Rick Warren - How We’re Getting Through—Part One

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 pastorrig dot com.

Or just text the word Daily to eight hundred six

hundred five thousand and four. Right now, here's Pastor Rick

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

Since mental illness took Matthew's life, one of the passages

of the bible that has encouraged me the most, the

Second Corinthians, Chapter one. I want to begin with it today.

It's there in your outline Verses three to eleven. Praise

be to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

the father of all compassion and the God of all comfort,

who comforts us in our troubles, so that we can

comfort others with the same comfort that we've received from God.

In other words, we go through problems, God comforts us,

and then we pass it on. For just as the

sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also

through Christ, our comfort overflows. If we're distressed, it's for

your salvation, and if we're comforted, it's for your comfort.

Our hope. Now, I want you to notice a sentence.

Our hope for you is firm because we know we're.

Going to come back to that.

Our hope is firm because we know our hope for

you is firm, because we know that just as you

have shared in our sufferings, so also you will share

in our comfort. Now, we don't want you to be uninformed,

brothers and says about the hardships that we have suffered.

We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure.

This is Paul talking here far beyond our ability to dure,

so that we despaired even of life itself. In other words,

I'm so depressed. I'm ready to kick the bucket. I'm

ready to throw in the towel. I'm ready to give

up and die. That's depression. We despaired even of life itself. Indeed,

in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But

but but this happened so that we might not rely

on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead, and

he has delivered us, and we've set our hope on him,

that he will continue.

To deliver us.

As you help us, As you help us by your prayers.

Then Paul says, many will give thanks to God for

the gracious favor granted to us an answer to your

many prayers.

I love that last sentence.

Then many will give thanks to God for the gracious

favor granted to us in answer to your many prayers.

Now let's go back to the text. Look at that

on your outline, and I want you to circle three phrases.

I put them in caps. Our hope is firm because

we know would you circle those Our hope is firm

because we know. What I want to say is that

what you know is what you get what gets you

through in life. You might write that down. What you

know is what gets you through. If you don't know

the right things, when the rogue winds of life come

and the tsunamis of life come, you're gonna fall over,

You're gonna cave, you're gonna crumble, And when the great

tragedies and the losses of life, which are inevitable.

Come into your life.

If you don't know the right truths, you're not gonna

stand spiritually strong.

What you know is what gets you through.

Probably the question I've been asked more than the other

question is how is your family getting through this?

And the answer is it's because of what we know.

Because our lives are not built on the shifting sands

of popularity and popular culture.

Which changes every month.

But our lives are built on rock solid bedrock truth

of the Bible, so that no matter what hits us,

we have a solid foundation. We know some unchanged Today,

I want to just mention three of those truths if

ever you need it to take notes.

It's this week.

You're listening to pastor Rick's Daily Hope rip 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 a 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 hurting world.

Just go to Pastororik dot com right now to get

your copy, or you can call eight hundred, six hundred

at five zero zero four. That's Pastorick dot com. Or

call eight hundred at six hundred five zero zero four

and be sure to let us know the call letters

of this station. Thank you so much for your support.

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

Now, I don't like to say this is your pastor

because I love you, but you're gonna go through tough

times and you too will experience major losses in life.

There is no growth without change. There is no change

without loss. There is no loss without pain, and there

is no pain without grief. You're going to go through

losses in life, and you need to know these things

that we're going to talk about this morning, and you

need to remember them to make it through. How do

you get through what you're going through? Let's get right

into it.

Number one.

The first thing we know is this. We know that

life doesn't make sense. We know that life doesn't make sense,

but we know we can have peace because we know

God is with us and he loves us.

Life doesn't make.

Sense, but we can still have peace because we know

God is with us and God loves us. Now you

have noticed, I'm sure that life is often confusing. There

are a lot more questions and answers, and there are

a lot of unanswered questions.

And the truth is.

We simply don't know why things happen the way they do,

and we're not gonna know.

But we're always asking the.

Question, why, why is this happening? Why is this happening now?

Why is this happening to me?

Why? Why?

Why did my husband walk out on me? Why did

my wife die of cancer? Why did I lose my job?

Why didn't I get that promotion? Why was my baby

born with mental illness? And we're not going to know

on this side of eternity the answer to those white questions,

You're just not going to know. Life does not make

sense when you just look at it. Bad people prosper,

good people suffer, and all kinds of different things happen.

You know, in my grieving, I'm not just grieving, but

I'm observing my own grief because I'm a teacher. And

as I looked at what I was going through, I

could see six discernible stages of reaction to loss. You

might to write these down because you're going to go

through them, and you can go through them all at once, and.

You can go back and forth.

But here are the stages, what I call the six

stages of loss. Now, the first one is shock, shock,

and your world has just thrown upside down. You lose

your job, you're in shock. A loved one dies, you're

in shock. The shock over Matthew's suicide lasted not days,

It lasted at least a month. In my life, at

least a month, and I was in shock for a month.

But then you move to stage two, which I call sorrow.

You move from shock to sorrow, and now you begin

to grieve. Now, sorrow is a godly emotion. Shock is

a purely human emotion. God has never shocked because God

knows everything, so God never goes wow.

I didn't see that one coming. So God has never shocked.

That's a human emotion. But sorrow is a godly emotion.

The Bible says God grieves. The only reason you're able

to grieve is because you're made in the image of God.

The Bible says, Jesus wept. The Bible says Jesus was

a man acquainted with sorrows. He understood sorrow. Grieving is

a good thing. Grieving is the way we get through

the transitions of life. Then you move from shock to sorrow.

And the third stage is struggle now, and struggle is

where you ask the why questions, Why?

Why? Why me? Why now? Why this?

Why did this happen? And not now? You're not going

to get the answers.

To the wise, but it's still okay to ask them.

Even Jesus asked why. On the cross, Jesus cries out,

my God, my God, why, Even Jesus asked the why

question because we don't always know what's going on in

that moment. So it's okay to ask why. But the

test of your faith is what do you do when

you don't get the answer, because you're not going to

get it. The fourth phrase is if you want to

get out of the struggle into peace, you've got to

go to stage which I call surrender. And in surrender,

it's where you just stop asking and start submitting and

start surrendering and start accepting. Surrender is the only path

to peace. It is the only path to peace. And

you just say, you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna

give it up. I'm gonna give it up. Then you

come to stage five. This is a big Bible word,

but it's the word sanctification. Sanctification is when God starts

bringing good out of bad, When God starts making changes

in you, when your personality, when your character starts being

transformed like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

Sanctification is when God makes you more godly. Now you're

never gonna be God. You're never gonna be a God,

not even a little God. You'll say, you know, a

New Age movement says you're a god. Oh really, if

you're a God, why don't you solve all the world's problems.

You can't even solve your own. You're not a God,

You're not even a mini me God. But you can

become godly where you become more like God in love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithful.

That's all those qualities the fruit of the spirit. And

then once you get into the sanctification where God is

working on you, then you come to stage six, which

is service. And it's this God wants to take your

greatest pain and turn it into your life message. He

wants to use your mess for a message. He wants

to use your test for a testimony. He wants to

take the thing that you're most embarrassed about, that you're

most ashamed of, that you most regret hadn't happened, and

He wants to use it for good in the lives

of others. Who can better help someone parents of a

down syndrome child than parents who had a down syndrome child,

Who could better help somebody struggling with an addiction than

somebody who struggled with an addiction. The very thing you

want to least talk about is the very thing God

wants to use most in your life to help other people.

Your ministry comes out of your pain. Now we're in the.

Next six weeks.

We're going to look at each of these stages individually

in detail. But what I want you to get today

is this one concept. No matter what stage you're in,

you're not in it by yourself. You're not alone. God

is with you, and God loves you. And that's why

we can have peace even when life doesn't make sense

because God is with me and God loves me. You're

not going to go through any of these stages on

your own. There are over six thousand promises in the Bible.

Let me just show you a few of them. The

first one is Isaiah chapter forty three, Verse two. God

says this, when you go through deep waters, I will

be with you. When you pass through rivers of difficulty,

you will not drown. When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned up. It will not consume you.

Somebody asked Kay about two weeks after Matthew died, how

are you doing? She said, We're devastated, but not destroyed.

It will not consume you. It will not consume you.

Know.

For twenty seven years, I prayed every day that God

would heal the mental illness of my son because he

lived a very tortured, painful life. His life was not

a happy life. It was a painful life. And yet

that prayer was never answered, and.

It didn't make sense.

We went to the best doctors in the nation. We

had the best medications, we had the best therapies, we

had prayer, we had healing, we had thousands, tens of

thousands of people praying, and just.

It didn't make sense.

We had an incredibly strong family, deeply loving, supportive, full

of faith, strong family.

It just didn't make sense.

And I remember after Matthew died, writing in my journal,

I would rather walk with God with none of my

questions answered, and to walk through life without him and

know all the answers why, Because when in pain, explanations

don't help.

They don't help you.

See, whenever you have a major loss, your tendency is

to immediately look for cause, a reason, or an explanation.

You go why, I gotta figure this out? Why did

she leave me? Why did I lose my job? Why

did I get cancer?

Why?

Why?

And you're looking for explanation of friends. Explanations don't help.

You don't need an explanation. You need God, the comfort

of God. You need the presence of God. If K

were to drop dead tomorrow and I knew the reason,

it wouldn't lessen the pain any bit. So stop looking

for an explanation, Stop looking for the why.

It's not gonna make.

You feel any better. You don't need an explanation.

You need God.

You need his presence. Now.

One day you're going to understand why everything happens. But

right now your brain isn't big enough, and neither is mine.

God has not promised to give you an explanation for

why everything happens in the world, but he has promised

You're not going to go through anything on your own.

Look at this next verse Hebrews thirteen to five. I

this is God talking. I will never leave you, and

I will never abandon you. He says this over and

over and over again, from Genesis to the end of

the Bible, all scriptures. God says, I will never abandon you. Now,

you may have been abandoned in life by a spouse

or parent, You maybe have been rejected, but God's never

going to abandon you. God is never going to reject you.

You See, when we're going through intense pain, like the

pain I've been in, we are tempted to think that

God has forgotten us. It is impossible for God to

forget you. He created you as an object of his love.

You were made to be loved by God. In fact,

here's what the Bible says. Isaiah forty nine, verse fifteen.

God says, this, can a mother forget the baby at

her breast or with child that she has borne?

The answer is obviously no.

No woman could not be nursing a baby and forget

the baby at the same time.

Obviously not.

He said, even if that were possible, I will never

forget you. Look, I have engraved you on the palms

of my hands and look up here. God says, I

have engraved you on the palms of my hands, so

I can't forget you. A lot of people get tattoos

to remember somebody they love. God has a tattoo of you.

I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

Where did he get that tattoo? On the cross?

With nails pierced hands outstretched arms, He said, this is

how much I love you. I love you this much.

I love you so much it hurts. I love you

so much. I'd rather die than live without you. I

love you so much. This is how much sacrifice in heaven.

No one's going to have any scars except Jesus, and

he's going to have the hands, the feet, the.

Side, the head.

Why because he wants to always remember this is how

much I love you. It is impossible for God to

forget how much he loves you. And so we know

that no matter how we don't understand what's going on

in our lives, we do know this. I don't have

the solutions, I don't have the answers, I don't have

the reasons, I don't have the explanations, but I do

have the presence of God.

And I do have his love in my life.

This is 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

Pastorick 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, 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. 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 a hurting world. Just go to Pastorick

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 what station you hurt us on. Thanks so much

for your support. Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from

one of our listeners today.

I want to introduce you to David, who, despite living

with depression, is learning to take his attention off himself

and put it on others. David wrote me this, Hey,

Pastor Rick, I've been listening to your sermons via podcast

almost daily for three years now. I can't begin to

tell you the growth that I've had in my spiritual

life by you choosing a life of service. I hope

my story will be an encouragement to you and others.

I've struggled for years through depression. Yesterday I was feeling

down after recently experiencing depression again and going through medication changes.

Instead of choosing my go to late night TV show

to drownd out my thoughts. I made a decision to

turn to God. By watching your interview lessons from Pastor

Rick's life. Your words made me realize how self centered

my prayers in life have been for quite some time.

I've been wasting the hurt of depression on myself by

focusing on all my prayers and energy on me. I

confess this, and I asked for forgiveness and the wisdom

to recognize who needs help around me, and also having

the courage to act. The next morning, I woke up

to a text from an old friend who I had

left behind in a haze of depression ten years ago.

Now that text was confrontation. Unlike so many of people

who are suffering from depression, they know it's easy to

avoid these kind of things. Then everything I had prayed

the night before hit me. I told him everything, and

I asked for forgiveness and it was given, and he

explained that he too suffers from depression and had thought

about suicide. He thought he was all alone and no

one cared. What started out as an angry text turned

into a great hour long conversation. During our goodbyes, he

expressed how talking with him meant the world.

I even cried.

Who thought a depressed guy who felt no emotion for

so long good cried tears of joy.

Not me. Rick.

Your words about cur agent never wasting a hurt help

me stand up to what I felt was a giant

problem and turn it into an answered prayer. I won't

ever waste this hurt again, David.

Well, David, I'm.

Thrilled to hear how God is helping you use your

hurt to help others. That's the way God intends for

it to be. God is so faithful to take our

pain and make something useful from it. So keep your

eyes focused on the Lord, and keep your eyes focused

on the needs of other people. God bless you, David.

If you'd like to let Rick know how this broadcast

has blessed you, please feel free to send him an

email at Rick at pastor Rick dot com. That's Rick

at Pastorrick dot com. Be sure to join us again

next time as we look into God's word for our

daily hope. This program is sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries

and your generous financial support