Rick Warren - How Jesus Handled Stress—Part One

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.

So let's hear what Rick has to share with us

today in part one of a message called How Jesus

Handled Stress.

Good morning, everybody. You look good this weekend if you'll

take out your message notes. We're in this series on

the Jesus Model, and today we want to look at

how Jesus handled Stress. Now, the long awaited fourth install

of the Terminator film series came out on Thursday.

This may not be a big deal to you, it's

a big deal to me. Those of us.

Who've watched this series were very eager to wait for

the fourth installment of Terminator Salvation, and I think it

made thirty million dollars in the first couple of days

on a Thursday and a Friday.

And I read this.

Interview online about the movie Terminarator Salvation cuts to the chase,

not wasting a speck of time getting into the nitty gritty.

The year is twenty eighteen and most of humanity has

been wiped out by a nuclear holocaust. A grown up

John Connors and if you have watched this series, you

know who John Connor is. A grown up John Connor

is fighting with the resistance against the machine. Means John

Connor's adult life is certainly purpose driven.

I already loved the movie. I love it.

I love I haven't even seen it and I love

this movie. I like that phrase. I'll use it sometime.

John Connor's adult life is certainly purpose driven. It's rebel

with a cause. Has the weight of the world on

his shoulders. Now, whenever we use this phrase the weight

of the world on his shoulders, we mean somebody who's

under enormous stress, somebody who is really feeling pressured by

all of the stresses of life. But the truth is,

there's only one person who's ever really carried the entire

weight of the world on his shoulders.

His name was Jesus, and that's what he came to do,

to carry the weight of the world.

On his shoulders. The Bible says this here on the

screen first John two two. Jesus is the one who

took God's wrath against our sins upon himself, carried all

the weight of all of our sins on himself, and

he brought us into fellowship with God. And he is

the forgiveness for our sins. And not only ours, but

all the worlds. The sins of all the world are

finding forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Nobody carried greater stress in

life than Jesus. He not only carried the weight of

the world on the cross during his entire lifetime and

particularly his ministry, he carried the weight of being the

savior of the world. Now, there were constant demands on

his life. There were constant requests. People wanted to see him,

wanted to heal him. He had no privacy at all.

There were people who are trying to trap him, there

were people trying to kill him. He was under the

expectations of many, many people. And nobody has probably ever

experienced greater stress than Jesus did. Yet if you look

at his life, he doesn't seem to be bothered by it.

He has an incredibly attractive balance to his life, he

handles all the pressure with peace. In fact, we never

have an example in the Bible of Jesus ever being

in a hurry, even though he had the most important

assignment in life. There's not one instance in the Bible

where Jesus is said to be running anywhere. He was

just always at peace. No matter what the world threw

at him, he handled it with grace. I want to

learn how to do that. I want to learn how

to be at peace under pressure. I want to know

the secrets of stress management. Now, the last couple of weeks,

we've been looking at the life of Jesus as a

model for our lives. How Jesus helped others and his

ministry and how you can help others in your ministry,

and following the model of Christ, how Jesus did his

mission in the world, and what God gave as the

assignment to each of us, and our mission in the world.

And if you do those things, if you take serious

about trying to become like Christ, you are going to

experience stress and life count on it. So today I

want us to pause and look at the seven secrets

of stress management from the life of Jesus.

And if you will do these things.

I guarantee you that your stress is going to go

down and your joy and fulfillment is going to go up.

So if you ever needed to take notes, it's today.

Now here's the first one. If you look at the

life of Christ. The first secret the stress management is

the principle of identification, and it's this know who you

are that's the starting point. You got to know who

you are because a confused identity causes stress, and culture

tries to make you all kinds of things.

And if you.

Don't know who you are, other people will mold you

into what they think you ought to be. Your parents,

your partners, your peers, the professionals around you, everybody's going

to try to make you somebody you're not. If you

don't know who God made you to be, you are unique.

And unless you settle this issue, you're going to be

a target for stress. Now, Jesus had no doubt as

to his identity. In fact, eighteen times in the Bible

Jesus defines himself. He says I am, and then he

fills in the blank. He says I am the Truth.

He says I am the Way. One time he says

I am the life, He says, I am the Son

of God, I am sent from the one above. I

am the door, I am the bread of life. I

am the living water. Jesus knew exactly who he was.

Do you.

If you don't know your identity, you're going to tend

to be dependent upon what other people say about you

and on the identity of other people to find your identity.

And when you.

Need somebody else's label, somebody else's name to make you

feel good about you, you got a problem. You don't

need a hood ornament on your car to make you

feel good. You don't need a certain brand of luggage

or purse or anything else to prop up your identity

if you know who you are. But if you don't

know who you are, you're going to be looking at

everybody else to define you. You And I'm cool because

I wear Vans, or I'm cool because I wear Billibung,

or I'm cool because whatever.

You got to know who you are now.

Stress happens when you try to be something you're not,

and when your boyfriend or your girlfriend, or your parents

or your spouse or something like that, your boss tries

to mold you into somebody else. Most of us start

off as originals. We all start off as originals, but

we end up as carving copies as somebody else because

we don't know who we are. When you don't know

your identity, it causes enormous stress. What if I tried

to sing like Rick mutchaut Oh, you laugh, because some

of you have heard me sing, and it not only

causes it would cause me stress to be like em,

it would cause you stress having to listen to me. Now,

there are two traps that keep you from knowing your identity.

You might write these down Copying and comparing, Copying and comparing,

copying and comparing. When you don't know your identity, you

end up copying everybody else. And it's so funny you

you flip channels on TV and you see these reality

shows which are there's nothing real about them because on

a reality show, everybody is pretending to be happy and

they're not. Nothing is sadder than to see a bunch

of people sitting at a bar trying to pretend they're happy.

Nothing is sadder than a bunch of people at a

cocktail party trying to pretend that everything's great in their

life when it's not, and copying other people doesn't work,

and neither does comparing. Now, comparing is the favorite indoor

sport of Americans. We compare everything. We compare clothes, we

compare hairdews, we compare jobs, salaries, cars, we compare homes,

we compare front yards, we compare children. And God says,

that's stupid, because God made you to be you. Nobody's

like you in the whole world. You're a unique thumbprint,

I print, voice print, footprint. Nobody's like you. God never

makes clones, God never makes copies.

You're it.

So God says, I want you to accept your strengths,

and I want you to accept your weaknesses. That's called,

by the way, humility. Humility is not denying your strengths

and oh I'm no good, Yes you are. You're good

at a lot of things. We're all a bundle of

strengths and weaknesses. Humility is not denying your strengths. Humility

is being honest about your weaknesses because you have both.

When you learn your identity, you're less dependent upon the

approval of others. You're less dependent upon the identity of others,

and you're more stress resistant.

Know who you are.

Second principle, by the way, look at that verse where

Jesus said in John eight eighteen, I testify on my

own behalf. What is Jesus saying there? He said, I

don't need other people's opinions to prop me up. I

don't need other people to validate that I'm worthwhile, And

you don't either. You see, God likes you, and if

if you like you, if other people don't like you,

that's their problem. You are made by God. You're not

an accident. You were made for a purpose. You're deeply loved.

You're deeply falling and flawed, but you're deeply loved and

Jesus died for you. That shows how much you're worth.

Know your identity. Number two is the principle of motivation,

and that is know what you're living for, Know who

or what you're living for.

Now. If you don't know.

That again, you're going to fall into stress because mixed

motivation causes enormous stress in our lives. Mixed motivation causes

you to try to be all things to all people

and try to please everybody. Now, the truth is you

can't please everybody.

Just about the.

Time you get crowd A please, you know what happens

crowd B gets ticked off at you, and about the

time you get crowd be upset, happy and pleased with it.

Crowda gets mad at you. One minute, you're a hero,

in the next minute you're a zero. You need to

realize you can't please everybody, you know. As a pastor,

I have learned that I am always disappointing somebody. It's

one of the costs of leadership. Leaders are always disappointing people.

It's very possible in America to be the most admired

person and the most hated person at the same time.

Just ask any president, because you cannot please everybody. In fact,

even God can't please everybody. Today they'll be baseball games

played all over America and both sides are praying to

God their team will win. Fifty are going to be

disappointed today. Okay, somebody's praying for rain, somebody's praying for snow,

and somebody's praying for it to be sunny. How does

God please? Is there anything God can't do? Yes, let

me tell you something God can do. He can't please everybody.

Only a fool would try to do what God can't do.

So you have this myth in your mind. If I

could just get everybody to love me, i'd be happy.

It ain't gonna happen. You're never gonna get everybody to

love you. And some of you are still trying to

get the people approval of people from fifty years ago,

maybe your parents, maybe your brother, your sister, maybe a teacher,

maybe a coach, and maybe even that person has died,

and you're still in your mind trying to say, I'm

going to prove to them that I'm somebody, that I'm significant,

that my life matters. Listen, if you haven't got their

approval by now, you're not gonna get it.

But the truth is this.

You don't need it. You don't need it to be happy.

Happiness is a choice.

You were as happy as you choose to be. You

choose to be.

Happy, and it isn't dependent upon anybody else. If you

let other people determine your happiness, you're letting them control you,

and that's not very smart. Motivation is know who you're

living for now. Look at what Jesus says in John five,

verse thirty. He says, I'm not trying to do what

I want, but only what my father who sent me wants.

He says, I'm not trying to please myself. I'm not

out to win a popularity contest. I'm just trying to

live for an audience of one that simplifies life. I

just want to do what God put me on earth

to do. And if you will do these two things,

know who you are. I'm created by God and He

loves me. And know who you're trying to please. I'm

trying to live for God. I'm not trying to live

for the approval of the crowd. I'm not trying to

live for the approval of culture. I'm not trying to

live for the approval of other people around me. I'm

trying to live for God. Number one, It'll always be

the right thing to do. And number two, it simplifies

your life.

And what does that do? It reduces the stress.

You run around trying to please this first than trying

to please that person, and trying to please this person

trying to please that person, you're gonna live in constant stress.

Does that make sense? You have to simplify your life,

and if you simplify it by knowing who you are

and who you're living for, it simplifies it. Jesus said

this in John eight twenty nine. I always do those

things that are pleasing to him. In other words, he's

only trying to please one person, and he never lets

approval or rejection control him. He lives for an audience

of one. In fact, Jesus says this, no one can

serve two masters. No one can serve two masters. The

moment you get one person please, the other one's gonna

be upset. So we love to blame other people for

our stress. We love to blame people say I have

to do this, I must do this, I've got to

do this, I should do this. Nobody's forcing you to

do anything. Would you write this down? No one can

pressure me without my permission. No one can pressure me

without my permission. You're not a victim. If you're being

pressured by somebody, it's because you're choosing to allow their

approval or rejection to control you.

The Bible says, if.

You want to learn to be stress free, like Jesus,

know who you are, identification, know who you're living for.

That's motivation. Then he comes to number three, and the

third thing that Jesus showed us how to do was

the principle of vocation, and that is know you're calling,

know you're calling know what God has called you to do,

Know your purpose, know your niche in life, and don't

worry about what's not your niche in life.

Know your calling. Now.

The word vocation we use for your job, for your career.

We talk about vocational training, training people for a particular

skill or or job or whatever like that. The word

vocation comes from the Latin word vosay or voice.

It's like vocal a vocalist.

A vocation comes from the word to call out a voice.

It means what has God called me to do?

Now?

Everybody is called by God. Did you know that you

have a vocation? God puts you on this earth to

fulfill a certain job, a certain task. I am called

to be a pastor.

But other people are.

Called to be other things, and no vocation is more

important than any other one. You may be called to

be a truck driver. You may be called to be

an accountant. You may be called to be a mom

at home. You may be called to be an underseas

water explorer. You may be called the close deals. You

may be called the paint or write or make music.

You may be called the cook. You may be called

to whatever you're calling is, that's your ministry. You see

a lot of people think, oh Rick is called the ministry.

Tom is called the ministry. No, you're called the ministry.

A non ministering believer is a contradiction. Everybody is called

in the ministry not to be a pastor. My ministry

is being a pastor. Your ministry may be being a coach.

Your ministry may be closing deals. Your ministry may be

organizing things. But it's when you take what God shaped

you to do and you use it for His glory.

That's your ministry. How do you know what.

Your calling is in life?

You look at your shape shape We talk about this

all the time.

Your spiritual gifts. What am I gifted to do? Your heart?

What do I love to do? What are my desires?

A your abilities, pe, your personality, your experience? Why would

God shape you to do something and then not have

you do it. Some people think, well, if I really

want to do something in life, certainly God wouldn't want that.

What kind of God do you serve? Where do you

think you got your desires? Your desires come from God.

And if God wired you to be athletic, then you

ought to do athletics. And if God wired you to

be musical. You ought to do music to the glory

of God. And if God wired you to work with

numbers and do you know, figure out things in mathematics,

you ought to do it. And if God wired you

to be good at mechanical or woodworking or with your hands,

you ought to do it. Your desires help determine your calling.

God.

You know why I know I'm not called to be

an opera singer because I'm not shaped for it. Well,

I'm fat like some of them. But on the other hand,

I don't have the spiritual gift, the heart, the ability

of personality, or the experience.

So you look at your shape.

And you go, Okay, what am I? What am I

gifted to do? What do I love to do? What

is my ability? Is my personality and my experience, And that's.

Your calling and you're calling.

You are called by God to do what you do,

just like I'm called by God.

To be a pastor.

And so you have to just figure that out and

that everybody is a minister.

Get it good.

What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something

I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to

tell you how you can help support this ministry.

Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to

love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love

your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.

And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize

them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign

of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything

I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the

Great Commission. We believe it daily hope that a great

commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will

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I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just

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him every day is available to every single one. You

know as well as I do, that the Word of

God changes lives. It's a live it's active, and it

breathes new life and new love into all of our lives.

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