Rick Warren - The Prayer of Deliverance Part Two

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

Rick continues teaching a series called Connecting with God the

Lord's Prayer. In these lessons, Rick shows you what it

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hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Right now, here's

Pastor Rick with part two of a message called the

Prayer of Deliverance.

Step one one, identify what makes me vulnerable. Watch, don't

just pray, Watch and pray. Then once you know that pattern,

here's a step number two. Plan to avoid it. You

plan to avoid it. You don't wait until you're in

the situation. Decide am I gonna give into this or not? No,

you decide before your emotions kick into gear. You know,

when I used to be a youth pastor many years ago,

and I would tell kids that they needed to plan

their dates. I said, just don't go out on a

date and say what do you want to do. You're

gonna end up in the back of a car because

you're bored. There's nothing else to do. I said, you're

either gonna go by your plans or your glands. So

I said, plan your dates, know where you're headed, know

what you parents. You need to teach that to your kids.

Don't just go out and say we're gonna we don't

know what we're gonna do. It says you know, plan

to avoid it. You need to know what you're going

to do now. The Bible says this plan carefully what

you do, avoid evil, Walk straight ahead, don't go one

step off the right way. Whenever I read that verse,

it reminds me when I was in college in nineteen

seventy four, I actually lived in Nagasaki, Japan, and I

taught English in a church in Nagasaki, Japan, and I

lived with the missionaries who lived there permanently in Nagasaki,

and their house was at the top of a hill.

Nagasaki is kind of like San Francisco. It's all hills

and valleys in beautiful bay. But to get from the

church to their house, I had to walk through the

Nagasaki red light district every single day and there were

no there were I mean no holds barred there. I

mean it was there were posters of nudity every where,

and I basically had to walk, and as I did,

I would avoid evil. Walk straight ahead, don't step off

one to the right or to the left. Okay, I

just put my blinders on, just headed for the home.

You know, it's like cow going back to the barn

or whatever. Now, Temptation always begins with the natural desire

in you.

Temptation.

If you didn't have a natural desire, it would never

key into it. And often temptation is fulfilling a legitimate

desire in the wrong way, or fulfilling a legitimate desire

at the wrong time or in the wrong amount. You

have a natural desire to eat, You have a need

to eat.

You have a natural.

Desire to drink, to sleep, you have natural sexual drives.

These are natural. Where do you think you got those?

God gave them to you. Those are not evil. What

is temptation. Temptation is when we abuse and misuse what.

God has given us.

That's temptation, when we abuse and misuse something that God

has given to us for good. Fire is good, but

if you amuse it, use it and misuse it, it's

going to burn up your house. Water is a good thing.

Your body is ninety percent water, but if you get

too much of it, you're gonna drown. And so there's

nothing wrong with water, it's just misused and abused. It

becomes a temptation. So temptation what it does is it

turns a routine desire into.

A runaway desire.

I gotta have it, and I've got to have it

now and now now, now, wrong time, wrong way, wrong amount,

and it becomes more than any important, than anything else,

and it's all you think about. And any good God

given desire out of control becomes a sin. So you

have to plan in advance. I say, you know what

I know. I get tempted in sports bars. We'll simple,

don't go to sports bars. Okay, I get tempted to

pick up the porno magazines and seven elevens. Don't go

to seven elevens. It's real simple. If you don't want

to get stung. You stay away from the bees. So

you know that the when, the where, the why, the who,

the what, the how that makes you vulnerable, and then

you plan to avoid that area. Step number three, I

guard my heart. I must guard my heart. Now this

is very, very important because the Bible says, out of

the heart. Everything comes out of the heart, a man

speaks and all of the issues of life. Temptation always

starts inside of you. We think temptation is on the outside. No,

it is not the triggers on the outside, but the

temptation is actually inside you. And if there were no

natural temptation inside you, based on your shape and your nature,

it wouldn't have any attraction to you. It's like a magnet,

you know, if a magnet doesn't attract plastic because there's

nothing inside the plastic that's metal.

To pull it out.

The Bible says this up here on the screen James

one fourteen. We are tempted by our own desires that

drag us off and trap us. And look at this

next verse. The Bible says, it is inside you. It's

inside you, out of.

A person's heart.

That's why you have to guard your heart come evil thoughts,

sexual immorality, theft, the desire to kill people, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceitfulness,

that's when you manipulate other people, lust, envy, slander, arrogance,

and foolishness. All these vile things come from not outside

but from inside. So if you're serious about breaking some

bad habits and breaking a bad temptation, you got to

do a little heart check up first. So let's do

a little X ray, a spiritual X ray of your

heart right now. And I've listed there some questions. There

are ten questions. What I want you to do is

I want you to circle zero one, two, three, four

four being really strong about it. Are zero being you know,

on the on the left handed side, and I want

you to evaluate. Then we'll add up the points and

I'll interpret it for you. Know, this is going to

be a real eye opener for some of you. Okay,

So number one right now your emotional experience. Do you

feel more physically exhausted over to the left hand side

of the column or do you tend to feel right

now more energetic and in shape? Okay, just give yourself

a zero, one, two, three four more physically exhausted. Are

you tending towards that end? Are tending more toward I feel.

Energetic and in shape. Okay?

How about the next one right now?

How are you feeling right now?

Are you more discouraged and pessimistic about your life, about

the economy, about your family, or your faith, whatever, or

are you more encouraged and hopeful? You need to give

yourself rate yourself on zero, one, two, three, four? Okay

the number three?

Right now?

Are you feeling in your life more bored with your life,

more discontented with your life? Or are you feeling at

the other end more challenged and contented? Okay, the next one?

Right now?

Do you feel more spiritually dry or spiritually empty or

do you feel no? I feel spiritually alive and I

feel like I'm really growing. I'm growing again. How about

the next In relationships right now? Are you feeling more

alone a lot of the time or distant from others,

especially those you love, or are you feeleeling right now

close to those you love. There's not a lot of

conflict going on. You feel pretty close to those you love.

The next one, do you feel more insecure or unsure

about yourself? Or are you feeling right now, more confident

and secure because you're you sure? The next one? Are

you feeling wounded? Are you feeling deeply hurt? Or do

you feel loved and understood? Give yourself zero to four?

Next one?

Right now?

Do you tend to feel more bitter or angry about

something that's happened in your life that you've just gone

through or are you feeling I really have forgiven everybody

in my life. I'm not holding on to any any

regrets or any resentments. Next one, where are you on

the happiness sad continuum? Are you feeling more sad these days?

Are you feeling more happy these days? And this the last?

Have you felt recently.

More like you've failed?

Or have you felt more recently like you have been

succeeding at whatever you were doing? Okay, now, what I

want you to do is just count up that number

right now and write your score at the bottom, and

I'm gonna interpret it for you. Okay, So just add

it all up. Count up all of the ones and

the twos and the threes and the fours, and add

it all up. Obviously, if you got all zero's, you

got zero. If you've got all ones, you've got ten.

And all twos would be twenty and all fours would

be forty.

So you're not gonna have more than forty. So add

that up.

Okay, let a doctor Rick give his evaluation.

I've got a doctorate. Okay, I'm a doctor. Okay, yeah,

I'm a doctor. All right, all right, here we go.

If your total is thirty to forty, you are in

good shape. You're in really good shape, and you're going

to be much more resistant to temptation than most people would.

That's a really good sign.

If you have between twenty to thirty points, friends, you're

in serious danger. Really, the yellow lights are flashing in

your life right now. You need to be aware that

you are being set up by Satan for a fall,

because he always hits you when you're down. You just

need to be aware of that twenty to thirty points.

If you've got less than twenty points on your score, friend,

you are in crisis and you don't even know it.

And you really need to talk to somebody in your

small group or get a reference for a Christian count

or somebody. You are in crisis right now and you

seriously need some support, some.

Energy in your life now.

Once you know the when and the how and the

where and the who and the what, and you know

all of this, how your heart is going. You need

to ask yourself, how long have I been at this level?

The longer you've been at the twenty level, the more

vulnerable you are, the longer you've been at the condition

you're in, the more serious it is. Now when you

mix all of these together, and you mix several of these,

like frustration and anger and hurt, it is a powerful combo,

and all of a sudden you'll hear somebody start whispering

in your air. I deserve to have some relief. I

deserve to have some fun. I deserve to be loved.

And that's not God whispering in your ear.

At that moment, you're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

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ADVIC calendar with specially commissioned custom artwork. It's beautiful. This

two part resource includes a calendar with a special door

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hidden image, and an encouraging Bible verse. Use it with

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This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again.

Here's Rick.

Now, when you mix all of these together, and you

mix several of these, like frustration and anger and hurt,

it is a powerful combo. And all of a sudden,

you'll hear somebody start whispering in your air. I deserve

to have some relief, I deserve to have some fun.

I deserve to be loved. And that's not God.

Whispering that in your ear.

At that moment, you are being tempted and you're being

set up. And the Bible says this look on the

back of your outline. It says, do not give the

devil a foothold. Circle the word foothold. How do you

give the devil a foothold? What is a foothold. It's

a mental state. It is a negative emotion. Anytime you

hold a negative emotion in your life for an extended

period of time, whether it's anger or worry, or fear,

or bitterness or envy or jealousy or all of these

other things, the longer you hold that, you are allowing

the evil one to get a stronghold in your life

in your brain. So you've got to guard your heart

all right. Number four, the fourth thing you need to

do is you need to pray for deliverance. Pray for deliverance.

What I mean by that is just ask for God's help.

And the Bible tells us God is ready to help.

He says, we're to pray lead us not into temptation,

but deliver.

Us from evil.

That is the prayer of deliverance, and you ask God

for help. Now, the prayer of deliverance is often just

one word help, Okay. It doesn't have to be our gracious,

heavenly Father and knowing no you can do when you

come to the prayer deliverance.

You can do a microwave prayer help. Okay.

You know I'm walking through keep my eyes straight. You

know I'm going through this time. I don't like this person.

I'm gonna have to deal with that clerk who's a jerk.

And I do not want to get impatient. I do

not want to get angry. I do not like the

way my relative treats me. And I'm gonna see them today,

and oh God, you.

Got to help me.

Because I just I lose my Christianity when I'm right

on that person and God, I really need your help

today because everything in me just wants me to slugger

you know, or him or whatever. You know, You just

that relative out there who just irritates you no end, okay,

And so you pray for deliverance. Now. The Bible is

full of examples of people who prayed for deliverance David, Daniel, Peter, Paul.

And God provided provides assistance for anybody who asks, why

can I expect God to help me when I pray

the prayer of deliverance? Because God has promised it. Look

at this verse Psalm fifty, verse fifteen. Call upon me

in your day of trouble. I will deliver you and

you will honor me. God says, you don't have to

have a long conversation. You can just say, Hell, may day,

may day, may day, sos God, I'm facing something now

that will powers not a to keep me being nice

to this person or whatever. God, I need to pray

the prayer of deliverance. And you know what, God's sympathetic

to your situation. He knows everything that's going on in

your life. He knows how irritating those people are. He

knows the things that tempt you in fact, look at

this next verse. Jesus understands our weakness, for he faced

all of the same temptations we do, yet he did

not sin. So let us come boldly to our gracious God,

and then we will receive his mercy and grace to

help us when we need it. Notice, he says, Jesus

understands why is he sympathetic? Notice he faced the same temptation.

Underline that Jesus faced the same temptation. Wait a minute,

You saying Jesus was tempted to get angry.

Yes, I am.

You're telling me Jesus it was tempted to have self pity. Yes,

you're telling him that Jesus had sexual temptations. Absolutely, you're

telling me that Jesus sometimes was fatigued and tempted to

be cranky. Absolutely every basic temptation. The Bible says he

was tempted in all ways like as we Yet he

said not.

That's the difference. He never gave in.

And so he had the freedom to choose. How do

we know that Jesus had the freedom to choose? I mean,

didn't he just have to be perfect because he was God?

No, he didn't. He had the freedom to choose.

That's why even at the cross the night before he's

going to be crucified, he's thinking, I don't want to

be crucified. I don't want to go through all that

thing and in the garden against him, and he's praying

and he's struggling with it, and he says, Father.

Not my will, not my will, but yours be done.

What does that mean?

Jesus had a choice, and he suffered the same temptations

we do in life, and so he understands. And in

John six thirty eight he says, I didn't come to

do my will. I came to do the will of

the Father. So he was God in a human body.

But even better is that he never sinned. What does

that mean he can help you overcome? And so the

Bible says, come boldly to God, Come and say, mayday, Sos,

I need your help. God isn't ticked with you when

you get tempted. He's not gonna scold you when you

tempt me. He said, I'm ready here to help. So

I pray for deliverance. And then number five, this is

the real key on the six steps on the path

to escape. I turn my attention elsewhere. I turn my

attention elsewhere. I change the direction of my thoughts. I

refocus on something else, I shift my attention. If you're

watching something on TV you don't like, you don't sit

there and go I'm not gonna listen. I'm not gonna

list I'm not gonna listen. I Am not gonna listen. No,

you just poop flip the channel.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We are so happy

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be back to close out our time in just a moment.

But first Fall is here, and that means Christmas is

right around the corner. That's why we want to let

you know that Pastor Rick and his wife Kay created

an advent calendar with specially commissioned custom artwork. It's beautiful.

This two part resource includes a calendar with a special

door for every day of December that opens to reveal

a hidden image, and an encouraging Bible verse. Use it

with the Companion Daily Devotional booklet to help you and

your family draw closer to Jesus and prepare your heart

for the real celebration. The Daily Hope Advent Calendar will

help you spend the holidays worshiping instead of worrying, slowing

down and reconnecting with God and expressing gratitude for the

true meaning of the season. You'll want to get the

Daily Hope Advent Calendar and devotional booklet in your hands

now to start using it on December first. This resource

is a perfect way to share the gift of Jesus

at Christmas with your friends and family, and we'll send

it to you to say thanks when you give a

gift to Daily Hope to help take the good news

of Jesus Christ to people everywhere. Quantities are limited, so

get yours now. Call eight hundred six hundred five thousand

and four to support Daily Hope and will send you

this powerful resource. Or you can visit Pastororrick dot com.

That's eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four or

Pastorick dot com. Here's Pastor Rick with the letter from

one of our listeners.

You know, I've often said that I'm addicted to change

lives is what keeps me going. One good story from

you can keep me going for another month. To hear

how God's working in your life. It just keeps me motivated.

So you bless me with your stories. Here's one that

came from a woman named Tania who's a brand new believer.

She wrote, Pastor Rick, I'm a new person in Christ

and I'm learning more and more every day. My supervisor

here at work came in about a week ago and

told me about your Daily Hope devotional and your broadcast.

I am now hooked. Listening to Daily Hope each morning

has become a blessing to my soul. It's really helped

me to implement the Word of God in my daily life. Well, Tania,

this is why we do what we do. This is

why we do Daily Hope for people like you, people

who want to grow, who desire to grow, and who

take the time to grow by getting into God's way

word on a daily basis. Now, I want you to

notice something about Tania's story. She didn't find the Daily

Hope broadcast or podcast on her own. It was her

co worker who told her about Daily Hope. Who have

you told you may have been listening to Daily Hope

for weeks or months or even longer. Would you be

an agent of love? And an agent of hope, and

tell four or five people this week. Look for somebody today,

send an email, write a text, call somebody in a

phone and say this has helped me in my spiritual

life and I want to pass it on to you

that Daily Hope can help you grow in your faith

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tell somebody about it.

God bless you.

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