Rick Warren - How to Get Closer to God Part Three

Hi, this is Pastor Rick Warren and I can't wait

to see what God's going to do through Daily Hope

in this coming new year. Thank you so much for

your support. I love you, I'm praying for you. I

thank God for you. I appreciate you more than words

can say. Have a happy New Year.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series

called Transformed. In these lessons, Rick uncovers key principles found

in God's Word that will completely transform our lives from

the inside out in every area including spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial,

and vocational. Now, if you can improve in any of

these areas I just mentioned, stay with us, because in

just a few moments we're going to let you know

how you can have your very own Transformed study kit

from Pastor Rick, which includes a seven session DVD and workbook.

You can take a sneak peek right now by going

to pastor Rick dot com while you listen, and if

you want, you can just text the word Daily to

eight hundred, six hundred five thousand and four to find

out more. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the

final part of a message called how to get Closer

to God.

Okay, now, here's the third step to getting back to God,

to getting back in his love and his grace. Not

that he doesn't love you, He always loves you no

matter where you are, but to feeling that love. Here's

a third thing. I get fed up. I own up.

Number three, I offer up. I offer up my life,

I offer up myself, I offer up my total being.

And this is a third thing that we find this

young man did. He got fed up. He came to

a census. He owned up. He says, I've sin against God,

and then.

He offered up. Now.

Notice in Luke chapter fifteen, verse twelve, the son drifted

away saying give me my share. And in Luke fifteen nineteen,

when he comes back, he returned to the father saying,

make me a servant. Do you notice any change in

attitude there? Hello, He leaves saying give me, give me,

give me, give me, give me, give me. He comes

back saying make me. That is transformation. That is true transformation.

When your heart moves from self centeredness to God's sinneredness,

that's transformation. Are you there yet? Are you still in

the gimme, gimme, gim me, give me, gimme. What can

God do for me? Give me my stuff now to

make me your servant. That's the transformation. He returns, saying,

make me. That's a heart transformation, and that is the

greatest transformation of well, from self.

Centered to God's thereness. Are you letting God do that

in you? Now?

That transformation, it doesn't happen overnight. God is still working

on me on this one, and it's gonna be your

entire life. He's gonna work on It's never instant, but

there is a decision that starts the process. Second, during

these three eighteen, says this, we reflect the Lord's glory

and are being transformed. That means a continuing process. We

are being transformed, not just once, but on a ongoing basis.

It's a process.

We're being transformed into His likeness now with ever increasing

glory which comes from the Lord. Was the spirit that

word transformed? You know, the Bible was written the New

Testament in Greek. You know what the word there is

in Greek metamorphouso Does that sound like anything, you know, metamorphosis.

It's the word we get metal. What's the metaphor of morphosis.

It's when a butterfly goes from a caterpillar to a

pupa a chrysalis, and from a pupa a chrysalis into

a butterfly. That's metamorphosis. It hadn't happen overnight. In fact,

there's that stage where it's sitting there in that chrysalis.

It forms that little cocoon. It's pretty ugly. Ever seen

one of those things, doesn't look very beautiful to me,

But when it breaks out, that butterfly is stunning. I

so badly want to be that, and I want you

to be that. I want you to be transformed from

the lowly caterpillar into the beautiful butterfly. That is what

transformation is all about. It is metamorphosis. It is going

from you know, when you're a caterpillar, what can you do?

Not much except munch on leaves ba boom boom boom

boo boom boo boom boo boom boo boom, and you're

stuck on the ground. And I'm sure when caterpillars have

looked in the air, butterflies go. You never get me

up in one of those things. God made you to

be a butterfly. God made you to soar. God made

you to be beautiful, not ugly beautiful. But you've got

to go through the transformation process. And the transformation process

is number one. Get fed up with the way you've

been living, and then own up. Get honest to God. God,

I admit I have been living for myself. I've been

doing it my way, and do that check up, and

then offer up myself. Transformation is a process, but the

starting point is what the prodigal son said.

Make me. That's offer up, make.

Me, transform me, change me.

God.

I don't want to live the rest of my life

the way I'm living right now, Change me. Romans twelve

to one. This is our theme verse. But let me

read you the verse before it. Because God is merciful

to you. Offer yourselves, Offer yourselves. That's it. I offer

up myself. That's step one. I get fed up. Okay,

I own up, and now I offer up. Offer yourselves

as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This

is your spiritual act of worship. And don't be conformed

to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by

the renewing of your mind.

No transfer until you do the offer up.

It's important to notice the father's response Luke fifteen twenty three,

filled with love and compassion. He ran out to his son,

threw his arms around him, and kissed him. He said,

bring the best, bring the best robe, bring the best

bring bring the best shoes, bring the fatted calf. In

all these things the father's response. Notice he didn't wait

for the son to come home while he was still distant.

He ran out the moment you just say, God, I'm

tired of living the way I've been living. God, I'm tired.

He will do more than halfway. He will run out

to meet you. God is not waiting for you to

come knock on the door. He's waiting for this moment

in your life where he runs.

Out to you. He takes an issue.

He throws his arms around you, he kisses you, and

he says, okay, look, I know you blew it.

Go get the best rope, get the best clothes in

the house.

And then he says, go get my signet ring. Do

you know why he says that. You know what a

signet ring is? In those days, the signet ring was

your credit card. Because you take the ring and you

press it into wax, and that was like a credit card.

He said, go get my unlimited Black American Express and

bring it out to my son who just blew half

of my income. God isn't holding the grudge. He's ready

to lavishly pour this on you. Bring out the best,

bring out the best shoes, do all these things. God

has a better plan for your life than you can imagine.

To Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, Rip 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.

Have you ever noticed that the world has ever changing

so called answers to your relationship struggles, solutions to your

financial troubles, and explanations to your search for meaning? But

what the world offers often leaves us empty and searching

for more. The good news is God's Word contains timeless

truths that can transform every area of your life from

the inside out. That's why Pastor Rick created a very

special Bible study called Transformed. In it, he'll help you

discover the key Biblical principles that will completely transform you

by changing the way you think Pastor Rick covers every

area of your life spiritual, phys mental, emotional, relational, financial,

and vocational, filled with weekly lessons, daily devotions and exercises

to help you go deeper in God's Word. This seven

week DVD and workbook study is perfect to do on

your own or with a small group of friends. We'll

send you the Transformed Study kid as our way of

saying thanks when you give a gift to Daily Hope

to help take the certain Hope of Jesus to people

around the world. To get your copy of this great resource,

call eight hundred six hundred five zero zero four or

go to Pastorick dot com. That's eight hundred six hundred

five zero zero four or Pastorick dot com.

Hi, it's Pastor Rick with some big news. My daily

devotional is now available in French. If you know somebody

who would enjoy reading the devotionals in French, would you

please email me and I'll send you a link to

sign up. My email is Rick at Pastorick dot com.

That's Rick at Pastorick dot com. Once again, here's Rick.

How do I get back to God?

I get fed up, I own up, and I offer up.

And then there's one other thing I do. Once I

come home and I'm entrapped in God's love, and he

hugs me and he kisses me, and he says, bring

out the best. All is forgiven, All is forgiven. Go

get the credit card, Go get the rope, Go get

the shoes. Let's let's have a barbecue. Get that fatted calf,

and we're gonna have Lucille's barbecue tonight. Okay, and we're

giving him the ribs, all right, and it's gonna be great.

It's gonna be finger licking good time.

All right.

Here we go, and in that celebration, you now come home.

Not to condemnate, you come back to God in celebration.

Here's the fourth thing. I lift up my praise.

And I just go, thank you God, thank you for

your grace, thank you for your love, thank you for

your goodness. I lift up my praise. Luke fifteen, here's

what the father says. We're gonna celebrate. We're gonna celebrate

with a feast of eating and drinking. We're gonna celebrate

with a feast of eating and drinking. He was lost,

but now is found. So the party begins and life

becomes a party. When life comes to transformation. The Bible

says in Psalm sixty eighty four, sing to God, sing

praises to his name.

Lift up.

There's that word, lift up my praises, lift up a

song to him. His name is the Lord. Now let

me just tell you something for your own transformation. You

need to start singing at church. Some of you just said,

I'm just coming to hear rick. I had a psychologist

friend who anytime somebody came to see him for depression,

his first question was, did you sing all of the

songs at church last week? And if they said no,

he said, then I want you to go and I

want you to sing all the songs at church for

the next three weeks and come back and see me.

I never really understood why he was doing that until

this week a global study came out done by Swedish

researchers and that they've done this scientific study. It concluded

that the habit of group singing, not singing by yourself.

The habit of group singing is good for your health.

It is great therapy to sing with other people. It's

good for mental health. They prove it's good for your

emotional health, it's good for your social health and it's

good for your physical health in all different areas and

extensive study and they discovered that singing with other people

lowers your blood pressure, releases endorphins which makes you feel good,

improves your mood, build your confidence, relieves loneliness, releases negative

emotions and stress, and creates positive study emotions. Another study

showed that people who sing and worship each week live longer.

I want you to live longer.

Now.

It referred to this book. So I went out and

bought this book this week. It's called Imperfect Harmony, Finding

Happiness in Singing with others. It's fascinating study that these

guys have done on this. So we're going to do

something good for your health right now. You're going to

live a little bit longer. I told you I was

going to give you two new habits. One of them

is the habit of a regular checkup. And here's the

other habit. I want you to intentionally start singing all

the songs, even the ones you don't know, even the

ones you don't like, even the ones you think are

too loud, even the ones that's not your style. I

want you to sing them because it will lower your

blood pressure release endorphins, improved mood, build confidence, relieve loneliness,

re meets making emotion of stress, and create posmotion. That's

called transformation. Now the Father celebrated. He had a celebration,

not a condemnation, a celebration. When the sun came back home.

I'm fed up and I'm owning up, and I'm going

to offer up. And now I lift up my praise

and we're going to party, and we're going to celebrate,

and we're going to sing. One Corinthians eleven twenty four

says this, On the night he was betrayed, the Lord

Jesus took bread, and he spoke a prayer of thanksgiving,

and he broke the bread, and he said, this is

my body, which is given for you. Do this to

remember me. He said, I never want you to forget

how much I love you. So I'm going to give

you two symbols to remember my death, my burial, and

my resurrection. And those two symbols are baptism and the

Lord's supper. If you haven't been baptized, you should be baptized.

It's one of the ways of saying I have come home.

I'm getting close to God. I'm coming home and baptism

is one and the Lord's Supper is the other.

Now it says he.

Prayed a prayer of thanksgiving before he served communion. The

word thanksgiving in Greek is the word EUCHARISTO you ever

heard the word eucharist. The Lord's supper communion is often

called Eucharist. Where is that word from? It's from. Eucharist

is simply the Greek word for thanksgiving. And when we

take the Lord's Supper, when we take the Eucharist, when

we take communion, we are saying thank you God, Thank

you God for not coming and condemning me when I

come home, but having a celebration when I come home.

Thank you for your grace, thank you for your mercy,

thank you for what you've done, thank you for all

the things that you've done. I receive it with thanks. EUCHARISTO.

I am so grateful God for your grace. I am

so grateful for your love. I am so grateful that

you don't scold me, you save me, that you don't

scare me, you save me. And I am so grateful

as I take these elements to remember what you have

done for me. And just as they had the fatted calf,

we take communion together to say, Lord, thank you. We

receive this with thanksgiving. Let's bow our heads for prayer.

Father.

When we think of your grace, we are overwhelmed. It

makes our hearts want to sing. There's no way that

we deserve this kind of reaction, this kind of celebration,

this kind of welcoming when we come home. But we

come to you, and first we say we're fed up.

We're fed up with the way we've been living. We're

fed up of life without Christ. We're fed up with

doing it all on our own power. We're just fed

up with all of that. And we own up. We

realize that you haven't moved, but we have. And the

reason we're not close is because we've allowed other things

to cloud our vision of you. We have allowed idols

in our lives. We have loved other things more than you,

and that has made you feel distant. But we come

back and we we own up to our sin, and

then we offer up ourselves. We're not saying give me,

give me, give me anymore. We're saying, make me, make me,

make me Lord, transform our lives during these fifty days.

If you've never accepted jesus gift of salvation. Say Jesus Christ,

right now, I accept your gift of salvation. Thank you

for loving me and dying for me on the cross.

I give myself back to you. I offer up myself

to you, make me your servant, and I ask you

to transform my life in your name.

I pray Jesus. 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. We're so thankful that

you've chosen to spend some time with us. If you've

missed any part of this broadcast, including portions we didn't

have time for today, just go to pastor Rick dot

com and listen online. Anytime. Rick will be back to

close out time today. But first, you know the world

is shouting for our attention with answers to our relationship struggles,

solutions to our financial troubles, and explanations to our search

for meaning. But the world's promises leave us empty and

searching for more. God's word contains the only answers that

promise to transform your life from the inside out. That's

why Pastor Rick has put together the Transformed Study Kit,

which includes a vegan, leatherbound interactive workbook and a seven

video session DVD. Right now, here's Pastor Rick to tell

you more.

During this series on transformation, we've been talking about seven

key areas of your life spiritual health, physical health, mental health.

We've talked about emotional health, your relational health, your financial health,

even your vocational your career health. God cares about every

one of these areas in your life.

Did you know?

He wants to bless each of these areas And He's

given us principles and steps in his words for living healthy,

fulfilled lives, not for our happiness alone, but ultimately for

God's glory, for his happiness, for his joy. God enjoys

watching his children be effective in life. Now the truth is,

we can't change or transform these areas on our own.

We have to start trusting God to create the changes

within us. The Bible teaches that the closer we get

to God, the more our lives will be transformed. And

in Jeremiah twenty nine thirteen, God says, you'll find me

when you get serious about finding me and want it

more than anything else. So I want you, and I

want me and all of us to get serious about

discovering God's wisdom and allowing him to transform our lives.

Imagine the difference the world would be if lives were

really true transformed by the grace of God. Now, it's

always been my goal here at Daily Hope not just

to show you what God says to do and how

to do it, but to supply you with practical tools

for doing it on a daily basis. So I've created

a special Transformed Bible study Kit. Now in this kit,

there are a number of resources that I want you

to have. First, seven lessons on DVD that help you

go deeper and explore what the Bible has to say

about each of these seven key areas of your life.

And then there's a two hundred and twenty five page

workbook filled with tools for personal evaluation, goal setting, daily devotions,

versus to memorize, a place to take notes and journal

information about additional resources. This study kit can be used

not just in your personal life, but as a small

group study guide with your friends. I want to send

the Transformation Bible Study Kit to you as my gift

to tell you how much I love you and to

say thanks for your financial support of Daily Hope. If

you can give any kind of financial support to keep

this broadcast expanding throughout the world to share the message

of hope of God's Word, I want you to have

the Transformed Bible Study Kit when you give to Daily Hope.

It helps us share the message around the world in

places where there are no Bibles, no bodies of Christ,

and no believers. I want you to know that I

love you, and I thank God for you, and I

hope you'll join me next time as we continue to

look into God's Word for our daily hope.

To get your copy of this great resource, call eight

hundred six hundred five thousand and four or go to

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Daily Hope and your generous financial support