Rick Warren - Letting God Meet My Needs—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. And

now here's part two of a message called letting God

Meet My Needs.

Proverbs twelve twenty five. The Bible says, worry weighs us down.

Anybody want to give a testimony about that. Has worried

ever weighed you down? Of course it has. And you

get so you think about so many things that you're

worried about. You start to get discouraged, You start to

get depressed, you start to get in despair. You see,

God tells us that your body was not designed for worry. Remember,

it's unnatural. You weren't made to worry. And every time

you swallow your worry, your stuff keep score. Every time

you swallow your worry you say, oh my aching back,

Oh I got a headache, Oh my stomach's upset. Why

because you weren't made to internalize worry. It's unnatural and

it's unhelpful. It's actually unhealthful, and it is bad for

your health. People who worry don't live as long as

other people. People say, well, I'm worried sick, Yes you are.

You worry You can worry yourself sick and cause all

kinds of problems in your stomach, insomnia and stuff like that.

In fact, I'll tell you this, worry causes more fatigue

than work. Worry causes more fatigue than work. You go

to work, put in a full day's work, come home,

you're tired, but you're not stressed out. But if you

go to work and all day you're worrying, worrying, worrying, worrying,

you come home, you're not just tired, you're drop dead fatigued.

Worry wears you out more than work. And yet the

Bible says in Proverbs fourteen, a heart at peace gives

life to the body. You want to be healthier, I mean, really,

you want to be healthier. Stop worrying. You got to

learn to trust God. Worry is unhelpful, it is unnatural,

it is unreasonable. Number four, worry is unnecessary. That's the

fourth thing Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.

He says worry is unnecessary. Why are you worrying about this?

He says, there's no need to worry because God has

promised to take care of you. The Lord is your shepherd.

He feeds, he leads, and he meets needs. And he says,

there's no need to worry because your heaven the Father,

will take care of you. You know, when I was

a kid, if I had any need in my life,

I didn't worry about it. I just went to my

dad and the data I need this, or Mom, I

need this. And if I needed money to buy something,

to say, data, I need some money to buy this.

I never once worried about where he was going to

get the money. That was his worry. You're worrying about

a lot of things that are God's responsibility. Worry is

assuming responsibility that God never intended for you to have.

Every time you worry, it's a warning light. I'm playing God.

I'm acting like God. I'm thinking that it all depends

on me. That I don't have a heavenly Father, that

I don't have a shepherd who will feed and lead

and meet my need. So you never worry if you

understand that God is your heavenly Father, and you understand

the goodness, the goodness of God. Matthew six verse thirty

says this, if God cares so wonderfully even for the

flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow. In other words,

they're only gonna bloom for a few days and then

they're gone, But your life last decades. If God cares

the one well even for the flowers that are here

today and gone tomorrow, won't he surely care for you?

See what he's saying here is that God has assumed

responsibility for the needs in your life, and he cares

for you because He says you are valuable, You have value.

You want to know how much you value. Look at

the cross. Jesus died for you on the cross. That

shows how much value you have to God. You're not junk,

You're not worthless. No, No, you are valuable to God

because you're his child. My children are valuable, My grandchildren

are valuable to me. You are the child of God,

and you're valuable to God. He says, I'm going to

take care of your needs. I'm your loving heavenly father.

I am your shepherd, And like the shepherd takes care

of the defensive sheep, when you need it. I'm there.

What am I saying? I'm saying that worry in your life.

Every time you worry, it comes from the fact that

you misunderstand the goodness of God. Worry is a warning sign.

It's a yellow caution like going that's saying at this point,

I've forgotten how good God is. I've forgotten the promises

of God. I've forgotten what God has promised to do

in my life to meet all my needs. He says

that over and over and over, I will meet all

your needs. There's no need that God will not meet

if you trust him. Now, if you don't trust him,

you're out there on your own. But if you trust him,

he says, I will meet every need in your life.

And worry means I've forgotten that the goodness of God

comes from misunderstanding what God is really like. And you

know what, we always get into trouble every time whenever

we start doubting God's goodness when we start thinking God's

not going to take care of me, God doesn't really

love me, God isn't a good God. Every time you

start thinking like that, and you know where those thoughts

came from, you're gonna get in trouble, You're gonna go

down a blind alley, hit a dead end, have all

kinds of discouragement in your life, and it doesn't even

make sense. Most of you here, sitting here in this

day are believers. You've stepped across the line spiritually. You said,

you know, I've put my trust in Jesus Christ because

i know heaven's perfect and I'm not. There's no chance

I'm getting to Heaven on my own goodness because I'm

not good enough. So I'm trusting Jesus Christ to forgive

me and to save me by his grace, not by

my words. But I'm just trusting God to say, because

he loves me, he wants to forgive me. He sent

Jesus to die for me. When Jesus died in the

cross for you, he solved your biggest problem. You don't

have any bigger problem than eternal salvation. But if that's

your biggest problem, why do you doubt his taking care

of the smaller things in your life? What's the logical

saying I'm going to trust God to get me to heaven,

but I'm not going to trust him help me make

my car payment. What's the logic in that. It makes

no sense. Why would you trust God with something so big,

eternal salvation, but not trust him with who am I

supposed to marry? Am I ever going to get married?

Or am I going to get a job? Or what

school should I go to? And all the other major

questions in life? Why don't you trust him with those

things too? It doesn't make sense. They say, Oh, I

don't doubt him for my salvation, but I do doubt

that he's going to care for my health. I do

doubt that he's going to care for my career. It

doesn't make sense at all. If God can be trusted

for salvation, he'll carry everything else. Parah walking down you

know a street out here, say or take a highway

and you come buying a car. I've got a backpack

on my light on my back and you stop and say, hey, Rick,

you want to ride, and say, yeah, I'd appreciate that.

So I get in the car with you, and about

five minutes later you look over and you see I'm

still wearing the backpack on my back. He said, Rick,

you can just toss that in the back seat and say, oh, no,

it's enough for you to carry me. I'll carry the backpack.

That's the kind of stupid logic we do with our lives.

Oh yeah, God, you can save my life, but I'll

worry about my money and my sex life, and my

social life and my career life, and you know all

the other things, my friendships, my relationship. No, no, you

don't need to carry the backpack either. If he's going

to carry you to heaven, he'll carry everything else while

you're here on earth. He's saying, worry is unnecessary. And

then number five, worry is not only unreasonable, it's unnatural,

it's unhelpful, it's unnecessary. It's unbelief. Number five worry, Jesus says,

is unbelief. Worry is doubting God. God has promised to

take care of every need in your life if you

trust Him over and over and over. And when you

doubt that, you are an unbeliever. At that moment, you're

an unbeliever. Every time you worry, you act like an unbeliever.

Look at this verse on the screen Philippians four nineteen.

Love this and the message and the LIVII. You can

be sure, I mean certain, it's not a wish, not

a hope. You can be sure that God will take

care of most things you need. No, I didn't say

that God will take care of everything everything. What's not

included everything nothing, everything you need because of what Jesus

has done for us. Again, God is good to you,

not because you're good. God is good to everybody. He's

good to even bad people in the world. They get

the same life. They get oxygen, they get blood, they

get food, they get the sunshine. God is good based

on his goodness, not based on your goodness. Now he's

saying here, if God's going to take care of every

your need, you every time you worry, you are doubting God.

Have you ever thought about that. That's why worry is

a sin. It's doubting God. Look at this verse Matthew

six thirty two. People who don't know God, people who

don't know God and the way he works, they worry

over these things. Now, let me be honest with you.

If you haven't stepped across the line, if you're not

a believer in Christ, if you haven't made Jesus the

good shepherd, are the Lord is my shepherd of your life.

You ought to worry. You ought to worry because you're

up a creek without a paddle. You're out there on

your own. You're not depending on your heavenly Father. You're

not depending on God's goodness and grace and love. You're

depending on yourself. You ought to worry. There's a lot

of reasons to worry if you don't have God in

your life, because you've got to face all those battles

on your own. You've got to find all the solutions

on your own. And you're not God, and neither am I.

Which is not And so it's the starting point is

the humble attitude. God is God and I'm not. When

I understand that, all of a sudden, the worry starts

draining out of my life. People who don't know God

and the way he works, they worry about these things.

Non believers ought to worry. But Christians are different because

we have a heavenly Father, a good God who promises

to care for us. And God says, hey, you guys,

what are you worrying about. You're not plants, you're not animals,

you're not birds, you're my children. You see, it's actually

an insult to God. Every time you worry, you're acting

like an orphan. Every time you worry, you're acting like

you don't have a heavenly father who has promised over

and over again, over three thousand promises in this book

to take care of your needs. You're acting like you're

an orphan. You know, there's a beautiful phrase we just read.

He said your father knows you need them, He knows

what you need. How many times do you act like

God doesn't know what you need? God? You know about

my sexual needs? Do you know about my physical needs?

My social needs? I don't think God knows about my

career needs. Really, that's doubting God. Worry is unbelief. You

don't think God sees it all. What I'm telling you

is this when you worry. Every time you worry, you're

acting like an atheist, fact like there is no God.

There is no promises in the scripture. You know, I'm

just out here on my own. Worry is practical atheism.

I saying I don't really believe God will help me

out of this mess. And we start depending on ourselves,

and we start taking matters into their own hands, and

we assume that we have to figure it all out

rather than it's trusting. That's called playing God. And you

know what, that's a poor testimony. If you claim to

be a follower of Jesus Christ and you're worried all

the time. That's a lousy witness to the world. It's saying,

you know, I'm just like you. I don't have a

God who takes care of my needs. I'm playing God.

And by the way, you know what the worst kind

of worry is when you say you know things are

going too good. Oh, I'm just waiting for the other

shoe to drop because things are going to That's the

worst kind of worry you could possibly have. I don't

really believe God is a good god because things are

going too good, so something is bound to happen. That's

what Jobs. This whole book of the Bible about that

kind of word. It's called the Book of Job. Job

was enormously successful. He was wealthy, he was well known,

he was beloved, he was popular, he was famous. He'd

be a billionaire today. And he kept going, mm, things

are going too good. And when everything fell apart, he goes,

that which I have feared has happened. It was a

self fulfilling prophecy. When we get to heaven, you're going

to see how many times you set yourself up for

failure by worrying instead of trusting. Instead of trusting, you

think God's ever worried. No, and God made you in

this immage. She doesn't want you to worry. John chapter fourteen,

Verse one. Jesus says, this, don't be worried. What do

I do instead of worrying? He says, believe in God

and believe in me? Now, how do you do that?

How do you trust God to meet your needs? Okay,

so how do I do that? How do I trust

in God? Well, it's not rocket science, friends, It's just

three or four things. And God makes it very clear

in the Bible that if you'll do these four things,

worry is going to drain out of your life. I

don't want you worrying anymore. Every time you worry is

a wasted second of your life. It's wasted energy. They said,

it doesn't change anything. It's unreasonable, it's unhelpful, it's unnatural,

it's unbelief, it's unhealthy. So how do I trust God

for my needs instead of worrying about my needs? Well,

the Bible says, you do four things. Write these down

number one, and you do this every day. It's not

a one time thing. Every day ask him to be

my shepherd. Every day I ask Jesus to be my shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd. And if I ask in

you my shepherd, then he's gonna feed and he's gonna lead,

and he's gonna meet my need in that day. By

the way, he'll not only feed, lead and meet your need.

He can also forgive your misdeed and help you succeed

if you just trust him. So what do you do?

You do this every morning when you get up, you

sit on the side of your bed and you say,

the Lord is my shepherd. Jesus Christ. I'm expecting you

to feed me, to lead me, and to meet my needs. Today,

telp me succeed, forgive my misdeeds. I will trust you today.

And I start every day by saying, the Lord is

my shepherd. You're a good God. And then I say

it throughout the day. Every time you go into a meeting,

the Lord is my shepherd. He's gonna help me in

this meeting. You've got a parent teach your conference. The

Lord is my shepherd. Well, I'm about to hear. I

may not want to hear, but he's gonna feed me,

lead me, and meet my needs. And you got a

major decision to make. The Lord is my shepherd. You

might say it ten or fifteen times a day, but

if you'll start saying that phrase, your worry will go down.

Every time you start to worry, you need to say,

the Lord is my shepherd. I asking Jesus Christ to

feed me, to lead me, to meet my needs. And

I'm not gonna worry about it, because says I've promised

I will take care of your needs if you will

trust me. Now. In John chapter ten, Jesus says this

verse fourteen fifteen, I am the good shepherd. Let me say,

the Lord's my shepherd. Who is that? Jesus says, I'm it,

I am the Lord. I am the good shepherd. And

I know my own sheep, and they know me, and

I lay down my life for my sheep. That's what

he did on the cross. He gave his life for you,

and if you loved you enough to die for you,

he certainly loves you enough to feed, lead and meet

your need. Every day. You need to pray the prayer

that David prayed. It's this next verse ps I'm twenty

eight verse nine, Come Lord save us and bless us,

be our shepherd and always carry us in your arms.

He says, you can pray these things. The Lord's my shepherd.

So I need to say, Lord, I need you to

save me today. I need you to bless me today.

I need you to be my shepherd today. I need

to carry you, to carry me in your arms.

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

show with a closing thought from Pastor Rick.

If you've been blessed by this message today, here's what

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Thanks for listening today and join me next time as

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Rob