Rick Warren - From Overwhelmed to Overflowing—Part Two

Hello, everybody. This is Pastor Rigg'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. And

now here's part two of a message called from Overwhelmed

to Overflowing.

Now, how do I experience an overflowing life? For daily habits?

Write these down very quickly. If you'll do these, they

will change your life. Here's the first habit for living

an overflowing life and stop living an overwhelmed life. Number one,

stay connected to Jesus every day. You got to stay

connected to Jesus every day. In John chapter fifteen, verse five,

Jesus compares this to like a grapevine, and he says this,

I am the vine and you are the branches. If

you stay connected to me, you'll produce a lot of fruit.

But you can't do anything without me. I grew up

in northern California, in the Wine country. Everybody had vineyards

in their backyard, and every season I would harvest grapes

and I learned something real quick. If a cluster of

grapes happens to be on a branch that's been cut off,

it dies. You can tag on, you can tie on

grapes to dead branches, but if they've been cut off

from the root, cut off from the branch, from the vine,

they're gonna die.

And the same thing is true with you.

If you try to go through life on your own power,

you're gonna be overwhelmed. But if you're connected to the vine,

if you're plugged into Jesus, you're gonna have power.

I've told you this before.

A toaster cannot fulfill its purpose unless it's plugged into

the power. And a vacuum cleaner cannot fulfill its purpose

unless it's plugged into the power. And you, as a

human being, as a woman, as a man, cannot fulfill

your purpose unless you're plugged into the power. And if

you're cut off like a great branch from the vine,

you're gonna shrivel up and die. You're gonna be overwhelmed.

He says you got to stay connected. He says you

can do nothing without me. He said, I'm the energy,

I'm the power. How do you stay connected? How do

I stay connected Jesus on a daily basis, You spend

some time with him. We talked about this in a

previous message on having a banquet in the Bible. Then

every day when you get up in the morning, you

sit down, you read the Bible for a little bit.

Let God talk to you. You talk to God. That's

called prayer. You listen, you be quiet, You spend some time.

If you want to have a relationship with anybody, you

got to spend time with him. You can't have a

relationship with your husband or your wife, or your best

friend or God if you don't spend time with them.

If you're not spending any time with God, you don't

have a relationship with God. You have to have a relationship.

You have to have proximity, and you have to have frequency.

And the way you stay connected is to have that

daily time alone with God, and then throughout the day

you just review it and you go back over it.

Jesus continued about this in John fifteen, verse seven. He

says this, if you stay connected.

To Me.

And my words remain in you, you may ask, you

may request, ask any request you like that's in prayer,

and it will be granted.

Circle that it will be granted. That's promise.

My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings glory to

my father. So stay connected, stay connected to my love,

he says, you stay connected to my love when you

obey me. I've told you this so that you will

be filled with my joy. Yes, your cup of joy

will overflow.

There's that word.

The overflowing life rather than overwhelmed. Life comes from being

connected to God. That means you've got to spend time

with him. Now circle the phrase my words remain in

you says if you stay connected to me, you spend

some time with me every day, and my word stays

connected to you.

How do you do that?

There's a word for that in the Bible. It's called

the word meditation. Now, when I say the word meditation,

I'm not talking.

About what most you're thinking of.

If you're thinking about sitting in a lotus position with

your hands out like this and you're going um and

contemplating the lent in your navel or whatever, No, no, no, no,

that's Eastern meditation. Okay, that's New Age meditation. Meditation simply

means seriously thinking about God's word, what God has said.

You get a verse, You read it and you think

about it over and over and over. Question, how many

of you know how to worry? Can I see your hands?

All right?

If you know how to worry, you are already you

pro at meditation. When you take a negative subject and

you go over and over and over in your mind,

that's called worry. When you take a verse from the

Bible and you go over and over in your mind,

that's called meditation. So if you are good at worrying,

you're going to be great at meditation. You're already some

of you are professional meditators and don't even know it.

Instead of taking a worry or a fear or an anxiety,

I'm thinking about it over and over and over. How

am I going to do that? Which leads to overwhelming?

You take a verse from the Bible and you think

about it over and over and over, and that leads

to overflowing, big, big difference. One takes you down, one

builds you up. He says, if you let my word

remind remain in you. He noticed the promise, He says,

I will. You may ask any request you like and

it will be granted. WHOA, that's like a blank check

for prayer. He said, well, wait a minute, Rick, I'm

not seeing this in my life. I pray a lot

and I don't see a lot of answers because you're

not connected. When was the last time you spent an

extended period of time just alone with God saying Hey, God,

is there anything you want to tell me? When was

the last time you were alone with God for more

than two minutes? You're not connected, he says, You've been

cut off from the vine, and no way you're gonna

have any fruit in your life. You're not gonna be overflowing.

You're gonna be overwhelming because you're not connected to me.

The more connected you are, the more fruit you're gonna bear,

the more success in your life, the more good fortune

God says you're gonna have in your life.

You gotta stay connected to me.

It's a simple principle, but it's one that we overlook

over and over and over. Now, let me give you

a second key. Each of these steps get a little

bit harder. Here's the second key to over prolga. First

is stay connected on a daily basis to God, to Jesus.

Number two, stop griping and start being grateful. Stop griping,

stop grumbling, and start being grateful. Did you know that

science has proven that each of these attitudes actually that

the Bible talks about, are good and bad for your health.

That complaining is a very, very unhealthy emotion for you.

Griping is unhealthy for you, but gratitude. Study after study

of study have shown gratitude is the healthiest emotion. You

want to be healthy, learn gratitude. When you are grateful,

it changes the chemistry of your brain. Studies have shown

that when you are thankful, when you're grateful, it produces

serotonin in your brain, it produces dopamine in your brain,

and it produces oxytocin in your brain. Now, don't confuse

that's not OxyContin. Oxytocin is the feel good hormone. When

a husband and wife make love, it releases oxytocin in

both of their lives. When a mother nurses her, it

releases oxytocin.

In both the mom and the infant.

Studies have shown that if you pet a dog or

a pet for thirty minutes, you pet the dog for

thirty minutes, it releases oxytocin.

In the dog and in you.

You want this drug, You want this hormone, You want

this chemical in your life, and one of the key

things that's produced for smarts, for peace, and for happiness.

Those chemicals dopamine, serotonin, and oxydosin happen every time you're grateful.

So you got to get up in the morning, before

you get out of bed, you make a list of

ten things you're grateful. God, I'm grateful for air. God,

I'm grateful for this bed. God, I'm grateful that I'm

not in a war right now.

God, And you just.

Start and that will change the chemistry in your brain.

Study after studies proven this. In fact, one study showed

that if you try to make a list of ten

things you're grateful for and you can't even think anything up,

just think up. Trying to think of things to be

grateful for changes the brain chemistry in your mind, even

if you can't even think of anything, but just the

attitude of trying to be grateful in your mind. Philippians

two fourteen says this in the Bible. In everything you do,

stay away from complaining and arguing. Hmm, because that's the

exact exact opposite of gratitude. Let me ask you, what

do you complain about? No, don't tell me. Second, don't

don't tell me, Let me ask this. When you complain

about something, how does that help you? Does that work

out pretty good? Claim complain about the weather, does it

change the weather? You complain about the way you look?

Does that change the way you look? You complain about

your spouse, or your children, or your job or anything.

Complaining is a total waste of time. It's doing without doing.

It's worthless. You should stop complaining and start being grateful.

Stop grumbling, stop griping, and start being grateful because you're

not going to feel better from complaining. Colossians two seven

says this let your lives overflow. There's that word with

thanksgiving for all God has done. I suggest that you

start your day with gratitude for God. Well God has

done for it and for others, and just go through that.

In fact, did you know I read a study recently

that if in the morning you get up and you

send the first thing you do is you send an

email of gratitude to somebody you love or somebody who's

helped you, it actually lowers your stress for the rest

of the day because of the chemicals that are released

in your mind. It'll actually lower your stress. If you'll

start your day with good news, not bad news. And

if you actually start with gratitude, send the email a day.

It will help you be healthier. First Thessalonians five eighteen.

No matter what happens, always be thankful for this is

God's will.

For you who belong to Christ Jesus.

You have people come to me all the time and say,

you know, Pastor Rick, I just want to know God's will.

I just want to know what does God want me

to do in marriage? What does he want me to

do in my career? What does he want me to

do with school? What does he want me to do?

I just want to know God's will? Well, here it is.

This is God's will for you that in everything you

give thanks? Why would God teach you step two when

you haven't done step one? You want to know God's

will and who to marry? God saying, why don't you

start with step one? Are you being grateful and everything?

That's my will? That is my will? God says, do

step one and then we'll move to step two, and

then we'll move to step three, and then we'll move

to step four.

What is my will for you in every specific situation?

But if you're not doing what I've already told you do.

Why should I tell you step two? If I want

to be living an overflowing life rather than an over life, I.

First stay connected to Jesus. I make that a habit.

Every day I spend time you can't get to know

somebody you don't spend time with. And then number two,

I stop griping and I start being grateful. All right,

here's the third thing the Bible says to do. If

you want to live an overwhelming life overflowing life, stop

comparing and start being content. Stop comparing yourself to other

people and start being content. Each of these gets a

little bit harder. The Bible says, anytime I compare myself

to anybody else that I'm foolish. It's a waste of energy.

Anytime you see, God made you to be you. He

doesn't want you to be anybody else. When you compare,

you get envious, you get resentful, and you often start

trying to copy somebody.

Else, because wait a minute, I made you to be you.

If you don't be you, who's going to be you.

God has never made a clone. Human beings make clones.

God only makes originals, even identical twins. They're different in

thousands of ways. When you get to heaven, God isn't

gonna say, why don't you more like your sister or

your mom, or your dad or your brother, or why

aren't you more like some famous person?

He does, Wait a minute, I made you to be you.

If you're not gonna be you, got you, Just go

ahead and kill you right now, because we don't need

too of anybody else. God wants you to be you,

but comparing gets you in trouble. Look at this verse

on the screen. Here's what the Bible says, Tewod Corinthians

ten twelve. We do not make the mistake of comparing

ourselves with others, because when we compare ourselves, we are foolish.

I'm acting like a fool anytime I compare with anybody else. Now,

there's two problems with comparing yourself to other people. And

we do it all, you know, Americans, We've made this

in indoor sport.

You know.

We compare how we look. We compare our careers, we

compare our grade point average, we compare academic ability, we

compare our kids, We compare our spouse's shoot, we compare

the green, how green the lawn is their's?

Is greener than our lawn.

And that just always causes you to be overwhelmed, not overflowing.

God says, don't do it. It's foolish. And there are

two reasons. One, you'll always find somebody in life who's

doing a better job than you, and you're gonna get

full of discouragement. They got more money, they've got more talent,

they're better looking, and you get full of discouragement. Number two,

you can always find somebody you're doing a better job then,

and you get full of pride. Pride and discouragement will

also set you on the bench. They take you out

of the game. In fact, you don't even get in

the game when you're full of pride or ego, or

when you're full of discouragement or resentment because of somebody else. Now,

Bible says, stop comparing and start being more contented, and

you'll live an overflowing life. And yet today it's easier

than in any other time in human history to compare

yourself to other people. Why two words social media. It's

right in your face every day if you're on social media,

you see, oh look what they did, Oh look what

they're wearing. Shoot, we compare what we do. We compare

what we wear, We even compare what we eat.

On social media.

I've just got a caramel macchioto frappuccino cappuccino. Well I

don't have one of those. I better run out and

take a picture too of mine. So I'm gonna go

get the caramel macchiato frappucino cappuccino al Pacino because that's

the really exclusive one and you got to know the

owner to get that.

At Starbucks, you can tell.

Those people don't even know about the Alpacino cappuccino frappuccino.

But it's a good one and it makes me feel

better because I posted on Instagram.

Ha ha ha ha.

And we do this all the time. It is so

easy because of social media to get start stuck in

staging your so called pretend perfect life. Everybody knows you

don't have a perfect life. We know it, you know it,

and you know everybody else doesn't. But on social media,

everybody's trying to put their best foot forward, and we

were living for the approval of other people. Like, oh man,

I haven't posted in a day, I'd better put something

out there so people will think it's the fear of

missing out fomo, the fear of missing I'd better get

something out there show how cool I am. And there's

two downsides. I'm not saying social media you should just

leave it. Some of you should go on to social

media fast to break the addiction. You know, fasting is

good for your body, gives your body rest. Social media

fasting is a good thing too, because the truth is

they're that kind of always putting yourself in front of

other people. It's your own little reality show. And it

does two things. It feeds your narcissism. It's all about me.

It's all about me. Look at me, look at me,

look at me. You know when a little kid, a

three year old comes up to me and say, Papa, Papa,

look at me, look at lee, look at me. That's

cute as a three year old. It sucks as a

thirty year old. Okay, okay, look at me, look at me,

look at me, look at me, look at me, look

at me. And that's what you're doing on Instagram, and

that's what you're doing on Twitter and Facebook and look

at me, look at me. Come on, be a grown up.

It's okay as a baby, but not for everybody else.

It creates narcissism in you, and it creates envy and

everybody else. And by the way, you know what the worst,

the worst his self righteousness showing off in a spiritual way,

Like notice how I'm raising my hands in prayer and

my new sweater too, or or see me highlighting my

notes in my quiet time alone with God that I

just shared with one million people. If you're having a

quiet time to impress other people on Instagram, stop it.

That's the worst form of hypocrisy. And I'm showing how

spiritual I am. It's the humble brag like you know,

please pray for me. I've got to go pray for bono,

like putting in a little name dropping there or something.

All of the you know you're if you're a worship leader,

and all the you know you post the picture where

all the lights make.

You look like a rock star. Don't that's the overwhelming life.

That's not the overflowing life.

Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and

listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I hope that you

were just as blessed as I was. From today's broadcast.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick with a special message you.

Know, when I started Saddleback Church over forty years ago,

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