Rick Warren - Five Daily Habits for Happiness—Part Two

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. All right,

we're ready to get into today's message. Here is the

final part of five daily habits for happiness.

So the second habit is I remember what matters most.

Tom's going to come and talk about the third habit

for happiness.

The third habit is get to know Jesus better. Get

to know Jesus better. You should start every morning when

you wake up saying, Lord, if I don't get anything

else today, anything else done, I want to get to

know you a little bit better. I want to love

you a little bit more. Listen, you were made. I

was made to live in relationship with God. And if

I think I can be joy without getting to know

Him better the thing I was made for, I'm just

fooling myself. A lot of you, you've had a taste

of joy here or there, and you're just reaching for

it all the time. Where is the joy found in

our lives. It's found in the number one thing we

were created for, getting to know.

God a little bit better. Paul discovered that.

He says in Philippians three ten, I want to know

Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship

of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death,

so that somehow I might be raised to life. So

it's this thing of knowing Christ. And you've got to

understand the difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone.

He says, I want to know Christ knowing about someone.

I know about Justin Bieber, I know about Kim Kardashian,

I know about those people, but I don't know those people.

I know my wife, I know my kids because I've

spent time with them. I have a relationship with him.

Paul says, I know Christ because I've spent time with him.

I have this.

Relationship with him. I love this.

In the amplified version, it says there, for my determined

purpose is that I may know Christ, that I may

progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving

and recognizing and understanding him more.

Strongly and more clearly.

That phrase determined purpose the truth of the matter is

you don't get to know Christ by accident. You don't

just wake up one morning and just sort of accidentally

fall into knowing Jesus Christ better. It's a determined purpose.

It's something you have to do something about. You have

to invest your time in it. Your money is not

going to grow just sitting there. You have to invest

it somewhere in order for it to grow. We all

know that. Well, your relationship with God's not going to

grow unless you, like any other relationship, invest time in

that relationship. If you meet someone who has a strong

relationship with God's strong relationship with Jesus, I will guarantee

you they have spent a lot of time investing in

talking to him and letting him talk to them. You

don't grow a relationship without investing time in a relationship.

This is a little marriage.

Advice too, but it's also true in everything that we do.

It's purposeful, it's progressive.

And what's the trap.

Well, we're talking about spending time with someone, so the

trap is an obvious trap. The trap with this one

is the trap with all of our relationships, all of

our time that needs to be spent. It is busyness.

We just get too busy. We get too busy, and

busyness destroys relationships. It destroys relationships with your husband, your wife,

with your kids, It destroys your relationship with God. You

don't spend time with him. To get to know Jesus,

you got to make time and spend time with him.

But let me tell you, it doesn't take a lot

of time. If you'll just set aside ten fifteen minutes

in the morning. You know this in any relationship, if

you just a few minutes of focused time can make

all the difference in the world. So I'm not talking

about hours and hours. If you spend just a few

minutes in the morning, evening, afternoon, whatever's best for you.

But in that time, there's something you have to do.

You have to not be busy. You have to do

what Psalm forty six ten talks about.

You have to be still.

Some of you, those are terrifying words to you. I

know you're busy all the time. Be still, and when

you're still, then you know that he has gone. If

you want to get to know God better, you got

to spend time with him. If you want to spend

time with him, you got to make time for him.

Now. The fourth habit that you need to develop, and

as I said, you can do all of these in

about fifteen minutes a day, is this review where I

need to grow. You need to every day do a

little personal review of your life. Take a couple minutes

out of every day during your quiet time with God,

and you do a spiritual daily checkup. You take your

spiritual pulse. You can do it during your quiet time.

You say, Lord, where do I need to grow? What

do I need to work on? Where am I weak?

Where do you want me to be stronger. A good

verse you might write this verse down is Psalm one

thirty nine, twenty three and twenty four. Psalm one thirty nine,

verse twenty three and twenty four be a good verse

to memorize. It goes like this, search me, Oh God,

and know my heart, try me, test me and know

my thoughts. See if there's anything evil or wicked in

my life, and lead me in the way that's everlasting.

That's a good verse. I call it the search light verse.

And I usually say this in the morning. I say, Okay, God,

do a little heart check right now, do a little

spiritual eeg and ekg and tell me what I need

to work on today? Where do I keep growing? This

takes humility, but it's a habit that will lead to happiness.

You see, following Jesus is a decision followed by a process.

The rest of your life, you can't follow without walking.

You've got to have movement. So following Jesus is a

decision followed by process. A lot of you have made

the decision, but you haven't continued in the process. Some

of you men, in particular, you're in the family of God.

You said, yes, I've trusted Jesus for my salvation. I

know there's no way I'm going to go to Heaven

on my own merit. But you've never really grown, You've

never taken You're too far to the beginning part. You

haven't moved on. It's like the mom who heard about

her thud in the middle of the night and she

gets something, goes into the bedroom and finds out her

son has fallen out of bed on the floor, and

she said, how did you do that? He said, well,

I guess I stayed too close to where I got in.

And some of you have stayed too close to where

you got in, and you haven't grown in your Christian life.

You're saved, but you're not growing, And this is where

you need to do a daily checkup. Say where do

I need to grow today? I need to work on anger?

Do I need to work on patients? Do I need

to work on getting rid of jealousy? Do I need

to work on watching my words? Do I need to

work on being more relaxed in your grace? Philippians twelve

three verses twelve and thirteen. Paul talks about this fourth habit.

He says, I don't mean to say I'm perfect. Course

he wasn't because none of us are. He says, I'm

not saying I'm perfect. I still haven't learned all I should.

In other words, he realizes it's a growth process. I'm

not perfect, I haven't learned all I should. But I

keep working. I keep working toward that day. I keep

working toward that day when I will finally, finally be

all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be. Now,

dear brothers, I'm still not all I should be now

to me. That verse is one of the most amazing

verses in the Bible because it's written by the guy

who wrote most of the New Testament. Paul is an

older man. He's elderly, he's in prison in Rome, he's

at the end of life. He's an incredibly mature person,

and yet he says, I haven't arrived. If anybody had

the right to say I've arrived spiritually, I would think

it'd be the guy who wrote most of the New Testament.

But Paul says, no, I haven't arrived. I'm up in

the years. I'm up in age. I'm still growing, I'm

still learning, I'm still becoming more like Christ. I'm not

just sitting on my blessed assurance and waiting out the

end of my life. No, no, it says, I'm humble,

and I keep growing and keep growing. Now, what's the

trap that'll keep you from doing this? Write it down? Pride?

Pride will keep you from growing because when I pretend

that I've got it all together, then I don't have

it all together. Now we already know you don't have

it all together. God knows you don't have it all together.

You're the only one who won't admit you don't have

it all together. So you might as well stop being

prideful because we already know you don't have it all together.

And you're not teasing anybody. It's not like you know

the Wizard of Oz paying no attention to the man

behind the curtain. We know you don't have it all together.

And humility leads to happiness because it makes you teachable.

Happy people never stop growing. Happy people never stop learning.

Happy people never stop discovering, never stop stretching, never stop learning.

If you've stopped growing, I can tell you you're miserable

because you were made to grow, You were made to learn.

You were made to be better next year than you

are this year. And if you're just coasting, whenever you're coasting,

your headed downhill. Every time you coast, you're heading downhill.

So really, if you want to be happy, happiness and

humility go together because humility says I'm teachable. Where do

I need to learn? Okay, how can I be a

better husband this next year? How can I be a

better dad this next year? How can I be a

better boss this next year? How can I be a

better employer? How can I be a better employee? How

can I be a better friend to my friends this

next year? And you're doing this daily habit of reviewing

where do I need to grow? I relax? In God's grace.

You know, Okay, I relax in God's grace and I

let God show me his love, and I remember what

matters most, and I make the number one goal of

my life to get to know Jesus every day. But

during that time, I also say, okay, where do I

need to keep growing? Now? The secret to growth is

to be honest about yourself and to keep evaluating where

you are. And this is what Paul says. Look at

Two Corinthians thirteen to five. Paul says, test yourselves. Do

you ever do that? Test yourselves to make sure you're

solid in the faith. In other words, do a daily checkup,

review where you need to grow, take your spiritual pulse.

Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups.

You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay that Jesus Christ

is in you. Test it out, and if you fail

to test, do something about it. I love that in

the message. Now there's one other habit, and this is

the fifth daily habit for hapingpiness found in Philippians chapter three,

and it's this every day, forget what can't be changed

and focus on the future. That is a habit of

happiness every day. Forget what can't be changed, and focus

on the future, not on the past. Your past is past,

it's over, it's done, and all the worrying won't change

the past at all one bit. So forget what can't

be changed and focused on the future. Now, let's just

be honest. You have been hurt a lot in your past.

I'm sorry. As your pastor as somebody who loves you,

as somebody who prays for you, I know that you

have been hurt a lot, and I've heard the stories

many people hurt severely emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse,

financial abuse, and You've been heard in many, many, many ways,

and I'm sorry about that. Happiness requires letting go and

learning to forget. Happiness requires letting go of the hurt

and learning to forget.

You.

See, you can hold onto your pain. Nobody's going to

force you to let it go. You can hold onto

that pain, you can hold onto that memory, or you

can be happy. But you can't be both. So you

got to choose. So why don't you choose today? I'm

going to stop letting the pain of my past control

of my happiness in the present. Let it go, Let

it go. Happiness involves learning to forget. Here's what Paul

says in verse thirteen and fourteen. I am focusing all

my energies on this one thing, forgetting the past and

looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach

the end of the race and receive the prize for

which God through Christ Jesus is calling us up to heaven.

Now circle the phrase focusing all my energies. You only

have a limited amount of energy. You don't have unlimited energy.

That's why you get tired, That's why you get fatigued.

That's why you get worn out, because you don't have

an unlimited supply of energy. You're a human being. Since

you only have a limited supply of energy, I highly

recommend you not waste any of it on the past.

Don't waste any emotional energy. Don't waste another second of

your life on the past. The past is past. Would

you like to change it? Yeah? Can you know?

So?

Forget it? Forget it. Use all your emotional energy on today,

because that's all you've got. You can't even use it

on tomorrow because you're not there yet. Don't waste I

focus all my energy by forgetting the past and looking

forward to what lays ahead. Now. This habit is so

important to your happiness. There are three traps you have

to be aware of, and you're gonna have to deal

with these in order to live a happy life. Number

one is the trap of regret. You gotta let go

of regrets. That's stuff that I wish I'd done differently,

you know, and we all second guess ourselves. Are there

things I wish I'd done differently in your life and life?

Are you kidding me? Of course there are, but I

can't dwell on them because the past has passed and

I can't change it. It's done, so I'm not gonna

waste any emotion on regrets. That's the stuff I've done wrong.

The second trap is unforgiveness or resentment, and that's the

stuff that people have done to you. You've done bad things.

That's guilt, shame, regret, and people have done bad things

to you. That's resentment, unforgiveness and bitterness. Either way, you

get stuck in the past. What I've done wrong or

what other has done wrong to me. Either way you

get stuck in the past. Holding onto resentment is dumb.

It doesn't hurt anybody but you. The whole time you're

thinking about that person who hurt me so bad, they're

out there having a steak dinner. They're not even thinking

about you, So your resentment is not hurting them. The

only person you hurt with unforgiveness is you let it go.

For your own sake, you must forgive. Do they deserve it? No?

But do you deserve forgiveness from God?

No?

Those who experience grace are gracious, and you let them

off the hook. Why because God let you off the hook,

and because you don't want to hold onto the pain,

you want to let it go. There's one other thing

that's going to keep you stuck in the past and

cause you to be unhappy. And this one's going to

surprise you. But it's it's a trap, the trap of tradition,

tradition that it's the famous seven last words. We've always

done it that way, We've always got famous seven last words. Now,

have you noticed that things change? Yeah? Every day things change.

Have you noticed your body is changing? Not for the good? Okay,

your body is changing. Relationships change, the weather changes, culture changes.

Everything is constantly changing, and you cannot stop change. So

you have to decide. I can either get mad and

resist and resent these changes that are happening, or I

can choose to be happy. Happiness is a choice. Your

as happy as you choose to be. Remember, And so

even in the middle of changes I don't like, I

can choose to be happy. I saw a bumper sticker

the other day and said, if you dislike change, then

irrelevancy is going to appeal to you even less, because

if you don't change with the times, you become irrelevant. Now,

how you handle change in life reveals your spiritual maturity.

It reveals how connected to God you are. The more

connected to God you are, you're connected to the eternal.

So it doesn't matter what's changing down here. Anything that's

in style will be out of style tomorrow. One minute

you're a hero, the next minute you're a zero. Things

just constantly change. But if I'm geared and guided and

anchored to eternity that's never changing, and I'm tuned into God,

then change can take over place all around me, and

I can choose to be happy, and I don't resent

and regret and get mad and those kind of things.

If you want to be happy, Isaiah forty three says

this Tosday forty three seventeen eighteen. God says, forget the

former things and do not dwell on the past. See

I am doing a new thing. That's the fifth habit.

Let's bower heads. Happiness is a choice, and in many

ways it's a matter of the habits you choose to develop.

These five habits in Philippians chapter three are all things

you can do in about fifteen minutes a day during

a daily quiet time. So I challenge you to make

this commitment right now, say, Dear God, just say this

in your mind. Dear God. I want to learn to

relax in your grace every day, to not try to

earn your approval, but to realize you already love me,

and you will never love me any less or any more.

I want to reject legalism, trying to prove my worth

by rules, restrictions, regulation. I want to live by grace

and I want to be gracious to everybody else. And then, Lord,

say this, help me to focus every day on what

matters most, To not believe the advertisements, to not spend

and waste and worry my life away on things that

aren't going to matter even a week from today, much

less in eternity. Help me to focus on the eternal,

what's going to last for eternity, not what's in style.

And Dear God, I want to make getting to know

Jesus better the number one goal of my life. And

every day I want to know you a little bit better,

and I want to love you a little bit more.

And I want to spend time with you every day

in a quiet time to read your word and to

pray and to listen in conversation with you. Dear God,

I want to start a daily spiritual checkup during my

quiet time. I'll just say, Lord, where do I need

to grow? And help me to forget what can't be

changed in my past and help me to let it

go and instead help me to focus in faith on

the future and what you have in store for me.

If you've never opened up your life to Christ, say

Jesus Christ, come into my life right now. I want

to get to know you. I want to learn to

love you, trust you. I don't want a religion. I

want a relationship with you. Father. I thank you for

your word that it's practical, it's relevant, and it leads

us to the happy life that you want us to live.

When we focus on what's eternal, not what's current. I

pray a blessing on all of our church family in

the name of the Father, and the Son and the

Holy Spirit. Amen. Wow.

Some powerful words from Pastor Rick today. And now this

is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.

This is letters from our listeners and now here's Rick.

Have you ever noticed that your day goes better when

you start with God's Word. That's been true in my life,

and I'm certain it'll make a difference in your life too,

when you choose to get into God's word first thing

every day. It's one of the most important habits you

can develop. Here's an email from a man named Jeremy

who says connecting with God every morning has made such

a big difference in his life. He says, you know, Rick,

daily hope fills my mind with truth. When I begin

each day at three a m. Wow, I realize that

daily hope helps fill my mind with the good stuff

and crowds out all the negative. Because truth and hope

have really changed my attitude throughout the day. So you

can take it from Jeremy. God's word at the start

of your day will change your day in a positive way.

Thanks for listening today. Everybody. I love you, I thank

God for you, and I'm praying for you.

Did you know that you can start every day with

hope and encouragement from Pastor Rick, Well, you can when

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