Rick Warren - How To Be Happy No Matter What Happens—Part One

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

message called how to Be Happy no matter what happens.

Anytime you want to study what God has to say

about happiness, you go to the Book of Philippians here

in the Bible. It's the most positive happy book in

God's Word. In spite of the fact that Paul wrote

it while he was a prisoner in a dark Roman

prison dungeon, and he was chained to a twenty four

hour guard. But Paul knew how to be happy no

matter what happens now. One of the key verses is

Philippians one, Chapter one, verse twenty seven. It's at the

top of the message outlined. Philippians Won twenty seven says this,

whatever happens, whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy

of the good news of Christ. Have you ever held

a pity party for yourself? It's quite easy to throw

a pity party. All you have to do is think

up a list of everything negative in your life and

then think about it over and over and over, and

then feel sorry for yourself. Last Tuesday, I gave myself

a pity party. It was a good one. And first

I thought of the chronic pain that I'd been feeling

for three weeks that was sapping all my energy. And

then next I thought of all the things that I

wasn't getting done and the pressure that I felt from

those deadlines because I hadn't been feeling good, so I

had pain and pressure. Then I thought of the people

who needed my help, and I thought of some other

people who were upset with me. And finally, in case

that wasn't enough, I thought of all the problems in

the world that we just keep hearing about. So you

got pain, pressure, people, and problems. These are the foremost

common sources of unhappiness. They're what I call the kill joys,

the common kill joys of life, and I know you're

very familiar with them too. Now today we're going to

see how Paul handled all four of these kill joys

in the first chapter of Philippians. Anyway, I started holding

this pity party for myself, and at one point I

actually thought the words, you know, I don't like any

of this, and I'm really, really, really not happy right now.

Have you ever felt that way? Maybe this week too? Well?

You know what, I try to live each moment in

my life in constant conversation with God throughout my day.

The Bible says to pray continually, pray without ceasing, and

that means keep a running, ongoing conversation with God in

your head. So as soon as I thought the idea

I'm not happy right now, I also heard this little

question in my mind from the Holy Spirit that said,

do you want to stay unhappy? Do you want to

stay unhappy? And I immediately answered no, No, I don't

want to stay unhappy. You see, friends, God says that

happiness is a choice. It's not based on circumstances. It's

based on choices. You must choose happiness now. Happiness is

it's not something you look for. That's what many people mistake.

It's not something you look for. If you look for it,

you're not going to find it. Happiness is something you create.

Happiness is something you choose. The truth is, regardless of

your circumstances, no matter what's going on in your life

right now, no matter what happening in your life, you

are as happy as you choose to be. You are

as happy as you choose to be. You can't blame

anybody else or your unhappiness. And regardless of the pain,

regardless of pressure, regardless of other people, and regardless of

problems in your life, you are as happy as you

choose to be. One of the most common mistakes we

make in life is what I call when and then thinking,

when I get this, then I'll be happy. When something

happens the way I want it to happen, Then I'll

be happy when I get out of school, then I'll

be happy when I get a man in my life

life or a woman. Then I'll be happy when I

get a job or a promotion when I retire. But

you could fill it in with a million things when

and then, thinking in Paul's case, it could have been

when I get out of prison, then I'll be happy.

But the truth is this, if you don't know how

to choose happiness right now in spite of your circumstances,

there's going to be pains and pressures and people and

problems to blame for your unhappiness for the rest of

your life, and you're never really going to be happy

long term. Now, let me explain the background of today's text,

which is Philippians Chapter one. In the previous four years

of Paul's life before he wrote this chapter we're gonna

look at today, in the last four years, Paul had

spent two years in jail in Cesarea on false charges,

false charges. Two years in jail, then he was shipwrecked

while he was sailing to Rome for another trial under Nero,

who was the Caesar at that time. Then in that shipwreck,

he was stranded on a desert island for a while

and actually got bitten by a poisonous snake. And then

when he finally got to Rome, he was imprisoned again

in Rome for two years in a deep, dank, dark

dungeon with a twenty four hour guard chained to him.

Paul had every reason to be unhappy, every reason to

be bitter, every reason to be resentful or fearful or depressed.

He had the right to hold a pity party, but instead,

in that dark, dank prison, Paul wrote the most positive

book in the Bible.

Philippians, you're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick 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.

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what on earth are you here for? Astor Rick says

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and in his best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life,

he lays out an easy to follow roadmap for your

spiritual journey, a journey that will transform your life. As

you go through this book, you'll discover that real meaning

and significance come from understanding and fulfilling God's purpose for

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

In Philippians chapter one, verses twelve to thirty. Paul, who's

writing from prison, models four principles for being happy no

matter what happens in your life. This is a very

practical message. I hope you'll take notes on this. I

want you to see the four choices that Paul made

so you can make these same choices too. Again, you're

as happy as you choose to be, all right, So

here's here are the four principles, the four choices. First,

I can be happy no matter what happens in my life.

If I choose to write this down, remember God can

bring good out of anything. That's the first choice. I

choose to remember that God can bring good out of anything. Now,

of course, Romans eight twenty eight, that famous versus scripture

in the Bible, says this, we know not we guess.

We know that in all that happens, all that happens,

that's the good, the bad, and the ugly. We know

that all in all that happens, God works for the

good of those who love Him and are called according

to His purpose. Now that verse does not say all

things that happen are good, because they're not. There's a

lot of bad. There's a lot of evil in the world.

But it says in all things that happen, God works

for the good. God works for the good. The good

is not what happens. The good is what God does

with even the bad in our lives. God can bring

good out of bad. Now, we get frustrated and we

get unhappy when we don't see what God sees, when

we don't have his perspective. The truth is God is

working out a plan for your life. And even when

all the circumstances, the people, and the pressures, and the

problem and the pain are not good, God is still

working for good in your life. Now. Knowing this truth

is for instance, why King David years earlier was able

to say in Psalm thirty four, verse one, I will

praise the Lord no matter what happens. I'll praise the Lord,

no matter what happens. Can you say that you see

circle the word will. I will will means a decision,

will means a choice, will means you had an option.

It's not it's I can decide. It's a decis I

will praise the Lord no matter what happens. David made

a choice. It was a decision. Now, how do you

do that? How do you consistently make that decision to

praise God even in bad circumstances, by learning to look

at everything from God's perspective, not your own. Let me

say that again. The way you make this first choice

is by learning to look at everything in your life

from God's viewpoint, God's perspective, not my own. It's a

life skill you're going to have to learn if you

want to be happy no matter what happens in your life.

Now listen closely. You must choose to look at every

situation in your life from God's viewpoint. That's called wisdom.

Happy people have a larger perspective. Happy people see a

bigger picture. They look past the pain, the people, the problems,

and the pressure, and they see a bigger picture. What

is the bigger picture? Roman's eight twenty eight That we

know that no matter what happens, God is working for

good in our lives. Let me show you Paul's example

of this principle. It's verse twelve of Philippians, Chapter one.

Paul says this, I want you to know, dear brothers

and sisters, that everything circle that word everything, all what

had happened in the past four years. That I told

you about everything that has happened to me has helped

to spread the good news. That's a whole different perspective

rather than the pity party, say God is using this

for good. Let me explain you. See, Paul had dreamed

for many, many years of sharing Christ in the center

of the empire. At that time that Rome was the empire.

It was the Roman Empire. And I'm sure his idea was,

let's go to Rome, rent the Colosseum, have a harvest

crusade every night with Paul preaching. That was his idea.

I've taken the message and getting it spread all through

the Roman Empire. God's idea was to make him a

royal prisoner of Nero. Nero was the emperor at that time. Now,

as a royal prisoner, he had an opportunity to share

Christ with many key people that even other prisoners wouldn't

be able to do. He's chained. He's not only in

a Roman prison, He's chained twenty four hours a day

to a palace guard. What's the palace guard? They were

the elite, handpicked security agents of Caesar and they guarded

prisoners in four hour shifts. Now follow me on the

math of this. Paul was in prison in Rome for

over two years. He's chained to an elite, handpicked crack

agent guard every four hours. That means over two years,

there would be four thousand and three, one hundred and

eighty different guards who would be attached to him. What's

going on here? He's dealing with people of influence and

he's got a captive audience, no pun intended. You know,

when I think about this, He's chained to these guards,

nearly five thousand and over four thousand guards. Who's the

real prisoner here? You're chained to Paul, and you are

a captive audience, and he talks to every one of

these guys about the Lord. The Bible tells us that

there were two results of this. In chapter four of Philippiings,

it tells us that some of Nero's own family had

come to christ. Did you know that some of Nero's

own family had become Christians? Because Paul is witnessing to

the prison or the royal guards. You might call that

a chain reaction because he's chained to these guards Paul

is for That's the first benefit. Second benefit is this

instead of Paul going out and preaching in the coliseum,

Paul was forced to sit still in his prison cell.

And you know what he did during all that two

years He wrote the New Testament, over half the New

Testament or letters of Paul to different churches, including this one,

to the people in Philippi. And so he's writing the

New Testament and the expenses are paid by Nero. Now

I write this down. Face every situation with faith, not fear.

If I want to be happy, I must face every situation,

whether it's people, pain, problems, or pressures. Face every situation

with faith, not fear. Get the bigger perspective. Learn to

see your problems, your pains, your pressures, the people in

your life from God's point of view, not just your own. Now,

before we go to the second principle, I want to

practice this first one. So I want you to bow

your head right now. Okay, you can pull over to

the side of the road if you're driving. Don't bow

your head while you're driving. Pull over the side of

the road. And here's the first thing I want you

to do. Think of a situation that you're facing right

now that is either scaring you or it's causing you unhappiness.

Think of a situation in your life that's either scaring

you or it's causing unhappiness. Now, I want you to

say this in a prayer to God. Say God, just

say that, God, help me, help me to see this

from your perspective. Help me to see this from your

perspective this situation. Help me to face this problem with

faith not fear. Amen. Amen, Now what you just did

is the first step to perpetual happiness anytime, by the way,

you face a situation in faith rather than in fear,

and you trust that God knows what he's doing, and

you remember that he's working out his plan. Two things

happen when you face your problems with faith not fear. First,

it's a witness to unbelievers every time you have faith

instead of fear. Verse thirteen Philippians, Chapter one says this,

Paul says for everybody here he's talking about in the prison.

Everyone here, including all the soldiers in the palace guard

knows that I'm in chains because of Christ. Okay. So

it's a witness to unbelievers. When you act in faith

towards your problems rather than in fear, it's a witness

to unbelievers. It's also number two and encouragement to other believers.

It's an encouragement to believers. Verse fourteen. He says this,

and by the way, because of my imprisonment, many of

the Christians here, the believers here, have gained confidence. They

become bolder, and they've become more bold in telling others

about Christ. Any time you react to the pain, pressures, problems,

are people in your life from god'spective than your own,

it's going to be a witness to unbelievers, and it's

going to be an encouragement to believers. You know, when

our youngest child, Matthew died and took his life during

a period of great mental illness, Kay and I noticed

that both of these things happened with us because we

saw God's perspective and we faced this horrible crisis in

our lives with faith not fear, and as a result,

we were able to witness to millions of unbelievers. For instance,

being on the cover of People magazine and doing a

one hour interview on CNN and a lot of other things.

We were able to witness to millions of unbelievers, and

we were able to courage and even still today encouraging

many believers who are struggling with mental health issues in

their family or personally, or thoughts of suicide. So the

first thing I do if I want to always be happy,

regardless of the circumstances, how to be happy in spite

of whatever happens. I remember that God can bring good

out of bed. Here's the second thing. I can be

happy no matter what happens in my life if I

choose to do this. Number two, never let others control

my attitude. Never let others, either by their words or

by their actions, control my attitude. They can't control you

unless you allow them to control you by their words

or by their actions. Now, while Paul was in prison,

there were people who criticized his ministry. While he's down,

they're kicking him all he's down. They slandered Paul, they

judged Paul, they criticized me. There were those who were

his friends, who supported his ministry, they were companions and friends.

There were those who competed with his ministry while he's

in prison, taking advantage that he's off out of circulation.

And there were those who undermined his ministry. They actually

attacked him and tried to destroy him while he was

in prison. And if Philippians Chapter one, the next couple

of verses, Verses fifteen sixteen to seventeen, Paul describes four

kinds of people. Three of these four kinds of people

are killed, joyce, and guess what. You're going to have

all four of these hope in your life. Hopefully're gonna

have companions. But there are critics, there are companions, there

are competitors, and there are challengers. You're going to have

all four of these in your life, and if you

don't know how to deal with them, you're not going

to be happy much of your life. Verse and verse

fifteen Paul had critics, and he said, it's true that

some people preach Christ because they're jealous of us, and

they like to argue. They're jealous of us. They like

to argue. You know the word they're eras in Greek

means they love to argue. They love conflict, They enjoy

creating controversy. These people hang out on social media. They're contentious,

they're divisive, they're critical, they love conflict. They they love

debate people in the controversy. They're on social media all

the time. They've ever heard a preacher on the radio

or the television like that, He bates everybody by being

provocative and being critical of somebody else. Ever read a

blogger or someone in social media like that.

You're listening to 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 in this ministry, just

visit Pastororick dot com where you can listen online anytime.

That's pastorick dot com, and be sure to sign up

for Rick's free daily email devotional. While you're there. Rick

will be back to close out our time today. But first,

do you ever wonder if your life really matters? Or

what on earth am I here for? Pastor Rick says

God has a good plan and purpose for your life,

and in his best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life,

he lays out an easy to follow roadmap for your

spiritual journey, a journey that will transform your life. Here's

Pastor Rick to tell you more.

One of the things that I've discovered is that everybody

eventually asks the questions of significance. Why am I here?

And what is my purpose? What on earth am I

here for? That's why I wrote the book Purpose Driven Life,

because I wanted to help people like you understand how

God created us for five eternal purposes. The Bible says

that long before we heard of Christ, he had his

eye on us, had his designs on us for glorious living.

That it was part of his overall purpose that he's

working out in everything and everyone. God has never made

a person that he doesn't have a purpose for. You know,

that simple message needs to be shared with a whole

new generation. A young girl who was twelve years old

when I wrote Purpose Driven Life is now twenty two,

and she needs to hear this essential message that God

has a plan, has a purpose, and has a reason

for everything that happens in our lives. So I've updated

the Purpose Driven Life. And what I did is, after

reading hundreds of thousands of comments that have come into

me over the past decade, I've added two new chapters

that'll help you handle the two most common problems and

barriers to living a life of purpose. Now I want

you to have this newly revised, expanded copy of Purpose

Driven Life. I think you'll find that it's a fresh reminder

of things that you may have forgotten when you first

read it. Or you might want to give the book

to somebody who has never read and is struggling to

find their purpose.

Get your special edition of The Purpose Driven Life with

a beautiful leather cover today as a thank you for

your gift to help take the hope of Jesus to

people around the world through Daily Hope. Quantities are very limited,

so act quickly. Go to pastorick dot com right now

to get your copy. That's pastorick dot com, or you

can call eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

That's eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Thank

you so much for your support, and 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.