Rick Warren - How To Trust God When You Don't Like the Changes In Your Life—Part Two

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

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in our series

called Strategies for Stressful Times. In these lessons, Rick SHARE's

biblical wisdom for navigating difficult and stressful times so that

you can experience God's peace and thrive in any situation.

But before we get started, we want to let you

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to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Now

here's Pastor Rick Warren with part two of a message

called how to trust God when you don't like the

changes in your life.

Now here's the fourth thing you need to remember. Write

this down. God can use even human error and sin.

God can use even human error and sin. I'm talking

about when you are the innocent victim of somebody else's

bad decision. My family isn't what it used to because

my husband broke it up and left me, or my

wife left me. Whatever God can use, even human error

and the sins of other people, not even just my own,

for the good in he can bring good in my

life in his plan to grow your character and make

you like Jesus. Do you remember the story of Joseph.

Remember the story of Joseph. How his brothers were jealous

because he was the favorite son, and so his brothers

sold Joseph into slavery, and he's taken to Egypt, and

for the first forty years of his life, everything goes wrong.

He's falsely accused of rape, he's sold into slavery, he's

thrown in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and

sitting in a foreign jail forty years later, he's gone

nothing has gone right in my life so far. First

forty years, his whole life's downhill. But God had put

Joseph exactly where he wanted him to be, and a

series of God's circumstances, Joseph is raised up to become

the second most powerful leader in the most powerful nation

in the world. At that time, which is Egypt in

the Age of the Pyramids. And when Joseph later and

he actually saves two countries from famine, he saves Egypt,

and he saves his from famine because of his wisdom.

But it didn't look like things were going good in

his life for a long long time. One day, though,

he finally has his brothers come to meet him, and

he confronts his brothers, the guys who had sold him

into slavery in the first forty years of nothing going

right in his life, and what was Joseph's attitude. He

treats them with grace, not bitterness. Why well, Genesis fifty

tells us his perspective that God can use even human

error and sin for good. And Joseph says in Genesis

fifty twenty, you talking to his brothers, you intended to

harm me, but God, that's the most important thing. But

God intended it for good. To accomplish what is now

being done, the saving of many lives. Two entire nations

were saved. So out of the sin of his brothers,

two nations got saved from famine and destruction. You intended

to harm me, but God intended for good. Friends, I'll

be honest with you. There are people in your life

who intend bad. You will face people in your life,

people who resent you at work, they're in competition with you,

they're critical of you, they don't like you, or whatever.

They intend to hurt you. They intended for bad, but

God intends it for good. And so God can even

use human error and sin in all the circumstances of life.

You know, here at Saddleback, we all know the story

of how God brought good even out of Danny Dushane's

life in prison. How he went to prison for a

double murder and was spending all his years in prison,

was in there nearly thirty years. But he came to

the Lord and he lived for God. And today Danny

is a pastor of Saddleback and ministers to prisoners all

over America. That's grace. That's grace, and that's the kind

of church we are. It doesn't matter what your background is.

I don't care what you've done, how badly you've done it,

or who you did it with, or how long he

did it. What matters is the direction of your feet today.

That's all it matters. All right. Now, here's the fifth

truth that you need to remember when we're going through

changes we don't like. It's unavoidable, but God uses it

for good and he wants to make me like Christ.

And even he can use the bad things that other

people do in my life that spread the problems to

me that I didn't ask for. Number five, Every change

is always a test of my faith. Write that down.

Every change in your life is always a test of

your faith. One Peter, Chapter one, verse seven says this

the purpose of these troubles, all the ones you're in

right now, the ones we've been facing for eighteen months.

The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith.

Circle that as fire test how genuine gold is. Your

faith is more precious than gold. And by passing the test,

it gives praise and glory and honor to God.

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

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

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

of today's lesson.

Having faith during a time of change is like a

trapeze act and a trappeze artist. You've all seen it,

and the circus of stuff trapez ares swings out on

one bar. The other one comes from the other direction,

and at one point they let go of this bar

and then grab on to that one and swing across

to the other side. At some point in that trapeeze

ourist you have to let go of this one in

order to jump over and grab the other one. And

at that point you're hanging suspending in space with nothing

holding you up. That is the moment of faith in

your life. But when you grab onto that it'll take

you to the other side. If you don't take that risk,

if you don't step out in faith, you'll get out

there and you go, I'm afraid to do that. Then

you swing back here, and you swing back here, swing

back here, swing back here. Pretty soon you're dead, sinner,

and there's only one way out, straight down. You gotta

let it go. You gotta stop wishing for the good

old days. They're not coming back. Besides that, the good

old days weren't as good as you think they were.

There were problems then too, and pressures and struggles then too.

Now before we look at what God says to do,

and we're gonna look at that now in a time

of change. I want you to consider how these five

truths apply to your life. Okay, so let's look at

them again. Number one, change is unavoidable. Are you going

to just stop complaining and gripe in and going I

wish it were like eighteen months ago or whenever your

golden days were. They're not coming back. It's unavoidable, and

you're just gonna make yourself miserable. Looking in the past.

It's like looking in the past like trying to drive,

looking in the rear view mirror. You're gonna crash, but

you need to remember you say, God, I believe you're

going to use all of this, even the stuff I

don't like, the changes I don't like, You're going to

use it for good in my life. Okay. And I

know that you want to work on my character. You're

more interested in my character than my comfort. So make

me like Christ. Help me be more patient, help me

be more loving, help me be more at peace, help

me be more faithful, Help me to have more self control,

all those nine qualities. And then though people who've hurt

you are how society that has hurt you over the past,

you just got to go Okay, they intended it for bad,

but God can use it for good in my life.

And then to realize that everything in my life that happens,

every change, is a test of faith. Now, let me

give you five things you gotta do. These are action steps.

How can I trust God when I'm stressed by all

the changes in my life? All right? Number one, these

are very practical. Invest more time alone with God. If

you don't get anything else, ie, do you I want

you to say, I want you to get this this weekend.

Invest more time alone with God. Listen. The greater the

changes that happen in your life, the more you need

to invest time alone. Time alone with God. We're talking

about your quiet time where you read a little bit

of the Bible and you talk to God in prayer

and you just be quiet and say God, is there

anything you want to say to me? Time alone with

God is the great stabilizer in your life when you're

stressed out. It's also the greatest re energizer when you're

worn out. It's the greatest re energizer of energy. Now,

have you, guys, noticed that you don't have as much

energy as you did eighteen months ago. You don't because

chronic stress is draining it out of you every single day.

All of the changes that we've seen in our personal lives,

in our church, in our families, in the world, in

our jobs, all those changes sap your strength. They're like

pulling it out of you constantly. So the fatigue that

you're feeling, okay, it's natural. Welcome to the club, Welcome

to the human race. You get up in the morning

and you have a good night's sleep and a couple

hours under the day, you going, man, I'm exhausted. Welcome

to the club. That's called chronic stress, and it's very

normal under prolonged change like we've been through. And so

you're just trying to get by now when I'm talking

about this lack of energy that you've got, everything's everything's

harder for you to do than it was two years ago.

That you're just trying to get by. This has nothing

or little to do with your age, because both young

people and older people are feeling this right now. What's

the antidote? Isaiah chapter forty, verses twenty eight to thirty

one says, this new living translation, don't you know that

the Lord is the everlasting God, and he created everything

on this earth. Now, that took a lot of energy

to create everything on this earth and on the planets

and in the International Space Station and everywhere everything anyway,

it says, and he never grows tired or weary. God

never gets tired. He said, what about what it says

after the six days of creation, he rested. He's just

doing that to model it for human beings. He wanted

to create the Sabbath. God does not get tired, he

doesn't get worn out. So it says he never grows

tired to weary, which means the more time he's spend

with him, the more it's going to energize you. He

never grows tired to weary. Instead, he gives strength to

those who are weary that's you, and worn out, that's you.

And he gives power to the weak, that's you. Even

young people become exhausted and want to give up. Millennials

gen Z, they're tired too. Even young people become exhausted

and want to give up. But those who trust and

wait on the Lord will find new strength, flying high

like eagles, and they'll run and not grow weary, and

they'll keep going and not f ain't. So here's the point.

When you are stressed by constant, continual major changes like

you're going through right now, don't seek a quick fix.

It's not in what you drink or the drug you

take or what you smoke. It's not a quick fix.

Don't look for an escape, don't look for a short cut.

Don't fight changes that you can't possibly control. Instead, seek

the Lord. Seek the Lord on a daily base. God,

I'm plugging in on my battery is empty. I need recharging.

Your quiet time is more important to you right now

than it ever has been in your entire life. Get

back to it. Make sure that if anything happens, every

day you spend time alone with God. Whether anything else

gets done in your life, you make sure that happens.

That's the first key to trusting God. When you're stressed

by change, invest more time alone with God. Number two,

Ask God, this is what you do in that time.

Ask God to help me see his perspective. In that

time alone with God, as you're reading and praying, reading

the Bible and praying, say God, help me to see

everything going on around me from your perspective, not the

way I see it, not the way the world sees it,

but from your perspective you see. If you can begin

to see all the changes that are going on in

the world and in your life, and in our church

and in community and in society, you can see them

all from God's point of view, You're gonna be a

whole lot You're gonna feel a whole lot better, and

you're gonna be a whole lot less stressed. What I'm

talking about here, listen very closely. This is extremely important.

What I'm talking is the difference between seeing everything that's

going on in the world that's one thing and seeing

how God is working through every that's going on in

the world. That's a whole different story. This is the

difference between having knowledge of everything that's going on in

the world and having perspective of, oh, this is what

God is doing. It is the difference between information and wisdom. Today, friends,

we're overwhelmed with information. There's an information God. We're on

information overload. There are unlimited channels, millions of channels for

you to find out what's going on in the world.

You don't need any more information in your life. You

could turn off a few of those information channels. You'd

actually be healthier. What's missing in your life is non

information about the world. What's missing in your life is understanding.

Anybody can be informed, but only wise people seek God's

perspective on current events and go, God, help me to

see this from your point, not from my political viewpoint,

not from somebody else political viewpoint, not from that cultural viewpoint,

not from that racial viewpoint, not from that religious viewpoint,

but from your viewpoint. God. In the Bible, what separated Moses,

one of the greatest leaders of all time, from the

people of Israel. It's what I'm talking about here. The

people had knowledge. Moses had perspective. The people could see

what was going on. Moses knew why it was going on.

During the exodus, everybody could see the current events. They

saw Moses do the ten plagues in Egypt, and the

Nile turns the blood and all the other plagues. They

saw the Red Sea open when they got out there

in the desert and there was no water. They saw

God bring a fountain of water out of a rock,

miracle after miracle. They saw the acts of God. They

saw the deeds of God. They saw what was happening

in current events. Only Moses understood God's reasons and his

perspectives and his ways Psalm one oh three. The next

verse Psalm one oh three, verse seven, on your outline,

God let the people of Israel see his mighty actions,

but he revealed his ways to Moses. Now, why am

I teaching this to you? Because, friends, as your pastor

who loves you, I want you to be better than

everybody else. I want you to not just know what's

going on in the world. I want you to understand

the ways of God. You can get current information from

any media source. That didn't make you better than anybody.

Thank you so much. For listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

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Let's be honest about this time of year. At the

end of every year, there are so many ministries that

ask for you to support them in the end of

your giving. And you know what, we believe in every

ministry that proclaims the name of Jesus, and we thank

God for them. And I know it can be difficult

to decide who to give to, So let me just

give you some biblical foundations for giving, some simple guidelines

for end of your giving. You might think of these

three or four things. Number one, give to the ministry

that God tells you to support. Go to God, pray

to him, ask him, say God, who do you want

me to support? And you know what I supp support

you giving to whoever God tells you to give to.

And if it's not Daily Hope, I still support you

to give to who God tells you to give to,

So pray and ask God. Second, never give when you

feel pressured. The Bible says in Corinthians that we are

to never give under pressure or compulsion or under guilt.

So if you ever feel guilty about giving, don't give

because God tells you in the Word not to give

at that time. Give because you want to give, not

out of guilt or pressure. Number three, give to where

you support and believe in the goals of that particular ministry. Now,

every ministry has different goals, you know the goals of

Daily Hope. Our goal is ultimately to take the good News,

the Gospel to the three thousand tribes left in the

world that have no Bible, no believer, and no body

of Christ, no church. This is the final frontier. That's

our goal. It's called the Great Commission. Now, other churches

and other ministries have other goals, and that's fine. Some

only have the goal of just preaching in America. That's

nothing wrong with that. But if you believe in and

have a heart for going to the last, the least,

and the loss, this would be a ministry you should

consider supporting because I don't know others that are doing

what we're doing, trying to go to these final three

thousand tribes and then finally give where your gift will

be multiplied. For instance, at the end of every year,

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give a matching grant to apply to any donation that

we receive before the end of the year. Now, what

this means is that for every dollar you're able to

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doubled that donor will match it. That multiplies your gift.

Like the little boy who brought his loaves and fishes

to Jesus, and Jesus read the five thousand. If you

give twenty five dollars to Daily Hope this month, the

matching grant will match it at twenty five dollars. If

you're able to give one hundred dollars, the matching grant

will at another one hundred dollars. That multiplies your gift.

I would consider that as a factor in where to

give during this month. Now let me just say this.

If you can't help us financially, that's okay, I understand,

but I would ask that you pray for us. I'm

so grateful for those of you who are a financial

supporter of this ministry that monthly giving, month after month.

It means so much to me, it means much to God,

but it means so much for eternity to those who

are hearing the good news for the very first time.

You know, I don't take any salary or any income

from this ministry. I serve it for free, and so

you and I are partners together in reaching people for

Christ all around the world. In closing, let me just

ask you to continue to pray, pray for me as

I pray for you, and pray that God's word will

be taught clearly with compassion, with clarity, with simplicity in

this new year, and then it will not only help

you as you listen to these broadcasts, but it will

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six hundred five thousand and four. Thank you so much

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