Rick Warren - How to Keep from Stressing Out Part 3

Today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, we continue in our

series called the Habits of Happiness. In these lessons, Pastor

Rick dives into the Book of Philippians and helps you

discover God's path to true and lasting happiness. Now we're

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to eight hundred, six hundred five thousand and four. Right now,

here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part of a

message called how to keep from Stressing Out.

Now, when you think about these things true, good, right, pure, beautiful, respected, excellent, worthy,

you know what that is.

It's a picture of God.

And what he's really saying is think about God. Here's

what Isaiah says there on your outline. You Lord will

keep in perfect peace. Wouldn't you like to live in

perfect peace? Would you like to be less stressed out?

You Lord will keep in perfect peace all who trust

in you, whose thoughts are fixed on.

You.

If you fix your thoughts on God, he says, I

will keep.

You in perfect peace.

You see, what you think about is going to determine

how stressed and how worried you are. You know, I've

told you the story of Corey tin Boom. Corey tin

Boom was a Dutch Christian young woman during World War Two.

Her family the ten Boom family. Her dad was a

clockmaker and they lived in Amsterdam during World War two

and they made a story that she wrote a book about,

and they actually made a movie of her life called

The Hiding Place. And during World War two, the ten Boom,

this Christian family took in Jewish friends and hid them

in what was called the Hiding Place in their house

for many years to prevent them from being captured by

the Nazis and shipped off to death camps. One day,

the Nazis found out and not only took the Jewish friends,

but took Corey and her family and they went were

taken to death camps in Poland and Corey lost her

entire family.

She was the only one that survived.

And it's a very wonderful story, and in it she

says something I've never forgotten. She said, if you look

at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within,

you'll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you'll

be at rest. It all depends on what you have

your eyes on. You know, people say, well, look within,

Well I did. I didn't like what I said. I

don't want to look with it. I want to look without.

I want to look at God. I want to look

at Christ. Think about good things. Now there's one other step.

That's number five. Be content with anything. The Bible tells

us to be content with anything. This is the fifth

key to living a reduced stress life, where God says,

if you do these things, you'll have God's peace in

your life. Now, let me explain contentment, because a lot

of people misunderstand the meaning of contentment. A lot of

people think means contentment means I have no ambition.

No, no, no, no no.

Paul who wrote this book, Remember, he's probably one of

the most ambitious men who ever lived. He single handedly

takes the good News the Gospel all across the Roman Empire.

He's one of the most ambitious people ever. And he says,

I've learned to be content, so it has nothing to

do with ambition. That's not contentment. Contentment is not laziness.

Contentment is not apathy. Contentment is not complacency. Contentment is

not fatalism. What will be will be case. Contentment is

not lacky ambition content Here's what contentment is. It's enjoying

what I have right now, rather than waiting for something

else to happen in order for me to be happy.

Does that make sense.

It's enjoying what I've got right doesn't mean I don't

want to progress, doesn't mean I don't have goals.

The Bible says you should have goals.

It means I'm not waiting for something to happen in

my life in order to be happy. Contentment is the

opposite of coveting. Coveting is when and then thinking, when

this happens, then i'll be happy. When this happens, then

i'll be happy. And when that happens, then I'll be happy.

That's when and then thinking. Contentment is actually independence from circumstances.

It means my joy is not connected to what's happening

in my life right now.

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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When this happens, then I'll be happy. And when that happens,

then I'll be happy.

That's when.

And then thinking contentment is actually independence from circumstances. It

means my joy is not connected to what's happening in

my life right now. My joy, my happiness is not

based on my happenings. It's not based on my circumstances.

It means I've learned to enjoy whatever I've got right now,

and I'm not waiting for something or someone to make

me happy. Now, here's what Paul says in the next

few verses, verse eleven twelve.

He says, I've learned.

I've learned to be content circle the word learned. Contentment

is not natural. I'm about my nature content. You're not

by nature content. You have to learn it, just like

you have to unlearn worry and you have to learn happiness.

You have to learn.

Contentment something that we get educated on. I've learned to

be content whatever the circumstances. He says, I know how

to live on almost nothing. Or I know how to

live with everything. And in the original Greek here he said,

I know how to live in poverty, and I know how.

To live in luxury. I know them both.

I know how to be happy, and either in poverty

or luxury and nothing or with everything, I've learned the

secret of contentment in every situation, whether I'm well fed

or hungry, or whether I have more than I need,

or when I don't have enough. Now, he says, there,

I have learned to be content. How do I learn contentment?

Let me give you a couple of three ways. You

might just write these down. They're not in your notes,

so just write them down. The first way you learn

contentment is this, stop comparing. Stop comparing. That's so important

because the source of all discontent is comparison. I remember many,

many years ago, when I was a little boy and

got up on Christmas morning and my parents had given

me the gift of my lifetime a stingray bicycle. Okay,

with these butterfly handles, get your motor runing banana seats.

I thought it was so cool, and I thought I

was so cool until I saw my neighbor got a

better one, and my happiness went out the door.

Now.

The Bible tells us over and over and over, it's

foolish to compare yourself to anybody else.

Why two reasons.

One, you're always gonna find somebody who's doing a better

job than you, and somebody who has more than you,

and you're gonna get discouraged. Two you're always gonna find

somebody you're doing a better job then, and you have

more then, and you get full of pride. Either way,

you're dead.

In the water.

God takes you out of the game and you sit

on the sidelines for the rest of the game. Discouragement

and pride are the two things that take you, knock you.

Out of life. So he says, don't do that. God says,

I called you to be you. I made you to

be you. If you don't be you, who's gonna be you?

When you get to having God is gonna say, why

weren't you more like your sister? Or why weren't you

more like your mom or your dad?

Or what? God didn't why didn't you be you? I

made you to be you.

Most of us start off as originals and end up

as carbon copies. God never makes copies of anything.

No.

Two snowflakes are like two human beings are like. You

have a unique thumb print, handprint, voice print, footprint, ieprint.

You are unique.

Even even identical twins aren't really identical. They're different in

millions of ways. God never makes a repeat. God man

makes clones. God never makes clones. When God made you,

he broke the mold. God wants you to be you.

And if you don't be you, who's going to be you?

And so he says, stop comparing. And when you because

when you compare, you get jealous and you get envious.

Now the Bible says this, look at this verse on

your outline. Peace of mind makes the body healthy. But

envy is like a cancer. In other words, it.

Eats you up. It will eat you alive if you

get envious.

Now that phrase peace of mind makes the body healthy.

Phrase that word peace of mind. Actually another translation is

the word contentment. Contentment makes the body healthy. So stop comparing.

Here's a second tip for learning contentment. Stop thinking that

having more is better. You see, there are three myths

that we're taught by advertising in society. Having more will

make me more happy. Having more will make me more important.

Having more will make me more secure. None of those

are true. They're all lies. Having more will not make

you more happy, having more will not make you more valuable,

and having more will not make you more secure. In

the first place, you can lose it all. You can

use billions. You can lose a billion dollars in a

lot of ways. And your value is not based on

your valuables, and your net worth is not based on

your self worth is not based on your net worth.

It's based on who you are, not what you own.

So stop thinking that having more will make me more happy,

having more will make me more important, having more will

make me more secure.

None of those are true.

You need to find your security in something that can

never be taken from you.

Well, I can't.

If I put my security in my job, it can

be taken from me. If I put security in my

bank account, I can lose that. If I put my

security in my health, I can lose that. Or my

good looks I can lose that. It has to put

security and something can't be taken from me, and that

is my relationship to God. I'll never forget Victor Frankel

standing in a death camp. If you've never read his book,

A Man Search For mes terrific book.

And he says, you know.

They stripped me naked, they took away everything, including my

wedding ring. And then he said, I realized that there

was one thing that could never be taken away from me,

my ability to choose my response. You cannot control everything

that happens in your life, but you can choose how

you respond.

That's your freedom.

Now here's what the Bible says, Ecclesiastes chapter four.

It's better to.

Only have a little with peace of mind than to

be busy all the time with both hands trying to

catch the wind. That's what I call the saddleback center.

We go out and we buy things we can't afford

with money, we don't have to impress people we don't

even like, and then we get in debt. We have

to become workaholics to pay for all the things we've bought.

And if you own something and God told you to

give it away, you don't own it, it owns you.

A lot of people are possessed by their possessions. There's

nothing wrong with possessions, nothing wrong with them. But unless

you make it your God, and you cannot be possessed

by your possessions. And he said, you know, if your

whole life is trying to work harder to pay for stuff,

he says, you're missing the point. A third thing, and

I'll end with this is learn to learn to admire

without having to acquire. I've found this personally fun for me.

Learn to admire without having to acquire. In other words,

I have learned that I don't have to own it

in order to enjoy it. The fact is, with ownership,

ownership's a lot.

Of pain a lot of the times.

I mean, you got to insure it, you gotta maintain it,

you gotta store it, you gotta haul it. I mean,

let me give you an example. My family and my

kids and my grandkids, we like the jet ski and

we like to go down to Mission Bay in San

Diego particularly and jet ski we've done on several vacations,

will go jet skiing. And because we've done this a

lot as a family, I've offered thought, well, maybe I

should go buy some jet skis.

And then why in the world would I do that?

I mean, then I got to insure it, Then I

gotta maintain it, then I gotta store it, then I

gotta haul it back and forth. You know, if it's

just down there. I go down there and use it,

rent it for an hour or two. I'm gonna give

you a true confession. I know it's gonna shock you.

I have never spent one hour of my life scraping

barnacles off.

My boat because I don't know one.

I just use yours. You gotta lodge it aspen. I'll

jump up and down on your bed. You can ensure it,

maintain it, and store and haul it and all. Learn

to admire without having to acquire. Learn that I don't

have to own it to enjoy it. That's part of contentment. Now,

these five strategies that I've just meaned, they're very easy

for me to explain, but they're very hard to do.

It's not easy to worry about nothing. It's not easy

to pray about everything. It's not easy to thank God

in everything. It's not easy to think about good things,

and it's not easy to be content with anything. So

where in the world am I going to get the

energy to do these things that reduce the stress in

my life?

God says this, You come to me.

You come to me, and I will give you the

power and the ability to do what will help you

do what is best for you. Paul ends this passage

with verse thirteen. One of the most famous verses in

the Bible is verse thirteen. I have the strength to

face anything and everything by the.

Power that Christ gives me.

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

I can worry about nothing when Christ strengthens me. I

can pray about everything when Christ strengthens me. I can

thank God in everything and all things when Christ strengthens me.

I can keep my mind on the right thing when

God strengthens me. And I can be content with anything

when Christ strengthens me. What we're talking here is not

about a religon religion, about a relationship. You may be Buddhist,

you may be a Baptist. You may be a Catholic

or Protestant, or Jewish, mean, Muslim, or Mormon, or no

religion at all. God has never made a person he

doesn't love. God has never made a person he didn't

die for. God has never made a person he doesn't

have a purpose for. And he says, if you'll come

to me, I will help you. I'm going to close

with this last verse joke twenty two. Verse twenty one

says this obey God and be at peace with him.

This is the way to happiness. You see, the real

reason you're not at peace is because you're at war

with God. And until you make your peace with God,

that's what the Bible says God sent Jesus to do,

is to make peace with God for us. When you

make peace with God, then you get the peace of God,

and then you can have peace with others. They're not

gonna be peace in the world till the Prince of

is reigning in our hearts. So in order for you

to have the peace of God, you have to first

have the peace with God. And let's close of that.

Let's bow our heads. Would you bow your heads with me?

And I'm going to lead you in a prayer. My

blessing on you this week is Romans fifteen thirty three.

It says, I pray that God, who gives peace, will

be with you. So would you pray this simple prayer.

It doesn't really matter what your words you say. If

you just say, as I say this, you say me

to God, me too, say Dear God, I don't really

want to be stressed out. I want to learn the

habits of happiness. And you have promised that if I

do these things, I will experience your peace.

So I'm going to hold you at your word. Now.

I don't have the strength to do these, so Jesus Christ,

I need you to give me that strength. Help me

to worry about nothing. To remember it's unreasonable and unnatural

and unhelpful and unnecessary.

You're gonna take care of me. Dear God.

Help me to worry about nothing. And Dear God, help

me to pray about everything instead of talking to myself,

to talk to you. Help me to thank God in

all things. Help me to think about the good things.

And God, I ask you to help me to be

content with anything. God, I want to have peace with

you so I can have the peace of God.

Jesus Christ.

I don't understand it all, but as much as I

know how I say yes to you. I don't want

a religion. I want a relationship. I just want to

get to know you. So I opened my heart and

as humbly God, I say, make yourself real to.

Me, 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

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write me Rick at Pastorrick dot com and say, Rick,

I prayed that prayer of commitment, I gave my life

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pray for you. God bless you.

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Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

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