Rick Warren - How To Keep Your Tank Filled Instead of Running on Empty—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. Now,

in just a little while, we're going to tell you

how to get a copy of the brand new Daily

Hope Prayer Journal, a great resource that will help you

tap into God's power and presence as you discover the

keys to praying with passion and purpose. Go to Pastorick

dot com to find out more, or text the word

Hope to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

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

message called how to keep your Tank filled instead of

running on empty.

I'm want to pause right here, and I want you

to look at that list of ten things on your outline,

and once you go back and circle the numbers that

apply to your life. All right, circle that, look at

that list and go through it again. All right, let's

look at it again. If you'd say not starting out

with a full tank every day that's me. Check that one.

Circle it being too busy to stop and refuel. Circle

that one, ignoring the owners of Manuel, pushing my car

or my life further than it was created to go.

Being on number four, being unaware of hidden leaks? May

you got conflict in your life? Number five being in

a hurry? Number six not paying attention to my gauges.

Maybe you need to check that one. Number seven being overloaded.

I got too much to do right now. Number eight,

assuming that the limits of my tank don't apply to me.

Number nine not knowing where to find a filling station.

Obviously you know that one. You don't circle circle that.

Number ten, not knowing how to refill my tank. If

you circle the last one, you came to the right weekend,

because that's what we're going to look at. How do

you refill your tank?

Now?

What does Jesus have to say about all this? What

does Jesus have to say when we come to him

with an emptiness in our lives, an empty soul, an

empty heart, empty of character? How does Jesus respond when

you say I got nothing to give, I'm all out

of gas, I'm living on fumes. What does Jesus do

when you come to him in your emptiness. Does he

scold you no? Does he judge you no? Does he

reprimand you say, oh, you should be full.

No?

In fact, he does the exact opposite. Jesus says this

in Matthew chapter eleven. Look at this Matthew Chapter eleven,

verses twenty eight to thirty.

He says this, if you.

Are tired, I would assume that includes a lot of

people sitting here right now and those who are listening

in daily hope. If you're tired from carrying heavy burdens,

come to me.

Come to me, and I will give you a whole

lot more to do. Oh no, that's not what he says.

He didn't say, come to me and I'll give you

a whole bunch of new things to do.

No, he says, I will give you what rest. Anybody

like that, That's what Jesus says.

When you come to in with your emptiness, come to

me and I will give you r e st. Now

he's not talking about physical rest.

You can get that.

He's talking about emotional and spiritual rest. You can be

physically rested and still feel empty inside. We're not talking

about physical emptiness today.

You know the last two days.

You know what I did each of our grand kids

when they turned ten, Kay and I take them on

a ten on a two day trip to wherever they

want to go in California. And it's on your tenth birthday.

The last of our grandkids turned to in. Claire turned

ten this week, and so we said, wherever you want

to go in California. Some have gone to San Francisco,

some have gone to Tahoe. Claire decided two days of Disneyland.

I walk my tushy off for the last two days.

First day, we walked nine point two miles. I measured

it over thirty thousand steps in Disneyland, We've been on

every ride you can possibly imagine, and we were there

for two days. I'll be honest with you, guys, I'm

tired today. But that didn't have to do with my

emotional state. It doesn't have to do with my mental

or physical or spiritual state.

I'm just tired. So thank you guys, figuring it all

out on your own. Goodbye. No, no, you know.

Oh, you can be physically tired but not spiritually empty

and not emotionally empty, or you could be physically fit.

Some of you are physically fit.

You look like it, but you're emotionally empty or you're

spiritually empty. So Jesus when he says come to me,

and I'll give you rest, he's talking about rest for

your soul. In fact, he says that later in the passage,

if you're tired of carrying heavy burdens, come to me

and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.

Then learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in spirit,

and you will find rest for your soul. That's the

refilling your tank. For the yoke I share with you

is easy to wear, and it makes the load light.

The load is light. Now, I want you to circle.

If you're taking notes, circle the word come, circle the

word take, and circle the word learn. These are the

first steps and we're gonna look at those steps on

how to keep your tank filled. Take notes on this.

Here are the steps that Jesus tells us what to do. Ready,

Step number one, get fed up with how I've been feeling.

Get fed up with how I've been feeling.

Nothing is gonna change in your life until you get

this satisfied with it, dissatisfied with the way that you feel.

Right now, you have to come to the point in

your life, my friends, where you say, I'm not gonna

live this way anymore. I've had enough. I'm not gonna

stay this way anymore. I'm going to change. I'm gonna

do something about the way that I feel. Nothing happens

until you get desperate.

It's just too easy to.

Put up with everything you're going through, even when you

don't like it, simply because it's familiar. It's uncomfortable, it

may be even painful, it may be even empty, but

is familiar. So what is it that's going to cause

you to finally get fed up with your current situation,

your current circumstance, and the way that you've been feeling

about it.

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

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

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

So what is it that's going to cause you to

finally get fed up with your current situation, your current

circumstance and the way that you've been feeling about it.

I've talked to thousands and thousands and thousands of people

about this issue over the last forty two years, a

saddleback pastor, and I've discovered that there are only three

times when people really really change. Three things change people

pain perspective and no other choice. Pain perspective and no

other choice. You're not gonna change the situation you're in.

You're not gonna change the way you feel until you

either have enough pain or you change the perspective or there's.

No other choice.

Now, let me show you just three Bible examples of

what I just said. First, Solomon Solomon says this about

pain in Proverbs, chapter twenty, verse twenty seven to thirty.

He says this, the Lord gave us a conscience and

a mind, so we cannot hide from ourselves.

I know when I'm in pain, I know when I'm empty.

But he says, sometimes it takes a painful situation to

make us change our ways. Everybody agree with that, sometimes

it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways.

You see, we don't change when we see the light.

We change when we feel the heat, and when the

heat's on. We never change until the fear of change

is exceeded by the pain. And that's why you stay

with situations and circumstances, and stay even with the feelings

of emptiness and dissatisfaction in your own life, because you're

not in enough pain yet, you haven't hit the bottom.

It hadn't gotten that bad yet for you. And until

you get so discomfortable, so dissatisfied, we only change when

our pain is greater than the problem or the fear

of change.

So pain will cause you to change. Number two, we get.

This from the story of the Parable of the Jesus,

Parable of the Prodigal Son, the story of the Lost Son.

You remember that guy.

He's a young kid, and he says, Dad, I want

my inheritance now even and he leaves, takes all of

his inheritance and goes to Las Vegas downtown strip and

spends all his money on wine.

Women's song and he says this.

It says there about the situation. He wasted everything he'd

been given on foolish living until he was broke, miserable,

and starving. He had to get a job feeding pigs.

Now you remember, pork is anathema for Jews. This guy's

Jewish and what's he doing. He's feeding pigs. So he's

got it. Not only a dirty job, he's got a

job he's not supposed to even be doing. He had

to get a job feeding pigs, and he became so

hungry he is willing to eat the pigs food. You

got to be pretty hungry to eat pig slop. But

finally he came to his census. That's perspective. I've been

teaching you on perspective every week in this series on

strategies for Stressful Times. We talked about it last week,

how you got to have God's perspective. He came to

his senses, and that's when we change. He came to

his census, and he said to himself, what's saying to himself?

Self? Talk?

You talk to yourself all the time. He said to

himself self, this is not right. I don't not to

stay this way if I don't want to. Finally, he

came to his census and he said to himself, why

am I living like this at my father's home? Even

the higher servants eat better than I do. So he

decided to get up and go home to his father.

Solomon says, pain will motivate me, and the prodigal son

says a perspective. Hey, there, I don't have to live

this way. The people who work for my dad eat

better than I do. I go home, just be a servant,

and that would be better than what I'm living right now.

So pain and perspective, But job, I mean. Jonah, the

third guy, gives us an example of how we change

when we finally have no other choice. And when Jonah

hits bottom, and I mean literally bottom, He's thrown over

board on a ship.

He sinks to the bottom of the ocean.

And in Jonah Chapter two, we have Jonah's prayer at

the bottom of the ocean, and one of the things

he says in Jonah two seven, one of my favorite

verses in the Bible.

When I had lost all hope, I.

Turned my thoughts once again to the Lord. When you

don't have any other choice, that's when you turn to

the Lord. Now, nothing is going to change in your life.

That emptiness, that despondency, that depression, that feeling of unulfilled

nothing's going to change too. You get dissatisfied with the

way you are, and it will either be pain, or

it'll be perspective from what we talk about here, or

it'll be you have no other choice. But sometimes it

requires all three. Now, that's why Jesus starts his solution

to your emptiness by saying this look on the screen.

If you're tired, in other words, if you're not tired

of the way you're living, Jesus doesn't have anything to

offer you. Let me just be honest with you. If

you're satisfied with the way you're living right now, Jesus

has nothing to offer you. If you're self satisfied, even

smug about what happens happening in your life, going, I

don't need anything. Nothing needs to improve in my life,

Jesus has nothing to offer you. On the other hand,

if you are tired, that means I get fed up.

I am tired of living the way. If you're tired

from carrying heavy loads, if you're not tired of trying

to solve all the problems by yourself, Jesus can't help you.

So let me ask you.

Are you tired? Are you tired of running on empty?

Are you fed up with the emptiness that you've been

feeling in your life? And are you willing to do

something about it? As I said, we don't change until

we feel the heat. You have to come to some

point in your life where you go I have had enough.

I refuse to live this way any longer. It is

a point of dissatisfaction.

All right.

Now, let me ask you in personal question, friend a friend,

do any of you You don't have to raise your

hand on this, but do you feel you're at a

breaking point right now? If you do, I want you

to write this down. I'm gonna put it on a screen.

Write this down. A breakdown is the door to a breakthrough.

Just write that down. A breakdown is always the door

to a breakthrough. There is no breakthrough until you have

the breakdown, the breakdown of my pride, my arrogancet, my

self sufficiency, a breakdown when I realize I can't do

this on my own. A breakdown is always the door

to a breakthrough, and I want you, as your friend,

to have a breakthrough now. Now, let me give you

another thing to write down. Write this down underneath it.

I can't make a comeback until I admit my setback.

I can't make a comeback until I admit my setback.

If you're unwilling to admit that you have a setback

and that you're empty, that you need God's help in

your life.

Nobody can help you. Right now, I can't have a comeback.

Every comeback requires a setback first.

But you got to admit it now. Once you've done

this first step, which is get fed up.

I'm fed up with the way I've been feeling. Now

you're ready for step two. It's real simple.

Three words. Come to Jesus. Write that down. Come to Jesus.

That means you bring the good and the bad in

your life. You bring the frustrating and the painful, You

bring the shameful things in your life, You bring the

exhausting things in your life. You bring everything to Jesus,

and you come to Jesus.

Jesus says this.

If you're tired, okay, I'm fed up. If you're tired

from carrying heavy loads, heavy burden, come to me and

I'll give you rest. Now, Notice who you're to come

to and what you're to come to, he says, come

to me, and what he gives you back?

Who do you come to Jesus? What does he give

you back? Rest?

The notice, friends, It doesn't say come to religion. Religion

can't help you. He didn't say come to rules. Rules

can't help you when you're empty. He doesn't say come

to rituals. Rituals can't help you when you're empty. He

doesn't say come to regulations. Regulations won't help you and

you're empty.

He says, come to me.

Come to me, the anecdote to your emptiness, the antidote

to your overload, the antidote to all the ucky things

that you're feeling right now, that overloaded soul, that empty soul.

It's not a plan for time management, okay. It's not

a program for stress relief. It's not a philosophy. It's

not a program. It's not a pill. It's a person

come to me. You come to Jesus, not to religion

or any that you come to Jesus. Now, I've studied

scripture all my life, and you know, I've discovered that

in the Bible, people came to Jesus for a lot

of different reasons, some of them good, some of them bad.

Some came for forgiveness, some came for healing, some to

Jesus for advice, some came for eternal life, some because

they had a question. You know what, Jesus didn't care

why people came to him as long as they came

to him. Jesus doesn't care why you come to him,

just that you come to him. Look at this verse

on the screen, John six thirty seven, who Jesus says,

whoever comes to me, I will never reject.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy

you've chosen to study along with us today. You know

you can get hope and encouragement from Pastor Rick delivered

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com and sign up for his free daily devotional. Rick

will be right back to close out our time today.

But first, if you want to make your time in

prayer the best it can be. Then you're going to

want to get a copy of this year's Daily Hope

Prayer Journal Experiencing God's Peace. It will help you tap

into God's power and presence as you discover the keys

to praying with passion and purpose. Here's Rick to tell

you more.

Do you ever feel like your prayers get stuck in

a rut? Would you like to know what God told

me to do when my prayer life got stuck in

a rut. It was a time when I just felt

like I was praying the same thing over and over

and over. In fact, I was beginning to wonder if

God was even answering my prayers or even listening. Maybe

you felt that way sometimes, or maybe you feel that

way right now. So what did God tell me to do? Well,

here's what he told me. It was such a powerful

way to re energize my prayer life, and it was

so simple that I want to pass it on to you.

God told me to do this, he said, Rick. Start

writing down what you're saying to me, and then I

want you to write.

Down what I say to you.

Write down what you say to me, and then write

down what I say to you. You see, it's really

not that complicated. God just said I should art by

writing down what I'm feeling, and then I should write

down what he tells me after I've read his word.

It's really just a form of journaling, and spiritual journaling

is a spiritual habit that will help your prayers stay

fresh and effective. If you've never tried it, I'm begging

you try this for a week or two and see

if it doesn't reinvigorate your prayer life. Journaling has many

many benefits to your spiritual life. It'll help you stay

consistent in your prayers. It'll give you a permanent reminder

of how God answers your prayers. Because you re've written

him down. It shows how God is working in your life.

You can go back and review it. It'll even help

you worship God more and more as you speak to him.

God speaks to people who care enough to write it down.

So write down what God tells you. But you've got

to have a place to do that.

Now.

I want to encourage you, and I want to help

you take this simple step of learning this new spiritual

habit in your prayers, of writing down your prayers and

writing down your prayer request. So what I did is

I had my Daily Hope team create a brand new

spiritual prayer journal. It's got a real simple to follow

format that will help you put into practice God's wisdom

that is found in Philippians four to six that says this,

don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything, Tell God

what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Those four things are part of the format of our

prayer journal for this year. It's really cool. You're going

to love this tool.

This journal features a vegan leather cover and two hundred

and thirty five beautifully designed pages filled with over one

hundred and fifty inspiring Bible verses, photos, and artwork. It's

a spiritual growth tool designed to help you enjoy a

vibrant prayer life. Visit Pastorrek dot com or call eight

hundred six hundred five thousand and four to get this

year's brand new Daily Hope Prayer Journal and all this month,

any gift you give will be matched by very generous

friends up to one hundred thousand dollars. This matching grant

is only available until midnight, December thirty first, so please

contact us today again, that's Pastorick dot com or call

eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Thank you

so much for your support, and please don't forget to

tell us you listen to Daily Hope.

On the radio.

Be sure to join us next time as we look

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

sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial

support