Rick Warren - How We’re Getting Through Part Three

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

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue with a series

called how to Get Through what You're going Through. In

this study, Pastor Rick and Kay Warren share biblical wisdom

and their life experiences to help you find God's path

to peace in even the most difficult seasons of life. First,

if you are someone you know needs some powerful Bible

based encouragement, then stay with us because in a few

minutes we're going to tell you about the Journey Toward

Hope guided Bible study. It's full of encouraging Bible verses, exercises,

and journaling pages to help you draw close to God

and renew your sense of hope. You can find out

more by going to Pastorick dot com while you listen

to today's message, or just text the word daily to eight

hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's pastorig dot com.

Or just text the word daily to eight hundred six

hundred five thousand and four. Right now, here's the final

part of a message called how We're Getting Through Hope.

I want to talk to you a little bit about

hope because I would be lying to you completely lying

to you if I said that hope didn't disappoint me.

In fact, I was crushed by hope that didn't come true.

But that takes us two point three, which is the

next thing that you and I need to know. Life

is a battle, but we can have hope because we

know that there's more to the story. There's more to

the story. When Matthew's mental illness, his borderline personality disorder

and excuse me, major depression disorder, when it began to

get worse about five years ago, I found myself frantic

trying to find a treatment, to find medication, to find

a physician, to find a psychiatrist, find a hospital, to

find anything that would make a difference in his worsening condition.

A lot of sleepless nights, a lot of agonizing moments

of darkness as we watched helplessly as our son just

spiraled slowly, slowly down. And so I enlisted a group

of confidential friends and family who would commit to pray

for Matthew and for us, and I began to send

them very specific prayer requests week after week, and these

incredible people would pray for him and for us, and

they would send back encouraging notes. They would send back

verses of scripture that would give us hope to hold

on to the belief that God was going to heal

Matthew's mind. And our dear friend gave me this box.

It looks like alabaster or marble. I don't know, maybe

it's plastic, but it looks good. And on in the

middle of this box is the word hope. And I

began to take those scriptures that others had sent to me,

those verses that had been so enormously comforting that held

my faith streng and I wrote them on cards, and

I put him inside this box, and it became part

of a daily ritual of my time with God. Is

I would spend time. Every morning, I would pick up

this box and I would open it. I would read

verse after verse that inspired and built my faith and

my hope. Verses like the verses in Psalm one hundred

and sixteen and Psalm eighteen where it says that the

cords of the grave have encompassed me and I'm held

out tightly. And then it would go a few weather

verses and would say, but God, you have removed the

tears from my eyes and kept my feet from stumbling

so that I can live in the land of the

living again. And then April fifth came and Matthew died.

With his death, my hopes for a healed mind here

on earth died too. I felt bruised by hope. So

what do you do? What do we do when hope

doesn't turn out the way we're expecting it to? What

do we do when we've gone out on those audacious

limbs of faith and things in life and situations don't

turn out the way we were so convinced they were

going to? Two Corinthians four, eight, nine, and fourteen says

we often suffer, but we're never crushed. Even when we

don't know what to do. We never give up in

times of trouble. God is with us, and when we

are knocked down, we get up again because we know

God raised the Lord back to life, and just as

he raised Jesus, he will also raise us back to

life and bring us into His presence together. So I'm

rebuilding hope. You can't live without hope because I know

this isn't the end of the story. I know that

Matthew's story isn't at the end. My story isn't at

the end. God is still writing it and because of that,

I'm willing to try hope again. And so I have

a new set of songs. There aren't quite as many,

but there's one that I love. It's called not for

a Moment by Meredith Andrews, and some of the lyrics go,

not for a moment, have you forsaken us? Not for

a moment, have you abandoned us? And my hope is

that not for a second. Did God abandoned my beautiful boy?

Not for a second, And not for a second, has

God abandoned or forsaken us? Rebuild your hope. Don't be

afraid to have hope again. Don't be afraid to trust again.

God is good. God is not finished writing the story.

Please believe with all that you have that what has

been broken can be restored. It is not the end

of our.

Good job.

Many you know, one of the most suspenseful TV shows

that was ever on was twenty four.

Everybody remember that.

I mean, Jack Bower could solve three world problems in

every single episode. I wanted to be Jack Bauer, but

I have to admit that I never even watched a

show until it went off the air and went into

DVD because I hate watching commercials. But then I bought

the entire I think it was like six or seven

more seven years a series or five years.

Whatever it was.

And I remember Cay and I were watching the first

year of twenty four and we're sitting on the couch

and Jack is getting into one of his predictable, really

bad messes, like five seconds to save the whole world,

and I'm I and I started to get a little tense,

and I started to think, is Jack gonna make it?

I mean, you know, is this it? I mean, is

this it's the end for our hero? Is Jack gonna

make it? And a little voice said in my ear, Relax, Rick,

there's five more seasons. Your tension goes down when you

know the end of the story. You're reading the mystery

novel and you're scared to death, but if you know

the end, you know it's gonna work out. This is

why believers grieve so very, very differently than the rest

of the world. We grieve with hope because we know

the end of the story. Now we grieve. Christians, believers,

people who know Jesus grieve just like everybody else. And

that we sorrow when we loved loved ones. I told you,

I've cried every single day since my son died. But

I'm not grieving for him. I'm grieving for me. I

miss him, I'm not grieving for him. He's in a

far better place. No more sorrow, no more torture, no

more problems in his life. He's where we're meant to

be forever. We're not made to stay on this earth forever.

We're made to be in Heaven forever. You were made

to last forever. God has long range plans for you.

And so when we grieve, we grieve for ourselves. But

were we grieve with hope because we know the end

of the story. Now, let me tell you I know

the difference that makes, because as a pastor, I've done

the funeral of people who didn't have any hope. And

I have looked into the faces and into the eyes

of people who don't have a relationship with Christ, who

don't have the hope of Heaven, who don't know what

we know, what we've learned, and the fear and the

panic and the hopelessness in the eyes of people.

Who don't have that hope is crushing. It's just crushing.

I have seen it in their faces, and it is

not something you want. But we grieve with hope now

to live with hope in a life of pain. And

by the way, i'm sorry to say this to you.

You're gonna have pain the rest of your life, but

in that pain, you can have hope. How you're gonna

have to get a bigger perspective. You're gonna have to

have a longer view. You're gonna have to refocus your attention.

You're gonna have to stop thinking about just here and now,

and you're gonna have to start living in light of eternity.

This is not all there is. And if you just

look at today.

And what's happening right now, you're gonna be hopeless that

if you can see in light of eternity, you realize

that this life is preparation of the net next. You

get it the most one hundred years on this planet,

but you get trillions and trillions of years in eternity.

This is simply the get ready stage for the real show.

Here's what the Bible says there on your outline two

Corinthians four eighteen. So so we don't focus on the

troubles we see right now. Instead we look forward to

what we don't see yet. For the troubles we see

now are temporary, Thank god, they're only temporary. I mean,

even if I had a problem my entire life, it's

only temporary because it's not going to last an eternity.

For the problems, the troubles we see now are only temporary,

but the joys to come will last forever. You know

a lot of people when they have a loved one die,

they have a celebration of their life at a funeral

and they remember all the happy times.

That's a good thing. In fact, I.

Encourage you to do that, remember all the happy times

of your loved ones. But that's not my comfort. It

is not my comfort because Matthew's life was not a

happy life. In many ways, it was a tragic life.

He was tortured. He had a tender heart, but he

had a tortured mind. He was very he had Matthew

had an ability to walk into a room at a

party and instantly know who was in the most pain,

and he would make a beeline for that person and

spend the entire evening with them, comforting, consoling, and incourage him.

He would have made an incredible counselor. He had a very,

very tender heart, but he had a tortured mind. And

so as a father, my comfort doesn't come from thinking

about the happy moments of Matthew's life. There were some,

but not that many. My comfort comes not from thinking

about happy moments on earth, but holy moments in heaven

he's having now, and that is a comfort to me.

You see, friends, the biggest epidemic in our society, in

our world today is hopelessness. It's an epidemic proportion for

persons it is. It's the biggest problem on the planet.

The biggest problem on the planet is not poverty. We're

trying to do something about that with the Peace Plan.

The biggest problem on the planet is not disease. We're

trying to do something about that with the Peace Plant.

The biggest problem on the planet is not illiteracy or

ignorance and lack of education. We're trying to do something

about that. The biggest problem on our planet is hopelessness.

People are living and dying without any hope, and we

are in a battle for hopelessness against hopelessness. Now, when

something happens and you have a major loss in your life,

you tend to think this is the end of the world. No,

it's not the end of the world. It's an end

of the moment, and in your life you're going to

have many ends of the moment. It's not the end

of the world. I don't know what you're going through,

and I don't care. How I do care, But I

don't know how important I don't.

I don't, I don't.

It doesn't matter how deep you think your problem is

right now, the one you're going through right now, it

isn't the end of the world. Why because when the

real end of the world comes, Jesus shows up.

Then you know it's the end of the world.

The one day Jesus is going to settle the score,

even the odds, pay off the debts, and heal the hurts.

And the Bible says what it's going to be like

in heaven when it's all over here on earth. The

last chapter in the in the Last Book of the Bible,

Revelation twenty one, verse four says this, then God, this

is in the future. Then God will wipe away every

tear from their eyes. This is in heaven, wipe away

every tear from their eyes, and there will be no

more death, no more death, And there will be no

more mourning, and there will be no more crying, and

there will be no more pain, for the old order.

Of things will pass away. I'm looking forward to that day.

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.

Life can sometimes be challenging, isolating, and painful. Do you

or someone you know need some powerful encouragement right now,

then let me tell you about the Journey Toward Hope.

This guided Bible study book takes you on a journey

to discover the five truths about who you are. You

are loved, you have a purpose, you belong, you have

a choice, and you are needed. This full color, vegan

leather study tool is filled with scriptures, prayers, exercises, spaces

to journal, and personal stories to help you uncover the

hidden reasons you may lose hope and teach you how

to maintain and bolster that hope for a lifetime. Will

send you your very own copy of Journey Toward Hope.

When you give a gift today to daily Hope, to

take the hope of Jesus to a herding world. Just

go to Pastororrick dot com right now to get your copy,

or you can call eight hundred six hundred five zero

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

six hundred five zero zero four and be sure to

let us know the call letters of this station. Thank

you so so much for your support. There's only two

days left to get this great resource, so don't wait.

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

One day Jesus is going to settle the score, even

the odds, pay off the debts, and heal the hurts.

And the Bible says what it's going to be like

in heaven when it's all over here on earth. The

last chapter in the in the Last Book of the Bible,

Revelation twenty one, verse four says this, then God, this

is in the future. Then God will wipe away every

tear from their eyes.

This is in heaven. Wipe away every tear from.

Their eyes, and there will be no more death, no

more death, and there will be no more mourning, and

there will be no more crime, and there will be

no more pain, for the old order of things will

pass away. I'm looking forward to that day, but we're

not there yet. And what do we do now in

this little parenthesis between the sweet bye and bye and

the nasty now and now where everything is broken and

then life doesn't make sense and it's an incredible battle.

What do we do during this middle time? We live

in peace even when life doesn't make sense, because we

know that God is with us, and God loves us,

and he'll never stop loving us, and he'll never forget us.

And we live with joy.

Even when everything on this planet is broken, because we

know that God is good and God has a good plan,

and God has a plan that is greater than the

problem you're going through.

His purpose is greater than your problem. And we live

with hope.

Why we live with hope even when we know life's

a battle and everything's hard and there's a lot of conflict.

But we live with hope because we know.

It is more to the story than just here and now.

Let's vow for prayer in your mindset. Dear God, I

want to know you better. I want to become a

man or woman a faith. I want to fulfill the

purpose that you made me for. Help me to remember

that this is not the end of the story, that

we win in the end, that ultimately there will be

no more tears, no more sorrow, no more morning, no

more crying, no more death.

Say this in your heart, Jesus Christ.

As much as I know how, I give you every

area of my life. I open up myself to you.

Make yourself real to me. I want to learn to

love you more. I want to learn to trust you.

And I pray this in your name.

Amen.

Hi everybody, this is Rick and I hope you enjoyed

today's broadcast. 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. Write me Rick at pastor rick 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. This

his pastor Rick's daily hope. If you've missed any part

of this message, or you'd like to find out more

about Pastor Rick Warren and this ministry. Just visit Pastororick

dot com where you can listen online anytime. That's Pastor

Rick with two Rs in the Middle dot com and

be sure to sign up for ricks free daily email devotional.

While you're there, Rick will be back to close out

our time today. But first life can sometimes be challenging, isolating,

and painful. Do you or someone you know need a

powerful encouragement right now, then let me tell you about

the Journey Toward Hope. This guided Bible study book takes

you on a journey to discover the five truths about

who you are. You are loved, you have a purpose,

you belong, you have a choice, and you are needed.

This full color vegan leather study tool is filled with scriptures, prayers,

exertion sizes, spaces to journal, and personal stories to help

you uncover the hidden reasons you may lose hope and

teach you how to maintain and bolster that hope for

a lifetime. We'll send you your very own copy of

Journey Toward Hope when you give a gift today to

daily Hope. To take the Hope of Jesus to ahrting world,

Just go to Pastororrick dot com right now to get

your copy, or you can call eight hundred six hundred

five thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com. Or call

eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four and be

sure to let us know the call letters of this station.

Thank you so much for your support. There's only two

days left to get this great resource, so don't wait.

Here's Pastor Rick with a special message you know. Here

at Daily Hope, we use the Internet and podcasts and

email and as many other different channels as possible to

share God's hope and love with as many people as

we can. Now, one of the ways that we use

is by broadcasting on radio stations just like the one

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Now.

You may not know this, but purchasing radio airtime is

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In order to be good stewards of the gifts that

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All of the.

Gifts given to this broadcast go directly toward fulfilling our

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certain hope that only comes from believing and receiving Jesus Christ.

You know, it's only by hearing the word of God

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So I want to just say thank you. Thank you

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When you give a gift to Daily Hope, you're helping

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hundred five thousand and four or pastorig dot com. Be

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into God's Word for our daily hope. This program is

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