stress in
Speaker 1: your life is worry. And you worry because you think, well,
Speaker 1: I have what I need when I need it. And
Speaker 1: anytime you expect other people to meet your needs instead
Speaker 1: of God, you're going to be frustrated. You're going to
Speaker 1: be disappointed, and they're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: measure up because nobody can meet all your needs. No man,
Speaker 1: no woman, only God can meet all your needs. So
Speaker 1: the first antidote to stress is this is an important one.
Speaker 1: Write it down. Look to God to meet all my needs.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing David says we need to do.
Speaker 1: I look to God to meet all my needs, and
Speaker 1: that calms me down. That way, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: be disappointed because I'm going to trust in God. Now,
Speaker 1: this single change in your life. If you would stop
Speaker 1: looking to other people to meet your needs, if you
Speaker 1: would stop looking to your husband, to your wife to
Speaker 1: meet your needs, your stress would go down dramatically. Stop
Speaker 1: putting your security in things that you can lose. Sometimes
Speaker 1: people put their security in their job. They lose their job,
Speaker 1: they lose their their peace of mind. They put their
Speaker 1: security in their marriage and then their spouse dies, or
Speaker 1: they go through the tragedy of a divorce and then
Speaker 1: they go, who am I? What is my identity? Or
Speaker 1: you put your security in your money. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of ways you can lose your money. As your pastor
Speaker 1: and friend, I recommend you never put your security in
Speaker 1: anything that can be taken away from you. I'll say
Speaker 1: it again, you should always put your security, find your
Speaker 1: security in something that can never be taken from you.
Speaker 1: You can lose your job, you can lose your health,
Speaker 1: you can lose your reputation, you can lose your spouse,
Speaker 1: you can lose your mind, but you cannot lose your
Speaker 1: relationship to Christ. And so you put your security in
Speaker 1: that you look to God to meet all your needs
Speaker 1: Verse one. So I'm twenty three. The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 1: So I have all I need, I shall not want.
Speaker 1: I have nothing that I don't need because He's going
Speaker 1: to be my shepherd. I stop expecting other people to
Speaker 1: meet the needs, and only God can meet now. The
Speaker 1: Bible says this in Romans chapter eight. Since God did
Speaker 1: not spare even his own son for us, but gave
Speaker 1: him up for us all, won't he surely give us
Speaker 1: everything else we need? The logic there is obvious. If
Speaker 1: God loved you enough to send Jesus Christ and done
Speaker 1: on the cross, don't you think he loves you enough
Speaker 1: to take care of every other need in your life? Yes,
Speaker 1: of course he does. So stop looking to other people
Speaker 1: to meet your needs, because they're going to let you down.
Speaker 1: There's no one who could possibly meet all your emotional needs.
Speaker 1: There's no one who could possibly meet all your physical, mental,
Speaker 1: spiritual needs. So David says, I'm not going to look
Speaker 1: to other people to meet all my needs. I'm going
Speaker 1: to look to God. The Lord is my shepherd, so
Speaker 1: I have all I need. What's he saying here that
Speaker 1: the first step in stress reduction is worship. I refocus
Speaker 1: on God. I stop focusing on expecting other people to
Speaker 1: meet my needs, and I refocus on God. Look at
Speaker 1: this verse up here on the screen. Isaiah thirty verse
Speaker 1: fifteen says this, The sovereign Lord says, only in returning
Speaker 1: to me and waiting for me will you be saved?
Speaker 1: In quietness and confidence is your strength? Not? He going
Speaker 1: to say, Not in anxiety and in fear, Not in
Speaker 1: hard work and planning, not in a self motivation and
Speaker 1: positive and latitude. He says, in quietness and confidence is
Speaker 1: your strength? You say the Lord is my shepherd. In fact,
Speaker 1: I want you to make this an affirmation in your life.
Speaker 1: Every time you start to get stressed out, you need
Speaker 1: to pause, say the Lord is my shepherd. I have
Speaker 1: everything I need. The Lord is my shepherd. I have
Speaker 1: everything I need. When you start to get stressed out,
Speaker 1: like I don't have what I need right now, the
Speaker 1: Lord is my shepherd. He's going to provide, He's going
Speaker 1: to take care of me. I'm going to look to
Speaker 1: God to meet all my needs. Now. Once you've laid that,
Speaker 1: that's the bedrock of stress management. Then you go to
Speaker 1: the second step, and here's verse two. I need to
Speaker 1: obey God's instruction about rest. I need to obey God's
Speaker 1: instructions about rest. You know, so much of the stress
Speaker 1: in your life comes from always being in a hurry,
Speaker 1: always working too much, always feeling like you got too
Speaker 1: much to do. It's why you overwork. You never can
Speaker 1: get caught up. How many of you feel like I
Speaker 1: can never get caught up. Let's just have true confession.
Speaker 1: I can never get caught up. Yeah, that's true right now,
Speaker 1: and I have over twelve hundred unread emails in my inbox.
Speaker 1: I have over twelve thousand emails in my inbox. There's
Speaker 1: no way I'm ever going to get caught up. Just
Speaker 1: no way I'm ever gonna get caught up. So what
Speaker 1: do you do? Well, you look to God to meet
Speaker 1: your needs, and then you obey God's instruction about rest.
Speaker 1: There's no way I can say, well, I'll just stay
Speaker 1: up for the next three months and read all those emails. Now,
Speaker 1: you still got to rest. Now, think about this. If
Speaker 1: God had wanted to, he could have created human beings
Speaker 1: without the need for sleep. Why did he? Why did
Speaker 1: he create you with the need for sleep? You will
Speaker 1: spend one third of your life asleep. Now, if God's
Speaker 1: only going to give you sixty eight one hundred years
Speaker 1: here on earth, why wouldn't he give you one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of the time. Why would one third of that
Speaker 1: time be wasted in sleep? Because God wants you to
Speaker 1: learn the importance of rest. Rest is so important. God rest.
Speaker 1: God modeled it when he created the whole universe. The
Speaker 1: Bible says that after he finished all creation, It says
Speaker 1: on the seventh day, God rested. Now, why did God rest?
Speaker 1: He wasn't tired. God doesn't ever get tired. He was
Speaker 1: modeling the importance of rest to your life. And he says,
Speaker 1: every seventh day you rest. And he said, that's what
Speaker 1: God did.
Speaker 2: This is past mister Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy
Speaker 2: that you've chosen to study along with us today. If
Speaker 2: you'd like to receive Ricks free daily devotional, just go
Speaker 2: to Pastorick dot com and sign up Right now. Rick
Speaker 2: will be back to close out our time today. But first,
Speaker 2: you know the world is shouting for our attention with
Speaker 2: answers to our relationship struggles, solutions to our financial troubles,
Speaker 2: and explanations to our search for meaning. But the world's
Speaker 2: promises leave us empty and searching for more. God's Word
Speaker 2: contains the only answers that promise to transform your life
Speaker 2: from the inside out. That's why Pastor Rick has put
Speaker 2: together the Transformed Study Kit, which includes a vegan leatherbound
Speaker 2: interactive workbook and a seven video session DVD. These video
Speaker 2: sessions can be used independently or with a small group
Speaker 2: of friends. This kit will help uncover key Biblical pricibles
Speaker 2: that will completely transform your life in every area including spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial,
Speaker 2: and vocational. We'll send you the Transformed Study Kit as
Speaker 2: our way of saying thanks when you give a gift
Speaker 2: to help daily hope take the certain hope of Jesus
Speaker 2: to people around the world. To get your copy of
Speaker 2: this great resource, call eight hundred six hundred five thousand
Speaker 2: and four or go to Pastorick dot com. That's eight
Speaker 2: hundred six hundred five thousand and four or Pastorick dot com.
Speaker 2: Right now, here's Pastor Rick to tell you about an
Speaker 2: exciting new opportunity.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I've got some really big news. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you about. Our Daily Hope app has been completely
Speaker 1: redesigned and it's available now. I want you to get
Speaker 1: this Daily Hope app. What we did is we listened
Speaker 1: to all your feedback and we installed all the improvements
Speaker 1: that you suggested and asked for. The devotional is now
Speaker 1: easier to read. It's got a darker font the option
Speaker 1: to increase the font sizes. There. We've made it easy
Speaker 1: to share this devotional with other people. You can even
Speaker 1: broadcast it right from your phone. It's really cool. To
Speaker 1: get the app on your iPhone, visit the iTunes app
Speaker 1: store and search for Daily Hope with Rick Warren. To
Speaker 1: get the app or an Android device, visit the Google
Speaker 1: Play Store and search for Daily Hope with Rick Warren. Now,
Speaker 1: the official Daily Hope app has our yellow and blue
Speaker 1: sunburst logo. You're familiar with that our app is a
Speaker 1: convenient way to get your daily dose of Daily Hope.
Speaker 1: I want you to get this app today, so download
Speaker 1: the app now and get started.
Speaker 2: Be sure to join us again next time as we
Speaker 2: look into God's word for our daily hope. This program
Speaker 2: is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily hope and your generous
Speaker 2: financial supporting