Rick Warren - How Worshiping with Others Changes You—Part Two

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

Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. We are excited that

you are with us today as we bring our powerful

series How the Church Meets your Deepest Needs to a close. Together,

we'll uncover the joy and strength that comes from being

a part of God's family. So let's continue now with

the final part of a message called how Worshiping with

others changes you?

Now, how do I worship? I want to give you

some tips here. I want to talk about how do

you tell God that you love him? And I want

to give you seven different very practical acts of worship.

So write these down. But not only were we just

going to write them down, we're going to do them.

And in each of these we're going to pause and

usually ask you to actually do what I just talked about. Now.

The one we're starting with is what we are doing

right now. The first way you can worship write this

down is by listening and responding to God's word. By

listening and responding to God's word, I'm teaching you from

God's word, what you're doing right now is an act

of worship. The Bible says in Deuteronomy thirty one, verse twelve.

In the New Century version, it says, gather all the

people together, men, women, children, and the immigrants living in

your towns. He's talking about visitors, people who are not

citizens here. Gather all the people together, men, women, children,

and immigrants living in your towns, so that everyone can

listen and learn so to respect the Lord and carefully

obey everything in his words. Notice, he says, this is

something we do together. We worship together. We're to gather

together to get up and go to a place of worship.

Are you doing that every week? That's what God wants

you to do. Psalm eighty five, verse eight says this,

I listen carefully to what God, my Lord is saying,

for he speaks peace to his people and his faithful ones.

Now notice he says, I listen carefully to what God says.

How do you listen carefully? Well. One of the ways

you do this, what you're doing right now, take notes.

The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory. And

one of the reasons why we pass out notes and

let people see the notes that they can take notes

on is so you can listen carefully. Did you know

that you forget about ninety five percent of everything you

hear within about seventy two hours. That's the United States

Air Force statistic, and that's depressing statistic. If you're a pastor,

it means that I can spend all week preparing to

teach you, and then by Wednesday you've forgotten ninety five

percent of it. You could have been a member of

Saddle Backed Church for thirty years and you've forgotten ninety

five percent. You've forgotten all but five percent of everything

I've ever taught unless you wrote it down. But if

you write it down, you can go back and review it.

When we teach the Purpose Driven Church Conference to pastors,

and over half a million pastors have taken this from

one hundred and sixty four countries, I give them fifteen

reasons that they should never teach without actually handing out

an outline. In the first place, everybody uses different translations,

and so when you look on an outline, everybody can

read from the same translation. The second place, writing it

down increases your memory and your retention. Third, you can

go later, go back and review it. I won't go

into all of these reasons. I know guys who've wadded

up the sermon notes and put them in their wallet

and pulled them out later when they need it. You

can put it up on the wall. You can underline,

you can circle, you can take notes. So all of

these are just to help you to listen carefully to

what God says, for he speaks peace to his people.

But it's not enough to just take notes. If you're

really going to worship, you have to do what he says.

The Bible talks about being doers of the word, not

hearers only. In John thirteen, verse seventeen, Jesus says this,

now that you know these things, you will be blessed

if notice you do them. He didn't say you'll be

blessed if you know them. He doesn't even say you'll

be blessed if you take notes on them. He says,

now that you know these things, you'll be blessed if

you do them. So taking notes is a part of worship.

Why because it helps me to have my to do

list after worship is over all. Right, So the first

way that you can express your love to God is

by actually listening carefully to the word of God. And

you care enough to take notes. I'll never forget that

one time I read the verse where Jesus says, don't

cast you pearls before swine. And as I was reading

that verse, I felt the Holy Spirit saying, Rick, who

do you think the swine is? And I said, well,

that's got to be the religious pharisees, who you know

we're attacking Jesus all the time. He said, no, you're

the swine. So what mean why? He said, because you

don't care enough to write down what I say to you.

And the Word of God are the pearls of wisdom

that come out of the word of God. And God

is casting these pearls that you but you're just letting

them fall away. You're not writing them down, you're not

connecting them, you're not collecting them, you're not reviewing them,

you're not applying them, you're not practicing them. So I'm

casting pearls before swine. So learn to listen carefully. That's

an act of worship. Take notes and write yourself to

do list and things you're going to do as a

result of what you learn from the word of God.

All right, let's go to a second way to worship.

This is one we all know about. I can worship God,

I can show my love to God by singing to him,

by singing to him when we sing to Him with

our whole hearts, and it's not half hearted singing, it's

singing with our whole hearts. Remember God loves whole hearted worship,

Psalm thirty two, verse eleven. I love this. In the message,

it says this, celebrate God, sing together everyone, all of

you with honest hearts. All of you raise the roof.

I love that raise the roof. Worship is meant to

be a celebration, not a commiseration. It's meant to be

a festival of joy, not a funeral of sadness. He says,

sing together. I was glad when they said to me,

let us go into the house of the Lord. Not

I was mad or sad, or bored or oh brother,

it's not a duty. It's a delight. Celebrate God sing

together all this week in our daily devotionals. I'm going

to give you some ways to celebrate God on your own,

but it's it's really important for you learn to celebrate

with other people. I have a counselor friend, a therapist

who everyone who comes to him who's depressed. One of

the first questions he asked is did you sing all

the songs last Sunday at church? And they said no. Well,

he says impression without expression leads to depression, and you

need for your emotional health, you need to sing. You say, well,

I can't carry a tune in a baggy. You know,

I'm a prison singer. I'm always behind a few bars

and I never have the right key. Well, you know what,

the Bible says, make a joyful noise. Anybody can do that,

and so you don't have to be on key. You

just have to sing with your heart. And you know what,

would you rather sing by yourself? Would rather sing with

one hundred people or three hundred people or a thousand people?

The Bible says we sing together, and that is an

act of worship. Did you know that music and love

to go together because music is God's gift for expressing emotions,

and all of the emotions that are known demand can

be expressed through music. You know, there are radio stations

that are dedicated entirely to just love songs because they

are a way of expressing emotions. Now, I know some

people come to church late because they go I just

want to hear the message, and they want to come

in in the music. They don't worry about getting there.

You are making a big mistake and it is detrimental

to your spiritual health, to your soul, to your spirit,

and to your emotional health as well. You need to

sing these songs. You're cheating yourself. You're missing out on

an importantnt A moment of worship if you don't sing

along the song. So learn to sing the songs. Praise

is a moodlifter. It's an anecdote, as I said to depression. Now,

let's go to a third way that we worship God.

A third way we worship God is by talking to

God together in prayer. By talking God to God together

in prayer. Now, of course you could pray on your

own anytime, but you know there's added power when we

pray together. The Bible says when two or three agree

as to anything, it shall be done. There's additional prayer

power when we pray together. In Acts, Chapter one, verse fourteen,

it says they all join together constantly in prayer. You know,

we would have the power of the New Testament Church

like they had in Acts. We'd see those kind of

miracles if we prayed as much as they did in

the Book of Acts. Paul talks about the importance of

prayer in corporate worship in Romans, Chapter one, verses twelve.

He says this, we must help each other with the

faith we have, and your faith will help me, and

my faith will help you. So when we pray together

and we're all praying for the same thing that builds

my faith, it builds your faith. You don't get that

when you pray on your own. There's an additional element

of prayer power that happens when you pray with other people.

And that's why prayer together is a part of worship.

You know, one of the things I've learned about a relationship,

whether it's friendship or marriage. I've been married now for

forty two years, is that if you're going to build

a relationship, you've got to communicate. On the days that

Kay and I communicate with each other through the day,

our relationship grows. On the days that I don't get

to talk to her through the day, it decays. The

same is true with God. If you want to build

a friendship with God, you've got to talk to him

all the time. Of course, you can talk to him

all the time, but if you never talk to your

spouse or they never talk to you, you'd start doubting

that they loved you. And if you really love God,

you're going to talk to him all the time. What

do you talk to God about? Well, whatever is interesting

to you. You can talk to God about your hopes,

about your dreams, about your fears, about your heart. You

can talk to God about the conflicts. You can talk

about how your stomach feels. You can talk to him

about things that you feel are not fair. There is

nothing off limits in a love relationship with God. He

wants to hear everything that is a concern to you.

He doesn't want to hear what you think you how

to talk about. He wants to hear what's really concerning you.

Prayer is not a duty, it is a privilege. And

if you don't feel close to God, there's a simple remedy.

Talk to him more. Okay, talk to him more. Prayer

is an act of worship, but particularly when we pray together.

There's power in group prayer. And so pray in your

small groups, and pray in your Bible studies, and pray

when you're at a church worship service together. All right,

let's go to number four. A fourth way that we

express our love to God is by sharing the Lord's

supper together. By sharing the Lord's supper together, it's called communion.

It's called the Eucharist, which comes from the word eukaristo,

which means I receive it with thanks. But Jesus gave

us two symbols of his death and his burial and

his resurrection. One is the Lord's supper and the other's baptism.

In First Corinthians, chapter eleven, verse twenty five, Jesus said,

this cup the cup of communion that he was going

to pass around to his disciples. He said, this cup

is the new covenant between God and you, sealed by

the shedding of my blood. So do this often in

remembrance of me. We are to do this often in

remembrance of him. Jesus said, I want you to take

the bread and the cup together because it symbolizes my

death and resurrection and my salvation that I've paid for you.

The fact is Jesus paid the penalty for your sin

by his death on the cross, and he broke the

power of sin so you could be free from all

of the habits. And he guarantees freedom eventually from the

presence of sin in your life because of what he

did on the cross. One day you're going to be

in heaven. There's going to be no sin there. So

what should be my attitude when I take communion? Jesus'

sacrifice did three things. It paid for your forgiveness. Every

sin you've ever done wrong is completely forgiven. It's wiped out,

washed away. Think of the most guilty thing you've ever done,

the thing you're most ashamed of in your past, and

thank God that that's forgiven. It's not only forgiven. God

wiped it out. It's forgiven and forgotten. So he paid

for your forgiveness. So what should be my attitude when

I come to the Lord's Supper? Should it be guilt

over my sin? No, because it's all been paid for,

it forgiven. Should it be grief over Jesus' death? No,

because he didn't stay dead, so it's not a grieving thing.

He came back to life. That's what Easter is all about.

It shouldn't be guilt and it shouldn't be grief. The

attitude for the Lord's Supper is gratitude. I should take

it grateful, grateful e charisto. I receive it with thanks

that God would love me this much. Now, communion is

not for everybody. If you have never accepted God's gift,

the salvation and forgiveness, you shouldn't take communion because it

doesn't mean anything to you. It's meaningless, it doesn't help

you in any way. But if you have never given

your life to Christ, before we take these elements, you

need to say God, as I take these elements today,

the bread and the Jews, I am saying by taking

these that I accept what you did for me, and

I ask you to forgive me, and I ask you

to accept me into your faith, and I need your salvation.

That's the right way to take communion. Because Jesus paid

for your forgiveness. He also paid for your freedom. So

I want you to think about the thing that you

would like to change the most about you, what you'd

like to change but you don't feel you can change.

And in a minute, I want you to thank God

that you have the power to change. That He will

give you because of what Jesus did for you, your forgiveness,

your freedom, and then your future. The Bible says because

Jesus Christ died of the cross for you, that he

has a future for you. In heaven. The Bible says,

eye has not seen, and ear has never heard, and

no one has even imagined the wonderful things God has

prepared for those who love Him. So not out of grief,

not out of guilt, but out of gratitude. We take

these elements and we thank God for our forgiveness. We

thank God for our freedom in Christ, and we thank

God for our future in heaven. During communion, you probably

did something that is the fifth way that we offer

our worship to God. Number five is by recommitting our

lives to God. Many of you did that as you

were taking conminion communion. Some of you did it for

the very first time, and you committed your life to

Jesus Christ, saying, I want you to be my Lord,

to be my savior. I want to accept your salvation.

I need your forgiveness. Now, this is an important act

of worship. Romans twelve, verse one says this because of

God's great mercy to you. In other words, because God's

been so good to you, offer your lives as living

sacrifices to Him, dedicated to serving Him in a holy

and pleasing way. Now, I want to stop right here

and look at this first for just a minute. First,

it says, because of God's great mercy. Mercy is when

God doesn't give us what we deserve. He's merciful grace

is when God gives us what we don't deserve. So

mercy takes away all the bad, grace gives us all

the good. He says, because of God's great mercy and

his grace, he says, offer yourselves as living sacrifices to him.

That means you say, God, I give you myself. You

know the old problem with the living sacrifice, It can

crawl off the altar. And that's what happens. On Sunday,

on the weekend, we say God, I give you my life.

I give you my time, my money, my life, my energy,

my future, my reputation. And then on Monday we crawl

off the altar. We sing onward Christian soldiers on Sunday,

and on Monday we go a wall awl absently without leave.

The Bible says, offer your lives as living sacrifices to Him,

dedicated to serving him. This is an act of worship God.

I want to serve you this week, serving Him in

a holy and pleasing way. This is your spiritual act

of worship. Underline that this is your spiritual act of worship.

Did you know that every time you make a spiritual decision,

a spiritual commitment, you are participating in worship. Nothing ever significant,

happens without worship. You will become whatever you are committed to,

whatever you commit to, And so your decisions determine your destiny,

and your commitments determine your character. And so worship is

something that we say, God, I give you myself. Now.

Along with that, in that offering basket we put our offerings,

and that leads to the sixth act of worship. Write

this down. I show my love to God by giving

back some of what God has given me. I show

my love to God by giving back some of what

God has given me. You can give without loving, but

you cannot love without giving. When I first fell in

love with k I could not keep money in my pocket.

It's like it was burning a hole. I wanted to

spend it on her all the time. Why I was

in love with her and I just wanted to buyer things.

Because when you love somebody, you want to be generous

with them. You want to give them, give to them.

The Bible says God so loved the world that He gave.

And so in giving back to God, we don't give

out a duty. We don't out of pressure. In fact,

you should never give out of pressure. You give out

of love. Because if you don't give out of love,

and you don't give wholeheartedly, it doesn't matter. But giving

is an act of worship. A lot of people think, well,

when the offering baskets are past, I mean it's time

to get up and leave because the worship is over. No.

One of the most important parts of worship is the

act of you giving back to God. Here's what the

Bible says in one Corinthians sixteen, verse two, in the

Living Bible, that says this, on every Lord's Day, each

of you should put aside something from what you've earned

during the week. What's the Lord's say this first day

of the week, and put aside something you've earned the

past week and give it back to God as you're offering.

The amount depends on how much the Lord has helped

you to earn. Now this is pretty basic. It's proportional giving.

If you made a lot of money this week, then

you give a lot back to God. If you made

a little this week, you give a little back to God.

If you didn't make any, then I guess you don't

give anything back to God. You can always give something.

You can give a penny if you have to, But

it's just an attitude that says God, I want to

express my love to you by giving. The amount depends

on how much the Lord has helped you to earn. Now,

the Bible uses the word tithe, which means ten percent.

Means if I earned one thousand dollars, one hundred dollars

comes back to God. If I earned ten bucks, one

dollar comes back to God. Kay and I have been

reversed tithers for over twenty years now. We give away

ninety one percent of our offerings and of our income

and give away and live on nine percent. Most of

you know, I don't take a salary from Saddleback Church.

I've served this church for free now for almost forty years.

But God says, play this game with me. I'll give

to you, and you give to me, and we'll see

who wins. I've lost that game for almost forty years. Now.

Here's the last of seven ways. There many many more

other ways that you can worship God. You can worship

God in silence, but The seventh way that I want

to give you this weekend is that I show my

love to God by being baptized, to publicly declare our faith.

We're baptized as an expression to the world. It's not

in secret. It's kind of our coming out party. It's

kind of your debutante. It's your saying I'm not ashamed

to say I love Jesus Christ. Let me just close

with a few verses. Romans Chapter six, verse three tells

us that baptism symbolizes what Jesus Christ did for us.

In the message prayer phrase, it says this, when we

went under the water, we left the old country of

sin behind where we and when we came up out

of the water, we entered into the new country of grace.

We left the old country of sin under the water.

We come out to the new country of grace, a

new life in a new land. That's what baptism in

the life of Jesus means. When we're lowered into the water,

it's like the burial of Jesus, and when we're raised

up out of the water, it's like the resurrection of Jesus.

So it symbolizes what Jesus did for us. But it

also has a much greater significance. Colossians chapter two, verse

twelve tells us that baptism symbolizes our dying to an

old lifestyle Colossians two twelve, and the message says, going

under the water was a burial of your old life,

and coming up out of it was a resurrection, God

raising you from the dead, just like he did Christ.

So it symbolizes Jesus death and resurrection. It symbolizes you're

dying to all your old sins and being given a

brand new life. And then it symbolizes our new life

in Christ. Galatians three twenty seven. Then the message says

this your baptism in Christ was not just washing you

up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you

in an adult faith ward robe. Have you been baptized

as an adult? And it's your commitment to Christ, Christ's life,

the fulfillment of God's original promise. Are you ashamed to

let other people know that you're a follower of Jesus Christ.

If you're not, you need to be baptized. But I

want to challenge you to realize that baptism is an

act of worship. And if you've taken communion. But you

haven't been baptized. You need to be baptized. Now, what

are all of these verses telling us, Well, let me

give you a closing verse. Ephesians two twenty two says,

in Christ's body, that's the family of God, that's the

true which is what we're talking about during this series.

In Christ's body, you are being built together. That means

you and everybody around you who's in the family. This

family called saddle backed church is just part of the

expression of God's family. In Christ's body, you're being built

together to become a dwelling place in which God lives

by his spirit. God doesn't live in buildings, He lives

in people. You become part of the temple of God

when you're part of a local church family. In Christ's body,

you're built together to become the temple of God.

That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick. And

now here's Rick to tell you about today's offer.

One of the things that I've discovered is that everybody

eventually asks the questions of significance. Why am I here?

And what is my purpose? What on earth am I

here for? So I've updated the purpose driven life because

I wanted to help people like you under stand how

God created us for five eternal purposes. The Bible says

that long before we heard of Christ, he had his

eye on us, had his designs on us for glorious living.

That it was part of his overall purpose that He's

working out in everything and everyone. God has never made

a person that he doesn't have a purpose for. You know,

that simple message needs to be shared with the whole

new generation. A young girl who was twelve years old

when I wrote Purpose Driven Life is now twenty two,

and she needs to hear this essential message that God

has a plan, has a purpose, and has a reason

for everything that happens in our lives. And what I

did is, after reading hundreds of thousands of comments that

have come into me over the past decade, I've added

two new chapters that'll help you handle the two most

common problems and barriers to living a life of purpose.

Now I want you to have this newly revised, expanded

copy of Purpose Driven Life. I think you'll find it's

a fresh reminder of things that you may have forgotten

when you first read it. Or you might want to

give the book to somebody who has never read it

and is struggling to find their purpose. So this month,

I'm offering to you a hardback copy of the updated

expanded edition of Purpose Driven Life. What on Earth am

I hear for? It's my gift to you for your

financial support of this ministry.

Just go to pastorick dot com to get your copy

of this great resource. That's pastorick dot com. Or you

can text the word hope to seven oh three oh nine. Again,

that's the word hope to seven oh three oh nine,

And we thank you so much for your support. It

helps us share the hope of Christ with people all

around the world. Be sure to join us next time

as we look into God's Word for our daily hope.

This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and

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