Rick Warren - It’s All About Love – Part Three

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today, Pastor Rick continues in a

series called Forty Days of Love. In these lessons, Rick

looks into the Bible to help you better understand God's

great love for you and to empower you to love

others the way Jesus does. But first, in just a bit,

we'll tell you how to get Pastor Rick's Forty Days

of Love Bible study with six video sessions and workbook.

It's perfect for individual studying and also great to do

with a small group of friends. You can take a

sneak peek by going to Pastorick dot com while you listen,

or just text the word hope to eight hundred, six

hundred five thousand and four. That's the word hope to

eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Right now,

here's Pastor Rick with the final part of a message

called it All about Love.

Now, love has to become a lifestyle, the Bible says

in Hebrews, the Book of Hebrews, chapter thirteen, continue to

love each other with true Christian love. Continue means make

a habit of it, do it all the time. Don't

make it a light switch. It goes on and off.

And so during forty Days of Love, we're going to

learn the habits of love. You're going to learn some

new habits. Now, do you know how long it takes

to develop a good habit. Studies have shown that it

takes about six weeks to develop a good habit, that's

about forty days. It is not an accident that we

choose to do these spiritual journeys on forty days because

study after study has shown it takes about three weeks

to start doing something every day to turn it into

a habit you start getting comfortable with, and then it

takes another three weeks or about six weeks, about forty

forty two days for you to really develop something and

get it down in your life as a habit. And

that's why for forty days we're going to be focusing

on the habits of love. Now, if you want to

get healthy physically, the first thing you do is you

go to a doctor and you get a checkup, and

you go, what do I need to do before I

start working out and all this kind of stuff, And

the doctor figures out where you need to work on,

what you need to work on and then prescribes a

plan of action for you to get physically healthy. The

same is true in health and any other area of

your life, including relationships. If you want to get healthy relationships,

you got to do a checkup. So I'm going to

ask all of us before we begin forty Days of Love,

to begin looking at our relationships and take a little

self evaluation. It's there on your outline where we're going

to assess our relationships. Kind of a little pretest that

we're going to do before we do anything else. Now,

the Bible says that up here on the screen, test

yourselves to make sure you're solid in the faith. Don't

drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups.

You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay that Jesus Christ

is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test,

do something about it. I love that message. Paraphrase of

two Corindon's thirteen to five. You know he says, you're

doing this because you want to make progress. Now, let

me be blunt with you, and let me be honest

with you. True confession. When I took the test we're

about going to take together, I didn't do so good.

On it.

There were some areas I realized I needed a lot

of work. We all think we're very loving people, but

the truth is there's a lot of areas. I can

be quite self centered. I can be quite selfish. I

can think of myself and not my family or my staff,

or you or anybody else. So I want to challenge

you to look at this and do a self analysis,

because we're going to judge ourselves forty days from the day,

and you're going to see the progress. I don't want

this next six weeks to just be six lessons on love.

I don't know about you, but I want to be

more loving. I personally want to be more loving. There's

a lot of areas I need to work one in

my life because one day I'm going to stand before

God and he's going to say, did you do the

two things that were most important of all? Did you

learn to love me with all your heart? And did

you learn to love other people not just your family?

And I want to be ready for that day. Would

you welcome Pastor Tom Holliday.

So let's just walk through this, just some quick evaluation.

How about with your parents? How is your relationship with

your parents right now? Just a quick evaluation. Would you

say it's poor, it's great, It's somewhere in between. I

know one person's three is another person's five. We're not

of evaluating ourselves against each other and getting a score here,

We're just saying, how is it going right now? By

the way you say, well, my parents are dead, you

can improve your relationship with your parents even after they're dead,

and your attitude towards them and your thoughts towards them,

and so maybe there's some work to do there. How

about those of you that aren't married but you want

to get married. Marriage is a God given desire. How

about your marriage prospects? Where would you say that those

are right now? If you're not married and you want

to get married. One of the things that we want

to see happened during forty Days of Love as a

church is we want to help you in that. That's

what a church is. Where should you look to get married?

If you want to get married as a believer in

a bar, is that the best place to look? I

think the church is a great place to look. So

we're going to be talking about how we can become

less selfish in our lives, how we can love in

a better way, and who knows what God might work out. Now,

those of you that are married, you shouldn't be filling

this out. By the way, I see some of you wondering,

right you should not be filling this out. This is

not cool. This is for those of you that are single.

Just say where it's a one right now, it's a

nine right now? Just be praying for what God might

want to do. Wouldn't it be great if during forty

Days of Love we had a lot of forty days

of love marriages that happened at saddleback, and then like

two years later we had like a forty days of

love baby boom. I mean, really, wouldn't that be That'd

be awesome. That'd be awesome. How about your spouse, those

of you that are married, your husband, your wife, how's

your relationship right now? I know some of this can

be brutal honesty, but the question is, how can I

take a relationship that's struggling and begin to see it grow?

How can I take a relationship that's even good and

make it even better? How about a relative And there's

just a line there so you can write a name in.

It might be it might be a brother might be

a sister you'd like to relate to better during forty

days of Love. It might be an aunt or an uncle.

Write their name in and then just quickly put here's

where the relationship is. Or how about a co worker,

somebody at your work you've just matter, you've known for

a long time, that you'd really like to work on

expressing love to them during forty days of Love. They've

just been noticed by you late. You think that person

is in need of love, or I'd like to encourage

them with love, or we've been struggling and I'd like

to love them in a better way. Write their name

down and say how things are going. Or how about

a neighbor. Jesus says, we're supposed to love our neighbors.

That's all of our neighbors. But what's the one specific

neighbor you'd like to really work on during forty days

of Love in loving them in practical and specific ways.

Just rate yourself on that one, or how about this

next one. How about a different or difficult person in

your life. Don't draw little arrows to them right now, Okay,

if they happen to be sitting next to you. Somebody

who irritates you. Somebody that it's tough to love, Somebody

that justics doesn't respond when you try to love them.

How about that kind of a person. Listen, God is

up to big challenges. And the person you think there

is no way I could love that person, write their

name down and go ahead and put the one yeah,

it's not going good on that one. And then watch

what God's going to do during forty days of Love.

And then there's one more line just for somebody that

we haven't mentioned. For a lot of you, it might

be one of your kids, might be your son or

your daughter that you'd want to write in here. I'd

really like to work on love and this one of

my kids during forty days of love. Write that in

and where the relationship is right now, and then watch

what God's going to do. And God does work. He

does great things. And here's the incredible thing with love,

a little bit of growth shows great impact in our lives.

Love is such a powerful thing that when I grow

a little bit, incredible wonderful things happen. Listen to this story.

It came in from a mom who felt overwhelmed by

her children, her schedule, her responsibilities, the busyness of her home.

She wrote in and said, all I seemed to do

was nag and bark at and scold my kids incessantly.

And when I looked at myself, I honestly saw a shrew.

In my tears, I cried out to God. And she

was reading one Corinthians thirteen, and in reading that, she said,

five words leaped out at me. Without love, I am nothing.

So she wrote those words and put them on a

refrigerator and her car and her mirror where she could

see them all the time. And here's what she said.

I realized that the single most important thing I could

do was to love my family. And so I began

to live my life by the love of Jesus. I

began to run my home on love power. It was.

It was as transforming as when I accepted Christ into

my life. Focusing on love brought the happiness back into

my life and my home.

In some of Jesus' last words to his disciples, right

before he went to the cross, he's telling him the

last minute instructions before he dies and resurrection goes back

to heaven. He's given him last minute instructions and he

says this, by this shall all men know that you

are my followers, you're my disciples, that you love one another.

The mark of a true believer is love. He didn't

say by this shalalman, No, you're a Christian. You have

a bumper sticker on your car. No, the symbol of

a follower of Jesus is not a cross, it's not

a fish, it's not a dove, it's not a crown.

The symbol of a genuine follower of Jesus is love.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be

back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.

If you've missed any part of today's teaching, you can

listen online anytime at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

Jesus said there's nothing more important than loving God and

loving others. That's why Pastor Rick created the Forty Days

of Love Bible study that comes with a sixth session

DVD in World. In these sessions, Rick helps you understand

how deep and wide God's love is for you and

reveals how you can enjoy happy and successful relationships with

others by focusing on the spiritual principles of patience, kindness, truth,

and forgiveness. This resource is perfect for personal study, or

you can invite a few friends over and do it

in a small group setting. And today, when you give

a gift to share the love of Jesus with people

here and around the world, will send to you Pastor

Rick's forty Days of Love Bible study to say thanks.

Get yours now and experience more fulfilling relationships as you

live a life powered by the love of Jesus. Go

to pastorik dot com right now to get your copy,

or you can call eight hundred six hundred five zero

zero four that's pastoric dot com. Or call eight hundred

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Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.

Jesus said, one day you're going to be evaluated on

why God puts you on this planet for eighty years.

And He didn't put you here to live for yourself.

He put you here to learn some lessons to prepare

you for eternity. Did you learn to love God with

all your heart? And did you learn to love your

neighbors yourself, that one has to take precedent over everything else.

Life is not about achievements. It is not about accomplishments.

It is not about acquisition. It is about relationships. It's

why God puts you on this planet. Love is the

main thing. He said, Well, okay, I'm in. I want

to become a great lover. I want to develop loving

relationships more than anything else in my life. I want

to be known that's the most loving person as that's

the most loving person I've ever met. How do you

do it? Five things? If you write these down, we're

going to look at these in detail in the weeks ahead.

This is just kind of like the index for forty

Days of Love. Number one. To become great at relationships,

I must commit to growing. You don't become a great

lover accidentally. It is intentional. You're going to have to

make a commitment. You devote yourself to it, You dedicate yourself,

You commit, and we are committed to helping you grow.

And that's why we're doing forty Days of Love. Number two.

I learn how Jesus did it. I learned how Jesus

did it. Jesus is the model of perfection in relationships

because he was the son of God. He was perfect.

He's the only one who knew how to handle relationships perfectly.

And we're going to look at this through several different ways.

We're going to learn how Jesus did it. Through our ears,

through our eyes, through our mouth, through our hands, and

through our feet. We all learn in different ways. And

so part of forty Days of Love that involves hearing.

And you're gonna come and you're gonna hear your pastor

teach on love for six weeks and you're gonna hear it.

By the way, what is one Corinth in sixteenth fourteen?

And everything you do, everything, it must be done with love.

That's right. So we're gonna learn how Jesus did it.

The third thing we're gonna do is we're going to

practice the skills. Practice the skills. That's how you become

great at relationships. You cannot become great at relationships if

you are a hermit. You have to develop your life

principle of love. You got to get out with people.

You know, we sing about love, we talk about love,

we pray about love, we study about love, but do

we do it. No, we have to practice it. And

so during forty Days of Love, we're going to help

you start developing the love relationship of your existing relationships

and improving those, taking the initiative to if you need

to seek reconciliation, we're going to help you on that

some issues on existing relationships, and then we're going to

help you expand your relationships to love people that you've

never loved before, because that's what God's watching and God

sharing God's love with others. You see, this is what

makes Christianity different from every other faith. Christianity is a

love based faith, not a law based faith, a love

based faith. In every other religion, they treat the holiest

person as the person who isolates themselves as a hermit,

as a monk. They go up into the mountains and

they hide in a cave, and they don't get around

people who are even with can mean bad, nasty, and

we don't want to get touched by human beings. And

so the holiest people in many religions are the people

who have no contact with others. They must be holy

because they only spend their time with God. Jesus taught

the exact opposite that the way you grow spiritually is

by getting with other people by practicing love, and Jesus

taught you've got to be at the marketplace. You've got

to be in the business. You've got to be in

the party at the wedding and be their what Because

life is all about love, loving God, and loving other people,

and you can't do that unless you're around other people.

Some of you are going to have to spend less

time in front of the computer screen where you're hiding

from others, and you're going to have to actually get

in a small group. A small group is a laboratory

for love. You cannot learn love without being in relationships.

Number four, we're going to develop the habits. We're going

to develop the habits, and you're going to learn some

new habits over the next forty days, the habits of

the heart. Very very excited about how this is going

to change your life. And then number five, you need

to trust God to help trust God to help you

and to help make you more loving. Now, this is

what makes what we're going to do different from every

other relational quote a seminar. If you go to a

typical seminar and marriage your relationships to friendships, here's what

they do. They say, we're just going to try to

be more loving. Oh that helps, Try to be more patient.

That's a lot of advice, try to be more kind.

If all I had to offer you was try harder,

we wouldn't even be doing this because I tell you what,

trying doesn't work. It's not a matter of trying, it's

a matter of trusting. Jesus said you are to love

others as I have loved you. You say I can't

do that. You are right, you can't. You will fail.

You fail with unconditional love, and so do I. What.

The key to love is not you trying harder to

be more loving. The key to love is letting Jesus

Christ love through you. It has experienced the love of

God in your heart, feel love, feel forgiven, feel grace,

and then all of a sudden, you know what, it

just bubbles out of you. It's actually quite easy. It's

letting Jesus Christ love through you. So it starts with

getting him in your heart. You can't love like he

did by just trying, not by imitating. It's letting his

love flow through you. And that's what we're going to

talk about. But it starts with a decision. Are you ready? Okay? Now?

On your outline. There's a verse Philippians one nine, and

it closes with this. This is my prayer for you

that your love will grow more and more, and that

you will have knowledge and understanding with your love, not

an immature love, knowledge and understanding, an insightful love. And

that is my prayer for you. That together we will

be known as churches that love. And I want you.

I want to grow in love. I want you to

grow in love. I want our churches to grow in love.

You see, what America and the world needs is not

more theology. It's not no more oratory, it's not more programs.

What the church needs and what the world needs are

people who genuinely love. It's all about love. Let's bow

our heads and as I close, I want to invite

you to follow me in this prayer in your heart.

You don't have to say it aloud. Dear Jesus, I

want to be more loving. I want to work on

my relationships. I want to learn to love you with

all of my heart, and I want to learn to

love everybody else. I want to be known as the

most loving person people know. And so I'm going to

make it my my primary value in life. My number

one goal to learn to love you and to learn

to love other people, because it's all about love. Lord,

I've got a lot of hurts in my heart that

need to be healed. I need to be filled with

your love. I can't give to others what I don't feel.

I need to feel forgiven. I need to experience your grace.

I need to know your love so it can overflow

out of my life into others. Replace my fears with

your love, replace my hurts with your peace. I want

to learn to know you and love you, Jesus Christ,

and I want to be a loving person. In your name,

I pray Amen.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. If you've missed any

part of this message, or if you'd like to find

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devotional while you're there. Rick will be back in just

a moment, but first, one of the main reasons Pastor

Rick started Daily Hope was to share the hope of

Jesus Christ with people around the world, and because of

your prayers and financial gifts, we're now reaching over thirty

five million people every month, but there are still billions

of people who need to hear the good news. Would

you prayerfully consider giving a gift to Daily Hope today

to help reach even more people for Jesus Christ. And

when you do, we'll send you Pastor ricks forty Days

of Love video based Bible study to say thanks for

your support of this ministry. Here's Pastor Rick to tell

you more.

Jesus says that the two most important things you can

do while you hear on earth are to love God

with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.

In other words, life is all about love now. As believers,

it's not just enough to talk about love, or to

read about love, or to discuss love. We must show it.

We must exhibit it by the way we treat other people. Now.

The Bible says that we do this, we learn to

be genuinely loving people by relying on the love that

God has for us. That's why I put together a

six session study kit called forty Days of Love. It

includes a study guide and a six session DVD that

will teach you the habits of a loving heart. Now,

you can go through it by yourself, but really, how

are you going to learn to love by yourself? You

need to do it in a small group with two

or three friends or even more. Just get some friends

and some neighbors and say, let's learn how to really love,

and let's study this together for forty days. Now, forty

Days of Love is going to teach you why love

matters most more than anything else. And it's going to

teach you what the Bible means when it says that

love is patient, and love is kind, and love speaks

the truth. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love is forgiving. Now,

I want to tell you something. This is a life

changing study. It changed my life when I did it,

and it's going to change your life and those that

you share it with. And if you really want to

grow spiritually, you've got to learn how to love. Now.

This month, we're offering the forty Days of Love study

kit for a financial gift to Daily Hope Ministries. I

want everybody to be able to enjoy this study. So

all I ask is that you help support Daily Hope Ministries.

Now I know some of you can afford a little

bit more than others, and I appreciate that it helps

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That's okay. I know you work hard for what you earn.

I promise that whatever you give, no matter how large

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To give a gift and receive the forty Days of

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