Rick Warren - How to Get Closer to God (Even If You Feel Far)

The further away you get from God, the more trouble

you're going to have in your life, the more trials,

the more difficulties, the more stress, the more things are

going to go wrong because you're not cooperating with your creator.

You're not following God's plan for your life. And the

Bible says, the way of the unrighteous is rough, it's

full of thorns, it's difficult, it's a rocky, rocky road.

The further I get away from God, the more trouble

I'm going to have in my life. On the other hand,

the closer I get to God, the more my life

is going to be transformed. And we can see this

all through the scripture that Paul, when he finally met

Jesus Christ face to face, he was radically transformed from

a literally a terrorist, he was a religious terrorist, into

the apostle of Love, who wrote the most beautiful poem

on love ever written or penned by men. Was transformed

from a depressed person into a courageous person when he

met God. When he got close to God, Moses got

so close to God the Bible says he was even

transformed in his appearance, and people had to even look

away from him. He almost like glowed, and he got

so close to God that God is light, and in

him is there are no darkness at all. He was

literally physically transformed. Now, we all want to be close

to God, but the Bible says, all we, like sheep,

have gone astray. We've each turned into our own way.

In other words, like sheep, we tend to wander. You

don't have to teach sheep to drift off. They just

do it naturally by their very nature. They just kind

of wander off when the shepherd has to bring him

back in, and they'll walk off a cliff, and you know,

sheep aren't really that bright an animal. They'll walk into

a den of wolves, and in all kinds of difficult

and dangerous situations. Sheep tend to wander in. The Bible

says all we, you and me, like sheep, tend to

go astray. We don't tend to stay close to God.

We tend to wander off. How do you get close

to God? How do you stay close to God? And

if you've fallen away from God, how do you get

back in that close relationship to God? Some of you

you can point to a time in your life and

you go man. I remember when I was really I

felt God's presence. I was close to God. I could

sense his friendship, I could sense the fellowship, and there

was a joy in my life. But I've lost that.

You know. It's kind of it's like you let the

air out of a balloon. How do I get back

to God if I've kind of wandered away, if kind

of lost the spark, Because if I'm not close to God,

I don't have the power to make all the other transformations. Fortunately,

we have a story in the Bible on how to

get back to God and how to get close to

the Father. It's one of the most famous stories in

the entire Bible. Jesus told that it's the story of

the prodigal Son, or sometimes it's called the story of

the Loving Father, because it's really more about the Father

than is about the son. And that story is in Luke,

chapter fifteen. Let me read you the story, and then

we'll pull some principles out of it on how to

transform your life spiritually Luke fifteen, verses eleven to twenty four.

Jesus told this story. A man had two sons, and

the younger son told his father, give me my share

of your estate now, instead of waiting till you die.

So the father divided his wealth between his two sons.

A few days later, the younger son packed all his

belongings and left to live in a distant land. See,

he's already getting away from the father. He's getting distant

from the father. And he got as far away, basically

as far away from the father as he could. He

goes to a distant land, and there he squandered the

gift he'd been given. And we've all done that, and

he wasted his life and money on wild parties and

reckless living. Now, about the time all his money ran out,

a se fear of famine hit the land, and he

began to starve because he was left with nothing. Now

he's getting hungry now. The only job he could find

was feeding swine on a farm, and he became so desperate,

so hungry that even the pig slop he was feeding

the swine looked good to him. That no one would

give him anything for his hunger. When he finally came

to a census, he said to himself, this is crazy.

At my father's home, even the lowest paid workers eat well. Well,

I'm over here far away dying of hunger. So he goes,

I know what I'm gonna do. He says, I'm going

to re turn home to my father and humbly say, father,

i have sinned both against God and you, and I'm

not worthy to be a part of the family or

called your son. But please just make me one of

your servants who works for you. So I'm not even

gonna be a family member. Just hire me out as

a servant. Make me one of your servants who works

for you. And with that attitude, he headed back home

to his father. But while the son was still a

long distance away, he hadn't got all the way back home.

His father saw him coming, and filled with love and compassion,

he ran out to his son, threw his arms around

him and kissed him. The son said, no, he's got

his prepared speech. Father, I have sinned against both God

and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called

your son. But the father said to his servants, quick,

bring me the fine robe in our house and put

it on him. Then get my signet ring for his finger,

and shoes for his feet, and then roast the calf

that we've been fattening up. We're gonna celebrate with a

feast of eating and drinking. For this child of mine

was distant and dead, but now he's back and alive.

He was lost, but now he's found. And so the

party began. Don't you love that story? Don't you just

love that? Yeah, you can clap for the story. That's

for Jesus. That's an incredible, incredible story, and it tells

the story of how every one of us tends to

wander away from our creator, wander away from the father

who made us, wander away from the God who loves us.

This kid starts off staying, God, our dad or father,

I want you to give me much rightfully mine. It's

all about me, give me my. It's a very self

centered life. And that's where we usually start in life.

Give me my, God, give me my. I want mine now.

And we're by the way. We're in a hurry, and

I want it and I want it now, and if

I can't pay for it, I'll put it on credit.

And so we're always in a hurry. Give me mine now.

And so he takes off and he packs up, and

he heads off for Sunset Strip in Jerusalem, and there

he wastes his money and his time and his energy

on wine, women and song, particularly women, and he really

gets mets up and he hits the skids and he

becomes homeless. And then on top of that, the nation

goes into a national recession because there's a famine in

the land, and now nobody has anything to eat, So

nobody's gonna give a panhandler or a street guiding to

eat because they don't have anything to eat. And then

he can't even find a job. Things go from bad

to worse. Finally finds a farm where he hires himself

out to do the worst job on the farm, slopping pigs.

Now for a jew that's not a good thing. That's

not kosher, because you're not even supposed to touch a pig. Okay,

you're not even supposed to have anything to do with pork.

He gets the worst job a Jewish kid could get,

slopping pigs, and he gets so hungry and he gets

so desperate. He's going, man, this stuff looks good. You

gotta be serious, seriously desperate if you think pigslop looks good.

And it says nobody gave him anything. And then it

says he wises up, and it says he came to

his senses and he goes, shoot the servants, the poorest

paid guys in my dad's employment eat better than this.

What in the world am I doing? Now? He knows

he doesn't deserve his father's love. He knows he doesn't

deserve he's just wasted half of his dad's inheritance, all

that his dad's burned his entire life working to earn.

And he goes, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm

not gonna go home and ask God to or asking

the father to just accept me back in the family.

I'm just go home and say, look, hire me. I'd

rather be a servant in your house than be over

here in a distant country, starving to death. And you

know the rest of the story. As we saw the

father's response. Now from this story we gain the four

things you need to do to get back to God. Now,

I don't know where you are today. You may be

way way way way way way way way way far away.

Maybe I haven't been in church in years and years

and years, or maybe you are a little bit closer,

or maybe you're a little bit closer, but maybe even

you've just been distant for a week and you've had

one of those weeks and you just thought, you know,

I really don't feel God's presence in my life, and

yet we all long to be close to God. How

do I get back to him? You do these four things.

This is the pathway back to spiritual transformation. Number one.

I get fed up. That's the first. I get fed

up with my life. I get fed up with my circumstance.

I get fed up with the way I've been living.

I just get sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I am not gonna live this way anymore. I am

too stressed out, I'm too lonely, I'm too depressed. I

am overworked and busy, and I don't even like myself.

Why would anybody like me? I don't even like me.

I don't like the life I'm living right now. Now.

Let me just say this, Nothing is going to happen

in your life until first you get disad with the

way you are. Nothing's going to happen in your life

until you decide I don't like this. I'm tired of

being stressed out all the time. I'm tired of being

frustrated all the time. I'm tired of being overworked all

the time. I'm tired of feeling distant from God. You

gotta get desperate, you gotta get hungry, you've got to

get anxious for change. Nothing happens until you get fed up.

In that passage in scripture, it says this, he wasted

it all, he had nothing left. He got desperate and hungry,

and he finally came to his senses. And that's where

transformation starts. Are you there yet? If not, it's okay,

God I'll just leave. Let you stay there, and he'll

allow a little rain in your life. And if that

doesn't work, he'll allow a little bit more in your life.

And if that doesn't work, he'll send the storm. Why

because God loves you just the way you are, But

He loves you too much to let you stay that way.

He will not let you waste your life. And when God,

you know, wants to come and get our attention, he comes,

and he he knocks on the door, And if we ignored,

he just knocks on the door again. And then if

he we ignored, he knocks on the door again, and

if we ignored, he blows the door down. Some of

you have had the door blown down in your life.

And you've lost your job, or you lost your marriage,

or you lost a friend, you lost something. Why Because

God does everything he does in your life out of love.

He does not want you to miss him, and he

does not want you to waste your life. You know

the old phrase, you can lead a horse to water,

but you can't make him drink, but you can salt

his oats make him thirsty. God often makes you thirsty

by putting salt in your oats. And when you start saying,

I'm just so unsatisfied with my life, I just don't

like the way I'm living. I don't like this. Hello,

that's God knocking on your door. The first step in

transformation is for you to get disgusted, to get discontent,

to get fed up with the way you're living. Jeremiah

twenty nine, verse thirteen says this. God says, you will

find me when you get serious about finding me, and

you want it more than anything else. See, God's not

gonna reveal himself if I just kind of want to

do it on the casual it's kind of a part

time hobby. I gotta get fed up with the way

I'm living. Say, there's gotta be more to life than this.

There's got to be a better way to live than this.

There's got to be asaner way to live than this.

You get fed up. Second step. You own up first,

I get fed up. Second, I own up. I own

up to my own sin. I own up to my

own sin. That's the second thing that this young man did.

He goes, this is nuts, this is nonsense, this is crazy.

I can't maintain this lifestyle I've been living right now.

It's just not sustainable. It's not fulfilling, and it's not sustainable.

When he came to his senses, and that is you know,

he wakes up. You see, to live without God is insane.

To live without God does not make sense. To live

without God is not rational. To live without the creator

who made you is not logical. It doesn't make sense.

When he came to his senses, he said, I have

sinned against God and you, and nothing's going to happen

till you come to stage two. And stage two is

you go all right, I just need to own up here.

I need to face up to the fact that I

have been not living God's way. I've been living my way.

I've been doing it my way. I've been doing it

the way I think is best. I've been doing it

the way that protects all my fears. I've been doing

it the way that tries to control everything around me.

Even though I know I can't control it, I'm still

trying to control it all. And I'm getting tired of

holding onto all of the controls. I'm about ready to

resign as general manager of the universe because I've noticed

it isn't cooperating with me, and so I own up.

And what do I own up to? I own up

to my sin. When he came to his census, he

said said, I have sinned now. In Isaiah fifty nine,

verse two, there on your outline, the Bible says this,

it's your sins. Your sins have separated you from your

God and have hidden his face from you. Have you

ever prayed and you felt like God was a million

miles away? Have you ever prayed and felt like your

prayers are bouncing off the ceiling? Have you ever prayed

and felt like there's just like this veil between me

and God. I can't see God, I can't hear God,

I can't feel God, and I feel like I'm just

talking to myself. Where does that come from? Your sins

have separated you from your God and have hidden his

face from you. That's where it comes from. It comes

from your sin. If you feel far from God, guess

who moved. God hasn't moved. God didn't move. God didn't

go on vacation. God didn't move away to a foreign country.

God has always been there and he has never not

been there, and he loves you unconditionally. But if you

few far from God, you're the one who moved, and

you moved away by giving your love to something else.

When you give anything else your love, there's a word

for that in the Bible. It's called an idol. Now

we think idols are like these little stone things that

people bow down to in words no no, no, no no.

An idol can look like your car. An idol can

look like your job. An idle could be a dress,

and idle could be the way you look. Anything that

you love more than God becomes an idol. The First

and second commandments say, thou shalt have no other gods

afore me thou shalt not make any false idols. Money

can be an idol, success can be an idol. Golf

can be an idol. These are not bad things. They're

just not deserving the first place in your life. So

I own up to my sin. Your sins have separated

you from your God. The fact is this, You're as

close to God as you choose to be. You can't

really blame anybody else. You can't blame your husband, you

can't blame your wife. You can't blame your mom, your dad,

the brother. You can't blame the government. That's one thing.

You can't blame the government for you spell blame, be lame,

and that's being lame when you blame other people for

your spiritual condition. Well, if my husband were a more

dedicated believer, really, well if my girlfriend was more on

fire for Christ. Really, you are as close to God

as you choose to be. And the fact is you

haven't been desperate. You haven't been fed up enough to

say I am desperate to know God. God. You know,

if I were to hold you underwater, you would struggle.

But when you really started running out of breath, you

would really struggle because you would be desperate for air.

When you're that desperate, you don't just get fed up.

You own up and he say I've got to know God.

You're as close to God as you choose to be. Now,

when I own up and I say, God, I've owned it.

I've been going my way. I've been I've been doing

your way. I've been going my way. I've been doing

what I want to do. When I do that, what

is God's response to my facing up to my sin?

He goes, yeah, Yeah, let me tell you what else

you're doing wrong. No, he doesn't rub it in. When

I come and I say, God, I've really you know,

you know what I've done. I'm really sorry. What does

he do? Well, look at the next verse. Here's the

prayer you should pray, Psalm fifty one. By the the way,

David prayed this prayer after he'd committed adultery and killed

a wife's husband. So this is a pretty serious sin here.

So I'm fifty one to one to four. David says, this,

be merciful to me, Oh God, because of your constant love,

because of your great mercy, wipe away my sin, Wash

away all my evil, and make me clean. I recognize

my faults, and I'm conscious that I have sinned against you.

What's your circle of phrase? Recognize my false That means

to own up. I face up to my sins. I

own up to my sins. He says, I recognize my fault.

And what is God's response when I own up? When

I face up? Look at the next verse. The Lord says,

no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I

can remove it. I can make you clean as freshly

driven snow. Not a beautiful verse. He says, no matter

what you've done, no matter who you've done it with,

I can I can remove it. This is this is

the uh, this is the oxy clean versus the Bible. Okay,

he said, man, I can take it out. You know

that's stain. You think, Man, I'm never gonna forget that

one bad and that was so bad and it's gonna

haunt me the rest of my life. God says, I

can remove that stain. This is the stain remover verse

in the Bible. Now, doctors will tell you that every

so often you need to go and get a check cup,

and you need to have your heart checked every so often,

and you had need to have your colon checked every

so often. That's a fun one. Anybody want to give

a testimony on that right now? Okay? Anybody have you

know personal story from this week? Yeah? Okay, Uh, But

you have to get regular checkups quiet because if something's

growing wrong in your body, you want to know sooner

or not later. Right And the same is true with

your your life. If sin starts growing in you, it

can become a cancer. It's better to nip it in

the bud, like Barney Fiffe would say, before it gets

really big. You gotta do this spiritual checkup on a

regular base basis. And where do you do it. You

do it in your thought life. It's a checkup from

the neck up, and you got to think about your thoughts.

Just like you need a physical checkup regularly, you need

a spiritual checkup regularly. Tewod Corinthians five seventeen. Anyone who

belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old

life is gone, a new life has begun. Now that's

a positional statement. What that means is God says you

are a new person. Doesn't mean you don't have to

stay the same anymore. You don't have to listen to

those old impulses. You now have a new power in

your life to make it through. The Bible says this.

Test yourselves and make sure you're solid in the faith.

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

and if you fail the test, do something about it.

I love that message paraphrase, and that's what we're talking

about here. In owning up, the Bible says that before

you take the Lord's supper that you should do a

spiritual checkup every time. That this is a time to

pause and not to just get fed up, but to

own up and say, Okay, is there anything in my life?

Pal one thirty nine, search me, Oh God, and know

my heart, try me and know my thoughts. See if

there be any wicked way in me, and lead me

in the way everlasting. That'd be a good verse to

memory someone thirty nine, three twenty four. It's a it's

a search light verse. God says this verse in Second Corinthians,

First Corinthians eleven. A man ought to examine himself before

he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. So,

in other words, we need to do this second thing.

I get fed up, and then I do an own up.

I get a face up to what I need to do. Okay,

Now here's the third step to get in back to God,

to getting back in his love and his grace. Not

that he doesn't love you. He always loves you no

matter where you are. But to feeling that love. Here's

a third thing. I get fed up. I own up

number three, I offer up. I offer up my life.

I offer up myself. I offer up my total being.

And this is a third thing that we find this

young man did. He got fed up. He came to

his senses. He owned up. He says, I've sinned against God,

and then he offered up. Now. Notice in Luke chapter

twelve fifteen, verse twelve, the son drifted away saying, give

me my share. And in Luke fifteen nineteen, when he

comes back, he returned to the father saying, make me

a servant. Do you notice any change in attitude there? Hello,

He leaves saying give me, give me, give me, gim me,

give me, give me. He comes back, saying, make me.

That is transformation. That is true transformation. When your heart

moves from self centeredness to God's sinneredness, that's transformation. Are

you there yet? Are you still in the gimme, gimme,

gim me, give me, give me. What can God do

for me? Give me my stuff now to make me

your servant. That's the transformation. He returns saying make me.

That's a heart trend and that is the greatest transformation. Well,

from self centered to God's sendreness. Are you letting God

do that in you? Now? That transformation it doesn't happen overnight.

God is still working on me on this one, and

it's gonna be your entire life. He's going to work

on It's never instant, but there is a decision that

starts the process. Second, Dreen these three eighteen says this,

we reflect the Lord's glory and are being transformed. That

means a continuing process. We are being transformed, not just once,

but on a ongoing basis. It's a process. We're being

transformed into His likeness now with ever increasing glory. And

I leave that for just a minute, which comes from

the Lord. Was the spirit that we'd transformed. You know,

the Bible was written the New Testament in Greek. You

know what the word there is in Greek metamorphous. Ou

does that sound like anything? You know? Metamorphosis? It's the

word we get met what's the metaphor of morphosis. It's

when a butterfly goes from a caterpillar to a pupa

a chrysalis, and from a pupa chrysalis into a butterfly.

That's metamorphosis. It hadn't happened overnight. In fact, there's that

stage where it's sitting there in that chrysalis, it forms

that little cocoon. It's pretty ugly. Ever seen one of

those things. It doesn't look very beautiful to me, But

when it breaks out, that butterfly is stunning. I so

badly want to be that, and I want you to

be that. I want you to be transformed from the

lowly caterpillar into the beautiful butterfly. That is what transformation

is all about. It is metamorphosis. It is going from

you know, when you're a caterpillar, what can you do?

Not much except munch on leaves b boom boo boom

boo boom boo, boom boo, boom boom, and you're stuck

on the ground. And I'm sure when caterpillars have looked

in the air butterflies go. You never get me up

in one of those things. God made you to be

a butterfly. God made you to soar. God made you

to be beautiful, not ugly beautiful. But you've got to

go through the transformation process and the transformation process is

number one. Get fed up with the way you've been living,

and then own up. Get honest to God. God, I

admit I have been living for myself. I've been doing

it my way, and do that check up and then

offer up myself. Transformation is a process, but the starting

point is what the prodigal son said. Make me. That's

offer up, make me, transform me, change me. God, I

don't want to live the rest of my life the

way I'm living right now. Change me. Romans twelve to one.

This is our theme verse, but let me read you

the verse before it. Because God is merciful to you.

Offer yourselves. Offer yourselves. That's it. I offer up myself.

That's step one. I get fed up. Okay, I own up,

and now I offer up. Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice,

holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act

of worship. And don't be confis to the pattern of

this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

No transformation until you do the offer up. And it's

important to notice the father's response. Luke fifteen twenty three.

Filled with love and compassion, he ran out to his son,

threw his arms around him and kissed him, and he said,

bring the best, bring the best robe, bring the best

bring bring the best shoes, bring the fatted calf. In

all these things. The father's response. Notice he didn't wait

for the son to come home while he was still distant.

He ran out the moment you just.

Say, God, I'm tired of living the way I have

been living.

God, I'm tired. He will do more than halfway. He

will run out to meet you. God is not waiting

for you to come knock on the door, or he's

waiting for this moment in your life. He runs out

to you, He takes an issue, He throws his arms

around you, He kisses you, and he says, okay, look,

I know you blew it. Go get the best rope,

get the best clothes in the house. And then he says,

go get my signet ring. Do you know why? He

says that you know what a signet ring is. In

those days, the signet ring was your credit card, because

you take the ring and you press it into wax,

and that was like a credit card. He said, go

get my unlimited Black American Express and bringing out to

my son who just blew half of my income. God

doesn't holding the grudge against all the the dumb stuff

you've done. He's ready to lavishly pour this on, bring

out the best, bring out the bestes, do all these things.

God has a better plan for your life than you

can imagine. If you knew there was a better way

to live than there is right now, the way you've

been living, wouldn't you want to know about it? Yeah,

that's what transformation is all about. People said, well, I'm

living the good life, and you are. You live in America,

you live the good life. You're looking good, you're feeling good,

you got the goods. You know, there's only one problem

with the good life. It isn't good enough.

You were made for more than the good life. You

were made for the better life.

Life. You cannot even imagine anymore than that caterpillar can

imagine what it's like to be a butterfly. You can't

even imagine it. You cannot even imagine it. It is

so much better. And there are people who live next

to you and they got the car, and they got

the cash, and they got the clothes, and they're going,

I'm living it, I'm living the good life, and they're

missing the better life. And then there's one other thing

I do. Once I come home and I'm enwrapped in

God's love, and he hugs me and he kisses me,

and he says, bring out the best. All is forgiven,

All is forgiven. Go get the credit card, Go get

the rope, Go get the shoes. Let's let's have a barbecue.

And in that celebration, you now come home, not the condemnation.

You come back to God in celebration. Here's the fourth thing.

I lift up my praise, and they just go, thank

you God, thank you for your grace, thank you for

your love, thank you for your goodness. I lift up

my praise. Luke fifteen, here's what the Father says. We're

gonna celebrate with a feast of eating and drinking. He

was lost, but now is found. So the party begins

and life becomes a party. When life comes to transformation.

The Bible says in Psalm sixty eighty four, sing to God,

sing praises to his name. Lift up. There's that word,

lift up my praises, lift up a song to him.

His name is the Lord. Now the Father celebrated. He

had a celebration, not a condemnation. A celebration when the

son came back home. I'm fed up and I'm owning up,

and I'm gonna offer up and now I lift up

my praise and we're gonna party, and we're going to celebrate,

and we're going to sing. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father.

When we think of your grace, we are overwhelmed. It

makes our hearts want the same. There's no way that

we deserve this kind of reaction, this kind of celebration,

this kind of welcoming when we come home. But we

come to you, and first we say we're fed up.

We're fed up with the way we've been living. We're

fed up of life without Christ. We're fed up with

doing it all on our own power. We're just fed

up with all of that. And we own up. We

realize that you haven't moved, but we have. And now

the reason we're not close is because we've allowed other

things to cloud our vision of you. We have allowed

idols in our lives. We have loved other things more

than you, and that has made you feel distant. But

we come back and we own up to our sin,

and then we offer up ourselves. We're not saying give me,

give me, give me anymore. We're saying, make me, make me,

make me. If you've never accepted Jesus gift of salvation,

say Jesus Christ right now. I accept your gift of salvation.

Thank you for loving me and dying for me on

the cross. I give myself back to you. I offer

up myself to you. Make me your servant, and I

ask you to transform my life. In your name. I

pray Jesus Amen.