Rick Warren - Learning to Be Both Fast and Slow - Part Two

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Here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part of a

message called learning to be both fast and Slow.

So we've looked at some examples of when God says

to move fast. Let me give you some examples, and

again this is not exhaustive. Just a few examples of

when does God want me to move slowly?

All right?

Here a few write these down. Number one, I need

to move slowly. Number one when I don't have the facts.

The Bible says, when I don't have the facts, I

need to move move slowly. I need to find out

more about what I'm about to do before I do it.

Now our culture, this is so counterculture because our counter culture,

our culture worships impulsivity, Our culture values spontaneity. To do anything,

to plan anything is considered uncool, to plan anything, to

think it out is to consider Oh, that's kind of geeky.

No.

No, I just want to be a free spirit, and

I just want to be spontaneous, and I just want

to be impulsive. And so you make decisions when you

don't have the facts and haven't planned at all. How

many times you've heard things like this? People say, well,

just go with your gut, go with your gut.

You just ate a burrito.

What kind of information you're gonna get out of that?

Beans and cheese?

Go with your gut? What does that mean? Go with

your gut? That's a terrible reason to base your life.

Your gut is.

Wrong, It has indigestion half the time. Or here's another one.

You've heard this on a thousand talk shows, you've heard

it in movies, and they make it sound so spiritual.

Just you gotta follow your heart. You ever heard that?

Just follow your follow your heart?

Are you kidding me?

Your heart lies to you all the time, all the time.

You lie to.

Yourself more than you lie to anybody else. About half

the time your heart gets it dead wrong. The Bible

says in Jeremiah seventeen, the heart is deceitful. That means

it has an amazing ability to con you. And we

tend to convince ourselves that things are bad when they're

not really that bad. And we can convince ourselves that

they're good when they're not really that good. And we

lie to ourselves all the time. You should not trust

your heart because about half the time it's going to

be dead wrong.

How's that working out for you? Anyway?

Follow your heart one dead end after another, broken hearts,

broken relationships. Following your heart is not You need something

bigger than yourself. You need an objective source of truth

that's bigger than you. We talked about this a couple

weeks ago. That's outside of you. That's a lot more

reliable than simply well, I got up this morning and.

Felt like doing this.

Really, your feelings are often wrong, and we know now

today from virtual reality.

We can't make you feel anything.

Really, people advertisers know how to make you feel all

kinds of things that you don't want to feel. And

doesn't mean it's right, doesn't mean it's true. No, you

need the facts. You need the truth. The Bible says this.

Look at these verses Proverbs nineteen twenty one. The Bible says,

zeal that's enthusiasm. Zeal without knowledge is not good. You

got to get the facts. A person who moves too

quickly may go the wrong way.

Has that ever happened to you? Of course it has.

You ever been driving down the street and you didn't

know where you're going, and you were in a new

town or a new area, and you didn't know, and

you felt like somebody was pressuring you from behind, so

you turn right or turn left.

It wasn't the right decision.

You just felt pressured to do it, and it wasn't

It wasn't at all where you wanted to go because

you hadn't stopped to get the facts and consider where

you need to go. Zeal without knowledge is not good.

You know, today America economy is run on small businesses.

But most people don't realize that about eighty percent of

all small businesses fail within the first five years. Why

because they have zeal without knowledge. They have a desire,

but they never to anybody who's actually done it. I

could say I like to eat cookies. I'm gonna start

Ricky's Cookie Store. I know nothing about running a cookie store.

And before I ever start Ricky's Cookie Store, I got

to go talk to Missus Fields and say what were

the pitfalls, what didn't work. It's dumb to start anything

without talking to somebody who's already done it.

That's what the Bible says.

I should move slowly when I don't have the facts

Proverbs eighteen thirteen. To decide before knowing the facts is

shameful and stupid.

Well that's pretty clear, all right. Number two.

Second time, I should move slowly when I'm hurt or angry.

This will save you a whole lot of counseling bills

if you'll understand. Don't move fast when you're hurt or angry,

or you could add depressed too. How many times have

you made a bad decision when you were upset because

your emotions kicked in, your heart kicked in, and your

heart was telling to do stuff that wasn't logical or

even rational or even beneficial. I should move slowly, the

Bible says, when I'm hurt or angry. Look at some

of these verses James one nineteen. Everyone should be quick

to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

To see the rhythm there, you might circle quick, slow

and slow. Quick to listen, slow to speak. Usually we

get that one exact opposite. Usually we're quick to speak

and slow to listen. And that's why we have all

the relational problems that we do, because we're quick to

speak and slow to listen. God says, no, no, no,

you got it all backwards. Be quick to listen, be

slow to speak. By the way, if you do the

first two, the third one's automatic, you'll be slow to anger.

Now that's a rhythm.

Let me show you a few verses Proverbs fourteen twenty nine.

Whoever is slow to anger has a great understanding, But

he who is quick tempered makes foolish mistakes. Let me

show you a couple more up here on the screen.

Proverbs fifteen, verse twenty eight. The Godly thinks before speaking.

He saying, put your mind in gear before you put

your mouth in gear. Well, we don't always do that one,

and that gets us into trouble. Why we don't go slow.

We're too quick to spout out our opinion on the

internet or somewhere else. The godly thinks before speaking. Here's

another one Proverbs fifteen eighteen. Losing your temper causes trouble,

but staying calm settles argument.

How do you stay calm? Go slow, go slow.

Sometimes you're to go fast in life, but sometimes you're

to go slow.

Let me give you a third area.

I should move slowly when making a major decision. Oh,

this one could save you a lot of heartache and

a lot of money too. When making a major decision.

Never make a major decision impulsively. Take some time to

think it through, to consider, to pray, to just slow down.

Some of you are unmarried and you would like to

be married. I'm gonna give you my best marriage advice

in two words. Here's ten years of counseling in two words.

Go slow. Just don't get in a hurry. What happened?

You go out, you see somebody, You get a quiver

in your liver, and you're ready to marry him next week?

Are you kidding me?

And then you think you're going to spend the rest

of your life with this person? You didn't check him out. No,

you should go through I tell people when he used

to do counseling. You should go through all four seasons

with somebody before you marry him, winter, spring, summer, fall.

All you gotta do is call go through all four

seasons with it. You see, here's the problem with dating.

Dating is such an artificial phony experience. I mean, everybody

acts their best looks, their best dresses, their best smells,

their best guy walks up to you, you know, in

a bar, say hey, can I buy you a drink?

Where else in the world do you offer a stranger

to buy them something? Can you imagine you're in sears

you walk up, Hey, can I buy you a toaster?

Yeah? Care for a blender?

You know, really, it's so phony and so fake, and

it's not the real deal. You gotta see him when

they're down, when they're up in all the experiences of life.

You gotta see him when they're when they're upset and

they're you know, and they're down in every.

Experience, because that's real life. You see. I just need

to talk to.

Our ladies here for just a minute, because I don't

want broken hearts. You need to understand, ladies, that when

a man decides he's gonna get married, he's a man

on a mission, and a man on a mission will

do things to get to woo a woman he would

never do in real life, like go to the opera.

No man would ever go to the opera voluntarily. Okay,

But but if he's trying to woo a woman, he'll

go to an opera. He'll talk for three hours on

the phone. What man does that? Nobody? No, but he'll

do it during the dating season, okay, and bring flowers

and all these kind of things. And then once they're married,

the guy mentally in his mind, he's got a checklist

and he goes check married. Now I got to go

to the second thing on the list, weich is I

got to provide for her. I got a family to

take care of and I And so all of his

attention moves from woo the woman done that. Now it's

support our family, support our marriage. And all of his

attention moves to the business. And the woman feels like, hey,

this is bait and switch.

What happened to the guy who talked to me for

three hours on the phone. He's working, okay, And so

I'm just trying.

To put it out the way it really is that

you just need to go slow. You know, I heard

this week about a couple in our church that chose

to wait ten years to get married for the sake

of their children from previous marriages. That's unbelievably mature and unselfish.

What they did is they.

Dated each other while their little ones, their babies were

growing up. They remained sexually pure, they kept their vows

to God, and then once the kids were grown and

they felt were ready, they got finally got married the

very soish moon. And by the way, they're on their

honeymoon right now. Yeah, they're on their honeymoon right now.

They chose to go slow when they could have gone fast.

But I guarantee you they saved themselves a lot of

problems that they might have had if they had just

rushed into something without even considering all the other players

in the in the formula when you're.

Making a major decision.

Let me show you some Bible verses Proverbs twenty one

twenty nine. Wicked people bluff their way through life.

So do some presidential candidates.

Okay, okay, but God's people think before they take a step.

You gotta think. You got to use the brain. I'm

waiting for God's will. God gave you his will when

he gave you a brain, and he says, go slow,

think before you speak. What major decision are you facing

right now that you need to slow down on? What

made your decision? Are you facing right now that you

Maybe it's retirement or a new job, or I don't

know what it is. You just need to slow down on.

Proverbs four twenty six says this, ponder the path of

your feet, then all your ways will be sure. Circle

the word ponder. That's an old English word. It just

means to really seriously think about it. It means to

carefully consider. When he says ponder the path of your feet,

He's what he's saying there is carefully consider the direction

of your life. And he says, if you carefully consider

the direction of your life, then he says, all your

ways will be sure.

Now.

What does it mean to carefully? It means to ask yourself,

what do I need to do today in order to

get where I want to be tomorrow? Most people never

ask that question, so they never get to where they

want to be.

What do I need to do today?

The habits, the practices, the savings, the skills, the learning.

What do I need to do today to get where

I want to be tomorrow? A lot of people dream

about tomorrow, but they never ask what do I need

to do today to get there? That's what it means

to ponder the path of your feet. Now you can't

ponder fast, you can only do it slow. It means

you got to take time, You got to slow down,

You got to think about it.

Now.

This applies to everywhere of your life career, moves, marriage, ministry, family, finances,

and everything. Proverbs twenty two, verse three says this, Sensible

people will see trouble coming because they're pondering the path

of their feet. They're looking at where they're headed. Sensible

people will see the trouble coming and avoid it, but

an unthinking person will walk right into it and regret

it later.

By the way, do you.

Know where we have the numberumber one violation of that

principle right there?

Spending spending.

Sensible people see trouble coming and avoided one thing. You

pirs walk right into it, regret it later. I know

I can't afford, I'm gonna buy it because I really want.

It right now. And it's impulse buying.

It's buying things you don't need with money you don't

have to impress people you don't even like, and that

gets more people into trouble. Why are you in debt

because of impulse buying? Because you did not plan it.

You did not ponder the path and had you didn't

think about it, And so people get in debt. And

the Bible tells us this, look at a screen. Proverbs

twenty one. Plan carefully, and you will have plenty. If

you act too quickly, see that you're going too fast.

If you act quickly impulse buying, I see it I wanted,

then you will never have enough. Now, plan carefully. If

you don't have, if you're living hand in the mouth,

it's because you have not planned carefully. You can live

pretty much on any amount if you planned carefully. I

went through college and seminary with K married on eight

hundred dollars a month because we've planned.

Carefully and we made it work.

And I'm telling you this because we're coming upon the

Christmas season and Satan's favorite tool is called catalogs to

create interest in things you never knew. How did you

live without that until you finally saw it in the catalog?

So I need to slow down. I need to slow

down when I don't have the facts. I need to

slow down when I'm hurt or angry. I need to

move slowly when I'm making a major decision. And let

me give you one more. The Bible says, I need

to move slowly when I'm waiting for a seed I've

planted to grow. When I'm waiting for a seed that

I've planted to grow. Now, this is the law of

the harvest. I taught you a number of years back,

the nine laws of the harvest. Maybe I should teach

that again. Because everything starts with a seed. It starts

with the seed of an idea, an idea for a relationship,

an idea for a business, idea for a hobby, an

idea for a work of art, a building architecture. Everything

starts as the seed of an idea. But it doesn't

go anywhere unless that seed is planted, and it has

to be planted in the ground. Once you plant it

in the ground, there is always a waiting time between

planting and harvesting. You sow in one season and you

always reap in another. You never reap in the same season.

You don't plant a tomato seed and now or go

out and pick out a tomato. And when you are

when you have done some planting of seeds in your

life for good. Then you just have to wait and

you can't go back out there and you know, dig

the seed up every five minutes, go are you growing?

No?

You just have to trust God. You plant seeds, Now

what am I DMA? You can plant seeds of kindness.

You can plant seeds of love, you can plant seeds

financial seeds. You can plant seeds of faith, you can

plant seeds of goodness, you can plant seeds of integrity.

Whatever you sow, you will reap. If you plant gossip,

you're gonna reap gossip. If you plant anger and a

violent temper, you know what you're gonna reap anger and

violent temper from other people. You will sow what you reap,

and you will actually reap more.

Than you sow.

When you plant one seed of corn, you don't get

one seed of corn back. You get a stalk with

several ears. With thousands of seeds of corn, you always

get back more than you plant. Positively or negative. You

can make the law of harvest work for you or

against you, But it doesn't happen fast. It happens slowly,

and you just keep waiting. So what do you do

while you're waiting on God and you're going slow, and

you're waiting God for some of these seeds you've been

planning to harvest. You just keep on sowing seed. Here's

what the next verse says. Ecclesiastes eleven six. Oh, first, here,

CLESI ask, don't give me the first one. Ecclesiastes three

one and five says there's a time for everything, and

a season for every activity under heaven, a time to

plant and a time to harvest. There is a time

to scatter, and there's a time to gather. And in

that in between time, what do you do? You go

slow and you keep planting. Here's what the next verse says,

keep on sowing your seed for you never know which

ones will grow. Perhaps they all will. It's kind of

like getting your resume out. You get it out to

one place, you've only planted one seed. You get your

resume out to one hundred places. There's seeds have been

planted in one hundred sits, and you will reap according

to what you sew. Now, I realize that some of

you have been waiting for some time for the harvest

in your life, and you know I'm waiting. I'm waiting

for the harvest. Let me give you a verse to

encourage you. The Bible says this in a back chapter

two verse three. God says, at the time I have

decided my words will come true. You can trust what

I say about the future. It may take a long time,

but keep on waiting. It will happen. That's a good verse.

You might want to cut out and put on your

refrigerator or put it on the visor in your car.

God says, at the right time, it will come true.

It may take a while, but keep waiting.

It will happen. It goes slow.

I want to end with a verse that's actually a

prayer of Solomon from the Bible. In the Book of

First Kings. It says this, I love it the message

paraphrase First Kings eight fifty eight. May God keep us

centered and devoted to him, following the life path he

has cleared, watching the signpost and walking at the pace

and rhythm he laid down for our ancestors, and that

beautiful Let me read it again. May God keep us centered,

not sidelined, centered not distracted, Centered and devoted to him,

following the life path he has cleared. Watching the signposts.

Now you can't see the signposts if you're going to

do fast and walking, not running at the pace and

rhythms he laid down for our ancestors. That's my prayer

for you. Then, before we end, I want to go

back to that issue of some of you have not

stepped across the line. Don't I want you to end

this year not being in the family. So let me

give you two last verses. Look here on the screen,

the Bible says. God says, I tell you that the

right time is now, and the day of salvation is now,

not next week, not next year, not in another month,

not when conditions are better. Now is the time to

have your past forgiven, get a purpose for living, and

get a home in heaven.

Where are you going to get that? Deal? And the

Bible says this in Acts twenty two sixteen.

Why wait any longer, Get up and be baptized, trusting

in Him to save you.

Let's bow our heads.

Pray this in your mind. Father, Help me to be

sensitive to your timing. Help me when to go slow,

help me when to say no, and help me when

to move fast. Help me to walk in the spirit

in both the steps and the stops of my life.

Dear God, when you tell me to do something, I'm

going to do it immediately. I'm not going to wait anymore.

I'm not going to delay or procrastinated postpone. When I

read a command, I'm going to do it. Help me

to ask or offer forgiveness for the people in my

life that you know i'm out of source with. Help

me to not put that off anymore. I don't want

to go another day with guilt or bitterness or resentment

stockpiled in my heart. And when I feel tempted, help

me to run, to not try to argue my way

out of it, to not flirt with temptation, but to

just remove myself from the situation if it means che

in the channel are actually leaving the party, are walking

out of the room, or moving away from a conversation

at the office. And Lord, when I've made a promise

to you, help me to keep it as quickly as possible,

and help me to see the opportunities for kindness and

for good you put in my life every day. Help

me not to withhold good from those who deserve it

when it's in my power to act and to carry

out quickly the tasks that you have for my life.

Because I don't know how long I'm going to live.

If you've never invited Christ to your life, say, Dear

Jesus Christ, I accept your forgiveness right now. I ask

you to be my savior because I know I can't

possibly save myself. I'll never be good enough to get

into a perfect place, so I need your salvation.

I want to trust you. And then, Lord, help me

to move slow. When I don't have all the facts.

About a project or about a person, and when I'm hurt,

and when I'm angry, and when I'm depressed, help me

to go slow. And when I have a major decision

to make or a major purchase to make.

Help me to go slow.

And help me to wait in faith to see the

harvest of the seeds that I'm planting every day.

And I humbly ask this in Jesus's name. Amen.

You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the

very first time, or you just recommitted your life to

Jesus again today, would you let me know about it.

There's something real about sharing your commitment. So write me

Rick at pastorick dot com and say, Rick, I prayed

that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ

and I'll send you some material that will help you

on your journey with Jesus, and I'll also pray for you.

God bless you.

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 Dianna 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 compass. I went from a high paying,

high profile, white collar job to picking 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 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 and Lord, and I'll see you

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