Rick Warren - How to Be Led by God’s Spirit—Part One

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. And

now here's part one of a message called how to

be led by God's Spirit.

You know, life is a series of choices. We make

our choices and then they make us. We make our decisions,

and if we make good decisions, we become successful. If

we make bad decisions, then you know we're not. And

every decision has a consequence. And the potential for error

is great because obviously we're human beings.

We're imperfect.

Some of you today are struggling with some kind of

difficult decision about where do I move, what job do

I take? Do I get married? Do I stay in

this marriage? All of these differ. Where do we put

our kids in school? And Indecision is one of the

greatest sources of stress in your life. And yet your

heavenly Father doesn't want you to be stressed out by

your decisions. But when you have this tension in you.

Do I hold on or do I let go? Do

I keep on doing what I'm doing?

All right? Try something else? Do I move on? Do

I get married?

The Bible tells us in the Book of James that

a double minded man is unstable in all his ways,

and that word unstable actually in Greek means staggering like

a drunk. That's literally what it means that when you're

pulled in different directions by a decision because you just

can't figure out which way to go, it creates enormous

tension in your life. And then even after a lot

of times you've made a decision, you start guessing, second

guessing yourself, did I make the right decision? And then

you just prolong the pain. Now what is the antidote? Well,

the end to dote is to let God guide you.

And we're going to look at that as we come

to our fifth message in this series on living in

the Goodness of God, where we're going verse by verse tough,

Psalm twenty three. And the Bible tells us that life

is a journey and that God has given us a

road map. It's this book, the Bible, this is our

roadmap for life.

That God has given.

Us a compass, that's our conscience that keeps us headed

in the right direction if we listen to it. And

that God has even given us a personal guidance counselor,

and he is the Holy Spirit. And a personal guide

is even the best thing all that's better than a map.

If you have a guide taking you through a city

you've never been in, that's a whole lot better than

you trying to figure it out on a map.

Or with a compass.

Now, the Bible tells us that God wants to lead

us in the paths of righteousness. That means the right paths.

God done wants you to mess up your life. What

we're talking about in this message is am I going

to waste my life? Am I going to spend my life?

Or am I going to invest my life? I don't

want you to waste your life. And part of that

means making right decisions. How do you get on the

right path? How do the Bible says he leads me

in the paths of righteousness. That means a modern translation,

he keeps me on track. God wants to keep you

on track in your life.

Now.

I know some of you say, Rick, this just doesn't

work for me. I've tried to let God lead my life.

I don't get it. How do you let God lead? Well,

that's what we're going to look at this weekend, because

there's some things you need to start doing. There's some

things you need to stop doing in order to let

God lead your life. But really the question comes down

to why is it so difficult to figure out what

God wants me to do with my life?

Why?

Why is God's will? Often it seems hidden? Is God

playing games with me? Is God playing cat and mouse?

Is he? Is he playing hide and seek? Does God

enjoy confusing me? Of course not, of course not. The

real issue is we often look for the wrong thing

from God. Now we are in this series of Psalm

twenty three, and I told you we're gonna memorize over

ten weeks these six verses together. Now many of you

memorize us as a kid, And if you memorize it

in the King James version, it's okay for you to

say THEE and thou and all at Elizabethan English. It's

just four hundred years old, But it's okay as long

as you memorize this important verse.

Now, I told you a couple of weeks ago.

This is the most quoted passage in funerals, Psalm twenty three.

But it's not even about death. There's only one line

in it.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow

of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art

with me, You are with me. This verse is not

This chapter is not really about death. It's the most

famous psalm quoted at death, but it's not about death.

It's really about how God wants to guide you and

leads you all the way through your life.

Now.

Because God is a good God, and that's what we're

looking at. God has good plans for your life, not

bad plans, and God wants you to understand those plans.

And because he's good, he has promised to guide. The

good Shepherd doesn't just feed us, he leads us. He

doesn't just correct us. He directs us. He guides us.

And so this is.

Part of leading, feeding and meeting our needs, which is

what the good Shepherd does. Now look at the top

of your outline, and we're going to start with now

the first three verses. So let's read it together. The

Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need. He

makes me lie down in green pastures. He leaves me

besides still waters. He restores my soul. Now here's the

verse we're gonna look at this weekend.

Read it with me.

He leaves me in the right path for his Name's sake.

As I said, because God is a good God, he

promises to guide us. We're not left out on our

loan on our own. God says, I'm gonna give you

my guidance. In fact, listen, if you've never felt guided

by God, that's a problem because one of the proofs

are one of the evidences that you do have a

relationship with God, that you're in his family, is he

guides you. Look at this next verse there on your outline,

Romans eight, verse fourteen. Only those people who are led

by God's spirit are God's children. Uh oh, let me

read it again. Only those people who are led by

God's spirit are God's children. So it is absolutely vitally

important that you learn what we're going to talk about

this weekend on how do I get guidance from God?

Or how do I be led by God's spirit? Only

those people who were led by God's spirit, circle that

led by God's spirit are God's children. So you can

see the importance of this. On Friday, I took a

couple guys from our staff and we just did a

little day hike. It was such a beautiful day after

all the rain we've been having, and I noticed it

was we were taking this hike that a hike, or

a journey or a walk is a composition of both

starts and stops. And when you're on a journey, you're

not always walking. You stop, you slow down, you look

at things, you might pause. And there's some things on

a journey of life you have to stop doing, and

there's some things you have to start doing. Life is

composed of starts and stops. And what I want to

do is take that little metaphor today and talk to

you about how do you hear God speak to you?

How do you learn to get God's will in your life?

How do you get God's guidance whether it's a business

decision or a relational decision, or a financial or health decision.

How do I get God's guidance in my life? How

do I be led by God's spirit? Well, there are

some things you need to stop doing in order to

do that, and there's some things you need to start doing.

So, let's begin with the negative.

This may not be comfortable, but it's necessary if I

really want to be led by the spirit of God. Okay,

so you might write these down. Number one, he's a

right from God's word. If I want to be led

by God's spirit. First, I can't follow a culture that

doesn't follow God. I can't follow a culture that doesn't

follow God if I'm trying to follow God, if I'm

trying to be led.

By the spirit. So I've got to stop that. I can't.

You can't run in two directions at the same time.

You can't chase two rabbits at the same time. You

can't serve God and money. You can't serve God and

anything else. You got to decide what's number one in

your life. You can only have one number one. In

Exodus twenty three, Verse two, the Bible says, do not

follow the crowd in doing wrong. Now, that's important verse today,

because the whole idea is if everybody else is doing it, it.

Must be okay, if it's legal, it must be moral.

Not necessarily, if everybody else is doing it, then I

should do it. You can't follow a culture that doesn't

follow God. If you want to be led by the

Holy Spirit. Do not follow the crowd and doing wrong.

You know, most people make decisions in their life according

to what is acceptable, and I just want to fit in.

And if they're doing it, then I'm going to do it.

And if they're not doing it, I'm not going to

do it because I don't want to stick out. I

don't all standout. You don't want to rock the boat

when in Rome, you know, do as the Romans. And

you know, there are magazines that put out what's in

and what's out, to tell you this is now out,

stop doing that, this is now in, start doing that,

wear this, don't wear that, say this, don't say that.

And there are great pressures to make you conform to

our culture. You cannot conform to our culture and be

just like everybody else and be led by the Holy Spirit,

because he's going in a different direction. This problem was

Israel's biggest problem for two thousand and three thousand and

four thousand years in the Bible, they kept trying to

want to be like every other nation. God said no, no,

you're supposed to be different. I don't want you doing that.

He gave them all kinds of moral laws, and civil laws,

and you know, ceremonial laws. And he said, this is

going to just make you different from everybody else. And

it's intentional. God said, because you're my people, I want

you to be different. And so don't copy what everybody

else is doing, what other cultures are doing, what other

people are doing. Today, many believers except many of the

standards simply because they're politically correct, culturally correct, they're what

everybody else is doing. Here's what the Bible says, Romans twelve,

verse two, do not copy the behavior or values of

this world. Instead, let God transform you. That means you're

gonna be different into a new person by changing.

The way you think. So you're not gonna think like

everybody else does.

Then you will know. Notice, then you will know what

God wants you to do. Now let me pause right here.

The reason you don't know what God wants you to

do is because you're too inculturated with this culture and

you can't think like the world and think like God thinks.

And so you have to decide a life.

Do I want to be popular with the world, or

do I really want to do what God put me

on this earth to do. Do I want to be

who He made me to be, not try to be

poor carbon copy of somebody else. Don't copy the behaviors

or values of this world. Let God transform you into

a new person how by changing the way you think.

Then he says, then you'll know. You want to know

God's will. Then you'll know what God wants you to do,

and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect

his will really is. I want you to circle those

three where its good, pleasing, and perfect. God's will for

your life is good.

It's not bad.

God has good plans for your life, not bad plans.

God's will for your life is good. It's pleasing. That

means it's enjoyable. It's not a not a bad deal.

It's not painful, can't involve pain. But it's good, it's pleasing,

and it's perfect. That's what God's will for your life

really is.

You see.

One of the weaknesses of following culture is it's all temporary.

Whatever is in style now next year is going to

be what yeah, out of style. So nothing is as

worthless as yesterday's fashion unless you hold onto it for

thirty years. And then what goes around comes back and

ties get wide and narrow and wideness, hymn lines go

up and down and all of that. But the Bible

tells us in One John two seventeen, the world and

all of its desires passes away, but the person who

does the will of God shall live forever. Really, you

don't want to care about whether I'm fitting in with

culture or not. People tell you, well, you're on the

wrong side of history. For you, it's not important on

whether you're on the right side of history or the

wrong side of history. It's important that you just be

on the right side because history is often wrong. You

ever heard anything called Nazism, communism, so many other History

is often wrong. It's not important to be on the

right side of history. It's important to be on the

right side. And if you're going to let God guide

you can't say, well, I'm gonna try to let culture

guide me what I do think can be and I'm

gonna let God do that too. It doesn't work that way.

Now let's get a little more personal. That was pretty easy.

This is getting a meddling in your life. Now, if

I want to be led by God's spirit, I can't

follow friends who aren't led by God. If my friends

are going the exact opposite direction that God is going.

I have to make a choice. Am I gonna go

to the direction my friends are going, or am I

gonna go the direction of God. It's one thing to say, well,

you know, I'm going to be counterculture, but it's another

thing to say, I'm not gonna let my friends influence me.

You got to stop letting your friends set the agenda

of your life. One of the reasons you don't hear

God's will is because you're always hearing what their will is.

Let's do this, Let's do that, Let's drink this, let's

eat that, Let's go here, let's talk like this, Let's

watch this TV show. There's some shows you just shouldn't watch,

doesn't matter if they're the most popular shows on TV.

You're filling your mind with garbage. We all worry about

air pollution, water pollution. Have you ever worried about mind pollution?

Some people are so open.

Minded their brains fall out, and you're just letting the

freeway go through your mind of all kinds. None of

that stuff's forgotten. That's why you've had some of those

weird dreams over the years. It's all everything you've seen,

every rape every murder, every violent act, every cuss word,

it's all in there.

It's all there.

I can't follow friends who aren't led by God. Why

am I making a big deal about this Because one

of the things that causes people to miss God's will

for their life, God's plan, God's perfect, good and pleasing

plant is pure pressure. You can get it in school.

You all know what that was like in school when

you felt pressured by kids in your class. But you

also get it at work. There's a lot of peer

pressure today, and you have to say, am I going

to listen to my friends, my co workers, my teammates,

or am I going to listen to what God says?

First?

John three seven says this, do not let anyone that

includes friends leads you in the wrong way.

Christ is righteous.

That means he does what's right, so be like So

to be like Christ, you must do what is right,

not what's necessarily popular. And anyone who keeps on sinning

is being led by the devil. So if I've got

a friend who is habitually sinning, I mean they're having

one affair after another there and they're bragging about it

at work, and I'm you know, I'm listening to them.

I'm then I'm just following them. Who are they following

the devil? The devil, he says, don't let anybody leads

you in the wrong direction.

What do you do?

You got to be tender without surrender. Now, there's a

lot of bad advice floating around the world.

Everybody agree with that?

Well, I mean, anybody could be a blogger today.

Anybody can write a column today. I'm not making this up.

Yesterday read an article called why everybody should have an affair.

Oh that's the best advice I've ever heard, right there, boy,

that's let me just tell you how much destructiveness that

creates in the lives of kids. Let me talk to

the men for just a minute here, Guys, you know

what's the number one need that you have. You may

have never even noticed it. If you're a daddy, if

your a husband and a dad, one of the biggest

needs you have in your life is you want your

grown adult children to respect you. I don't know a

man who doesn't want that. You want your grown adult

children to respect you. That should have a hamper on

the decision you make now.

And a lot of others. Notice how quiet it got

when I said that.

I had every attention of every man in the house

for one second. All right, go back to your ballgame.

All right, Okay, I had a lot of bad advice

out there. Proverbs thirteen, verse twenty look up here says this,

keep company with wise friends, and you'll become wise. But

if you associate with fools, your life will suffer great hurt.

You can't soar with the eagles if you're running with

the turkeys.

Okay, so you know.

Who you hang out with. You need to choose your

friends wisely. You keep company with wise friends, you're going

to become wise. If I want to follow God's direction, Okay,

I can't let culture get me off track, and I

can't even let friends get me off track. Make sure

your advice is from the right source. Now it bothers

me when people like get counseling. I've met believers who

are going to non believers to get counseling for their life.

I'm going to really they have no spiritual insight on that.

The Bible tells us in First John three seven, it says,

don't just let anybody lead you astray, because you'll miss

God's will. Go ahead and get counseled, but get it

from a mature believer. Now that may be really clear.

When I talk to this about friends, means I can't

follow friends. You mean I'm saying I have to give

up all my non Christian friends.

Of course, not.

In fact, you shouldn't do that. Listen to me loud

and clear. God wants you to have friends who are unbelievers.

First place, you're commanded to love everybody. You're not allowed

to not love anybody. If you're a believer Christ, you

are to love everybody. In fact, I'm even commanded to

love my enemies. I'm commanded to love the people who

hate me, criticize me, attack me. I don't get a

choice if I call myself a believer follow of Christ.

I am to love everybody. And God wants to use

you to bring them to Christ. But here's the difference.

Look up here in the screen. Jeremiah fifteen nineteen says

you will be my spokesman to these non believing friends.

You are to influence them, but do not let them

influence you.

Every day when you go to work, you're.

Deciding, am I going to be a thermostat or a thermometer?

A thermometer just reflects what the temperature is of the environment.

They're being talking dirty. I'm going to talk dirty. They're

doing this, I'm gonna do that. A thermometer just reveals

what the culture's like. A thermostat turns the heat up

or down.

God wants you to be in thermistat.

He doesn't want you to influence them, to influence you,

but you to influence them.

What a great and timely message today. Let's end our

show with a closing thought from Pastor Rick.

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