Rick Warren - 7 Weapons of Self Destruction God Wants You To Overcome

Now you've heard of the weapons of mass destruction, but

I want to talk to you about what the Bible

teaches about the weapons of self destruction. There are things

that you do to yourself all the time that dammage you,

that hurts you, that cause you to self destruct, that

caused you enormous stress, enormous pain, enormous unhappiness, and.

Unneeded pressure in your life.

And then I'm going to show you, from God's word

in Romans chapter eight, how the Bible tells us that

the spirit of God living within you can give you

the antidote to.

Every one of these weapons.

Now, before we even get into the text, I want

you to write these seven things down.

It's not on your outline, so you're.

Just gonna have to write it somewhere, scribble it over

on the side. These are the seven weapons of self destruction.

You can talk to any psychologist and they'll tell you

that these are the seven things that mess up people's

lives more than in anything else. And we're going to

look at the cure for these weapons of self destruction.

The first weapon of self destruction is shame.

Shame.

You cannot be happy and feel ashamed at the same time.

When you feel ashamed, when you feel guilty, when you

feel regrets, that just robs all your happiness. God doesn't

want you to walk around feeling guilty. God doesn't want

you walk around feeling shamed. God doesn't want you walk

around with regrets. In fact, that's why I send Jesus

on the cross to die for all of your sins.

But shame is the first number one destroyer of happiness.

The second weapon of self destruction is uncontrolled thoughts. If

you don't learn how to control your thoughts, your thoughts

will ruin your life because you say to stuff to

yourself that causes unhappiness, causes grief, causes pressure.

You must learn how to control your thoughts.

The third weapon of self destruction is compulsions. Compulsions are

those inner drives, inner desires. You can call them less

you can call them habits, you can call them impulses.

But there are those things in your life you feel like,

I felt like I just had to do it, even

though you knew it was wrong. I just had to

do it. And those compulsions. You got to learn how

to deal with those and how to fight that weapon

of self destruction. Because if you do things by your compulsions,

you'll mess up your life. The fourth weapon of self

destruction is fear, and fear is an enormous destroyer of happiness,

of potential, of God's purpose for your life. It will

limit your life. You got to learn how to master

your fears. The fifth weapon of self destruction is hopelessness.

Hopelessness keeps you from keeping on. When you start to

feel hopeless about anything, you get discouraged and want to

give up. If you feel hopeless about your marriage, if

you feel hopeless about ever getting married, if you feel

hopeless about your finances, or you feel hopeless about your health.

Hopelessness is a self destructive weapon that you use on you,

and when you turn it inward, it robs you of

God's plan for your life.

Number six.

Bitterness is a huge weapon of self destruction because life

is unfair and we don't all get the same thing,

and life is broken and we're stuck, and some people

get better than you, and you get jealous and you

get envious, and some people hurt you.

You can either.

Get better or bitter, and bitterness is a cancer that

will eat you alive and will It's a poison that

will eat you on the inside. You never hurt other

people with your bitterness like you hurt yourself. You always

hurt you the most. It is a self destructive emotion.

There is no value to bitterness in your life. There's

no value to holding onto a grudge. All it does

is make you miserable. And the seventh weapon of self

destruction is insecurity. You gotta deal with this one because

if you don't learn how to deal with insecurity in

your life, it's going to cause you to do foolish things.

When you're insecure and you're trying to show everybody else

that you're very confident, you'll say stupid things, you'll do

stupid things. You'll pose And the only people impressed by

posers are other posers. Okay, everybody sees through it. The

only people are impressed by fakes are other fakes. So

you know, when you're insecure, you can't hide it.

You have to deal with it. Now.

The classic passage on dealing with these weapons of self destruction.

Is Roman seven and Romans eight.

Now, at the end of Rome seven, Paul says this,

look up here on the screen.

He's outlined the battle going on.

Inside himself, and he says, what a miserable person I

am because I'm miserable. You know, as I said, all

those things I want to do that I know are good,

I end up not doing, and all those things that

I don't want to do, I end up doing. And

I'm really messing up my life. What a miserable person

I am. I've tried everything and nothing helps. He says,

who will free me from this life dominated by sin?

Now he doesn't say what will free me? Because the

answer to you, the problem inside you, the mess ups

in your life that you'd like to change. The answer

is not a pill. It's not a program, it's not

a book, it's not a tape, it's not a seminar,

it's not hypnosis. The answer is a person. It is

Jesus Christ and his spirit inside you. And Romans eight

is the answer to Romans seven, that the spirit of

God inside you gives you the antidote to all seven

of these negative emotions. Now, what I want us to

look at this weekend is how can I be free

from me?

How can I be set free from me?

And the way we're gonna look at this is the

truths of Romans eight. I have put them in a

practical way. Of listing seven mental habits that you need

to do that will help you apply the truth of

Romans chapter eight.

And so we're.

Gonna look at these seven mental habits that explain the

great truths of Romans eight. Romans eight is the greatest

chapter in the Bible. In my opinion, it's the greatest

chapter they want to to study of Bible scholars and said,

if you could only have one chapter of the Bible

and you're on a desert island, which one would you take?

And about ninety percent of them said I'd take Romans eight.

So this is a very strong passage. You need to

take a lot of notes today.

Number one.

The first step in being set free from me is this,

I must remind myself.

Daily what Jesus did for me. That's the starting point.

I got to remind myself every day of what Jesus

did for me. What is salvation? What are the benefits

of it? You see, we have a lot of people

who saved. You don't act like it. They run around

all the time filled with shame and uncontrolled thoughts and

compulsions and fear and bitterness and insecurity. And they're believers,

but they're not set free from me. And the first

step is you've got to remind yourself what Jesus actually

did for you. And this is how the Holy Spirit

sets me free from shame. Let's look at these verses

Romans eight one to four. First, he says, so now

there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus Christ.

And let me stop there before we go any further.

No condemnation means God doesn't judge you for all the

things you've done wrong. You've trusted Christ because Jesus took

all that judgment on the cross. He doesn't have to

judge you. Because Jesus was judged, he doesn't have to

condemn you. Because Jesus took your condemnation. He took your wrap,

he paid your penalty, He did your time for you. Now,

the Bible says that if I'm a believer, I belong

to Christ. Look at that verse. There is no condemnation

for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Circle the phrase

belong to Christ Jesus. This old passage is talking about

people who've given their life to Jesus. This doesn't apply

to you if you haven't made that decision yet, But

if you've received Christ in your life. The Bible says

you're under no condemnation. I means God doesn't get mad

at you when you sin. Did you hear that God

does not get mad at you when you sin if

you belong to Jesus Christ, because he's already taken the payment. Now,

notice it doesn't say that after I become a Christian, I.

Won't sin, You're still going to sin.

It doesn't say I'm not gonna make mistakes. You're still

gonna make mistakes. It doesn't say I'm not gonna fail

and look stupid, You're gonna fail and look stupid. It

just says you're under no condemnation. In other words, you

don't have to walk around with shame. You don't have

to walk around with guilt, because when Jesus Christ died

on the cross, he not only paid for all of

the sins you committed last week, last year, and your

entire life he committed. He's already paid for the sins

that you're gonna commit tomorrow, next week, and the rest

of your life. They're already paid for. That's good news.

That is good news. No condemnation. That means there is

no reason for a Christian to walk around in shame.

Because I stop and I remind myself Jesus paid.

For all of my sins.

He already knew before I was born, every sin I

was gonna do, and He paid for it. Now, the

next part of that verse says, for the power of

the life giving spirit, that's the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit

has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of

sin that leads to death.

And what does that verse mean?

The second thing I remember is that because I'm a

believer and I have Jesus, I have a new power

in my life, greater than willpower. You see, before you

became a Christian, the only thing you had to use

against your bad habits was sheer willpower.

And how long does that work? Now?

Very long, he says. Now there's a new power in you. Unfortunately,

a lot of Christians are still simply relying on willpower

to change. They've never figured out how to connect into

spiritual power, into the power of the Holy Spirit, into

the power of Jesus inside you. He says, there's a

new power in you. There's a new sheriff in town.

And when you want to change things in your life,

it's not just if it's to be.

It's up to me.

It's not just my own willpower. It is God's power

in me. I have been given the power greater than willpower.

We're gonna look at this more in the next versus,

then the next thing.

It says the law of Moses could not.

Save us because of our sinful nature. Now laws, keeping

God's laws cannot save you.

Guy says, well, I know I'm going to heaven. You say,

how do you know? It's because I keep the Ten Commandments.

I say, name them.

You don't not only not keep the ten commandments, you

couldn't even name all of them. If I ask you

to stand up right now, you couldn't even How can

you keep them if you don't even know them all?

By the way, keeping laws never works. Why, it says,

because of our sinful nature. Laws simply work on outside behavior.

They don't work on inside change. They don't change you

on the inside. For instance, if I were to bring

a pig out here, a big sow that had been

rolling around in the mud and the dirt and eating garbage,

and it stinks to high heaven, and say what is this,

you'd say, it's a pig. Now I take that pig backstage,

and I run it through a couple of car washes,

and then I put it in a bathtub, and I have.

Bath salts and perfumed.

Soap SuDS, and I get it all cleaned up, and

I brushed the you know, their teeth, the pig's teeth.

And then I sprinkle some foo foo juice on it.

You know some corral number five, you know that would

be appropriate for a pig, okay, And I rub it

down with oil of olet so its skin is just silky,

silky soft. And then I tie a ribbon around its neck,

and I put a bonnet on it, and and I

put some eyeshadow and fake eyelashes on this pig.

And I put a dress on it.

And then I put some lipstick on this pig. And

I bring this pig out, and I say, now, what

is it still a pig?

Okay?

You may have spiffed up the outside, but the nature

has remained unchanged. And this is what happens with self

help programs, is that we spiff up the outside and

we my sheer will powers say, I'm gonna take a bath,

I'm gonna get on some new clothes, I'm gonna change

my behavior and all the outside looks different, but inside

it's still the same nature. If you're gonna have radical change,

transforming change in your life, it's got to change your nature,

and only God can do that. No self help program

can change your heart, which, by the way, is why

I'm not a politician. I have zero faith in politics

or laws to change human behavior. Why because it's just

fixing the outside. You can pass a law that says

nobody will be a bigot or a racist. Is that

gonna change anybody's heart. No, Only Jesus can change that heart.

And I have seen people come to Christ and they

change from a racist into a compassionate person, and from

a bigot into a loving person. Only Jesus can change that.

If I thought you could change human behavior by laws,

I'd be a politician, But there's no track record that

it actually changes people. Only God can change the inside, which,

by the way, is why we don't spend so much

time promoting all political laws. You know, there are some

Christians who think they're going to make the world a

better place just by creating a law.

Will people just break it?

I mean, they want a law against this sin, and

a law against this sin and the law against this sin,

and the law against this sin, and the law against

this sin. And they think that's going to change people. No,

people just going to break the law you do. God

has given all kinds of laws in his word, and

you don't obey those, and you break them all the time.

See.

One of the things we know here at Saddleback is

you don't expect somebody to act like a believer until

he is one, because he doesn't have the power to change.

He doesn't have the ability to change. So passing a

law that says everybody is going to be moral or

everybody's going to do this, that doesn't change that's fit,

that's cleaning.

Up the pig.

It doesn't change our nature. God put into effect. Notice here,

so God knew that laws couldn't save us. But God

put into effect a different plan to save us. He said,

his own son in a human body like ours, except

that ours are sinful. And God destroyed sins control over

us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins.

In other words, he gave us the power to make

those changes, to forgive us and to change us. And

then it said he did this. Jesus died on the cross,

so that the requirement of the law would be fully

accomplished for us.

Circle the phrase for us. What is he saying there?

That Jesus not only paid for all your sins, he

did all the right things for you, those of us

who no longer follow our sinful.

Nature but instead follow the spirit. Now, if you.

Really are serious about changing your life for the better,

you've got to start where God tells you to start.

And God says you don't start with your behavior, your actions,

and you don't start with your feelings, your emotions. You

start with your mind. The battle for you to be

set free from Me starts in changing your mind. Be renewed,

be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Bible

teaches very clearly that the way we act is determined

by the way we feel, and the way we feel

is determined by the way we think. For instance, if

I'm acting depressed, it's because I feel depressed, and if

I'm feeling depressed, it's because I'm thinking depressed thoughts.

And if I want to get over.

My depression, I don't force myself to change my behavior.

That doesn't work, And I don't force myself to change

my feelings you can't change a feeling. You cannot force

a feeling. A guy says, you know, I don't love

my wife anymore. So I said, well, okay, what are

you going to do about it? Well, I'm just going

to force myself to feel that I love her. How

will that work? It doesn't work. You can't force a feeling.

It's like telling the crying kid, now I command you

to be happy.

I try it, dad of you crying.

You cannot force a feeling. In fact, when you try

to force a feeling, everybody knows you're faking it.

You can't force a feeling. You can't fight that feeling anymore.

That that you're really old. Okay, you are really really old. Okay.

Now, what you do is you change the way you think.

And if you change the way you think, that's going

to change the way you feel, and it will change

the way you act. So if you say, you know,

I don't have any feelings for my wife anymore, you

can act your way into a feeling, and you can

think your way into feeling, but you can't feel your

way into feeling. If you start acting loving towards your

wife and you start thinking loving thoughts toward you, right,

I'm gonna tell you what. The feelings will come back.

They will return. You act your way into a feeling,

and you think your way into a feeling, but you

don't feel your way into feeling. Now, the good thing

about this is that now that you're a Christian, you

have the Holy Spirit inside of you, and so you

can ask him to help you put good thoughts in

your mind. So now you're not just on your own.

You're not just out here trying to think up stuff

by yourself.

And what would be a good thing for me to

think about?

You can say, Holy Spirit, put good thoughts in my mind.

That's the second thing we learned from Romans eight. Write

this down number two. The second mental habit to defeat

the weapons of self destruction is I ask the Holy

Spirit to give me better thoughts. I ask the Holy

Spirit to give me better thoughts. And if you ask

him to give you better thoughts, do you think he will?

Of course he will. Of course he's going to give

you better thoughts. That's a prayer he's going to answer.

I ask the Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts.

This is the second key to permanent change in your life. Now,

this is what it says in the next two verses,

Verses five and.

Six of Romans eight.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their

mindset on what the nature that nature desires, But those

who live in a accordance with the Spirit have their

mindset on what the Spirit desires. Now, there's two kinds

of mindsets circle the mindsets. There's the mindset of your

old nature, and there's the mindset of the Holy Spirit.

There's the mindset of the way I normally think about

my life, and there's the mindset of how the Spirit

sees my life. Which one's gonna be true the one

that the Spirit says. So I have to choose between

these mindsets. Am I gonna set my mind on the

way I normally think about my life? Or am I

gonna set my mind on the way God thinks about

my life. Now, there's a big difference in choosing these mindsets,

because if you choose one, you're gonna get one response,

and if you choose the other, you're gonna get another.

And the next part of the verse tells us what

that is the mind of sinful man is what that means,

it's self destructive thoughts that you come up with yourself

are going to tend to be self destructive.

The mind is sinful, man is death.

But the mind controlled by the spirit is what life

and peace. Okay I don't normally do this, but how

many of you would like to have life and.

Peace this summer?

Yeah, me too, I would like to have life and

peace of summer. And it's all about the mindset you choose.

The economy may not change, it probably won't. Your problems

probably won't change those ones that are persistent, but your

mindset can change. And that's the difference between a life

of self destruction or a life of life and peace. Now,

this is the Holy Spirit's answer to uncontrolled thoughts. What

I do is I ask the Holy Spirit to give

me better thoughts. And this is the principle of replacement.

I want you to write this word down, replacement. The

principle of replacement is anytime you want to change something

in your life and you're serious about changing it, you

don't resist it.

You replace it.

When you got something negative in your life, you don't

resist it, you replace it. You say, I want to

stop smoking, you don't smoking. I want to stop smoking.

I want to stop smoking. I want to stop smoking.

It's like the frog and towed together, that story we

read last week. I don't want to eat a cookie

and I just ate one. I don't want to eat

a cookie and I just ate one. I don't want

to eat a cooking. No, because the whole time you're

focusing on what you don't want and whatever if you

focus on, gets your attention. Whatever gets your attention gets you.

That's why if you want to break any bad habit

in your life, the key is not to resist it,

but to refocus. Whatever you resist persists because you keep

focusing on it. Now, It's like if I'm flipping TV

channels and all of a sudden there's something on TV

that I don't really want to watch or I shouldn't watch.

I don't sit there and go I don't want to

watch it. I don't want to watch it. I don't

want to watch I just flip the channel, I replace it,

and the moment I replace it.

It's gone. It has no grip on me anymore. So.

I mean, if you're standing in an airport bookstore and

they've got all these girly magazines, and you're standing in

front of you saying, I don't want to look at them.

I don't want to look at them up. What do

you do? Well, you don't stand there.

You walk away, Okay, you slam the door if you want,

don't want to get stung by the bees. You just

get away from them, and you replace it with something else.

Now, let's say.

I had a big, fat, juicy donut sitting right here.

Okay, I mean, and it's hot.

And the glaze is just kind of dripping off the side.

Now, if it's sitting here, I don't go.

I don't want that donut, I really really, I'm just

smelling it. Oh baby, old baby, that yeasty smell.

Oh wow.

Now what do I do? I just look over it

down to you guys. And the moment I say you guys,

I've lost, it's lost its grip on me because my

tension has changed.

Now.

As long as I resist the donut, it hadn't work.

But the moment I refocus on something else, I don't

even think about it anymore.

Does that make sense? Okay?

So I ask the Holy Spirit to give me better

thoughts to replace the negative.

Ones in my mind.

Now, you choose what you dwell on. Satan gives you ideas.

Those are called temptations Holy Spirit gives you ideas. Those

are called inspiration. You get ideas, But the truth is

you choose what you focus on. But now now that

you're a believer, you have a helper and you can say,

Holy Spirit, I invite you to give me your ideas.

And a lot of times the Holy Spirit, the God's

Spirit will say to me, Rick, why don't you think

about this instead?

Good idea? And I just change my thoughts.

Now, I would encourage you to invite the Holy Spirit

to have free access to your mind. You say, God,

you have put your spirit inside of me. I give

you free access to my mind twenty four hours a day.

I invite you to suggest good thoughts. Why because they'll

always be the truth, They'll always be right, they'll always

be helpful, they'll always be pure.

Those are the things we are to think on. So

you invite the Holy Spirit to put thoughts in your mind? Why?

Because those who live according to sinful nature have their

mindset on one thing, but those who live according to

the Spirit have their mindset on another. And the mindset

that I normally have leads to self destruction, and the

mindset that God's Spirit gives me leads to peace and

I want peace in my life. So, and that's why

I said, you know earlier, we don't expect unbelievers to

a like believers until they are. They don't have the power.

Look at the next verse. The sinful mind is hostile

to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor

can it do so.

It can't even do it.

Those controlled by sinful nature cannot please God. So why

do you work on passing law when they don't have

the ability to change it? To change, only God can

change it. Change comes from the inside out. Third principle,

Third mental habit You're going to need to develop to

apply the truths of Roman's aid in your life, and

that is this. I realize I have a new ability

to say no. I need to remind myself. I need

to remember on a daily basis. I need to realize

that now that I'm a believer, I have a new

ability to say no to the things that are self

destructive in my life. Now this is very important because

before you became a believer, all you had was will power.

Lost most of those bad habits because lost to most

of them because you don't willpower wears out. It's not enough.

But now with the spirit in your life. You have

a new ability to say no, a new power, and.

You need to learn how to tap into that power.

I don't know about you, but I could admit pretty

honestly that before I had the Holy Spirit in my life,

there were some things I just couldn't say no to.

I didn't have the ability to say no to them.

And you can call them compulsions, you can call them habits,

you can call them urges, you can call them lusts,

you can call them impulses, you can call them your

old nature.

But the truth is, there were.

Some things in my life I just couldn't say no to.

I had no ability to say no because I didn't have.

All I had was willpower.

Now now I have God's power, and he gives me

the ability to say no.

Look at this verse up here on the screen.

Galatians five sixteen says this, let the Spirit direct your lives,

and you will not satisfy the desires of the old

human nature. Now, if I let the Spirit live through me,

does it say I won't have those desires?

Is that what it said? No, it says I won't what.

I won't satisfy those desires? I won't satisfy those desires.

In other words, do I still have the same desires

I had before as a Christian?

Yes? Do I still have the same temptations? Yes? Do

I still have the same urges and compulsions? Yes? Do

I fulfill them?

No?

Why?

Because I have a new power inside of me, and

it's not just will power anymore. Now I've heard people say,

but why should I limit any desire in my life

that seems natural? Why should I rein it in if

it seems if it's a natural desire, Friends, not everything

natural is good for you. I mean, I might naturally

want to punch you in the nose. That doesn't mean

I should do it. I have a lot of natural

desires that I need to not fulfill. For instance, sometimes

I have a natural desire to cuss people out on

the freeway.

Doesn't mean I should just do it.

No, just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good. Arsenic

is natural, but you drink it and it'll kill you.

A lot of.

Natural things are poison So just because it says natural

doesn't mean it's good. There are things in my old

nature that are very natural for me to do, but

they're self destructive. I mean, people say, well, if I

feel this way, why shouldn't I give into it? Because

that's called maturity. Maturity is when you do the right thing,

not what you feel like doing, because what you feel

like doing isn't always the best for you, the best

for somebody else, God's will or whatever. If everybody just

did what they naturally feel like doing, nobody would go

to work tomorrow morning. Nobody would go to work. If

everybody did what they naturally feel like doing, you know,

you know, every girl would be pregnant long before she

got married. You got to realize that I have a

new ability to say no. Now, this is the good

news of Romans chapter eight. Look at the next verse,

verse nine. But he says, you are not controlled by

your sinful nature. You are now controlled by the spirit

if you have the spirit of God living in you.

Anybody who does not have the Spirit of God living

in them does not belong to Christ.

Now let me stop here and explain this.

Some people mistakenly think that you get God kind of

piece meal, that Jesus comes into your life at one

point in your life, and then maybe a little bit later,

the Holy Spirit comes into your life, and then maybe

a little bit later, you get the Father into your life. No,

God is a trinity three and one. When you got Jesus,

you got all of God. God doesn't come into your

life piece meal. When Jesus comes into your life, the

Spirit comes into your life. When Jesus comes into your life,

the Father comes into your life. When the Father comes

into your life, the Spirit in Jesus come into your life.

You can't separate them. You can't divide them up like

a piece of pie. So the moment you gave your

life to Christ, Jesus, Christ put his self in your

life in his spirit, the spirit of God, the spirit

of the Father, the spirit of Jesus.

It is the Holy Spirit. So you don't get God

a little bit at a time. Does that make sense?

Okay, God, the Holy Spirit doesn't come in in the

later point. He comes in and you get all of

God when you give your life to Christ. Now the

question is does he have all of you and the

rest of your life. You're going to be given more

and more of your life to him, and then the

more you give, the more power you have. But he says,

because I have this, I now have a new ability

to say no. Look at the next verse. So, dear brothers,

you have no obligation anymore to your old sinful nature

to do what.

It begs you to do.

This is how God sets me free from my compulsions. Before,

when I would have felt compulsed to do something, compelled

to do something, I didn't have anything except willpower to

stop myself. Now I've got a new power inside me,

and I don't have any obligation anymore to listen to

my old nature. Now I've heard people tell me, oh,

I can't tell me. People who've had an affair, committed adultery,

who told me I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't help myself.

I just had to do it. I just felt compelled

to do it. Well, now you have a new help

to stop you. And when somebody says I'm a Christian,

but I couldn't stop myself, they're lying. They're lying because

they simply didn't call on the power that was there

available to them, and they didn't rely on the Holy

Spirit in that moment of temptation.

Compulsions.

You know you can ruin an entire life with one

second of compulsion. Just go ask A bunch of the

politicians had scandals this last year, spent decades building a reputation,

and in a moment of compulsion, lost it all.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But I have a new power, a new ability to

say no. Number four, the fourth mental habit I need

to develop if I want to change my life is

I need to turn my thoughts to God whenever I'm afraid.

That's the fourth antidote to these weapons of self destruction.

I remind myself every day what Jesus did for me.

I ask the Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts.

I realize I now have a new ability to say no,

and then I turn my thoughts to God whenever I'm afraid,

whenever I'm afraid. And this is how God Spirit sets

me free from me with the attitude of fear Romans eight.

Look at the next verses, verses fourteen to sixteen. For

the spirit God gives you does not make you slaves

and cause you to be afraid. Instead, the spirit makes

you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry

out to God, Father, my father. This is actually the

Aramaic word aba. Aba is not the group. It means daddy, papa.

It's dad dad. It's the most basic intimate form of father. Daddy, Daddy,

my daddy. We cry out to God, Daddy, my daddy, Papa,

my papa, ah Ba, my abba. God's spirit joins himself

to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Now,

when I was a kid, I wasn't very fearful at all.

I really had almost no fears as a child and

was pretty reckless and had a lot of fun growing up.

But sometimes as a young child at night, if I

heard something that was kind of scary and I was afraid,

I would always cry out to my father. I say Daddy, Daddy,

and he could hear me from my room in our house,

and my Dad would come and see me. Now, when

I was afraid, I never called out for my mom.

And the reason why is I knew my dad was stronger. Now,

my dad wasn't a big guy, but he was very

strong because he was a hard worker, and I knew

he could take on anybody. And so I'd say Daddy.

Whenever I was afraid, I would cry out to Daddy.

This is exactly what God tells you to do when

you're afraid. Stop focusing on your fear, Start focusing on

your father.

That's the antidote.

Stop focusing on your fear, start focusing on your father. Now,

he says, the antidote to fear is two things. First,

he says, the spirit that God has given you doesn't

make you slaves, make you afraid, but he makes you

God's children. Whenever you are afraid, the first thing you

need to do is remember this whose family you're a

part of. I'm a son of God. I'm a daughter

of God. I'm a child of God. I'm in the family.

And families take care of each other, and there's family protection. Now,

let's say you grew up in Chicago or in New

York City and your family was a part of the

family okay, the mafia family.

Okay.

And you're walking down the street as a kid, okay,

and somebody starts to assault you and you stop me.

He says, oh wait, just a minute. Do you know

who I am? Do you know who I am?

My father is Guido, and Guido works for Bruno, and

Bruno is the Copo de Capo de Capo de capo.

He will make you an offer you can't refuse. Are

you sure you want to touch me because I'm in

the family, And hey says, well, on second thought, you

can have your money back because the family protects you. Now,

when you start to be afraid, God says the first thing,

he says, Wait a minute.

Do you know who my father is.

My father is the creator of the universe. My father

is God. I'm a child of God. I'm in the

family God takes care of his kids. And then I

cry out to father, Father, would you take care of

this fear for me? Will you handle this one for me?

And my heavenly Father says, of course, I'll handle it

for me.

Go back to sleep. You don't have to worry about it.

I'll take care of you.

When you were afraid, you remember whose family you're in.

You're a child of God. You're not a slave. You're

a child of God, and He's going to take care

of you. And second you call out to your father. Now,

what are you most afraid of? What are you most

afraid of?

These days?

You know the number one fear people have. I know

all the studies. People say it's the fear of speaking

in front of others, It's a fear of heights, or

you know, the fear of new social situations. Actually, what

I've found is a pastor talking to people for thirty years.

The number one fear people have is the fear of

being out of control. And when you feel your life

is out of control, it creates enormous fear in your life.

And the longer you feel it's out of control, you

start thinking I'm out of control. And then you start thinking,

maybe I'm losing my mind, and you start feary. Maybe

I'm going crazy, maybe I'm going insane. You've all felt

this at different times in your life, so don't act

like so self righteous everybody. I think I'm losing my mind.

I think I'm going crazy. I'm afraid I'm going nuts. Now,

let me just put you at ease. You're not going

crazy because crazy people don't fear that. Crazy people are

very happy to be crazy and don't care. The very

fact that you are afraid you're going crazy means you're rational,

so you're not crazy. You're not going crazy. The fear

that you're going crazy shows that you're very very rational.

Crazy people aren't afraid of being crazy. So I want

everybody to say this, I'm broken, but I'm not crazy. Okay,

let's say it a loud together. I'm broken, but I'm

not crazy. Let's say it again. I'm broken, but I'm

not crazy. That's some of you are afraid to say it.

So let's say it again. Okay, ready, I'm broken, but

I'm not crazy. Everybody's broken. I'm broken, you're broken. The

person sitting next to you is broken.

We're all.

Nothing is perfect in this world, but you're not crazy.

Now.

The Bible says that we should not be afraid, but

we turned to God. I remember one time in northern California.

It's a year I got married. At the end of

the year that I got married thirty six years ago,

my health broke and I began to develop a fear

that it's never going to go away, that my life

is over shoot. My life hadn't even started, hadn't even started.

But I was afraid, this is the end of my life.

I'm never going to mount anything. Nothing's going to happen

in my life. God isn't going to use me. I'm

going to be an invalid my entire life, and on

and on and on. And I was filled with these fears,

and so we took a month off from work, and

Kay and I went to northern California, where my parents

lived out in the country in the Redwoods.

And while we were there. One day, I got up

in the morning and.

I was so depressed because these fears were just clawing

at my mind all the time. And the phone rang

and my mom picked it up and shed it decay

and the man said, is this where Rick Warren is staying?

And they said, yes, Can I talk to him? She

said yes. She hands me the phone. This guy says, Rick,

we've never met. I don't know you, you don't know me.

I'm calling from San Diego, but I heard that you

were going through a tough time, and I just want

to give you a verse. And it is this God.

It's two Timothy one seven. God has not given us

a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and

love and self control.

And he hung up.

That verse changed my life. Here it is on the screen.

For the spirit that God has given us does not

make us fearful or timid. Instead, his spirit fills us

with power, love and self control.

Now get this.

The more controlled you are by the Holy Spirit, the

more self control you've got to have, You're gonna have,

You're going to have.

Now get this.

A lot of people are afraid of the Holy Spirit.

It's like, I don't want to be filled with the spirit.

Fill the spirit that'll turn me into some nut I'm

gonna be some religious fanatic. I'm gonna be like some

of those people on TV saying, Babe, you know out

foul spirit of nicotine, you know, And I'm gonna be

falling over backwards, and I'm gonna be you know, I'm

gonna lose control.

Actually it's the exact opposite.

The more you have of the Holy Spirit, the more

self controlled you are. In fact, God does not give us,

it says, a spirit of fear. So if you are afraid,

that's not from God. That fear is not from God.

When God's Spirit comes into your life, you're filled with love.

I want that, you're filled with power. I want that

you're filled with self control.

I want that. Okay, the only spirit I want all

you got film me.

It doesn't make me some nutcase. It makes me more human,

It makes me more natural, It makes me more loving,

It makes me more in self controlled, mastered by the Master.

I can master anything. Throw it at me. I can

handle it. Why because I can do all things through Christ,

who strengthens me. So the spirit in me doesn't make

me a lunatic or religious nut. To be filled with

the spirit makes me more self controlled.

And believe me, brother, you need more self control.

The more spirit controlled I am, the more self controlled

I am.

Number five and three more. Let's move these real quickly.

The fifth thing we learned from Romans eight is about

the antidote to hopelessness, and that's verses seventeen and eighteen.

And the habit I want you to learn to develop

is to focus on the long term, not the short term.

Focus on the long term, not the short term. You know,

there's a very famous study done by Harvard University, very

very famous study that found out that figured out that

the more long term you're thinking is the more successful

you're going to be in life. The shorter term you're

thinking is the more failure you're going to be in life.

People who fail at life have short term thinking. They're

only thinking about today.

They're only thing about here and now, the only thing

about what feels good to me right now. But the

longer term you think, the more successful you'll be in life.

In fact, the longest term thinkers are those who are

most successful in life. Now, as a Christian, we can

win this one hands down because when we think in

terms of long term thinking. We call it eternity because

we're not just thinking about life here on this earth.

We're not thinking about forty fifty years ahead. We're thinking

about trillions and trillions and trillions years ahead. And living

in light of eternity is the key to being the

most successful you could possibly be thinking in long term. Now,

when you think in long term, you're able to handle

short term pain a whole lot better.

You're able to handle.

Short term losses, short term failures, short term hindrances because

you're thinking long term. Here at Saddleback, we went fifteen

years without a building. A lot of pastors would have

given up not having a building for fifteen years. Saddleback

groot over ten thousand people before we built this building.

But it didn't bother me because I was thinking long term,

of in spending my entire life as a pastor of

one church. So fifteen years, so what that's just fifteen years.

I was thinking long term. And while you're thinking about

today and this week for your life as your pastor

who loves you, I'm always thinking ahead for your life.

I'm thinking about what are you going to be at

the end of the year. What are you going to

be at the end of five years. What are you

going to be at the end of ten years. It's

called decade of destiny. And that's why I'm thinking about

how to help you become all God wants you to be.

I'm doing some long term thinking for your life and

going where do I need to take you so that

you'll be what you want to be and what God

wants you to be in ten years.

Most people aren't thinking that.

The whole society teaches you to think short term, and

we'll look at that when we.

Get to the world now.

Romans Chapter eight, verses seventeen and eighteen talks about focusing

on the long term, and it talks about the promises

of God.

The next few verses.

Since we are his children, we will possess circle the

word will. That's a promise that's in the future.

It's not now. Doesn't say we do possess, we will.

It's a long Since we are his children, we will

possess the blessings He keeps for his family, and we

will also possess this is really cool. We will also

possess with Christ what God has kept for him. Did

you know that the Bible says that when you get

to heaven, you're going to get rewarded. You will be

rewarded for how well you did with what you were given.

What did you do with your time, What did you

do with your money, What did you do with your influence?

What did you do with your talents, your time, your talents.

Your treasure. This is called the stewardship of life.

And God has put stuff in your hands, and your

steward of You're going to be evaluated on that in heaven,

and your rewards will be based on that, and you're

going to be rewarded.

But not only that.

The Bible says you're going to be rewarded not just

for how well a steward you are. You're going to

be rewarded for what Jesus did.

Did you know that?

Look at that verse again, it's says and also we

will possess with Christ what God has kept for him.

Did you know that?

The Bible says that in heaven we are going to

co reign with Christ. We're going to be heirs with Christ.

From the Father, We're going to co reign with Christ.

Thes is way for me to explain that is imagine

in heaven this giant theater sign like a big Vegas

sign that's flashing. That says, now starring for eternity, Jesus

Christ co starring your name.

That's what it means to share in Christ's glory. You're

going to do that in heaven.

So you need to focus not on your little pity,

petty pain right now, but on the long term benefits

of doing the right thing and sharing.

In glory forever.

Notice it says the rest of that verse, for if

we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.

I consider that what we suffer at this present time

cannot be compared, in other words, of small potatoes with

all the glory that is going to be revealed in us.

To us, he said, yeah, you know what, it's not

always easy living for Christ. It's not always easy doing

the right thing. It's not always easy making the moral decision.

But the benefit long term is going to far outlast

the pain. You need to focus long term, not short term.

Number six, the sixth habit is to remind myself that

God is good and in control. This is an application

of what the Bible teaches in Romans chapter eight. This

is how God sets us free from the self destructive

weapon of bitterness, or remind myself that God is good

and in control and you are I need to remind

yourself of that over and over and over and over

and over every single day.

Now, I don't have time to get into this.

But in verses nineteen to twenty five of Romans, Chapter eight,

Paul describes how sin has damaged the world. If I

got into this, a sermon would be twice as long.

We don't have time to get into it, so let

me just summarize. In verses nineteen to twenty five, Paul says,

everything in the world is broken. Everything in the world

has lost its original purpose. Everything in the world is suffering.

Everything in the world is in pain, and everything in

the world is frustrated because Sin broke it all down.

Everything is frustrated. In fact, look at this verse on

the screen, verse twenty.

Everything created is subject to frustration, waiting to be liberated,

set free from me, waiting to be liberated from its

bondage to decay. All of creation groans in pain like childbirth,

and we groan inwardly. We're going, oh man, this is tough.

This is hard, This is difficult. Why is life so hard?

Says the environment is groaning. I think earthquakes, and I

think you know, hurricanes, and I think all the wacky weathers.

There is the environment groaning because it's broken, and we

grown in pain because relationships are broken.

And lady, you're going to.

Find out that this Holy spirit groans in pain for you.

There are three groans in this chapter. Now he says

that the result of living in a broken world is pain,

and the result of pain is bitterness.

And that's a self destructive weapon.

When I look out and I go, he's got a

nicer house than I do, she's got a better job

than I do.

How come her kids are like that? How come my?

And you start comparing and you start getting envious and

you start getting jealous, and then people hurt you and

you get bitter, and you get grudges and you get resentful.

That's a pain that's going to eat you up. You've

got to learn how to deal with that weapon of

self destruction. And the way you do it is remind

yourself that God is good and in control. That God

is good, is in control. The result of living in

a broken world is pain, and the result of pain

is bitterness, and as a result, we get bitter inside,

and we start getting resentful and life is unfair. Well, yeah,

what else is new? Life is unfair. It's because it's broken.

But the Bible says in Romans eight that there are

four things you need to remember to get over bitterness.

Now listen, pain in your life is not.

Optional, but misery is.

Pain in your life is You're going to have pain

in your life. It's called life. Suffering in your life

is not optional. You're going to suffer.

Misery is. Moaning is optional.

Bitterness is optional, and you overcome bitterness by remembering four

magnificent truths. In Romans eight, Verse twenty six and twenty

seven says this, the Holy Spirit is praying for me.

You write, write that down. The Holy Spirit is praying

for me. That helps me overcome bitterness because no matter

what I'm going through, I.

Know God's on my side. He's praying for me.

It says here the Spirit helps us with our weakness.

And we don't know how to pray as we should.

But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us. God's

praying to himself. He's talking to himself about you. He said,

how does God talk to himself? Oh, you don't ever

do that. You talk to yourself all the time. When

God talks to himself about you, that's called prayer.

Okay, the spirit of God.

It says praise for us and even begs God for

us with deep feelings that words cannot explain. God sees

what's in our hearts, and the spirit speaks to God

for his people.

In the way that God wants.

So when you're no matter what you're going through, the

first thing he goes, you know what, right now, the

Holy Spirit is praying for me.

That's cool.

Second thing, God is using it all for good. That

second thing, I remember, God is using everything in my

life for good. It's not all good, but he's using

it all for good. The next verse says this, and

we know that in all things God works for the

good of those who love Him, who've been called according

to his purpose. It's not all good, but God is

using it all for good. God is greater than my problems.

God is greater than my enemies. God is greater than

my critics. And God is using it all for good

in my life. Number three, God wants me to succeed.

Did you know that? Did you know that God wants

you to succeed? He doesn't want you to fail in

your life. He wants you to succeed in your life.

God is not against you if you're a Christian, if

you're a believer, God is for you. The Bible says

in verse thirty one, So what can we say against

such wonderful things, about such wonderful things, all the stuff

we've talked about?

What do we say about all these wonderful things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? Remember,

I'm in the family. My father is God, and so

God wants me to succeed. And finally, number four, God

will give me what I need. When I'm feeling blue

and when I'm feeling bitter, I need to rememb mind

myself that.

God is good.

He's in control, his spirit is praying for me. He's

using everything for good in my life. He wants me

to succeed, and He's gonna give me what I need

Verse thirty two. Since God did not spare even his

own son, but gave him up for us all, won't

God give us? Won't God who gave us Christ give.

Us everything else? Wow? He said, if God.

Loves you enough to let Jesus die on the cross

for you, Don't you think he loves you enough to

help you with your debt? Don't you think he cares

enough to help you with your health? Don't you think

he cares about you when your face breaks out? There

is nothing in your life that God doesn't care about.

I threw that one in because it seems so ridiculous.

There is nothing in your life that God doesn't care about.

You got upset tummy? God cares about it. He knows

every hair on your head. God will give me what

I need. If God didn't spare his son to solve

my biggest problem. Everything else is small potatoes. It's all

to him. There is no big problem in your life.

They're all small problems to God. Now, finally we come

to the last habit you need to develop. These are

all mental habits. You need to take this home. Write

it down, put it on your windshield of that windshield

so you can't see it right. Put it on your

mirror in your bathroom. Put it on your refrigerator, put

it on your visor in your car, so every day

you can remind yourself to practice these seven habits that

defeat the habits of self destruction and the seventh habit

destroys the seventh enemy, which is insecurity.

Now. The fact is, when you feel insecure, it really

messes up your life.

And the worst fear that we have in insecurity is

the rejection. Many of you have experienced rejection. You felt

it from your parents. Why can't you be like your

sister or your brother? You felt rejected by kids on

the playground and they made fun of you and they

made up names. You felt rejected by a boyfriend or

a girlfriend. Maybe you've been rejected by a spouse, and

nothing hurts more than rejection. But one thing I can

tell you this is God's never going to reject you.

And the seventh habit is this trust that God will

never stop loving me. Trust that God will never never

stop loving me.

I'm in the family. He cannot not love his family.

He will never stop loving me Romans eight thirty eight

and thirty nine in the chapter Now, I'm convinced that

nothing ever can ever separate us from His love. Death can't,

life can't, the angels can't, demons can't. Satan can't separate

you from God. Our fears for today are worries about tomorrow.

Even the powers of Hell can't keep God's away. Whether

we're high above the sky or in the deepest ocean,

nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate

us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ.

Jesus our Lord.

I may lose a lot of things in life, but

I'll never lose my salvation. You can't lose it because nothing.

Once you're in God's hand, He's not letting go of you.

You may want to let go, but he's not letting

go of you. You cannot lose your salvation. Now my

question is this, do you belong to Christ? Because none

of these things are true in your life unless you

belong to Christ. Do you have the Holy Spirit in

your life? You say, well, I don't know. Well let's

make certain of it right now. That's bow our heads

and I'm going to pray a prayer as we close,

and I'm going to ask you to pray it. Say

this in your heart, Dear Jesus Christ, thank you for

all that you did for me. Thank you that there's

no condemnation in my life. For all of sudden I've done,

you took that condemnation. Thank you that you did what

the law couldn't do. Thank you that you destroyed sins control.

Thank you that you accomplished the law in my life.

And my righteousness is nothing, but your righteousness is what

ticket I get into heaven on. Help me to never

forget what you did for me. And when I feel ashamed,

let me remember what you did on the cross for me.

Holy Spirit, I ask you to give me better thoughts.

I want to switch mindsets. I don't want the mindset

of self destruction. I want the mindset of life and peace.

I don't want to think my old ways. I want

to think your new ways. I invite you to put

thoughts in my mind all the time, for they are

the truth.

Help me to remember and realize that I have a

new ability to say no. Lord.

I used to just have willpower, but now I've got

spirit power. I'm not obligated to give into those compulsions anymore.

That if I ask you for help, you'll help me

and give me the strength to say no. Thank you,

that no temptation is too strong. And when I'm afraid,

help me to turn my thoughts to you. Help me

to remember that I'm your child, and help me to

cry out to you Father, Daddy. I'm afraid to focus

on my father, not my fears and help me to

focus on the long term, not the short term. You

know the pain in my life, you know the suffering.

I want you to use it for good and I

want you to use it for your glory. And I

want to look and focus long term on eternity, not

just to hear. And now I want to do the

right thing, not the easy thing. And when I start

to get bitter and I feel life is unfair, and

when I feel hurt, help me to remember that you

God are good and you're in control, that you are

praying for me. Thank you for doing that, That you

are working all things for good. Thank you for doing that.

That you are for me, not against me. Thank you

for that.

And that you didn't spare Jesus and so you'll give

us whatever we need.

Thank you for that.

Most of all, I thank you that you will never

let go of me. You'll never stop loving me, You'll

never reject me. Thank you that I cannot lose my

salvation no matter what else I lose on this planet.

That you will never stop loving me.

If you've never invited Jesus Christ in your heart, Jesus say,

I want you to be my lord, my savior, I

want you to be the manager of my life. I

don't understand it all, but I want to trust in

you completely.

Thank you for your grace to me.

I want to love you for the rest of my

life and I ask you to accept me into your

family by faith.

In your name, I pray Amen.