Rick Warren - It Depends On Who You Depend On—Part Two

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. Let's jump back in. This is

part two of it depends on who you depend on.

Now. I've put down here a couple verses that I

would encourage you to memorize. One of them is for

when you're young, and another one is for when you're old.

But the first one everybody can memorize. Us. It's only

one sentence, Psalm seventy one sixteen. Look at this verse,

I walk in the strength of the Lord. I walk

in the strength of the Lord. That's an affirmation, Psalm

seventy one sixteen. In fact, let's memorize it right now.

Let's say it together, Psalm seventy one sixteen. I walk

in the strength of the Lord.

And where is that verse?

Psalm seventy one sixteen. And what a Psalm seventy one sixteen, say,

I walk in the string of the Lord. Here's what

I encourage you to do. Write that verse on a

card and read it over and over and over till

you got memorized, so you can say it ten times

a day. And here's what you do. You make it

the most important affirmation in your life. And when you

get up in the morning and you want to go

right back to bed, and you're worn out, and you go,

I don't even have enough energy to get started today.

You sit on the side of your bed and you say,

I walk in the strength of the Lord. And then

when you get up and you go to school or

you go to work, whatever you're doing, and you have

that first conflict with somebody, you say, I walk in

the strength of the Lord. And later in the afternoon,

when you get a phone call and it's bad news

and it's terrible, and you're frustrated and you're scared, and

it creates anxiety and stress, you say, I walk in

the strength of the Lord. When late in the day

you're just running out of energy and there's still a

whole lot more to do, you say to yourself, I

walk in the strength of the Lord. And when you

go to bed at night, as you put your head

down on the pillow and all of the things that

you didn't get done, and all of the worries and

the fears and loneliness and any other thing that tends

to pile in you say, I walk in the strength

of the Lord. That is the kind of woman, God

bless us. That is the kind of man, God bless us.

I walk in the strength of the Lord. I don't

just depend on God's wisdom and do the right thing.

I do the right thing with the right power. I'm

not doing the right thing under my power. I'm doing

the right thing under God's power. God, I need you

to give me the energy I need to plug into

the power. When you get older, you're going to face

the pains and problems of aging, and that gets pretty frightening.

Just talk to somebody who's getting up in age and

asking that, And here's a good verse for then. When

maybe your body isn't working like it should, and your

mind isn't as sharp as it used to be, and

maybe you're starting to get a little alzheimer, a little

dementia saw him seventy three twenty six, as this, my

health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but

God remains the strength of my heart, He is mine forever.

That's a great verse to remember. Everything may else fall

a part of my life, but God is the strength

of my heart. He is mine forever. One of the

most famous Christians of the nineteenth century was a guy

named Hudson Taylor. He was a very famous missionary to China,

and he was a spiritual giant, a brilliant man. Later,

though in age, he lived to be an old man.

And in his old age he lost his health and

became very, very weak. And he wrote this letter to

a friend, and it said this, I am so weak.

I can no longer work. I am so weak, I

can no longer study. I'm so weak, I can no

longer read my Bible. I cannot even pray. I can

only lie still in the arms of God like a

little child, and trust that's good enough. Sometimes in your

life you're gonna be so weak you can't even pray.

Sometimes in your life you're gonna be so weak. You

can't read the Bible, you can't go to a Bible study,

you can't work, you can't do anything. What do you

do in those moments you're just laying there in bed

so weak. I rest in the strength of the Lord

in his arms like a little child, and I trust you. See,

weakness can actually be a good thing in your life

if it causes you to depend on God. Look at

this verse up here on the screen. This is from

Saint Paul. Paul says this Tewod Corinthians twelve. Well, three

times I begged God to take away my weakness. And

you got some weaknesses you'd like God take away. You've

probably asked them to. And each time God said, my

grace is all you need. My power works best in

your weakness, so you don't anything else, You just need me.

My power works best in your weakness. So Paul says,

I now gladly boast. I boast about how weak I am.

I used to hide my weaknesses. I used to be

ashamed of my weaknesses, Paul says, not anymore. I'm proud

of my weaknesses. Why because when i'm weakness, the power

of Christ works in me and shows up through me.

And when I'm weak, then I am strong. See that's

the paradox of depending on God. The more you're weak,

the more you depend on God. The more you depend

on God, the stronger you get. And you do the

right thing. But you do it in the power of God,

not in your own power. Now there's a third one

is big one where you can learn dependence. Being porn

spirit this week so God can bless you. And Tom's

gonna come talk about it. To be blessed by God,

I depend on God's wisdom and I depend on God's strength.

But the third thing is I depend on God's timing,

not mine. I depend on God's timing, not mine.

The older I get, the more I understand how timing

is so important in every area of life. Look at

it in sports you can see it easily. The difference

between a professional pitcher and an amateur is timing. The

difference between a professional golf player and an amateur is timing.

You can see it in things like cooking. A professional

cook knows that it takes thirty seven seconds in the

toaster for the perfect pop tart. They know that if

they're a real professional. You just see it in all

kinds of areas of life. You see it in your life.

God's timing, the right timing is God working in the

right way in your life. The Bible's really clear about

the fact that there are seasons to our life and

the fact I don't like this. But the fact is

one of those seasons that God talks about again and

again is the season of waiting. He is working in

our lives during this season of waiting. While you're waiting,

God is working. Don't think that the season of waiting

means that God has stopped working. He's still working. He's

just taking us through a season of waiting because of timing,

because of what he's doing in our lives, because of

what he's doing in circumstances. So that's why the Bible

says in Psal I'm thirty one fourteen and fifteen. I

trust in you, Oh Lord, you are my God. My

times are in your hands. You're going to spend a

lot of life waiting, And if you don't figure out

how to trust God while you're waiting, you're going to

spend a lot of life not trusting God, because there's

a lot of life where we are in God's waiting room.

You ever been in a hurry when God wasn't that

happened to anybody else, And I'm talking about I mean,

you want it to go along, but it's just not

going and alone. God is never in a hurry. God

is never in a hurry. Because he's eternal, and he

is watching, he is working, he is seeing how and

when you will trust him. As you're waiting, we're saying when, Lord,

when is it going to happen? And God's saying, what

am I doing in your life? You can trust me

with this now. The problem with waiting is our human

nature and the culture around us. Everything about it says,

don't wait, get things as quickly as you can. And

when we have fast track and fast passes, and one

of the best business magazines is Fast Company. Everything is

fast when I go through the drives through. I don't

know if you guys are like this forgetting food. I

like to give my food at the first window, and

I want to see the bag come out so I

can just sort of keep driving by and grab it

as I go by. I don't want to even wait

twenty seconds. That's the way we tend to be wired

in our culture, and it goes against it goes against

God's blessing in our lives, because God's blessing comes through

these times of waiting. Ecclesiastes three to eleven says God

has set the right time time for everything. Now I

know some of you right now, you are in a

time of waiting. Maybe it's for school to end, Maybe

it's for man or a woman to come into your life.

Maybe it's for a marriage to happen, for a baby

to come. You're in this time of waiting in your life,

and if you're honest, you would say I'm frustrated right

now without slow this is working. We've all been there

at times. There's a promise in the Bible that tells

you not only that God is working, but also how

God is working. It's an important promise to understand for

how God works in our lives during these times of waiting.

Isaiah sixty, verse twenty two says, I am the Lord,

and when it is time, I will make these things

happen quickly. Here's how God's working in how he works

in our lives, and it will drive you crazy. You

wait and wait and wait for something, and then all

of a sudden, God just gives it to you all

at once, and it's just overwhelming, and you say, I

was asking for it, but could you slow it down

a little bit?

Now?

This can happen when I know a lot of people

who've been through adoptions like this, where they've started the

adoption process, and they thought the adoption was going to

go through in a few months, and they waited months

and months and sometimes years and years and thought it

never was going to happen. And then they get the

phone call, and the phone call says, Okay, we got

the baby for you. Are you ready in two days

and you've got to go pick them up in another country?

Can you do that? That's how God works many times.

That's how God works in sending Jesus into this world.

The Bible tells us that the world waited thousands of

years for Jesus to come the first time, but at

the right time, Jesus came into the world. And we've

been waiting two thousand years now for Jesus to come again.

When's he going to come again? God's right time, That's

when he's going to come. You might write this down

in your outline, just this sentence. A delay is not

a denial. Just remember that a delay is not a denial.

We think God is saying no, but really God is

saying not yet. Will you keep trusting me through This

just has to do many times with how we talk

to God about how we pray. Sometimes when we pray

about something, we say, God, it's like, I want to

give you first option on this. Can you do this

really fast? If you don't get it done, then I'm

gonna go get it done myself. I don't care what

I have to do. I'm gonna get it done. And

God said, no, are you trusting me? Micah talked about that.

Micah seven seven says, I trust the Lord to save

me and I will wait on him. I'm not gonna

go out and get it myself. I'm not going to

accomplish this myself. I'm gonna wait on him to answer

my prayer. That that is the kind of faith that

God bless us.

One of the things that Tom just said, and I

didn't see you boy writing it down, and it's brilliant.

So you need to write this down. While I'm waiting,

God's working. You need to write that down. He said, Wow,

I'm waiting, God's working. A lot of times we think

while I'm waiting, nothing's happening, But God is often working

behind the scenes in ways you can't even see, to

get you ready for the answer to your prayer. While

you're waiting. God's working. It's not like God's waiting while

you're waiting God's working. Good example of that is how

we got this land for Saddleback Church here at Lake Forest.

You know, we started over here many many years ago,

over in Laguna Hills High School, and the church began

to grow, and the more it began to grow, we

had to go to other different buildings, and at one

point we were using four different high schools in the

same week. We're using Laguna Hills High School on one day,

mission to Llo High School on another day, Eltorro High

School on another day, and Tribuca Hills High School on

another day. In fact, in the first thirteen years of

this church, because we didn't have any land to build on,

we used seventy nine different buildings. Can you imagine that.

We said, we're the church. If you can figure out

where we are this week, you get to come. And

we were literally, you know, there's a church up in

La called the Church on the Way. We were the

Church on the move because you never knew where we

were from week to week. And the church kept growing,

and we went from one service to two services, to

three services to four services, and I'm getting tired to

five services the six services and I'm going anytime Lord,

we'd like to have a building now. And I'd look

around at friends of mine who were pastors. They they

got a building, and they got a building, and they

got a building. And one day God said to me, Rick,

who you doing this for? He said, well, I'm doing

it for you.

Lord.

He said, well does it matter what other What does

it matter to you what I do in other people's lives?

You just follow me? And he said, would you still

serve me if the church I call you to lead

and pastor never has a building. I said, of course

they would, Of course they would. The fact is, while

we were waiting, God was working, and God was preparing

this piece of land one hundred and twenty acres that's

bigger than most college campuses. And but the problem was

nobody knew where this piece was because while we were

starting the church, there was no city of Rancho Santa Margharita,

there was no city, a foothill ranch, there wasn't even

a lake forest, there was an El Toro. There were

no roads around here, there was no a freeway. This

was a cow pasture. Nobody even knew it was here.

But a thousand years ago, millions years ago, God had

already planned That's where I'm gonna put part of my church,

part of my body called saddleback. I'm gonna put them

right there. And we just had to wait for everything

to happen, for God to give us this piece of property.

And I can't tell you how many times we were

tempted in early years to settle for something small. And

people say, here's a half acre of land, here's a

third acre of land. We could have bought that, and

h time it said no, no, it's too small, it's too small,

And and I just kept trusting God for this. If

we had bought it, we would have built a church

at seated two hundred, and none of you would be here. Now,

let me just give you a little lesson. God always

gives his best to those who wait. And if you

get in a hurry, you're gonna settle for second best

in your life. And before God brings the best man

into your life, the best woman into your life, the

best job into your life, the best opportunity in your life,

Satan's going to give you all kinds of detours. And

he say, hey, see me over here, me over here,

And you go, oh, you know, I'm getting tired. Why

don't I just pick this one, and you settle for

less than God's best in your life. Don't do it.

As your pastor who loves you, I'm telling you, don't

do it. If you will wait for God's best. God

always gives his best to those who leave the choice

to him. But if you get frantic, and you get nervous,

and you get in a hurry, and you start trying

to answer your own prayer, you will have of a

fatal flaw and a terrible mistake in your life when

you try to answer on That's what Abraham did. God

promised Abraham, I'm going to give you a son. And

when it didn't happen, it didn't happen. It didn't happen,

It didn't happen. It didn't happen because his wife was

unable to conceive at that point. He took her handmaid,

got her pregnant and had a little boy named Ishmael

and said, here, God, I got the miracle son Jesus.

And God's just that's not the baby I'm gonna give you.

That's your plan. That's not my plan. That's your plan.

If you want God's blessing, you got to learn this

truth very deeply. Spiritual poverty means I don't do it myself.

I depend on God's wisdom. I depend on God's strength,

and I depend on God's timing, and he'll answer it

when he's ready to answer it. And when he knows

I'm ready for the answer, I'm gonna trust him, all right,

Number four? Or let me give you another way to

practice this week to be blessed by God. I depend

on God's wisdom, God's strength, God time me. And they

also depend on God's defense, not mine. I'll explain this,

but I depend on God's defense, not mine. There's always

going to be people in your life who misunderstand you.

Do you agree with that?

There'll always be people around you misunderstand There always people

people who don't like you.

There will always be people who.

Criticize you, judge you, attack you, gossip about you, spread

rumors about you, and a lot of people. You know,

if I could just be perfect, then everybody would like me. Wrong.

Jesus was perfect and a lot of people didn't write

like him. So even if you were perfect, even if

you were Jesus, there'd be people who are never just

not going to like you, and so they're going to

attack and they're going to criticize, and they're going to

try to get and even in your closest relationships, those

who love you most, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your husband,

your wife, those who love your most, you're still going

to be misunderstood by them, because we live in a

broken world. And when you are misunderstood, you're going to

have a tendency to get in there and defend yourself.

And when you're.

Attacked, your tendency is attacked back. When people criticize you,

you want to criticize back. People slam you. You want

to slam them back. People insult you, You want to

insult them back. You're out on the freeway. Somebody expresses

it to you, the international sign of displeasure. You want

to express the international sign of displeasure back to them.

Don't do it. Let God be your defender. Don't defend yourself.

God says every time you get under tack, get criticized,

get put down, get misunderstood. Now you got two choices.

You can defend yourself or you're gonna let me defend you.

What it'll be? Who do you think can do a

better job of defending you? God? Kid?

Hey, thanks for listening to pastor Rick's Daily Hope Right now,

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in Central Africa, and she wrote to me. She said,

Pastor Rick, I lost both of my son, both my

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So thank you for helping me hold on to hope.

Wow.

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