Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible
Speaker 1: teaching ministry of Rick Warren. And today we're continuing with
Speaker 1: this powerful series called the Jesus Model. In this series,
Speaker 1: Rick will walk you step by step through the process
Speaker 1: of true biblical discipleship. Rick's giving you practical tools to
Speaker 1: grow spiritually, experience God's peace, live with greater purpose, and
Speaker 1: become more like Jesus in every area of your life.
Speaker 1: Right now, we're going into part two of a message
Speaker 1: called helping Others like Jesus.
Speaker 2: There's another kind of blindness, and that's spiritual blindness. It's
Speaker 2: the worst of all. And our spiritual blindness is when
Speaker 2: we close our eyes to the goodness of God in
Speaker 2: our lives, when we attribute all the good things in
Speaker 2: our lives to us and attribute all the bad things
Speaker 2: in our lives to God. That's called spiritual blindness. When
Speaker 2: you don't realize how much you messed up, when you're
Speaker 2: not willing to admit how much you need a savior,
Speaker 2: how much you need God in your life, when you
Speaker 2: don't open your heart to Christ, that's spiritual blindness. God says,
Speaker 2: I still care about you, and I came to open
Speaker 2: your eyes to give you that new vision, that new insight.
Speaker 2: And then the fifth group Jesus said he came to
Speaker 2: help is the oppressed. He said, I came to release
Speaker 2: the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Speaker 2: And I'll explain that in a minute. The oppressed I
Speaker 2: call these people that kicked around and the oppressed of
Speaker 2: the people in life who are kicked around in life
Speaker 2: by circumstances. They're put down, they're played upon, they're taken
Speaker 2: advantage of, they are pitted against. And there's all kinds
Speaker 2: of oppression in our world today that Jesus cares about
Speaker 2: and wants us to stop. Let me give you three kinds.
Speaker 2: First is political oppression. Political pression is real. Not here
Speaker 2: in America because we have freedom and the Bill of
Speaker 2: Rights and constitution and voting and all, but around the world,
Speaker 2: in most of the countries where there are dictatorships, there's
Speaker 2: enormous political oppression. For instance, you probably don't know that
Speaker 2: right now, there are over thirty five million refugees in
Speaker 2: the world living in refugee camps. Thirty five million people
Speaker 2: living in refugee camps because they've been politically oppressed, pushed
Speaker 2: out of their country. I was in a refugee camp
Speaker 2: last year and I asked the people, how long have
Speaker 2: you been here? And they said, we've lived here eighteen
Speaker 2: years because they had not been allowed to go back
Speaker 2: into their country. There's about thirty thousand people in that
Speaker 2: refugee camp, thirty five million people politically oppressed. Let me
Speaker 2: give you another shocker. Right now in the world, there
Speaker 2: are twenty seven million people enslaved in slavery. Twenty seven
Speaker 2: million people living as slaves. You said, I thought we
Speaker 2: got rid of that in the Civil War. We did
Speaker 2: in America. It's out lawed in America, but it's not
Speaker 2: outlawed around the world. In fast thinks will shock you.
Speaker 2: There are more people enslaved in slavery today than there
Speaker 2: were one hundred and fifty years ago in the Civil War.
Speaker 2: There are more slaves today right now in the world
Speaker 2: than there were one hundred and fift years ago in
Speaker 2: the Civil War. What are we doing about that? Where's
Speaker 2: the people talking about slave trade? Where are the abolitionists today?
Speaker 2: We've got more, not less slaves. And you know what,
Speaker 2: the number one cause of that slavery is sex trade.
Speaker 2: Sex trade. In fact, that's the second kind of oppression,
Speaker 2: and that's cultural oppression and virual oppression doesn't come from
Speaker 2: the government, but it comes from the cultures that we
Speaker 2: live in. Let me just give you some statistics about
Speaker 2: oppression of women around the world. In Asia, there are
Speaker 2: about sixty million girls who are missing. They're not there
Speaker 2: simply because in Asia a result of selective sex abortion.
Speaker 2: In other words, oh, we don't want a girl, so
Speaker 2: we're gonna boord her, or in fantaside, a baby girls born,
Speaker 2: so we're gonna dumper or neglect. We're gonna just neglect
Speaker 2: the baby and the little girl dies. Domestic violence, rape,
Speaker 2: sexual violence in general, violence is increasing in almost every
Speaker 2: nation globally. It's going up, not down. Up. In fact,
Speaker 2: it's one of the major causes of suicide among women
Speaker 2: is domestic violence. Each year, two million girls listen to this.
Speaker 2: Each year, two men girls between age five and fifteen
Speaker 2: are sold in the sexual commercial sex market, slaves, sold
Speaker 2: his prostitutes, sold into prostitution. Every year, two million girls
Speaker 2: young girls. One hundred and thirty million women have been
Speaker 2: forced to undergo female mutilation and so called honor killings,
Speaker 2: where in some cultures, if the husband feels like his
Speaker 2: wife look cross eyed at him. He's, well, you dishonored me,
Speaker 2: and he has the right to murderer, and they're done.
Speaker 2: This is done all the time. In fact, last year,
Speaker 2: over a thousand women in Pakistan alone were murdered as
Speaker 2: part of honor killings. Do you think God cares about that?
Speaker 2: Absolutely he does. And he says, I came for the oppressed,
Speaker 2: the politically oppressed, is culturally oppressed. And then there's one
Speaker 2: other in this one you'll identify with spiritual oppression. What
Speaker 2: is spiritual oppression, Well, there's another word for it, depression.
Speaker 2: When you get depressed, when you feel pressured, when you
Speaker 2: feel oppressed, when you feel pressed on, when you feel
Speaker 2: stressed out, you're at the end of the rope, you're
Speaker 2: ready to throw in the towel, you want to give
Speaker 2: it all up, you're ready to hang it up, you're
Speaker 2: ready to check it all. That's called spiritual oppression. And
Speaker 2: Satan gives spiritual oppression in your life, and he gives
Speaker 2: you ideas that are depressing thoughts to get you discouraged. Now,
Speaker 2: Jesus said, these are the kind of people that I
Speaker 2: came for. Now, I want you to notice on your
Speaker 2: outline that last phrase to release the oppressed and proclaim
Speaker 2: the year of the Lord's favor. I want you to
Speaker 2: circle the year of the Lord's favor because I need
Speaker 2: to explain this to you. This is neat and you
Speaker 2: probably don't understand it. The year of the Lord's favor
Speaker 2: is a law that God created in the nation of Israel,
Speaker 2: and it's quite a cool law. Back in the book
Speaker 2: of Leviticus, God says, I'm going to establish the year
Speaker 2: of the Lord's favor as a law, and the law
Speaker 2: be called the year of j believe. And here's how
Speaker 2: it went. First, God had said, I don't want you
Speaker 2: guys to be workaholics. I want you to rest. I
Speaker 2: want you to take a day off. So every seven
Speaker 2: days you take a day off. It was so important.
Speaker 2: It's in the Ten Commandments, right there with don't murder,
Speaker 2: don't commit adultery. He says, every seven days you take
Speaker 2: a day off. If you're not taking a day off
Speaker 2: every week for rest and worship, you are breaking the
Speaker 2: Ten Commandments every week. It's that important. It's right up
Speaker 2: there with don't murder. He says, every seven days you
Speaker 2: take a day off. God did not make you to
Speaker 2: work twenty four hours, seven days a week. So he says,
Speaker 2: that's take that day. That's called the sabbath. And then
Speaker 2: he said, second, every seven years, I want you to
Speaker 2: have a sabbath year, and you are to let the
Speaker 2: land rest every seventh year so that the soil can rejuvenate,
Speaker 2: so that the crops don't completely deplete the loyal And
Speaker 2: every seven years you give a year of rest. And
Speaker 2: that's where we get the term sabbatical. Have you ever
Speaker 2: heard that sabbaticals like every seven years, like in a job,
Speaker 2: will you get a little bit of extra time off
Speaker 2: to get recharged. That's called the sabbatical. It's from the Bible.
Speaker 2: And the third thing was this called year jubilee, where
Speaker 2: God says every seven sabbatical years, that's seven times seven years,
Speaker 2: forty nine years. Every fiftieth year, you were to have
Speaker 2: a year of jubilee. Now, let me explain what this is.
Speaker 2: In the year jubilee, he says four things happened. One,
Speaker 2: every debt is completely canceled. How many people like that?
Speaker 2: Number Two, everybody who's in prison for debt is let go.
Speaker 2: Number Three, anybody who is a slave and as an
Speaker 2: indentured servant is given their freedom every fifty years. And
Speaker 2: number four, the fourth thing in the year of Jubilee
Speaker 2: is every fifty years, the land, no matter how many
Speaker 2: people have bought it in pre fisted years, returns to
Speaker 2: the original family, the original lowner. That interesting. Now, why
Speaker 2: did God make up this year of the Lord's favor
Speaker 2: for Israel? Well, there were three reasons. Number One, he said,
Speaker 2: I have done these things for you, and I don't
Speaker 2: want you to ever forget what I've done for you. You
Speaker 2: were slaves and I gave you freedom, so I want
Speaker 2: you to do that to everybody else. And you didn't
Speaker 2: have your own land, and so I gave you this
Speaker 2: promised land. I don't want you to never forget that.
Speaker 2: Everything God says I did for you, I don't want
Speaker 2: you to ever forget. Second, God did it because he
Speaker 2: wanted people to realize you don't really own anything. It's
Speaker 2: all on loan to you. You didn't bring anything into
Speaker 2: this world. You're not taking anything out of this world.
Speaker 2: What you have right now is not really your stuff.
Speaker 2: It's just on loan to you from God for eighty
Speaker 2: years or ninety years or however many years you live.
Speaker 2: And so God says you didn't bring any stuff into
Speaker 2: the world. You're not taking anything out. It's all mine,
Speaker 2: and I'm just loaning it to you. And it was
Speaker 2: somebody else's. I loaned somebody else afore you, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to loan it somebody else after you. And so
Speaker 2: he said, don't ever forget. You don't really own anything.
Speaker 2: And the third reason was an economic reason, because God
Speaker 2: knew that if the land reverted every fifty years, it
Speaker 2: would prevent real estate speculation from killing an economy. Hmm,
Speaker 2: has that ever happened in Orange County? Real estate speculation
Speaker 2: send the prices up, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 2: they are inflated, and guess what, and then they go down.
Speaker 2: We'll just even the score every fifty years. It was
Speaker 2: an economic reason to it. Now here's the interesting thing
Speaker 2: about the years you believe the year of the Lord's
Speaker 2: fearit in the entire history of Israel, not once did
Speaker 2: they ever follow it. Now once in the entire history
Speaker 2: did Israel ever observe the year of jubilee. So God
Speaker 2: got ticked. And in the Book of Jeremiah, God says,
Speaker 2: because you have not obeyed the year you believe and
Speaker 2: done all these things that I told you to do,
Speaker 2: cancel people's debts and forgive other people like I've forgiven
Speaker 2: you and give the land back and all these different things.
Speaker 2: And you have not let the land rest. I'm going
Speaker 2: to send you into slavery again and let the land
Speaker 2: rest for seventy years. And so they were taken. The
Speaker 2: entire nation was taken into exile again, only this time,
Speaker 2: instead of going west to Egypt for four hundred years,
Speaker 2: they went east to Iraq for seventy years. And they
Speaker 2: were slaves and or exiles in Iraq for seventy years
Speaker 2: in Babylon because they never observed this rule. Now, while
Speaker 2: they're in Babylon, another prophet, not Jeremiah, but a guy
Speaker 2: named Isaiah writes another book. It's the book Jesus read.
Speaker 2: And Isaiah says, you, guys, I know you're in slavery,
Speaker 2: you're in exile right now, but don't don't worry. God
Speaker 2: is going to sind a savior. And he writes the
Speaker 2: passage and he says, and this Messiah is going to come,
Speaker 2: and he's going to preach good news to the poor,
Speaker 2: and he's going to heal the broken hearted, and he's
Speaker 2: going to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and he's to
Speaker 2: recovery the sight to the blind, and he's going to
Speaker 2: release the pressed, and he's going to forgive all of
Speaker 2: the debts and all of your sins, just like the
Speaker 2: Year of Jubilee was supposed to. And that was the
Speaker 2: passage that Jesus read in his hometown. And he said,
Speaker 2: the year of Jubilee when everybody's sin is wiped out
Speaker 2: and everybody's dead is wiped out. And he said, I'm it,
Speaker 2: I'm the guy. Now do you understand how important this
Speaker 2: passage was? Now, what we learn from this model when
Speaker 2: Jesus says these five things, We know that Jesus says,
Speaker 2: I came to help hurting people. And he says, I'm
Speaker 2: going to preach messages that always begin with a hurt,
Speaker 2: that always the blind, the poor, the blind, the broken
Speaker 2: heart of the imprisoned, and all I'm going to be
Speaker 2: preaching good news, not bad news, good news. And when
Speaker 2: people came to Jesus, they always came to Jesus for
Speaker 2: one of three reasons, a need, or a hurt, or
Speaker 2: a question. And Jesus never blew anybody off for that.
Speaker 2: He never said, oh, you shouldn't be coming for that,
Speaker 2: You should only come because of a doctrinally correct issue.
Speaker 2: They came to him for a need or a hurt
Speaker 2: or a question, and he met their felt needs. And
Speaker 2: then he said this, look up here on the screen.
Speaker 2: I have given you an example to follow. Now do
Speaker 2: as I have done to you. And Jesus said, you
Speaker 2: know what, the same people who are hurting two thousand
Speaker 2: years ago. I bet you can find them in southern
Speaker 2: California today, And I bet you that God wants you
Speaker 2: to care for them the same way Jesus did, and
Speaker 2: he does. So flip your outline over and on the backside.
Speaker 2: Let's just quickly, real quickly go through what Jesus came
Speaker 2: to do. First, we saw who he came for. Now
Speaker 2: I can go a lot quicker through what he came
Speaker 2: to do. If you want to help the people in
Speaker 2: your life, if you want to be christ Like, if
Speaker 2: you want to be like Jesus, then you must do
Speaker 2: the five things that Jesus did. And if our church
Speaker 2: wants God's blessing, we must do the five things Jesus did.
Speaker 2: Follow his example. If there was anything more important to do,
Speaker 2: believe me, Jesus would have said it and done it.
Speaker 2: This is what matters most in life. Now, he says
Speaker 2: five things. Now, in each of these five actions, I'm
Speaker 2: going to ask you to do two things. I'm going
Speaker 2: to ask you to listen to three moms on video
Speaker 2: on each of these just about a minute long. Listen
Speaker 2: to three moms on how they dealt with each of these.
Speaker 2: And I went to the three moms I know best,
Speaker 2: my wife, my daughter, and my mother in law. And
Speaker 2: so you're going to hear that in a minute second.
Speaker 2: You see there's a blank by each saying, I want
Speaker 2: you to write down the name of a person as
Speaker 2: we go through this, and we're going to pray for
Speaker 2: them together at the end of somebody who's hurting in
Speaker 2: each of these five areas. All right, First, first thing
Speaker 2: Jesus that he came to is to preach good news.
Speaker 2: I mean, first and foremost. God wants you to tell
Speaker 2: the good news more important than anything else you do
Speaker 2: for the people around you. He says, I want you
Speaker 2: to share the good news because Jesus is the answer
Speaker 2: to every one of our problems. What is the good news?
Speaker 2: You're not an accident. You were made to last forever.
Speaker 2: God made you. Jesus died for you. The Holy spirit
Speaker 2: wants to live in you. Your sins can be forgiven.
Speaker 2: You don't have to earn your way to heaven. It's
Speaker 2: a free gift. He'll give you your past forgiven. He'll
Speaker 2: give you your present purpose for living, and they'll give
Speaker 2: you a future home in heaven. That's the good news,
Speaker 2: God says. I want you to share it. If you
Speaker 2: can't remember it all at this point, bring them to church,
Speaker 2: invite them to your small group, but share the good news.
Speaker 2: And where do we start with this? You don't start overseas.
Speaker 2: You start with your own family and your own family members.
Speaker 2: You know, until my kids came to know Christ, I
Speaker 2: held my breath because I wanted to make sure that
Speaker 2: all three of my kids stepped across the line and
Speaker 2: that they had personally accepted Jesus into their lives, so
Speaker 2: that when I died, they would be in heaven, and
Speaker 2: when they die, they would be in heaven. And so
Speaker 2: and once the last one stepped across the line, I
Speaker 2: breathed a huge sigh of relief. I want you to
Speaker 2: watch this video.
Speaker 3: I used to love to look through my parents' pictures
Speaker 3: from their early years of ministry, because my dad and
Speaker 3: mom started churches in Texas and in northern California, and
Speaker 3: sometimes they were in little storefront buildings that were just little,
Speaker 3: almost hobbles, And it just was almost like this big
Speaker 3: adventure that my parents started from nothing and built churches.
Speaker 3: And so when Rick told me, you know, X amount
Speaker 3: of years ago, that that's what he wanted to do,
Speaker 3: it wasn't so foreign to me because I had watched
Speaker 3: my parents do it. I'd heard the stories, and so
Speaker 3: it was like, Okay, we can do this.
Speaker 2: Is this exciting.
Speaker 3: Maybe we'll have just this little funky building and didn't
Speaker 3: know it was going to be a funky tint and
Speaker 3: all those things. And then I watch I watch my daughter,
Speaker 3: who is a pastor's wife, third generation. You know, my
Speaker 3: mom is a pastor's wife. I'm a pastor's wife, and
Speaker 3: my daughter's a pastor's wife. I just, I don't know,
Speaker 3: that's the coolest thing.
Speaker 4: At some point in our family's history, somebody made a choice.
Speaker 3: So you can make a choice.
Speaker 4: Every family has the opportunity to make a choice. So yes,
Speaker 4: the last maybe fifty years of your family's story may
Speaker 4: not be the most but the next two hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty can be phenomenal. That's what it's about. It's about
Speaker 4: God coming into your family and being a part of
Speaker 4: all the different dynamics, and God inserting himself and that
Speaker 4: spiritual poverty and bringing out regeneration, and for your children
Speaker 4: to know the Lord and to know that Jesus loves
Speaker 4: them and made them. And that's what it's about. Just recently,
Speaker 4: I had the most amazing opportunity. I was able to
Speaker 4: lead my sweet firstborn to the Lord. We finished this
Speaker 4: little prayer and she looked up at me and she
Speaker 4: had tears in her eyes, and she said, I just
Speaker 4: asked Jesus into my heart. I'm a part of God's family.
Speaker 4: And she began to cry. And I was so moved
Speaker 4: at her being so moved, and I said, baby, you're crying.
Speaker 4: She said, well, they're happy tears. I'm a part of
Speaker 4: God's family. There's nothing like knowing your child's eternity is secure.
Speaker 4: There is nothing in this world it compares to knowing
Speaker 4: that I will share eternity with my daughter.
Speaker 2: Now, I want you to listen to your pastor You
Speaker 2: have no control over your family's past, but you do
Speaker 2: have a choice over your future. And my question is
Speaker 2: are you going to leave a spiritual legacy. Is anybody
Speaker 2: going to be in heaven because of you? Is anybody
Speaker 2: in your family going to be in heaven? Your brothers,
Speaker 2: your sisters, your mom, your dad, your kids, your grandkids.
Speaker 2: Are any of those people going to be in heaven
Speaker 2: because you took the time to do what Jesus commands
Speaker 2: you to do, share the good news. I want you
Speaker 2: to take a pencil right now, and I want you
Speaker 2: to write down on that blank the name of somebody
Speaker 2: who needs the good news in your family. A brother,
Speaker 2: a sister, a mom, a dad, a husband, a wife
Speaker 2: who needs to know the good news, who hasn't made
Speaker 2: that step across line yet, somebody in your extended family,
Speaker 2: your close family, somebody you love, and write it down
Speaker 2: and we're going to pray for that person in a minute.
Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, thank you so much for listening to Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick's Daily Hope. I've got something really special to share
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Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time as we look
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