Rick Warren - Letting God Meet My Needs—Part Four

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 today we have the final

part of a message called letting God meet My needs.

Now, the fourth thing is this very important.

Trust him, Trust God, Trust Jesus for one day at

a time.

Trust him for one day at a time.

Don't try to steal the whole future into the day

and bring it back here. Have worries about all this

kind of stuff that's coming up. Trust him for one

day at a time. Matthew, Chapter six, verse thirty four.

Jesus says this, so don't worry about tomorrow. But just

tomorrow we'll have its own worries. Each day has enough

trouble of its own. Anybody agree with that verse Yeah,

you don't need to borrow trouble. He's saying, don't borrow

trouble for tomorrow. I'm gonna give you enough grace for today.

I'm not gonna give you the grace for tomorrow until

you get to tomorrow. You don't need it today, he's saying,

don't open your umbrella until it starts to rain. Okay,

don't start worrying that stuff hadn't happened yet. Can't change

the future, can't change the path. Just work on today.

There are two days of every week. You should never

worry about yesterday and tomorrow because you can't do anything

about them. And you don't worry about the future until

you successfully learn to manage today. Some of you aren't

doing that good a job on that one. So why

are you borrowing trouble and worry about something's happening in

two weeks.

See, when you think about it.

Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday, And

so yesterday you messed up yesterday because you worry about today.

Now today you're messing up today because you're worrying about tomorrow.

Don't do that.

Take one life, Take one day at a time through

your life.

Now.

Why why does God say that you should only live

your life one day at a time. Well, because it's true.

It's the only thing you can do. You can't live

in the past, you can't live in the future. You

can only live today. But there's a couple of reasons

why you should only live one day at a time. First,

when you worry about tomorrow's problems, you miss all the

blessings of today.

Some of you you got.

Something coming up in two weeks or a week or month,

and it's scaring you to death, and you're making it

worse because you're ruining every day between now and then

by worrying about it. What is that worrying doing. It's unhelpful,

it's unuseful, all of those different things, And so you're

missing today's blessing. Some of you are so worried about retirement,

you're not enjoying today. You're missing the blessing of today.

And he says, I don't want you doing that. Think it.

Take it one day at a time. And the other

reason is you cannot solve tomorrow's problems with today's power.

When you get there tomorrow, God will give you the

power and the perspective and the grace and the wisdom.

He'll give you what you need when you need to

get there, But he's not going to give you the

power and promise and purpose and all those things for

tomorrow today. So you're taking.

On a problem.

God says, I'm not giving you power for that, because

I want you to trust me one day at a time.

The Bible does not say, give us this day our

weekly bread. Now you're to pray, give me today my

daily bread. Give me just enough strength to make it

through today. He wants you to depend on him one

day at a time. Now, let me be clear as

your pastor. Because I love you. It's okay to plan

for tomorrow. It's okay to plan for the future. Just

don't worry about the future. Planning is good, Worrying is bad.

Jesus highly recommends planning. There's a whole book in the

Bible about planning. It's called the Book of Proverbs. God says,

it's foolish, not the plan, Like only a fool would

go all the way through life unprepared for something you

know is inevitable called death.

Are you kidding me?

You haven't made your peace with God. You know you're

going to die. You don't know when it's going to happen.

To go through life unplanned for death, You're not ready

to live till you're ready to die, So you ought

to plan. Planning is good. Worrying is bad. You can

plan for tomorrow, but you can't live in tomorrow. You

can only live today.

Now.

I know that the future can often seem, you know,

very overwhelming.

But God graciously divided it.

Up into twenty four hour segments, so you don't get

all the future at once.

You get it twenty four hours time.

And if God gave you all the future at one time,

it would overwhelm you.

But you're not there yet, You're not ready.

For it, and so God gives it to you in

twenty four our increments. Think of your life like an

hour glass. Remember where the sand goes through the hourglass.

There's all this sand up here, but it goes through

one grain at a time. You can handle that. You

can handle one grain a time. You can't handle all

the sand at once. So it's not going to come

at you all at once. You're going to hit the

future one day at a time. You can handle that.

Why Because the Lord is my shepherd now. Psalm Matthew six,

verse thirty four says this, I love this. In the

message a translation, it says this, give your entire attention

to what God is doing right now, yesterday, not tomorrow,

Right now, don't get worked up about what may or

may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with

whatever hard things come up when the.

Time comes, when the time comes.

Now, having said all this, is it possible that worry

may be one of your most chronic sins. It's unhelpful,

it's unreasonable, it's unbiblical, it doesn't work, it's irrational, it's unbelief,

and maybe disease. Say God, I'm sorry. I haven't been

saying the Lord is my shepherd. I have been saying

I'm worried.

I'm worried. Now, let me just add.

Here, if you struggle with chronic anxiety, and you've had

it for years and years and years, you need more

than just this h and you need a care team

around You need to support team around you. Because if

you have chronic anxiety, you needed first, you need a doctor.

You need to go and get some tests on and

you may need some meds.

That's okay.

It's a chemical issue. When people's chemistry is messed up.

Some people are chronically anxious, like others are chronically angry,

or others are conically depressed. So you need a doctor

and you need to go get that. Then second, you

need a coach, You need a counselor, you need somebody

to talk with about it. So you need you need

a doctor, You need a coach, a counsel, counselor. And

the third thing, you need a support group and uh

and and you need at least those three things to

make it through because if you're having a chemical imbalance

in your mind, and for me to just say, well,

just trust God, it's like cutting off the wing of

a bird and say well, just fraw fly and he

goes all I'll say, and all you want fly fly.

If it doesn't have a wing, it's not gonna fly.

And so you might have to get your your brain stabilized. Now,

let me give you one last principle I want to

share on this. It's not on your outline, but you

want you to write it down. God is a good

shepherd who will give you what you need. And here's

what I will say. What God gives to me, he

wants to give through me. What God gives to me,

he wants to give through me. In other words, everything

God gives you, he wants you to share with others.

The Lord is my shepherd. When he meets your needs.

God wants to use you to meet the needs of

other people. The fact is, I don't know if you've

ever realized this, but God is constantly testing how much

you trust him. Every day of your life. Your faith,

your trust is being tested by God. He's going to

see are you going to trust me? And He does

it in many many ways. By the way, do you

know what is the number one way God tests your

trust in your faith?

Money? Money finances?

Why, because we spend so much of our life trying

to earn it, make it, spend it, use it, save it,

invest it, whatever. And what I've learned is that the

more you have, the less likely you are to trust God.

Why because you start trusting your bank account. And this

is a test. It's a test. But when I meet

other people's needs with what God has blessed me with,

God gets extremely happy because God is a generous God,

and he gives nine promises. I'm going to close with

a verse you may have never read. It's not on

your outline, so write it down, because I wont't you

go home and read this verse again. Isaiah chapter fifty eight.

Isaiah fifty eight, verses seven to eleven. And in this

passage God makes some amazing, astounding promises as our shepherd,

And he says, if you'll do these certain things, I'll

make sure all of your needs are met.

I'm going to read it to you.

Okay, it's up here on the screen Isaiah fifty eight

seven to eleven. Now he's He starts off with what

he wants you to do. God says this, I want

you to share your food with the hungry. Okay, you're

eating well. He says, I want you to share your

food with the hungry. Then he says, and I want

you to welcome the homeless poor into your homes. That

could even include immigrants. I want you to put clothes

on those who need them.

Great, got it.

And then he says, and I want you to help

your relatives who need your help. Oh, come on, God,

the first three I can get. Okay, I don't want

to help that crazy uncle. He's such a flake. But

God says, I want you to help your relatives who

needs your help. This is a test. Then he says,

if you do these things, and he makes nine promises.

These are amazing.

Look at this.

If you do these things. Number one, my favor will

shine on you like the morning sun. God smiles on

your life, your business, your career. Number two, your wounds,

the things where you're hurting. Your wounds will be quickly

healed because you're helping somebody else. Number three, I will

always be with you to save you all right. Number four,

My presence will protect you on every side. I like that.

Number five. Fifth promise, when you pray, I will answer you.

Now he goes back a little more. He says, now,

I'll do this if you put an end to oppression,

and that would include racial prejudice and bigotry. Put an

end depression. And if you stop every gesture of contempt

of others.

Including people who are politically different from you.

Uh oh, he said, you got to stop pointing the

other side with contempt. If you stop every gesture of

contempt of others and you indure vicious talk and pointing

fingers on social media, I just.

Thought i'd throw that in.

Okay, he says, Okay, if you stop being such a gripey,

complaining person, you stop saying they're nuts, they're dumb, they're stupid,

and I don't care who your favorite group is to

say that about, he said, If you'll do that, and instead,

if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry, and

you take care of the needs of the oppressed, then

darkness around you will turn into the brightness of noon.

He said, your light's gonna shine like crazy. And he said,

and I the Lord will here's the other promises, always

guide you. And I will satisfy your needs. That's number eight.

And I will keep you strong and well.

Hello.

Okay, now, if that's not true, God's a liar. You

should go home and never come back to church again,

because I'm not gonna worship of God who's a liar.

But God has said, if you do these things, I'll

do these things in your life because I am your shepherd.

Let's bow our heads.

Dear God, you are the source of everything we need

to live, and yet we look everywhere else and there's

nothing that we need that you can't supply. And it's

really clear in your word that you do not want

us to ever ever worry about anything.

You said it repeatedly.

You've told us that worry is unreasonable, it doesn't make sense,

it's illogical, it blows things out of proportion.

You've told us that worry is unnatural.

Nothing else that you've created worries everything else in creation

trusts you. And you told us that worry is unhelpful,

that it's not going to add a single hour to

our life, not make us taller or shorter. Cannot change

the past, cannot control the future. You told us at

worry is unnecess that you have promised to meet our

needs if we'll just trust you. And you've told us

that worry is unbelief. That when we worry, we're actually

acting like atheists. We're acting like orphans that don't have

a loving heavenly father, don't have a shepherd. He said,

don't be worried. Believe in God and believe in Jesus. So, Lord,

today we want to learn to trust you to meet

our needs, and we want to practice it this week.

Now you pray.

Say God every day. I want to ask you to

be my shepherd. And if I have to say it

twenty times a day, the Lord is my shepherd. I'll

remember that when I worry, you're going to feed, you're

going to lead, and you're going to meet my need.

Jesus Christ, I'm going to give you first place in

every area of my life. Have access to every room

in my home, no drawer, no you know, closet. No

room is off limits to you. And whenever I worry,

help me to realize that that area is an area

that's not under your control, that I've held it back,

and that I love it more than I love you.

God.

This week and during this entire series, teach me to

relax and do not hold onto my worries, not to

stuff them or repress them, but to confess them. To

give you my worries in prayer, to not hold on

to them. Say God, here's a worry. I'm worried about this,

and give it to you. And then Jesus helped me

to trust you for one day at a time. Do

not worry about tomorrow. It'll have enough trouble of its own.

But depend on your power today to solve today's problems

and your power tomorrow to solve tomorrow's problems. I just

want to trust you in every single area. If you've

never said it before, say Jesus Christ, I want you

to become the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Jesus

be the Lord of my life. And I humbly ask

this in your name.

I pray. 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. And now here's

a closing thought from Pastor Rick.

God has five purposes for your life. He wants you

to know and love Him. That's called worship. He wants

you to belong to his family that's called fellowship. He

wants you to grow in Him that's called discipleship. He

wants you to serve Him with your gifts and talents.

That's your ministry. And he wants you to share the

good News with other people. That's your mission. Now today,

as we close, I want to talk to you about

the third purpose, discipleship or personal growth. How do we

grow well, we grow through the nourishment of God's Word.

It's how we get to know God. To know God's

Word is to know God's will. God's Word is the

source of God's will. And God's ultimate goal for your

life is for you to become like Jesus Christ. To

do that, you have to fill your life with the

word of Jesus Christ. Two Timothy three seventeen says through

the Word, we're put together and shaped for the tasks

that God asked for us. I remember in the Old Testament,

the Bible says that job treasured God's Word more than

his daily bread. That's how I want you to treat

God's Word. That's how you grow in discipleship. Get into

His word every day, study it, memorize it, and meditate

on it. Apply it. Never take it for granted. God's

word is as essential to your soul as food is

to your body. So get into the Word today. God

bless you.

Be sure to join us next time as we look

into God's Word for our day Daily Hope. This program

is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous

financial support.