Rick Warren - Radical Joy—Part Two

Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is

the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, we're so

glad you've joined us. Today, we're continuing a powerful series

called Radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots. And in this series, Rick

will show you how to grow deep in your faith,

stay grounded in God's word, and become everything He created

you to be. And now here's part two of a

message called Radical Joy.

What's heaven going to be like.

You're gonna be reunified, reunion with the people you love.

There's going to be rewards in heaven.

There's gonna be rest, and there's gonna be responsibilities that

you love to do. One of my favorite things in

the Bible is that it tells us is that in heaven,

I'm going to get a new body. Now, the truth

is the reason you were made, the reason the universe

exists is God wanted a family, and he wanted that

family to not just be with him here on earth,

but to be with him forever, his forever family. The

Bible says in advance, God already knew who would choose

to accept him, and he still chose to make all

of us. He gives us that choice. The Bible says

this in Romans eight twenty nine. For God knew his

people in advance, those who would want to be a

part of his family. It's a choice, and He chose

them then to become like his son, so that his

son would be the first born with many brothers and sisters.

God is our father, Jesus is our older brother, and

we are brothers and sisters in the family of God.

No friends.

If we just ended with those two things, and I said,

that's all we're going to talk about this week, let's

go home, and we just ended with that our sins

have been completely forgiven and that we're going to have

a permanent home in heaven, that would be enough to

be joyful the rest of your life. If God never

did another thing for you, you owe him your praise,

you owe him your worship, and you have every reason

for joy because number one, you live on under no condemnation,

and number two, you're going to heaven when you die

if you are in Christ. Now there's a third reason

why we can be joyful in life no matter what happens. One,

all my sins are forgiven, and number two, I'm going

to heaven, and nothing's going to stop that. Number three

if I'm in Christ. Third reason for radical joy, God

is working all things for good, all things.

For my good.

Now, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago,

and one of the messages where we looked word for

word at Romans eight twenty eight, which is one of

the great promises of the Bible. The Bible tells us

that God doesn't make mistakes. We make mistakes, but God doesn't.

And God says, you know what, I can even fit

my mistakes in your mistakes into my plan. God says,

My purpose for your life is bigger than your problems.

And even when you make dumb decisions, and when other

people make decisions, says, yeah, I can fit that into it.

All for good. What a reason to be joyful. The

Bible says this in Romans eight twenty eight. We know

that in all things, that's everything that happens in your life,

the good, the bad, the ugly. In all things, God

works for the good. Not all things are good, but

He works for the good of those who love him,

those who've been called according to His purpose. Now, this

is not a promise for everyone. We've talked about this

for all things do not work together for good for everybody.

If I'm living and rebellion against God, if I'm thumbing

my nose to God, if I'm saying I'm going to

be my own God, I reject Jesus Christ.

I reject God's purpose for my life.

I'm going to live my own life the way I

want to. Then all things are working for bad in

my life. They're not working for good. God owes you nothing.

But when you come to him and say, God, I

want to live for your purpose. I don't always get

it right, but I want to live for your purpose.

I want to do the right thing, and I want

to follow you, and I want to trust you. God says,

you know what, Then I'm going to take everything in

your life and I'll work it for good.

That is a reason for joy. What does it mean?

It means once I place my life in Christ's hands

and I'm in Christ.

In Christ, my life is almost goof proof.

What does that mean that I don't make bad decisions?

Oh yeah, I still make bad decisions that other people

don't make them.

Oh yeah, they do too.

But God says, you know what, I can fit that

into the plan. There is no plan b for your life.

God says, I knew before you were born all the

mistakes you were going to make.

I still have it in your plan.

Yeah, I'll fit that into this allows me to be

sovereign and allows you to have free choice at the

same time, and I'll use it for good. Now what

does that mean. It means I can relax. I can

stop being angry anxious, which, by the way, anxiety is

a killed joy. It is a thing that kills the joy.

You can't be anxious. Am I making the right decision?

Am I doing the right thing? Have I made the

right decision? Am I gonna You're always fretting about that

there's not going to be any joy in your life.

But if you sit back and go, you know what,

I'm going to do the best I can with what

I have for Jesus today.

But even if I.

If I don't get it all right, God says, I'm

going to still work it for good.

How cool is that? How cool? I mean? That is

a reason for joy.

It is a reason for joy that no matter how

bad things are in my life, I can know God

is even using it for good. So how do I

be joyful even in tough times? Like this last year. Well,

there are two things you do. First, you look past

the problem. You look past the pain, and you look

toward God and his solution. This, by the way, is

how Jesus was able to endure the cross. How did

Jesus put up with the pain, the agony, the suffering,

and the cruel death of the cross.

He looked beyond it.

The Bible says it like this in Hebrews chapter twelve,

verse two. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. That

means focus focus on God, not your problem. Fix our

eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.

He's using everything in your life to perfect your faith.

Who for the joy set? There's that word, the joy

set before him endured the cross? How did he endure

the cross? Because he looked past it to see the

joy of all the people who are going to be

saved through it. He looked past the pain and saw

the purpose. He looked past the pain and saw God's plan.

He looked past the pain and saw the reward. That's

how you do it. When you're going through tough time,

you go, yeah, you know, I don't like what's going

on right now. It doesn't it's terrible, But I know

that God is working all things for good in my life,

and that's the reason for joy. The second thing you

do to experience joy no matter what happens, is that

you keep on doing the right thing, even when you

don't feel like doing it. When you do the right thing,

it brings joy in your life. The Bible says this

in PSI one nineteen, Verse one, p.

Forty three.

As pressure and stress bear down on me, let me

stop right there. Does anybody identify with this verse? As

pressure and stress bear down on me? I find joy

in watching television. Now, that's not what it says.

I find joy in going shopping. I find no.

It says I find joy in your commands. Joy comes

from doing the right thing at the right place time.

Years ago, Ricky wrote the song Heal and Grace, which

says there's a line that says, and I can see

that there are good things only suffering can bring. There's

got to be a story behind that.

Yeah.

Years ago, I used to go and I still do this.

I sneak into Pastor's library and I read through some

of his great books that he's got there, and there

was a line from aw Towzer that said that very thing.

I can see that there are good things only suffering

can bring.

Now, let me ask you a question specifically about this.

Most of us in the church family know that one

of your boys was born with a congenital heart defect.

He's had six.

This August tenth was his sixth open.

Sixth open heart surgery, every one of them life or death.

I can see that they are good things only suffering

can bring. What did you learn out of that?

Well, first of all, I really appreciate all the prayers

and the support from our church family. So you learn

that there's people that really believe and they support others

and giving people. I learned that having God's presence in

my life is the most important thing that could ever have.

That it does create a sense of joy and even

in the midst of really difficult And that's all relative,

isn't it, because we all go through different things. But

for me and this last one, we were there for

twenty four days and he had a stroke and all

kinds of complications, and the stress all around with the

different parents and many of them who lost their children.

Having God's presence, just knowing that God was with me

helped me to walk through this time. And I do

want to say this that a lot of people they

think God is a genie that you rub the lamp

and you get what you want. More important than that,

he gives you his presence.

That's great.

There's a fourth reason why we can always be joyful

no matter what happens in our lives.

And this is a big one.

The Bible says, if I'm in Christ, God is for me.

God is for me. He's not just with me, He's

for me. He's on my side.

And the Bible says this in Romans eight, verse thirty one.

What can we say about such wonderful things as these?

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

I mean, like, you got God on your side, what

more do you need? One plus God equals a majority.

If God likes you, and you like you. If others

being don't like you, that's their problem. One plus God

equals a majority. God says, if God is forced, who

can be against us? Psychologists have discovered that there are

six hundred and forty five different known fears that people

can have.

That's a lot of fears.

Fear is a universal problem, and fear like guilt, like shame,

like anxiety is a killed joy. You cannot be afraid

and full of joy at the same time. And yet

God says, look, I'm on your side, I'm for you,

I'm going to protect you. What are you worried about?

What are you afraid of? If God is forced, who

can be against us? I wonder what your greatest fear is.

Is it? I don't know.

The fear of embarrassment, the fear of death, the fear

of losing your mind, maybe the fear of failure. Studies

have shown that one of the most common universal fears

is the fear of rejection. Now comes out in a

lot of different ways. The fear of not being loved,

the fear of disapproval, the fear of disappointing people, the

fear of embarrassing yourself, the fear of not fitting in,

the fear of not being a part of the crowd,

the fear of not being like, the fear of not

being popular. It is the fear of rejection, and Satan

uses this fear to rob you of your joy. Satan

knows all the things that will make you joyful, so

he tries to create a fear that opposes it. For instance,

Satan knows that doing the right thing will always bring

you joy in your life. So he makes you afraid

if I do the right thing, other people will think

I'm weird. If I do the right thing, I won't

be popular. If I do the right thing, people will

think I'm a religious fanatic. If I do the right thing,

people will think I'm nuts.

I do this.

He's trying to get you afraid so you won't do it.

Satan knows that one of the greatest sources of joy

in life is when you share Jesus Christ and the

love of Christ with an unbeliever. It creates enormous joy.

So it's your also your greatest fear. You're afraid to

talk to anybody about Jesus. Why because Satan put that

fear there to keep you from the greatest joy. And

you'll think, well, man, people think I'm nuts. And he

creates a fear to keep you away from the very

things that bring you the most joy. It's why you're

so afraid to share Jesus with others, the fear of rejection.

Satan knows that speaking the truth in love brings joy,

and so he's going to make you afraid to speak

the truth. And he'll say well, how can you tell

anybody else that truth? Look at your life, You're not perfect,

and he'll start accusing you. And if he'll say, you know,

if you talk to other people about doing the right

thing and say well, who are you, and they'll start

accusing you all the things that are bad in your life.

Here's what the Bible says about that Romans eight thirty three.

Who can accuse the people of God? The people God

has chosen? No one, because God is the one who

makes them right. Now, doesn't it say you're perfect? Doesn't

mean you don't sin. When he says, who can accuse you?

No one? Because God makes them right? What you do

is somebody says.

But you can't talk about that you did this, this

and this, and you say, yep.

I'm a trophy of grace.

When somebody starts to accuse you of all the things

you've done wrong, and you're right, say yep, I'm a

trophy of grace. Okay, I'm not perfect, but God is

I'm under no condemnation because I deserve it.

No, because I'm a trophy of grace.

You know, God says, I want you to get over

this fear of reject the Bible says in the world,

you will have persecution. He said, count on it. The

Bible says, beware when all men speak.

Well of you.

In other words, if people are always nobody ever says

anything against you, it means runs things that you're not

standing for anything. Beware when all men speak well of you.

The Bible says, all who live godly in Christ Jesus

will experience persecution. Why because there are some people in

the world who are one hundred percent opposed to what

you believe.

They are. I don't know if you'd noticed this or not.

I get criticized a lot.

Have you noticed this TV, radio, newspaper?

Well? Why is that? Well?

One reason is I deserve some of it. Nobody's perfect,

so there's something to criticize about everybody.

So some of the stuff I deserve.

But also I am a face that represents what some

people are adamantly opposed to, and so they're going to criticize.

Now let's take the last one. God works everything for good.

How does God work everything for good when you're being criticized.

Oh, there's lots of ways.

For one thing, it's an opportunity for me and for

you to grow to be more like Christ. You see,

you are most like Christ when you were silent in

the face of false criticism. You're most like Christ when

you are silent and you refuse to retaliate in the

face of criticism. Jesus was a perfect person. None of

us are. And yet he was constantly criticized, constantly misunderstood,

constantly lied about. Constantly they condemned him, and at the crucifixion,

before that, at the arrest, they were accusing of all

all these things that he had never done. And it says,

and Jesus spake not a word unto them. He remains silent.

Why if God is for us, who can be against us?

He really doesn't matter what other people think. What matters

is what God says about you. And that's what's going

to last in the long run. In fact, the Bible

says this on the screen Matthew twenty seven fourteen.

Jesus made no reply even to a.

Single charge, all the trumped up charges and all the

things against him, to the great amazement of the governor.

Who is pilot.

When you respond to accusations with love and kindness and

refuse to retaliate, it makes you more like Jesus.

That's a good thing. God brings good in that. You know.

I was about a year ago praying about this, and

I said, Lord, I understand the good. That doesn't mean

does it help anybody else? And God says, if you

can be a model of how criticism cannot rob you

of your joy, that's a good thing.

Nobody can rob me of my joy.

It doesn't matter what other people say, doesn't matter what

other people think, doesn't matter whether they're right, they're wrong,

they're ridiculous, or whatever. Nobody can rob me of my joy.

Let me give you a little advice, as your pastor

who loves you, You'll never be able to please everybody.

Just about the time you get crowd a, please, crowd

B gets ticked off, and about the time you get proud,

crowd B please, crowda gets ticked off. One minute you're

the hero, the next minute you're the zero. But here's

the good news. You don't need other people's approval to

be happy. If you've been spending your life still trying

to earn the approval of your dad or your mom,

or your friends, or your peers or some teacher in

the past and prove them wrong, that's stupid. If you

haven't gotten their approval. If I now, you're not gonna

get it. And it's not your fault, it's their fault.

But here's the good news. You don't need it. You

don't need the approval of anybody to be joyful. You

don't need the approval of anybody to be happy. All

you need to do is live.

For an audience of one for God.

And if God likes you and you're doing, and He

likes what you're doing, then it's always the right thing

to do, not only that you're gonna be rewarded in eternity.

Do you remember the last beatitude we covered when we

went through life's healing choices. It goes like this, Blessed

are you. That means happy, Happy are you? When men

shall revile you, That means put you down and persecute you,

and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my.

Sake, rejoice. There's the word rejoice, Joy, Rejoice.

And be exceeding overflowing joy, For great as your reward

in heaven. That's a good thing. This is what Jesus

told us. He said, in the world, you'll have tribulation.

They said, you don't have to worry about it because

I love you. In fact, Romans eight thirty seven says this,

none of this phases us, because Jesus loves us. Don't

ever let anybody rob your joy. Don't ever let anybody

take it away from you.

They don't have a right to.

Now. Jesus also said this on the screen. I say

these things while I'm still in the world, so that

they That means all of us, the followers, may have

the full measure of my joy within them. Did you

know that Jesus prayed that you would have the full

measure of the joy he had inside you. That's extravagant joy,

that's irrational joy, that's exuberant joy.

That's on speakable joy.

What a special message from Pastor Rick. And now let's

hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here's Rick

with a letter from one of our listeners today.

I've got a quick note from a listener in Minneapolis.

His name is Bill, and Bill wrote to me, Rick,

I want to let you know that I prayed with

you this morning, accepting God into my life.

Wow. That's great.

Daily Hope has become the way that I start each

day listening to your podcast so much has changed in

my life over the past year. I had a job loss,

I had a transition, I had a divorce, my dad

passed away, cancer, and my faith all in the same year.

I'm so thankful for all that you do well.

Bill, I want to tell you, I know you've been

going through some really tough times this past year, but

there's no greater news than hearing that you've accepted Jesus

into your life. And the fact that God used a

Daily Hope podcast to lead you to Him is such

a blessing. And I want you to know that as

you continue to study God's word every day, you're going

to find that your faith is growing and you'll see

God actively working in your life. And I really am

as excited to think about what the next year is

going to bring. Year two in your life will be

very different than the last year. And to the rest

of you, all of our Daily Hope listeners, I just

want to thank you because we're able to provide the

Daily Hope podcast to people like Bill because of your

generous support. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,

thank you, thank you for helping us share the good

news all around the world.

We love you and imagine.

What it's going to be to get to heaven and

see all these people who came to know Christ because

of your giving.

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