Rick Warren - Helping Others Like Jesus—Part Two

Hey, everyone, Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible

teaching ministry of Rick Warren. And today we're continuing with

this powerful series called the Jesus Model. In this series,

Rick will walk you step by step through the process

of true biblical discipleship. Rick's giving you practical tools to

grow spiritually, experience God's peace, live with greater purpose, and

become more like Jesus in every area of your life.

Right now, we're going into part two of a message

called helping Others like Jesus.

There's another kind of blindness, and that's spiritual blindness. It's

the worst of all. And our spiritual blindness is when

we close our eyes to the goodness of God in

our lives, when we attribute all the good things in

our lives to us and attribute all the bad things

in our lives to God. That's called spiritual blindness. When

you don't realize how much you messed up, when you're

not willing to admit how much you need a savior,

how much you need God in your life, when you

don't open your heart to Christ, that's spiritual blindness. God says,

I still care about you, and I came to open

your eyes to give you that new vision, that new insight.

And then the fifth group Jesus said he came to

help is the oppressed. He said, I came to release

the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

And I'll explain that in a minute. The oppressed I

call these people that kicked around and the oppressed of

the people in life who are kicked around in life

by circumstances. They're put down, they're played upon, they're taken

advantage of, they are pitted against. And there's all kinds

of oppression in our world today that Jesus cares about

and wants us to stop. Let me give you three kinds.

First is political oppression. Political pression is real. Not here

in America because we have freedom and the Bill of

Rights and constitution and voting and all, but around the world,

in most of the countries where there are dictatorships, there's

enormous political oppression. For instance, you probably don't know that

right now, there are over thirty five million refugees in

the world living in refugee camps. Thirty five million people

living in refugee camps because they've been politically oppressed, pushed

out of their country. I was in a refugee camp

last year and I asked the people, how long have

you been here? And they said, we've lived here eighteen

years because they had not been allowed to go back

into their country. There's about thirty thousand people in that

refugee camp, thirty five million people politically oppressed. Let me

give you another shocker. Right now in the world, there

are twenty seven million people enslaved in slavery. Twenty seven

million people living as slaves. You said, I thought we

got rid of that in the Civil War. We did

in America. It's out lawed in America, but it's not

outlawed around the world. In fast thinks will shock you.

There are more people enslaved in slavery today than there

were one hundred and fifty years ago in the Civil War.

There are more slaves today right now in the world

than there were one hundred and fift years ago in

the Civil War. What are we doing about that? Where's

the people talking about slave trade? Where are the abolitionists today?

We've got more, not less slaves. And you know what,

the number one cause of that slavery is sex trade.

Sex trade. In fact, that's the second kind of oppression,

and that's cultural oppression and virual oppression doesn't come from

the government, but it comes from the cultures that we

live in. Let me just give you some statistics about

oppression of women around the world. In Asia, there are

about sixty million girls who are missing. They're not there

simply because in Asia a result of selective sex abortion.

In other words, oh, we don't want a girl, so

we're gonna boord her, or in fantaside, a baby girls born,

so we're gonna dumper or neglect. We're gonna just neglect

the baby and the little girl dies. Domestic violence, rape,

sexual violence in general, violence is increasing in almost every

nation globally. It's going up, not down. Up. In fact,

it's one of the major causes of suicide among women

is domestic violence. Each year, two million girls listen to this.

Each year, two men girls between age five and fifteen

are sold in the sexual commercial sex market, slaves, sold

his prostitutes, sold into prostitution. Every year, two million girls

young girls. One hundred and thirty million women have been

forced to undergo female mutilation and so called honor killings,

where in some cultures, if the husband feels like his

wife look cross eyed at him. He's, well, you dishonored me,

and he has the right to murderer, and they're done.

This is done all the time. In fact, last year,

over a thousand women in Pakistan alone were murdered as

part of honor killings. Do you think God cares about that?

Absolutely he does. And he says, I came for the oppressed,

the politically oppressed, is culturally oppressed. And then there's one

other in this one you'll identify with spiritual oppression. What

is spiritual oppression, Well, there's another word for it, depression.

When you get depressed, when you feel pressured, when you

feel oppressed, when you feel pressed on, when you feel

stressed out, you're at the end of the rope, you're

ready to throw in the towel, you want to give

it all up, you're ready to hang it up, you're

ready to check it all. That's called spiritual oppression. And

Satan gives spiritual oppression in your life, and he gives

you ideas that are depressing thoughts to get you discouraged. Now,

Jesus said, these are the kind of people that I

came for. Now, I want you to notice on your

outline that last phrase to release the oppressed and proclaim

the year of the Lord's favor. I want you to

circle the year of the Lord's favor because I need

to explain this to you. This is neat and you

probably don't understand it. The year of the Lord's favor

is a law that God created in the nation of Israel,

and it's quite a cool law. Back in the book

of Leviticus, God says, I'm going to establish the year

of the Lord's favor as a law, and the law

be called the year of j believe. And here's how

it went. First, God had said, I don't want you

guys to be workaholics. I want you to rest. I

want you to take a day off. So every seven

days you take a day off. It was so important.

It's in the Ten Commandments, right there with don't murder,

don't commit adultery. He says, every seven days you take

a day off. If you're not taking a day off

every week for rest and worship, you are breaking the

Ten Commandments every week. It's that important. It's right up

there with don't murder. He says, every seven days you

take a day off. God did not make you to

work twenty four hours, seven days a week. So he says,

that's take that day. That's called the sabbath. And then

he said, second, every seven years, I want you to

have a sabbath year, and you are to let the

land rest every seventh year so that the soil can rejuvenate,

so that the crops don't completely deplete the loyal And

every seven years you give a year of rest. And

that's where we get the term sabbatical. Have you ever

heard that sabbaticals like every seven years, like in a job,

will you get a little bit of extra time off

to get recharged. That's called the sabbatical. It's from the Bible.

And the third thing was this called year jubilee, where

God says every seven sabbatical years, that's seven times seven years,

forty nine years. Every fiftieth year, you were to have

a year of jubilee. Now, let me explain what this is.

In the year jubilee, he says four things happened. One,

every debt is completely canceled. How many people like that?

Number Two, everybody who's in prison for debt is let go.

Number Three, anybody who is a slave and as an

indentured servant is given their freedom every fifty years. And

number four, the fourth thing in the year of Jubilee

is every fifty years, the land, no matter how many

people have bought it in pre fisted years, returns to

the original family, the original lowner. That interesting. Now, why

did God make up this year of the Lord's favor

for Israel? Well, there were three reasons. Number One, he said,

I have done these things for you, and I don't

want you to ever forget what I've done for you. You

were slaves and I gave you freedom, so I want

you to do that to everybody else. And you didn't

have your own land, and so I gave you this

promised land. I don't want you to never forget that.

Everything God says I did for you, I don't want

you to ever forget. Second, God did it because he

wanted people to realize you don't really own anything. It's

all on loan to you. You didn't bring anything into

this world. You're not taking anything out of this world.

What you have right now is not really your stuff.

It's just on loan to you from God for eighty

years or ninety years or however many years you live.

And so God says you didn't bring any stuff into

the world. You're not taking anything out. It's all mine,

and I'm just loaning it to you. And it was

somebody else's. I loaned somebody else afore you, and I'm

going to loan it somebody else after you. And so

he said, don't ever forget. You don't really own anything.

And the third reason was an economic reason, because God

knew that if the land reverted every fifty years, it

would prevent real estate speculation from killing an economy. Hmm,

has that ever happened in Orange County? Real estate speculation

send the prices up, and then all of a sudden

they are inflated, and guess what, and then they go down.

We'll just even the score every fifty years. It was

an economic reason to it. Now here's the interesting thing

about the years you believe the year of the Lord's

fearit in the entire history of Israel, not once did

they ever follow it. Now once in the entire history

did Israel ever observe the year of jubilee. So God

got ticked. And in the Book of Jeremiah, God says,

because you have not obeyed the year you believe and

done all these things that I told you to do,

cancel people's debts and forgive other people like I've forgiven

you and give the land back and all these different things.

And you have not let the land rest. I'm going

to send you into slavery again and let the land

rest for seventy years. And so they were taken. The

entire nation was taken into exile again, only this time,

instead of going west to Egypt for four hundred years,

they went east to Iraq for seventy years. And they

were slaves and or exiles in Iraq for seventy years

in Babylon because they never observed this rule. Now, while

they're in Babylon, another prophet, not Jeremiah, but a guy

named Isaiah writes another book. It's the book Jesus read.

And Isaiah says, you, guys, I know you're in slavery,

you're in exile right now, but don't don't worry. God

is going to sind a savior. And he writes the

passage and he says, and this Messiah is going to come,

and he's going to preach good news to the poor,

and he's going to heal the broken hearted, and he's

going to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and he's to

recovery the sight to the blind, and he's going to

release the pressed, and he's going to forgive all of

the debts and all of your sins, just like the

Year of Jubilee was supposed to. And that was the

passage that Jesus read in his hometown. And he said,

the year of Jubilee when everybody's sin is wiped out

and everybody's dead is wiped out. And he said, I'm it,

I'm the guy. Now do you understand how important this

passage was? Now, what we learn from this model when

Jesus says these five things, We know that Jesus says,

I came to help hurting people. And he says, I'm

going to preach messages that always begin with a hurt,

that always the blind, the poor, the blind, the broken

heart of the imprisoned, and all I'm going to be

preaching good news, not bad news, good news. And when

people came to Jesus, they always came to Jesus for

one of three reasons, a need, or a hurt, or

a question. And Jesus never blew anybody off for that.

He never said, oh, you shouldn't be coming for that,

You should only come because of a doctrinally correct issue.

They came to him for a need or a hurt

or a question, and he met their felt needs. And

then he said this, look up here on the screen.

I have given you an example to follow. Now do

as I have done to you. And Jesus said, you

know what, the same people who are hurting two thousand

years ago. I bet you can find them in southern

California today, And I bet you that God wants you

to care for them the same way Jesus did, and

he does. So flip your outline over and on the backside.

Let's just quickly, real quickly go through what Jesus came

to do. First, we saw who he came for. Now

I can go a lot quicker through what he came

to do. If you want to help the people in

your life, if you want to be christ Like, if

you want to be like Jesus, then you must do

the five things that Jesus did. And if our church

wants God's blessing, we must do the five things Jesus did.

Follow his example. If there was anything more important to do,

believe me, Jesus would have said it and done it.

This is what matters most in life. Now, he says

five things. Now, in each of these five actions, I'm

going to ask you to do two things. I'm going

to ask you to listen to three moms on video

on each of these just about a minute long. Listen

to three moms on how they dealt with each of these.

And I went to the three moms I know best,

my wife, my daughter, and my mother in law. And

so you're going to hear that in a minute second.

You see there's a blank by each saying, I want

you to write down the name of a person as

we go through this, and we're going to pray for

them together at the end of somebody who's hurting in

each of these five areas. All right, First, first thing

Jesus that he came to is to preach good news.

I mean, first and foremost. God wants you to tell

the good news more important than anything else you do

for the people around you. He says, I want you

to share the good news because Jesus is the answer

to every one of our problems. What is the good news?

You're not an accident. You were made to last forever.

God made you. Jesus died for you. The Holy spirit

wants to live in you. Your sins can be forgiven.

You don't have to earn your way to heaven. It's

a free gift. He'll give you your past forgiven. He'll

give you your present purpose for living, and they'll give

you a future home in heaven. That's the good news,

God says. I want you to share it. If you

can't remember it all at this point, bring them to church,

invite them to your small group, but share the good news.

And where do we start with this? You don't start overseas.

You start with your own family and your own family members.

You know, until my kids came to know Christ, I

held my breath because I wanted to make sure that

all three of my kids stepped across the line and

that they had personally accepted Jesus into their lives, so

that when I died, they would be in heaven, and

when they die, they would be in heaven. And so

and once the last one stepped across the line, I

breathed a huge sigh of relief. I want you to

watch this video.

I used to love to look through my parents' pictures

from their early years of ministry, because my dad and

mom started churches in Texas and in northern California, and

sometimes they were in little storefront buildings that were just little,

almost hobbles, And it just was almost like this big

adventure that my parents started from nothing and built churches.

And so when Rick told me, you know, X amount

of years ago, that that's what he wanted to do,

it wasn't so foreign to me because I had watched

my parents do it. I'd heard the stories, and so

it was like, Okay, we can do this.

Is this exciting.

Maybe we'll have just this little funky building and didn't

know it was going to be a funky tint and

all those things. And then I watch I watch my daughter,

who is a pastor's wife, third generation. You know, my

mom is a pastor's wife. I'm a pastor's wife, and

my daughter's a pastor's wife. I just, I don't know,

that's the coolest thing.

At some point in our family's history, somebody made a choice.

So you can make a choice.

Every family has the opportunity to make a choice. So yes,

the last maybe fifty years of your family's story may

not be the most but the next two hundred and

fifty can be phenomenal. That's what it's about. It's about

God coming into your family and being a part of

all the different dynamics, and God inserting himself and that

spiritual poverty and bringing out regeneration, and for your children

to know the Lord and to know that Jesus loves

them and made them. And that's what it's about. Just recently,

I had the most amazing opportunity. I was able to

lead my sweet firstborn to the Lord. We finished this

little prayer and she looked up at me and she

had tears in her eyes, and she said, I just

asked Jesus into my heart. I'm a part of God's family.

And she began to cry. And I was so moved

at her being so moved, and I said, baby, you're crying.

She said, well, they're happy tears. I'm a part of

God's family. There's nothing like knowing your child's eternity is secure.

There is nothing in this world it compares to knowing

that I will share eternity with my daughter.

Now, I want you to listen to your pastor You

have no control over your family's past, but you do

have a choice over your future. And my question is

are you going to leave a spiritual legacy. Is anybody

going to be in heaven because of you? Is anybody

in your family going to be in heaven? Your brothers,

your sisters, your mom, your dad, your kids, your grandkids.

Are any of those people going to be in heaven

because you took the time to do what Jesus commands

you to do, share the good news. I want you

to take a pencil right now, and I want you

to write down on that blank the name of somebody

who needs the good news in your family. A brother,

a sister, a mom, a dad, a husband, a wife

who needs to know the good news, who hasn't made

that step across line yet, somebody in your extended family,

your close family, somebody you love, and write it down

and we're going to pray for that person in a minute.

Hey, everyone, thank you so much for listening to Pastor

Rick's Daily Hope. I've got something really special to share

with you today, especially if you love Christmas and God's Word.

We've got a brand new set of fifty two beautifully

designed scripture cards, each featuring a Bible verse centered on

the Christmas story and the promise of hope found in

the Birth of Jesus. The true meaning of the season.

And these cards aren't just pretty, although trust me they're stunning.

These are powerful tools to help you memorize God's word

and keep it close so that you've got it right

when you need it. And while these cards are perfect

for your personal study, they're also wonderfully versatile and they

can help keep ge Jesus at the center of your holiday.

You could use them as meaningful gift tags on your

Christmas presence, place one at each setting on your holiday table,

or share them individually with friends as a thoughtful gesture.

So whether you're starting a new tradition or looking for

a unique way to share the Gospel with friends and family, well,

these cards are a perfect fit. And trust me, you're

gonna love them.

Today.

When you give a gift to help daily hope take

the certain hope of Jesus to people worldwide, be sure

to request this very special collection of Christmas scripture cards.

That's our way of saying thanks. Go to pastorick dot

com to get your copy of this great resource. That's

pastorick dot com. Or you could just text the word

hope to seven oh three to oh nine. That's the

word hope to seven.

Oh three to oh nine.

Be sure to join us next time as we look

into God's word for our daily hope. This program is

sponsored by pass to Rick's Daily Hope and your generous

financial support.