Rick Warren - Being Faithful in a Faithless World — Part Two

Today on Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren, we continue

in our riveting journey through the series The Invisible War.

In it will explore the unseen world of good and

evil and see how it impacts our day to day existence.

Join us for eye opening biblical insights into the spiritual

dimensions that influence our lives in ways we never imagined.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part

of a message called being faithful in a faithless world.

Anybody be generous when you got a surplus. I can

be generous with my time when I got a lot

extra time. I can be generous with my money when

I got a lot extra money. I can be generous

when with my energy, when I got extra energy to spend.

I can be generous with help when I've got a

lot of extra help to give that when I don't

have enough for me, I don't have enough time for me,

I don't have enough energy for me, I don't have

enough money for me, I don't have enough talent for me,

and I give it a way to help others. God

goes This is a test and I'm watching you to

see if you are faithful it will you be faithful

and will you trust me?

Now.

A great example of this in the Bible is the

story of the Church in Macedonia. Macedonia was an area

of Greece. Alexander the Great he was from Macedonia. His

father was Philip of Macedonia. Now there's a church in

this place called Macedonia in Greece, and there's another church

in Greece called the Corinthians.

Corinth is a city in Greece.

And Paul writes a letter to the church at Corinth

and he's bragging on the church at Macedonia for them

being generous in the middle of their shortages.

Here's what he says.

Look up here on the screen, he says, those people

over there in Macedonia, they're going through this enormous recession.

He goes, they have been going through severe trouble. They've

been going through very hard times, and out of their

extreme poverty, these people are flat broke has flowed extreme

generosity and overwhelming joy.

What's you talking about, he said, Those.

People over there, they are hurting like crazy, but they

gave a huge offering to help the church down in

Jerusalem that's starving right now. He goes, out of their

poverty came generosity. He said, God's watching that they are

being faithful.

They are being faithful.

Did you know that the number one test, the acid

test of your faith in your life, is.

Your finances, not anything else. But it's your finances.

Why Because we spend most of our time thinking, making, worrying, investing,

saving money.

It's the acid test.

Of how much do I trust God my finances? In fact,

Jesus said it like this. I tell you use worldly wealth,

your worldly resources.

That's your time, your money, your energy, everything. Use your worldly.

Resources to benefit others and to make friends for eternity,

in other words, to help get people into heaven, finance missions.

In this way, your generosity stores up a reward for

you in heaven, he said. When you help other people

with whatever you've got, you're storing up a reward for

you in heaven. But if you are unfaithful, there's that word.

If you're unfaithful with your worldly wealth, you just spend

it all on yourself. Who will trust you with the

true riches of heaven. You cannot serve both God and money.

Did you know that God says, I use money to

test how much I'm going to be able to trust

you in heaven. He said, If I can't trust you

with material world wealth in this world, I'm not going

to trust you with the true riches of heaven in eternity.

This is a test. Money management is not just.

A good idea staying out of debt, investing wisely, giving liberally,

sharing generously. That's not just a good idea. It is

a spiritual test. And God says, if you're not faithful

in how you handle your finances on earth, I'm not

going to trust you with true spiritual blessing in heaven.

It's a test. It's a test.

Now, friends, as your pastor who loves you, I told

you I'm praying for your blessing, and I pray for

your financial blessing.

I do it all the time.

I want you to succeed financially, not so you can

be some fat cat and just spend it all on yourself,

but so that you can use it wisely and then

be rewarded in heaven.

That's what I want God to do.

I want you to get those rewards in heaven, and

I pray for you to be financially successful, so not

so you can go spend it on a bunch of luxuries,

but so that you can use it to help other

people and then get rewards in heaven. So you need

to know I'm praying for your success. But let me

give you five principles right now. I want you to

write these down to make it through tough times. These

are five principles that if you will do these things,

God will bless you.

In your life in these areas. Okay. Number one.

First principle in a recession, God gives to generous people.

God gives to generous people. This is a principle in

the Bible. God says, the more generous you are, the

more generous I'm going to be with you. If you're

generous with your time, I'm going to give you more time.

If you're generous with your energy, I'm going to give

you more energy. If you're generous with your talent, I'm

going to give you more talent. God says, why does

God want me to be generous? Obviously he doesn't need it.

He wants me to be like him. Everything I have

in my life, everything you have in your life, is

because of the generosity of God. Your heart is beating

because of the generosity of God. The blood in your

veins and the air you breathe is all there because

of the generosity of God. God so loved that he gave.

And God wants us to grow up and be like him,

like father, like son, like father, like daughter. God wants

me to learn to be generous, and so he rewards it.

And there's a principle throughout the Bible where God says,

the more generous you are, the more generous I will.

Be with you.

You cannot outgive God. I have played this game for

many years. Most of you know my story. He and

I started tithing when we were married thirty six years ago,

and each year raised our tithe from ten percent at

least one percent a year to eleven percent, to twelve

percent to thirteen fifteen. Sometimes on big years i'd get

a raise. I'd raise it three or four percent. Sometimes

it was really tight, we were barely making ends meet.

We'd raised it just quarter percent. Why we didn't tell

We weren't trying to show off. I didn't tell anybody

about this for thirty years. But I wanted my heart

to grow bigger, and every year I wanted to be

more like Jesus. So I was trying to learn generous.

Most of you know that today CA and I give

away ninety one percent of our income and live on

nine percent. Most of you know I don't take a

salary from this church. I've served this church free for

thirty one years, and it's been fun learning to give

it away. And I've played this game where God says, rick,

you give to me, and I'll give.

To you and we'll see who wins.

And I have lost that game for thirty six years. People, Obviously,

why do you think God shows you to write the

best selling book in history.

I'll tell you why. God knew what I'd do with

the money.

He knew that I wouldn't spend it on myself, that

I would use it for good.

And for God.

I mean, when I wrote that book, if I had

wanted to, I could have gone and bought a dozen Bentleys.

I could have gone out and bought an island and

retired and had people serve me little glasses of iced

tea with umbrellas in them.

But it's not about you now.

God gives to generous people, and the more I give,

the more God blesses me.

Number two, this is a real important one.

Obeying God's vision will bring God's provision obeying God's vision

will bring God's provision. In other words, if you do

what God tells you to do, and you don't have

the money, you don't have the energy, you don't have

the people, you don't have it, God will bring.

It along the resources you need at the right time.

Because what He calls you to do, he's going to

fulfill what he's given you the vision for.

He will give you the provision for. He'll give you

the provision for.

And so what you need to do is you step

out in faith to do what you know God's called

you to do.

This is a real important one.

When I do all God tells me to do, he

does what I can't do. When I do all God

tells me to do, he does what I can't do.

Now, this story of the Feeding of.

The five thousand in the Bible is a perfect example

of this. Do you remember this story, the miracle of

Jesus feeding five thousand people. They're all out in the desert.

Jesus been teaching all day. It's the end of the

day and everybody's hungry. There's no McDonald's anywhere, So the

disciples come to Jesus says.

Send them all away. Lord so then go home and eat.

Jesus looks at the disciples and he says, you feed him. Now,

that was impossible. Here God often asks you to do

the impossible, to stretch your faith. He looks and says,

you feed him. He said, Lord, we can't. We don't

have any money, we don't have any food. There's no

place to buy food.

We can't. Jesus said, you feed him.

So that he says, anybody got a lunch? And out

of that entire five thousand people, one little kid has

little sack lunch. And in that little sack lunch are

five little tiny rolls of bread and two little fish

like sardines. And the little kid takes his measly little

lunch and he gives it to Jesus.

He gives Jesus everything he's got.

It's not much, but he gives to him. Jesus takes it,

he breaks it, he blesses it, and he multiplies it,

and he feeds five thousand people with it. And then

at the end of their all feeling, they gather twelve

baskets of leftover.

There was so much leftover. What's the principle there?

When I give what little I've got, God multiplies it

and he makes up for it. Fourth principle very important.

When I have a need, I sow a seed. When

I have a need, I sew a seed. Now here's

the point. Whatever you need more of give it away.

If you need more energy, give energy to helping other

people and God will give you more energy. If you

need more time, give some of your time away unselfishly

and God will give you more time. If you need

more intelligence, you give whatever you got away to help others.

If you need more money, whatever you need, you sow

a seed. Can you imagine a farmer going, well, it's recession.

I think I'll just keep all the seed in the barn. No,

you got a planet in order to profit from it. Now,

whatever you need in your life, you sow that as

a seed, and it will be responsible to come back

to you. Here's the fifth principle, very important. There's always

a delay between sowing and reaping. There is always a

delay between sowing and reaping. In other words, if I

go out and I plant a kernel of corn in

the ground tomorrow, I'm not going to see a full

grown stock of corn with twenty years on it.

It ain't going to happen.

There is a season between planting and harvesting, Between the

seed and the fruit, there is always a time delay.

And what's going on in the time delay. This is

a test. It's a test of your faith. There's two

other ways that God tests your faithfulness.

And see when you.

Pass these tests, he pours out blessing on your life.

Here they are a number five.

Faithful people bring friends to Jesus. God is watching you

and faithful people. Faithful people share their faith. Faithful people

share their faith. Faithful people bring others into the faith.

If I don't share my faith, I am being unfaithful.

Now.

A good example of this is these four guys in

the Bible had a friend who was paralyzed, and they

had the faith to think, you know, if we could

just get our friend to Jesus, Jesus would heal the

guy and then our friend would be well. And they

had faith that if they could get their friend to Jesus,

he'd be healed. The story is told here in They're

on your Outline. In Matthew chapter nine, it says some

men brought to Jesus a paralytic, a paralyzed man, a

paralyzed friend lying on a mat. He couldn't even get

to Jesus. He was paralyzed. When Jesus saw their faith

circle the phrase their faith. When Jesus saw their faith,

he said to the paralyzed man, take heart, son, your

sins are forgiven. I didn't print the rest verse. Rest

verse says, and they said, take up your mat and

go home. And the guy was instantly healed. Now Jesus

heals the guy. Now, according to that verse, did Jesus

heal the guy because of the sick man's faith or

because of the friend's faith?

What?

Yeah, the friends, It says, when Jesus saw their faith,

you guys had enough faith that if you could get

your paralyzed man to me, I'd save him on the

basis of their faith.

Not the guy who was sick, but their faith.

He healed the man. Now, listen very closely. You have

friends that are paralyzed and can't get to Jesus. You

have friends who are paralyzed by guilt and they can't

get to Jesus. They're paralyzed by doubt and they can't

get to Jesus. They're paralyzed by fear, they're paralyzed by worry,

they're paralyzed by insecurity.

And they can't get to Jesus.

And the only way they're going to get to Jesus

is you're going to have to bring them. And if

you have enough faith to bring them to Jesus, they

will get saved. But they're not going to get saved.

They're not going to be healed. Their life is going

to be turned around until you have enough faith to

bring them to Jesus. Now, when God looks out and

he sees people bringing people to him, he not only

heals those people, he blesses the person who brought them.

If you want the blessing of God on your business,

if you want the blessing of God on your family,

if you want the blessing of God on your life,

just start bringing friends to Jesus. And if you bring

your friends to Jesus, God says, that's the kind of

person I'm looking for. They are are faithful, and God

blesses faithfulness. You want God's blessing on any air of

your life, just start bringing your friends to Jesus, and

you watch what happens. God will do things in your life,

your finances, your health, your business. You could not imagine

faithful people bring friends to Jesus, which is why we

don't ever stop reaching out. One last principle, number five

R six. Faithful people build the faith of others. Faithful

people build the faith of others, and when God sees

your faithfulness, he blesses you. Now, building the faith of

others is called mentoring or discipling. It's simply encouraging somebody

in the faith who's younger in the faith than you.

Everybody in life needs a Pall, and everybody needs a Timothy.

What's a Pall.

That's somebody who's older than you who can kind of

encourage you and encourage you and be a coach to

you spiritually and just be there to pray for you.

Everybody needs Paul, and everybody needs a Timothy. That's somebody

who's not been a Christian as long as you, maybe

you've only been a Christian one week longer. But they

can be your Timothy. And you need to be mentoring

somebody younger than you. Now, you don't need to be

one hundred steps ahead of that person because they can't

see you. You only need to be one step ahead.

And if you start helping other people in their faith,

you're going to find God blessing your socks off. Faithful

people build the faith of others. God has called every

Christian to do this. Notice this verse second Timothy, Chapter two,

Verse two. The things Paul is talking to Timothy, Paul says,

the thing you've learned, things you've learned from me, Timothy,

in the presence of many witnesses, you are to entrust

to other faithful people. There's that word faithful, who will

also be qualified to pass it.

On to others.

Now, notice in that verse there are four generations. Paul says,

I helped build up your faith. Now you're to find

somebody who's faithful and help build up their faith, who

they will turn around and build up the faith of others.

Four generations in one verse, four generations. This is called mentoring,

it's called discipling.

Don't you wish.

When you were in your twenties and you're a young guy,

if you had had an older guy who was a

Christian who said, you know what, I don't know a

whole lot, but let's just get together for coffee once

a month and we'll just talk and I'll pray for you,

and you need some help in your business.

I don't know a whole lot. But I can tell

you what. I know you need some help in your family,

your marriage.

I can tell you what not to do. I can

tell you what not to do. That's mentoring. See, it's

wise to learn from experience. It's wise to learn from

experiences mistakes of others. I don't have time to learn

it all my life. And let's say, if you're a

young woman, wouldn't you like to have an older woman,

a godly woman, who takes you under your her wing

and says, look, I know you got problems with your kids,

problems with your husband, or problems with your career, or

problems with this going to school. I'll tell you what.

I'll just be there to hang on with you. I'll

be there to pray with I don't know a whole lot,

but I'll just be.

There for you. Wouldn't you have wanted that as a

young Christian? Of course you would have. Of course you

would have.

I have had six mentors in my life. One of

them died this week. His name was John Stott. He

was ninety years old. He lived in England. He wrote

over fifty books. He was one, in my opinion, of

the four greatest Christians of the twentieth century. To me,

the four greatest Christians of the twentieth century were Billy Graham, Pope,

John Paul, the Second Mother, Teresa, and.

John Stott.

John Stott was a mentor to me, and in my

life I've had six different mentors who encouraged me. Now,

he didn't sit down and teach me lessons. I just

call him up and talk. And I just knew that

there was somebody who was a little further down the

road than I was who cared about me. Now, I

know what somebody's saying, Rick, you don't know the mess

I've made of my life. You don't know all the

problems I've done. You don't have to be perfect to

be a mentor. If you did, there would be no mentors.

There are no perfect mentor. Everybody's flawed. It's interesting to

me that when God chose the leader of the church,

the person he chose out of all his twelve disciples

was the biggest failure. He chose Peter, the guy who

denied Jesus three times, is the guy Jesus chose to

be the leader of the first Church and preach on

the day of Pentecost, and three thousand people were saved.

God loves to use losers. He doesn't use the perfect winners.

He loves to use losers. And he chose the biggest

leader loser, to be the leader who can better understand

somebody going through a bankruptcy than somebody's been through bankruptcy,

somebody who's had problems with their kids, then somebody who's

had problems with their kids. Somebody's gone through cancer, then

somebody who's going through cancer, somebody who went through cancer,

somebody who struggled with drugs, and somebody who struggled with drugs.

Don't waste your hurts.

Use them to help the next generation. God will use it.

Here's what Jesus said to Peter Luke twenty two. This

is before Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus knew he

was going to do it, and he said this, Peter,

Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I've

prayed for you that your faith will not completely fail.

He said, Peter, I already know you're going to fail,

but I've already prayed for you, and I know you're

going to come out of it. So after you've repented

and come back to me, after you've blown it, and

you've come back to me.

Strengthen and build up the faith of your brothers. Another

hey saying be a mentor.

What I want you'll be able to do this fall

is you to take your biggest problems and failures and

save somebody else from making the same mistake. And you'll

be able to say, like job, look up here on

the screen. This is what a mentor does. You'll sing

God's praises to everyone you meet testifying. Here's what you'll say.

I messed up my life. I messed up my life

and let me tell you, it wasn't worth it. But

God stepped in and saved me and I'm alive again.

That's called mentoring. I messed up my life. Let me

tell you it wasn't worth it. But God stepped in

and saved me. And he'll help you too. So hang

in there. God is going to use you as a mentor.

That's power.

Heads.

I want you to follow me in this prayer after

I pray for you Lord. I know, Father, you're looking

for faithful people to use. You're looking for faithful people

to bless. I know that people of real faith are

hard to find, and yet you have said Faithfulness is

the key to blessing. It is the key to victory,

and that a faithful man, a faithful woman.

Will be richly blessed.

I want these people in our family to be richly blessed.

So help us to respond to the sixth test of

faith with the way that we ought to respond.

Now you pray in your in your heart, in your mind,

say this, Dear God, Please use the little things in

my life to grow my integrity, the stuff that nobody sees.

Help me to be faith that which isn't my own,

so that you can give me my own. And God,

use my talents to grow my unselfishness. Help me to

realize that my giftedness, my abilities were not made for

my benefit, but to make the world a better place

and to help others. Lord, the tough times I'm going through,

I'm going to ask you to use them to grow

my persistence.

Help me to not give up, help me to keep.

On keeping on, Help me to lot look at the problem,

but the reward in Heaven for growing in character. And

you know, Lord, the stuff that I lack, that I've

got a shortage.

On in my life.

I'm going to ask you to help me to grow

in generosity through the shortages of my life. To be

generous when I can't afford it, with my time, with

my pray. Help me to be generous in affirming others.

To be generous with my money. Help me to be

generous with my love. Help me to be generous not

with criticism, but with praise. I want to learn to

be generous in every area. I want to obey your

vision and expect your provision. I want to do what

you tell me to do and then watch you make

up the difference. I want to be generous so that

you can be generous to me, so I can be more.

Generous where I have a need.

Help me plant a seed, and when there's a delay

between the seed and the harvest, help me to realize

you are still.

You're still testing my faith. Lord.

I want your blessing on my family, on my business,

on my life. Help me to faithfully bring other friends

to the faith. To bring my friends to Jesus who

are paralyzed and don't have enough faith on their own

to come to you and help me to build the

faith of others. It scares me to death, but I'm

willing to be a mentor. I ask you to help

me be a faithful person, so that you can bless

me in your name. If you've never invited Jesus Christ

in your life, say Jesus Christ, come into my life

right now.

I want to put my faith in you. Amen.

Hi, everybody, this is Rick and I hope you enjoyed

today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed that prayer

for the very first time, or you just recommitted your

life to Jesus again today, would you let me know

about it. There's something real about sharing your commitment. So

write me Rick at Pastorrick dot com and say, Rick,

I prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life

to Christ. And I'll send you some material that will

help you on your journey with Jesus. And I'll also

pray for you. God bless you.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy

you've chosen to study along with us today. Why is

everything in life so hard? Why does the right thing

often feel like a battle. It's because every day there's

a spiritual war raging all around you. Here's Pastor Rick

to tell you more. You know, we all face temptations

every day. It's a spiritual battle that takes place inside us,

and it makes us vulnerable, particularly if we don't know

how to fight it. To overcome temptation is absolutely essential

that you know the tactics that Satan uses to trip

us up.

And it's vital to learn the biblical defenses that God

gives us. He has told us in his Word how

to handle and how to manage the attacks of Satan.

In order to help you learn how to respond to

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Battle of Temptation, includes a DVD with seven different sessions

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