Rick Warren - How Did the World Get So Messed Up — Part Three

You know, we really live in a world that's full

of competing beliefs and values and choices, and what you

believe shapes how you live and ultimately who you become.

But the good news is God hasn't left us to

figure it all out alone.

No.

In fact, today, on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, we're going

to continue our series Reframing Your Worldview, where Rick Warren

unpacks powerful truths from God's Word to help you see

life clearly and live it with confidence and purpose. Okay,

here's Rick with part three of a message called how

did the World Get So Messed Up?

The Bible says in Job Job was the wealthiest man

of his time, and yet he says this, I'm like

a caravan lost in the desert searching for water. When

you're disconnected from the source of life, which is God,

it leads to him. It leads to thirst, and you

don't know what's going to fill that thirst, and it

actually can lead to darkness. You're bumping around the dark

because you don't know where you're from and where you're going.

In fact, the Bible says the Ephesians four eighteen, they've

refused for so long to deal with God, that they've

lost touch, not only with God but with reality itself.

Now that friends is not a pretty picture. There's a

lot of beautiful things in the world, and we can

see them all around us. But let's just be realistic.

At the same time. We live in a planet that's fallen.

So there is natural disaster and deformities, physical decay and death,

emotional stress, distress and disappointment, relational distance between me and you,

and discord, and spiritual discontent and darkness. It is no

wonder that depression is of epidemic proportions in our world.

So here's my question, how do you stay happy in

a world like that? First, how do you get happy?

And then how do you stay happy in a world

where there's a lot of things that aren't going right?

How do you do that? The answer is you do

what Jeremiah did. Jeremiah was a prophet. Some of you

thought he's a bullfrog, but he was actually a prophet,

and he wrote two books in the Bible, one called

the Book of Jeremiah, and he wrote a book called Lamentations.

Look up here on the screen, here's what he says.

This is Jeremiah's testimony. I cannot find peace, or remember happiness.

Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes

me miserable.

It's all I ever think.

About, and I am depressed. Then he says, here's the

good part.

I remember something that fills.

Me with hope, and everybody needs hope when you live

in a falling planet. Then I remember something that fills

me with hope. The Lord's kindness never fails. If he

had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed. In

other words, the reason this is still going on is

because of God's grace. The Lord can always be trusted

to show mercy each morning. So deep in my heart,

I say, Lord, you are all that I need.

I can depend on you. How do you get happy

in the world, You say, Lord, you are all that

I need. Don't put your trust in.

Success, status, salary, sex or other things. Those are fine,

but they're not the primary source. The primary source of

happiness is your relationship to God. And all that other

stuff's going to be gone eventually. You're only gonna get

it sixty eighty years. But you want to develop a

relationship with God because that's going to go on for eternity.

And he says, Lord, You are all that I need.

And when I look around and I've gotten nothing else,

you were all that I need.

The reason the world.

Is in a mess is because of sin. The result

of it is we live in a fallen planet. Now

here's the big question. Why didn't God just shut it down?

If the world is imperfect, then we've got rape and

abuse and murder and genocide and all these things. Why

didn't God just shut it all down? Why hasn't he

pulled the plug on the planet. Why hasn't he just

closed up shop? Why is He letting it go on

and on and on? In spite of all the evil

it's in the world. The way people hurt each other,

it breaks his heart.

He sees it all. He grieves over it.

He sees people choosing to do evil against each other.

It breaks his heart. It causes him to grieve. The

only reason you've got emotions is God has emotions. He

gave him to you. You're made in his image. So

why didn't God just pull the plug on the planet.

What's the for God letting it continue? Well, this is

part of worldview, and you need to understand this. Although

the world is broken, God is still in control and

the moment that he wants to shut it down. Believe me,

he's going to shut it down. So why is it

still going on? In spite of all of the bad

and evil in the world, and the sorrow and the

suffering and the shame and the pain. God is allowing

it to continue a little while longer for three reasons.

You need to know this. Number One, to give.

Us a choice. To give us a choice, and what

is that choice? To choose good or evil, to choose

right or wrong, to choose God or the devil, to

choose the right.

Way or the wrong way.

Although the world is broken, and although there is sin

in the world, by allowing it in there, it allows.

God to give you a choice. You See, here's the thing.

God wants you to love him because you choose to

love him, not because you're forced to love him.

I can't say it's real love.

I can't say I love you unless I can choose

to not love you.

See.

I couldn't make my wife marry me. I can't make

her stay married to me. It has to be a choice.

That's what love is. And because of that, God says,

I want you to choose to love me, not I'm

the only alternative, and so God allows a choice. And

by allowing a sin in the world, you can choose

to believe in God, you choose to not believe in God.

You can choose to follow Jesus Christ the Son. You

can choose to not follow his son.

You can choose to.

Say I want to follow God's purpose for my life,

and you can say I think I'll just make up

my own purpose in life and do my own thing.

God gives you the choice, and by allowing evil to

exist for a little bit longer.

It allows the choice.

The Bible says this in Deuteronomy thirty Today, I'm giving

you a choice between good and evil, and between life

and death.

Now, let me just say this.

You are free to make any choice you want to

on this planet. God gave you that free will, but

you are not free from the consequences. You're not free

to choose the consequences. I could go out this afternoon

and shoot up with drugs, but I'm not free from

the consequences of it. I could choose to go out

and get in a car accident or shoot people, but

I'm not free from the consequences of it. I can

choose to go out and go to bed with one

hundred different women.

But I'm not free from the consequences of it.

And so I'm free to reject God my entire life

on earth, but I'm not free from the consequences in eternity.

God says, it's your choice, but there are consequences to

every choice. God gives us a choice. Here's the second reason.

He's allowing it to go on a little bit longer,

to show us our need for a savior. The worst

the world gets, the more we realize what a mess

we've made of it, the more we realize we're not

doing a too good job, not on our lives, not

on our families, not on our nation, not on the world.

And the more things kind of fall.

Apart, the more people tend to turn to God. And

we say, sometimes you have to be laid flat on

your back to force you to look up. The only

way God can get your attention. He's saying, hello, has

God ever had to get your attention through pain? You know,

he doesn't like pain, But if it'll get your attention,

that's a good thing. And to show us our need

for a savior. See human nature says I don't need God.

In fact, I'll just be my own God.

Human nature says, now, I know in the Bible it says,

don't do these things.

But actually I know.

Better than God, and I know what will make me

happy more than God does. And even though God says

don't do these certain things, I think I'm still gonna

go ahead and do them because I actually know better

than God. And we always get into trouble when we

doubt God's wisdom or when we doubt God's love. They

are there for your benefit. Every principle in Scripture is

there for your benefit, because everything God does in your

life he does out of love to protect you from heartbreak,

to protect you from a lot of different things. But

it is human nature to think I know better than

God what I have to do in order to succeed.

I know what I have to do in order to

be popular, I know what I have to do in

order to get a husband. I know what I have

to do or whatever. And God saying, well, no, actually

you don't know better than me. No you don't. But

I need to show you that you need a savior,

and I need to show you that weout me and

my life. You're going to tend to act subhuman. In fact,

the Bible says this and Ecclesiastes three. God allows people

to continue in their sinful ways so he can test them,

and that way they can and see for themselves that

they are no better than animals. See what do you

mean by that? When you don't have any morals, you

act like an animal when you have no conscience. The

animals don't have conscience, and so they just do whatever

they feel like doing.

They have no right or wrong.

It's just I do whatever I feel like doing. That's

what animals do. And he says, there are people out

there who are going to take advantage of you because they.

Have no conscience. They act like animals.

Some of them want to use you, some of them

want to be used by you. Some of them want

to abuse you. Some of them want to be abused

by you. Sweet dreams are I mean forget for you?

I am not anti Lenox, but it's good theology. Anti

Lenox was absolutely right that a lot of people.

Act like animals. They're not animals, but.

They act like because they act without time. And what

we need is a savior. And why do you need

a savior? You say, why do I need a savior?

That's like asking why do I need air? You are

disconnected from the source of life. If you're not connected

to God. Everything you own, and everything you own and

everything in your.

Life is because of God. You owe it all to God.

You need a savior? Why?

Well, one reason, there are a lot of reasons, I

could give you a hundred. One of them is there's

some things in your life you just can't do in

your own power. The next verse says this, when I

want to do good, I don't, And when I try

to do wrong, try not to do wrong.

I do it anyway. Well, all of us have felt

that I.

Could probably give you one hundred things in your life

that are good for you that you don't do, and

you know they're good for you, you just don't do them.

And I could probably give you one hundred things in

your life that you know are bad for you, but

you do them.

He do him anyway? Why?

Because knowing it and doing it are two different things.

I just don't have the power to change. And I

would say, you're right, that's why you need Jesus. You

need Jesus in your life because you don't have the

power to change.

You need a savior.

And at Christmas, they said, unto you is born this

day as savior.

Who is Christ the Lord?

Why if you didn't need a savior, God wouldn't have

wasted the time sinning Jesus. You need him, And so

He's allowing the things to go on in the world

to give us a choice, to help us come to

the realization that we need him.

And number three, to demonstrate his grace.

God is allowing the evil to continue in the world.

He has not shut down the world, which he's going

through one day, because he's trying to demonstrate his grace.

The Bible says in a second Peter three nine, the

Lord isn't being slow about his promise to return, as

some people think. No, he's being paid for your sake.

He doesn't want anyone to perish, so he's giving more

time for everyone to repent.

That is the only.

Reason why God has not shut down the earth yet.

He's waiting for you to get in the family. There

are people he has created that he loves, and he

wants them in his family. And he knew they were

going to be born, and he knew that they would

choose him, and he wants you to choose him.

And he said I'm waiting a little bit longer.

Because once the door is closed on the ark and

it starts raining, they're not going to reopen it. Once

God says okay, time's up. History's ending. We're now going

into the eternity phase. It's over. They're in the second chance.

And God is saying, the reason why I put up

with all of the grief and all of the pain

and all the evil that breaks my heart in this world,

I watched my own son die for it. The reason

I put it is because I love human beings and

I want them in my family. I created them, and

I want you. And I'm waiting just a.

Little bit longer, giving you a little bit more time.

I'm being patient so you will come to know me

and repent. That's why He's doing it, shows his grace. Now, Listen,

when somebody comes to you and says this, you know what,

I just can't believe in a god, or follow a god,

or love and worship a god who would callously allow

children to suffer and women to be raped.

Here's what you say to that person.

I could neither and I don't and I could not

worship a god, and I don't believe in that kind

of God.

In fact, he's not callous.

You have no idea how much sin hurts God. He

grieves over it every second of the day. Sees every

wife being beaten, every child being abused, every woman being raped,

every person being hurt. He sees it all, and he grieves,

and he weeps and he sorrows, and everything in him

wants to just shut it all down and say enough enough.

But he's letting it go because he wants you to

know him. That's how much he loves you. He's waiting

for you to say yes. Because when the.

Door shut, it's shut.

And he cares about those illnesses and those diseases and

those people who are suffering in the world far more

than you do. Don't ever accuse God of Caelosi's. He

thinks about it every second, far more than you do.

You don't think about it every second you're thinking about yourself.

And believe me, I believe in a God who one

day is going to stop evil dead in its tracks,

and he's going to shut down the world, and he's

going to judge the with a holy wrath, the evil

doers in the world and judge it all, and he's

going to take those who have loved him to a

perfect place of perfection that he has called Heaven, where

we will live with Him without evil forever. That's the

kind of God I believe in. That's the kind of

God the Bible talks about. And the only reason he's

holding back his fierce judgment on all of sin and

all the evil on this world is because he loves you,

and he's giving you a chance, a choice, a chance,

and an opportunity to know him. It's for your benefit,

and he's waiting for you and some others in his

family to come in.

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

produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,

a great community.

You know.

I started Daily Hope so I could spread the good

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the world.

And we want.

People to know that God's word is filled with hope

and truth and the power that we need to follow

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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