Rick Warren - Enjoying a Fear-Not Christmas—Part Two

Hi, I'm Rick Warren, and Merry Christmas. You're listening the

Daily Hope.

Marry Christmas.

Today we celebrate the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ,

the greatest gift the world has ever received.

So whether you're surrounded by loved ones or spending this

stay quietly, We're so glad that you've joined us.

So let's join Rick right now for the final part

of enjoying a fear not Christmas. How do I get

the fear out of my life that blocks me, that

keeps me from becoming all I want to be, all

that God.

Wants me to be.

You do the things that God told them to do

at the very first Christmas.

That's what you do. And if you do what.

God told Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and everybody

else what to do, the fears in your life will

dramatically go down, and the joy and the confidence in

your life is dramatically going to go up. Number one,

here's the first step. Surrender my life completely to God.

Every day.

Surrender my life completely to God. Every day I say God,

I'm full of fear. I'm giving you the good, the bad,

and the ugly of my life to you. Right now,

and you just start the day that way. This is

how Mary overcame her inadequacy when the Angel unloaded all

this stuff. You're going to be pregnant, you're not even married,

and you've never had sex, and it's going to be

the son of God, and you're going to raise that

child and all the stuff that's going to happen to him.

Mary overcame her fear of inadequacy with this statement.

Luke, Chapter one, verse thirty eight.

Mary responded, I am the Lord's servant, and I'm willing

to accept whatever God wants for my life. Have you

ever said to God, God, you're my creator, and whatever

you want to do with my life, I want to

cooperate with it. Have you ever done that? If you haven't,

you are living in constant tension. That's why you have fears.

That's why you have anxiety. Because God's going this way

and you're going this way, and your arms are too

short to box with God. You're going to lose on

that one. What if God asked me to do something

I don't think I can do. God will never ask

you to do something that he doesn't give you the

power and the ability to do. God would never ask

you to do something and then not give you the resources,

the time, the network, the money, and everything you needed

to do it. Because God doesn't sponsor flops.

We do.

We sponsor flops. We hit dead ends all the time

with our plans. But God's plan does not have a

dead end. But your confidence becomes in Him, not in yourself.

Thirty five years ago, I was twenty five years old

and I was finishing up a seminary my master's degree

in Texas, and I felt God didn't say this audibly.

I just had an impression in my mind and I

told my wife, Okay, I said, honey, I think God

is calling us to go back to California, to move

to southern California, and to start a church with no money,

no members, no building. And I've never been a pastor.

What do you think? And I'll never forget my wife's response,

at twenty five years of age, she said, well, it

scares me to death, but I believe in God and

I believe in you, so let's go for it.

That's faith instead of fear.

I've often wondered what if we had given into our

fears and said it's too hard, we're inadequate, we might

be disappointed and we might lose control. And what if

we'd given into all of our fears? How would history

be different? Well, you wouldn't be sitting here right now.

Peace plan would exist, the Daniel Plan would exist. Purpose

driven life wouldn't exist, which ten percent of all the

churches in America have done. Forty Days of Purpose, the

best selling book in American history and the most translated

book in the world. Purpose Driven Life would have never

been written. History would be very, very different if Kay

and I had given into our fears.

We weren't adequate for the task.

We were inadequate, but God was adequate and our confidence

was in him.

Here's number two.

Number two is stop listening to the voices of fear.

You're going to have to change what you watch and

what you listen to and what ideas you allow in

your mind. If you want to move out of fear,

you got to stop feeding fearful things into your mind.

Books, movies, tapes, TV shows, and on and on and on,

all those things.

Because all around you are naysayers and negative people. Would

you agree that we're in a pretty negative culture. Is

it easier to be positive or negative?

Today? It's easier to just.

Be against stuff, and the Internet just feeds that. And

you have negative voices all around you tell you you

can't do it, You're not good enough, you're not smart enough,

you're not cute enough, you're not rich enough, you're not

talented enough. You had all kinds of negative voices around you.

And by the way, sometimes those voices are inside you too,

and you have to stop listening to yourself. Let me

give you a little stress reliever. You don't have to

believe everything you tell yourself.

You don't.

You do not have to believe anything. Why because you

lie to yourself all the time. You lie to yourself

more than you lie to anybody else. Sometimes you tell

yourself things are good when they're not. Sometimes you tell

you say they're really bad when they're not as bad

as you think you are. You need a much more

objective source of truth than your own opinion, because that

opinion may have come from a bad burrito last night.

You are not the final authority on truth. I'm sorry,

and I'm not either. By the way, we need an objective,

outside source because we often get it wrong. How does

that go for you? When you follow your own way?

How's that going for you. You're hitting dead ends, you meeting

every goal, you haven't every dream fulfilled.

You're not. No, you're not.

So you got to stop listening to the voices fear.

Fear is the opposite of faith. When you're walking in faith,

you're not walking in fear. When you're walking in fear,

you're not walking in faith. When you invite faith into

the front door of your house, fear goes out the

back door. When you invite fear into your life, faith

goes out the back door.

They do not exist together.

And the Bible says in Romans fourteen, who whatsoever is

not of faith based on faith is sin. I told

you I've counseled thousands of people financial counseling, personal counseling,

marriage counseling, career counseling, and I would tell you this

that I've learned. Fear is contagious. Fear is contagious. It's

a communicable disease. If you get around fearful people, you

hang out, all your buddies are fearful, all your buddies

think the world's going to hell in a handbasket. Then

guess what you're going to feel that way. You get

around direct pressed people, you're going to be depressed. You

get around angry people, you're going to be angry. It's

that old, worn out cliche. You know, if you want

to soar with the eagles, you can't run with the turkeys.

So let me give you a couple of advice.

Number One, I would say, turn off talk radio and

the negative TV news shows. Just turn them off because

they feed on crisis and every day it's a crisis

of the day. You know, the standard idea in news

is if it bleeds, it leads, that's what you start

the show with, and they're constantly feeding negative. Study after

study after study after university study has shown that if

you listen to inflammatory, negative, critical, fearful talk radio all

the time or TV shows are the same, whether it's

liberal conservative, doesn't really matter.

That's the kind of person you're going to be.

Negative, critical, fearful, defensive, antagonistic.

Now, if you want to be that, go ahead and

keep on listening to it.

I personally want to be a positive, faith filled rather

than fear filled person.

And so the other thing I would.

Suggest you just start hanging out with people of faith,

get some new friends. It's one of the reasons to

find a church family. You're welcome here, but there are

a lot of good churches. Just find one where you

get around people of faith who have a more positive

outlook on life rather than such a negative outlook on life.

That's why you need to get in a small group.

When you think about all of the negative and fearful

voices that Mary had to block out of her mind

in order to hear God. I mean, you can imagine

a lot of people probably came into marry and said,

so you're pregnant, huh, yeah, And you've never had a

relationship with men. No, And God is the father, yes,

and the baby is going to be the son of God?

Yes? Who do you think you are?

That would create all kinds of anxiety and fear and insecurity.

You know, one of the things I love about Jesus

is that Jesus gave dignity to women in a culture

that dismissed women, demeaned women, degraded women, and devalued women.

He raised them.

Up and gave them great dignity when nobody else in

that culture did. Nobody else did, and Mary had to

block out the voices of fear around her in order

to hear the voice of God. The third thing, fill

my mind with music that honors, that focuses, that worships

and praises God. Why, I want you to listen very closely.

Praise is the antidote to panic. Worship is the antidote

to worry. Why Because when you're scared to death, all

of your attention is focusing on you, how I feel,

how I look, how competent i'm. You're totally focused on yourself.

And to get rid of fear, you got to get

the focus off.

You and get it on God.

And when you turn your focus on God, that's called praise,

that's called worship.

And when your.

Focusing on how big God is, it shrinks the size

of your problems. Now, the closer I get to God,

the more confident.

I'm going to be in life.

The further away I get from God, the more scared, frightened, insecured,

and worried I'm going to be. Why, Because you lose

your fear when God is near. When you're far away

from God, it all depends on you if it's to

be it's up to me. No, it's not just up

to you. God says, you don't need to be frayed.

I'll help you. You lose your fear when God is near,

so by focusing in your mind. One of the best

ways to do it is through music on God. It

shrinks the size of your problem and enlarges the sight.

The bigger God gets in your life, the smaller your

problems become. We have a Christmas party in our cul

de Sac every year, our neighborhood, and we invite the

whole neighborhood. And I was talking to one of our

neighbor's Sunday night out on the cul de Sac, and

he said, you know, Rick, when I was going through

the darkest days of fear in my life, he said,

I went on TV and saw one of those by

ten Time Life CD you know, collection of great Christian

worship songs, praise songs, contemporary praise. So he said, I

bought the whole set, the Time Life series, and for

the next several months, I just listened to music that

helped me focus on God rather than on my fears.

And he said, it not only comforted me, it made

me courageous.

It gave me courage.

Now, any of you who've ever gone through a tough

time and then listened to music that helped you get

the focus on God.

Know what I'm talking about.

My youngest son, after struggling with mental illness and entire life,

took his life. It was the worst day of my life,

our family's life. And for months after that can I

didn't even want to turn on the TV. The pain

and the grief was so intense in our lives. But

what we did do is fill our house and our

car and our lives with worship music that helped us

focus on God, and it gave us comfort, and it

gave us courage. Do you know what Mary did when

she was so frightened about the job that God had

given her. She wrote a song and sang it. And

that song, called Mary's Song, is actually in the Bible.

Part of it is there on your outline, Luke, chapter one.

Then Mary sang, this is how she dealt with her fears.

Then Mary sang, with all my heart, I praise the Lord.

I rejoice in God, my Savior, for he notices me.

He cares for me, a simple servant girl. He has

blessed me. And He is the mighty one. The bigger

God gets in your mind, the small your problems get.

He is the mighty one. Your fear shrink who is Holy.

He's all powerful, he can do anything, He meets all

our needs, and he keeps all our promises.

It is no accident.

That Christmas is the most musical of all holidays. No

other holiday in the planet comes close to having the

most songs. There are literally thousands and thousands of Christmas songs.

I mean, there are some stations they start playing Christmas

music and a lot August, you know, and by that

time you're sick of it, you know, and they just

keep playing it. Why Because at the first Christmas everybody sang.

Mary sang to get rid of her fears, Elizabeth sang

to get rid of her fears, the angels sang, the

shepherds sang. Even Zachariah writes a song. It's in the Bible.

I highly recommend that you do that, that you start

listening to music that builds you up, not tears you down.

It focuses on the solution, not the problems in life. Finally,

there's the fourth way to defeat your fears. Base my

hope on the promises of God. Let me ask you

personal question, what do you put your hope in? What

gives you any hope for next?

Year.

If I don't put my hope in myself, I don't

put my hope in the economy. I certainly don't put

my hope in any politician. I don't put my hope

in political correctness or conventional wisdom, or public opinion or

cultural values. I put my hope in what God has

promised in his word right here now? Did you know

that in this book, the Bible? In this book there

are over seven thousand, seven thousand promises of God from

God to you.

Do you even know one of them?

It would be silly to go through life not knowing

what God has promised to do in your life. That's

why you're filled with anxiety. You know, if I were

to have us major surgery needed and I was worried

can I afford this? I'd go get my insurance policy,

my medical policy, look it up, and if the policy

says this procedure's covered, I don't sweat it because I'm

not going to pay for it. Because the insurance company

has promised to pay for it. So I'm not anxious.

I'm not worried. Even if it's a million dollar surgery,

They'll handle it. The reason you are fearful and anxious

and worried is you don't know what's in the policy

manual right here. You don't know what's in here. And

so in this book there are promises from God to

you about your finances.

Did you know that?

About your health, about your sex life, about your relationships,

about your career, about your past, your present, your future,

about forgiveness of sind about eternal life. They're all there,

but if you don't know them, you can't claim them.

They're like somebody writing you a billion dollar check and

you never cash it. The fourth key to overcoming fear

in your life is to stop listening to the things

around you and start focusing on what God has promised

to do in your life. This is what gave Mary confidence.

Elizabeth noticed this, and in Luke chapter one, Elizabeth said

to Mary, you are blessed because you believed that the

Lord would do what he said. You believe God will

keep his promises. That's what gave this young peasant girl

enormous confidence in the face of an incredibly fearful situation.

She believed God would keep his word. And when you

start doing that, you will be blessed too. Now, as

a pastor, I want you to be blessed. It's why

I do this. It's why I'm teaching all these services today.

Nobody pays me to do this. I do it because

I want you to be blessed. I want you to

be fearless. And saw I'm fifty six. David says this.

When I'm afraid, I put my trust in God. And

when I put my trust in God, I'm not afraid. Well, duh,

it's kind of obvious there.

He said.

I praise him for what he has what promise circle

that word. I praise him for what he's promised. Now,

as I said, they're over seven thousand promises in this

book from God to you. And if you've gone through

life not knowing these promises, you've had.

A lot of worry.

You've had a lot of fear, You've got a lot

of frustration, fatigue, and failure too. I don't have time

to go through seven thousand promises. Let me just give

you on Christmas the most important one. It's the promise

that when you die you can go to heaven if

you trust in the sun that he sent at Christmas.

That's called the promise of eternal Life. It's in John

chapter three, verse sixteen, the most famous verse in the Bible.

You've seen posters John three sixteen, probably at every football

game in your life. And here's what it says. Look

up here on the screen. For God so loved the world.

He did it out of love, not out of anger

fear of judgment. God so loved the world that includes me,

that includes you. God so loved you that he gave

his one and only son. That's what Christmas is all about.

He comes to earth in the form of Jesus Christ.

He gave his one and only son that whoever believes

in him. Notice, then say believe and be perfect, believe

and never sin. He just says, believe. Whoever believes in him,

that's the one condition, shall not perish, but have eternal life.

That's the greatest promise. Now, Jesus Christ came to earth

at Christmas to die for your sins, so you don't

have to pay for your sins. He was hung on

the cross, so you can quit hanging yourself on a

cross and feeling regret and resentment and rejection and shame

and all that guilt stuff like that. But Jesus didn't

just come to earth to forgive your sins. That's part

of it. He didn't just come to earth to get

you into heaven. If you've trust in him, he also

came to eliminate your fears.

Here and now, last verse on the screen, it says this.

Jesus came to die for us so that he could

free us from living all our lives as slaves to

the fear of death. That's the universal fear, because the

last time I checked, the mortality rate in the world

is one hundred percent.

We're all going to die someday. Now.

It would be foolish, really, it would be foolish to

go all through life unprepared for what you know is inevitable.

That's called denial. Friend, are you ready to die? You're

not ready to live till you're ready to die. Do

you know what's going to happen to you after you die?

Have you believed so that you might have eternal life?

That's the whole purpose Christmas.

It's why the whole world's going to shut down tomorrow

and celebrate, because God's flit history into eighty and BC.

The last line of that famous carol, A Little Count

in Bethlehem goes like this, The hopes and fears of

all the years are met in thee you Jesus.

Tonight, I'm going.

To close this with what I call a fear not prayer.

And if you've ever had any anxiety and problems like that, the.

Stress in your life's been building.

God, I highly recommend you pray this prayer that you

begin the journey of getting to know God.

This Christmas.

Why celebrate Christmas if you don't know the God who

sent his son.

That didn't make sense. Why celebrate Christmas and not open.

Up his gift to you? So let's bow our heads

for prayer right now. And as I pray this prayer,

you can just in your mind go meet to God.

You don't have to actually say the words. What matters

is the attitude of humility. It says God, I need you.

So just pray this. Dear God. I don't want to

be fearful. I want my life to be full of faith,

not fear. And I admit that I've struggled with some

of these fears inadequacy and the fear of disapproval, and

the fear of change, and the fear of losing control,

and the fear of being disappointed. And I've been afraid

to believe. I've been afraid to trust. I've been afraid

to hope. I've been afraid of you, and yet you say,

don't be afraid. So starting today, I want to surrender

my life completely to you. Every day, Your God, I'm

not I want what you want for my life. You

know it'll make me happy more than anybody else. Will

help me to stop listening to the voices of fear,

to hang out with people of faith, Help me to

fill my mind with music that gets the focus off

me and onto you, and help me to base my

hope not on some flimsy idea, but on the rock

solid promises of God. Lord, You've said that if I

believe in your son, I will not perish but have

eternal life.

I want that, and so right now.

As best as I know how I say, I ask

you to accept me into your family. I humbly ask

you to accept me in your family. Jesus Christ. I

don't understand it all, but as much as I know how,

I open my life up to you. I want to

get to know you, and I want to know your

purpose God for my life. And I humbly ask this

in your name.

Amen.

If you prayed that prayer for the very first time.

Would you let me know about it? Write me Rick

at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick, I prayed

that prayer of commitment and I'll send you some material

that will help you on your journey with Jesus, and

I'll also pray for you. Wow, some powerful words from

Pastor Wreck And now here's Rick with a very special message.

Merry Christmas, everybody. Do you even know why we give

Christmas gifts to each other? It's because God gave the

first Christmas gift, the gift of his son. God has

been using you and your generous support to literally transform

the lives of so many people who've never heard about

the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. We couldn't

do any of this without you. Without your support, we're

one hundred percent listener funded, and I want to thank

you for being obedient to God. When he tells you

to give to daily hope. You might not thank You've

got a lot to give. It's the regular giving, month

after month after month that God multiplies, and thanks to

all of you, we are reaching more and more people

with the good news every day. So let me just say,

at this time of the year, I want to appreciate

your partnership in this ministry. Any success that we have

is because God working through us together. Your prayers make

a difference, Your giving make a difference, and you telling

other people about the program makes a difference. Here's what

I'm gonna ask you to do. Would you continue to

pray for me? I really need your prayers. Pray that

God will give me just the right words to say

this next year as we go into a year of

Daily Hope sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with

people all around the world. Then let me know how

you're doing. Let me know how we can pray for you.

We have a prayer team here. It blesses me to

hear from you, and so just write me Rick at

pastorick dot com. It's real simple, Rick at pastorick dot com.

Thanks for listening, thanks for giving, thanks for sharing, and

thanks for caring. God bless you 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 your generous financial support