Rick Warren - Winning with the Hand You’re Dealt Part 2

Hello, and thanks for joining us here on Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope. Well today we continue in our series called

God's Prescription for a Healthy Life. In it, Pastor Rick

will show you how to improve your health physically, spiritually,

relationally and emotionally by applying the five essentials needed for.

A more vibrant life.

If you want to have what it takes to live

out your calling in life, stay with us for this

amazing series. Now, in just a few moments, we're going

to tell you about the Daniel Plan DVD study Kit,

a sixth session video based study by Rick Warren, doctor

Daniel Aman, and doctor Mark Hyman. This out of the

box approach to a healthy lifestyle is based on five

essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends. You can find

out more right now by going to Pastorick dot com.

While you listen to today's man or you can just

text the word daily to eight hundred six hundred five

thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com. Or the word

daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick with part two of a

message called winning with the Hand your dealt.

Any artist knows that they'll often create a flaw in

a picture or in a vase or in a piece

of pottery to say, there's nothing else like this in

the world. It has this unique flaw in it. I

collect old bibles. Bibles that have printing mistakes in them

are actually more valuable than those with no mistakes. They

cost far much, far more as an antique. The flaw

creates the uniqueness. Your genes have intentional flaws to create

your uniqueness, and your flaws are a part of your

custom design. And God designed you, and he even uses

those flaws for his purpose and his glory. The Bible

calls them, Paul calls them my thorn in the flesh.

Now we don't actually know what Paul's thorn in the

flesh was. We know some kind of physical or mental disability.

We're not sure a physical or mental disability that Paul

carried all of his life. And Paul says, it forces

me to be dependent upon God. In fact, he told

the Galatians, the people in the city of Galatia or

the Ara Galatia in Greece, this here on the screen

Glatians four thirteen. He says, you remember, you, guys, that

it was because of an illness. It was because of

an illness that I came to you the first time

preaching the good News. God used even an illness to

get the gospel out. And this happened in Paul's life.

And I'm sure the Galatians were glad that Paul got

sick because he ended up going to Glacia for whatever reason,

we don't know why. And while who's there, he taught

the good News and those people say, we're going to

go to heaven. So thank God Paul got sick. The

first characteristic in your life that makes you you is

your biology, your body, your chemistry. Now the second thing

that determines your identity is connections. My connections, my chemistry

and my connections. My connections are my relationships in life.

You are a product of your relationships, especially your early

years relationships. Now, those relationships may have been good, or

they may have been bad. They may have been healthy,

they may have been unhealthy, may have been nonexistent, or

they may have been abusive. But you are a product

of your relationships, particularly those early year relationships. Study after study,

I've told you this before, has shown that your identity,

how you you see yourself, is largely determined by what

you think the most important people in your life think

of you. What you think the most important people in

your life think of you tends to determine your self image,

your self esteem, your self concept. And that's why I've

told you many times, make sure Jesus is the most

important person in your life, because he's going to love

you unconditionally, and he's going to tell you the truth.

So the connections in your life, your relationships, help determine

your identity. My connections give my life meaning, My connections

give my life purpose, and my connections give my life identity.

If you grew up feeling disconnected from other people, you

have a hard time with meaning in your life. You

have a hard time with purpose in your life. You

have a hard time with your identity. People who have

really healthy connections, healthy relation they're not going does my

life matter? They never ask that. They know their life

matters because there are healthy relationships in their life. But

if you feel disconnected, if you feel dysfunction in your relationships,

it affects your identity, It affects your meaning and purpose.

Why because life's all about relationships. One day Jesus is

walking down the street. The guy comes up and says, Lord,

what's life all about? Jesus says, life is all about love.

It's not about accomplishment. It's not about acquisition, you know,

it's not about popularity or power or prestige. It's about love.

It's about relationships. He says. You can summarize all of

life in two sentences. Love God with all your heart,

and love your neighbors yourself. Be connected to God, be

connected to each other. Be in harmony with God. Be

in harmony with each other. Make the connection with God,

make the connection with others. He said. If you don't

have that, you miss the purpose of life. It's all

about love. It's all about relationships. And if you don't

understand that, then you wonder why your life lacks meaning.

This is called the Great Commandment. Now in this second

factor in my life, the second card, my connections card.

There are three problems with this. One of them I

already mentioned is we're all imperfect. And since we're all imperfect,

there are no perfect relationships. That causes problems in our lives.

We hurt each other, we have conflict with each other,

we have stress, we misunderstand each other. Second sin, sin

disconnects us. It disconnects us from God. All of sin

and fallen short, we are separated from God and disconnects

us from each other. We can see this in the

very first couple, Adam and Eve. They had a perfect relationship.

They were in love, they had no conflict, they had

no disharmony. Everything's going great. And God says, guys, you

can do anything you want to in this garden, the

garden of Eden. Here's just one thing you can't do.

Don't eat that fruit right there.

Now.

God didn't give him ten things to not do or

one hundred things. He only gave him one. Why did

he give him one? Because he had to give him

a choice, because it's not love if you don't have

a choice. If I can't choose to not love you,

then it's not If I'm forced to love you, it's

not love. So God gave him the minimum temptation, one thing.

You can do anything you want to, but just this

one thing. And what do they do. They head for

the one thing they're not supposed to do. And as

I've said many times, after they sand the atom takes

it like a man, and he blames his wife, and

he says, when God says, what did you do, Adam,

He goes, my Lord, the woman you gave me, gave

me this fruit to eat. Now I know he's not

only blaming Eve, he's blaming God, God, the woman you

gave me. He saying, God, if you hadn't brought this

female in my life, we'd be like this. Okay, things

would be copasetic, thing would be great. But you brought

this woman into my life. And therefore, God, it's really

your fault. He starts blaming. And we have been doing

it ever since, accusing, an excuse, using, accusing and excusing,

accusing and excusing. We accuse others and excuse ourselves. We

hide our faults and we hurl at others. And we've

been doing it ever since. And that affects our connections. Now,

once they sin, they not only feel disconnected from God.

Adam and Eve suddenly feel disconnected from each other. And

what's it said? It says they win. And they sewed

clothing out of fig leaves and started covering up. Who

told them to cover up? God didn't. Who told him

it was wrong to be naked? God didn't. Who told

them they had to hide from each other in their marriage?

God didn't, sinded Sin died, and we have been covering

up ever since, our vulnerabilities, our defects, our faults, and

we don't be rear with each other, and we fake

it even with those we love the most. And that

is what sin does. It causes us to cover up.

And men and women and people have been covering up

ever since, not just physically but emotionally. And that connection

card has caused all kinds of damage in your life

because nobody's perfect and sin disconnects us. But here's the

third problem with this card. The more disconnected I am,

the more fearful I become. Fear comes from disconnection. When

I feel disconnected from God, I fear God. When I

feel disconnected from you, I fear you. When I feel

disconnected at a party, I fear everybody at the party.

Disconnection causes fear. And if you grew up feeling disconnected,

you have a hard time trusting other people. It's part

of the way your identity has been formed. Now what

happens is we get caught in this dilemma, and it

is a terrible dilemma because we crave connection, We crave it,

we deeply crave, but we fear making connections. We crave intimacy.

We crave it. We crave intimacy, but we fear vulnerability,

which is the only way you get intimacy.

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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The truth is most of us don't pay much attention

to our health until something goes wrong. We put on

a couple of pounds every year and think no big deal, right,

But a few pounds over five or ten years really

adds up and it can even lead to major illnesses

like diabetes and heart disease. That's why Pastor Rick work

together with medical and fitness experts to create the Daniel

Plan Study. The sixth session DVD and workbook study kit

from Rick Warren, doctor Daniel Aman, and doctor Mark Hyman

is an out of the box approach to a healthy

lifestyle based on five essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends.

The Daniel Plan Study gives individuals in small groups the

encouragement and accountability needed to succeed. If you've been watching

the scale go up lately, or your health is in

trouble because of your weight, It's not too late. Join

the thousands of people who've lost weight, improve their health

and improved their relationships through the Daniel Plan. We'll send

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hundred five zero zero four. That's Pastrick dot com. Or

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thank you so much for your support.

Once again, here's Rick.

We crave intimacy. We crave it. We crave intimacy, but

we fear vulnerability, which is the only way you get intimacy.

It's like we want one without the other. And I'm

not just talking about sexual intimacy. I'm talking about in

every area of your life, that deep, soul searching, heart

to heart. I'm totally understood, you totally understand me, and

we accept each other and love each other. We crave that,

but we fear the vulnerability. We crave acceptance, but we

fear rejection, and that forms your identity. There's a third

card that makes you you. My chemistry, that's my biology,

my body, my connections, that's my relationship. The third card

that makes you you, it makes me me, is my circumstances.

These are the things that happen to you. These are

the things that happen around you. None of these things

were in your control. You didn't choose your chemistry, you

didn't choose your initial connections, and you certainly haven't chosen

all your circumstances. The things that happened to you and

the things that happen around you help shape your identity.

You are a product of the traumas and the troubles

in your life. You are a product of the suffering

and the shame and the shock and the stress. Problems

shape your life. Pressures shape your life. Pain shapes your life.

If you've ever been abused, I'm sorry, but your abuse

has affected your identity, whether those physical, emotional, sexual, or whatever.

And I'm sorry, but it has affected your identity. If

you've ever experienced rejection, that has affected your identity. If

you've ever had a failure or a series of fails,

a major failure in life that has affected your identity,

and you start telling yourself things over and over. If

you had a crisis, if you had a catastrophe. These

are all things that leave scars on your identity. It's

part of what you were dealt in life. There's a

fourth card, a fourth factor that makes you you, and

this is a big one. It's what I call my consciousness.

My consciousness and my consciousness. I want you to write

this down. Is how I talk to myself. That's your consciousness.

How I talk to myself, how you think about you.

I remember one time I was preaching on John seventeen,

which is Jesus prayer to the Father, where Jesus in

the guard of the gassemite before the cross is talking

to God the Father, and people don't get that. They say,

that's kind of weird God talking to God. How can

God talk to himself? Oh, you never do that. You

do it all the time. You're doing it right now.

He said, good point, Rick, or that point sucked?

Rick?

That wasn't any good, you know? And how soon do

we get out of here? You're talking to yourself constantly, constantly.

There is never a time in your life when you

are not talking to you. Now. If you talk to

your friends the way you talk to you, they wouldn't

be your friends. Because you are your toughest critic. And

by the way you lie to yourself all the time,

the Bible says, the heart is deceitful. You lie to

yourself more than you lie to anybody else. You tell

yourself things that just aren't true, but you believe them. Now.

Your consciousness influences your identity. What I say to me now,

what other people said to me. They said, you're no good,

you're worthless, you'll never mount anything, you're uncoordinated, you aren't

very attractive, you're a loser, blah blah blah. And you

filed that, but then you started repeating it, and you

start saying it over and over. Yeah, it's just like

me to be this, it's just like me to be there.

And you've had it over and over and over, and

it got deeper and deeper in your consciousness. Your habitual

thoughts are your identity. What you think about you, that's

your identity. The Bible says, this, look up here on

the screen Proverbs twenty three to seven. For as a

man thinks in his heart, so he is what you

think about you. That's you, whether it's true or not.

Proverbs four twenty three says this here on the screen.

Be careful, Be careful what you think, because your thoughts

run your life, and if you want your life to

go in a different direction, you're going to have to

direct those thoughts in a different direction. And here's the

amazing thing I just mentioned it. When you think thought,

it doesn't have to be true to hurt you. You

just have to believe it. And so if somebody says

you're never going to mount it, and you believe it,

guess what, You're never gonna amount to anything. If you

tell yourself this marriage isn't going to last, it isn't

gonna last. The person who says I can and the

person who says I can't are both right. For as

a man thinketh so is he Be careful what you

think because your thoughts run your life. And if you

think a thought long enough, you become it, and if

you believe it about yourself, you act it out. Here's

the problem. You know, those fears you've got that you

keep going over and over and over in your mind.

Our fears are often self fulfilling. We sabotage ourselves. We

set ourselves up. Job chapter three, verse twenty five. You

know what happened to Job? And in Job chapter three,

verse twenty five, Job says this, what I have always

feared has happened to me. What I have always feared

has happened to me, and what I dreaded has come

to be a self fulfilling prophecy. That's the problem with

fear is but fears can become reality. We start acting

in that way. I'm afraid to do this, and so

then you are afraid to do this. I'm afraid I

can't do this. Then you can't do that. You say, well, Rick,

there's nothing I could do to change. Are you sure?

You have to challenge your thoughts. You have to challenge

your misperceptions constantly or they're gonna dominate your life and

send you in the wrong direction because you tell yourself

self all the time, well, I can never change. Are

you sure? I want you to write this down. Feelings

aren't facts. Feelings aren't facts. I feel unattractive doesn't mean

you are well. I feel fat doesn't mean you are well.

I feel nobody would ever want to marry me. Are

you sure? Feelings aren't facts, they're feelings, and feelings lie

all the time. So my consciousness affects my identity. But

there's a fifth card, and this fifth card is so

important because it controls all the other cards. The fifth

card that makes me me is my choices. My choices. Now,

the Bible says that you were created in the image

of God. Nobody else. No other animals are created in

the image of the Cows aren't created in the image

of God. Rabbits aren't created a the image of God.

Monkeys aren't created in the image of God. Only human

beings are created in the image of God. What does

that mean? What it means a lot of things, But

one of the things that means is this, you have

a free moral choice. Dogs can't make moral choices. They

have instincts, but they don't know the differ between right

and wrong. Cats, elephants can't make moral choices. There are

no ethics to an elephant. There's no morality to an elephant.

You have the choice to choose. That's because you're made

in God's image. God made Angels don't have that choice,

but you do. You have a choose to do right

or wrong. Now, the freedom of choice is your greatest blessing.

It is also your greatest curse because we make stupid

choices all the time. We make self defeating choices. We

make harmful choices that harm ourselves, our bodies, our circumstances,

and everybody around us, and so it becomes a negative

thing in our lives. It's a blessing, but it's also

a curse. But here's the good news about this card.

Listene right here. God says it's a wild card. It's

the wild card. And this card can change the suit

and the number of any of the other cards you're dealt.

This is the wild card. Your choices can determine these

other cards. Now, I didn't get to choose my chemistry,

but I can't choose what I do with my body

and how I make the most of what I've got.

That's my choice, and I can choose to do the

best I can with what I've got. I didn't choose

all of my relationships, but I can't choose how I

respond to them. And I can choose new relationships, and

I can choose to learn relational skills, and I can

choose a lot of things that will change my connections.

This is pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We are so glad

you're with us today, and if you'd like to receive

rix free daily devotional, go to Pastorick dot com and

sign up right now. Rick will be back in just

a moment to close out our time today. But first,

the truth is that most of us don't pay much

attention to our health until something goes wrong. We put

on a couple of pounds every year and think no

big deal, right A few pounds over five or ten

years can really add up. That's why Pastor Rick Warren

has put together the Daniel Plan DVD Study Kit. This

six session video based study by Rick Warren, doctor Daniel

Ahman and doctor Mark Hyman is an out of the

box approach to a healthy lifestyle based on five essentials faith, food, fitness,

focus and friends. The Daniel Planned Study Kit gives individuals

the encouragement and accountability needed to succeed. If you've been

watching the scale go up lately, or your health is

in trouble because of your weight, it's not too late

to join join the more than fifteen thousand people who've

lost weight, improve their health and improve their relationships by

ordering the Daniel Plan DVD Study kit.

Let us send you a.

Copy of the Daniel Plan DVD study kit as our

way of saying thanks for your financial support of this minac.

Just go to Pastorrick dot com right now to get

your copy, or you can call eight hundred six hundred

five thousand and four. That's pastornk dot com. Or call

eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four and thank

you so much.

For your support.

Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

You know, I want to just thank every one of

you for your generous support. People all over the world

are now listening to Daily Hope because of your financial support.

Let me read your letter from Roda, who lives in

Papua New Guinea. Do you even know where that is?

It's down toward Australia, Rhoda wrote, I want to let

you know that the Daily Hope has helped change my

views toward life because you share from the Word of God.

She said, I've recommended Daily Hope to all my workmates

and since then, the life of one of my colleagues

has changed and she's always thankful for your sharing. We

listen to Daily Hope every day, so I'm praying for

you Rick well, thank you, thank you for your note, Rhoda,

and thank you for writing all the way from Papua

New Guinea. And thank those of you who are supporting

this ministry so that we can reach people like Rhoda.

I'm glad you're living out God's principles in your daily life. Rooda,

and I want to say thanks to all of you

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