Rick Warren - Knowing What Matters Most - Part Two

Hey everyone, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope.

This is the place.

Where Rick Warren brings you uplifting messages from God's Word

every day to help you grow deeper in faith and

live a life with purpose. Today we're continuing in a

powerful series called Toolbox for Life. In this series, Rick

teaches us four essential skills that you need to succeed

wherever God has placed you, whether it's at home, at work,

at school, or in your community. These are tools that

every follower of Jesus absolutely needs. And now here's Pastor

Rick with the final part of a message called knowing

what matters most Now.

One of the greatest weaknesses of our modern culture. There

are many, but one of the greatest ones is short

term thinking. Our society has taught us that all that

matters is here and now.

That's all that matters.

Tomorrow, it doesn't matter, next year, it doesn't matter a

thousand years from day, no matter eternity, Heaven certainly doesn't matter.

All that matters is here and now live for today.

And what we're doing is we're giving our allegiance to things.

That won't last.

Here's what the Bible says the world and its desires

will pass away. But those who do the will of

God what read it with me will live forever. So

to live only for here and now is incredibly short sighted.

It's incredibly short sighted. Now, when you are tempted, I

don't care what temptation is bad for you. I don't

care what's your weakness when you're tempted. Temptation is never

just between right and wrong. Temptation is not just between

good and bad. Temptation is not just between what's best

and what's not best. Temptation is it is always a

dilemma between now or later. Now or later?

Am I going to do what.

God says and enjoy the benefits later? Or am I

going to do what I want to enjoy the benefits now?

Every temptation really comes down to now or later. And

it's true. With my money, am I going to spend

it now? Or am I going to save it and

enjoy it later invest it in heaven? But with my money,

with my schedule, am I going to do what's easy

for me to now? Or am I going to do

the tough thing now and enjoy the benefit later? With

my mouth, am I going to say what I really

would like to say right now, or am I going

to hold it back and enjoy the benefit of it later.

Temptation always between now and later, And so I have

to ask the question, what's going to last the longest?

Second Corinthians four eighteen says this we focus, we focus

our attention. This is a key to success, not on

what we can see around us, but what we cannot

see with our eyes. For everything that we see, all

the physical things on earth is temporary. Everything is seen

is temporary. This building is temporary. It's not gonna last forever.

This table is not gon'na last forever. The things we

see are temporary and will only last a short time,

but what is unseen is eternal and will last forever.

So the first.

Question is what's going to be the authority of my life? Me,

the world or God. That's pretty much it. Question number two,

what's going to last the longest? I need to do

less of my life and things that a short term,

and more of my life than things are long term,

because God has long term plans for you for millions

and millions and trillions and trillions of years. Third question

that will determine your destiny. Will I choose what's easy

or what's best? Oh man, we face this every single

day of our lives in a thousand different ways. Will

I choose what's easy or what's best? In other words,

am I going to actually live what I claim to believe? Now,

living by your values is called alignment. Living by your

values is called integrity. Living by your values is called congruence.

Now this is redundant.

But isn't it easier to do what's easy?

Duh? That's why they call it easy.

It's easier to do what's easy than to do what's right.

And a thousand times a day I get a choice

between what's easy and what's right. Okay, what's easy and

what's best. When I do the right thing, that's called congruits.

It's called alignment with what I say I believe. Now,

why did I point this out? George Gallup did a

survey of Americans and he discovered the number one cause

of stress in America. He said, the number one cause

of stress in America is what he called incongruent values

or incongruent lifestyle.

What does that mean?

We're not living what we say we believe. We believe

one thing and we act in another way and he says,

you weren't wired for that.

Your body wasn't wired for it.

And that's what makes you stressed out, nervous, under tingsent

because incongruent values. When we say we believe this and

we act in a different way, it doesn't work. So

I've got to figure out will I choose what's easy

or will I choose what's best. Now I've asked Mike Brook,

who's our college pastor, to come and talk about what

that may mean in a practical way.

Would you give a warm welcome to Pa Mike? Anybody's

five sets?

So here's a question, will I live what I claim

to believe? Will we live what we claim to believe?

Because you see spiritual maturities not about just what we know,

but it's how quickly we change and react to the

Word of God. And so there's four areas in our

life that we may need to change and make changes

this week, and so you might write these down on

your outline.

The first one is if I live.

What I claim to believe, that may mean changing what

I watch and what I read. And here's the question,

what are you filling your mind with? Are you filling

your mind with what's right or with junk. The average person,

by the age of sixty five has watched nine and

a half years worth of television. Isn't that unbelievable? Nine

and a half years. I took one of the hours

of those years and I watched this documentary and it's

called Supersize Me, and maybe we've seen it. And in

this documentary, this man, who's a healthy man, takes thirty

days and he eats nothing but McDonald's morning, noon, and night.

He's only allowed to order off the McDonald's menu. And

by the end of his time, at the end of

the month, he was sick. He was overweight, had serious

health issues, and he said, every day I just feel gross.

And what he was trying to prove.

Is that while fast food is easy, you can't live

on fast food without there just being some serious repercussions

to living on only fast food.

And some of us in our lives, we wonder why

we struggle.

In our relationship with Christ, but we've been filling our

mind with nothing but junk food this whole time. In fact,

in saw him one nineteen thirty seven, it says, turn

my eyes away from worthless things. God, did you focus

my eyes on things that are important. And so here's

the thing. Do your media habits represent what you say

is important to you? Or let me put it this way,

do you fill your mind with as much scripture and

as much truth as you do with Netflix and internet surfing.

That's a good question to ask yourself.

And if if you'd say those are out of line,

maybe it's time for a change.

If we live what we claim to believe.

The second change it might mean is that we need

to change some friends. Do your friendships build you up

or are they pulling you away from Jesus? It might

mean we need to make some changes. And here's the thing.

It's important for us to have people that we're influencing.

But you can't surround yourself with people that are far

from God.

And expect to grow closer to God.

As Pastor Rick always says, you can't soar with the

eagles if you're gonna run with the turkeys.

But here's the thing.

Who you run with dictates how you run the race,

and many of us hope to run well in the

race of life. But if you're surrounding yourself with people

that don't do you any goods, The Bible said this

in one Corinthens fifteen thirty three. Don't be misled. Bad

company corrupts good character. It also says in Exodus twenty

three too, do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.

And if your friends are doing nothing but dragging you down,

maybe it's a sign to make a change. The third

area you might need to change is maybe living out

what we believe means changing how I spend my money.

Here's the question, is most of your money spent on

selfish things?

Or are you generous where you can be?

See we might not be able to be generous in

every area and every opportunity, but are you taking opportunities

to be generous where you can? The Bible says Jesus

gives words saying don't store up things on this earth,

but he says in Matthew six nineteen to twenty, don't

store treasures here on earth where they can erode away

or maybe stolen, store them in heaven where they will

never lose their value. The only way to secure your

money is by actually being generous with it and storing

up the treasures.

In heaven and leaving a legacy.

The fourth area that living what you believe might mean

we have to change you might mean changing how I

treat other people might mean I have to change the

way I treat other people. As Pastor Ricks has said

many times, the Bible tells us that we're to use

things and love people. And when we confuse these last

two areas, we end up using people to get things.

And what I see in Jesus and what you see

from Jesus in the Bible is if you want to

be great, you need to become a servant. In fact,

in one of his very last times, what he does

in those last moments is he wraps a towel around

his waist, gets down on his knees, and washes his

disciple's feet, and he says things like no servant is

greater than their master, demonstrating if I am this great

I you should be able to serve just as much

as I did.

He even uses.

Phrases like if you want to be great in the

Kingdom of God, then you're gonna have to become a

servant of all, or phrases like the first will be

last and the last will be first. Showing greatness in

the Kingdom comes by how you serve and love others.

In fact, and two Corinthians five sixteen.

It says, so from now on we regard no one

from a worldly point of view, saying this. The world's

point of view is use people to get things. God's

point of view is use things to love people. And

so here's here it is. It's it's tough to do

these things. It's not easy to accomplish all these things,

to ask these questions, to make the changes.

In fact, what's easy is to.

Keep living in the moment, to keep doing what feels

right right now.

A few years ago, I ran a marathon.

It's the only time I ran a marathon, and I

made If you don't know what a marathon is, it's

twenty six point two miles of running consecutively. And I

made the decision to run a marathon while I was

in my bedroom, in my bed eating ice cream, watching

Biggest Loser. That's how I wish I was making that up,

but I was watching the show and I went, they

made the contestants run a marathon. I went, I'm going

to run a marathon this year, and so I gave

myself six months to train, and I woke up the

next morning, laced up my shoes and went, I'm gonna

run as far as I can until I'm tired. I

made it maybe a mile, and I got to the

mile and I was like, I only got to do

this twenty six more times to get to the end.

That's I'm not doing well.

But over the course of six months, I trained and

ran every day. And I remember the night before the marathon,

I was sitting with my wife and my brother and

they said, are you excited for the race tomorrow? And

I was like, no, I'll be excited when I'm at

the finish line and I'm.

Done running tomorrow.

And my brother said something that was so profound, and

I don't think he knew how profound, how much this

stuck out to me, but he said, Mike, you've trained,

now sit back and enjoy the challenge and keep putting

one foot in front of the other. And that's exactly

what I did for the first eighteen miles. And about

mile eighteen, my hips started to hurt and I wanted

so bad to stop, and I remember looking and going

at mile nineteen, I'm stopping and I'm going to stretch

because that's just going to feel so good to stretch.

And at mile nineteen I'm looking ahead and I see

a guy who stops and stretches, and I'm kind of

drooling a little bit, going, oh my gosh, that looks

like that feels so good. That's exactly what I need

right now. When I get to that mile marker, and

then he.

Falls over.

And he waves and the medical team lifts him off,

and I'm like, don't.

Stop running, just keep going, just keep on going.

And so I ran by it no joke, And the

remaining eight miles I had, I saw six people drop

off the race. The last one was at mile twenty

five with the finish line in view, and I remember thinking, please,

don't stop, and he stopped and that was it. And

here's the thing many of us, in our race of life,

in our journeys, we think.

It'll feel so good to just stop and stretch.

You know what I need. I just need to stop

and stretch my mind. I need a mental break. And

so I'm gonna escape. You know what I need. I

just need to escape with some friends that aren't gonna

remind me. I just need to escape with my finances

and be selfish. I can escape with the way I

treat people. And here's the thing I want you to

run the way the race. Well, I want you to

run the way the race in such a way that

at the end you hear from Jesus, well done, my

good and faithful servant. And here's how that happens. And

some of you are going. These are four changes. They're

not easy, and of course not, but we don't have

to do this on our own. In fact, in Philippians four,

Pin thirteen says I can do everything God asked me

to with the help of Christ, who gives me the

strength and the power. Meaning you're not running this race

on your own. You don't have to do this on

your own power. But we have the power of Jesus

behind us. So Pastor Rick is going to come by

and teach point four.

But now, as Mike was saying, it's not easy to

live for the truth, it's not easy to live for Christ.

It's not easy to have good Godly values when everything

in the world is exact opposite. If it were easy

to live for Christ, everybody would do it. There's a

reason why everybody does not live for Christ. It's easier.

It's easier to be self centered, it's easier to go

the way of the world. It's easier to swim with

the fish instead of upstream. And so we come to

the fourth question that will determine your destiny. Question number four.

Is it worth the price? Paul says in Corinthians. If

all we have is here on earth, we Christians are

most miserable of all Why because it's not easy to

live for Christ in a world that doesn't like Christ.

And so the Bible tells us this question, is.

It worth it? Now?

Everything in life has a price tag. Everything in life

has a price tag. Anytime you say yes to something,

then you're saying no to something else. There's a price

to be paid. I did this, so I didn't do that.

There's a price to be paid in every area of life.

Is the price? Is the prize worth the pricet in

following Christ and doing the right thing, and doing the

hard thing, not the easy thing, and living for long

term reward rather than short term relief. Well, let me

just close with a few verses. I'm just gonna go

right one right after another Matthew sixteen twenty six.

Jesus says this, what profit?

What profit is there if you gain the whole world.

And lose eternal life?

What can be compared with the value of eternal life.

That's a value statement right there. Look up here on

the screen. Here's the same verse from the message paraphrase,

What kind of deal is it to get everything you

want but lose yourself or your soul? What could you

ever trade your soul for? Well, I tell you people

are trading their soul for a lot of things. They're

trading for sex, they're trading it for drugs, they're trading

for self centeredness, they're trading it for materialism. A lot

of people are trading their soul today. A lot of

people are trading their soul.

Is it worth it?

Absolutely not. It's a poor investment. It's a dumb decision.

It's a bad choice. Look at this next verse on

the screen. Jesus said, the things that are considered of

great value by people are worth nothing in God's sight. Question,

do you want to live your life based on what.

People think is important?

Or do you want to live your life based on

what God thinks important?

Which of those two do you think.

Is gonna matter when you die and you go into

eternity and spend trillions and trillions of years in the eternity,

Which is gonna matter? People's opinion? Or what God has

to say, God's truth. Let me give you one more

look here on the screen, mark ten thirty one. Jesus said,

many people who seem to be important now will be

the least important eternity now. I said earlier that every

temptation is a choice between short term relief and long

term reward.

But it's also something else.

Every temptation is always a choice between God or me.

In every temptation, I am choosing either God or I'm

choosing me. It's not just good and evil, right and wrong,

better and best. It's a choice. Every temptation is a

choice between what God has said to do or what

I want to do. God or me. That is a

fatal flaw to choose what I want instead of what

God wants. Now, some of you have been coming to

saddle Back, and some of you are at the campuses

and you're watching this, and you've been thinking about becoming

a Christian. You haven't become a Christian. You haven't stepped

across the line. Maybe you come with your spouse or

a boyfriend or girlfriend or a friend, and you haven't

stepped across the line. As a pastor who loves you,

I just need to be real honest with you. I

need to be real honest with you before you you

make the decision to give your life to Jesus Christ.

You cannot follow Christ without a shift in your values. Sorry,

you can't. You can't say I'm gonna follow Christ and

by the way, live like hell. I want to go

to heaven, but I want to live like hell. I

want to go to heaven, but I want to be

the judge of my own life. I want to choose

what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna listen to me now,

what the Bible says, I want to do. What the

what the world says is important. And I'm going to

spend most of my life trying to look good, trying

to feel good, and try to have the goods. You can't.

Don't even waste your effort.

You can't.

Following Christ requires something called repentance. Now we don't understand

that word because nobody uses it anymore. When people say

the word repents, they think of a guy on the

street with a sandwich sign that says turn or burn,

You're gonna die and fry while we go to the

sky in a like holding up a big sign repent

Repentance is not a bad word. It actually simply means.

It's the Greek words meta noia, which means to change

your mind.

That's all it means. Repent means to change your mind.

It means to.

Say, I used to think this, but now I think this.

I used to value this, but now I value this.

I used to think this was important, but now I

know this is what's really important. You can't follow Jesus

without repenting. You can't follow Jesus without a change in

your value system. Close with this verse from Paul Philippians

chapter three. Paul says this this is a personal story,

is personal testimony. Paul says, you know, I once thought

that all these things, the things in the world, what

the world values. I once thought all these things was

so very important. But now I consider them worthless because

of what Christ has done for me. Yes, everything else

is worthless when compared to the priceless gain of knowing Christ, Jesus,

my Lord, I have discarded everything else, counting it all

as garbage. That's a value statement. All the stuff the

world thinks cool, it's garbage. It's not worth it so

that I may have him. Now let me close by

giving you a new definition of success. Definition of success

not having the goods, looking good and feeling good. Success

is living by the values that God will reward someday.

That is real success, Living my life by the values

that God will reward someday.

Jim Elliot said, he is no fool who gives up what.

He cannot keep for that which he cannot lose.

That'll determine your destiny. Let's vow for prayer.

Possessions aren't going to last, so why spend your whole

life trying to pile those up. Popularity isn't gonna last,

Prestige isn't gonna last, Pleasure isn't gonna last. Power isn't

going to last. What is going to last is what

God says. Let me pray for you, and then I

want to ask you to pray with me.

Lord.

You know, we've all been seduced by the values of

today's culture. It's just hard to think clearly when we're

constantly bombarded with false messages and catalogs and movies and

songs and the Internet. It's so easy to think that

having the goods and looking good and feeling good is

all life's all about, when that's just so peripheral. And Lord,

it's really easy to assume that because we think or

we feel something, then it must be the truth. Help

us to realize that perceptions are wrong most of the time,

when our feelings are often wrong too. Help us to

trust in the truth of your word, not the feelings

that we have. And I'll invite you to pray. I'll pray,

I pray right now, and I invite you to follow

me in this. Just say Father, in your mind, say Father,

I want my life to count. I've wasted a lot,

but I want the rest of my life to count.

So I want to build my life on the values

that are going to last for eternity. Forgive me for

all the times I've thought something was true simply because

I felt that I thought it. Help me to remember

that my brain doesn't always tell me the truth. Today,

I want to settle the issue of authority in my life.

And I don't want it to be the world, and

I don't want it to be my feelings.

I want it to be your word. I want your.

Truth, the rock of ages, the truth of all the ages,

to be the final authority on my values of what matters.

And what doesn't.

I don't want what culture says. I don't want what

my friends say. I don't even want what I tell myself.

I want your truth in your word to be my authority.

And I want to.

Choose long term rewards over short term relief. You know

the urges in my life, you know the passions in

my life, you know the desires in my life. I

want my money and my time and my mouth to

honor you. I want to use them in light of eternity.

So Jesus Christ, today you've said, we can do all

things to your strength. So give us the strength. Give

me the strength to choose what's best over what's easy,

even if that means changing some friends, or changing what

I watch or read, even if it means changing how

I spend my money, or even changing how I treat

other people. Help me to know what matters most based

on your word, so that my life will matter for eternity.

And I humbly ask this in your name, Amen.

What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. You know daily

hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick with

a letter from one of our listeners.

Hi, everybody, you know God often uses the hardship in

our lives to prepare our hearts for his message that

he wants to give us. And that's what a woman

named Diana believes happened. When her world just collapsed all

around her. Dianna wrote to me and saying, this, Pastor Rick,

it's been on my heart to send you this thank you.

I hit a very low valley in my life and

I finally figured I must be doing life wrong. I

had lost my job, I lost my husband, and I

almost died from birth complications. I went from a high paying,

high profile, white collar job to pick an up cigarette

butts and vacuuming construction job sites to support myself and

my son as a single mom. But I started listening

to your Daily Hope podcast on the way to work,

and I later listened to all that I could during

my time vacuuming and cleaning. One day, on my way

to work, driving up a mountain road and going around

a corner, I heard you give a call to anyone

who had not yet given their life to Jesus.

And you know what, I prayed with you.

That prayer and Jesus has been in my heart ever since,

and I am so grateful. It actually is bringing tears

to my eyes, Deanna, did you know God created you

just in order to love you, and He's so pleased

to accept you into this forever family. In fact, the

Bible says that the angels had a party in heaven

when you opened your life to Christ and received him

into your life. And guess what I'm celebrating with them

right now.

Welcome.

You're now my sister Lord, and I'll see you in heaven,

if not sooner. Now, I want to thank all the

rest of you who support Daily Hope because it's because

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Daily Hope messages while driving in a car. You know,

when we get to Heaven, it's going to be really

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world through Daily Hope.

So thank you friends.

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