Speaker 1: Hey everyone, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope.
Speaker 2: This is the place.
Speaker 1: Where Rick Warren brings you uplifting messages from God's Word
Speaker 1: every day to help you grow deeper in faith and
Speaker 1: live a life with purpose. Today we're continuing in a
Speaker 1: powerful series called Toolbox for Life. In this series, Rick
Speaker 1: teaches us four essential skills that you need to succeed
Speaker 1: wherever God has placed you, whether it's at home, at work,
Speaker 1: at school, or in your community. These are tools that
Speaker 1: every follower of Jesus absolutely needs. And now here's Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick with the final part of a message called knowing
Speaker 1: what matters most Now.
Speaker 3: One of the greatest weaknesses of our modern culture. There
Speaker 3: are many, but one of the greatest ones is short
Speaker 3: term thinking. Our society has taught us that all that
Speaker 3: matters is here and now.
Speaker 4: That's all that matters.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow, it doesn't matter, next year, it doesn't matter a
Speaker 3: thousand years from day, no matter eternity, Heaven certainly doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: All that matters is here and now live for today.
Speaker 3: And what we're doing is we're giving our allegiance to things.
Speaker 4: That won't last.
Speaker 3: Here's what the Bible says the world and its desires
Speaker 3: will pass away. But those who do the will of
Speaker 3: God what read it with me will live forever. So
Speaker 3: to live only for here and now is incredibly short sighted.
Speaker 3: It's incredibly short sighted. Now, when you are tempted, I
Speaker 3: don't care what temptation is bad for you. I don't
Speaker 3: care what's your weakness when you're tempted. Temptation is never
Speaker 3: just between right and wrong. Temptation is not just between
Speaker 3: good and bad. Temptation is not just between what's best
Speaker 3: and what's not best. Temptation is it is always a
Speaker 3: dilemma between now or later. Now or later?
Speaker 4: Am I going to do what.
Speaker 3: God says and enjoy the benefits later? Or am I
Speaker 3: going to do what I want to enjoy the benefits now?
Speaker 3: Every temptation really comes down to now or later. And
Speaker 3: it's true. With my money, am I going to spend
Speaker 3: it now? Or am I going to save it and
Speaker 3: enjoy it later invest it in heaven? But with my money,
Speaker 3: with my schedule, am I going to do what's easy
Speaker 3: for me to now? Or am I going to do
Speaker 3: the tough thing now and enjoy the benefit later? With
Speaker 3: my mouth, am I going to say what I really
Speaker 3: would like to say right now, or am I going
Speaker 3: to hold it back and enjoy the benefit of it later.
Speaker 3: Temptation always between now and later, And so I have
Speaker 3: to ask the question, what's going to last the longest?
Speaker 3: Second Corinthians four eighteen says this we focus, we focus
Speaker 3: our attention. This is a key to success, not on
Speaker 3: what we can see around us, but what we cannot
Speaker 3: see with our eyes. For everything that we see, all
Speaker 3: the physical things on earth is temporary. Everything is seen
Speaker 3: is temporary. This building is temporary. It's not gonna last forever.
Speaker 3: This table is not gon'na last forever. The things we
Speaker 3: see are temporary and will only last a short time,
Speaker 3: but what is unseen is eternal and will last forever.
Speaker 4: So the first.
Speaker 3: Question is what's going to be the authority of my life? Me,
Speaker 3: the world or God. That's pretty much it. Question number two,
Speaker 3: what's going to last the longest? I need to do
Speaker 3: less of my life and things that a short term,
Speaker 3: and more of my life than things are long term,
Speaker 3: because God has long term plans for you for millions
Speaker 3: and millions and trillions and trillions of years. Third question
Speaker 3: that will determine your destiny. Will I choose what's easy
Speaker 3: or what's best? Oh man, we face this every single
Speaker 3: day of our lives in a thousand different ways. Will
Speaker 3: I choose what's easy or what's best? In other words,
Speaker 3: am I going to actually live what I claim to believe? Now,
Speaker 3: living by your values is called alignment. Living by your
Speaker 3: values is called integrity. Living by your values is called congruence.
Speaker 4: Now this is redundant.
Speaker 3: But isn't it easier to do what's easy?
Speaker 4: Duh? That's why they call it easy.
Speaker 3: It's easier to do what's easy than to do what's right.
Speaker 3: And a thousand times a day I get a choice
Speaker 3: between what's easy and what's right. Okay, what's easy and
Speaker 3: what's best. When I do the right thing, that's called congruits.
Speaker 3: It's called alignment with what I say I believe. Now,
Speaker 3: why did I point this out? George Gallup did a
Speaker 3: survey of Americans and he discovered the number one cause
Speaker 3: of stress in America. He said, the number one cause
Speaker 3: of stress in America is what he called incongruent values
Speaker 3: or incongruent lifestyle.
Speaker 4: What does that mean?
Speaker 3: We're not living what we say we believe. We believe
Speaker 3: one thing and we act in another way and he says,
Speaker 3: you weren't wired for that.
Speaker 4: Your body wasn't wired for it.
Speaker 3: And that's what makes you stressed out, nervous, under tingsent
Speaker 3: because incongruent values. When we say we believe this and
Speaker 3: we act in a different way, it doesn't work. So
Speaker 3: I've got to figure out will I choose what's easy
Speaker 3: or will I choose what's best. Now I've asked Mike Brook,
Speaker 3: who's our college pastor, to come and talk about what
Speaker 3: that may mean in a practical way.
Speaker 4: Would you give a warm welcome to Pa Mike? Anybody's
Speaker 4: five sets?
Speaker 5: So here's a question, will I live what I claim
Speaker 5: to believe? Will we live what we claim to believe?
Speaker 5: Because you see spiritual maturities not about just what we know,
Speaker 5: but it's how quickly we change and react to the
Speaker 5: Word of God. And so there's four areas in our
Speaker 5: life that we may need to change and make changes
Speaker 5: this week, and so you might write these down on
Speaker 5: your outline.
Speaker 2: The first one is if I live.
Speaker 5: What I claim to believe, that may mean changing what
Speaker 5: I watch and what I read. And here's the question,
Speaker 5: what are you filling your mind with? Are you filling
Speaker 5: your mind with what's right or with junk. The average person,
Speaker 5: by the age of sixty five has watched nine and
Speaker 5: a half years worth of television. Isn't that unbelievable? Nine
Speaker 5: and a half years. I took one of the hours
Speaker 5: of those years and I watched this documentary and it's
Speaker 5: called Supersize Me, and maybe we've seen it. And in
Speaker 5: this documentary, this man, who's a healthy man, takes thirty
Speaker 5: days and he eats nothing but McDonald's morning, noon, and night.
Speaker 5: He's only allowed to order off the McDonald's menu. And
Speaker 5: by the end of his time, at the end of
Speaker 5: the month, he was sick. He was overweight, had serious
Speaker 5: health issues, and he said, every day I just feel gross.
Speaker 2: And what he was trying to prove.
Speaker 5: Is that while fast food is easy, you can't live
Speaker 5: on fast food without there just being some serious repercussions
Speaker 5: to living on only fast food.
Speaker 2: And some of us in our lives, we wonder why
Speaker 2: we struggle.
Speaker 5: In our relationship with Christ, but we've been filling our
Speaker 5: mind with nothing but junk food this whole time. In fact,
Speaker 5: in saw him one nineteen thirty seven, it says, turn
Speaker 5: my eyes away from worthless things. God, did you focus
Speaker 5: my eyes on things that are important. And so here's
Speaker 5: the thing. Do your media habits represent what you say
Speaker 5: is important to you? Or let me put it this way,
Speaker 5: do you fill your mind with as much scripture and
Speaker 5: as much truth as you do with Netflix and internet surfing.
Speaker 2: That's a good question to ask yourself.
Speaker 5: And if if you'd say those are out of line,
Speaker 5: maybe it's time for a change.
Speaker 2: If we live what we claim to believe.
Speaker 5: The second change it might mean is that we need
Speaker 5: to change some friends. Do your friendships build you up
Speaker 5: or are they pulling you away from Jesus? It might
Speaker 5: mean we need to make some changes. And here's the thing.
Speaker 5: It's important for us to have people that we're influencing.
Speaker 5: But you can't surround yourself with people that are far
Speaker 5: from God.
Speaker 2: And expect to grow closer to God.
Speaker 5: As Pastor Rick always says, you can't soar with the
Speaker 5: eagles if you're gonna run with the turkeys.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing.
Speaker 5: Who you run with dictates how you run the race,
Speaker 5: and many of us hope to run well in the
Speaker 5: race of life. But if you're surrounding yourself with people
Speaker 5: that don't do you any goods, The Bible said this
Speaker 5: in one Corinthens fifteen thirty three. Don't be misled. Bad
Speaker 5: company corrupts good character. It also says in Exodus twenty
Speaker 5: three too, do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.
Speaker 5: And if your friends are doing nothing but dragging you down,
Speaker 5: maybe it's a sign to make a change. The third
Speaker 5: area you might need to change is maybe living out
Speaker 5: what we believe means changing how I spend my money.
Speaker 5: Here's the question, is most of your money spent on
Speaker 5: selfish things?
Speaker 2: Or are you generous where you can be?
Speaker 5: See we might not be able to be generous in
Speaker 5: every area and every opportunity, but are you taking opportunities
Speaker 5: to be generous where you can? The Bible says Jesus
Speaker 5: gives words saying don't store up things on this earth,
Speaker 5: but he says in Matthew six nineteen to twenty, don't
Speaker 5: store treasures here on earth where they can erode away
Speaker 5: or maybe stolen, store them in heaven where they will
Speaker 5: never lose their value. The only way to secure your
Speaker 5: money is by actually being generous with it and storing
Speaker 5: up the treasures.
Speaker 2: In heaven and leaving a legacy.
Speaker 5: The fourth area that living what you believe might mean
Speaker 5: we have to change you might mean changing how I
Speaker 5: treat other people might mean I have to change the
Speaker 5: way I treat other people. As Pastor Ricks has said
Speaker 5: many times, the Bible tells us that we're to use
Speaker 5: things and love people. And when we confuse these last
Speaker 5: two areas, we end up using people to get things.
Speaker 5: And what I see in Jesus and what you see
Speaker 5: from Jesus in the Bible is if you want to
Speaker 5: be great, you need to become a servant. In fact,
Speaker 5: in one of his very last times, what he does
Speaker 5: in those last moments is he wraps a towel around
Speaker 5: his waist, gets down on his knees, and washes his
Speaker 5: disciple's feet, and he says things like no servant is
Speaker 5: greater than their master, demonstrating if I am this great
Speaker 5: I you should be able to serve just as much
Speaker 5: as I did.
Speaker 2: He even uses.
Speaker 5: Phrases like if you want to be great in the
Speaker 5: Kingdom of God, then you're gonna have to become a
Speaker 5: servant of all, or phrases like the first will be
Speaker 5: last and the last will be first. Showing greatness in
Speaker 5: the Kingdom comes by how you serve and love others.
Speaker 2: In fact, and two Corinthians five sixteen.
Speaker 5: It says, so from now on we regard no one
Speaker 5: from a worldly point of view, saying this. The world's
Speaker 5: point of view is use people to get things. God's
Speaker 5: point of view is use things to love people. And
Speaker 5: so here's here it is. It's it's tough to do
Speaker 5: these things. It's not easy to accomplish all these things,
Speaker 5: to ask these questions, to make the changes.
Speaker 2: In fact, what's easy is to.
Speaker 5: Keep living in the moment, to keep doing what feels
Speaker 5: right right now.
Speaker 2: A few years ago, I ran a marathon.
Speaker 5: It's the only time I ran a marathon, and I
Speaker 5: made If you don't know what a marathon is, it's
Speaker 5: twenty six point two miles of running consecutively. And I
Speaker 5: made the decision to run a marathon while I was
Speaker 5: in my bedroom, in my bed eating ice cream, watching
Speaker 5: Biggest Loser. That's how I wish I was making that up,
Speaker 5: but I was watching the show and I went, they
Speaker 5: made the contestants run a marathon. I went, I'm going
Speaker 5: to run a marathon this year, and so I gave
Speaker 5: myself six months to train, and I woke up the
Speaker 5: next morning, laced up my shoes and went, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: run as far as I can until I'm tired. I
Speaker 5: made it maybe a mile, and I got to the
Speaker 5: mile and I was like, I only got to do
Speaker 5: this twenty six more times to get to the end.
Speaker 2: That's I'm not doing well.
Speaker 5: But over the course of six months, I trained and
Speaker 5: ran every day. And I remember the night before the marathon,
Speaker 5: I was sitting with my wife and my brother and
Speaker 5: they said, are you excited for the race tomorrow? And
Speaker 5: I was like, no, I'll be excited when I'm at
Speaker 5: the finish line and I'm.
Speaker 2: Done running tomorrow.
Speaker 5: And my brother said something that was so profound, and
Speaker 5: I don't think he knew how profound, how much this
Speaker 5: stuck out to me, but he said, Mike, you've trained,
Speaker 5: now sit back and enjoy the challenge and keep putting
Speaker 5: one foot in front of the other. And that's exactly
Speaker 5: what I did for the first eighteen miles. And about
Speaker 5: mile eighteen, my hips started to hurt and I wanted
Speaker 5: so bad to stop, and I remember looking and going
Speaker 5: at mile nineteen, I'm stopping and I'm going to stretch
Speaker 5: because that's just going to feel so good to stretch.
Speaker 5: And at mile nineteen I'm looking ahead and I see
Speaker 5: a guy who stops and stretches, and I'm kind of
Speaker 5: drooling a little bit, going, oh my gosh, that looks
Speaker 5: like that feels so good. That's exactly what I need
Speaker 5: right now. When I get to that mile marker, and
Speaker 5: then he.
Speaker 2: Falls over.
Speaker 5: And he waves and the medical team lifts him off,
Speaker 5: and I'm like, don't.
Speaker 2: Stop running, just keep going, just keep on going.
Speaker 5: And so I ran by it no joke, And the
Speaker 5: remaining eight miles I had, I saw six people drop
Speaker 5: off the race. The last one was at mile twenty
Speaker 5: five with the finish line in view, and I remember thinking, please,
Speaker 5: don't stop, and he stopped and that was it. And
Speaker 5: here's the thing many of us, in our race of life,
Speaker 5: in our journeys, we think.
Speaker 2: It'll feel so good to just stop and stretch.
Speaker 5: You know what I need. I just need to stop
Speaker 5: and stretch my mind. I need a mental break. And
Speaker 5: so I'm gonna escape. You know what I need. I
Speaker 5: just need to escape with some friends that aren't gonna
Speaker 5: remind me. I just need to escape with my finances
Speaker 5: and be selfish. I can escape with the way I
Speaker 5: treat people. And here's the thing I want you to
Speaker 5: run the way the race. Well, I want you to
Speaker 5: run the way the race in such a way that
Speaker 5: at the end you hear from Jesus, well done, my
Speaker 5: good and faithful servant. And here's how that happens. And
Speaker 5: some of you are going. These are four changes. They're
Speaker 5: not easy, and of course not, but we don't have
Speaker 5: to do this on our own. In fact, in Philippians four,
Speaker 5: Pin thirteen says I can do everything God asked me
Speaker 5: to with the help of Christ, who gives me the
Speaker 5: strength and the power. Meaning you're not running this race
Speaker 5: on your own. You don't have to do this on
Speaker 5: your own power. But we have the power of Jesus
Speaker 5: behind us. So Pastor Rick is going to come by
Speaker 5: and teach point four.
Speaker 3: But now, as Mike was saying, it's not easy to
Speaker 3: live for the truth, it's not easy to live for Christ.
Speaker 3: It's not easy to have good Godly values when everything
Speaker 3: in the world is exact opposite. If it were easy
Speaker 3: to live for Christ, everybody would do it. There's a
Speaker 3: reason why everybody does not live for Christ. It's easier.
Speaker 3: It's easier to be self centered, it's easier to go
Speaker 3: the way of the world. It's easier to swim with
Speaker 3: the fish instead of upstream. And so we come to
Speaker 3: the fourth question that will determine your destiny. Question number four.
Speaker 3: Is it worth the price? Paul says in Corinthians. If
Speaker 3: all we have is here on earth, we Christians are
Speaker 3: most miserable of all Why because it's not easy to
Speaker 3: live for Christ in a world that doesn't like Christ.
Speaker 3: And so the Bible tells us this question, is.
Speaker 4: It worth it? Now?
Speaker 3: Everything in life has a price tag. Everything in life
Speaker 3: has a price tag. Anytime you say yes to something,
Speaker 3: then you're saying no to something else. There's a price
Speaker 3: to be paid. I did this, so I didn't do that.
Speaker 3: There's a price to be paid in every area of life.
Speaker 3: Is the price? Is the prize worth the pricet in
Speaker 3: following Christ and doing the right thing, and doing the
Speaker 3: hard thing, not the easy thing, and living for long
Speaker 3: term reward rather than short term relief. Well, let me
Speaker 3: just close with a few verses. I'm just gonna go
Speaker 3: right one right after another Matthew sixteen twenty six.
Speaker 4: Jesus says this, what profit?
Speaker 3: What profit is there if you gain the whole world.
Speaker 4: And lose eternal life?
Speaker 3: What can be compared with the value of eternal life.
Speaker 3: That's a value statement right there. Look up here on
Speaker 3: the screen. Here's the same verse from the message paraphrase,
Speaker 3: What kind of deal is it to get everything you
Speaker 3: want but lose yourself or your soul? What could you
Speaker 3: ever trade your soul for? Well, I tell you people
Speaker 3: are trading their soul for a lot of things. They're
Speaker 3: trading for sex, they're trading it for drugs, they're trading
Speaker 3: for self centeredness, they're trading it for materialism. A lot
Speaker 3: of people are trading their soul today. A lot of
Speaker 3: people are trading their soul.
Speaker 4: Is it worth it?
Speaker 3: Absolutely not. It's a poor investment. It's a dumb decision.
Speaker 3: It's a bad choice. Look at this next verse on
Speaker 3: the screen. Jesus said, the things that are considered of
Speaker 3: great value by people are worth nothing in God's sight. Question,
Speaker 3: do you want to live your life based on what.
Speaker 4: People think is important?
Speaker 3: Or do you want to live your life based on
Speaker 3: what God thinks important?
Speaker 4: Which of those two do you think.
Speaker 3: Is gonna matter when you die and you go into
Speaker 3: eternity and spend trillions and trillions of years in the eternity,
Speaker 3: Which is gonna matter? People's opinion? Or what God has
Speaker 3: to say, God's truth. Let me give you one more
Speaker 3: look here on the screen, mark ten thirty one. Jesus said,
Speaker 3: many people who seem to be important now will be
Speaker 3: the least important eternity now. I said earlier that every
Speaker 3: temptation is a choice between short term relief and long
Speaker 3: term reward.
Speaker 4: But it's also something else.
Speaker 3: Every temptation is always a choice between God or me.
Speaker 3: In every temptation, I am choosing either God or I'm
Speaker 3: choosing me. It's not just good and evil, right and wrong,
Speaker 3: better and best. It's a choice. Every temptation is a
Speaker 3: choice between what God has said to do or what
Speaker 3: I want to do. God or me. That is a
Speaker 3: fatal flaw to choose what I want instead of what
Speaker 3: God wants. Now, some of you have been coming to
Speaker 3: saddle Back, and some of you are at the campuses
Speaker 3: and you're watching this, and you've been thinking about becoming
Speaker 3: a Christian. You haven't become a Christian. You haven't stepped
Speaker 3: across the line. Maybe you come with your spouse or
Speaker 3: a boyfriend or girlfriend or a friend, and you haven't
Speaker 3: stepped across the line. As a pastor who loves you,
Speaker 3: I just need to be real honest with you. I
Speaker 3: need to be real honest with you before you you
Speaker 3: make the decision to give your life to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: You cannot follow Christ without a shift in your values. Sorry,
Speaker 3: you can't. You can't say I'm gonna follow Christ and
Speaker 3: by the way, live like hell. I want to go
Speaker 3: to heaven, but I want to live like hell. I
Speaker 3: want to go to heaven, but I want to be
Speaker 3: the judge of my own life. I want to choose
Speaker 3: what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna listen to me now,
Speaker 3: what the Bible says, I want to do. What the
Speaker 3: what the world says is important. And I'm going to
Speaker 3: spend most of my life trying to look good, trying
Speaker 3: to feel good, and try to have the goods. You can't.
Speaker 3: Don't even waste your effort.
Speaker 4: You can't.
Speaker 3: Following Christ requires something called repentance. Now we don't understand
Speaker 3: that word because nobody uses it anymore. When people say
Speaker 3: the word repents, they think of a guy on the
Speaker 3: street with a sandwich sign that says turn or burn,
Speaker 3: You're gonna die and fry while we go to the
Speaker 3: sky in a like holding up a big sign repent
Speaker 3: Repentance is not a bad word. It actually simply means.
Speaker 3: It's the Greek words meta noia, which means to change
Speaker 3: your mind.
Speaker 4: That's all it means. Repent means to change your mind.
Speaker 4: It means to.
Speaker 3: Say, I used to think this, but now I think this.
Speaker 3: I used to value this, but now I value this.
Speaker 3: I used to think this was important, but now I
Speaker 3: know this is what's really important. You can't follow Jesus
Speaker 3: without repenting. You can't follow Jesus without a change in
Speaker 3: your value system. Close with this verse from Paul Philippians
Speaker 3: chapter three. Paul says this this is a personal story,
Speaker 3: is personal testimony. Paul says, you know, I once thought
Speaker 3: that all these things, the things in the world, what
Speaker 3: the world values. I once thought all these things was
Speaker 3: so very important. But now I consider them worthless because
Speaker 3: of what Christ has done for me. Yes, everything else
Speaker 3: is worthless when compared to the priceless gain of knowing Christ, Jesus,
Speaker 3: my Lord, I have discarded everything else, counting it all
Speaker 3: as garbage. That's a value statement. All the stuff the
Speaker 3: world thinks cool, it's garbage. It's not worth it so
Speaker 3: that I may have him. Now let me close by
Speaker 3: giving you a new definition of success. Definition of success
Speaker 3: not having the goods, looking good and feeling good. Success
Speaker 3: is living by the values that God will reward someday.
Speaker 3: That is real success, Living my life by the values
Speaker 3: that God will reward someday.
Speaker 4: Jim Elliot said, he is no fool who gives up what.
Speaker 3: He cannot keep for that which he cannot lose.
Speaker 4: That'll determine your destiny. Let's vow for prayer.
Speaker 3: Possessions aren't going to last, so why spend your whole
Speaker 3: life trying to pile those up. Popularity isn't gonna last,
Speaker 3: Prestige isn't gonna last, Pleasure isn't gonna last. Power isn't
Speaker 3: going to last. What is going to last is what
Speaker 3: God says. Let me pray for you, and then I
Speaker 3: want to ask you to pray with me.
Speaker 4: Lord.
Speaker 3: You know, we've all been seduced by the values of
Speaker 3: today's culture. It's just hard to think clearly when we're
Speaker 3: constantly bombarded with false messages and catalogs and movies and
Speaker 3: songs and the Internet. It's so easy to think that
Speaker 3: having the goods and looking good and feeling good is
Speaker 3: all life's all about, when that's just so peripheral. And Lord,
Speaker 3: it's really easy to assume that because we think or
Speaker 3: we feel something, then it must be the truth. Help
Speaker 3: us to realize that perceptions are wrong most of the time,
Speaker 3: when our feelings are often wrong too. Help us to
Speaker 3: trust in the truth of your word, not the feelings
Speaker 3: that we have. And I'll invite you to pray. I'll pray,
Speaker 3: I pray right now, and I invite you to follow
Speaker 3: me in this. Just say Father, in your mind, say Father,
Speaker 3: I want my life to count. I've wasted a lot,
Speaker 3: but I want the rest of my life to count.
Speaker 3: So I want to build my life on the values
Speaker 3: that are going to last for eternity. Forgive me for
Speaker 3: all the times I've thought something was true simply because
Speaker 3: I felt that I thought it. Help me to remember
Speaker 3: that my brain doesn't always tell me the truth. Today,
Speaker 3: I want to settle the issue of authority in my life.
Speaker 3: And I don't want it to be the world, and
Speaker 3: I don't want it to be my feelings.
Speaker 4: I want it to be your word. I want your.
Speaker 3: Truth, the rock of ages, the truth of all the ages,
Speaker 3: to be the final authority on my values of what matters.
Speaker 4: And what doesn't.
Speaker 3: I don't want what culture says. I don't want what
Speaker 3: my friends say. I don't even want what I tell myself.
Speaker 3: I want your truth in your word to be my authority.
Speaker 4: And I want to.
Speaker 3: Choose long term rewards over short term relief. You know
Speaker 3: the urges in my life, you know the passions in
Speaker 3: my life, you know the desires in my life. I
Speaker 3: want my money and my time and my mouth to
Speaker 3: honor you. I want to use them in light of eternity.
Speaker 3: So Jesus Christ, today you've said, we can do all
Speaker 3: things to your strength. So give us the strength. Give
Speaker 3: me the strength to choose what's best over what's easy,
Speaker 3: even if that means changing some friends, or changing what
Speaker 3: I watch or read, even if it means changing how
Speaker 3: I spend my money, or even changing how I treat
Speaker 3: other people. Help me to know what matters most based
Speaker 3: on your word, so that my life will matter for eternity.
Speaker 3: And I humbly ask this in your name, Amen.
Speaker 1: What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. You know daily
Speaker 1: hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick with
Speaker 1: a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: Hi, everybody, you know God often uses the hardship in
Speaker 3: our lives to prepare our hearts for his message that
Speaker 3: he wants to give us. And that's what a woman
Speaker 3: named Diana believes happened. When her world just collapsed all
Speaker 3: around her. Dianna wrote to me and saying, this, Pastor Rick,
Speaker 3: it's been on my heart to send you this thank you.
Speaker 3: I hit a very low valley in my life and
Speaker 3: I finally figured I must be doing life wrong. I
Speaker 3: had lost my job, I lost my husband, and I
Speaker 3: almost died from birth complications. I went from a high paying,
Speaker 3: high profile, white collar job to pick an up cigarette
Speaker 3: butts and vacuuming construction job sites to support myself and
Speaker 3: my son as a single mom. But I started listening
Speaker 3: to your Daily Hope podcast on the way to work,
Speaker 3: and I later listened to all that I could during
Speaker 3: my time vacuuming and cleaning. One day, on my way
Speaker 3: to work, driving up a mountain road and going around
Speaker 3: a corner, I heard you give a call to anyone
Speaker 3: who had not yet given their life to Jesus.
Speaker 4: And you know what, I prayed with you.
Speaker 3: That prayer and Jesus has been in my heart ever since,
Speaker 3: and I am so grateful. It actually is bringing tears
Speaker 3: to my eyes, Deanna, did you know God created you
Speaker 3: just in order to love you, and He's so pleased
Speaker 3: to accept you into this forever family. In fact, the
Speaker 3: Bible says that the angels had a party in heaven
Speaker 3: when you opened your life to Christ and received him
Speaker 3: into your life. And guess what I'm celebrating with them
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 4: Welcome.
Speaker 3: You're now my sister Lord, and I'll see you in heaven,
Speaker 3: if not sooner. Now, I want to thank all the
Speaker 3: rest of you who support Daily Hope because it's because
Speaker 3: of your support that Deanna was able to hear the
Speaker 3: Daily Hope messages while driving in a car. You know,
Speaker 3: when we get to Heaven, it's going to be really
Speaker 3: fun to meet all the people who are there because
Speaker 3: you helped share the Gospel with people all around the
Speaker 3: world through Daily Hope.
Speaker 4: So thank you friends.
Speaker 1: We sure hope you've been encouraged by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
Speaker 1: and if you have, would you consider supporting us. Just
Speaker 1: go to pastorick dot com again, that's Pastorick dot com. Hey,
Speaker 1: be sure to join us next time when 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
Speaker 1: support