Rick Warren - How to Get Closer to God Part Two

Hi, everybody.

This is Pastor Rick Warren, Kay and I and our

family and all of our staff here at Daily Hope

want to wish you and your family a very 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, before we get started, we want to

let you know that a very generous friend has given

one hundred thousand dollars matching grant to Daily Hope. That

means that all this month, every dollar you give to

help Daily Hope share the hope of Jesus around the

world will be matched up to one hundred thousand dollars.

You can find out more by going to Pastorick dot

com or by texting the word Daily to eight hundred,

six hundred five thousand and four. Here's Pastor Rick Warren

with part two of a message called how to Get

Closer to God.

Now, I don't know where you are today. You may

be way way way way way way, way, way way

far away. Maybe I've been at church in years and

years and years, or maybe you a little bit closer,

or maybe you're a little bit closer, but maybe even

you've just been distant for a week and you've had

one of those weeks and you just thought, you know,

I really don't feel God's presence in my life, and

yet we all long to be closer to God. How

do I get back to him? You do these four things? Okay,

write him down. This is the pathway back to spiritual transformation.

Number one.

I get fed up. That's the first. I get fed

up with my life. I get fed up with my circumstance.

I get fed up with the way I've been living.

I just get sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I am not going to live this way anymore. I

am too stressed out, I'm too lonely, I'm too depressed.

I am overworked and busy, and I don't even like myself.

Why would anybody like me? I don't even like me.

I don't like the life I'm living right now.

Now.

Let me just say this, Nothing is going to happen

in your life in the next seven weeks until first

you get dissatisfied with the way you are. If you think, man,

it's fine, I'm just fine, I don't need any change

in my life, then you know what, you can sit

out the next seven weeks because nothing's going to happen

in your life until you decide I don't like this.

I'm tired of being stressed out all the time. I'm

tired of being frustrated all the time. I'm tired of

being overworked all the time. I'm tired of feeling distant

from God. You got to get desperate, you got to

get hungry. You've got to get anxious for change. Nothing

happens until you get fed up. In that passage in scripture,

it says this, he wasted it all, he had nothing left.

He got desperate and hungry, and he finally came to

his senses, and that's where transformation starts. Are you there yet?

If not, it's okay, God I'll just leave. Let you

stay there, and he'll allow a little rain in your life.

And if that doesn't work, he'll allow a little bit

more in your life. And if that doesn't work, he'll

send a storm. Why because God loves you. Just that's

the way you are. But He loves you too much

to let you stay that way. He will not let

you waste your life. And when God, you know, wants

to come and get our attention, he comes, and he

he knocks on the door, and if we ignore it,

he just knocks on the door again. And then if

he we ignored, he knocks on the door again, and

if we ignored, he blows the door down. Some of

you have had the door blown down in your life

and you lost your job, or you lost your marriage,

or you lost a friend, you lost something.

Why.

Because God does everything he does in your life out

of love. He does not want you to miss him,

and he does not want you to waste your life.

You know the old phrase, you can lead a horse

to water, but you can't make him drink, But you

can salt his oats make him thirsty. God often makes

you thirsty by putting salt in your oats. And when

you start saying, I'm just so unsatisfied with my life,

I just don't like the way I'm living.

I don't like this.

Hello, that's God knocking on your door. The first step

in transformation is for you to get disgusted to get discontent,

to get fed up with the way you're living. Jeremiah

twenty nine, Verse thirteen says this, God says, you will

find me when you get serious about finding me, and

you want it more than anything else. See, God's not

got to reveal himself if I just kind of want

to do it on the casual, it's kind of a

part time hobby. I gotta get fed up with the

way I'm living. Say, there's got to be more to

life than this. There's got to be a better way

to than this. There's got to be a saner way

to live than this. You get fed up. Second step,

you own up first. I get fed up. Second, I

own up. I own up to my own sin. I

own up to my own sin. That's the second thing

that this young man did. First he got fed up.

But then in verse seventeen and eighteen, it says when

he came to his senses circle that he goes, this

is nuts, this is nonsense, this is crazy. I can't

maintain this lifestyle I've been living right now. It's just

not sustainable. It's not fulfilling, and it's not sustainable. When

he came to his senses and that is you know,

he wakes up. You see, to live without God is insane.

To live without God does not make sense. To live

without God is not rational. To live without the creator

who made you is not logical. It doesn't make sense.

When he came to his senses, he said, I have

sinned against God and you, and nothing's going to happen

till you come to stage two, and stage two as

you go, all right, I just need to own up here.

I need to face up to the fact that I

have been not living God's way. I've been living my way.

I've been doing it my way. I've been doing it

the way I think is best. I've been doing it

the way that protects all my fears. I've been doing

it the way that tries to control everything around me.

Even though I know I can't control it, I'm still

trying to control it all. And I'm getting tired of

holding onto all of the controls. I'm about ready to

resign as general manager of the universe because I've noticed

it isn't cooperating with me.

Thank you so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

We've got some incredible news to share with you. A

very generous friend has given a one hundred thousand dollars

matching grant to this ministry all this month, every dollar

you give to help Daily Hope share the certain hope

of Jesus around the world will be matched up to

one hundred thousand dollars, So twenty five dollars becomes fifty dollars,

fifty becomes one hundred and five hundred becomes a thousand.

Whatever you give will be doubled by the matching grant

up to one hundred thousand dollars, but only till midnight

December thirty first, so please contact us today go to

Pastorick dot com or just call eight hundred six hundred

five thousand and four.

If you want to make your time in prayer the

best it can be, then you're going to want to

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Call eight hundred at six hundred five zero zero four

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Once again, here's Rick.

To live without God is not rational. To live without

the creator who made you is not logical, it doesn't

make sense. When he came to his senses, he said,

I have sinned against God and you, and nothing's going

to happen till you come to stage two.

And stage two is you go? All right? I just

need to own up here.

I need to face up to the fact that I

have been not living God's way. I've been living my way.

I've been doing it my way. I've been doing it

the way I think is best. I've been doing it

the way that protects all my fears. I've been doing

it the way that tries to control everything around me.

Even though I know I can't control it, I'm still

trying to control it all. And I'm getting tired of

holding onto all of the controls. I'm about ready to

resign as general manager of the universe because I've noticed

it isn't cooperating with me, and so I own up.

And what do I own up to? I own up

to my sin.

When he came to his senses, he said, I have sinned.

Now.

In Isaiah fifty nine, verse two, there on your outline,

the Bible says this, it's your sins. Your sins have

separated you from your God and have hidden his face

from you. Have you ever prayed and you felt like

God was a million miles away? Have you ever prayed

and felt like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.

Have you ever prayed and felt like there's just like

this veil between me and God. I can't see God,

I can't hear God, I can't feel God, and I

feel like I'm just talking to myself. Where does that

come from? Your sins have separated you from your God

and have hidden his face from you. That's where it

comes from. It comes from your sin. I sent out

on a Facebook and Twitter. I said, if you feel

far from God, guess who moved. God hasn't moved. God

didn't move. God didn't go on vacation. God didn't move

away to a foreign country. God has always been there

and he has never not been there, and he loves

you unconditionally. But if you feel far from God, you're

the one who moved, and you moved away by giving

your love to something else. When you give anything else

your love, there's a word for that in the Bible.

It's called an idol. Now, we think idols are like

these little stone things that people bow down to. In words, no, no, no, no, no.

An idol can look like your car. An idol can

look like your job, and I could be a dress.

An idle could be the way you look. Anything that

you love more than God becomes an idol. The First

and second commandments say, thou shalt have no other gods

afore me. Thou shalt not make any false idols. Money

can be an idol. Success can be an idol. Golf

can be an idol. These are not bad things, they're

just not deserving the first place in your life. So

I own up to my sin. Your sins have separated

you from your God.

The fact is.

This, You're as close to God as you choose to be.

You can't really blame anybody else. You can't blame your husband.

You can't blame your wife. You can't blame your mom,

your dad, the brother. You can't blame the government. You

can't blame other people. I said last week, you spell blame,

be lame, and that's being lame when you blame other

people for.

Your spiritual condition.

Well, if my husband were a more dedicated believer, really,

well if my girlfriend was more on fire for Christ. Really,

you are as close to God as you choose to be.

And the fact is you haven't been desperate. You haven't

been fed up enough to say I am desperate.

To know God.

If I were to hold you underwater, you would struggle.

But when you really started running out of breath, you

would really struggle because you would be desperate for air.

When you're that desperate, you don't just get fed up.

You own up and you say I've got to know God.

You're as close to God as you choose to be. Now,

when I own up and I say, God, I've owned it.

I've been going my way. I've been I've been doing

your way. I've been going my way. I've been doing

what I want to do. When I do that, what

is God's response to my facing up to my sin?

He goes, Yeah, Yeah, let me tell you what else

you're doing wrong. No, he doesn't rub it in. When

I come and I say, God, I've really you know,

you know what I've done, I'm really sorry, what does

he do?

Well?

Look at the next verse. Here's the prayer you should pray,

Psalm fifty one. By the way, David prayed this prayer

after he'd committed adultery and killed a wife's husband. So

this is a pretty serious sin here, So I'm fifty

one to one to four. David says, this be merciful

to me, Oh God, because of your constant love, because

of your great mercy, wipe away my sin, Wash away

all my evil and make me clean. I recognize my faults,

and I'm conscious that I have sinned against you. What's

your circle of phrase? Recognize my faults. That means to

own up. I face up to my sins. I own

up to my sins.

He says.

I recognize my fault. And what is God's response when

I own up? When I face up? Look at the

next verse. The Lord says, no matter how deep the

stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can

make you clean as freshly driven snow.

Not a beautiful verse.

He says, no matter what you've done, no matter who

you've done it with, I can remove it. This is

the uh, this is the oxy clean verse of the Bible. Okay,

he said, Man, I can take it out. You know

that stain anything. Man, I'm never gonna forget that one

bad and that was so bad and it's gonna haunt

me the rest of my life. God says, I can

remove that stain. This is the stain Remover verse in

the Bible. Now, this next week, you're going to seven

habits for spiritual growth, but I want to give you

two more today. Okay, I'm going to give you two more.

You're going to study seven habits for spiritual health and

spiritual growth, but let me give you two more. And

the first one goes to this point, and it's this

is you want to develop the habit of a regular

spiritual checkup. Now, doctors will tell you that every so

often you need to go and get a checkup, and

you need to have your heart checked every so often,

and you had need to have your.

Colon checked every so often. That's a fun one.

Anybody want to give a testimony on that right now? Okay,

anybody have personal story from this week? Yeah, okay, But

you have to get regular checkups quiet because if something's

growing wrong in your body, you want to know sooneror

not later. Right And the same is true with your

your life. If sin starts growing and you it can

become a cancer, it's better to nip it in the bud,

like Barney Fife would say, before it gets really big.

You gotta do this spiritual checkup on a regular basis

and where do you do it? You do it in

your thought life. It's a checkup from the neck up,

and you got to think about your thoughts.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. In just a moment,

Rick is going to tell you about a recent one

hundred thousand dollars matching grant from a very generous listener.

But first he's going to share with us how God

has been using your financial gifts to help us share

Christ with people around the world.

Here's Rick, Hi, friends, what did it surprise you to

know that there are entire groups of people who have

never heard about Jesus still in our world today. I'm

talking about the small tribes of less than a one

hundred thousand people in many, many distant places who have

never heard the name of Jesus Christ. That means there's

not a single Christian among them. There is no church,

they have no Bible, there is no believer. Can you

imagine that? Would you help me reach these unreached, unengaged people?

You know, one of the reasons I started Daily Hope

was to find partners who would help us take the

hope of the good News of the Gospel to the

whole world. To the final frontier, these unreached, unengaged tribes.

Jesus wants us to witness to all nations and to

all people. He never made a person he didn't love,

he never made a person he didn't want saved.

And Jesus died so that all may be saved.

But people can't follow Jesus if they've never heard about him,

and they've never heard of God's grace, how can they

receive it? So I'm asking you to help me in

this Finishing the Task project. Thank you for your support.

You know, Daily Hope is now reaching over thirty four

million people each month through Daily Hope audio teachings and

our email devotionals. But we're only able to do this

because of your partnership with Daily Hope. We're working together

to help us fulfill the great commission. Imagine when you

get to heaven, somebody comes up to you and says,

I just want to thank you. I'm here because you

cared enough for someone like me. You prayed and you gave,

and you shared, and you sacrificed, and I'm in heaven

because of you.

Will that be worth it?

Even as we rejoice in the success, we need to

remember that there's still billions of people.

Who need to know Jesus, and we got to keep going.

So I'm asking you prayerfully to consider giving the biggest

gift you've ever given, or that you can give before

the end of this year. As I said, there's still

about three thousand unreached people groups that have either few

or no believers in them. We've been able to reach

about six hundred of those tribes, making sure there's a

Christian living among them who speaks their language and can

help them understand the Bible.

But that's just the first step.

The truth is an unreached people group isn't considered reached

until it has a healthy church, a body of Christ

that's able to plant new churches within that group. So

to help that happen, we're working on translating spiritual growth

tools into about two hundred new languages for people who

have virtually no Christian resources available. Think of all the

Christian books you could buy at Christmas this year, Think

of all the books you could pass on at birthdays.

These are so.

Available in English, but we need to translate them in

all the other languages. These translations are strategic that we've

selected once to share the gospel and to help disciple

new believers where it is most needed right now. Now,

these resources are also going to help young pastors grow

and train others to build the church in their nations

and in their groups. Now, we made a lot of

good progress, but we got a lot of work ahead

of us in this task. And it is a monumental vision.

I can't do this by myself. I need your help.

It's a timely vision, it's a global vision. But every

vision Listen requires provision. Honestly, we wouldn't be able to

do any of this vision without you, and that's why

I cannot fully express how much I appreciate your financial

support of Daily Hope.

You know, I don't take a salary in this.

This is all a ministry of love, and all of

these funds are going to help reach more people. Now,

let me give you some exciting news. A generous friend

of Daily Hope has offered a one hundred thousand dollars

matching grant so that any gift you give by December

thirty first this year will be doubled up to one

hundred thousand dollars. That means every dollar you give the

Daily Hope between now and the end of the year

will be doubled. Would you please prayerfully consider how you

can give today, how you can reach more people for

Jesus in the coming year, And please, while you're at it,

pray that I will faithfully teach God's word in a

way that will penetrate hearts. Pray for our Daily Hope

team as they coordinate our outreach, and most of all,

pray for the people we're trying to reach, that their

hearts will be prepared to hear the message of the

good News of Christ, and that they will come to

know the grace of God and grow and mature in

their Christian faith. You have a part of the most

important task in history.

Now.

My prayer for you.

Is that God's going to bless you throughout this coming year,

and that He will bless you so much that you

can be a blessing to others. You know we're blessed

to be a blessing, and my prayers that He will

draw you closer and closer to Him. God bless you.

Remember, as Rick just shared, whatever you give today will

be doubled by the matching grant up to one hundred

thousand dollars, but only till midnight tonight. Anything not matched

will be lost, so please contact us today call eight

hundred six hundred five thousand four or go to Pastorick

dot com. That's eight hundred six hundred five thousand four

or pastorick dot com. Today is the last day to

have your gift matched up to one hundred thousand dollars,

so don't wait. Be sure to join us again 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.