Rick Warren - From Overwhelmed to Overflowing—Part Three

Hello, everybody. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.

I'm really glad you're here today. We're continuing our series

from Psalm twenty three called living in the Goodness of God.

It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where

you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. Okay,

now here's the final part of a message called from

Overwhelmed to Overflowing.

First Corinthians, Chapter four, verse seven. Who says you're better

than others? What do you have that was not given

to you by God? Everything you've got is a gift

of God's goodness. The air you're breathing right now, the

heart that is beating right now, is a gift of

God's goodness.

And if it wasn't given to.

You, why do you brag as if you didn't receive

it as a gift. It's all a gift, folks. Let

me ask a real serious question. You want to be healthy,

you want to live longer. Look at the next verse.

Proverbs fourteen thirty. The Bible says it's healthy to be content,

but envy will eat you up. And the more you

go out there and you look at what other people doing.

The more envious you get, the more jealous you get,

and the more resentful you get. He said, it will

eat you up Ecclesiastes four to six. It's better to

be content with what you have than to always be

struggling for moral more. That's like chasing the wind. In

the New Testament, Paul says, I've learned to be content.

It has to be learned. You see, by nature, I'm

not a naturally contented person.

Neither are you.

By nature, you are not a naturally contented woman. You're

not a naturally contented man. By nature, you are naturally discontented.

And that creates a lot of overwhelmingness in your life.

But if you listen and do it what God says

you learn to be content, that's a good thing. You see,

all those negat the things that stress you out, worry, jealousy, resentment, anger, fear, insecurity,

feeling unloved, feeling unworthy, feeling ashamed, feeling guilty.

All those different things. Guess what they're all learned now.

Anything you can learn, you can unlearn, and the stuff

you need to learn, like learn to be content is

what life's all about. Learn to be unselfish, learn to

be grateful, learn to connect to God every day of

your life. He said, that's going to help you learn contentment.

Get your eyes off other people. You know, the richest people.

In the world.

I know a lot of people who are very rich.

I probably know a dozen or so billionaires, and they

would tell you themselves, there is no amount that will

bring you at happiness because you always want just.

A little bit more, just a little bit more.

And the wealthiest this person in the world is not

the one with the most money. The wealthiest person in

the world is the one who's most contented with.

What they've got.

Because you can have a ton of money and still

be miserable. God says, I want you to stop griping

and start being grateful. And I want you to stop

comparing and start being contented. And then there's one more.

This one's the hardest of all. Stop being stingy and

start being generous. If you want to move from the

overwhelmed lifestyle, I can't tell you how important this key

is in your life. If you want to move from

being overwhelmed all the time to being overflowing all the time,

you must move from being stingy to being generous and

I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about your time.

Generous with your energy, generous with your compliments. Stinginess is

evidence of a shortage mentality. Stinginess is evidence of a

shortage mindset. I only enough, and if I give it away,

I'm not gonna have enough for me. That's a shortage mentality.

It means you don't trust the goodness of God when

you say I can't afford to tithe, I can't afford

to be generous with the guy on the street. I

can't afford to give money away to other people. I

needed all for me. You don't understand how the universe

operates because God wired a universal law into the universe,

and it's this, the more you give away.

The more you're gonna get.

And God wired the universe in that way that the

more you give, the more you get. He did that

because he wants you to become like him. God is

a giver. The most generous being of all is God.

Everything we have is a gift of God's generosity, and

God wants you to learn to be like him.

Like father, like son, like father like daughter.

God so loved the world that he gave. You can

give without loving but you cannot love without getting. This

really upsets some people when you hit the stingy nerve

in them. It just irritates them because they don't understand

the universe is. The more generous I am, the more

God is gonna bless me in every single area of life.

You're gonna overflow. When I'm afraid to give away, it

means I'm living a shortage mentality. I'm not living a

surplus mentality. It's like, well, if I give away my

piece of the pie, then then you get more. No,

that's not what it's that about at all. Look at

what the Bible says Two Corinthians, Chapter nine. Remember this,

A stingy planner will only reap a small crop. You know,

I grow vegetables.

I'm a farmer.

Last year I grew fifty six kinds of vegetables and

eighteen kinds of fruit. Now, how about if I got

a package of tomato seas, I gotta well, I got

two hundred seed this pact, I'm only gonna plant one

seed because I bet I better hold onto these. I

might lose them. The only way I'm gonna benefit from these,

I'll lose them if they keep and see they'll just die.

But if I plant them in the ground, I'm going

to get far more back than I plant it. You

plant one kernel of corn, do you get back one kernel? No,

you get back stalks of corn with thousands of kernels

on them.

You always get back more than you put out. He says.

Remember this, A stingy planter will only reap a small crop,

But anyone who sows generously will also reap generously. So

each of you should give serious consideration to what you

want to give God, he says. Don't ever give emotionally.

He says, think about it, be rational, Give serious consideration

what you want to give God, not reluctantly or under pressure.

For God loves a cheerful giver. Now you heard me

say this many times. Never give under pressure. If anybody

ever pressures you to give, don't give because you don't

get any credit for it. If you felt pressure for me,

don't give because you don't get any credit for it.

God loves cheerful giver. You only get it when you.

God doesn't need my money. God doesn't need your money.

He's got He's the source of all his supply. He

wants what it represents your heart. Do you trust him.

Do you have a shortage mentality or do you have

a surplus mentality? Do I think if I give away anything,

I've got my energy, my time. If I give away compliments,

maybe I won't get complimented.

He says, you can be sure.

Here's the promise that God is able to bless you

with all grace, so that in all things, at all times,

you will always have all you need, and you'll also overflow.

That's the overflowing life, so that you can give to

every good work.

Good night. That's like seven alls. Let's circle him.

Okay, this is a pretty cut and dried promise from God.

Those He says, God is able to bless you with

all his grace. Circle that all is grace, so that

in all things. Circle that at all times. Circle that

you will always circle that have all you need. Circle

that you'll also overflow that circle that so that you

can give to every good work. Circle that that's a

pretty amazing promise.

He said.

If you'll learn to be generous with your time, if

you'll learn to be generous with your money, that's the

acid test of do you trust God? You have a

shortage mentality or surplus mentality? Most of you know, Kay

and my testimony on this. Forty two years ago and

can I got married, we started tithing. Tithe means ten percent.

God says first ten percent goes back to God. So

we when we're just really young, forty two years ago,

we start giving ten percent. I was only making like

two hundred dollars a week. I was in school, and

so if we made two hundred, twenty bucks went to God.

We made one thousand dollars, one hundred bucks went to God.

We said, we may be in debt to other people,

we're not gonna be in debt to God, Okay, because

we trust him. He's gonna He's our source, not us.

He's not We're not the faucet. He's the source. And

at the end of our first year marriage, we raised

our giving to eleven percent. Nobody told us to do this,

doesn't even stay in the Bible do it. We just

wanted to do it to be more generous. Second year

of marriage, we raised our giving to twelve percent. Third

year we raised it to thirteen percent. Now, we weren't

bragging on this. We never told anybody about for thirty years,

and we weren't trying to show off we're just I

wanted to grow in generosity.

Every time I.

Give, it breaks the grip of materialism in my life.

The antidote to get get, get, get get is give, give, give,

give get.

Every time I give, my heart grows bigger. Every time

I give, I become more loving. Every time I give,

I become more like Jesus. And so every year we

just raise our giving. Now some years I'm out of

work or I'm in graduate school, the cupboard is bear,

we'd still raise our giving quarter of a percent because

we wanted to be more generous the next year, the

new were the previous. Some years we've had a landfall.

I'd get a job, or get a raise, or have

a royalty or something, and we'd raise our givings sometimes

three or four percent. And I can't tell you what

a joy that is. I don't take a salary from

this church. You know that I've served this church for

free for thirty eight years. But I've trusted God, and

I've played this game with God for thirty eight years

where God are at forty two years, where God says, rick,

you give to me, and I'll give to you and

we'll see who wins. And I've lost that game for

forty two years. You cannot outgive God. I remember one

time Kay and I took Matthew, you and our son

who had the mental health issues, took him up to

Pasadena for counseling to a doctor. And in Ca said,

I'll go in with a doctor, and I said, well,

I'm just gonna go get some deep. So it's downtown Pasadena,

and I walked a little burger shack and I got

a burger and some fries, something to drink, and I

went over and I sat down on the steps of

an old church church downtown right off Colorado Boulevard. I'm

just sitting there on the steps, start to eat my lunch,

and all of a sudden they turn around and realize

there are three homeless people sitting on these same steps.

So I look around and go, hey, would you guys

like to share my lunch? What am I doing? I'm

just trying to be generous, a simple thing.

You guys want to share my lunch? Yeah?

So I took my lunch and I divided into the

burger into four pieces and handed him there and handed

each one in equal number fries. I did not share

my drink, but I shared all of that, and we

had a good time. We just told a bunch of jokes,

had a good time talking, having fun, And about thirty

minutes later I got afraid to leave and I started

walking away. One of the guy goes, I know who

you are? And I go, how do you know who

I am?

He goes, you're pastor. Rick said, how do you know

who I am?

He said, because five years ago, on the other side

of town in Santa Monica, about forty five to fifty

minutes from here, he said, I was sitting outside a

taco joined at midnight, and you were up at UCLA

visiting somebody in the hospital, and you'd gone out to

get some meals and you stopped and as you got

out of the car, you saw me sitting there by myself,

kind of huddled, and you go, hey, can I buy

you lunch?

Can I buy you dinner?

And you brought me in a toll stranger and bought

me food and drink. He says, I've never forgotten that. Now,

what's the likelihood of me meeting the same homeless guy

five years later, fifty minutes away on the other side

of la As I walked away, I said, God, what

are you doing here, He goes, I just want you

to know I notice, I noticed the little stuff, and

the more generous you are, the more I'm going to

be generous with you. Have you ever wondered why you

don't have enough? You remember the story of Daniel. We

studied Daniel for about twelve weeks when God took the

nation of Israel and they were taken captive in Babylon

for seventy years. And then later God said you can

go back home. But he said this here's the key.

I want you to put me first in your time,

in your life, in your money, in your day. And

he goes, when you go back home, just to prove it,

the first thing I want you to do is I

want you to rebuild the temple which was destroyed, which

is a symbol that worship comes first. God comes first

in my life. All those people went back home to Israel,

and you know what they did. They forgot it and

they didn't put God first. They didn't build a temple.

And there's a whole book in the Bible about this

mixed priorities. God says, if you put me first, I'll

bless you. It's called the book of Hagi. Look up

here on the screen. Here's what hag I said. You know,

you spend a lot of money, but you don't have

much to show for it. You got food, but you

don't have enough to fill you up. You have drink,

but not enough to satisfy your thirst. You have clothes

but not enough to stay warm. You earn money, but

it disappears as fast as if you had holes in

your pocket, he said, in the income that you bring home,

it just gets blown away. Consider Have you considered why

this is happening because you're too busy building your own

fine house that you haven't built my temple, the house

of worship, And that's why I'm withholding your blessing.

WHOA, We'll just.

Let that one set there, Okay. Could this be the

reason that I don't have that I'm overwhelmed instead of overflowing,

that I don't have enough? Have you ever read God's

challenge versus the Bible? I call it the Pepsi challenge verse.

Look at this verse Malachi three to ten. This is

bring your full tide to my storehouse, so there will

be food.

In my house.

Talking about where you worship, test me in this he says,

I dare you I dare you test me in this,

says the Lord. And see if I won't open up

for you the windows of heaven and pour out for

you a blessing until it read the word with me

over flows. That's the overflowing life, he says, I dare

you put me first in your time? See if I

don't bless your time, put me first in your relationship.

See if I don't bless that, Put me first in

your money. See if I don't bless that. Whatever you

want God to bless you, put him first in you

trust Jesus, he said, Well, I trust him to get

me to heaven. Do you trust him for anything else?

How much we'll close to this verse here on the screen.

Jesus says this words of Jesus, if you give, you

will receive back. Your gift will be returned to you

in full measure. Pack down, shaking us like when you're

shaking a thing to get all the air out of it,

shaken to make room for more, and running over that

phrase right there, running it's the same phrase as David

in the Lord's in the Psalm twenty three.

My cup runs over. It's the overflowing life. How do

you get that? Life. He just says it.

Whatever measure you use in giving, large or small, it'll

be used to measure whatever is given back to you.

And finally, Jesus says this on the screen, Matthew nine

twenty nine, according to your faith, it would be done

to you. Let's bow our heads. Are you tired of

being overwhelmed? Have you had a shortage mindset? Then I

won't have enough time. I won't have enough money, I

won't have enough energy, I won't have enough contexts. Let

me ask you, what are you lacking? What do you

need more of? More time, more money, more energy, more knowledge,

more opportunity. I want to challenge you to commit to

the four daily habits of an overflowing life. Would you say,

right now, Dear God, I will connect with you every day.

I'm going to be like the vine in the branch.

I want to bear fruit. I gotta stay connected. I

gotta spend time with Jesus every day through prayer and meditation.

There's not going to be a day of my life

that I don't spend some time with you. How can

I have a relationship to God if I never spend

any time with him? You say, I will connect, I

will do that habit of daily connecting with God. I

have a class on it, Class two oh one. Will

you say I'm going to stop complaining and start being

more grateful every day? Say God, I want to start

every day with a list of ten, twelve, fifteen things.

I just get up and start by being grateful, not grumpy,

grateful not griping, grateful, not complaining, And then say God,

I want to develop this habit of stop comparing myself

and start being contented. Stop comparing, start being contented every day.

Stop living my.

Life for the approval of others, whether in the neighborhood,

at school, or on the internet. Help me to be me,

not somebody else. And God, I'm going to stop being

stingy and start being generous every day, Generous with my

words of praise, generous with my time, generous with my talent,

generous with my treasure, generous in every area of my life.

Maybe I need to start tithing Lord, just to trust

you and your goodness. If you've never opened your life

to Christ, say Jesus Christ, I want to learn to

trust you. I'm tired of living an overwhelmed life. Don't

want to live an overflowing life. Help me to do

it your way because you are a good God and

you want what's best for me. And I pray this

in your name. Amen.

Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept

Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.

Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. Right now, here's

Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

Hi, everybody, today, I want to share a very powerful

letter from a listener named Michael.

Michael experienced terrible trauma.

As a child, but he says that Daily Hope is

helping him overcome his past and now he's looking to

the future with his kids. Let me read you just

a little bit of Michael's story. Dear Pastor Rick, you

and Daily Hope have brought God into my life and

it has saved me. I am a twenty nine year

old father of five children, and I try my hardest

to teach my children to know God and to love

Jesus and how to pray. I do my best to

be a good example and be worthy of all the

good gifts that God has given to me. But you know,

because of my childhood and the insecurities and abandonment issues

that were created in my life from years of mental abuse,

physical abuse, verbal abuse, and yes, even sexual abuse. I've

always had a hard time trusting God. I woke up

every day feeling unworthy, and I suffered from feelings of

anxiety and depression, and I felt like God couldn't possibly

love me because no one else had ever loved me.

And I carried that pain inside of me for so long,

craving for a close, better intimate relationship with God. Now

listening to Daily Hope has helped me achieve.

That and more.

I'm not only better, but I'm now better for everybody

else around me. Spreading all that I've learned and the

good news of Jesus Christ. I know God better than

ever and I now have more faith than I ever

new possible because I feel His love.

Thank you so much.

Daily Hope does such a great work in the name

of Jesus, and I will forever be in your debt

for bringing the fire of faith into my heart and

helping me know God. I love you, and I hope

you continue to bring change in the world through the

message of Jesus Christ. You know, Michael, I absolutely love

how you're teaching your five kids to know Jesus that

is a real man, a real dad, a real father.

It's so important to pass it on to the next generation.

And I'm encouraged that Daily Hope is helping you with

the trauma of all your past and helping you work

through those issues and keeping you growing in the love

of Jesus Christ. You know, stories like the one you

wrote to me are what keep me going. It's why

we do this change lives now. I want to pray

for you. I want to pray, Dear Lord, pour out

your love on Michael, help him to sense your love

so that he never doubts it. Pour out your blessing

and your peace on his family. I pray that they

will continue to grow in their faith and that they

will experience the peace that passes understanding as they follow you.

God.

I want to thank you for his faithfulness in Jesus name.

I pray Amen. You know if God is blessing you

through Daily Hope, would you share your story with me?

Write me rickat pastorick dot com.

Be sure to join us next time as we look

into God's word for our daily hope. This program is

sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support,