Rick Warren - Why You Need To Stay Hungry—Part One

Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.

We are so glad you're here with us today. We're

going to continue our series called The Keys to a

Blessed Life now. In these messages, Rick walks through Jesus'

Sermon on the Mount and shows us how to live

a truly hopeful and purpose filled life. Okay, let's dive

right in for part one of why you need to

stay hungry.

Recently, I got this letter, says dear Reverend Warren. Anybody

who writes a letter like that knows you know instantly.

They don't know me. Dear Reverend Warren, I heard.

Your program on the radio, so I thought you might

be able to help me with my dilemma. I'm sure

you're familiar with the old You Two song. I still

haven't found what I'm looking for. That line could be

the theme of my mine life. It's a strange feeling, since

I have, by all standards, achieved everything that most people

work their entire life for. My success as an investment

banker has given me multiple homes, nice cars, and all

the kinds of perks and luxuries you'd expect. I'm married

to a great woman, I have two young kids that

I adore, and I enjoy good health, and all of

this came at a much earlier age, and I figured

it would take And yet I'm just not as happy

as I think I should be. To be honest, I'm

often restless. I'm often bored. I'm often very unsatisfied with

my life. Sometimes at night I feel hollow and empty,

and I keep thinking, there's got to be more to

life than this. What do you think I should do?

You know, there's an entire book in the Bible about

this dilemma. It's called the Book of Ecclesiastes, and it's

written by another guy who had it all. His name

was Solomon, and Solomon writes, this book really is kind

of a mid life crisis. It's pretty much of a

downer book until you get to the end where he

goes and I guess it's all about God. But Solomon says,

you know, I decided my life was empty. My life

didn't have a lot of meaning, and I didn't feel

very fulfilled by it. You know, I've got good things

going on my life, but I wasn't very satisfied. So

he starts off in this search and he tries all

these different things to find satisfaction in life, and every

one of them are dead ends. And he starts off

in the first chapter and he says, I tried education.

I thought, you know, if I just get smart, well,

then life will be meaningful and satisfying and fulfilling. And

he said, I learned everything you could learn, and I

read everything you could read. And he said, in the

making of books there is much weariness. And he says,

when I got all that wisdom and all that education,

I just realized I'm still empty. I'm still empty. So

then he said, then I decided I'd go after a

great career, and I set some goals, big goals and achievements,

and I actually became the king of my nation, and

I started all kinds of public works projects and doing

all these good things. And I had all of these

great accomplishments to rack up, and it still left me empty.

So then I thought, well, maybe money's the answer. Maybe

if I've just got more money, and he said, I

went out and I amassed an enormous fortune. In fact,

Solomon became the wealthiest man in the world in his day.

And when the Queen of Sheba from Africa came up

to sheep said, I've never seen any kind of wealth

this ever, anywhere on the planet. And he said, I

amassed this enormous fortune. I had great, great wealth that

I bought myself all kinds of nice things, and I

invested in art and all of these things. And that

left me empty. He said, you know, I thought, well,

then maybe being famous or being popular that left him empty.

And he said, well, maybe I thought, maybe it's life

just all about having fun. Maybe it's just about partying,

it's having a good time.

Having thrills.

And so he said, I just kind of let it

all go, and I invested in wine, women and song,

emphasis on wine and women.

And he said, I you.

Know, I partied to my heart's content. But he said,

it's still left me empty. And he said, what everybody

says is going to give you satisfaction is a lie.

He said, there was this hunger, this hunger inside of

me that was just not being satisfied. Have you ever

gone to your fridget I'm sure you've done this. You

wake up in the middle of the night, you're hungry,

You go down to your refrigerator, you open the door,

and then you just stand there.

And look.

Because you know you're hungry, but don't know what you're

hungry for. And you look and nothing really looks appealing

or satisfying or like it's gonna really make you feel better.

And so you just stand there and look. You know

you're hungry, but you don't know what you're hungry for.

How many of you would admit that? Can I see

your hands?

All right? The rest of you are.

Liars, dirty, rotten liars. Now, Jesus says that having spiritual

hunger is a good thing. In fact, he says it's

one of the eight keys to being blessed by God.

It's one of the eight keys to having God's blessing

on your life is to stay spiritually hungry. Matthew, chapter five,

verse six. As we go through the Sermon on the Mouth,

the most famous sermon, Jesus says this, God blesses those

who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Now once you to circle the word righteousness and circle

the word filled.

Now the word filled.

A lot of translations say they will be fully satisfied.

I mean they're gonna live a satisfied life. They're gonna

live a fulfilled life. They will be filled but it's

you got to hunger and thirst for the right thing

in order to live a fulfilled life. And he says,

you've got to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now, what

in the world is righteousness If God says it's one

of the eight keys to being blessed by God, how

do I hunger and thirst for righteousness if I don't

even know what righteousness is? Now, Righteousness is a big

word in the Bible. It's used literally hundreds and hundreds

and hundreds of times. And the Bible tells us, for instance,

that God is righteous. The Bible tells us that the

word of God, the Bible is righteous. The Bible tells

us that God founded the universe and his kingdom on righteousness.

The Bible says that God loves righteousness. The Bible says

that God rewards righteousness in people that he sees it in.

The Bible says Noah was a righteous man, and Abraham

was a righteous man, and of course we all know

the righteous brothers right here from Orange County. The Bible

says that God loves righteousness. The Bible says that one

day God is going to judge the world in righteousness.

The Bible says, God made a covenant with Israel, which

is righteous. The Bible says, in the most famous Psalm

Salm twenty three, he leaves me in the paths of righteousness.

So what in the world does this word mean? Well,

I once looked it up, been a theological dictionary. There

were twenty seven pages on the definition. But let me

just boil it down for you into two sentences. It's

about a relationship and it's about a lifestyle. Righteousness first

simply means being right with God. It means being right

with God, being right with God. Now, the Bible tells

us in Romans chapter one, verse seventeen, the good News

tells us how God makes us right with himself. Now

look at that verse there in your outline for a minute.

The good news. You know the word gospel. You've heard

people talk about gospel, singing, gospel, preaching, gospel church. Gospel

is simply the Old English word for good news. That's

all it means. The gospel is good news. So the gospel,

the good news, tells us and what is it?

So?

Why is it so good? It tells us how God

makes us right with himself. Now, notice God makes you

right with him. You don't make yourself right. This is

something that God does for you. And in just a

minute we're going to look in detail at the Gospel.

We're going to look at the good news and why

it's so such good news to your life. But notice

it's something that God does for you. He makes us

right with himself. So it's a relationship. Second thing, righteousness

is it's a lifestyle, and that means it means living right,

living right as God intends. So it means being right

with God and living right in faith or as God intends.

So it's a position and it's a practice. First John

two twenty nine. All who practice righteousness are God's true children.

Now today I want us to do two things. I

want us to say, how does God make us right

with Him? And then how do I keep this spiritual

hunger to always be right with God going on in

my life for the rest of my life.

But before we do it, I want.

To just ask this question, why should I care? Why

should I care? Why should I really care about being

right with God? Particularly when none of my friends seem

to care about being right with God. The people who

live next door to you don't seem to care much

about being right with God. A lot of people you

work with don't seem to care about being right with God.

Much of the world doesn't seem to care at all

about being right with God. So why in the world

should I care about righteousness about being right with God?

Why should I hunger and thirst for these two things?

Well, in a nutshell, two reasons. One it's the only

way to live, and two it's the only way to heaven.

So that ought to say it. Let me show you.

Verse Proverbs twelve twenty eight says this righteousness is the

road to life and the path to immortality. Okay, now

I'm interested. I'm interested in the road to life, and

I'm interested in the path to immortality. Now, road to life,

what does that mean? It means that when you were

disconnected from God, you're not really living.

You're just existing.

Most people in the world aren't really fully alive. They're

just existing, making it to the weekend. They don't really

have a connection with God. To be disconnected from the

creator who created you for a purpose is nonsense. To

live your life going yeah, I know I was made

by God, but I don't really care about it is nonsense.

You're not really living, You're just existing. Saint Augustine said,

thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are

restless until we find our peace in thee. You've heard

me say this many times. You're made by God and

you're made for God. And until you understand that, life

isn't going to make sense. Life is not about the

acquisition of things or the achievement of goals.

Life.

Life is about getting to know God, the God who

loves you and.

Made you for a purpose.

You're not really living. You're not really living until you're

right with God. You're connected to God. But not only

is it good for here on earth, the Bible says righteous,

this is the path to immortality. In other words, it's

the way you get to heaven.

And here's the point. God's not going to force you

to go to heaven. It's a choice.

You choose to go to heaven on God's terms. God

created heaven as a place for his children that he loves,

and he wants you to be with him forever and

ever and ever. God has long range plans for your life.

He wants you to be in heaven, but he's not

going to force you to go to heaven. And so

God gives you a choice. You can spend your life

connected to him or disconnected to him. You can say

God if you want to. You can rebel against God.

You could ignore God your entire life. You can pretend

God doesn't exist. You can disobey God. You can be

apathetic toward God. And you know what God will say

to you, Like Burger King, have it your way. God

never forces anybody to love him because it's not love

if you're.

Forced, so God gives you the choice. And if you

I don't want to love God, I don't want to

live for God.

I want to live my own life. God says, have

it your way, like Burger King. The only problem is

one day you're going to stand before God and God's

going to say, you didn't connect with me on earth.

You didn't want to be close to me on earth.

Why when in the world would you want to be

close to me now in eternity. Have it your way,

and you will be eternally separated from God. Why would

anybody say I want to live my entire life separated

from God, but when I die, I want to be

in God's presence and love. Really in both cases, God

will say, simply have it your way, and if you

don't go to heaven, that's your choice. You don't blame God.

God says, I gave you the choice to be close

to me, to be connected to me, to be in

relationship with me. But have it your way because he

wants you to choose to love him. Now, what is

this plan? Notice that verse says God the Good News

tells us how God makes us right with himself? How

does he make us right with himself? What is God's

plan to make you righteous? If righteousness is the only

way to live, and is righteous is the only way

to get to heaven, how does God make you righteous?

Let's call the gospel and there are three facts, and

I want to go back and do the very basics

today the ABC's so write these down. The three things.

Number one, the first part of the Gospel is this,

I can't make myself righteous. That doesn't sound very good,

but it's the fact that I can't make myself righteous.

We're all imperfect, we've all blown it, we've all sinned,

we've all made mistakes. I don't measure up to my

own standards, much less God's. And the Bible says in

Jeremiah thirteen twenty three. Can a leopard change his spots?

The answer is no. And so how do I, an

imperfect person, become perfect? Well, why is that important? I'll

tell you why. Because heaven is a perfect place. The

Bible says, in heaven there's no sin. There's no sadness,

there's no sorrow, there's no evil, there's no hatred, there's

no racial prejudice, there's no injustice. Heaven is a perfect place.

Now here's the problem. I'm imperfect, and by the way,

so are you. So if God let imperfect people into heaven,

heaven would be no better than earth. And if you

let us come into heaven with our sins and our

faults and our weaknesses, then there would be rape in heaven.

There would be murder in heaven. There would be.

Gossip, injustice, prejudice. In heaven, there would be evil, there

would be worry and stress. Heaven would be no better

than earth. So God can't let sinful people into heaven,

otherwise it'll be full of sin too.

So there's a problem there because.

I stop being perfect along about the third breath of

my life. So God had to come up with a plan.

And that is the good news. That's the gospel that

we'll look at in just a minute. But somehow God's

got to take care of my unrighteousness so I can

get into.

A perfect place. Let me show you a couple verses.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, chapter seven, Verse twenty, there

is not a righteous person on earth who always does

what's right and never sins. That's me, that's you, it's

the pope and everybody else. There's not anybody who always

does the right thing and never sins, So we are

all unrighteous. Now look at the next verse, Romans three twenty.

No one can ever be made right in God's sight,

that's righteous by doing what God's law commands. Because the

more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes.

We can't keep it.

The only people who think they can keep God's laws

are those who don't know them, because God's laws are perfection,

and none of us are perfect. You know, one time

I was sitting on a plane one day and I

was talking to guy, and he figured out I was

a pastor, and so we started talking about heaven, and

so I just asked him, I said, so, you know,

on what basis do you think you're going to get

into heaven. He said, because I keep the ten Commandments.

I said, name them. Not only do you not keep them,

you can't even name them all. You can't even name

the ten Commandments. And then Jesus said, we've all broken

every one of them. Because the Bible says, if you

hate somebody in your heart, it's like murder. The Bible says,

if you've lost it in your heart, it's like adultery.

The Bible says, don't have any other gods for me.

And we've all put other things before God at different

times in our lives.

We've all lacked.

Integrity, we've all coveted other people's things, and so we've

all broken the Ten Commandments. And so that's not going

to get me into heaven because I've never kept them perfect.

If you could keep the ten commands perfectly, yeah, you

could probably get into habit, but nobody ever has. Another time,

I was sitting on a plane next to guy and

I said, so, why do you think you're going to

go in heaven? He says, because I'm better than a

lot of people. I said, so you think God grade'es

on a curve? I have no doubt you're better than

a lot of people. I mean, compared to Hitler, you're

a saint. In fact, let me just tell you, my friend,

you're probably a lot better than me. I have no

doubt that most of you are probably more moral, more

ethical than I am. But the fact is, nobody gets

to perfection. All the Bible says we all fall short.

I mean, let's just imagine this. Let's say southern California

is Earth and Hawaii is Heaven. All right, and we

decide we're all gonna try to get to Heaven on

our own work by just being a nice person. And

we want to be nice enough to get to heaven

but bad enough to be fun.

And so we decide.

We're all gonna swim our way earn our way to

heaven by swimming to Hawaii. Now, some of you don't

know that, for three years I was a.

Red Cross lifeguard.

So let's say I swim out twelve miles and then

I drowned. And then let's say you're an Olympic champion

swimmer and you swim out thirty miles and then you drowned.

And let's say a friend of ours who is crippled

doesn't even get into the water or somebody gets out

three yards and they don't know how to swim and

they drown. Do some people get further than others, of

course they, but nobody gets all the way because none

of us are perfect. Does that make sense, It's just

too far. Yeah, you're a lot better than a lot

of people. Of course you are. But you're not going

to swim to Hawaii. It's too far. So nobody can

be made right by ourselves. We can't be made right

on our own. God's got to have a plan, and

so that's the second thing. Write this down. God sent

Jesus to pay for my sins so that I could

be declared righteous, so that I could be called righteous,

so that I could get in on Jesus ticket. It's

not that I'm any better, it's that Jesus pays.

For my sins. Let me give you an example of this.

Let's say you had lived a lifetime of crime and

you get caught, and you go to court and you

get convicted, and you're given a life sentence for a

lifetime of crime, and the judge sitting there in his robe,

puts the gabble down and says, you've lived a lifetime

of crime. You're going to serve a life sentence for

the rest of your life, and he hits the gabble

and then, to the shock of everybody in the courtroom,

the judge gets up, takes off his robe, and walks

down and stands beside you and says, but I love

you and I want to show Grayson mercy to you,

so I'll tell you what. I'm going to serve your

sentence for you. And you hear a gasp and this

oxygen is sucked out of the room because the judge

has just now become your savior.

Are you guilty?

You're still guilty as everything, but now the judge has

become your savior and says, yes, somebody's going to pay

for your sin, and I'm going to pay for it.

That's exactly what God did for you.

Such a great message by Rick today and every day.

I sure hope you were just as encouraged as I was.

And now here's Rick with an important message.

Hi, everybody, thanks so much for listening today. You know,

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