Rick Warren - Living an Anointed Life—Part Two

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. Right now,

here's the final part of a message called living an

Anointed Life.

Fifth thing that we learn in the scriptures is this

that God anoints my life.

To bless others.

God blesses you, not just so you can feel good.

God blesses you so you could be a blessing to

other people. Now, we've done an entire series on this

at Saddleback, where we talked about we're blessed to be

a blessing. God doesn't give you money, talent, good looks, abilities, opportunities, networks.

None of those things are giving to you simply for

your benefit. God says, I want you to be a

blessing to other people. Now you get blessed in the

same time. There's no doubt about it. You're going to

enjoy the blessing of being a channel. But when you're

a channel of God's power and blessing to other people.

It blesses everybody. You're not the only one who gets blessed.

God doesn't give you his annoying just so you can

feel good. God gives you his anoying to help others,

and when you do, it helps you now. In Isaiah,

Isaiah was a prophet in the Old Testament. In chapter

sixty one, Isaiah says, I know I'm anointed by God.

And he comes up with a list of six different

kinds of people in pain, and he goes, I know

this is what God's calling me to do. That I'm

going to use my anoying just not to make a

name for myself. God is giving me this anointing to

help six kinds of people in pain. Let me read

it to you. Isaiah says, the spirit of the Lord

is on me, and he has anointed me. There's that phrase,

you might circle it. He has anointed me to bring

good news to the suffering and the afflicted.

That's number one.

Number two, he's anointed me to comfort the broken hearted.

Number three, he's anointed me to announce freedom to.

People who are captives.

You know, they're in a prison, maybe a self imposed

prison of resentment or an addiction, or a compulsion, or

a fear or an anxiety. A lot of people are

in self imposed prison. He says, He's anointed me to

bring good news, the suffering, comfort to broken hearted, a

lot of broken hearts. To announce freedom to people who

are enslaved to an addiction or habit. He's annointed me

to open the eyes of the blind. What's he talking

about there? Help people see stuff that they've never seen before.

Help them see God. Maybe they've never seen God in

their life, they don't even know.

See God at work.

He sent me to tell those who mourn that the

time of God's favor to them has come. And he

says the number six. He says, he has anointed me

to tell all who mourn, and everybody has.

Losses in life, you're gonna have him.

If you haven't already, you'll have major losses in your life,

which means you're gonna mourn. He says, God sent me

to use the annoying I've got to tell these people

who are who've had a loss that God will give

beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, and praise instead

of heaviness. Those who are depressed. What an amazing God

we have that. God is interested in your emotional needs.

God is interested in your hurts, in your habits, in

your hang ups. God is interested in all the stuff

that pulls you down. He says, when you get annointed,

God wants you to help other people in pain. And

when you do that, God helps you in your pain.

He helps you in your pain. By the way, this

passage Isaiah sixty one is the text that Jesus read

for his very first public sermon publicly recorded sermons. In

Luke chapter four, Jesus goes back to his hometown of Nazareth.

He picks up the scroll of the Old Testament. He

opens to this passage Isaiah sixty one, and Jesus.

Reads it and says, the spirit of the Lord.

Is upon me because He's appointed me to preach good

news to the suffering and the afflicted and the poor,

and he sent me to comfort the broken hearted. And

he reads this, he rolls the scroll up. He goes

over and he sits down. Shortest sermon on record, certainly

not one of mine.

And he sits down.

And he says, today this passage is fulfilled right in

front of you. I am the answer, I'm the savior.

I'm the guy who's come to comfort the afflicted and

the broken hearted, and the people who are enslaved to habits,

and the people who don't know how to get out

of debt, and the people who are blind and can't

see the way out of where they are, and all

these different things. Jesus says, I'm it, I'm it, But

he says, I'm anointed to do this. Let me show

you on the screen Acts chapter ten. Here's another verse.

God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit's power.

By the way, there's a trinity.

In one sentence, father, Son, Holy Spirit, one sentence. God

anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit's power, and he, Jesus,

went around doing good. That's the purpose of anointing, to

make the world a better place. When you get anointed,

you start helping other people. You get blessed by it.

But you're helping other people. And he went around doing

good and healing people who were beaten down by the devil.

And when you get anointed, guess what God's going to

do that with you? Why? Yeah, you you you're a priest,

you're anointed it. God wants to work in your life

this same way. To go around doing good, healing people

who've been beaten up by by the devil. Number six.

The sixth thing we learned about anointing as I summarize

all the Bible, is that for every new challenge, I

need afresh anointing. For every new challenge, I need a

fresh anointing. Anointing by the Holy Spirit in your life cannot.

Be stored up.

You can't go, oh yeah, I remember way back in

like nineteen ninety two, I went to service and oh, man,

I really felt close to God. I got a quiver

in my liver and I even cried, and I like, ooh.

It was like an emotional experience, and you go, you're

still living on that thing.

That doesn't work that way. You can't store it up.

God's anointing, his blessing on your life is kind of

like manna, that bread that God fed him in the

wilderness for forty years. It only lasted a day and

then it's spoiled. Because God wants you to depend on

Him every day for his anointing, every day for his

power in your life. The prayer is not to pray

give us this day our monthly bread.

No, it's daily.

He gives you just enough for that day, and tomorrow

you're gonna need a fresh annoying, And the day after

that you're gonna need a fresh annoying, and the day

after that you're gonna need some fresh oil.

In your lamp.

You're gonna need fresh And by the way, you can

lose the anointing. We've all seen people who are greatly

used by God and they are on fire and they're

gifted and they're talented, and then two years later they're

on the shelf doing nothing. How did in the world

did they lose God's blessing on their life? How did

they lose the anointing on their life? You canna lose

it lots of ways by taking it for granted, by

not depending on God, by not spending time alone with

God every day. You can lose the anoying through pride,

through greed. You can lose the annoying by refusing to

forgive somebody you need to forgive. You can lose it

from gossip. You can lose it from out of control anger.

You can lose it from all kinds of different things

that you let become a god in your life that

you begin to idolize, and all of a sudden, that

person or that thing, or that job or that money

is more important than God, and you could lose God's

blessing on your life. History is littered with people who

had God's anointing and God's blessing and we're seeing success

and results in their life, and then all of a sudden, bam,

they're nothing because they took it too lightly and too loosely.

For every new challenge, I need a fresh anointing. And

that annoying that you had last year or ten years ago,

or a youth camp, it's not any good for today.

It doesn't do any It doesn't do you any good today.

You need a fresh refilling. God wants to fill you

with his power, with his love, with his spirit, with

his grace. You know the problem is we all leak.

He get filled, but you leak, and you can lose

the passion and lose the power, and lose the grace,

and lose your vision and lose your passion like a

balloon that's been blown up for a birthday party and

three days later it's losing it all and going flat

over in the corner.

And we leak.

So you need a fresh filling of God's spirit on

a regular basis. You cannot handle today's problems with yesterday's anointing,

and you certainly can't handle the problems you're gonna have tomorrow.

And next week and next year with yesterday's annoying.

You got to stay in touch with God so that

he's filling you constantly with his grace, with his love,

with his p He said, well, how do I do that?

How do I stay filled? How do I get afresh

in morning?

Well?

Hoseiah chapter ten is one example. Verse twelve. Hoseah ten

twelve says this, so new seeds of righteousness. That's a

metaphor by the way for prayer, and you'll reap the

fruit of my love and break up your old hardened ground.

He's talking about if you're a farmer. You got some

ground out there hadn't been plowed in years. It's gotten hard,

it's gotten dry, it's gotten crusty, and maybe your heart

has gotten cold and dry and crusty, and you don't

feel the joy of the Lord anymore, and you don't

feel close to God anymore, and your heart is hard

toward other people, and your heart is hard even maybe

toward God. He says, you need to do a little plowing.

You need to do a little spade work, break up

the hardened, the fallow ground, the hardened ground in your life.

It's time to turn to me and seek the Lord.

And then he says, I'll come and I'll shower new blessings.

That's anoying, I'll shower new blessings on you. How does

God turn hard ground into soft ground so something can

sprout fro him? He sends a storm. You got any

storm going on in your life? God may breaking up

the dirt clods in your heart, the hardened soil that's

gotten dry and bearing and can't bear a fruit of anything.

And in that passage he says four things. He says,

you want you want my annoying because you gotta pray

so so the seeds of right to spend some time

talking to God. And he says, you need to break

up the hardened ground. That's that's humility and confession to God.

I haven't been close to you. I haven't been connected

to you like I used to be. He says, turn

back to God. That's clear. He says, seek God. That's clear.

And he says, as a result, I'll come and shower

new blessing, new anointing on your life.

How do you.

Get God's anointing back in your life or maybe for

the very first time? The number one way you get

it Listen, you ask, you ask. The Bible says you

have not. Because you ask not, you do not have

James four two.

You do not have because you don't ask God.

If you don't have God's power in your life, if

you don't have God's blessing and anointing in your life,

you're not waiting on God.

He's waiting on you. You just haven't asked.

When was your last time you asked God to make

your career successful and then you said, I'll do it

anyway you tell me to do it. When was the

last time you asked God to make your marriage, or

your relationships or your friendship successful? And then you said, God,

I'll do it anyway you tell me to do it,

even if it doesn't make sense. When was the last

time you said, God, my finances are so messed up

and I need you to bless my finances, and I'm

willing to do the way.

You tell me to do it.

That is to break up the clauds and to say God,

you have not because you're asked. I'm asking you right now.

You see, God wants to bless your life in ways

you have not even imagined. If God were to show

you what he could have done with your life to

this point that hadn't been able to you'd be sad.

But if God were to show you what he could

do with the rest of your life, however many years

you got left, would blow your mind. If you just say, God,

I'm asking for your anointing, I want you to I

want to do it your way. We're not waiting on

God for a revival of our hearts. He's waiting on us.

Saw eighty four, Verse eleven says this look up here

on the screen. The Lord generously gives. By the way,

God is the most generous person in the universe, and

he teaches us to get because he's generous. The Lord

generously gives us his favor. Favor is another word for anointing.

It means his blessing, his favor, his grace is anointing.

The Lord generously gives us his favor. When you have

the favor of God, you're a favorite. God says, She's

my favorite. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever

felt the favor of God in your life. I have,

and there's nothing compared to it. When you know God

has shown favor on you, and you go, I'm a

favorite of God. I'm a friend of God. I don't

deserve it, but it's just God's grace, he says. The

Lord generously gives us his favor and honor. God wants

to affirm you. God wants to applaud you in front

of other people.

Favor and honor.

No good thing will he withhold from those who live right.

He said, there's nothing that's good for you that I'll

hold back. Anything you could possibly think of that would

be good for you. I'm gonna give it. It's all there,

it's all yours. I looked up that word all. It

means all.

No good thing will God hold back from you if

you will just trust Him and live in his anointing.

Now, am I write this down that when God anoints

your business, it brings success. When God anoints your business,

it brings success. I could give you one hundred examples

out of the Bible of this. Let me just give

you one. Genesis thirty nine, verse two talks about Joseph,

who was a businessman and it says because the Lord

was with Joseph. That phrase was with Joseph. He is

under the anointing and blessing of God. It says, he

was greatly blessed so that everything he did succeeded. You

might underline that everything he did succeeded. Now, let me

ask you how many of you would like that to

be true in your career, that every single thing you

did succeeded. Can I see your hands? Okay, oh, some

of you don't want that. Let me try that again.

How many of you would like to be known that

everything you did in life succeeded. Yeah, that ought to

be unanimous. And where does that come from? It comes

from the anointing of God. Let me close in just

the last two minutes about the second area, and that's

your body.

You might write this down.

When God anoints your body, it brings health. It brings

health in your body over and over again. Anointing for

healing is one of the most common practices in the

entire Bible. Not only did Jesus do it everywhere he went,

he modeled.

It for us.

He authorized his followers to do the same. To anoint

with oil as a symbol of God's anointing and to

pray the prayer of faith for people who are sick.

Jesus did it.

The Bible tells us Jesus went into every village in town, preaching, teaching,

and healing. One third of his ministry was healthcare, helping people.

He cares not just about your soul going to heaven.

He cares about your mind, education, and he cares about

your body, your health. And Jesus, as I said, not

only modeled anointing with oil as a symbol of God's blessing,

but he actually taught the disciples and commanded us to

do so. Also, look here on the screen. The Bible

says in Mark six thirteen that his followers, the Disciples,

anointed with oil those who were sick.

And people were healed.

Now I need to explain to you very quickly, there

are three kinds of healing, three kinds of zuscum me,

three kinds of illnesses. Now, there are a lot of

illness in the world that sip because we make bad choices.

If I eat wrong, I don't exercise, I don't take

care of my body, I'm going to reap what I

saw if I get sick. I have too much sugar

and I get diabetes or whatever. That's my fault. And

a lot of the illnesses we bring on ourselves from

not enough rest, too much stress, not eating right exercise.

Things like that.

But the Bible talks about three kinds of illnesses. The

first is for learning. God allows illness to teach us

things that we would never learn any other way. And

so some illness actually is allowed in our lives by

God when God wants to teach us something. And one

of the MANI verses on this is Psalm one, nineteen

verse seventy one. So I'm one nineteen verse seventy one

here on the screen says this, it was good for

me to be afflicted so I could learn your truth. Okay,

here's the true confession time. How many of you have

learned some things in life through pain? Can I see

your hands? Yeah, that's one hundred percent of us. In fact,

some things we only learn through pain. And David, who

wrote The Lord as My Shepherd, said it was good

for me to be afflicted that I might learn your statutes.

I've learned a lot of things through illnesses in my life.

So sometimes God allows the illness for learning. Okay, The

second way, a reason or for illness is actually for death.

You say, well, that's not a very positive one. Well,

here's what I'm saying. If every illness you had was healed,

you'd never go to heaven, and neither would anybody else.

So there is a sickness unto death, and the purpose

is to end your life here so you can go

on to the real life in the ever after. You

will only get the sickness under death.

One time in your life. Does that make sense?

Okay, You're not going to get it over and over

and over, the sickness on if you get well, it

wasn't the sickness under death, okay, But there is an

illness that everyone us get, Otherwise we'd.

All stay on earth.

Thank God, I don't have to stay on earth for eternity,

where there's suffering, sorrow, sickness, sadness, stress, rape, wars, violence,

racial prejudice, you know, all of the different isms in

the world that put people down.

Thank God, we do not stay here.

So there is a sickness under death when God says

it's time for you to come be with me. And

then there's a third kind sickness for learning, sickness for

death and sickness for bringing glory to God. Bringing glory

to God. Jesus talked about this third kind of illness

or sickness in John, chapter eleven, he says, and in

verse four John eleven four, Jesus says this. They brought

a sick man to Jesus, and he said, now the

purpose of his illness is not for death. That's the

second kind sickness under death. Instead, the purpose of this

illness is so that God will receive glory from this situation.

You say, how in the world can God get glory

from my sickness, from my illness, Well, there's two different ways.

One is you get healed and.

There's a miracle and there's a testimony of God's healing power.

The other way God can get glory is you're not healed,

but you, with strong moral character and commitment and faith,

stay true to Christ in spite.

Of all your pain.

If you know anything about Christian history, the greatest saints

of all times were the ones who endured basically.

Chronic pain throughout their entire lives.

It shaped their character in such a way that they

were far deeper than the shallow people who never had

much pain in their life. So God can get glory

in your illness either way through a miraculous healing. And

who cares if he does it through medicine or a miracle.

I don't care.

They're both healings of God. And the other way is

if you're not healed, but you stay true to God

and you let that suffering and deepen, You build your character,

grow your soul, develop your dependence on God. Become a

woman of depth, become a man of character that brings

glory to God too. Now we know that when we

pray for people, not everybody gets healed. Not everybody I've

prayed for gets healed. Why I don't know. When I

get to heaven, we'll know. That's in God's book. We

know that God determines when people get healed, He determines

how people get healed, and he determines where people gets there.

His job is to figure out the wind, where and how,

And God has all of eternity.

To answer his promises.

But my job and your job is to do what

He commanded us to do and over and over. In scripture,

we're commanded to pray for each other, and we're commanded

to pray for each other's healings, and the Bible tells

us in James chapter five, verse fourteen to sixteen, that

we are to pray for each other and anoint each

other with oil as a symbol of God's anointing. James

five fourteen says this, if you're sick. If you're sick,

ask your church leaders to pray for your Literally, elders,

ask your church leaders to pray for you and anoint

you with oil in the name of the Lord. Now

there's nothing magical or mystical about the oil. There's nothing supernatural,

nothing properties that make it.

It's just oil.

It's olive oil. But it is the faith anoint with

oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer

that is offered in faith will bring healing. Notice not

the oil, but the prayer and faith will bring healing.

And the Lord will restore your health, he says, And

pray for each other so that you will be healed.

The prayer of a godly person is powerful and effective.

Heavenly Father, it's amazing that many people will be within

inches of a miracle and will walk away from it

out of fear. And I pray nobody will leave here

missing out on it. An opportunity to receive your anointing,

your blessing, your power, whether it's in their business or

in their body, whether it's in their family or their finances.

Wherever they need, you know what that needs is.

And you are healing God, whether physical, relational, financial, mental, emotional,

or any other area. You've brought us to this moment.

The question is will we trust you to do what

you told us to do.

Lord. It's all in your hands.

We're just going to do what you tell us to

do as an evidence of trust. And I ask your

blessing on every person in the name of the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And everybody said, Amen,

God bless everybody.

What a special message from Pastor rec And now let's

hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope.

Rick.

With a letter from one of our listeners.

Today, I want to introduce you to Agatha, who's translating

Daily Hope into German for her husband. She writes, Pastor Rick,

your preaching is bringing many souls to God. My husband,

who is an unbeliever, is drawing closer and closer to

God every day. I translate what I hear and Daily

Hope into German because he can't speak and understand English.

Pastor Rick, your teaching has changed his life and I

can see his progress and eagerness to follow Jesus.

Agatha.

Well, Agatha, thank you so much for sharing your story

with me. This is a wonderful story to hear that

you're translating what you hear on Daily Hope for your

husband and that he's growing closer to Jesus. I'm so

happy for that. We're always looking for translators to help

us in new languages as we take the message of

God to more people around the world. So you will

keep praying for your husband, and you keep praying for

us that God allows us to take the good news

of God's hope all around the world.

Hey, if you'd like to let Rick know how this

broadcast has blessed you, he would love it.

Please feel free.

To send him an email at Rick at Pastorick dot com.

That's Rick at 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

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