Rick Warren - Winning with the Hand You’re Dealt Part 1

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 message, 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

one of a message called winning with the Hand your debt.

If you have a Bible, open to Psalm one thirty nine.

When people are hurting, they need simple truth, not simplistic truth.

It's not enough to tell somebody who is hurting, Jesus

is the answer. Now, of course we know Jesus is

the answer, but we must show how he is the answer.

Does that make sense. It's not enough to just say pray,

read your Bible, and go to church. You've got to

help people know how to make changes in their lives. Now,

the Bible says, there's nothing simple about you. You're very complex.

You're multifaceted. You're not easy to understand. You're not easy

to explain. There are many factors and there are many

forces that create you. And so I'm one thirty nine,

Verse fourteen, David says, thank you Lord for making me

so wonderfully complex. Circle that on your outline. Wonderfully complex. Guys,

if you're sitting next to your wife, whisper into her

ear right now, honey, you are wonderfully complex. And then wives,

you whisper back, you are amazingly simple. You know, men

just have an on and off switch. Women they've got

all these gauges and dials and buttons, and you know

the procedures. Men it's just kind of on and off. Actually,

the Bible says we're all wonderfully complex, and to become

all that God intends for you to be, you have

to look at every dimension of your life, not just one. Ecclesiastes,

chapter seven, verse eighteen. I love this in the message paraphrase.

A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality,

not just a piece of it. If you're gonna be

who God wants you to be, you're gonna have to

look at every area of your life, every factor, every facet,

every force in your life, and deal with all of

them to be all God means for you to be.

Now today I want us to look at this subject

of being who God meant you to be, and I'm

calling it winning the hand your delt because there are

actually five factors in your life, not one, but five

that influence your identity and who you are. If you

remember the parable of the talent, Jesus said, the Master

goes out and he gives one guy ten talents, and

another guy five talents, and another guy one talent, and

then he says, go off and make the most of

what I've given you. You're not going to be responsible

for talents you weren't given. You're not going to be

judged by God for opportunities you didn't have. But God

is going to judge you one day and evaluate your

life on what you did with what you were given. Now,

the point of the parable of the talents is, we

don't get the same thing. We don't have the same talents.

We don't have the same background, we don't have the

same pains, we don't have the same problems, we don't

have the same potential, we don't have the same anything

except we're all loved by God. We are all unique,

we are all different. But there are five factors that

create your identity. You did not choose these factors. God

dealt them to you. And just as you didn't choose

your talents, you didn't choose the talents you didn't get.

You didn't choose a lot of other things in your

life that make you you. And so I want us

to look at that today. Now, how many of you

have ever played poker? Can I see your hands? All right? Good?

I feel we've got a lot of sinners here. All right, good,

I'm feeling a lot more comfortable now knowing that a

lot of you played poker. In five cards stud poker,

you have to play the cards you're dealt. You don't

get to mix and match them. You don't get to say,

I want to play his hand. You can only play

the cards you are dealt. Now. In many ways, this

is a metaphor in life. There are some things that

you have been dealt in life. You didn't choose them.

You didn't choose your parents, you didn't choose when you

were born, where you were born, how you were born.

You didn't choose your race. You didn't choose your talents.

You didn't choose the talents you don't have. There are

a lot of things that make you you that you

had no choice in it all. They're the hand you

were dealt. But you got to play the hand you're dealt.

And in many ways this is a metaphor for life,

that life is like a hand of poker, that you

got to play the hand your delt. Now, the Bible

tells us a lot about the factors that we're given

in life that make us us. In fact, the Bible

tells us four facts about the factors of our lives.

The first thing each of these cards represent, a thing

that makes you you, is that every one of these

cards is flawed, every one of these cards is marred

by sin. Every one of these cards is imperfect. Because

nothing is perfect on this planet. The Bible says nothing

is perfect except God's word on this planet. Now, we've

talked about this many times. Everything in the world is broken.

The weather is broken. We have tornadoes, earthquakes, typhoons. God

didn't plan for the Earth to be that way. It's

broken by slynn. We know that the economy is broken.

Anybody would agree with that, okay, And it doesn't work perfectly.

We know your body does not work perfectly right. Things

don't work the right way. Your body is broken. Nobody

has a perfect body except me. We know that no

relationship is perfect. That two imperfect people cannot create a

perfect relationship. I've told you before. I married a sinner

and k married a bigger one. So you can't have

two imperfect people and have a perfect Really, nothing in

your life will ever be perfect. If you expect perfection

on earth, you're expecting heaven on earth, and you're going

to be sorely disappointed. Friends, this is not heaven. This

is Earth. Nothing works correctly here. Everything works correctly in heaven.

In heaven, there is no sorrow, no sadness, no tears,

no trials, no troubles, no pain, no pressure, no conflict.

But this is not heaven. We are to pray Thy

will be done on earth as it is in heaven,

because it's done perfectly there, but not here. But this

is not heaven. And so everything in your life, all

of the factors that you've been dealt, have imperfections in them,

and they're all marred by sin. Okay, that's the first

thing we know. The second thing we know is that

God sent Jesus as our savior to not only save

us from our sin, to save us into heaven, to

save us out of hell, but to save us from ourselves.

He sent Jesus to transform the cards we've been given,

to change the deck, to turn it into a winning hand.

That's what it means to have Jesus as your savior,

and we're going to talk about that today. The third

thing that the Bible teaches is that one day you

will give an account to God on how well you

played your hand. And God isn't going to say, why

didn't you play it like your brother did, or your

mother or your sister or anybody else because you don't

have the hand they were dealt. But God expects you

to play the hand your dealt in life to the

best of your ability and to make the most of

what you've got, and you will give an account of

it one day. But the good news and what I

want us to look at today is the Bible tells

us to how still how to still win the game

with the hand you've been dealt. What we're going to

do today is I'm going to use this metaphor to

talk about the five things that influence your life that

make you you, and then what God says to do

with them to make sure you turn it into a

winning hand.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Rip will be

back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.

You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional

at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

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

you a copy of the Daniel Plan DVD Steady Kid

to say thanks when you give a gift to Daily

Hope to help share the Hope of Jesus with people

around the world. Just go to pastor Rick dot com

to get your copy, or you can call eight hundred

six hundred five zero zero four that's pastor Rick dot com.

Or call eight hundred six hundred five zero zero four

and thank you so much for your support.

Once again, here's rick.

If you want us understand who you really are, you

have to understand the five factors that make you you.

And I am using this metaphor these five cards to

represent this. Now. The first factor that makes you you

is what I call chemistry, my chemistry. You might write

that down. This is your chromosomes, it's your DNA, it's

your genes, it's your hormones, it is your chemical makeup.

At the most basic biological level, it's you and your body.

Everything that happens to you in your life happens in

your body, and your body is made up of chemicals. Now,

some of you were born, for instance, with a hypersensitivity

to pain, and you notice pain very very easily. You're

the princess and the pee, and if something doesn't fit

right or if you're right, you notice it immediately. It's

not right or wrong. It's just the way you're wired.

It's your chemistry. Others of you, you're born with a

very high tolerance for pain. You know, I once cut

the end off of a toe and I didn't notice

it till the end of the day. It's like, where'd

that toe go? I just it's not right or wrong.

It's just the way I'm wired. Some of you were

born with a low energy level. It's not right or wrong.

It's just the way you were born. You're a low

energy person. Others of you were born with the very

high energy level. Every one of us have structural and

chemical weaknesses in our bodies. Some of you have a

predisposition to your back going out, just the way your

body's wired. Some of us wear glasses. Some of us

have weak eyesight. It's not right or wrong, it's just

part of the way we're wired. Some of us are

wired we don't hear as well. You know. I tell

you about a year ago. I went to an ear

doctor because I thought, I'm not hearing like I used

to hear. And I thought, maybe it's too many rock

concerts as a kid, or I still listen to music

quite loud, and maybe I'm hurting my ear drums. So

I went to an ear doctor and he put me

in one of these booths, put the you know, ear

phones on me, and said, you know, raise your hand

when you hear this, and raise your hand when you

hear this. And when I finished, I came out and

the guy was laughing. The doctor was laughing. And I said,

what are you laughing about? He said, Pastor Rick, the

megahertz frequency you cannot hear is the exact tone of

your wife's voice. I said, thank you, thank you. I now,

honey up, It's not like I'm not listening. Now. All

of us have biological and chemical deficiencies, and these create

emotional problems. These create physical problems, These create mental problems

in our lives. If you have low thyroid, you can

exercise all you want, and you're still going to have

not enough energy because your thyroid's low. You need to

get a thyroid supplement. It's a physical chemical reaction. If

you have calcium deficient see in your body, you're gonna

have brittle bones, no matter how positively you think, you're

gonna have brittle bones. If you are low on a

hormone estrogen or testosterone, or you have an iron deficiency

or any other chemical, it's going to affect you emotionally, mentally,

it's going to affect you physically. You know. One of

the ones I've been studying recently is the chemical oxytocin,

which is the chemical that creates connection. It's the chemical

that bonds you to other people. It's the relationship chemical

that allows you to connect with others. If you are

low on oxytocin, you have a difficult time connecting with others.

This has been proven over and over. They did one

study on prairie voles Voles prairie boles are these little

hamsters in the Midwest, and they discovered that prairie voles

are one of the few animals that actually mate for

life besides human beings, they're monogamous for life. In fact,

if their mate dies, they will not find another mate,

and it is very unusual among animals. And so they

studied prairie rolls and discovered that they're extremely high in oxytocin,

that it connects them to each other. And when they

lowered it in the prairie rowl, they became as frisky

as rabbits. Okay, it was a chemical thing. Oxytocin is

released in a mother when she nurses a baby. When

a woman holds a baby to her breast, it releases

oxytocin not only in the baby, but in the mother.

And it is the bonding chemical that binds and bonds

a mother to her baby. It's an amazing thing that

God has created in our bodies. When a husband and

wife make love. When they have sex, it releases oxytocin

in both the husband and the wife, and it bonds

them emotionally together. That was God's idea. That's why marriages

that don't have sex aren't as close as those that do,

because they're missing that chemical component that bonds you together.

It's also a reason why God says don't have sex

with anybody outside of marriage, because you're going to be

bonding emotionally that person who's not your mate, and you're

going to leave a piece of your heart there. And

that's why rejection and unfaithfulness hurts so much, because sex

is not simply a physical issue. It is an emotional

and spiritual issue, and there's a chemical behind it too.

They've even discovered that twenty minutes of petting a dog

releases oxytocin in both the owner and the dog and

bonds the owner and the dog together. It draws them closer. Now,

if you don't have oxytocin in quantity in your body,

you're going to have a difficult time connecting with people.

You're gonna have a difficult time trusting people. It's simply

part of your chemistry and it's the way you're why

now I want you to write this down. No flaw,

no flaw is sinful or shameful in my physical body,

in my biology, in my chemistry, no flaw in me

is shameful or sinful. It's just the way you're wired.

You know. The last taboot today is mental illness. People

don't want to talk about it as if that's some

kind of bad thing. Mental illness is no different than

physical illness or spiritual or emotional illness. It has a

chemical basis, and mental illnesses no more need to be

ashamed of than say, uh, cancer or emotional illness needs

no more to be ashamed of than say, uh, you

know you're you got a degenerative disk in your back.

It's just part of who you are. That everything in

our lives is broken, and there is a chemistry behind it.

You know. The other day I bought a pair of

genes and they were they're not these, but some other

ones that were a little bit more distressed. And when

I got them home, there was a little tag on

them and it said this, these genes have intentional flaws

in order to make them unique. I thought I'd like

to put that tag on every person. Your genes, ge

n ees have flaws in them to make you unique. Why,

because you're not a carbon copy or a clone or

mass produced anything. 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 intention 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.

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, But 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 in 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 Studykit as our way of saying thanks for your

financial support of this ministry. Just go to Pastorick dot

com right now to get your copy, or you can

call eight hundred, six hundred, five thousand and four. That's

Pastor Rick dot com or call eight hundred six hundred

five thousand and four and thank you so much for

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