Rick Warren - Why We Need Each Other—Part Four

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series

called Better Together. In this series, Rick takes us through

First Corinthians chapter thirteen and shows us how to cultivate deep,

meaningful relationships with the people around us. In just a

few moments, we're going to tell you how you can

get a copy of Pastor Rick's book called God's Power

to Change Your Life. In it, you'll discover how God

provides the power you need to take you from where

you are to where you want to be. Find out

more by going to Pastorick dot com, or by texting

the word Daily to eight hundred, six hundred five thousand

and four while you listen to today's message, that's Pastorick

dot com or the word Daily to eight hundred, six

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

Warren with the final part of a message called why

we Need each Other.

In a war, everybody has to take time on sentry

duty while everybody else is sleeping. Somebody stays awake to

make sure the enemy isn't crashing in now, since nine

to eleven, we've all been a whole lot more vigilant

for each other with terrorism and things like that. But

did you know that you have an enemy far more

destructive than terrorists. Oh yeah, you have a personal enemy.

And he hates your guts and he wants to defeat you.

His name is Satan, and Satan wants to mess up

your life. Satan wants to bring problems in your life.

Satan wants to ruin your relationships. He wants to hurt

you as bad as he can. Now, why would he

do that? Because he can't hurt God. See Satan, what

he wants to do is he wants to hurt God,

but he can't. When he can't hurt somebody, what do

you do? You go after their children. If you couldn't

get to me, you'd go after my wife or my kids.

Satan can't hurt God, so what does he do? He

tries to hurt God's children and he doesn't care what

it'll take, how badly you get hurt. He wants to

mess you up anyway, And the moment you wake up

in the morning, he's already been plotting how to get

you to waste that day, to blow it with anger

or worry or fear or guilt or shame or depression,

or any other resentment or bitterness. He'll just try to

get you all messed up. I've been reading this nine

to eleven report from the Commissions. Interesting reading, But as

I read it, I thought, what are the parallels here

between our battle, our spiritual battle against Satan. Now listen

to this, Listen to this parallel. We learned about an enemy,

this is what the committee reported, who is sophisticated, patient, disciplined,

and lethal.

That's exactly what the devil is.

The enemy rallies broad support by reject seeing political grievance,

but its hostility toward us and our values is limitless,

and Satan's hatred of view is limitless. Its purpose is

to rid the world of religious pluralism. It makes no

distinction between military and civilian targets. Collateral damage is not

in its lexicon. Satan doesn't care who gets hurt. He

just wants to hurt. It says, we learned that we

did not understand how grave this threat could be, and

so we did not adjust our plans and practices to deter.

Or defeat it. Well, if that hadn't describe.

Most Christians, we don't realize the war we're in, and

so we don't make any plans to handle temptation.

It says.

Now, the test before us now is to sustain the

unity of purpose.

I could have written this stuff, Okay.

The test before us is to sustain the unity of

purpose and meet the challenges now confronting us. We need

to design a balanced strategy for the long haul to

attack terrorists while at the same time protecting ourselves against

future attack.

Any about that.

We not only have to protect ourselves, we have to

go after them. And that's what it says in the Bible.

The gates of Hell will not prevail against us. Gates

are defensive, he says, you're going after the devil, not

vice versa.

Now, let me tell you something.

So when Satan attacks you, he doesn't come in a

little red costume with pointy things and a pitchfork and say, boot,

how does Satan mess up your life through habits? You

can't break the hurts that you won't let go of,

and you hold on to resentment through hang ups, You

can't change in your life, through problems, through circumstances, through.

Relationships that break your heart and hurt you.

And he uses He always works around through others, and

most of the Christians are defeated. They live in defeat.

Why because we try to fight him on our own,

And that's stupid. You're never gonna win against the devil

on your own. You need other people who will watch

out for you and help you. Look at this next verse,

please ask he's four twelve. A person standing alone can

be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back to

back and conquer, and three or even better for a

triple branded cort is not easily broken. That's a small group,

he says. You know, you watch out for each other.

Last year, about this time, I walked across a maximum

security prison yard in northern California. Two thousand inmates in

that field and in that yard, and I walked across

it with no guard protecting me, no gun, no weapon,

no body armor, but just myself. And I'm walking across

and I was not afraid. Why Because I had a

group of other inmates, about thirty of them who were Christians,

in front of me, behind me, and on either side

of me, And if anybody wanted to get at me,

they were gonna have to get through these guys who

have these tattoos.

That said Mom and Jesus, you know.

And there's no way I felt worried because these guys

were there to protect me.

Now here's my question.

Is there anybody watching your backside, anybody who's watching out

for your spiritual welfare?

Do you have anybody close like that?

Are you in a small group where that group of

guys if you're a guy or women, if you're a woman,

who are saying, you know what, we're there when you're

going through the tough time. We're not going to let

you discourage. We're not going to let you get depressed.

We're not going to let you get worried because we're

going to be here with you. If you don't have

anybody that I pity you, you've got a big bullseye

on your back for Satan. Say here's a loaner. They're

not connected, they're not in a group.

You know. I know this is hard to believe, but

when I was a.

Young, young I was a lifeguard for three summers. Actually

they fired me because every time I see a hannicle,

yes I see that hand, God.

Bless you, Yes, God bless you. Is there another Oh?

Yes, many are raising their hands God bless you. Yeah,

thank you I made that part up, but it was

a lifeguard.

And everybody knows. You never go.

Swimming by yourself in the ocean. You might catch your ripties.

You never go by yourself. Did you read about this kid?

He is an experienced climber. He's climbing a mountain, slipped

and fell, fell into a ravine and got his arm caught,

and he couldn't get out, and he would have died

there because he was by himself. He thought he knew

enough to go it on his own. And the only

way he broke free was he had to cut his

own arm off.

Or die.

Even the pros need a buddy.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Rip 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.

What does it take to become more loving, live more peacefully,

develop patience, have self control? Pastor Rick says. Throughout all

the years he's been a pastor, the number one question

he's been asked is why can't I change? People want

to change, but they're stuck. Maybe you feel that way too.

In his book God's Power to Change Your Life, Rick

lays the groundwork for personal transformation, then offers biblical insights

and simple steps for ten areas of growth that can

take you from where you are to where you want

to be. This book connects you with the power to

add actually make the changes you long to make. And

as you apply the truth of God's word by the

power of His Spirit, your life will change. You'll move

out of your rid and get on track with God's

wonderful purposes for your life. And today, when you give

a gift to Daily Hope to help take the hope

of Jesus to people everywhere, we'll send you a copy

of God's Power to Change Your Life. Just go to

Pastorrick dot com right now to get your copy, or

you can call eight hundred at six hundred five zero

zero four. That's Pastorick dot com. Or call eight hundred

at six hundred five zero zero four and be sure

to let us know which station you heard us on.

Thank you so much for your support.

Now let's get back to today's lesson. Here on Pastor

Rick's Daily Hope, did you.

Read about this kid is an experienced climber. He's climbing

a mountain, slipped and fell, fell lean der ravine and

got his arm caught, and he couldn't get out, and

he would have died there because he was by himself.

He thought he knew enough to go it on his own,

and the only way he broke free was he had

to cut his own arm off or die.

Even the pros need a buddy.

Would you write this down? Community is God's answer to defeat.

Community is God's answer to defeat. The Bible says Ecclesiastes

four to ten. If one person falls, another can reach

out and help. But people who are alone when they

fall are in real trouble. I need people to walk

with me and work with me and watch out for me.

Number four, I need others to wait with me and

to weep with me, to wait and weep. I'm talking

about they wait while I'm waiting for the bad news,

and they weep when I get the bad news. I

need people in me with the inevitable christ life. The

tragedies hit, I don't want to face that alone now,

as you're pastor, I especially feel this one because I

see it on a daily basis. There are situations that

nobody should ever have to go through alone. Nobody should

ever have to wait in the hospital while a loved

one is in a life or death surgery nobody. No

woman should ever have to wait alone waiting for the

lab report back on a problem pregnancy nobody. Nobody should

have to wait for news from a battlefield alone. Nobody

should have to stand at the edge of an open

grave alone. Nobody should have to wait at home alone

for the coroner to come and publicly identify the body

of a loved one who just died.

Nobody, nobody should.

Have to spend the first night alone after their husband

has died or wife has done And nobody should ever

have to spend the first night alone when their wife

is just walked out or the husband's walked out. Now,

the fact is, some of these things are going to

happen to you. They're inevitable. You're going to have loved

ones die, you're gonna go through tragedy, you're gonna get

bad health news, you're gonna find out one day that

you were dying, and you need other people in your life. Now,

only a fool would go all the way through life

totally unprepared for something you know is inevitably going to happen.

The time is now to build the safety net, the

network of supportive friends. Get it in place now, because

at some point the tragedy is going to happen.

You don't know when. The time to prepare is now. Now.

What is God's safety net? It is a group of

other believers. You don't need one hundred, you only need

five or six. But as a group of other believers

who are committed, committed to you. The Bible says this

in one Peter three eight. You should be like one

big family, full of sympathy toward each other. Now, when

you get in the hospital, you don't want the whole

church to visit you. In fact, it be kind of

bad if all of us came, But it would be

nice to have four or five come see you and

say we're praying for you. I'll never forget there was

a guy who came to this church for seven years.

You sit up in the bleachers, and he came for

seven years, never got involved in anything, never joined a

small group, just came to worship and left, never.

Even met anybody in the church.

I'm the only person he ever knew, never made any friends,

in the family. One day he had a heart attack

and he got in the hospital, and then he got

an infection, and he was in for two weeks, and

I was out traveling around speaking somewhere. I didn't even

hear about it till I got back. And when he

got out of the hospital, he came to the church

and he said, I'm leaving the church. I said why.

He said, because it's unfriendly. Nobody visited me in the hospital.

I said, I'm sorry, and he left, and as he left,

I thought, it's your fault. He never visited anybody in

the hospital. He never cared about anybody but himself. He

never got cared enough to even meet anybody. He never cared,

never got in a group, never gave, never shared, And

it was his fault when the crisis came that nobody

was there for him. I've told you many times that

I could not make it in life without my small

group eight other people plus my wife and I.

In our small group.

This last year, we've gone through practically every kind of

family or personal crisis you could imagine, and we've been

there to wait for each other, and to wait with

each other, and to weep with each other when we

needed support. See Here's God's plan one Corinthians twelve. If

one member suffers, all suffer together. You know, I read

recently about a guy who died at home in his bed,

and nobody.

Discovered it for two years.

I thought, how tragic that a guy was not even

missed for two years. Can you imagine the despair in

that man's heart as he was dying in bed. Nobody

should ever die alone. Nobody should ever have to go

through that kind of despair. Would you write this down?

Community is God's answer to despair. Community is God's answer

to despair. Romans twelve fifteen says be happy with those

who are happy, and weep with those who weep.

We do that in the group.

Somebody has a good thing, a promotion or celebration, a graduate,

we party, We have a good time, we have fun.

Somebody has a tough time, we weep with them. By

the way, you know, a lot of times in groups,

small groups, people don't know what how to deal with tears.

You'll be in a small group together and someone starts crying.

A little tear comes down the cheek. Let me give

you a little tip. A tear is always a sign

it's time to stop and pray.

That's what you do.

Whenever there is a tear, it's time to stop and pray.

And so he said, well, let's just stop right now.

Let's pray for Mary. She just got this news from

her sister. So let's stop and pray for right now.

Let's stop and pray for Bob right now. He has

given twenty two years of his life to this corporation

and they just laid him off with one week's notice,

and he's pretty devastated.

Let's let's pray for tom right now.

That is the sign to do now. You don't have

to fix anybody's problem. In a small group. They don't

want you to fix it. They just want you to sympathize.

When you're going through a crisis. You don't want advice.

You just want somebody to be there. You just sit

there with him, silent, hold her hand, put arm around

the shoulder, cry with them, be there with them. In fact,

usually it's when we start talking we get in trouble,

we get the stupid advice and stuff like that. No,

just be there, just be there, sit there with him,

and sometimes you sit in silence. Fifth reason I need

other people in my life.

Is I need them. I need others to witness with me.

And what I mean by that you have a life

message that God wants you to share with the world.

It's part of your mission. The Bible says, God puts

you on earth to do a mission, and there is

great power in group witness. God never meant for you

to do your mission alone. God would never send a

soldier out by himself. No, he says, we go out together,

and it's very impressive. Now, what is the way you

witness best to people who don't know the love of God?

How do you witness best to them? I'll surprise you,

God says. It's by loving others in the family of God.

Look at what Jesus said John thirteen. Your love for

one not for me, he says, not for God, not

for Jesus. Your love for one another will prove to

the world that you are My disciples. What impresses the

community the most when Christians believers love each other. You see,

the one thing that proves to the world that you're

in the family of God, that you've stepped across the line,

that you're headed for Heaven, is that you love other

people in the Family of God. And if you do

not love other people in the family of God, you

got every reason to doubt am I in it, because

that's one of the things. When you're truly in God's family,

you start loving others in God's family. And that's what

impresses the community. See how they love. Two Timothy one, p.

Seven says this. The Holy Spirit doesn't want you to

be afraid of people, but to be wise and strong

and to love them and to enjoy being with them.

I'm going to add and invite them into your home.

That's a bow our heads.

Father.

It is time for the church to be the church,

and it's time for a revolution of love and fellowship

and community.

Please begin it in our hearts.

With all my heart, Lord, I know that our churches

will start fulfilling God's purposes together. And when that happens,

we'll see a new reformation in the church and a

new spiritual awakening in our country.

And God, we need it now.

You pray, say, Dear God, forgive me for the times

I felt like I didn't need other people in my life.

I want to be a part of what You're doing

on earth through your family the church, and I want

to experience real community I'm tired of superficial relationships. I

want to learn to really love and be loved in

a deeper way.

I open up my life to you.

Jesus, Christ, come into my life, accept me into your

family in your name.

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 pastor Rick 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.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. If you've missed any

part of this message, or if you'd like to find

out more about Pastor Rick Warren and this ministry, just

visit Pastorrick dot com where you can listen online anytime.

That's Pastor Rick with two Hours in the Middle dot

com and be sure to sign up for Rick's free

daily email devotional while you're there, Rick will be back

to close out our time today. But first, what does

it take to become more loving, live more peacefully, develop

patients have self control? Pastor Rick says, throughout all the

years he's been a pastor, the number one question he's

been asked is why can't I change? People want to change,

but there's stock and maybe you feel that way too.

In his book God's Power to Change Your Life, Rick

lays the groundwork for personal transformation, then offers biblical insights

and simple steps for ten areas of growth that you

can take from where you are to where you want

to be. This book connects you with the power to

actually make the changes you long to make. And as

you apply the truth of God's word by the power

of His Spirit, your life will change. You'll move out

of your run and get on track with God's wonderful

purposes for your life. And today, when you give a

gift to daily Hope to help take the hope of

Jesus to people everywhere, We'll send you Pastor Rick's book

called God's Power to Change Your Life to say thanks.

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 Pastorick dot com or eight

hundred six hundred five thousand and four, and be sure

to let us know which station you hurt us on.

Thanks so much for your support. Here's Rick to tell

you about an exciting new opportunity.

Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

according to five specific purposes. He said, You've got to

love God with all your heart. That's worship. And love

your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.

And then Jesus said, go make disciples evangelism, baptize them

into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign of fellowship.

And then he said, teach them obey everything I've taught you.

That's discipleship. And we call that the Great Commission. We

believe it daily hope that a great commitment to the

Great Commandment and the Great Commission will produce a great Christian,

a great church, a great company, a great community. You know,

I started daily hope so I could spread the good

news about Jesus, not just across America, but all around

the world. And we want people to know that God's

Word is filled with hope and truth and the power

that we need to follow him every day is available

to every single one. You know as well as I do,

that the Word of God changes lives. It's a live

it's active, and it breathes new life and new love

into all of our lives. So, wherever you listen to this,

whether you listen on the website, whether you listen on

a radio station, or whether you listen to a podcast,

part of the Daily Hope family, and I need your help.

We could not do this without your support. Now, you know,

I don't take any funds from this broadcast. We don't

have any giant million dollar donor who's giving big gifts

to this. It comes from daily donations from listeners like you.

We're one hundred percent listener funded. Would you continue to

pray for this broadcast and would you continue to support us.

And let write to me, let me hear from you.

I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me,

So write me, pray for me and support this ministry,

and God will bless it, and God will bless you,

and we'll get to heaven and we'll thank God for

all the people going to be in heaven because you cared.

Be sure to join us again next time as we

look into God's word for our daily hope. This program

is sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries and your generous financial support.