Rick Warren - Why We Need Each Other—Part One

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

of Pastor Rick Warren. Well, today, we begin 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 part one of a message called Why We

Need each Other.

Today is the beginning of a revolution, and it's going

to start with a very radical counterculture message. What I

want to talk to you about this morning is the

exact opposite of what you've been taught most of your life.

But God promises that if you'll do this, if you'll

do it his way, that you'll never again have to

struggle with loneliness, you'll be able to overcome things like

fatigue and fear and frustration and failure. That if you'll

do what he talks about, you'll be able to handle

depression and despair and have that replaced with hope. It

is the concept of community. Now as Americans, we idolize independence.

In America, we have the Declaration of Independence. We like

songs like I gotta be me, I'll do it, I

don't need anybody to tell me what it's all about.

And we honor the loan ranger. We love the lone ranger,

of course, even the lone ranger at Tonto. But we

like the idea of being totally independent, and we have

bought into a myth that says that the key to

happiness is independence. If I have relational independence, financial independence,

and independence in every other area of my life. If

I don't let anybody get too close to me, but

I'm totally self sufficient, then I will be happy. And

yet every year the suicide rate tends to rise. Obviously

that's not true. And God says that the key to

happiness is not independence, but interdependence. That we need each other,

We belong to each other. We need community in our lives.

And God wired you to go through life not as

a solitary individual, but in community. Notice at the top

of your outline what the Bible says. It's chapter twelve.

Why don't you read it aloud with me together? Since

we are all one body in Christ, we belong to

each other, and each of us needs all the others.

Once you turn the person next you and say you

need me, all right, you need me? Now, I want

you to turn them and say I need you. Go ahead,

all right. Now we just add over one hundred and

fifty wedding proposals. I'll be doing the special outside two

for one. Let's call me Mary and Rick matchmaker me. Now.

The truth is we need each other. God says community

is not optional. You may not feel it. You may

feel like and I'm very selfsuished and I don't need other

people in my life. But the truth is you absolutely

have to have other people in your life if you're

going to be all God wants you to be. Today,

I want us to start a journey on an even

bigger idea and that is, you can not fulfill God's

purposes for your life by yourself. There's no way. There's

no way you can be all God wants you to be,

do all God wants you to do, fulfill the purposes

you were put on this planet to fulfill by yourself.

You have to do it in relationship to other people.

We need each other and we belong to each other

in the body of Christ. So today we're going to

focus on the greatest lesson in life, that is learning

how to love. Why do relationships go bad? How do

you turn a bad relationship into a good one. What

is it that God does when he uses other people

in our lives? And how does He do it to

make us what He wants us to be? And so

we're going to discuss and discover what it really means

to develop true intimate relationships. Today, I want to give

you a little introduction and we're going to look at

why we need each other, why we need God's family,

and specifically the five reasons God says you need other

people in your life and really why you need a

small group. So let's get right into it first. If

you're taken notes, I need others to walk with me,

I need others to walk with me. What does that mean?

It means I need him to help me grow spiritually.

Look at this verse Colossus two six and seven says,

just as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so read

it with me walk in him. Did you know that

the Bible often compares life to a walk? Why? Because

you're on a journey. You don't just sit still in life.

You're not where you used to be, You're not where

you're gonna be. You're on a journey. And so it

calls the spiritual life or the Christian life a walk.

And throughout the New Testament, we're told to walk in wisdom,

to walk in love, to walk in light. We're told

to walk in obedience, in the spirit, where, to walk

as Jesus walk, and many many other ways the Bible

tells us that we are to live life. But one

of the key ways that God tells us to walk

is this. You were never meant to walk through life alone.

You were never meant to walk through life alone. Now,

this has nothing to do whether you're single or married,

nothing at all. We have thousands of single adults in

our church who are very involved in deep intimate meaningful community.

We also have married couples in this church who are

desperately lonely. Marriage does not solve the issue. Community does. Now,

somebody said, well, Rick, what's wrong with walking alone? I

like walking along? In fact, I prefer it. I can

go at my own pace, my own speed, I don't

have to wait for anybody or whatever. I like walking alone. Well,

you may like it, but you need others to walk

with you. Let me give you three reasons. You can

just write these down in the margin because I got

a lot to tell you today. Number One, it's safer.

It's safer. Walking through life with other people in your

life is safer. It's less risky. You ever had to

walk through a dark alley at night inner city by

yourself can be a little scary, Or walk down a

long road in the countryside by yourself, it can be scary.

It's safer to walk through life with others. Number Two,

it's supportive. What I mean by that is it keeps

you from giving up. When you're walking with other people,

you get the energy to keep on going that you

wouldn't have. Have you ever been in a marathon where

you're running this marathon and then you know you start

getting the stitch in your side, you start getting a

little pain there, and you want to give up. You

know what I'm talking about. Usually happens to me about

mile twenty. Actually step twenty is when it happens to

me step twenty and you start going, you know, I

can't go on. I'm not gonna be able to do this.

I want to give up. But if you have other

people walking with you, you keep on going. There's an

old Zambian parable that says, or proverb that says, when

you run alone, you run fast, but when you run together,

you run far.

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.

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

actually make the changes you long to make. And as

you apply the truth of God 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 a copy of

God's Power to Change your Life. Just go to Pastororrick

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.

There's an old Zambian parable that says a proverb that says,

when you run alone, you run fast, but when you

run together, you run far. Good word, good word. You see,

life is not a fifty yard dash. It is a marathon.

And you want to make it to the end of life.

And the only way you're gonna make it to the

end of life, the way God wants you to, is

by having other people involved in your life. If you've

ever watched during the fall, when a flock of geese

are flying south and they're in v formation, do you

know why they do that? Because it creates an uplift

in the backdraft, and it makes it easier and they

can fly farther and longer when they fly together. The

same is true in your life. You're gonna burn out

in life if you go through it without any meaningful

intimate relationships. It's safer, it's supported. Not only that it's smarter,

it's just smarter to go through life with a few

really close, deep friends. You learn more by walking with

others than you do by yourself. Proverbs twenty eight twenty

six says only fools trust in what they think alone,

what they alone think. In other words, if I'm the

only one who thinks nobody else agrees with, guess what

I'm wrong. Okay, you may be walking in the wrong direction.

But if you're walking by yourself through life, you know,

everybody goes, hey, we're off the path. We missed it.

We got to get back on the path. The Bible

tells us in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Now.

One of the things it's very important that you learn

when you walk with others, is you learn how to

get along with other people. If you go through life isolated,

never let anybody get close to you, never cooperate with anybody.

You don't learn how to cooperate. And that's one of

the great lessons of life. Have you noticed that when

you walk with somebody else, everybody walks at a different pace,

different style. Those of you who've married, have you ever

tried to walk with your husband or your wife around

the lake? It's different. It's just different strides, different strokes

for different folks. And so we have to learn to compromise. Now,

the Bible says this in Genesis two eighteen. Let's read

it aloud. It is not good for man to be alone.

You know, that's the first thing God said after he

created Adam. He looked down in a perfect environment guarden

of ening goes. It's not good. It's not good for

man to be alone. God hates loneliness. He hates it.

God hates loneliness. And so what's his antidote. Well, he

created two groups, physical family and the spiritual family. The

physical family is the one you grew up in. The

spiritual family is the one you have the rest of

your life. Actually goes on into eternity. The physical family

eventually moves apart, eventually dies and doesn't go on. But

the spiritual family, God's Church is going to go on

forever and ever and ever. And so God says, I

want you to be connected in my family, the church.

Notice what his safety net is. And hebrews ten, let

us not give up the habit of meeting together. Notice

it's a habit, something you do all the time. I

give up the habit of meeting together. Instead, let us

encourage one another. He says. You know you're created for community,

and I want you to encourage each other by meeting together.

Now that verse, he's not talking about what we're doing

right now. This is not a community, folks. This is

a crowd. It's a quite large crowd, okay, And you

can't encourage each other here. You know, we can't. You

can't even get to talk to very many people. There's

just too many people. This can only be done in

a small group. You know. Can you be in a

crowd and be lonely? Sure? This last week I was

in Manhattan. I had to go buy a coat for

a TV show I was going to be on, and

so I walked out by myself. I was in one

hundred thousand people, but it still felt very lonely because

I didn't know anybody. So it has nothing to do

with the size. It's talking about getting together with people

who encourage you. Would you write this down? Community is

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

And we all need a place where we can practice love.

It's what the world needs. We need to learn how

to love now. The Bible says that I've got to

have other people in my life. As I'm walking through life,

I need other people to grow. Would you write that down?

I can't grow without others. The Bible is very clear

about this. I cannot grow without other people in my life.

Why Because life is about relationships, not about achievement. God

is love and he wants me to learn to love

him and love others. Those are the two greatest lessons

in life. Now. The Bible gets very specific about this

and one Corinthians fourteen. I love this in the message paraphrase,

it's pretty clear. It says when you gather, when you gather,

each one of you be prepared with something useful for all.

Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead

a prayer, provide an insight, take your turn, with no

one person taken over. That way you all learn from

each other. Question does that sound like something we do

here on Sunday morning? No? No, I don't stand up

here and say anybody got a poem? You know what

happened to you this week? Who has a prayer request?

Who learned something from God this week? Who needs to

be prayer? And we're too big to do that. This

can only happen in a small group. And that's why

to be a healthy believer, you need large group worship

and small group fellowship, temple courts and house to house.

And that's why in our church we ask everybody to

come on a weekend service and be in a small group.

If you're only getting half of that and you're only

getting half of the benefit of this church. You need

to walk through life in a small group of believers. Now,

why we'll look at the next verse Phesians four. As

each part talking about the body of Christ. As each

part does its work, it helps the other parts grow,

so his whole body is healthy and growing. And read

it with me. Full of love. That's what God wants

in your life, and he wants for all of us.

He wants us to be healthy and growing and full

of love. And that's my prayer for you as your pastor.

I want you to be healthy, and I want you

to be growing, and I want you to be full

of love. Now, there's only one way you can do that.

You got to get with other Christians who can walk

through life with you. You see, you can't learn community

without being in a community. Not a crowd, but in

a community. The Bible says this in fee Peter four nine.

Open your homes to each other without what complaining? H

what's your complaint? What's your excuse for not opening up

your own? Well, my home is dirty, Well clean it up. Okay,

just clean it up, all rights. That's a real easy thing. Okay, Well,

my home isn't big enough. Can you put three people

in it? Then you can have a group. The Bible says,

where two or more are gathered in my name, I'm

there in the midst of them. You say, well, you

know what I don't like my neighbors, Well, don't invite them.

I'm not telling you to invite people you don't like.

Invite the people you do like. You don't have to

invite people. Invite your neighbor friends, invite your coworkers, your family.

You don't just get some people, he said, Well, nobody

would really want to come to my house and study this.

Oh really? Really? You see, everybody has a longing for belonging.

Everybody deep in the human spirit is a longing for belonging.

It's why the worst kind of punishment is solitary confinement.

We're made for relationships. God wired us that way, and

that's why people will join all kinds of stupid causes

just because they want to belong. Listen, the people in

your neighborhood would love to come to your house. Let

me give you an example of this. Two years ago

when we did forty Days of Purpose and I on

the day we started, like today, I handed out a

little card, a little invitation card, And I said, you

know what, I want you to give this card to

somebody that you know who doesn't go to church anywhere

or doesn't have any knowledge of the love of God,

and you invite them to your small group. And in

one week you did this. In one week, we went

from eight thousand people in small groups to twenty four

thousand in small groups. Don't tell listen, your neighbors are

more willing to come than you're willing to invite them.

They are. So that's the first reason we need a group.

We need each other because we need people to walk

with us. Number two, I also need others to work

with me. I need people to work with me. Did

you know that the Bible says God puts you on

earth to do a certain work that only you can do.

Ephesians two ten says this God made us to do

good works, which He planned in advance for us to

live our lives doing. Before you were even born, God

decided the talents he was going to give you, the

natural abilities, he was going to give you the background.

He even chose where you would be born, who your

parents would be when you would be born, and all

of this because He has a purpose for your life.

And part of that purpose is he has some work

for you to do. Now, anytime you use your talents

or your abilities to help somebody else, there's a word

for that. It's called ministry or service. And all of

us are ministers, not pastors. Ministers. What that means is

when you use your gifts and what God wired you

to be to help others, you're doing what God brought

you to do. He says, these are your good works. Now,

remember we've talked about this many times that life on

earth is practice for eternity. You get one hundred years

at the most on earth, you get trillions of years

in heaven, and in heaven you're gonna do four things.

And one of the things you're gonna do in heaven

is you're gonna serve God. And so what God wants

you to do while you're here on earth, spend some

of that time practicing, practicing serving, And so he says,

I want you to learn to serve. I want you

to do these good works, but I don't want you

to do them by yourself. You see, in heaven, when

you get there, everybody's going to work. But we'll all

each just have a little peace so you'll never get tired.

You're not gonna be overworked or overloaded in heaven because

God will give you just a little peace to do.

But everybody will do their part and it'll all get done.

What happens here on earth, though, is you're worn out,

You're exhausted, you're burnout. Some of you came to church exhausted.

Why because you're trying to do it all and you're

trying to do it all by yourself.

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 Pastorick dot com where you can listen online anytime.

That's Pastor Rick with two rs inthemiddle dot com, and

be sure to sign up for ricks 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?

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. Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.

You know, I've been a pastor for over three decades,

and I've been teaching the Word of God for over

four decades. And in all of that time, the number

one question I've been asked by people is this, how

can I change? Or why can't I change? I've talked

to literally thousands and thousands of people who want to

change but are just stuck and they can't figure out

how to get unstuck. You know, the truth is you

can't change on your own because will power alone isn't

enough to make permanent changes. Sure, you can force yourself

to change for a month or two months, but pretty

soon you're going to go back to your old ways.

Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is not enough.

Talking yourself into a change by positive thinking is not enough.

The Bible says, true transformational change only comes through the

power of God inside you. So let me ask your

personal question, how do you want to be different at

the end of this year? What changes would you like

to make in your life? What goals would you like

to see accomplished in your life. Well, it isn't going

to happen on your own. You're going to need God's

power and I want you to understand how to plug

in to God's power. That's why this month I'm sending

out God's Power to Change Your Life, a book that

I've written. When you give a financial gift to support

Daily Hope broadcast and ministries, you know Daily Hope is

one hundred percent supported by listeners. We have no other

outside source of income. It's supported by your gifts. And

when you give to support this ministry this month, I

want to give back to you this book, God's Power

to Change Your Life.

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 heard us on. Thanks so much for

your support. 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