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

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 would part one of a message called being

Faithful in a Faithless World.

Everything in this world focuses against you to keep you

from living by faith. That's why this weekend in this series,

I want us to look at being faithful in a

faithless world. In Luke chapter eighteen, Jesus said this. He said,

when I the Son of Man return, and Jesus is

coming back one day, when I have the Son of

Man return, how many will I find on earth who

have faith? Why is it so important? Well? The Bible

tells us three things about the importance of faith. I

want you to write these down. Number one, the Bible

tells us that God is looking for faithful people. God

is physically, visibly, actively taking the initiative to look for

faithful people that he can bless. God is looking for

people that he can bless, and what he looks for

is people of faith. Second Chronicle sixteen to nine says this,

for the eyes of the Lord search back and forth

across the whole world, looking for people whose hearts are

perfect toward him, so that he can show his great

power in helping them. This has been one of my

life verses, that God is looking for people to use,

and if you get usable, he will wear you out.

If you get blessible, he will bless your socks off.

That's why I don't socks, and God says, I will

use you if you will be usable. God is looking

for people, faithful people that he can use. Number two.

The second thing the Bible teaches is that faithful people

are hard to find. They're actually quite rare. People who

trust God with all their heart and soul and mind

the strength. They're actually quite rare. Faithful people are hard

to find, the Bible says in Proverbs twenty verse six

or verse yes, it says everyone talks about how faithful

he is, but it is difficult to find someone who

really is, a lot of people talk the talk, but

they don't really trust God. They don't really believe God.

They're trusting their credit card, they're trusting everything else. They

say they believe in God, but they don't really trust

him when it comes to their finances, their health, their job,

and these other things. Psalm fifty three says this God

looks down from heaven at the children of men to

see if a single one is wise and seeks God.

But he says, all of them have proven faithless. Circle

that word faithless. They've all proven faithless. They've all been

corrupted by the world, and not one of them always

does right. Faithful people are hard to find. God's looking

for people to bless but he can't find people who

are blessable, who are going to live by faith. Now,

the third thing that Bible says is this faithfulness is

the key to blessing, to victory. It's the key to

victory in your life over all of the problems in

your life. And it's the key to blessing in your

life just being a faithful man a faithful woman. The

Bible says this in First John chapter five. Every child

of God can defeat the world. Remember, we're in this

battle called the invisible war. And it is our faith

circle that our faith that gives us the victory. That's

how you're going to overcome your problems. Not by intelligence,

not by money, not by creativity, but it is by

your faith you're going to be able to overcome difficulties, distress, despair,

things like that. Every child of God can defeat the world,

and it is our faith that gives us us victory.

No one can defeat the world without having faith in

Jesus as the son of God. And the Bible says

in Proverbs twenty eight to twenty, a faithful man will

be richly blessed. As your pastor, I pray that God

will bless your life. I want God's blessing on your life.

I want you to have physical blessing, financial blessing, emotional blessing.

I want you to have spiritual blessings. I want you

to have relational and vocational mental I want every area

of your life social to be blessed, and I want

it to be like this, A faithful man will be

richly blessed. Your life to be richly blessed. But in

order for you to have that blessing, you're going to

have to learn faithfulness. You're going to have to learn

how God tests it. And you're going to have to

learn how God grows it. So let's look this weekend

at the sixth test of faithfulness and how God uses

these things in your life to grow your faith so

that then He can bless you. Let's get right into it.

Number one. The Bible tells us that God uses little

things to test your integrity. God uses little things to

intest your integrity. Now, we often think, oh, it's the

big things in life that create a leader. No, the

big crises in life reveal leadership. But leadership is built

not in the big things of life. It's built in

the small things of life. That's where integrity shows up

in the stuff nobody sees, in the stuff behind the scenes,

in the small, uns seen, unspectacular moral choices of life,

where you do the right thing and nobody's ever going

to see it. God tests your integrity in the little things,

and faithfulness requires integrity. Faithful people reveal their integrity in

the small, the unseen, and the unnoticed acts that nobody

ever knows about. Luke sixteen, Verse ten, Jesus says this,

whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in

large ones. And who is ever dishonest in small matters

will be dishonest in large ones. Now, what is he

saying here? He's saying, your public blessing is determined by

your private integrity. Did you hear that every time a

politician has a scandal, you can always count on his

defenders to come out and say this. It really shouldn't

matter what a guy's private life is like. Have you

ever heard that one? It really shouldn't matter what a

guy does in his private life. It hasn't had anything

to do with him as a leader. It has everything

to do with him as a leader. Because if a

man lies to his wife, he'll lie to his constituency.

Believe me, if he'll lie to his best friend that

he said till death, do us part and be dishonest,

and he'll reject and cheat on her, he will cheat

on you. Voter, count on it. Count on it. My

public blessing as a leader comes because of private integrity

that nobody ever sees. Your public blessing as a person

comes from your private integrity that nobody will ever see.

God uses little things to test my integrity. Not only that,

Notice the next verse, Jesus says this, and if you

have not been faithful with that which belongs to somebody else,

who will give you what belongs to you. Now. He's

talking here about the concept of apprenticeship that before God

gives you something, he will often loan it to you.

He'll often see how you work in somebody else's For

many centuries, the only way you learned a job scale

is you became an apprentice in somebody else's job. If

you wanted to learn to be a shoemaker, you apprenticed

to a shoemaker who mentored you. If you wanted to

be a mechanic, you apprenticed to a mechanic and you

worked in his mechanic shop before you got your own.

The problem today is we have many people going out

and starting things, and they've never apprenticed under anybody else,

and they get in all kinds of trouble. He says,

before you get your own, you need to serve in

somebody else. As a pastor, I apprenticed under many other

ministries before I was given my own ministry. I served

as a youth pastor under Guy's ministry in Norwalk. I

served as a Christian teacher in a college before under

somebody else's ministry, I served as an associate pastor. I

served as a writer in a Christian organization long before

God gave me my own ministry. He says, if you're

not faithful with somebody else's job, who's going to give you?

Are you as particular with somebody else loans you something?

Somebody loans you a car, do you treat it as

nicely as you treat your own car. Somebody loans you

their home to go on vacation, do you treat it

as nicely as you would your own home. You see,

I learned a long time ago this principle. I don't

have to own it to enjoy it, but I can

take care of it even though it's not mine, And

so I don't have to own stuff for people to

you know, this week a guy I had to fly

over to the Phoenix to speak at a convention, and

the guy said, Rick, why don't you get your own

play I said, absolutely not, never. You will never hear

me get my own plate. Now, if you want to

buy one, I'll use yours. I'll be happy. But I

don't have to own it to enjoy it. He said,

but you fly all around the world. I said, no, no,

I don't. I'm not going to buy a plane. First place,

I don't think it's good for pastors to own that

kind of stuff. But I said, I don't have to

own it to enjoy it. If somebody else wants to

provide you got a plane, fine, I'll use it, but

don't worry about having to own something in order to

enjoy it. God will often try and trust you with

something that somebody else's before he gives you your own.

So God number one uses little things to test my integrity.

Number two second, very important. God uses my talents to

test my unselfishness. God uses my talents to test my unselfishness.

Now you have to decide in life, who are what

you're going to live for? And you've really got two

choices in life. You're either gonna a live for yourself,

a self centered, miserly life, or b you're going to

live for something greater than yourself, which I highly suggest

the Kingdom of God live for Jesus Christ. You're going

to live for yourself, or you're going to live for

something bigger than yourself. Faithful people don't live for themselves.

They realize that the talents God gave them are not

for their own benefit, but they're for them to make

the world a better place. Do you realize this that

when God made you, he gave you all kinds of gifts,

all kinds of talents, all kinds of abilities. And God

made you you and there's nobody like you in the

whole world, and He wants you to be you for

his glory. Now, God shaped you to serve him. How

do you serve God? There's only one way to serve

God by serving other people on this planet. You cannot

serve God directly because you can't see him. So the

only way you can serve God is by serving others.

And when you serve others, you are serving God. And

God shaped you to serve him. Now, faithful people realize

that their talents are not for their benefit. You know,

those talents you got, I'm sorry they weren't given for

your sake. You were given the abilities you got to

help other people. For instance, one of my gifts, one

of my talents is I having a talent at teaching.

But God gave me the teaching gift not to benefit me,

but to help you. My gift helps you in the

same way God has gifted you. And your gift was

meant to help me and to help other people around you. Now,

if I don't use my gifts my talents, you get cheated.

If you don't use the gifts and talents that God

gave you, I get cheated. Now you may have a

talent for art, and you say, well, why do I

do art because I just love to do it. Well,

that's nice, but that's not a good enough motive, because

God didn't give you artistic ability just so you can

love to do it. He gave it to you so

you can use your art in some ways to help

other people. Some of you have an ability to fix things.

Some of you are good at mechanics. Some of you

are good at math. Some of you are good at

closing deals. Some of you are good at music. Some

of you are good at organizing, and you can organize

something really quick. And some of you are good at

trimming and gardening. And you know what, God made us

all different, so everything in the world gets done. If

we all like to do the same thing, there'd be

a lot left undone. So God made us all like

to do different things. Now, those things that God gave

you are not for your benefit. They are given as

a stewardship. And God is watching you to see if

you use what he gave you a f effectively on earth.

And if you use it effectively on earth, listen, he's

going to give you more responsibility in heaven. There's a

whole lot of teaching on this in scripture. Jesus told

many parables about it, that God is studying your faithfulness.

Have you ever thought about why didn't God just create

us and take us to heaven? Why does he put

us here on a broken planet for eighty years or

ninety years or whatever. He puts you here because life

is a test, and life is a trust, and life

is a temporary assignment. And he's watching to see if

you are faithful with what he gave you here on

earth to bless other people. He's going to give you

greater rewards, greater responsibility, and greater roles in heaven. This

is a test. Now. The Bible says this one Peter

chapter four. Each one of you should use whatever gift

he has received to make a ton of money, retire

and die. No, no, no, he says, to serve others faithfully.

Circle that word faithfully, faithfully administering. You're a manager, and

you're a manager of the talent you've been given faithfully

managing God's grace in its various form. God gave you talents,

and he's watching to see if you're faithful with him. Now.

One of the principles we know is if you don't

use it, you lose it. Talent is like a muscle.

If you use muscle, it gets stronger. If you don't

use your muscle, you lose your muscle. If you don't

use your talent because of fear or laziness or anything

like that, God will take it away and give it

to somebody else. Whatever you use wisely, God gives you

more of. Would you write that down? Whatever I use wisely,

God will give me more of. If you use your

time wisely, God will give you more time. If you

use your energy wisely, God will give you more energy.

If you use your money wisely, God will give you

more money. I have found that if you use your

influence wisely, God will give you more influence. But if

you're faithful and little, then you'll be faithful and much so.

If I take my talents, if I use my talents wisely,

God will increase my talent, and I'll get better at it,

and I'll get more better at it and better and

better and better, because God gives to people who use

what he gives them effectively. Look at the next verse.

Now it is required that those who have been given

a trust must prove what That's what we're talking about

this weekend. God is watching to see do I use

my time, my money, my influence. Do I use my intelligence?

Do I use my brain wisely? Then He's going to

give you more. Whatever I use wisely, God will give

me more of There are two great themes in the Bible.

Two great themes. One is salvation and the other is stewardship.

They're taught from cover to cover. Salvation is have I

trusted Jesus for my forgiveness? Stewardship is what are you

doing with what you've been given? And God is looking

at both of these major themes in your life. Number

three the third test, and if you pass this test,

then God gives you more blessing. And this test will

be on and on. Number three, God uses tough times

to teach me persistence. God uses tough times to teach

me persistence. The difference between faithful people and unfaithful people

is unfaithful people give up at the first sign of difficulty.

Faithful people keep on keeping on. Faithful people are determined.

Faithful people are diligent. Paithful people are persistent. Faithful people

don't know how to quit. Do you know how a

little nut an acorn becomes an oak tree? Oak tree

is just an acorn that refused to give up, and

it just kept on keeping on, and you just never

give up. I'm not that smart, but I do not

have one thing is I don't know how to quit.

It is always too soon to quit. You are never

a failure to you quit, and it's always too soon

to quit. God uses tough times to test my persistence.

You know, when we started Saddleback with Just K I

preached the first sermon to one person, my wife. She

thought it was too long. It's been downhill ever since.

Thirty one years later, she's still saying it's too long.

Over the next I thought when we started the church,

we'd get a building real quick. We went fifteen years

without a building. In the first thirteen years of this church,

we used seventy nine different facilities. Do you know how

many times I felt like giving up, just every Monday morning?

But I don't know how to quit, And we said

God said Rick. If I never give you a building,

will you still serve me? I said absolutely. Saddleback grew

to over ten thousand people before we built this first building.

How would you like to set up and take down

a church for ten thousand people every week. There's not

a lot of glory to that. It's just hard work.

God says, I use tough times to test your persistence.

Notice this verse. You're going through tough times right now.

This verse is for you, two Corinthians four. This is

why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying,

our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present

troubles are quite small, and they won't last very long.

They will produce for us an immeasurably great glory that

will last forever. Because when you're going through tough times,

you're growing in character. So he says, we don't look

at the troubles we can see right now now, We

don't keep our eyes on the problem. Rather, we look

forward to what we have not seen. The reward for persevering.

For the troubles we've seen will soon be over, but

the joys to come will last forever. You see, there's

something God is more interested in than what you do.

God is more interested in who you are than what

you do. He's more interested in what you're becoming than

what's happening to you. And God often allows trials, troubles, tribulations, problems,

persistence in your life to teach you the diligence, determination,

and character. The problem you're going through right now, this

is a test. It's a test of your faith faith.

It's a test of your faithfulness. Will you continue to

serve God even when life sucks. It's easy to serve

God when things are going great. Now, if you're going

through a tough time right now and almost everybody is.

The next verse you need to memorize. So put a

star by it, go home and write it down on

a card and memorize it this week for encouragement. Galatians six'.

Nine don't get tired of doing what is. Right you

will circle will not. Might you will be rewarded when

the time is. Right if you don't give. UP i

want us to read that verse aloud. Together read it with.

Me don't get tired of doing what's. Right you will

be rewarded when the time is. Right if you don't give,

up you need to memorize that, verse Because god uses

tough times to test your persistence of my great spiritual

LESSONS i learned from that Theologian Forrest. Gump everybody remember

the Story Forrest. Gump. Okay In Forrest, gump there's a

story of a hard time that they go through which

a hurricane tsunami comes into The south part Of. America,

okay and all of the fishing, Remember Forrest gump has

a fishing, Boat Bubba Gump. Shrimp, okay he's got a fishing,

boat and all of the other fishing. Boats, say we

got a storm coming, in so we're gonna play it.

Safe we're not gonna be out fishing during the. Storm

we're gonna pull into the. Harbor we're gonna batten down the.

Hatches we're gonna tie up next to, shore and we're

gonna wade out this, recession this. Storm economic tough times are.

Coming we got a storm coming. In it's a parable

and so we're gonna tie up and we're gonna play it.

Safe we're not gonna be out. Fishing we're gonna wait

it out the. Storm we're going to be playing. Conservative nothing,

ventured nothing, Gain only one fishing boat is doing what

fishing boats are made to. Do, Fish and So Forrest

gump is out on the ocean fishing in the middle

of the. Storm if you remember this, story at the

end of the, storm every boat that had tied down

in the harbor was. Destroyed they had all been dashed

against the. Rocks they were completely dominated and broken, up

and they were all. Destroyed and after the, Storm Forrest

gump dominated the market because he was the only one

who didn't play it. Safe Saddleback church was made to.

Fish jesus, Said i'll make you fishes of men number.

Four the fourth thing that you need to understand is

That god uses shortages to test my. Generosity god uses

shortages to test my. Generosity faithful people are generous when

they don't have it to.

Give you're listening To Pastor Rick's Daily. Hope we're so

happy you've chosen to study along with us. Today Here's

Pastor rick with a letter from one of our.

Listeners. TODAY i want to share with you a NOTE

i got in the mail From. Alyssa she, Wrote, Hi Pastor.

Rick i'm a thirty three year old living In, Jamestown North,

dakota And i'm married with three. KIDS i just want

to thank you so much for Your Daily hope. BROADCAST

i listen to them, regularly And i've learned so. Much you.

KNOW i realized very quickly THAT i needed to have

a notebook journal available to write down all the notes

AS i listened to. YOU i love the convenience that

the podcast, have AND i turned them on As i'm

getting ready in the, morning While i'm, cooking Or i'm

in the car, traveling and even when i'm working, out

which is. Great i've also been sharing them with several.

PEOPLE i often think of specific people THAT i want

to share your podcast with After i've heard your. MESSAGE

i don't know if they've listened to them or not

After i've shared, them BUT i do know that one

of my friends has been regularly listening to you now

AND i ran into her at the park when she was,

jogging and when she stopped to say, HI i could

hear your voice in her. Earbuds that's. Great she's been

struggling with a verbally abusive relationship for many, years AND

i know that Your Daily hope has helped. Her. Rick

god has really used you to reach so many, people

AND i thank you for being obedient To him And

he's calling to. YOU i will continue to pray for.

You thank you for impacting my, Life. Alissa, Well, alissa

thank you for sending this. Message you know we live

to hear these, stories And i'm so glad to hear

How god is Using Daily hope not only in your,

life but in the life of your friends Because you've

cared enough to pass. On so thanks for sharing that

podcast with. OTHERS i know you're being a blessing to,

them AND i want to say to the rest of,

you have you shared the news Of Daily hope with?

Anybody would you find one person today and recommend that

they start listening To Daily, hope either on the radio

or on a podcast or getting the daily devotional through the.

Email we are here to help you fulfill your mission

in Sharing christ with other, People so tell one person

today About Daily.

Hope if you'd like to Bless Pastor rick by letting

him know how much this broadcast has helped, you please

send him an email At rick At pastorrick dot. Com

That's rick At pastorick 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