Rick Warren - The Only Real Solution to Our World's Current Crisis

There is only one solution. It's not a political solution.

It's not an economic solution. It's not an educational solution.

It's not a psychological solution. It is a spiritual solution.

Our hearts must be changed by God, and only he

can change hearts. We need a national healing. And you

know what? I agree 100%. And I've actually thought this

for years, that our nation is And many nations need healing.

I immediately thought of Psalm 60, where David cries out

to God in a national time of conflict in those days.

And in Psalm 60, verse two, listen to this. It's

in the New Living and in the Living Bible. David

says this, you have shaken this nation and split it open. Now, Lord,

heal the cracks before it completely collapses. That is a

verse for our time. Lord, heal the cracks before it

completely collapses. In the message translation, that verse says, heal

the breaks because everything is coming apart at the seams.

And in the next verse, Psalm 60, verse 3 says,

Psalms 60:3

It says, you have shown your people desperate times. We're

staggering like we're drunk on wine. What a picture. But

then verse four and verse five gives us some hope.

And it says this, but you, talking about God, but

you have given us a banner to rally to. All

those who love truth will rally to it. And then

you can deliver your beloved people. Use your strong right

arm to rescue us. Now, anytime you see the phrase,

but you, in the Bible, and it's talking about God,

you can get ready for a good dose of hope.

But God, or but you. Because God's word is filled

with examples of how God heals hurts, heals brokenness, heals conflict,

and actually heals a broken nation. He did it many,

many times with the nation of Israel. And there is

a clear pattern. When you look at this book and

you study this book, there is a clear pattern. And

there is even a specific promise that God gives us

in the nation that we live in and when it's

in trouble. Now, it's not a promise to any specific nation.

The United States is never mentioned in this book, neither

is Germany or Argentina, Philippines or China, where other Saddleback

members live. We're an international church. But it is a

specific promise to the people of God. It's a promise

to Christian believers who live in any country. And that's

what we're gonna look at today, how God heals a

broken nation. 3,000 years ago, God made a promise to

Solomon at the dedication of the new temple in Jerusalem.

And as I said, it's not a promise to America

or to any other specific nation, but it is a

promise to God's people anywhere. And it gives us a

specific path to the healing of any nation. 2 Chronicles 7,

14 is the verse I'm talking about. And it goes this,

you've heard this verse many times, but we're gonna tear

it apart word by word today. If my people, if

my people, he's not talking to politicians. If my people

who are called by my name will humble themselves and

pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,

then That's the path that here's the promise. Then I

will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins

and I will heal their land. Now with every promise

of God, there's always a premise. There are conditions, there

are requirements. And that's what we're gonna look at today.

You know, this nation, along with many, many other nations

needs a miraculous healing. Right now we need healing in

our culture. We need healing in our government. We need

healing in our economy. We need healing in our businesses.

We need healing in our schools, in our cities, in

our families. We need healing in our marriages, in our hearts.

We need healing everywhere. And the good news is that

the wounds that we can see around us today are

not fatal and healing is available. So what's it gonna take?

What's it gonna take to turn things around? How does

God heal a broken nation? Well, in 2 Chronicles 7, 14,

the verse we just read, God gives us, as I said,

the pathway and the promise. He gives us four prerequisites

or conditions for national healing. And then, and by the way,

it's not just for national healing. This can heal relationships.

You got a broken relationship? Do these four things. It

can heal a relationship. It can have personal healing in

your own life. So let's look at them. Number one,

first condition for healing. We must humbly confess our sins.

If my people who are called by my name will

humble themselves. Now, again, this is not a promise for everybody.

It's a promise for followers of God, followers of Christ.

If my people called by my name, you call yourself

a Christian, you're called by Christ's name. If my people

who are called by my name will humble themselves. The

number one cause of all our problems. is pride, arrogance, self-sufficiency,

thinking we don't need God. We think we're God. We

don't even think about consulting God in much of the

time in what we're doing. James 4, 6 says, God

opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

And so we start with the humble humility of confessing

our sins to God. First John 1.8 says, if we

claim we're not sinning, we deceive ourselves and the truth

is not in us. It's self-deception for me to look

at the sins of everybody else, worry about the sins

of all my enemies, worry about the sins of all

the people I disagree with and not think about me.

You've heard the phrase, hate the sin, love the sinner,

love the sinner, hate the sin. I got a better

one for you. Love the sinner and hate your sin.

Love the sinner and hate my sin. I should hate

my sin. I shouldn't worry about hating everybody else's sin.

Let me worry about just hating the sin in my

own life. See, the problem is instead of practicing humility,

we spend more time. You might write this down. The problem,

the first of these four problems that we're looking at

is that we spend more time accusing others and excusing ourselves, right?

than we spend practicing humility. We spend more time accusing

others and excusing ourselves than we do practicing humility. Now

let me show you some verses where God talks about

this tendency. James 4.12, God gave us his laws so

he alone can rightly judge us. God is the only

one who has the right to judge us. And he

alone has the right to save or destroy. So who

do you think you are to judge and condemn your neighbor? Hmm.

I don't have a right to judge you. You don't

have a right to judge me. The Bible says God

is the only judge and lawgiver. Romans 2, 3 says this.

So when you, a mere human, pass judgment on others,

and yet you do the same similar sins, how do

you think you're going to escape God's judgment? We often

try to take the focus off of our failures and

our sins and our mistakes by pointing at everybody else.

But as the old saying goes, when you're pointing a

finger at somebody else, I got three of them pointing

right back at me. 1 Peter 4, 17, for it

is time for judgment to begin. Everybody's going, yeah, yeah,

judge those people, God. Judge those people. Well, let's read

the rest of the verse. For it is time for

judgment to begin and it must begin with us. Judgment

must start with the family of God. Did you know that?

If God's gonna judge America or any other nation, he's

gonna start with the Christians in it. He's gonna start

with those who claim his name. I call myself a Christian,

a Christian, a little Christ. The family of God, a

judgment has to start. If it's gonna start anywhere, change

is gonna start, it's gonna start in the church. Not

in politics, not in anything else. Proverbs 28, 13, people

who try to cover up their sins will not succeed.

Why can't we learn that verse? The coverup's always worse

than the sin. People who try to cover up their

sins will not succeed, but if they confess and forsake them,

they will receive mercy. So the first step to any

kind of healing, the first step to any kind of recovery,

national or anything else, in your home, In your marriage

is humble confession. That's the first step. So let me

just be frank. Let me ask you a question. Do

you want to be healed? Do you want your family

to be healed? Do you want your marriage to be healed?

Do you want your nation to be healed? Then you

must take the hard first step of humble confession. If

my people will humble themselves James 5, 16, confess your

sins to each other and pray for each other so

that you may be healed. If you're taking notes, circle

the phrase each other. Confess to each other. Pray for

each other. Write this down. I need others to help

me change. I need others to help me change. You

can't change simply by yourself. If you could, you would,

but you can't, so you won't. There are a lot

of things in your life you don't like about you,

and you've tried to change them, but they don't change. Why?

Because God has wired the world and wired the universe

in a way that we only change with the help

of others. That's why we have recovery groups, Saddleback, and

support groups at Saddleback, and small groups at Saddleback, and

online groups. And if you wanna be a part of

an online group, we literally have... I don't know, seven, 8,000

small groups spread out all over America. We'll help you

get in one. But he says, confess your faults to

each other and you will be healed. Revealing your feeling

is the beginning of healing. So here's your homework. Make

sin list. This week, sit down and say, Lord, show

me anything in my life that's unpleasing to you. And

be specific. Don't just say, forgive me for all my sins. No,

make a list. Be specific. Jealousy there. If it's gossip,

write it down. If it's slander, write it down. If

it's impatience, write it down. If it's anger, outburst, write

it down. And then confess it. Cross them all out

and burn the paper. That's the first step. We must pray.

We must humbly confess our sins. Number two, we must

not only confess humbly, we must pray sincerely. Pray sincerely.

This isn't mouthing you know, prayers that we've prayed all

our lives. It's praying from the heart. If my people

who are called by my name shall humble themselves and

pray and pray. This is not half-hearted praying. This is

not thoughtless praying. This is not meaningless praying. This is not,

now I lay my down to sleep, bless the gift

and the giver. Thanks for this food and bless it

to our bodies. Not ritual praying. It's praying from the heart.

Sincere praying is authentic praying. It's passionate praying. It's sincere.

It's even desperate praying. God, you gotta help us now.

We're in deep trouble. We need this healing now. Example

in the Bible is Jacob who says to God, I'm

not gonna let go of you till you bless me. Now,

what's the problem? How did we get ourselves in such

a mess? I'll tell you how we got ourselves in

such a mess. We spend more time complaining than we

do praying. We spend more time complaining than we do praying.

Praying changes things. Complaining, worrying, being anxious, griping, never changes anything. Now,

this is not a new problem. This was a problem

back in Hosea's days, years and years ago. Hosea chapter seven,

verse 14 says this. They do not cry out to

me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches,

and they wail. That word in Hebrew, wail, literally means

complain loudly. It means I'm griping. How many times have

you sat on your couch, looking at the television, griping

about what's going on in your society, griping about what

you see on the news, complaining about what's happening in

the world? How much has that changed anything? How many

times have you complained on social media? about what you

see going on in our nation or our world or wherever.

He says, they don't cry out to me sincerely. Instead,

they sit on their couches and complain. Let me ask you,

do you spend more time watching the news or on

social media commenting about the news or in prayer talking

to God about what's going on? One of them can

change things. The other two, are worthless. Colossians 4.2, be earnest,

that's sincere, and unwearied and steadfast in your prayers. This

is the amplified translation. Be earnest and unwearied and steadfast

in your prayers, being alert and intent in your prayers.

In other words, I don't put my mind in neutral

and just start mouthing off spiritual words. Be intent in

your prayers with thanksgiving. She says, okay, how do I

be more sincere in my prayer? by being more specific.

How do you be more specific in your prayer? Write

down a prayer list. Nothing becomes specific until you write

it down. Then all of a sudden it becomes very,

very specific. You know, when I was in college, I

remember in my dorm room, I took a big piece

of butcher paper and I covered my wall and on

it I wrote the date, and then I would write

my prayer request and then I would wait. And then

I would, when it was answered, I'd write the answer

down and I would write the date it was answered.

And at the end of that year in college, I

had on that wall, 56 specific answers to prayer. You

think that built my faith? Of course it did. Why?

Because I could see, I prayed specifically, I got specific

answers and that built my faith. Ephesians 5, 18 says this,

pray in the spirit. At all times, with all kinds

of prayers, asking for all you need. To do this,

you must always be ready and never give up. Always

pray for all God's people. If you're taking notes, go

back and circle all the all's and always in that verse.

That's sincerity. Jesus said it like this. Luke 18, verse 1.

Luke 18:1

Jesus said to his disciples, told them a story about

how they should keep on praying and never give up.

You're always doing one of those two things. One or

the other. You're either praying or you're giving up. You're

praying or you're giving up. You look at the world

right now, you feel like giving up on it. You

look at our society, you look at our government, you

look at the paralysis of our government. Well, you can

pray or you can give up. If you prayed as

much as you worried, you'd have a lot less to

worry about. So if you're serious about seeing our nation healed,

it isn't gonna happen through the voting booth, the ballot box.

It isn't gonna happen through politics. If you're serious about

seeing our nation healed, here's your homework. Make a prayer list.

Make a prayer list of some specific things you're going

to ask God to do this year in your life,

And in your family, in our church, in your church,

in the whole world, in our nation, make a prayer list.

This is your homework. Make a prayer list for this

new year. Now we come to the third condition for

national healing, or for that matter, any other kind of healing.

It says, if my people, which are called by my name,

shall humble themselves, that's one, humbly confess, and pray, pray

with sincerity, sincerely, Then third, and seek my face. Here

it is. We must seek God intensely. We confess our

sins humbly and we pray sincerely and we seek God intensely.

If people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face.

Now this kind of seeking God is not some casual pastime.

It's not a pursuit in your spare time Seeking God

intensely means you're not doing it in your spare moments.

It's not some low priority. Well, if I get the time,

I'll seek God intensely. No, it must be a serious pursuit.

It has to become your primary focus. Now, why should

I make seeking God my primary focus in my life?

Because in Hebrews 11, six, it says this, God rewards

those who earnestly seek him. not in their spare time,

but earnestly, sincerely seek him, intensely seek him, earnestly. You know,

you don't become an Olympic athlete in your spare time. No,

you gotta make it your primary motivation in life. Somebody

asked me one time, do you play golf? I said, no.

I said, I play at it, but I'm just not

willing to invest the time to be good. To be

a pro at anything requires intensity. So let me ask you,

what does God want from you this year, in this

brand new year? What does God want from me more

than anything else in this new year? I'll tell you

what he wants from you. He wants that you intensely

seek him, that you seek him intensely. Not that you

seek his blessing, not that you seek his gifts, not

that you seek his favor, but that you seek him.

You want to know him. Now, what I'm talking about

right now is so rare among people. Most people seek

God's blessing. They seek God's favor. They seek God's goodness.

They don't seek God. Psalm 14 verse 2 says this,

Psalms 14:2

the Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human

race and he looks to see if there is even

one one person with real understanding who seeks for God.

So I can't find people like that. Everybody wants my blessing.

They don't want me. Very few people, the truth is

very few people really seriously make knowing God the goal

of their life. And that's why we get stuck in

cycles year after year after year. What's the problem? Okay. Well,

just like I told you, there's a problem with, you know,

we do more complaining than we do praying. The problem

is write this down. We spend more time seeking everything else.

We spend more time seeking literally everything else, but God

gives us a wonderful promise in Deuteronomy chapter four. Deuteronomy 4,

29 says this. If you seek the Lord, your God,

you'll find him. You'll find him. If you look for

him with all your heart, that's intensity. And with all

your soul, that's intensity. And when you're in distress and

all these things have happened to you, you will return

to the Lord, your God, and you'll obey him. For

he is a merciful God and he will not abandon

or destroy you. That's a verse. for what's going on

this past week and in the days ahead. How do

I seek God with intensity? By making the knowing of

him my first priority and my daily passion. Those of

you who listened to the James series I taught, know

that I taught you a little habit called HWFW and HWLW.

His word, first word, his word, last word. That the

first thing you do in the morning is you open

up this book and you read a little bit of

it till God speaks to you. It doesn't matter how

long it is. You just read till God says something

to you. And then you leave your Bible open by

your bedside. When you get up in the morning, the

first thing you do is not look at your phone.

It's not look at the TV. It's not look at

social media. It's look to the truth. Seek first his word.

His word, first word. And you read and you just,

you know, you pick a book like Psalms or Proverbs

or Philippians and you read until God speaks to you

and then you stop. Sometimes it's just one verse. You go,

I need to think about that. And you read until

something comforts you or something challenges you. Both of them

will fill your soul. Comfort or challenge. And then you

leave it open and at night, right before you go

to bed, the last thing you do is you read again.

His word, first word, his word, last word. And you

just read till something speaks to you. And then you

go to sleep with that on your mind. Matthew 6, 33,

Jesus made this promise. Seek first his kingdom. Seek first

his kingdom and his righteousness. And all these other things

will be given to you as well. He says, I'll

take care of the rest in your life. So, What

do we do? We confess our sins humbly. We pray sincerely.

We seek God intensely. Now we come to the fourth

condition for a national healing or any other kind of healing.

We must turn back to God completely. We turn back

to God completely, not half-heartedly. If my people who are

called by my name will humble themselves and pray and

seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. He says,

then I'll hear from heaven and I'll forgive their sins

and I'll heal their land. Land. Now he says, turn

from their wicked ways. You know, that word turn, the

Old Testament's written in Hebrew, the New Testament's written in Greek.

The word in Greek is the word metanoia, which literally

means meta, to turn, and noia, to change your mind.

Noia is noose, your neuron, your neuropathways comes from that.

And it means, repentance simply means to change your mind.

This is the way I used to think about that.

This is the way I think about it now. Turn

from your wicked ways, make a U-turn. Now, when I

say that phrase wicked ways, I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking about there are people out there who are

wicked and there are people out there who are good

and I wanna hang out with the good people and

I wanna condemn and criticize and point my finger at

the wicked people. It is a mistake. Listen, it's a

mistake to categorize people as either good or wicked. Why?

Because the reality is we all have wicked ways. I

have wicked ways. You have wicked ways. The Bible says,

not a just man upon the earth that doeth good

always and sinneth not. The Bible says all have sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God. And the

Bible says, if we say, I have not sinned, we

deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. We all

need a savior. So guess what? I'm wicked. you're wicked.

We're all in the same boat on that one there.

Now here's the problem. I've given you a problem in

each of these. Here's the problem. We don't see, we

just don't see our own wicked ways. We don't see it.

It's very clear. We can clearly see the wicked ways

in other people. Oh, we can point them out quickly,

but we don't see our own wicked ways. So let

me just give you for your own personal edification and evaluation,

one of the many lists of sins in scripture. It's

2 Timothy 3. In 2 Timothy 3, verses two to five,

Paul gives us a laundry list of 19 specific wicked ways.

He says, people are gonna be acting this way in

the last days. I wanna recommend that you might wanna

use this as a checklist for personal evaluation and confession.

Here's what it says, 19 different things to check myself.

It says that in the last days, it says people

will be self-absorbed. Hmm, am I ever self-absorbed? Loving only themselves.

They will be greedy for money. They will be boastful

and arrogant. We've seen a lot of that in politics

and we've seen that a lot in our culture. They

will be insulting to God. rude and disrespectful, even to parents.

They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unkind and unforgiving.

They will enjoy slandering others. Enjoy slandering others. They will

have no self-control. They will love violence and they'll be cruel.

They will be cynical, despising anyone and anything that's good.

they will betray those loyal to them. They will be

reckless and rash. They will be inflated with self-conceit. They

will love pleasure more than God. They'll claim to be spiritual,

but they will reject the true power that could make

them godly. You know, honestly, As I look over that

list that I just read, written 2000 years ago, I

am amazed at how accurately it describes our culture today,

right now. How it describes our own hearts. How it

describes the problems we're facing right now in this nation

of America and in whatever nation you're living in. There

is only one solution. It's not a political solution. It's

not an economic solution. It's not an educational solution. It's

not a psychological solution. It is a spiritual solution. Our

hearts must be changed by God and only he can

change hearts. Acts 3.19 says this, repent and turn to

God so that your sins may be wiped out. This

is wiped out. And so that, get this sentence, and

so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.

Times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Friends, we

desperately need those times of refreshing right now. After the

COVID-19 pandemic has taken us a year and all of

the other problems that we've seen in society, we need

those times of refreshing right now. And God promises that

if we do what he tells us to do, then

he will do three things. Let's review the verse again.

If my people, this is a promise to Christians, to believers.

If my people who are called by my name, are

you called a Christian? You called by his name? My

people who are called by my name will humble themselves

and pray and seek my face and turn from their

wicked ways. Then, I'll do three things. I will hear

from heaven. I will forgive their sins and I will

heal their land. Now, please listen to me closely with

somebody as a pastor who cares about you and who

loves you. we can't expect anybody else to do this.

This is a promise for us. This is a promise

for God's people. Today, it's promised to the church. We

must lead the way. We must be the model. We

must humbly confess our sins, not everybody else's. In recent years,

the church has behaved very badly. We've made idols out

of all kinds of things. And we have put our

hope in the wrong thing and wrong people. But if

anything is gonna change, it has to start with us.

not the people you disagree with or don't like or

you think they're the problem. 1 Peter 4, 17, we

read this verse earlier. For the time has come for

judgment and it must begin with us. Judgment must start

with the family of God first. If God's gonna judge

a nation, he's gonna first start with the Christians in

that nation, not anybody else. So stop looking for change

to happen first in other people. And the people you

disagree with, the people you can't stand, the people who

think differently than you, had a different background than you.

You have to start with you. I have to start

with me. We have to start with us. Will you

join me in this? Will you be honest to God?

Of course. Of course. I am interested in saving a nation,

but I am even more interested in saving our souls,

our souls. And we have sold out many times our

souls to second class causes and they have betrayed us.

Here's the good news. 1 Corinthians 11, 31 says, If

we judged ourselves in the right way, God would not

judge us. Did you know that verse is in the Bible?

1 Corinthians 11, 31. If we judged ourselves in the

right way, God would not judge us. So again, I

ask you, will you join me? I'm asking this of

Christians all across America. I'm asking this of Christians all

around the world. I'm not asking this for people who

don't know the Lord. I'm asking those of us who do,

who claim the name of Christ. The Bible says that

everyone that nameth the name of Christ should depart from iniquity.

Will you join me? And in this new year that

we would confess our sins humbly, that we would pray sincerely,

that we would seek God, not as blessing, seek God intensely.

and that we would turn to God completely. Because if

we do that, we can expect, then I will hear

from heaven, I will forgive their sins, and I will

heal their land. If that doesn't happen, I don't give

this nation or the world any hope. Our hope is

not in who we put in the White House. Our

hope is who we put on the cross. There's only

one Savior. And his name is Jesus. Let's bow our heads.

With our heads bowed, would you follow me in a

simple prayer and saying, God, I want to be part

of the solution, not part of the problem. God, I

want to follow the pathway to healing, healing in my heart,

healing in my family, healing in my friendships, the pathway

to healing in my business, in our church, in our community,

healing in our nation, healing in our world. It's easy

to understand what you've told us. It's hard to do it.

And we can't do it on our own. So we

come to you, Holy Spirit, and ask you to give

us the power to confess our sins humbly and to

be specific. to make a sin list and cross them

all out and to pray sincerely, to make a prayer

list and be specific about the things we want to

ask you to do in our nation, in our lives,

in our church. Help us to seek you intensely to

start and end each day. His word, first word, his word,

last word. to seek first the kingdom of God and

his righteousness and all these other things will be added

and help us to turn completely to you. Help us

to stop looking at other people as wicked and to

realize that I have wicked parts in me that are wrong,

that are ungodly, that need to be changed by you.

Thank you, God, for your grace. If you've never invited

Jesus Christ in your heart, say, Jesus Christ, I need

your forgiveness. I need you to save me from myself.

I need your salvation in my life. I need the

power to change. I need to know your purpose for

my life. Lord, heal our hearts, heal our families, heal

our nation In Jesus' name, amen.