Rick Warren - How Should I Live in This World Part Three

Friends, we live in a world full of competing beliefs, values,

and choices. What you believe shapes how you live and

ultimately who you become. The good news is God hasn't

left us to figure it all out alone. Today, on

Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, we bring our series Reframing your

worldview to a close. In this series, Rick Warren unpacks

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

clearly and live it with confidence and purpose. So let's

get started. Here's Rick with the final part of a

message called how should I Live in this world?

Now. These first five values that we looked at all

had to do with your relationship directly to God. These

second five values all have to do with your relationship

to other people, so let's look at them. The sixth

key to becoming and living like Jesus, living of jesus

lifestyle is hospitality. You must learn to live with hospitality. Now,

what's hospitality. It's just love in action. It's practical love.

It's love with hands and feet on it. It's love

that you can see in action. Jesus showed hospitality to everybody, everybody,

and he expects his followers to do the same.

Here's the problem. We don't know how to do it. Today.

Hospitality is a lost art. People have very shallow relationships.

They don't know how to show hospitality each other. They

don't know how to care for each other. It's very

possible for you to live a life with just acquaintances,

to not really get close to anybody and show hospitality.

Yesterday I was reading Time magazine and one of the

articles in Time was called teaching doctors how to care.

Well.

Well, that sounds a little odd, okay, And here is

a quote. At Harvard and other medical schools across the country,

educators are beginning, I mean beginning to realize that empathy

is as valuable to a doctor as any clinical skill. Well, duh,

have they never been a patient? I want I have

a doctor.

I want a doctor who cares.

For me, who's kind, who empathizes, who just isn't a

cold fish. I want somebody who shows hospitality. Now, I

don't know if any of you get this, but anybody

see the irony in this article teaching doctors to care?

Wouldn't you figure that it's kind of ironic to train

hospitals and how to be hospitable.

Wouldn't you think that hospitals.

Would be the place you show hospitalality.

I mean it's the same word.

Hospitals are supposed to be a place of hospitality, where

they show practical care, practical love, and loving ways. You

ever wondered why Saddleback Church is such a friendly church,

such a warm church. The secret ingredient is our small groups.

Over three thousand small groups. And one of the reasons

we teach everybody should be in a small group is

that's where you learn hospitality, in getting to know.

People up close.

And nobody teaches hospitality more so we build small groups

that force.

Us how to learn it.

Because Jesus said, you're going to be my follower, you

got to learn to be hospitable. And so we have

over three thousand small group hosts and they open up

their homes and show hospitality.

Look at the next verse.

Jesus said this, whatever you did for any of my people,

no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.

And when you failed to help any of my people,

no matter how unimportant they seemed, you failed to do

it for me. He says, These are the reasons we

do hospitality. Why are we doing the peace plan all

around the world. I mean, that's a lot of work.

Whyt me just be a happy, little selfish church. Why

are we doing partnering with other churches and equipping servant

leaders and teaching management to leaders overseas and assisting the

poor and caring for the sick and educating the next

generation peacee Why.

Are we doing that?

Because the Peace plan is simply hospitality.

It's just practical love.

And Jesus said, if you're going to be like me,

you're going to do that. Look at the next one, the.

Seventh ingredient for living like Jesus. You want to live

like Jesus.

Civility, discernibility and take humility, simplicity, possibility, hospitality, and civility.

This is how God wants you.

To act for people who disagree with you. Now, sadly,

civility has become, unfortunately a counter culture value in our society.

I don't know if you've noticed how uncivil our culture

has become. People are just flat out rude today. You

noticed that they're just rude. They're not polite to each other,

they're not civil with each other. During the last election cycle,

I decided to subscribe to eight political magazines, and I

got four of them from the left, and I got

four of them from the right. I subscribed to four

liberal magazines and I subscribed to four conservative magazines because

I just wanted to read their different take on the

different issues. At the end of the year, I let

all eight subscriptions drop. Why because they were just bickering

and bad mouthing each other and not really dealing with

the issues. They were just demonizing each other and partisan

bickering and yelling and just name calling.

And it wasn't really about the issues. It was just

about how bad.

The other team was with character part, you know, assassinations.

Now, what's happening in America?

As our nation becomes more pluralized, That means we have

more people coming in from different perspectives, different places, different perspectives.

The greater our differences become, and the more differences we have,

the more divisive people are becoming. Of course, the media

loves this. They like a fight. Have you noticed that,

you know? On talk shows they like the people who

yelled at each other.

They like the violence.

They don't ever you know, they don't ever have calm

discussions except on public television, you know, But they want

where people yell at each other and call each other

names and assassinate each other's and give barbes and one liners,

because that's good good therapy, our good theater.

And as a result, the.

Media just keeps whipping it up, and books that are

designed to attack actually sell better than those that just

present a good argument.

I was in the home of a well known leader.

I'm not going to mention which side this leader was on,

and that person said to me, he said, the quickest

way to raise money is get an enemy. He said,

you can raise ten times the money against something as

you can for something.

I thought, that's pathetic.

That is pathetic that we live in that kind of

uncivil society. I was interviewed the other day, but somebody

don't remember who it was, and they said, we keep

hearing about this Second Reformation. What would you like to

see happen in America? And I said, I'd like to

see three things. Of credibility in the church, the restoration

of responsibility in individual lives. It's purpose driven life, it's

not about you. And the restoration of civility in our

culture so that you can disagree without being disagreeable, that

people still respect each other.

Even if they don't agree.

Why do I want that, because Jesus said, blessed are

the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

Not the people who create conflict and division, but the peacemakers,

the bridged builders. In fact, Jesus said this, they're on

your outline. You're blessed well. First look at the first

verse Matthew seven twelve. In everything you'd do, or in

everything do to others what you'd have them do to you. Now,

this is one of the most famous quotes of Jesus.

It's called the Golden Rule.

You know this, do unto others as you would have

them do unto you. The word for that is civility.

Civility is just treating other people the way you'd like

to be treated, even if you disagree with them, even

if they're flat out dead wrong, even if they're fighting

against you. You treat them the way you would like

to be treated. That's civility. And the next verse, Jesus

says this, you're blessed when you can show people how

to cooperate instead of compete or fight. I want God's

blessing on your life, So I want you to learn

how to be civil toward people.

God wants you to do that.

Now, here's the eighth key, and it goes even a

step beyond hospitality and civility.

It's charity.

If you want to be a Christian, you want to

live like Jesus.

You want to live his lifestyle, the.

Jesus countercultural, radical lifestyle.

You must learn to live with charity. Now.

Charity is a big basket that holds a lot of

other concepts like forgiveness and mercy, kindness, grace, graciousness, compassion.

All these things are wrapped into the idea of charity

showing love to people, and the Bible says that the

greatest of these is love. Now because we have been

shown grace by God. God says, I want you to

be gracious.

To other people.

God says, if I have shown you grace, you ought

to cut other people a little bit of slack. Okay,

just don't make him toe the line so hard. Cut

them a little slack. God says, I'm gracious to you.

Why don't you be gracious to other people, give them

a little grace on some things, and don't just beat

him over the head with stuff. You see, God gives

me the freedom to choose or reject him to love

him or not love him. And if God gives me

free choice, I ought to give it to everybody else,

even if they make the wrong choice. I don't believe

in a theocracy where you force everybody to believe one

thing that's not real belief. Anyway, God gives me a

free choice, and I how to give it to everybody

else and show charity and show love. Now this is

so counterculture because we live in a culture that says,

you know, fight your enemies and love your love your friends.

And yet Jesus says this in Matthew five. I'm telling you,

Jesus say, I'm telling you to love your enemies. Now,

let me be honest with you. I don't want to

do that. I don't know about you, but I don't

want to do that. I don't want to love my enemies.

I really, I'm just being honest. I don't want to

love my enemies. But Jesus said, if you're going to

call yourself a Christian, you gotta you gotta do it.

You gotta love your enemies.

Look at the rest, let them bring out the best

in you, not the worst. And somebody gives you a

hard time, respond with the energies of prayer.

If they put you.

Down, they persecute you for being a Christian, he says,

he just pray for them.

Now do you do this? Do you do this at work?

You show charity when somebody irritates you at work.

Or at school, or in your neighborhood.

Somebody ticks you off, or you're at shopping and you

get a clerk who's a jerk? Do they bring out

the best in you or the worst in you? They

make you do the right thing, or do you want

to do.

The wrong thing? God says, show him charity.

Give them a little forgiveness, Give them a little slack,

give them a little grace.

Maybe they've had a tough day.

You don't know what they've been going through, he says,

give them a little peace of mind. Look at the

next verse. Jesus says this, Do not judge and you'll

not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not

be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Whoa He said,

this is what I want you to do. I want

you to don't. You're not here to judge the world.

It's time for Christians to stop judging the world and

start loving it.

God so loved the world, and he says, I want

you to love it. The people.

Yes, we are in a battle of ideas, and there

is a cultural battle going on over the values that

we believe in. But even the people who disagree with you,

they're not the enemy. They're the mission field. They are

people that Jesus died for and he wants them to

know his love as much as he wants you to

know it. And all those people that you don't like

because of what they believe and the things they're doing

in our society, Jesus says, I love them this much too,

and I expect you to love them, and I expect

you to show charity to them. Now, then here's the

ninth ingredient. If you're going to live like Jesus, you

must live with generosity, hospitality, civility, charity, and now generosity.

Why does God want us to learn generosity so we

can be like him?

God is generous, Scot so love that he gave.

Every time I give, it makes me more like Jesus Christ.

Every time I give, my heart grows bigger. Every time

I give, I break the grip of materialism in my life.

I become less materialistic every time I give, because materialism

is all about getting getting getting, So when I give,

I win a spiritual victory. Every time I give, whether

I feel anything or not, it's a spiritual victory in

my life.

Now, this church has learned.

Generosity, you know, as I've learned generosity.

You know that Kay and I are reversed. Tithers.

We give away ninety percent and we live on ten percent.

And I don't take a salary from Saddleback Church. But God,

God says, you learn to give, and I will bless

you back.

Look at this next verse on your outline. I want

you to see this verse.

It says, use your worldly resources to benefit others and

make friends. In this way, your generosity stores up for

you a reward in heaven, a reward for you in heaven.

Now.

I used to not understand this verse because it looks

like it says, God says, buy yourself some friends. Use

your money to make friends and be like, hey, you

be my friend to give you a hundred bucks. It's

like make friends with kool aid. You know, Well, what

does that mean? Well, when you go and you study

the scripture, here's what that verse means. He says, take

some of your money, not all of it. Take some

of your money and use it to help people learn

about Jesus and hear the good news, so that when

they're saved, they're going to get to heaven. And when

you get there, they'll welcome you as friends and say, hey,

thank you because you spent some money to help build

a church. I'm now in heaven because that church reached.

Me, and so I want to thank you.

I will be forever, eternally grateful for you. I'm your

friend forever, not a friend for life. I'm a friend forever.

He's just saying, use some of your money to invest

in helping others. And I want you to circle the phrase,

use that word use, and then write this on your outline.

Money is a tool. Money is a tool.

People say, Oh, doesn't the Bible say money is the

root of all evil?

No, it does not. It does not say that.

It says the love of money is the root of

all evil. The love of money. Why money is to

be look up here for this minute. Money is to

be used. People are to be loved. That's the right priority.

Use money love people. Now, when you get that reversed,

you're in trouble because when you start loving money, you're

gonna use people. You love money, You're gonna use people.

You're gonna step over them, trample them, take advantage of them,

to rip them off, to get more money. Money is

to be used. People are to be loved. Don't ever

reverse that. He says, I want you to learn to

be generous like me. In fact, there are more promises

in the Bible about generosity than anything else in the Bible.

More promises. Look at this next, here's just one of them.

Jesus says, this.

Give, and it will be given to you. For the

measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.

God says, you get to choose how much I bless

your life. Whatever measure you use, I'll measured back to you.

I've been playing this game with God for thirty years.

God says, let's see who can give the most, You

or me? Rick and I have lost every year for

thirty years. And I keep up in it, every year,

up in it, every year, up and every year. You know,

I started at ten percent thirty years ago, and I

cannot outgive God.

Now.

If you're not given, you need to start giving, not

because the church needs it, but because you need it,

you need it in your heart. Now let's get to

the last one, number ten. The tenth way that you

become like Jesus is to live with priority. Live with priority.

That means know what's first. First things first. Jesus was

a man who was purpose driven. He knew his purpose

that he lived with priorities. The earliest statement we have

in Jesus is when he's twelve years old and he

says this, I must be about my father's business. At

age twelve, he already knew his life plan.

He was focused, he was purposed.

At the end of his life, he says, it is finished.

That's the bookends of a successful life. I would like,

as your pastor to help you live a successful life.

I'd like to help you get to the end of

your life and say I did it. I used my

life the way God wanted me. I got up to

a little rocky start, but I used the rest of

my life the way God wanted me to use it.

And I put him first. And notice what Jesus said

in Luke twelve. Only people who don't know God are

always worrying.

What does that mean?

It means that when I worry, I'm acting like an atheist.

Worry is practical atheism. It's saying, I don't really believe

God's going to take care of me. I don't believe

I have a heavenly father. I'm acting like an orphan.

He says this.

Jesus said, your father knows what you need, but put

God's work first.

That's priority.

Put God's work first, and these other things will be

yours as well. All the other things in your life,

your career life, and your education, and your friendships, and

your romance and your finances and all they're all good.

They're all from God. But he says, you put me first.

If you're a Christian, God's number one. He comes first

in your life. Everything else is second place. God's number one.

And he says, when you put in number one, everything

else will come into focus. God will help you with that.

You ever talk to somebody says, oh, I'm just trying

to find myself. Well, I hate to tell them, but

they're not ever going to find it unless they do

what the next verse says. Jesus said this if your

first concern, in other words, that's your priority. If your

first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself.

But if you forget about yourself and you look to me,

you'll find both yourself and me. The most countercultural statement

in today's world is the first sentence of the purpose

driven life.

It's not about you.

Because everything in society says, oh, it's all about you.

All of the advertisements say, it's all about you. Have

it your way, we do it all for you. You

deserve or break the day, obey your thirst.

You're good enough. It's all about you.

It teaches self centeredness, and yet God says the only

way you're ever going to find yourself is by forgetting

yourself and start focusing on God. And then you'll not

only figure out God, you'll figure out you. That's what

it means to live like Jesus. That's about our heads.

Would you pray this prayer in your heart, Dear God.

I want to live with discernment.

I don't want to be a cynic or skeptic, but

I want to use my brain and.

To not just automatically accept what other people say is

the truth.

I want to live with integrity.

There's no dark parts in my life, no compartmentalization. But

I want my whole life to be your life and

I want to learn to live with humility depending on you.

Forgive me for the times I get stressed out when

I try to control things and I don't trust you.

Help me to come to you and to give up

control and to learn to trust. Help me to live

a life of simplicity, to not worry about all the

stuff and piling it up, but to realize life isn't

about things, It's about time and relationships. Help me to

see the possibilities. Help me to believe you for great

things in my life, that all things are possible. Help

me to see the possibilities in my marriage, or my kids,

or my family, or my job, my boyfriend and girlfriend.

Are.

Any area of my life. Help me to have faith

and Lord, teach me hospitality. To remember that what I

do for other people, it's just like doing it for you.

And the people who I disagree with or disagree with

me or put me down, help me to treat them

with civility. To do to other people what I'd like

to be done to me. Let other people bring out

the best in me, not the worst. Help me to

be forgiving and to show grace and cut people some slack,

and help me to be generous. That I can be

like you, Lord, because you've been so generous with me.

Help me to stop rewards in heaven, not here on earth,

and help me to live with priority, to put first

things first. I want you to be first in my life.

I pray this in your name. Amen.

Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

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