Rick Warren - How to Keep Your Heart Happy—Part One

Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,

the Bible teaching Ministry of Rick Warren, and today we're

continuing our series called the Habits of Happiness. In this series,

Rick dives into the Book of Philippians and helps.

You discover God's path to.

True and lasting happiness. Let's get going with part one

of a message called how to Keep Your Heart Happy.

This week, a little boy jumped into his father's lap

and he said, Daddy, my heart is so full of happiness.

Then he jumped off, went off to play with his brother.

An hour later, came back in with a long face,

really really, you know, like gloom had come over him.

And his daddy said, what happened to your happy heart?

He said, Brian made it all leak out. Would you

agree that sometimes our hearts spring a leak. Would you

agree that it's quite easy to spring a leak. You

can be very very happy, and the next second, because

of the phone call or what somebody said to you,

or somebody who cuts you off in traffic or whatever,

you can spring a leak. And it is very very

easy to lose the happiness in our hearts. Now, we

started a few weeks ago this series through the Book

of Philippians that I'm calling the Habits of Happiness. And

this weekend, if you'll take out your message notes, I

want us to look at how do you keep your

heart happy? In spite of all the things that happen

and all the things that cause you to spring a leak?

How do you keep your heart happy? And we're looking

at Philippians, Chapter two, verses twelve to eighteen. Now, this

is a very powerful passage Philippians two twelve to eighteen,

because in it it gives us examples of five of

the most common ways that we lose our happiness. But

more important than that, it gives us us the antidotes,

the cures, the remedies, the five cures to keep you

from losing your happiness so often so that your heart

doesn't spring a leak. Now, let me read the text

to you, and then you see if you can pick

out the antidotes as I read this to you, Philippians

two twelve to eighteen. Therefore, my dear friends, as you've

always obeyed, not just in my presence, but even more

in my absence. Remember Paul was writing from prison to

these people in Philippi A church that he started. He

was the planter of this church. He says, Now I

tell you to continue. Continue, I means keep on, continue

to work out your salvation. Work out your salvation with

fear and trembling. Now fear means deep respect, and trembling

means with sensitivity. It means with deep reverence and humility.

Work out your salvation fear and trembling. For it is

God who works in you to will and to act

according to His good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing,

so that you may become blameless and pure children of

God without fault, and a crooked and depraved generation in

which you shine like stars in the universe as you

hold on to and hold out the Word of life,

in order to maybe boast of the day of Christ

that I did not run her labor for nothing. Then

he says, But even if I'm being poured out like

a drink, offing on the sacrifice and service coming from

your faith, the sacrifice and the service coming from your faith,

he said, I'm still glad. I'm still happy, and I

rejoice with all of you. And so you too should

be happy, and you should rejoice with me. Now the

key verse in this passage is there in your outline.

It's it's verse twelve and thirteen, where it says you

must continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

In other words, deep respective humility, deep reverence and humility.

He says, you work out your salvation, for it is

God who works in you, both to will and to

act according to His good purpose. Now I want you

to circle the phrase work out and circle the phrase

work in in your life. God has a part and

you have a part in your spiritual growth. God's part

is to work in in you, to work in your salvation,

and your part is to work it out. Now what

does it mean to work out your salvation? Notice it

doesn't say work for big difference, you cannot work for

your salvation. You can't earn your salvation. You can't buy

your salvation, you can't deserve. So he doesn't say work

for your salvation, like work real hard and then you'll

be saved. The Bible does not teach that. In fact,

the Bible teaches the exact opposite. And Ephesians two eight

and nine it said it's by God's grace that you're

saved through faith, and even the faith is not of yourselves.

It's the gift of God, not of works. So no

one could boast. If you could work your way to heaven,

then everybody would be bragging who got up there? And

it would be like hell. So you can't work for

your salvation. He doesn't say that. He says you were

to work out what God works in. God works in

the salvation. You work when you work out a puzzle,

did you create the puzzle? No, it was already created.

What's the working out part of a puzzle? You're putting

it together? And then I said, oh, look at the

big picture. Okay, when you go work out in a gemist,

I can tell you do every day? Are you working

to create a muscle that's not there? Are you creating

the strength than the muscle God already gave you? The

second Okay, you can't create muscle. You can strengthen and

enlarge the muscle God gave you. But when you go

do a workout, it's not like you don't have any muscle.

You have some, it's just pretty weak. And so you

are to work out what God has already worked in you.

This is the key where to work out what God

works in. This week I read an article on five

exercises for a healthy heart, and it said, if you

really want to have a strong heart, good strong Coronary

Health said, you need to do five things. Said the

five workouts were a treadmill, a swimming pool, stretching, weightlifting,

an aerobics class. Those were the five workouts recommended by

the American Heart Association for a healthy heart. But I

don't want to talk to you about a healthy heart

this week. In this passage is about a happy heart.

How do you have a happy heart? And the workout

for a happy heart is quite different than a workout

for a physically healthy heart. But in this passage that

we just read, we have Paul's workout strategy, his workout plan,

his five exercises for a happy heart. All right, let's

look at these five exercises for a happy heart, not

a healthy heart, but a happy heart. And Paul in

these verses gives us five things to do. Now. Again,

as we've been going through this book of Philippians, it's

a very simple, straightforward book. But simple does not mean easy.

I'm going to share these five exercises with you. They're

pretty easy to do, be easy to understand, but they're

very hard to do. I mean, you know the right

things that will make you physically healthy, do you do them? No?

And these are the things that will make you emotionally

and spiritually happy, and you can hear them and not

do them. Now with the first exercise to maintain a

healthy heart has to do with fear. You see, fear

is one of the primary reasons we lose our happiness.

You cannot be afraid and be happy at the same time.

You just can't. And when we get afraid, when fear

comes in the front door, happiness goes out the back

door of our lives, and happiness stays on until fear

goes So you've got to get rid of fear. And

one of the biggest fears we have is the fear

of being abandoned, the fear of being alone, the feel

like I'm facing life all by myself. And you've all

felt that. We've all felt it at different times in

our lives, that we're here on alone by ourselves and

nobody is there to help us. And so here's the

first exercise. Number one. Remember that God is with me,

He's in me, and he's for me. Remember that God

is with me and in me and for me, and

this is the first verse that we have to deal

with Verse thirteen. No matter what I'm facing, no matter

what you're going to face this next week, you're not

going to face it alone. God is with you, He

is in you, and he is for you. Now look

at these three verses. Philippians two fourteen two thirteen says this,

for God is always working in you, giving you both

the desire to obey him and the power to do

what pleases him. Now let's look at this verse, word

by word. God is always working circle the word working.

That word in Greek is the word inner ghosts, from

which we get the word energy. Energy says God is

the energy driver in your life. You're not just going

on willpower. You're not just going on your own power,

God says. God says, I will give you the power,

and I am working in you, and no matter what

you're facing, I am in you. Not only is he

in us, he is with us. Look at the next verse.

John fourteen eighteen to twenty says, I will not leave

you as orphans. Jesus is speaking, I won't leave you

as orphans. I will be with you, and you will

realize that you are in me and I am in you.

That's quite a promise. That's quite a promise. God says,

not only am I with you, I am in you.

And not only am I in you, I am around you.

I'm around you. The Bible tells us in the Book

of Colossians that we are hid with Christ in God.

Now think about this. The Bible says Christ is in me.

The Bible says I am in Christ. The Bible says

we're hid with Christ in God. And the Bible says

we're sealed with the Holy Spirit. That means for the

devil to get to you, he's got to get through

the Trinity. That's a pretty good protection. That is a

great fear reliever. Look at the next verse. Not only

is God with us, and in the Bible says God

is for us Romans eight thirty one. If God is

for us, who can defeat us? So go back and

look at those three verses and circle the phrase in you,

and with you, and for you or for us. I

think of the verse where in Psalm twenty three it says,

surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days

of my life. Now you know that's the Lord's the

shepherd's prayer, the good shepherd prayer, where the Lord is

my shepherd, I shall not want. And the whole poem

is about David being a shepherd to his sheep and

God being a shop to David. And he says, surely

goodness and mercy will follow me. You know, when a

shepherd leads his sheep, they are always guard dogs at

the back, and these little guard dogs at the bat

nipping at the back, so that as a shepherd leads them,

the guard dogs behind keep the sheep moving in the

right direction. And the Bible says that the guard dogs

in your life are goodness and mercy. God's goodness in

your life and God's mercy in your life. God's goodness

God gives you the things you don't deserve. And God's

mercy is he doesn't give you the things you do deserve.

And in those in your life, you're going to have

both of those. He says, I'm not just with you,

I'm not just in you, I'm for you. Do you

ever feel the smart smile of God in your life.

If you don't, you don't really know God. Some people

think God is like their angry parent who's mad at

him all the time. No it says, God says, I

am for you. And the first exercise, if I want

to be happy, I need to get up every morning

and I need to say God, I thank you that

you're going to be with me today. You're gonna be

in me today, and you're gonna be for me today.

How good is that? What kind of great news is that?

If God is with me, God is in me, and

God is for me? What in the world am I

doing being depressed? Number two? The second habit or exercise

to maintain a healthy heart is this, be grateful and

never grumble. Uh oh, Now we go to verse fourteen.

This deals with the second cause of the loss of happiness,

fretting and fighting over the small stuff. Do you ever

do that? Yes, we all do it. We fret and

we fight over a small sout. That's verse fourteen. Now,

this is a hard habit to break because we're negative

by nature and we're conditioned by our culture. And ever

since Adam and Eve existed, we have been going around

excusing and accusing, excusing and accusing, excusing and accusing. We

excuse ourselves for all the mistakes we make, and we

accuse everybody else of all the mistakes we hide and

we hurl, and we blame others for the problems in

our life. And we say, you know, if I just

had a different husband, then i'd be happy. If I

had just hadn't gotten married, then I'd be happy. If

I had children, I'd be happy. If my children would

leave home, I'd be happy. That's that win. And then thinking,

and we're always blaming somebody else. I've said this many

times to you. You were as happy as you choose

to be. You can't blame anybody else. Happiness is a choice.

And you have to stop excusing it and accusing, and

you have to stop fretting and fighting over the small stuff. Now,

Philippians two fourteen and fifteen says this, do everything without

complaining or arguing, so that no one can speak a

word of blame against you, that their friends. It may

be one of the most difficult verses in the Bible.

Would you agree with that, do everything without complaining or arguing,

so then nobody can speak a word of blame against you.

This week I sent on I wrote a list of

the type of complainers that I run into all the time.

I didn't put your name down, I just put I

just put the description. First are the whiners. You got

any whiners in your life? And when they complain, they

you know, they rise and whine in the morning. I

saw a bumper stock the other day said I may rise,

but I refuse to shine. That's what a whiner does.

They they wake up negative. You know, people used to

always ask Katie, you wake up grouchy? She said no,

I usually let him sleep. And you know, again, this

is a choice. You can get up in the morning

and you can say good morning, Lord or good life.

It's morning. That's a choice. You have a choice. And

the second habit of happiness, the second skill, the second

exercise in the workout for a happy heart, you got

to learn to be grateful, always grateful, and never grumble.

Always grateful, never grumble. They're whiners. Then the second kind

of complainers are martyrs. Don't look at them. Their favorite

expression is nobody appreciates me, and they are pros at

throwing pity parties. They love to be everybody hates me,

nobody loves me. I'm gonna go eat worms. They're they're martyrs.

Made me think of that hypochondriac who had put on

her tombstone. I told you I was sick. She was

a martyr. How do you react when you don't get

your way? Huh? How do you react when when you

don't get your way? Do you pout? Do you mount? Am?

You know? Complaining campaign? Do you continue to fuss and

argue and complain and moan? You know, but mom, they're

whiners and their martyrs third kind of complainer, I see her.

The cynics, and the cynics take a different approach. Your

attitude is what's the use? Why bother? Why try? It

isn't going to make any difference. And cynics they just

they just kind of poison everything. It's like the lady

who walked into the uh, you know, the seafood restaurant,

and she said to the waiter, sir, do you serve

crabs here? He said, man, we serve everybody. Or the

lady walked into the grocery store and the clerk said,

shopping bag and she said, no, just looking. There are cynics.

And then number four, there are perfectionists. Perfectionists and perfect

Nothing is ever good enough for these complainers. You know,

everything is just not quite the way it ought to be.

They're unpleasable. And you know, the favorite phrases is that

the best you can do. And if you got c's,

the perfectionist wants you to get be's. You got b's,

they want you to get a's. If you got a's,

they want you to get straight a's. But we are complainers,

and the Bible says, if you want to be happy,

you've got to be grateful and never grumble. Do everything

without complaining or arguing, so no one can speak a

word to blame against you. You know, to me, friends,

the most the scariest verse in the Bible is Matthew

twelve thirty six. It's not on your outline. You might

write that one down, Matthew twelve thirty six. It's up

here on the screen. It's something Jesus said. Here's what

he said. I tell you this that you will give

an account on judgment day of every careless word you

haven that ought to sin shivers up your spine. How

many times have I complained, grumbled, argued about something when

I shouldn't have been sweating the small stuff? Don't sweat

the small stuff is law number one of life. Law

number two is it's all small stuff, or at least

most of it is. The Bible says this in first

that is one. It's five eighteen. In everything, give thanks

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Now people ask all the time, Rick, what's God's will

for my life? There it is in everything give thanks? Really, yes,

that is God's will. When you do that, God will

show you step b Now, notice circle. The word in

it does not say four. It does not say for everything,

give thanks. It says in everything, give thanks. There are

a lot of things I shouldn't be thankful for. I'm

not thankful for war. I'm not thankful for leukemia and cancer.

I'm not thankful for people who get raped and molested.

I'm not thankful for racial injustice. And there's a lot

of evil in the world. To be thankful for evil,

it is a perversion of what God teaches in his word.

The Bible doesn't say you're to be thankful for everything.

It says you're to be thankful in everything. Why well,

remember when I did the series on grief and the

last one I talked about five ways to use your pain.

I can use it to draw closer to God. I

can use it to draw closer to others. I can

use it to grow more like Christ. I can use

it as a ministry to serve others, and I can

use it as a platform of witness. I can be

thankful in a situation because I know Romans eight twenty eight.

In all things God works for the good. Not everything's good,

but in all things as God works for the good.

We've covered this many times. And so in everything I

can give thanks because I know that if I respond correctly,

God could turn crucifixions into resurrections. He loves to change

beauty for ashes, our ashes into beauty. So in everything,

give thanks. In other words, be grateful and never grumble,

be grateful for what you do. Have a question, do

you think you would be happier if you followed this

second exercise every day you grumbled less and were more grateful. Duh?

Okay again, it's not rocket science. Okay, but if you

want to have a happy heard, you do what God's

word says. And the first thing is to remember that

God is always with me. God has always in me,

and God is always for me. That makes me happy.

And I should be grateful and not grumble, not complain

and argue, and be grateful for what I have. What

I don't have study after studies show on the gratitude

is the healthiest attitude psychologically.

Thank you for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Hey,

did you know that most people look for happiness in

all the wrong places. You won't find it through money, fame,

or power. You'll only find real, lasting happiness by following

God's commands. And that's why Rick created the Habits of

Happiness Bible study.

Here's Rick to tell you more. If you'd like to

learn more about the habits of happiness, I've got a

new resource to help you. It's called The Habits of

Happiness Guided Experience Book. In this resource, you're going to

learn how seeing things from God's perspective will help you

develop the Biblical habits of happiness. And you're going to

discover how happiness runs deeper than any circumstance or any

feeling or any relationship. Now I'm excited because this book

is filled with biblical truth, practical lessons, application exercises, and

a lot of space for you to write down your

responses to what God is teaching you. It's a really

powerful workbook, and it's a comprehensive study tool I believe

is going to help you grow to your next level

of spiritual maturity.

This Bible study is only available on Daily Hope and

quantities are limited, so be sure to request the Habits

of Happiness Bible study today. When you give a gift

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