Rick Warren - The Courage to Keep Going Part One

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

Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.

Today we continue a teaching series called Uncommon Courage. In

these lessons, Rick is going to share biblical inspiration that

will help you get the courage you need to follow

God's calling for your life. If you'd love to help

the kids you know learn God's work, then stay with

us because in just a few minutes we're going to

tell you about God's big plans for me and easy

to understand storybook Bible by Pastor Rick Warren. You can

take a sneak peek right now by going to Pastorick

dot com while you listen to today's message, or if

you want, you can just text the word daily to

eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's the

word Daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

Right now.

Here's Pastor Rick Wood part one of a message called

the Courage to Keep Going.

You know, I've discovered something very profound. Life is hard,

it's often disappointing, and the fact is life doesn't always

cooperate with my plans. Have you noticed that, in fact,

my plans rarely turn out the way I plan them to.

Things fall apart, things go wrong, people disappoint plans don't happen,

even the things we pray for. A lot of things

we pray for, things we wanted to happen a certain way,

and it doesn't end up happening that way, and our

prayers aren't answered the way we want it. You know,

a lot of people after a major loss or a

major failure, they just pull into a shell. They kind

of isolate themselves and they just basically say, Okay, my

life's over, and they basically stop living and just aren't existing.

They're kind of putting in the time and waiting for uh,

waiting for a tall end. They're not really living anymore.

On the other hand, there's some people that no matter

what life throws out them, they just get back up

and get right back into the game. They have amazing resilience.

You knock them down, they get back up. You knock

them down, they get back up. You knock them down,

They get back up and do better than they did before.

Paul was a guy like that in the Bible. Saint

Paul had amazing resilience. He had an amazing ability to

keep on keeping on when everybody else felt like giving up.

The Bible says this in verse eight and nine and

second Corinthians four. Paul said, we're pressed on every side

by troubles, but we're not crushed and broken. We're perplexed,

but we don't give up and quit. We're hunted down,

but God never abandons this. We get knocked down, but

we get up again and keep going. Now, where do

you get that kind of resilience? I want that kind

of resilience. I want you to have that kind of resilience.

Where do you get the kind of courage to keep

ongoing when every bone in your body wants to give up,

wants to throw in the towel, said, Okay, I've just

been hurt too many times. Forget it no more. I'm

going to build a wall around my life. The problem

is when you build a wall to keep the pain out,

you also keep the love out and you end up existing,

not living. This morning, I want us to look at

how do you have the courage to keep going? And specifically,

I want us to look at what do you do

when you feel like giving up? Now? The classic passage

on this in the Bible is the book of Job.

Job is the oldest book in the Bible, you know,

the story of Job. Job was the wealthiest man in

the world in his day. He was the most prominent

man in the world. And he was the most influential

man in the world. And on one day, in a

twenty four hour period, his entire life fell completely apart.

First place, he lost his entire wealth, all of his flocks,

all of his cattle, all of his goats, his farms,

everything was destroyed on one day. All of his children

were murdered by terrorists. The same day. And also in

that same period of time, he contracted a terribly painful,

chronic and terminal illness. Now you think you've had a

bad day, I mean Job had a PhD in pain.

He had a PhD in loss. He had a PhD

in handling a crisis of life. And I want to

tell you that no matter what you go through, and

I'm not downgrading or belittling what you're going through, it's

nothing compared married to what Job did in one twenty

four hour period. And yet from his life we learn

some things to do when you feel like giving up,

when you feel like I don't have the energy to

go one more step. I'm just gonna chuck it. I'm

going to give up on my marriage, I'm going to

give up on my job. I'm going to give up

on my dream. I'm going to give up on my health.

It's over. I'm done. Finished. If you'll do what Job did,

you'll make it through. So let's look at it. Let's

get right into it. Six things that Job did in

his life on how to have the courage to keep

going when you feel like giving up. Number one, When

you've had a major loss, the first thing you need

to do is this, tell God exactly how you feel.

Just vent, just get it all out, all that frustration.

You just need to tell it to God. You unload

all your feelings, you release all your frustrations. Maybe you

don't realize this, but when you trust God with your

negative emotions, that's actually an act of worship. In the

very first chapter of Job, after everything fell apart in

his life, Job says this verse twenty. Job stood up,

tore his robe in grief, shaved his head. Then he

fell to the ground, and he worshiped. Now what's he

doing here? He is physically visibly expressing his pain to God.

He stands up he tears his robe. You've got to

be pretty mad to start tearing your own clothes off.

He tore his robe in grief, shaves his head. That's

an act of humility, falls to the ground and worships.

Anytime you go through a major loss in life or

a major disappointment, you're going to experience four emotions. The

first is anger, Why is this happening to me? Why

is this happened to me? That's the natural action anger.

The second you're going to have is grief. What have

I lost? What have I lost? The third you're gonna

have is shock? What do I do now? I can't

believe this is happening. I just can't believe it. And

the fourth is fear? What's going to happen next? When

you have these four things anger and grief and shock

and fear, what am I supposed to do with them?

You express them to God. That's the first thing you

need to do. You don't suppress it. You don't repress it.

You don't express it. You know, vomit it on somebody else.

You confess it. You tell God how ticked off you are.

And you know what, here's a little surprise for you.

God can handle your anger. God can handle your frustration.

He can handle your emotions. You know why God can

handle your emotions because He gave them to you. The

only reason you have emotions is because you're made in

the image of God, and God is an emotional God.

God has feelings. Did you know that God has feelings.

The only reason you get sadness because God has sadness.

The only reason you can get angry is because God

gets angry. God gets frustrated. God's patience is tested. God

understands all of these things because God is an emotional God,

and God can handle your anger. It's like a little

two year old having a temper tantrum beating on the

knees of a parent. A parent can handle that. And

God is bigger than your emotion. So it's okay to

tell God exactly how you feel. And when you've prayed

for a promotion and it didn't happen, and when a

loved one walks out of your life, and you've been

betrayed and you've been rejected, when you've been laid off,

when you get the dreaded call it's cancer and all,

it's okay to tell God, God, I'm mad, I'm upset,

I'm sick, I'm frustrated, I'm ticked off. I doubt God

can handle your complaints. He can handle your questions, he

can handle your fear, he can handle your doubt. He

can handle your grief because God's love for you is

bigger than all your emotions.

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 pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

The Bible says children are a gift from the Lord.

Do you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or kids in

your neighborhood that need to know God loves them and

has a good plan for their lives. You can help

them get closer to God by encouraging them to read

His word. That's why we're so excited to tell you

about a very special resource just for kids called God's

Big Plans for Me. It's a storybook Bible by Pastor

Rick Warren. This two hundred and twenty three page hardcovered

children's book includes forty well loved Bible stories to help

kids engage with God's word. Each Bible story has an

introduction from Pastor Rick that helps young readers understand the

Word of God and has a closing thought with a

practical step boys and girls can take to discover God's

Big Plans for them. Their eyes will light up as

they turn the beautifully illustrated pages and really start to

get what God wants to say to their young hearts

and minds. God's Big Plans for Me is so much

more than just a book filled with cute pictures of

Bible characters. It's a fun and effective way to introduce

children to God's everlasting truth. This book makes a great gift.

You'll want to get a copy for every child in

your life. And today, when you give a gift to

help Pastor Rick's daily hope take the certain hope of

Jesus Christ around the world, We'll send you a copy

of God's Big Plans for Me Storybook Bible to say thanks.

To get your copy of this great resource, just call

eight hundred six hundred five zero zero four or go

to Pastorick dot com to get yours. That's eight hundred

six hundred five zero zero four or Pastorick dot com.

Thanks in advance for your support your gift to Daily

Hope pulpsa shared the hope of Christ with people around

the world. There's only two days left to get God's

Big plans for me storybook Bible, So don't wait.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again. Here's

Pastor Rick Warren.

Another thing I love about Job is he's flat out

brutally honest. He doesn't mens around with words Job Chapter seven,

verse eleven, Job says when he had lost it all

in one day, he says, I can't be quiet. I'm angry,

I'm bitter. I have to speak. In other words, if

I don't speak, I'm gonna pop. You see, when you

have nagad emotions in your life, if you swallow your emotions,

your stomach keeps score. If you don't talk it out

to God, you're going to take it out on your

body and to have all the emotions like you just

had a major disappointment. You spent all your money building

a business and it went bankrupt. And you go, wait

a minute, I prayed for this and I ask God

to bless it. What's going on here? And you're angry

and you're upset. That's like shaking up a coke bottle.

If you don't express it to God, it's going to

come out sideways in some weird behavior six months down

the road, in a compulsion and an addiction, in an affair,

and some other self destructive behavior. It will express itself

one way or the other. You need to get it out.

So Job says, I can't be quiet. I'm angry and bitter.

I got to speak. And if you study the book

of Job, Job starts off with confusion, why is this

happening to me? And then he goes to complaining I

don't like what's happening to me. It finally starts making

bold accusations of God. God, you're not a nice God,

and God just takes it all. He handles it. You see.

The right response to unexplained tragedy is not grin and barrett.

Some people think everything happened goes wrong in your life.

You're just supposed to say, well, praise the Lord. Now,

that's insincere, that's fake, that's phony, that's fault. God wants

you to be authentic with him. God's not looking for

pious platitudes, but he's honestly interested in your honest struggles

with him. Now, I know what I'm going to tell

you next is going to shock you. I have three children,

and this surprise you. But sometimes they question my judgment.

Can you believe that they question my judgment? Now? My

kids never doubt that I love them. They know I

love them, and they never doubt that I've been on

this planet longer than they have, and they never doubt

that I've had more experience than they have. But sometimes

they do question my wisdom. And you know what, I'd

rather have an honest, gut level conversation with them than

have them stuff it. And so would God. God would

rather have you wrestle with him in anger than walk

away in detached apathy. Wrestling is a contact sport in

the Bible. When Jacob wrestles with God, God doesn't mind

that because wrestling you're up front, you're in close contact,

you're up there together. God would rather have you voicing

your doubts and fears and being up close to him

then walk away and be the silent person and be

apathetic and just detached. Lamentations Chapter two, verse nineteen says,

this cry out in the night, pour out your heart

like water poured out like water in prayer to the Lord.

When was the last time you cried out in the night.

When was the last time you poured out your heart

like water to God? You know, in the Bible there

are many, many examples of godly people who expressed their

frustration to God and God handled it. It's okay, God

can handle it. One time, Jeremiah says, God, you deceived me.

I think you lied to me. I think you promised this,

but this happened here. I think you deceived me. God,

God handled it. Naomi once time said one times said

call me bitter, because God has made my life bitter. Yes,

she got around, she came around, but in that moment,

that's the way she felt. One time, David said, I've

taken the worst you can hand out God, and I'm

fed up. That's it. But he always came back. And

the same thing with Job. Although Job questioned God's wisdom

and wonders what's going on on and he's spouting off

and he's admitting all his frustrations, he's still in the

root of his life. Trust God. But that's the first step.

You got to get it out. Step number two. Second

thing you do when you feel like giving up, and

you need the power and the courage keep on is

accept help from others. That's the second thing Job does.

You need to accept help from others because God doesn't

intend for you to handle all the pain, or all

the loss, or all the stress in your life by yourself.

We were wired for each other, We need each other.

We are social beings. The first thing God said in

the Garden of edenus it's not good for men to

be alone. We're made to be in relationships. Here's the problem.

When you go through a major disappointment, you don't want

to tell anybody about it. When you go through a

major loss, the natural human reaction is to pull back,

to isolate it. I'll handle it by myself. I don't

need anybody else. I'll answer you want to keep it

a secret. When you've had a loss, a failure, a mistake,

a crisis, you typically pull in and isolate. Bad idea,

bad idea. The natural reaction is withdrawal. When God says no, no,

you need friends in your life at that point. Job

chapter six says this verse fourteen. When desperate people give

up on God Almighty, their friends at least should stick

with them. I love that verse, God says, even if

you don't believe in God at that point, you still

need good friends to stick with you. A friend walks

in when everybody else walks out, and you need people

in your life. The new International version says, even a

despairing man deserves the devotion of his friends, even if

he forsakes Almighty God the fear of their minds. In

other words, there will be times in your life when

you are in so much pain you go, I don't

even believe in God right now. Okay, you need to

have some friends to say, that's all right, we'll believe

God for you right now. There are gonna be times,

you know, I say I don't have any faith right now,

I'm just full of doubt. I don't have any faith.

That's when you need people. Go that's okay, we will

have faith for you. We will trust God for you

in this moment. This is why you need a small group.

Small group is a safety net in this church. Thirty

two thousand people in this church are in small groups.

I don't worry about them. I worry about those of

you who aren't in a small group, because when the

crisis comes, who's going to pull you through You See,

you haven't helped anybody else through their crisis, So who's

going to help you? This is why we need each other.

The Bible says in one Thessalonians five eleven, encourage each

other and give each other strength. Now that's a command

God commands us to bear each there's burdens. I'm supposed

to help you when you're going through your losses and

tough times, and you're supposed to help me when I

go through my losses and help in tough times. And

that's why we need small groups. Now, I've been in

the group i'm in for many, many years. But I'll

be honest with you. Sometimes I don't want to go

to a small group. I don't feel like going to

small group. Now you never felt that, I know. But

sometimes I am so tired. I'd like to just lay

on the couch and watch TV tonight. And I don't

always feel like going to group. But you know what,

I have never been to a group that I didn't go.

I got something out of that I needed that. And

usually when I don't want to go, when I need

it the most. We are to encourage each other. Look

at the next verse. By helping each other with your troubles.

You obey the law of Christ. What is the law

of Christ. It's this love your neighbor as yourself. That's

the law of Christ mentioned about seven times in the Bible.

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 Pastorick dot com

and listen online anytime. Rick will be back to close

out our time today. But first, the Bible says children

are a gift from the Lord. Do you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews,

or kids in your neighborhood that need to know God

loves them and has a good plan for their lives.

You can help them get closer to God by encouraging

them to read God's Word. That's why we're so excited

to tell you about a very special resource just for

kids called God's Big Plans for Me. It's a storybook

Bible by Pastor Rick Warren. This two hundred and twenty

three page hardcovered children's book includes forty well loved Bible

stories to help kids engage with God's Word. Each Bible

story has an introduction from Pastor Rick that helps young

readers understand the Word of God and a closing thought

with a practical step boys and girls can take to

discover God's Big Plans for them. Their eyes will light

up as they turn the beautifully illustrated pages and really

start to get what God wants to say to their

young hearts and minds. God's Big Plans for Me is

so much more than just a book filled with cute

pictures of Bible characters. It's a fun and effective way

to introduce children to God's ever lasting truth. This book

makes a great gift. You'll want to get a copy

for every child in your life. And today, when you

give a gift to help Pastor Rick's daily hope take

the certain hope of Jesus Christ around the world, will

send you a copy of God's Big Plans for Me

Storybook by b To say thanks. To get your copy

of this great resource, just call eight hundred six hundred

five thousand and four or go to Pastorick dot com

to get yours. That's eight hundred six hundred five thousand

and four or Pastorrick dot com. There's only two days

left to get God's big plans for me storybook Bible,

so don't wait. Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from

one of our listeners.

I want to say thanks to all of you who

are supporting Daily Hope Ministry with your financial gifts and

with your prayers. I know you appreciate these notes that

I get from people around the world as much as

I do. Let me just share one with you from

a woman named Anna who is an elementary school principal,

and she just wrote this. You're Pastor Rick. I became

a principal in an elementary school at the age of

twenty five. I'm now forty two. Now. We've had Rick

Warren Bible Series and st at our church during the summers,

and I always enjoyed them so much, and I've invited

many friends and relatives to visit our church. A couple

years ago, I began to share your devotion Daily Hope

with all of my staff members each morning. See she's

a principle, she's sharing this with her staff. She said.

I've seen their growth in God. I've seen the transformation

and their lives and characters over these past years, and

I'm amazed at the Lord's love and mercy. That doesn't

mean that we haven't struggled with issues such as death

and depression and disappointments and illness things like that. However,

we have had our eyes on God during all of

the things that have come against us, and this has

made a difference. I pray with them during our staff

meetings to give thanks. So Pastor Rick, I just want

to thank you for following God's calling. Even though you

go through struggles and life problems just like we all do.

God is with you. May the Lord continue to bless

you and your beautiful family. May continue to bless you

with wisdom and discernment so that you're able to share

your gift with all of us. Blessings, Anna, Well, Anna,

God bless you. Thanks for writing. I love getting these

letters and you actually encouraged me. And I love the

fact that as a principle, you're sharing the broadcast and

you're sharing the devotionals with your staff. This makes you

a partner in this ministry, and I thank you for

doing that. I want to encourage everybody else's listening, find

somebody that you could share the good news with, tell

them about daily hope. God bless you.

If you'd like to let Rick know how this broadcast

has blessed your life. Please write it at Rick at

pastorrick dot com. That's Rick at pastorrick dot com. Be

sure to join us 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.