Rick Warren - Following God's Directions—Part Two

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

of Pastor Rick Warren. Well, today we continue in our

series called fifty Days of Faith. In these lessons, Rick

looks into God's word to discover the true meaning of

faith and explore ways we can strengthen it. But first, today,

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Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part

of a message called following God's Directions.

God cares about details.

Have you ever looked at nature?

You pick up a little flower and look at the

intricacies inside that flower. God cares about details. The Bible

says every hair on your head is numbered by God.

God cares about details. Now, because God is a God

of detail, he is infinitely interested in every detail of

your life, and he is infinitely interested that when you

obey him, you don't just obey him, but why you

obey him, and how you obey him? Are you doing

it in the right way and for the right reason.

Let me give you an example. Now I'm not saying

this is true, but let's just imagine. My wife Kay

says Rick, I want you to move Joshua's double bed

from upstairs downstairs in our house, but wait until Matthew

comes home from school so he can help you to

get it down the stairs. And I think, you know,

I can do this on my own. I you know,

I'm bacho and I don't want to wait. And so

I get the beds, you know, the box springs, and

the mattress and this huge you know frame and everything,

and I start scooting it down the stairs by myself.

But because I can't get it all away by myself,

I start scratching the wall and knocking paint chips off

and putting things in the plaster and knocking off all

kinds of you know, uh, pictures on the wall. And

I get it to the bottom of the stairs.

And she's upset.

Now I'm not saying this is a true story, but

in this hypothetical situation, I said, well, you know what's

you know what's what's the big deal? I did what

you add asked me to do. I got it downstairs

and she said yes, but you didn't do it the

way I asked. Now, let me tell you what love is.

Love is when you say, I'll do it the way

you want it done.

That's love.

I will do it the way you want it done

because I love you. And let me tell you what

faith is. Faith is I'll do it the way you

want it done because I trust that you know the

best way to do it. When you love God, and

when you trust God, you say, God, I'll not only

obey you, I'll obey you the way you want me

to do it. When you want me to do it

for the right reason you want me to do it.

I will do it your way because I love you

and I trust you. Faith is trusting God in the

details of life. Look at this next verse Proverbs three

to five. Trust God from the bottom of your heart.

Don't try to figure out everything on your own. One

day there was a man who was ill. His name

was Naming, and he had leprosy. And he came to

Elijah and He said, I'm a very famous man, but

I've got leprosy.

What do I do? And Elijah said, 'h to you?

What?

Just to show your faith, God.

Wants you to go down to the Jordan River and

dunk yourself under it seven times.

And he goes, you gotta be kidding. He said no.

He says, well, it's humiliating. He said, yeah, it's humbling

yourself for God. He goes, there are a lot better rivers,

Jordan rivers, a muddy river.

Just do it.

So he goes down and he starts dunking himself one, two, three, four, five, six.

He's still got leprosy. He had to do it completely.

And on the seventh time he comes up and he

was cured of his leprosy. Special power in the water,

absolutely not. It was because he was obedient to God.

He had faith and he obeyed God completely. You know

what Jesus says. He says, if you trust me in

the details of life, if you are faithful in the

little things, it means you trust me and I will

reward you with bigger things in heaven. If you're faithful

little thinks, you will be faithful and much and you

will have greater responsibility, greater reward and greater joy in

heaven incomplete obedience. Partial obedience is not only disobedience, it's

the lack of trust. This week, I got this letter

through an email. In nineteen ninety, I opened up a

video store as a side business. I decided to carry

adult videos since they make up thirty percent of all

video rentals revenues. But a couple of years ago I

began attending saddleback and one day I told my wife,

how can I ask God to help our store when

I don't do what he wants? I got to get

rid of those adult videos. My business partner cent Are

you crazy? We depend on that income. But I knew

we couldn't expect God's blessing unless I obeyed him, and

so we got rid of him all of them. The

first weekend without the adult video, something strange happened. I

was flooded with new customers, and I didn't know why.

Then everybody told me that you, pastor Rick had told

everyone to come in and rent a video just to

support our decision. Boy did they come. I had to

call all our employees in just to handle the crowds.

I eventually closed that store, but I've never forgotten that

lesson about obeying God even when it doesn't make sense.

My life changed, and I committed to doing whatever God wants.

I was baptized and became a member, and so did

my partner. After we closed that store, I still had

my job in the trash business, which I'd been in

for eighteen years, but our company was bought out and

I was fired.

That was devastating.

An attorney gave me plenty of legal reasons to sue,

but again I knew that I had to obey God

and not seek revenge. It was another test. It was

also a witness to those who saw how I responded.

A few months later, a relative suggested that I start

my own trash business and he'd invest in it. So

I did, and it began growing like wildfire. Then one

day he suddenly needed his money back, so he sold

the company without my knowledge, to my old employer, the

one who had fired me.

I couldn't believe it.

My business was gone, and adding insult to injury, sold.

To the very people who had cheated me.

Once again, I had to step back and think about

why had God allowed this and how he would want

me to respond?

Made no sense. At the moment, But God had a plan.

It ended up with the company who refused to pay

me severance having to pay me way more when they

bought my business. When you do the right thing and

trust God, he takes care of you. Obey God immediately

and completely. Number three, you want the blessing of God

in your life, you must obey God joyfully, joyfully. Psalm

one hundred, verse two says obey him gladly Palone, nineteen sixteen.

I enjoy obeying your commands Someone nineteen forty seven. I

find pleasure in obeying your commands. Why how is it

enjoyable to do what God tells you to do, to

follow the instructions, to obey his command?

How is that enjoyable? Three reasons.

Number One, because I'll have fewer problems if I follow

the instruction manual for life that God the Creator laid out.

It's going to have a whole lot more benefit and

fewer problems in my life.

When you're putting.

Together bicycle, does it help the follow the instructions?

Yeah, 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 pastor Rick dot com.

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The Bible says children are a gift from the Lord.

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God's Big Plans for Me is so much more than

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

If I follow the instruction manual for life that God

the Creator laid out, it's going to have a whole

lot more benefit and fewer problems.

In my life.

When you're putting together or bicycle, does it help to

follow the instructions. Yeah, so you'll have fewer problems in life.

So that makes it enjoyable. Number two, I know I'm

going to be rewarded in heaven and I can see

all those promises that God has made.

And number three, it's.

Enjoyable because I love God. I know what He's done

for me, so I love him and I want to

obey him.

Look at the next verse.

Loving God means doing what he tells us to do.

You know, in marriage, the longer you live together. The

more you know what offends and grieves your your partner,

your husband or your wife. And you don't know that

when you first get married. But the longer you're married,

the more you figure out what will offend that person,

like blowing your nose at the dinner table or leaving

the set up. You know, you learn what offends your partner. Oh,

come on, but if you love that person. The longer

you're married, the less you do those things because you

don't want to offend them.

You love them. You don't want to grieve them. You

love them. When you walk with the Lord.

Through many years, the more you realize what God has

done for you, how good He's been to you, the

less you want to offend God.

You enjoy doing the right thing.

You enjoy keeping his commands, and you do it because

you love God. Do you know how God measures your love?

Not by what you say, Oh, I love you, I

praise you. God measures your love by your obedience, by

how well you follow directions. Jesus said, if you love me,

keep my commandments. That's how we prove our love. Now,

I said earlier, it's better to obey God, even with

the wrong motivation and disobey. But if you do that,

you'll start letting the love develop in your life. If

you want the blessings of God in your life, you

obey him immediately, completely, joyfully.

And continually.

That's the fourth continually because life is not a fifty

yard dash, it's a marathon. And you obey God, not sporadically.

Now this year, not next year, yes, next year, no,

the next year after that, it's all your life.

Look at these verses.

So I'm one, nineteen one twelve, I am determined to

obey you until I die.

Have you made that choice? I have.

I have made the choice that I am determined to

obey God until I die. And the blessings in my

life have been beyond my wildest dream because I am

determined to obey God for the rest.

Of my life.

Look at the next verse. This would be a good

verse for you to put on your refrigerator door. Just

tell me what to do, and I'll do it. Lord,

as long as I live, I'll wholeheartedly obey. Just tell

me what to do, and I'll do it. Make that

your prayer and somebody saying, Rick, why doesn't God tell

me what to do? I've been prayers saying what should

I do in this situation? And I'll tell you why

he hadn't told you, because you're not already doing what

he's already told you to do. God does not play

games where you say, God, tell me what to do

and then I will decide whether to do it or not.

He's not gonna tell you that way.

No, you say, God in advance, I'm telling you I'm

going to do whatever you tell me to do.

That's faith. And then he'll tell you. Why should God

tell you what.

To do in this circumstance that you're worried about when

you're not already doing the things you already know to

be the will of God and you ought to have

done and haven't. Why haven't you already done? Why is

He going to to give you further revelation when you

haven't acted on the truth he's already told you.

Look at the next verse. We must be sure to

obey the truth we have learned.

Already already now the last six weeks, in this fifty

Days of Faith, I've been giving you a lot of

truth about faith.

Have you acted on it? Have you done anything about it?

You see, we kid ourselves thinking if I'm hearing about

faith and just learning and taking notes, then I'm growing. No,

the Bible says, faith without actions is dead. You have

to act on it. It's acting on faith that makes

you grow, not just listening and taking notes. It's doing

something about it. So inside your program, I want you

to pull out this action sheet, the fifty Days of Faith,

putting my faith into action. It is amazing that you

could sit through an entire message on obedience, walk out

and do nothing about it. And yet the Bible says,

notice the verse, so to the top of that page.

Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by actions,

is dead. Now these statements here are what we've talked

about for the last seven weeks. The first week we

talked about faith is expecting the best even when things

don't look good. And then the second week in this series,

we talked about faith is stretching my imagination even when I'm.

Full of doubt. Maybe you need to think bigger.

The third week we talked about faith is taking the

initiative even when I feel like procrastinating. Week five we

talked about faith is persisting even when I feel like

giving up. Last week we talked about faith is giving

my tithe back to God even when I think I

can't afford it. And this week we've talked about faith

is doing whatever God tells me, even when it doesn't

make sense. Now I want you to put it into action.

So I want you to pick one of these things

right now, or maybe two, and write down an action step.

What am I going to do right now?

Ready?

Go write down one action step? Because faith without action

is dead. And while you're writing that down, Pastor Tom

is going to come up and sing a rendition of feelings,

just seeing if you're listening. Okay, go ahead, write down

an action step. I don't care which of these you choose.

Just pick one that God has spoken to you on

that you know He's told you to do something here?

Are you going to do it? Or are you going

to delay?

Now?

Folks, what we're talking about this morning is the most

basic fundamental thing of Christianity. Not everybody who claims to

be a Christian is one. Not everybody who claims to

know Jesus Christ is going to heaven. Look at the

last verse on your outline. It's an issue of obedience.

Matthew seven twenty one. Not all people who sound religious

are really godly. They may refer to me as Lord,

but they still won't enter heaven.

This is Jesus talking.

The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father.

It's all in obedience. Let's bow our heads as we close.

Let me ask you a couple of questions.

What does your obedience to God reveal about your faith

and love? Is your obedience to God immediate or delayed?

Is it complete or is it partial? Well, God won't

care about this one little area. I'm sure it's.

Okay for me to do this.

Is it joyful or is it reluctant? Is it continual

or is it spasmodic? What do you know is the

right thing to do, but you've been putting it off?

Where has your obedience been.

Incomplet when you know it and you haven't done it.

Why don't you pray this prayer in your heart?

Father? There are many areas in my life where I

know what you want me to do. I just haven't

done it, and I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.

Please forgive me for my disobedience. I now realize today

that it was a lack of faith. I wasn't trusting

that you knew best. I ask you Jesus Christ, to

give me the strength to follow your directions immediately, completely, joyfully,

and continually for the rest of my life from this

day forward. And I am going to trust you to

fulfill all these promises in my life.

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. Rick will be right

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