Rick Warren - How We Help Each Other Grow—Part Three

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

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series

called Better Together. In this series, Rick takes us through

First Corinthians chapter thirteen and shows us how to cultivate deep,

meaningful relationships with the people around us. In just a

few moments, we're going to tell you how you can

get a copy of Pastor Rick's book called God's Power

to Change Your Life. In it, you'll discover how God

provides the power you need to take you from where

you are to where you want to be. Find out

more by going to Pastorick dot com or by texting

the word Daily to eight hundred, six hundred five thousand

and four while you listen to today's message, that's Pastorick

dot com or the word Daily to eight hundred, six

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

Warren with the fire I know part of a message

called how We help each Other Grow.

When I'm honest about my weaknesses, then I'm humble. When

I'm humble, I get God's grace. God's grace is the

power to change. When I get God's grace, I can

change the things that I've always wanted to change in

my life, but it only comes through humility, and humility.

Comes through honesty. Does that make sense?

There is a pattern here, and some of those things

in your life that you have been unable to change,

it's because you have been unable to be honest about

them and you're hiding them, and you're.

Not gonna get any better that way.

Healing and a fresh start and the power to change

come from being open with other people. God wanted us

to need each other. Now, look, I'm not perfect, You're

not perfect. Nobody's perfect. So who are we kidding? We

just need to be honest about it. Everybody blows it

and just you know what, nothing shocks me anymore. There

is no sin that you could name that I haven't

heard in this church, not one, not one. Nothing shocks

me anymore because I have heard it all because we're

all imperfect. Now here's the fourth benefit of honesty, deeper fellowship.

Deeper fellowship when we had been our mistakes. First John

one point seven says, if we live in the light

as He is in the light, then we have fellowship

with one another. We get fellowship. Why because in the

light we can't hide anything. The darkness is where we

see right now, there are seven hundred thousand watts of

light shining on me right now. That means you you

get the camera close enough, you could see every imperfection

in my face. Because you can't hide under the lights.

But in the darkness we hide. That's why we want

to hide in the darkness. But when we are honest,

do we live in the light. We have fellowship. Now

here's the myth. We think that if we are over

and about our fears, about our hang ups, about our imperfections,

about our secret faults, that people are going to think

less of us. The opposite is true. Actually, the more

honest you are, the more people want to be with

you and like you. What is more attractive to you,

deceitfulness or honesty. Well, honesty is you want to be

around people. Say that guy is the real deal. He

is not a fake, he's not a phony. What you

see is what you get. He's not putting on a

big show.

I like that guy, I like that woman because they

are the real deal.

What we don't like are people who fake it, pretend

they're perfect, try to hide everything that's.

Not attractive at all. Well, now, if that's what attracts

you to others.

Don't you think that if you're more honest people will

be attracted to you.

They will.

Now, let me speak to those of you who have

realized many of you have realized, my life is messed up.

My life is really messed up. I got some hang

ups some have but some bad responses, some bad past relationships.

I don't know what it is you say my life

is messed up. Well, God brought you here because he

wants to turn that hurt into a healing.

And then he wants to use you in the lives

of other people.

And he brought you here because he just wants you

to stop denying it. He's waiting for you to surrender

and get with the program.

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

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

You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional

at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

What does it take to become more loving, live more peacefully,

develop patience, have self control? Pastor Rick says. Throughout all

the years he's been a pastor, the number one question

he's been asked, is why can't I change? People want

to change stock maybe you feel that way too. In

his book God's Power to Change Your Life, Rick lays

the groundwork for personal transformation, then offers biblical insights and

simple steps for ten areas of growth that can take

you from where you are to where you want to be.

This book connects you with the power to actually make

the changes you long to make. And as you apply

the truth of God's word by the power of His Spirit,

your life will change. You'll move out of your right

and get on track with God's wonderful purposes for your life.

And today, when you give a gift to Daily Hope

to help take the hope of Jesus to people everywhere,

we'll send you a copy of God's Power to Change

Your Life. Just go to Pastororrick dot com right now

to get your copy, or you can call eight hundred

and 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 which station you

heard us on. Thank you so much for your support.

Today is the last day to get this great resource,

so don't wait.

And now here's Pastor Rick Warren with the second half

of today's lesson.

Now, let me speak to those of you who have realized,

many of you have realized, my life is messed up.

My life is really messed up. I got some hang ups,

some habits, some bad responses, some bad patterns, relationships. I

don't know what it is you say, my life is

messed up. Well, God brought you here because he wants

to turn that hurt into a healing. And then he

wants to use you in the lives of other people.

And he brought you here because he just wants you

to stop denying it. He's waiting for you to surrender

and get with the program. I want you to hear

Lisa's story. Would you welcome her?

Good morning. I grew up as a child victim of

domestic violence. My mother chose relationships with very abusive men,

and from the time I was nine years old until

I left home at seventeen, I was physically, emotionally and

sexually abused by the men in her life. As a

young child, seeing your mom be beaten and then suffering

the same consequences if you tried to stop it or

get help was devastating. I lived in fear and the

loneliness of keeping this family secret most of my life.

My mother and I and my siblings were always blamed

for the abuse. If only we behaved better, kept our

mouth shut, or did things perfectly as we were told,

then we wouldn't have to be beaten. My mother suffered

black eyes, a broken back, having knives held to her throat,

and even being shot at. I suffered punches and bruises

as well, but none as davaging as the bruises to

my soul. The sexual abuse left me feeling dirty, unloved,

and guilty, and somehow that the abuse was my fault.

As a teenager, the emotional damage began to impact my life.

I was promiscuous and began drinking and doing drugs, anything

to numb the pain and stay away from home. I

began to live out all the things I had learned

in my childhood, things like being sexual with a man

meant you were loved, or if a man was abusive,

he loved me. I married my first husband when I

was nineteen years old, and that was the last day

I saw my mom. She was murdered six days later.

As a young wife and mother and having married an alcoholic,

abusive man. I continued to make bad choices. My marriage

ended in divorce, and I spent the next few years

dating and sleeping with many different men. I continued to

feel unlovable or unworthy. I drank and did drugs, and

I continued to try to do anything to please the

men in my life. My bad choices led to a

second fell marriage, an abortion, and a child I gave

up for adoption. Then, in nineteen ninety two, during my

second divorce, someone invited me to settle that church I

was living with. You could guess it my second my

third alcoholic, sexually addicted boyfriend. I don't remember the sermon

that first time, sorry, Rick, But I do remember that

I cried all the way through it, and I felt

like I had finally found my church home. My boyfriend Peter,

and I sought help and showed up at the church office.

One day.

Pastor John Baker of Celebrate Recovery confronted us in love

with the truth about our living together. He recommended Christian

counseling and that we begin attending Celebrate Recovery. Peter faced

his alcoholism and sex addiction, and God gave us the

power to change our relationship and stop living together. Being

part of a small group was scary for me. At first.

I had to learn how to open up and share

with other women all the hurts of my life. But

soon I was admitting to this These wonderful women the

hurts I had never told anyone before. Opening up to

them provided the emotional healing that began my fresh start.

Through my small group, I have learned I can be

real transparent and share about all my mistakes and still

be one hundred percent loved and accepted. Honestly, there are

countless women and men, my brothers and sisters in Christ,

who have taught me what godly love, accountability, and grace

are all about. I am blessed to say that in

January I will have eleven years of sobriety from drugs

and alcohol. Thank you Peter. That boyfriend and I will

be married ten years on December seventeenth. He's the most

amazing godly husband, and I thank God for the true

intimacy and real love that He's given us in our marriage. Finally,

I can say that I was right that my quest

for true love and finding just the right man that

would bring me the joy and fulfillment. I looked for

all my life. I found He's the love of my life.

And his name is Jesus Christ. Thank you.

Here's the fourth way that we help each other grow,

and by the way the way God wired it.

This is cool.

When you help other people grow, God helps you grow.

You never grow faster than when you're helping somebody else.

And the fourth way we can help each other grow

is by encouraging each other's commitment. By encouraging each other's commitment,

the Bible says in one Timothy four to seven, keep

yourselves in training for a godly life. Now, how do

you do that? How do you stay in training for

a godly life? Well, you stay in a small group

and you get a spiritual partner. You get a training partner.

You know, it's always easy to work out when you're

working with somebody else. You get a spiritual training partner. Now,

nothing affects your life more than your commitments.

Tell me what you're committed to.

I'll tell you what you're going to be in twenty years,

because you are becoming whatever you are committed to. Your

commitments shape your life. And if you're not committed to anything,

other people are shaping your life. I'm sorry to tell

you this, but other people are running your life if

you don't have any commitments. Now, not only do your

commitments effect here and now, they affect eternity because every

choice you make has eternal consequences. That's why the Bible

says in Romans Chapter one, I want us to help

each other with the faith we have. Your faith will

help me, and my faith will help you. Now, that's

why you need a church family, and that's why you

need a small group.

Is we help each other out. Now.

Saddleback Church is a purpose driven church. What does that mean?

A purpose driven church? It means that everything in this

church is committed to and organized around helping you fulfill

God's five purposes for your life. You were put on

this planet for five reasons, and the purpose of this

church is to help you fulfill those five purposes and

to help you make and grow in the five basic

commitments of life. So let's just review them as we

close here. They are Number one. First, God wants you

to commit to love Jesus Christ, love God with all

your heart and soul and minus drink.

That's called worship. If you haven't done this, Today's your day.

Commit to loving.

Jesus Christ because you're made your plan for his pleasure.

Number two, you commit to love other believers. Once you're

in the family of God, God says, I want you

to learn to get along with others. That's called fellowship.

That means you get in a small group, you take

class one oh one, our membership class. You get baptized

as an evidence expression of your faith.

You join this church. Now.

Once you start loving Jesus, you start loving other believers.

God says, I want you to help others to do

the same. People to love me, and help other people

to love my family. So you might want to go

through one on one class with a friend, or your

whole group might take somebody through if they haven't gone

through together. But you know, get involved, maybe even get

baptized together. The third thing is to commit to grow

in God's Word, and this is called discipleship. God wants

you to become like Christ and you grow in His word,

and you help others to grow in His word by

sharing what God's teaching you and inviting them to Bible

studies and inviting them to your small group. The fourth

commitment is to commit to serve in ministry. God gave

you some talents, some abilities, and he didn't give them

to you for your benefit.

He gave you to bless the world.

Gave him to you to bless the world, and he

wants you to use them anytime. You use your talents

to help others. That's called your ministry. And God says,

I want you to get involved in a ministry. Use

your talents to help others, and then help other people

to do the same. Somebody in your group, invite him

to join your ministry. Invite them to serve along with you,

help them find their niche make sure everybody in your

group has a place that they can give back. And

then the fifth is commit to share the good news.

Once you know the good news, you share it with

other people. This week, I got this letter from Sherry.

Cherry is a is a hairstylist and for ten years

she's been cutting the hair of a guy named Robert.

Robert is a diabetic and his diabetes got so bad

that he lost a leg, had to have it amputated.

Then he lost a kidney and he had to go

into dialysis. And for ten years, Sherry kept inviting Robert

to come to church every week every time she'd see him,

and he kept saying, no, I'm not interested.

I'm not interested.

One day, a few months ago, Robert came in to

get his haircut and it was very depressed because his

mother had just died, and he admitted to Sherry that

she was the only person in his life that she

had been taking care of him and he didn't.

Have anybody to take care of him.

And Sherry said, Robert, you need a church family, and

you need to be in a small group, and she

gave him a brochure to saddle Back and about the

Singles Ministry, and he just said, I'm not interested. But

she kept praying for him. She said, can I pray

for you right now? And she didn't, so she prayed

for him. Two months went by before his next haircut,

and when he came in, she says, he was so

excited to tell me that he'd gone to Saddleback Church

and accepted Jesus Christ's personal savior. He'd already taken classes

one O one, two one and three oh one, became

a greeter and started attending Elevation the Single Service. Robert

made a lot of friends at the Single Service and

he got involved in a small group. The small group

is so helpful with his spiritual growth and meeting his needs.

He also started volunteering once a week at the church office.

Then he got an infection recently and he was in

the hospital again, but this time Robert's small group was

there to pray for him, to minister to him, to

support him during his time and need. And every time

I saw Robert, he was thanking God and talking about

his small group and ministry. Last Saturday evening Robert passed away.

The people at the single service noticed that he wasn't there,

so several of them became very concerned and went to

his home and they found Robert had passed away in

his wheelchair. Pastor Rick, I am sad, but I'm also thankful.

I thank God that he tugged on my heart to

keep inviting to Robert to saddleback all these years.

It was ten years.

I'm thankful that Robert accepted Jesus in his heart. I'm

thankful that he found a supportive small group that showed

him God's love. I'm thankful that Robert didn't let his

health problems or being a new believer keep him from

serving God. I'm thankful that he learned to love and

be loved. And I'm thankful that Robert is now in

heaven walking with Jesus. He always challenges Rick, will anybody

be in heaven because of you? I'm thankful that the

Lord used me a hairstylist to spread his word. And

I'm more excited to share the good news than going

shopping or getting a new car.

I'm glad I never.

Gave up on Robert, and I intend to take every

chance I have.

To share the good news.

Who do you need to not give up on? You've

invited him to church, or you invited him to a group.

They said, no, that's not the end of the story.

Sherry is glad she didn't give up. You know what,

Robert is even more glad because he's in heaven today.

Who do you need to invite to church? To a

service to your group? That's bower heads.

The fact is, spiritual maturity is a choice.

As I've said many times to you, You're as close

to God as you choose to be.

And one day you're going to stand before God.

I'm given account of your life, and he's going to

ask did you ever make these commitments? Did you ever

fulfill the purposes I put you on earth to fulfill.

So my question to you is, what's your next step?

Do you need to invite Christ into your life? Do

you need to be baptized, join a church, take one

on one, get in a small group, find a ministry.

Why don't you pray this prayer? Dear God, I want

to grow up spiritually. I don't want to stay a

spiritual baby anymore. So today I'm choosing to make some

serious commitments. First, I commit all of my life to you, Jesus.

I want to follow your purpose and plan. And I

commit to publicly announcing my faith through baptism. And I

want to join this church, and I want to get

in a group, and I want to grow and be

the person you want me to be. I commit to

the journey, and I want you to make your home

in my heart.

In your name. I pray 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. There's something real about sharing your commitment. So

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 is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy You've

chosen to study along with us today. If you'd like

to receive hope and encouragement every day delivered right to

your inbox, then sign up for Rick's free daily devotional

by going to Pastorick dot com.

Right now.

Rick will be back to close out our time today.

But first, what does it take to become more loving,

live more peacefully, develop patients have self control. In his

book God's Power to Change Your Life, Rick lays the

groundwork for personal transformation, then offers biblical insights and simple

steps for ten areas of growth that you can take

from where you are to where you want to be.

Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.

You know, I've been a pastor for over three decades,

and I've been teaching the Word of God for over

four decades, and in all of that time, the number

one question I've been asked by people, is this how

can I change? Or why can't I change? I've talked

to literally thousands and thousands of people who want to

change but are just stuck and they can't figure out

how to get unstuck. You know, the truth is you

can't change on your own because will power alone isn't

enough to make permanent changes. Sure, you can force yourself

to change for a month or two months, but pretty

soon you're going to go back to your old ways.

Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is not enough.

Talking yourself into a change by positive thinking is not enough.

The Bible says true transformational change only comes through the

power of God inside you. So let me ask your

personal question, how do you want to be different at

the end of this year? What changes would you like

to make in your life? What goal would you like

to see accomplished in your life? Well, it is going

to happen on your own. You're going to need God's power,

and I want you to understand how to plug in

to God's power. That's why this month I'm sending out

God's power to change your life a book that I've written.

When you give a financial gift to support daily Hope

broadcast and ministries. You know, Daily Hope is one hundred

percent supported by listeners. We have no other outside source

of income. It's supported by your gifts. And when you

give to support this ministry this month, I want to

give back to you this book, God's Power to Change

Your Life.

This book connects you with the power to actually make

the changes you long to make. And as you apply

the truth of God's word by the power of His Spirit,

your life will change. You'll move out of your right

and get on track with God's wonderful purposes for your life.

And today, when you give a gift to Daily Hope

to help take the Hope of Jesus to people everywhere,

We'll send you Pastor Rick's book called God's Power to

Change Your Life to say thanks. 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 eight hundred six hundred five

thousand and four and be sure to let us know

which station you heard us on. Thanks so much for

your support. Today is the last day to get this

great resource, so don't wait. 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.