Rick Warren - Fighting for an Awesome Family—Part Three

Hello everyone, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily ho the

Bible teaching ministry that's here to encourage and inspire you

every day. And today we're continuing our series called Awesome Relationships.

In it, Rick Warren shares practical ways to help you

take your relationships with family, friends, co workers, and even

God from ordinary to extraordinary. And this is a series

you don't want to miss. And now here's Rick with

part one of a message called becoming best Friends with God.

Now, what kind of relationship does God really want with you?

You ever thought about this?

What kind of relationship does God really want?

Your?

Relationship to God has many aspects. God is your father.

Here's your creator. He is your maker. He's your judge.

He's your man, he's your lord, he's your redeemer, he's

your savior, and he's many many other things. But most

shocking of all is this, God wants you for a friend.

Whoa who who wh wh whoa whoa whoa? God wants

me for a friend. Yes, he does.

The Bible says in James chapter four, verse eight, draw

close to God and He'll draw close to you. It's

just pretty simple. You draw close to God and he

will draw close to you. Now, when we want to

know what God's relationship is like, we need to go

back to the very beginning of time and look at

the original ideal relationship in Eden. Because when God created

Adam and Eve, they enjoyed this incredibly close, intimate friendship

with God. There was no religion, There were no rituals,

there were no rules except don't need that one tree.

That was the only rule said you can do anything else,

just one rule, no regulations, know all of the rigamarole

that you find in so many religious things today. It

was just a friendship. And the Bible says that Adam

and Eve delighted in God.

And He delighted in them.

That's the way God wants to have the relationship with you.

He was just a simple, loving relationship. And they were

made to live in God's presence continually, and you were

made to live in God's presence continually. But that ideal

got ruined by sin. Sin broke the friendship. Sin broke

the relationship, Sin broke the fellowship, and the friendship with.

God was lost.

And when you go through this book, the Bible and

the Old Testament is about two thirds before we get

to Jesus. In the Old Testament, there are not many

people called friends of God, not many at all. In fact,

in the Old Testament, only a very few people had

the privilege of being a friend of God. Abraham was one.

He was called the friend of God. Moses was a

friend of God. David was a friend of God. The

Bible says Enoch was a friend of God. But there

weren't a whole lot of these people. Job was a

friend of God. But most people did not have a

personal friendship with God in the Old Testament. In fact,

most of the time, guilt and fear was more common

in relationship to God than was love and friendship. In fact,

in the Old Testament, the Old Testament priest had to

prepare weeks and weeks and sometimes months to get ready

to go into God's presence. There wasn't just something you

could do any day, anytime he wanted. But then Jesus

changed the situation, oh Man radically, and when he died

on the cross and paid for our sins. The Bible

says that the veil between the Holy of Holies and

the outer Court, that the Holy Place was ripped from

the top to the bottom, symbolizing that The separation between

God and man that had been going on for hundreds

and hundreds and thousands of years was no longer there.

That Jesus had.

Built the new bridge, and now there was no separation

between us and God, and everybody had access. It wasn't

one priest, one day of the year got to go

in and feel God's presence in the Holy of Holies.

Now anybody, anybody could have God's presence in their life

all the time, and direct access was once again available.

You didn't need a priest, you didn't need anybody else.

You could go directly to God.

The Bible says it like this, They're on your outline

Romans Chapter five, Verse ten and eleven. We were restored

to friendship. Circle that we were restored to friendship with

God by the death of his son while we were

still his enemies. So we will certainly be delivered from

eternal punishment by his life. Now we can rejoice in

our wonderful new relationship with God. Notice this is a

new relationship. They didn't have this in the Old Testament.

They didn't get to do what you get to do.

All because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done

for us in making us circle this friends of God,

all because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done

for us in making us friends of God. You can't

buy friendship with God. You can't earn friendship with God.

You can't be good enough to have friendship with God.

You can't bribe God, or bargain with God or bereat God.

You can't do anything to have a friendship with God.

Accept this received God's gift, which was paid for by

Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of your sins, the restoration of

a relationship. It's God's grace and jesus sacrifice. And Jesus

says this in John fifteen fifteen, I no longer call

you servants. Instead, I call you friends. Do you realize

how radical that is for the God of the universe

to say I want you.

For my friend. Let that sink in for a minute.

The God that created the entire galaxy say I want

you for my friend. Now this word here where Jesus says,

I don't call you servants anymore, I call you my friends.

That word in the Greek is not just a casual

acquaintance word. It means a deep, close, personal, intimate comrade.

It's the word used for a best man at a wedding.

You're best man, the guy you depend on the most.

It's the same word used to refer to the king's

inner circle, where the king has lots of acquaintances and thousands,

maybe millions of subjects, but he's got a few close

friends and these are intimate, trusted friends. Now in a

royal court. If you walk into in a royal court,

you're gonna go see a queen or king something like that.

You have to keep your distance. You don't get to

just walk up kenny, king or queen and just talk

to them. You have to keep a certain number of

feet back, you have to bow, you have to do protocol, etiquette,

and all these kind of things. I've actually met a

few kings and queens in my life, and it's it's

pretty formal, because that's why most people react. But if

you are in the inner circle, you're one of the

king's friends. You enjoy close contact, direct access, and confidential information.

Some of you remember the old hymn what a friend.

We have in Jesus.

Well, actually God invites you not just to be the

friend of Jesus, but of the Holy Spirit and the Father.

He invites you to be a friend of the Trinity. Now,

how important is this to God that you actually become

a friend of God?

How important is it? It's extremely important.

Let me show you a couple verses Exodus thirty four fourteen.

He is a God who is passionate about his relationship

with you. Did you know that God gets jealous? The

Bible says God gets jealous when we give our lives

to other things, when we put other gods in our lives.

The God of money, the God of sex, the God

of success, the God of popularity, the God of pleasure.

It could be any God, and so that breaks God's heart.

Because God is passionate about his relationship with you. Joseiah

sixty six. God says this, I don't want your sacrifices.

I want your love. I don't want your offerings. I

want you to know me. Can you hear the passion

in that verse? Again, this is hard to grasp. Circle

the word love and circle the word no. Those are

the two first purposes of your life to know and

love God. If you miss that, you missed the number

one purpose in your life. Because God did not put

you on this planet to just do stuff, to.

Just mark things off your to do list.

God puts you on this planet to know and love him,

to have a relationship with him. And if you miss

that relationship, you miss that friendship, you miss the very

purpose for which you were created. Nothing is more important

than that you can be the most famous, most successful,

most accomplished person.

In the planet.

And if you don't know and love God, you missed

the purpose of your life because you weren't made simply

to do things. God says, I want you to know me,

and I want you to love me. And the Bible

says that God planned the entire universe, and then he

orchestrated all of history, including your personal life history, and

he orchestrated it all so that you could come to

know him and that we could become his friends. The

Bible says it like this in Acts seventeen. Starting from scratch,

God made the entire human race, and he made the

earth hospitable. What it means, It means we can live

on it. He made the earth livable. We got oxygen,

we got water, we got it light, we got everything

we need. He made the earth hospitable for human beings,

with plenty of time and space for living. Why look,

so we could seek after God and not just group

around in the dark, but actually find him. Wow, that

is God's number one plan and purpose for your life. Now,

how in the world is this possible? I mean, we're visible,

God's invisible. We're weak. God's omnipotent, We're imperfect. He's perfect.

How does a flawed, finite creature have a friendship with

an unflawed, perfect, omnipotent, invisible God.

How does that happen? Oh, there's only one way through Jesus.

Maybe you've known about God all your life, how do

you build that friendship?

Number one?

Write this down. Make knowing God my number one priority.

You're never going to become a friend of God in

your spare time. You make no God your number one priority,

my number one priority in life. Jesus said, seek first

the Kingdom of God.

Do it first.

You know I've told you this many times. I do

this every single morning of my life. I've done it

for years. I get up and I sit on the

side of the bed. Before I get out of bed,

I'll just sit there for a split second and I'll say, God,

if I don't get anything else done today, I want

to love you more and know you better, because if

at the end of the day I know God more

and I love Him better, that day was a success.

Doesn't matter how many things go wrong in it. If

I know God a little bit better and I love

Him a little bit more, then.

That day was a success.

On the other hand, it doesn't matter how many things

I accomplish, or what happens in my life that seems

to be good, how many windfalls that come into my life.

Doesn't matter.

If at the end of the day I don't know

God a little bit better and love Him a little

bit more, I miss the purpose of that day. I

make it the number one priority of my life. Paul

says it like this, everything else is worthless compared with

the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus, I've discarded everything else.

I counted all as garbage so that I may know Christ.

I make it my number one priority. Jeremiah twenty nine thirteen.

God says, you will find me when you will find me,

when you seek me. When with all your heart are

you doing that? Let me just ask you, one on one,

are you doing that? Are you seeking God with all

your heart every day?

Not likely.

You're going to become a friend of God. When you

want to become a friend of God, write this down.

I'm as close to God as I choose to be.

You can't blame anybody else. Can't blame your wife, your husband,

your parents, your kids.

You can't blame it.

You are as close to God as you want to be.

And if you feel far from God, guess who moved

you didn't make it the number one priority of your life.

You will find Me when you seek Me with all

your heart. Knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege,

and being known and being loved by God is our

greatest pleasure. You know, I've noticed, I was even noticing

it on this trip that I was on in Europe,

that you can tell what's important to somebody by what

they brag about. That'll tell you their values, and so

you know, if their kids are most important.

They brag about their kids.

If their job is the most important thing in their life,

they brag about their job. If travel and having experiences

is important, that's what they talk about.

You brag about what you value most.

If partying or buying new clothes is what you talk

about most, guess what you value most partying and getting

new clothes here's what God says Jeremiah nine. Look up

here on the screen. God says, the wise must not

brag about their wisdom, and the strong must not brag

about their strength, and the rich must not brag about

their money. But if somebody wants to brag, let him

brag that he really understands and knows me.

Why, Because that's what life is all about.

You have you ever bragged by the fact that you're

a friend of God? Hey, me and God we're like this.

You know, we're close, we're buds, we're friends. Knowing God

is what matters most, and there's nothing more important than

that relationship in your life. Now, how do you know

when God is not your best friend? How do you

know when you don't really know God?

Well? Jesus said in Matthew.

Six that the secret or the symbol, or the characteristic,

the concluding mark of a person who doesn't know God.

Jesus said, and Matthew six is this worry.

When you worry, it means you don't know God at

that moment. You've forgotten who he is, what he said,

what he's promised to do in your life. You're acting

like you're an atheist, You're acting like there.

Is no God.

You're acting like it all depends on you. Every time

you're worrying. Every time you worry, you're saying, Oh, I

don't really know God at this moment. He's not my friend.

I have to make it my number one priority. Number

two second key to building a deep relationship with God.

Slow down and shut up, or let me say it nicer.

Slow down and be quiet. Okay, slow down and be quiet.

Our friendship with God is like any other friendship. You

have to make time for it. If you don't make

time for your human friends, they're not your friends. You

make time for your friends. And if God is going

to be your best friend, you've got to give your

best time to God. The Bible says this. You've seen

these verses many times Psalm forty six ten. Be still,

I mean, just slow down and know that I am God.

You need to have a daily quiet time with God.

Be still and know that I'm God, Psalm twenty five fourteen.

Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who reverence him.

With them, he shares the secrets of his covenant. See,

most people don't know about God, and they don't know

how God acts. They don't know why he does what

he does, and they don't know what's going on in

the world. Why, Because friendship with God is reserved for

those who reverence him. You sit down, you slow down,

you be quiet, and you spend time with God. What

would a friend be if you never spend any time

with him? Not a friend? You will never have God

as your best friend. If all you do is just

come to church services, You've got to just be quiet,

be still, and you get out and sit down, and

you just read God's word and you listen and say, God,

is there anything you want to say to me? And

you don't have to use any fancy phrases these and

now's are who arts and where arts? And King James language?

Don't you just talk to God authentically? The Bible says

it like this, Matthew six five six, When you come

before God, don't turn it into a theatrical production. I

love this the message paraphrase. Just find a quiet, secluded

place where you won't be tempted to role play before God,

and just be there as simply and as honest as

you can manage, and the focus will shift from you

to God. That'll lower your stress and you will begin

to sense his grace. Make knowing God my number one priority,

and then slow down and be quiet. Number three key

to a friendship with God, decide whose friendship you want most.

You don't have time for everybody to be your friend.

If everybody else is going to be your friend, you're

not going to have time for God in your life.

You've got to decide who you want most to be

your best friend.

Let me show you Verse on the screen.

One Timothy, chapter six says this, some people have missed

the most important thing in life.

They don't know God.

They know all the baseball scores, they know the stock

market quotes, they know the top ten songs, they know

how to do a recipe, they know all kinds of others.

They know who's in and who's out in every soap opera.

They know who's up and who's down in the celebrity

charts and TMZ. But they don't know God. They've missed

the most important thing in life. How in the world

could anybody miss a fellowship and a relationship with God

When he says, this is what I made you for,

and this is what I want.

How in the world you miss it? Real? Simple? Care

about something else? More.

That's why you're not a friend of God. You care

about something else more, and you're miss of the relationship

that you were designed for with your creator. Now the

Bible gets very specific look of this. James, Chapter four.

You should know that loving the world is the same

thing as hating God.

What does that mean?

Anyone who wants to be a friend of the world

becomes an enemy of God. Now I don't understand this.

It tells me here that I'm not supposed to love

the world. And yet in John three point sixteen, the

most famous verse, it says God so loved the What

so which one is it?

Okay?

Am I supposed to love the world or not love

the world? God so loved the world? But it tells

me here that if I love the world, I become

the enemy of God. It's the meaning of the word world.

In John three point sixteen, he's talking about the people

in the world, and in this passage and in first

John two sixteen he's talking about the value system of

the world. Now, God says, I want you to love

the people and hate the value system. You know what

the problem is, We do the exact opposite. We love

the value system and we hate the people. We love materialism,

we love pleasure, we love popularity, we love prestige, we

love passion, possessions, position, we love all the values of

the world, and we hate the people. God says, no,

you got it all backwards, and he says that if

you want to be my friend, friends value what friends value.

If you're going to be my friend, if I'm going

to be your friend, then I have to value what's

valuable to you. What's important to you becomes important to me.

Why because you're my friend, because I'm your friend. And

if you're going to be a friend of God, then

you've got to care about what God cares about, and

not care about what God doesn't care about. God doesn't

care anything about image. He doesn't care about anything about

how you appear your image. He's not interested in your reputation.

He's interested in your character, not how you look, but

what you are. And I have to choose to value

with God values.

Thanks so much, Rick, what a great message today. Hey,

if you've been listening to the broadcast for a while,

well you know that Rick is always saying that God

wants your relationships to be more than just fair, average, good,

or even great. He wants your relationships to be awesome,

life giving, filled with joy and purpose, and that's why

he created the Awesome Relationships Bible Study. Through this four

session video based Bible study with workbook, you'll discover the

tools you need to build an awesome marriage and family,

awesome friendships, and most importantly, an awesome relationship with God.

This resource is perfect for individual or group study. Be

sure to request Pastor Rick's Awesome Relationships Video obeys Bible Study.

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