Rick Warren - Relaxing in God’s Goodness—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. Can't

wait to get started today. Here's the final part of

a message called relaxing in God's Goodness.

Remember my value to God. And then number two, enjoy

what I already have. Stop trying to get something else,

Just enjoy what you got. Number three, this is an

important one. Limit my work to six days a week.

You see, you're kidding me. I'm saying. If you're not

doing that, you're breaking one of God's Big Ten, the

Ten Commandments. Rest and recreation are so important to life.

God put it in the Big Ten, a ten command

right up there with don't commit adultery, don't murder, and

don't steal. He says, every six days you take a

day off. If you're not taking a day off every week,

you are breaking the ten commandments.

He said, Well, I'd never murder anybody.

I'd never commit adultery, But are you taking a day

off every week?

It's right up there in the big ten.

That's how important God considers rest and recreation and relaxation.

If the bow, you know, like a bow and arrow,

If the bow is never unstrung, you never unstring it.

It loses its power, it loses the tension in the bow.

Our best requires rest.

Now, this is the fourth commandment, and when God gives

a commandment, he's serious about it. This is not like

an option like, well, if you feel like it, take

a day off. No, it's called the sabbath. Let me

show you some verses Exodus twenty three to twelve. Here

on the screen. Work the first six days of the week,

but rest and relax on the seventh.

This is the law, he says.

This law is not only for you, but also for

your animals.

So your pet needs to have a sabbath.

As well as everyone else, including foreigners among you.

God says, I don't.

Want anybody unprotected from this law. He said, this law

of rest and recreation and having the sabbath, having a

day off every week, said everybody should be protected from overwork,

including immigrants and foreigners who have come in.

They shouldn't be overworking either.

Now here's the fourth Commandment, Exodus twenty verse nine to ten.

This is one of the tenth amendments. Fourth commandment. You

have six days in which to do your work, but

the seventh day is to be a day of complete rest.

Circle that complete rest. Dedicate it to me. You know

this is called the sabbath. Every seventh day you take

a day off and a sabbath. You might write this down.

Sabbath means a day of rest. That's what it means.

And you know, did you know that your heart actually

beats different every seven days. We're biologically wired for a

day of rest. Now, this whole idea of where God

says I want you have a day of rest and worship,

it's not for God's benefit. It's not just some arbitrary law.

God did it so you won't burn out. And the

reason people are so stressed out today is they've forgotten this.

And culture after culture after culture after culture, it's for

your benefit. Look at this mark two, verse twenty seven.

Jesus said the Sabbath was made to benefit man. In

other words, God did make the Sabbath for his benefit.

He made it for ours. When I ignore God's laws

who gets hurt, not God. I get hurt when I

don't follow out the owner's venue. Now, when is your Sabbath?

I'm telling you it doesn't matter what day of the

week you take your Sabbath. The Bible says this many

times in the New Testament. What day you worship on,

what day you take is your day off? Is your

day of rest, your day of recreation? It doesn't matter

the day. You just need to do it every week. Okay,

my Sabbath is not Saturday. My Sabbath is not Sunday.

I'm working on those days. My sabbath is every Monday.

It's Monday. And by the way, I would encourage you

to not call it your day off, because if you

call it your day off, you'll cheat on it. You

need to start calling your day off your sabbath. Now

you say, well, what am I supposed to do on

my Sabbath? I'm glad you asked write these down? Three things.

Just find someplace in your outline. Doesn't give you a

lot of space for it. You do three things on

the sabbath. I'm going to summarize about ten hours worth

of material. You rest your body, recharge your emotions, and

refocus your spirit.

Let me give it to you again. Number one.

The first thing I do on the Sabbath I rest

my body. Now you know the fact that if you

don't take time off, your body will make time off.

You can't just.

Keep pushing it and pushing it. Do you know that

during the little history note here, during the French Revolution,

they abolish Sunday as a day of rest. In the

French Revolution, they just abolished Sunday is the day of rest.

They later restored it because the health of the nation

had collapsed.

They just completely collapsed. They were all burnt out.

But I feel guilty when I relaxed. Well, Jesus didn't.

He followed the sabbath. So you rest your body. The

second thing you do on the sabbath is you recharge

your emotions. I recharge my emotions. Now, what recharges you

is going to be different things. You can recharge your

emotion through quietness, solitude, that's a good thing. Just be quiet,

turn off all the noise. You can recharge your emotions

through recreation. I'm talking about recreation that rejuvenates you. I mean,

if you get involved. I'm talking about non competitive stuff,

because some of you you get in a competitive sport,

you'll beat your brains out to win then, and that's

not resting at all. The competitive spirit you had all

week is now just being transferred to the tennis court

or the golf course or wherever you need to do

something that is non competitive that rejuvenates you so you're

not stressed out when quote you lose. You recharge your

emotions through quietness, through recreation. You recharge your emotions through relationships.

Spend some time with people on your sabbath. I rest

my body, I recharge my emotions. Number Three, I refocus

my spirit. And that's what we do at worship. That's

what we're doing right now. We're refocusing your spirit. Worship

puts life into perspective. Now you need not only time

in group worship, but you need time alone with God worship.

I'm telling you that you have to make a conscious

decision to make time over the other things besides work.

And I would encourage you to think through how many

hours a week do I want to work? And then

stick with it and you schedule everything else? Why don't

you you schedule doctor's appointment? Where are you scheduling recreation?

Are you scheduling your Sabbath. I would encourage you to

make it the same day every week and schedule your

time with family into your life and relationships. Now, let

me tell you who this is especially important for those

of you who are self employed. Those are your entrepreneurs

and you're self employed. If you don't schedule it, you're

never going to take a break, and you're gonna bring

home work with you, and you bring it home in

your briefcase. I heard about a little girl sitting at

a dinner table and every day her daddy came home

with a briefcase and she said, what is that day?

He said, well, it's work. I didn't get finished at

the office.

He said, well, why don't they put you in a

slower group.

Oh yeah, okay, maybe that's what we need. Now. I

want to tell you something.

If you'll start obeying the sabbath, taking a day off,

and you'll relax as God tells you to, and you

know what this concert battle it's on and off with me,

it's on and off with you. You know what will happen.

You will actually end up with more time. God promises

that the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack anything.

He says, If you'll do it my way if you'll

take one day off a week, and it's to rest

my body and recharge my emotions and refocus my in worship.

God says, you know what.

I will give you more time Proverbs fourteen thirty. A

relaxed attitude lengthens your life. Envy rots it away. And

what did I say? Envy is one of the reasons

we overwork. I want what they've got, he says, Instead

of being envious, why don't you just get this relaxed attitude.

It will lengthen your life. It will add hours to

your day. Remember my value to God. Enjoy what I

already have. Limit my work to six days a week.

Fourth thing God says to do this is your good

shepherd giving you advice from his word. I must adjust

my values.

Now.

Why do I say this, Because to reduce the busyness

in your life, you're going to have to change the

way you think about what's important, and you need to

ask the question. You might just write this question, now,

what is really important? What is really important? You've heard

me say, Man, many times we buy things we don't

need with money. We don't have to impress people we

don't even like You can't worry about keeping up with

the Joneses or anybody else and live a life that's

rest filled, RESTful life. Can't worry about them and reduce

your stress. Jesus gets right to the heart of this

adjusting your values. Look at this verse on the screen

mark eight thirty six. What good is it? What good

is it for a man to gain the whole world

and yet forfeit his soul?

But look at all the stuff I accomplished with my work.

How's your soul? Did you forfeit your soul? Did you

forfeit your relationships? Did you forfeit loving God? Did you

forfeit loving your neighbors? Yourself? What is a profit of

man if you're on the cover of Time magazine and

you lose your soul? I love getting letters from you,

emails from you, and you know I talked about stress

and worry.

Last week.

Here's a note I got Pastorick as I listened last week,

and it was like holding up a mirror to my face.

I'd been filling my life with activities and even ministries

to keep myself so busy that it wouldn't have time

to think about or face some issues that I really

need to deal with. I know I'm not alone in

realizing this, and I think you hit the nail on

the head when you spoke about worry and stress and hurry.

I think this series is going to be life changing

and life saving for many, many people. I think it's

going to save some relationships, some marriages, some friendships, some families,

some lives. Thanks to this last Weekend's message, I rested

yesterday and the world did not come to an end.

I read the entire Sunday paper for the first time

in ages. I talked to friends without having to rush

off some to do an errand I enjoyed watching my

kids play with their friends. I sat in a room

I just redecorated so I could relax in it. But

I had never sat in it or even just enjoyed it.

I just redecorated it. Most importantly, I talked to God

a lot during my quiet moments, and I painfully admitted

to Him that I've missed my time with him. Well,

that's the best thing that happened to me. He felt

great to get back on track with God. And all

day long I found myself asking what would have happened

if I just sat still for two minutes. What would

have happened if I just sat still for two minutes?

What was I so scared of? It was great. I

know that there probably some painful things are going to

surface as I clear my schedule, and my mind has

to contemplate certain things. But if I'm close to God,

than anything I can't face because I'm not facing it alone.

Thank you so much for this series. It's an answer

to prayer in so many of our lives. We just

can't keep going at the pace we've been at.

We just needed.

Somebody to tell us it's okay to take time and

rest and then not feel guilty about it, because God

never meant for us to live the way we've been living.

Amen, here's the fifth thing you need to do.

I need to exchange my restlessness for God's peace. I exchange.

I give up my restlessness. The Lord is my shepherd.

He makes me lay down and green passions. I'm gonna

give up my tendency to rome, tendency to wander, tendency

to veer off course. I'm going to exchange my restlessness

for God's peace. Let me close with a couple verses

Matthew six. We looked at this last week, when we're

talking about worry Verse twenty six to thirty, Jesus says this,

Look at the birds of the air. They don't plant

or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly

Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth

so much more than those birds. You can't add any

time to your life by worrying about it. And why

do you worry about anything else? Look at the beauty

of the wildflowers in the field. They don't worry or overwork,

but God takes care of them, so you can be

sure that he'll clothe you too. If God cares for

the birds, how much more is he going to care

for you. God loves you more than you will ever

ever know, and there's nothing you can do that will

make him love you anymore or make him love you

any less.

And they see what we're talking about here.

Actually gets to the root of your workoholism, and my

work all is them. What this does, It gets to

the root of your restlessness and your stressed outness. You know,

there's physical fatigue or you got you know your muscles

are tired, and then there's emotional fatigue when your emotions

are tired, and then there's spiritual fatigue.

When your spirit dries up.

You need more than simply to go to sleep to

cure those last two. You can go to bed, but

that's not going to get rid of emotional fatigue. It's

not going to be rid of spiritual fatigue. People say, well,

I just need a vacation. Yeah, you might, but you

need more than that. What you need more than a

vacation is you need a relation, a relationship to Jesus Christ.

In the twentieth or twenty first century, we're not made

to live this way the way.

We've been living.

As I said, the ability or the insistence of I'm

trying to stay awake is what little kids do. It's

a mark of immaturity. Maturity knows how to rest. I

told you in the first week of this series that

sheep aren't very smart. They're really one of the dumber

animals that God created. Did you know that sheep don't

like to lay down?

They don't. They don't like to lay down.

And yet it says He makes me lay down, and

if you don't slow down, God will make you lay down. Now,

I challenge you to start working on this immediately. Plan

your Sabbath. God's way is not only the right way,

it's not only the healthy way, it's the enjoyable way

to live. And if you are tired of living the

way you're living, here's my answer to you.

Come to Jesus.

Last verse on your outline, Matthew, Jesus is talking verses

twenty eight to thirty and the message fair prayer phrase.

He says, are you tired? Are you warned out? Are

you burned out? Come to me Le's you'd say, come

to a doctrine, come to class, he says, come to

me a relationship. Get away with me, Jesus says, and

you'll recover your life. And I'll show you how to

take a real rest. Walk with me, work with me,

watch how I do it. This is my favorite line,

learn the unforced rhythms of grace. As your pastor, I

want you to learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I

won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep

company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

You come to Jesus, he don't have a load more

on you. He's going to take it off you. Now,

let me summarize what I just taught you look up

here on the screen. Here are the five things. Remember

my value to God, Enjoy what I already have, limit

my work to six days a week, adjust my values,

and exchange my restlessness for God's peace. What does that spell?

Relax r L A X. That's what God wants you

to do. That's power heads. Augustine once said, the beginning

of good works starts with the confession of bad works.

So why don't you.

Confess to God what's caused you to overwork, to be

stressed out, to be stressed instead of blessed. Maybe you'd say, God,

I've had a mistake at identity. I've been basing my

worth on my work.

I'm sorry.

Tell him that I've been basing my worth on my work. God,

I've always been wanting more. I'm never satisfied. I've been materialistic.

You've said, don't wear yourself out trying to get rich.

Have the wisdom to show some restraint. And you might

need to say, and Lord, I've been envious. I've wanted

what other people have, and I've wanted to be like

other people, and i haven't wanted.

To be me.

Maybe you need to say, Lord, I confess that I've

let achievement be more important than relationships. Another thing on

earth that makes no sense. And I haven't asked the

tough questions. Why am I always working so hard? Why

don't I let myself enjoy life? Who cares? Who's going

to get.

What I leave behind?

And maybe you need to confess insecurity and say, Lord,

I live with the fear that I won't have enough

to make it through retirement or whatever. But today I

want to change. It's senseless for you to work so

hard from early morning and to late at night, fearing

you won't have enough for God wants his loved ones

to get their proper rest. You say Lord, today I

want to learn to relax in the goodness of God.

You are the good shepherd. I want to lay down

in green pastures. I want you to lead me beside

quiet waters. Help me to remember that my value to

you is greater than anything else, that you love me unconditionally,

that I don't have to prove anything to others, and God,

help me to enjoy what I already have. Instead, I'll

always be reaching for more. Help me to limit my

work to six days a week and to obey the

ten commandments.

It says take a Sabbath.

And where necessary, help me to adjust my values, to

put first things first, and to focus on the major,

not the minor, things of life. Help me to take

a day of rest every week and today. I want

to exchange my restlessness for your peace, my pressure for

your peace, my problems for your peace. I want to

live in the love and goodness of my good Shepherd,

say Jesus Christ. I give every area of my life

to you. I want to love you and follow you

in your name.

I pray Amen.

Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and

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

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