Rick Warren - Winning the Battle Inside Me — Part One.mp3

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 winning the Battle Inside Me.

Now, the Bible tells us that there are three mortal

enemies to your life that are out to mess up

everything God wants to do in your life. The Bible

calls them the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. The

world is the value system around you. The flesh is

the old nature within you. And Satan is coming against

you and his des and his minions. During this series,

we're going to look at what our angels and what

do they do? And what are demons and what do

they do? But I want us to begin the series,

we actually began it last week by looking at the

battle within. Because you are your own worst problem, You

are your own biggest enemy.

You know.

I talk to a lot of people who you know,

go around and they say, you know, I've got so

much stress from this boss, and I've got so much

stress from the kids, and I've got so much going

on from all these things, and I've got all these

problems in my life. I need to go to Tahiti.

The problem with that is when you go to Tahiti,

you take you. I mean, it's like the people who

talk to me and say, you know, I don't get it.

All my relationships suck, and they move from one relationship

to the next relationship, to the next relationship, to the

next relationship to the next relationship, and they say, you know,

they just why do I have some bad relationships? Well,

what's the common denominator?

You?

You're the common denominator, and so something's got to change

in you. First, back in nineteen seventy, before many or

most of you were born, Walt Kelly, the famous cartoonist,

had a Pogo cartoon that became an icon in American culture.

It's here on the screen, it says, Pogo says, we

have met the enemy and he is us. And it's true.

I'm my biggest problem. Most of the time, Satan doesn't

even have to worry about tempting me because I'm messing

up my own life.

Most of the time, Satan doesn't even have.

To think about you, because you're doing a good job

of screwing up yourself. So what happens is we have

to work on all three of the enemies. We're going

to start first with the internal war that goes onside you.

Then we're going to look at the world, and then

we're going to look at Satan. Now you may identify

with this letter that I got a while back, Pastor.

Rick, I need you to explain something to me.

When I first came to Christ, everything seemed to change

for the better. Immediately, I felt joy for being forgiven

for all of my shame, and I felt peace knowing

that God loved me, and I felt hope because I

learned that He had a purpose for my life.

It was all a great relief.

But after a while, my joy seemed to shrink, and

following Christ became a struggle. Old habits reared up their

head again, and I felt the tug of old ways

coming back. Now this really frustrated me because I thought

I was through with all of that. I want to

do the right thing, but I lack the ability to

do it, and I can't seem to fulfill all of

my good intentions. I know what is right, and I

know what is wrong, and I really don't want to

do wrong anymore. And I know God doesn't want me

to do wrong. So why do I still make bad choices?

What's wrong with me? It's so frustrating. I sometimes wonder

if maybe I'm not really a Christian. Now, if you've

ever felt that way, you came to church on a

good weekend, because you're not the only one. Fortunately, you're

not alone. Every other believer has experienced this. And Paul himself,

the greatest Christian who ever lived, who wrote most of

the New Testament, next to Jesus Christ, is probably, without

a doubt, the greatest Christian ever lived. He talks about

this internal war in a very famous chapter of the Bible.

It's called Romans chapter seven. What we're going to do

this weekend is we're going to look at the consequences

or the conditions that happen in your life when this

battle is going on.

I call it the.

Emotional costs, the emotional costs of having this battle in

your life. And Paul says that they are sick things

that happen in your life when you don't know how

to deal with this battle that's going on inside of you.

And then Paul explains the cause of this battle, and

then he explains the cure, and we're going to look

at that both this week and next week. Now, I

want to just read you this passage first. It's up

here on the screen. Romans, Chapter seven, Verses fifteen to

twenty five.

Here's what Paul says.

And I really love this because it's a gut level,

keeping it real kind of approach. Paul doesn't mince any words.

He's transparent about his own struggles. He's very honest about

the frustration he feels. Verse fifteen, he says this, I

don't understand myself at all, for I really want to

do what is right, but I can't. I do what

I don't want to, I do what I hate.

Now.

I know perfectly well that what I'm doing is wrong,

and my bad content proves that I agree with these

laws that I'm breaking. But I can't help myself because

I'm no longer doing it. It is sin inside me

that is stronger than I am, that makes me do

these evil things. In other words, you know, I don't

want to gossip but I end up doing it. I

don't want to be impatient, but I end up being impatient.

I don't want to say bad things to my kids,

but I do. I know how to take better care

of my health, but I don't. He just goes on

and on about all the things in life. He says,

it's sin inside me that's stronger than I am and

makes me do these things. Says, I know I'm rotten

inside as far as my old sin nature is concerned.

But no matter which way I turn, I can't make

myself do right. I want to, but I can't. When

I want to do good, I don't. And when I

try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Now,

if I'm doing what I don't want to do, it's

plain where the trouble is. Sin still has its me,

and it's grip. He actually starts to seem a little

discouraged here, like it's like it's going to be unchangeable.

He says, seems to be a fact of life that

when I want to do what is right, I inevitably

do what is wrong. I love to do God's will

is so as so far as my new nature is concerned.

But there's something else deep within me? Am I in

my lower nature that is this war within my mind

and wins the fight and makes me a slave to

the sin that's still within me. In my mind, I

want to be God's willing servant, but instead I find

myself still in slave to sin my old ways. So

you see how it is. My new life tells me

to do right, but the old nature that is still

inside me loves to sin. Oh what a terrible predicament

I'm in. Who will free me from my slave to

this deadly lower nature? Thank God, it has been done

by Jesus Christ, our Lord. He has set me free.

Now can you hear the frustration? And in Paul's voice,

Now Paul.

Is baring his soul.

And what's going on here is he's explaining the battle

that happens in your life when two things occur. When

you try to please God by your own strength, you're

going to be frustrated and you're going to fail when

you try to do it on your own strength. And

number two, when you try to change things in your

life from bad to good by simply willpower, it's not

going to work and you're going to eventually give up. Now,

the encouragement that ought to be here. Paul is not

a new believer. This guy's not a novice.

He is a mature believer.

He's writing a book that's actually in the Bible. Is

a missionary to all of the Roman Empire. He is probably,

as I said, the strongest Christian who ever lived next

to Jesus himself. And yet he says, you know, sometimes

I just can't figure it out. And there's things in

me I want to do that are right, but I

don't do them, and the things that are wrong that

I end up doing. We're going to look this weekend

in detail, this week and next week at how to

win the battle inside you, to change the things that

you want to change but just can't seem to change.

Now, I want us to begin.

By looking at the cost of this emotional battle going

on inside of you. The emotional drain of trying to

do the right thing on your own power is exhausting,

and eventually you get worn out. And Paul lists six

emotional consequences. I want you to write these down see

if you identify with any of them.

He says.

The first thing that happens when I try to fight

the internal spiritual battle going on me on my own

power is I get confusion confusion, and he says that

in the first verse here, verse fifteen, he says, I.

Don't understand myself.

I don't understand myself at all, for I really want

to do what is right, but I can't. I do

what I don't want to. I do what I hate. Now,

before we even get into this, I want you to

circle all of the eyes in this verse. I don't

understand myself, for I really want to do what is right,

but I can't. I do what I don't want to,

what I hate. He's says, something's wrong with me. Now

in this one verse he uses the first person pronoun

I six times. Now, this is the key to understanding

this chapter. These are two famous chapters in the Bible.

Roman seven is about the defeated Christian life, and Roman's eight,

which we're going to look at next week, is about

the victorious Christian life. And in Romans seven, Paul uses

the word I over and over and over. In fact,

in just twelve verses, he uses the word I twenty

seven times. He uses the word my six times, he

uses the word me six times, he uses the word

myself two times. In all, in all, He uses the

first person pronouns forty one times in twelve verses. Paul

has an eye problem, and you have an eye problem,

and I have an eye problem. And the problem is

I try to do it all my way, and that's

going to cause me to fail. I am my biggest problem. Now, notice,

he says, I don't understand myself. I'm perplexed.

Now.

That ought to encourage you that even Paul, this great

mature saint, doesn't have all the answers. If Paul doesn't

have all the answers for life, it's okay for you

not to have all the answers to life. It's okay

for me to go I can't figure out what I'm

doing what I'm doing. You know, I've stopped trying to

judge other people's motives. You know why I can't even

figure out my own half the time? You don't know

why you do what you do half the time. Why

can't I stop doing bad things? And why don't I

consistently do the stuff I know is good for me?

He says, it's confusing. The second thing that happens, and

I don't know how to fight this battle is guilt

and shame. God doesn't want you going around with a

bunch of guilt and shame.

But that's what happens.

When you try to fight a spiritual battle with human

tools like willpower. He says in verse sixteen. The next verse,

I know perfectly well what I'm doing is wrong, and

my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws

I am breaking.

And what's he say? And he goes, I know what

I'm doing is wrong.

And you do too, when you do it and you

know it's wrong, and then you get a bad conscience circle.

The word conscience, you know where that word comes from.

It's a Latin word. It comes from the word con

which means with in Latin, and science are scientia in Latin,

which means knowledge. Conscience means you do something with full

knowledge that what you're doing is wrong. You're not kidding yourself.

I know I shouldn't eat this, I know I shouldn't

watch this. I know I shouldn't say this. I know

I shouldn't do this, but I'm going to do it anyway,

and I do it with full knowledge, which means my

conscience goes on tilt and it says danger, Will Robinson,

something's wrong here, something is wrong, guilt and shame happens.

You remember Jesus, the night before he was to go

to the Cross, he goes into this garden called the

Garden of Gethsemone to pray because he knows he's going

to take the guilt of the entire world on him

in his life, and he takes three of his best friends, Peter,

James and John in with him. He says, look, you guys,

I just need you to hang out with me. I'm

going through a tough time. It's an emotional conflict. I'm

going to go over here and pray for a while

and I want you to just kind of hang out here.

You don't have to say anything. You don't have to

give me advice. I don't even need you to pray.

I just want you to hang out with me. And

sometimes that's all a good friend does. A good friend

doesn't always have to have the answer. A good friend

just shows up. They show up in your life. They

walk in when everybody else walks out. And so Jesus

says to Peter James, on you guys, just hang out

here while I go over here and pray, and I'm

getting ready to go and die on the cross.

Tomorrow.

Well, Peter, James and John fall asleep and they're sawing logs,

and Jesus comes back and goes, could you guys not

hang out with me just for an hour or two?

Could you know? Without going to sleep?

And then Jesus says to Peter, the spirit is willing,

but the flesh is weak. Been there, done that. There's

been a lot of times in your life when you

were willing to do the right thing, but you just

didn't seem to have the power to do it. And

that causes confusion, and it causes guild and shame. The

third thing that causes when you don't know how to

fight the battle going on inside you is it causes

compulsions and addictions. Compulsions and addictions.

What is that?

It's when you start to do something so many times

it becomes habitual in your life, It becomes a habit,

and then you cannot stop from doing it, You cannot

not do it. It becomes a compulsion, it becomes a habit,

it becomes an addiction. And Paul says this in the

next verse. He said, you know, if I do these

bad things enough, I just I get addicted to them.

He said, But I can't help myself because I'm no

longer doing it. It's sin inside me that's stronger than

I am, that makes me do these evil things. He says,

you know, I got great intentions, but I just can't

seem to pull it off. Nothing changes, you see, we

because we're built with a human nature, and that's a

fallen nature. There's sin in it, which means we have

a natural inclination to do the wrong thing. We have

a natural inclination resistance to do the right thing. You

don't like to do the right thing. You like to

do the easy thing, and so do I. I like

to do the popular thing. I like to do the

comfortable thing. I like to do the thing that I

think will make me most happy. I'm not interested in

always doing the right thing. I'm interested in doing what's

easy and what's comfortable, and what's quick. And how many

times have you started each day and you go okay

in your mind, you going okay, Lord, today is going

to be different. Today is going to be different. And

by the end of the day, nothing has changed. And

Paul says, here, you know, I'm no longer doing it now.

When Paul says it's in me, this I can't help

myself because I'm no longer doing He's not making excuses,

he's simply recognizing the fact that he has an old

nature inside him that.

Likes to sin.

And by the way, so do I, and by the way,

so do you. Now we like to sin. Let's just

admit it. Sin is fun. It is it's fun. In fact,

nobody would do it if it was a bummer. In fact,

even the Bible says it. The Bible says in Hebrews

it says there is pleasure in sin for a short time.

There is pleasure in sin for a while, in the

short term, there's pleasure.

In sin for a season.

But then you're gonna have the consequences. Everything has a consequence,

and if you have your kicks, you're gonna have your

kick facts. In other words, it's a whole lot of

fun to go out and buy a whole bunch of

new things on a credit card, but.

Then you've got to pay for it.

Okay, It's one thing to go out and have a

lot of fun and eat a whole lot of food,

and then you've got to pay for it with indigestion

or overweight.

You know, it's one thing.

To stay up plate all night and party all night.

I have a great time, but you're gonna pay for

it the next day. You can go out and get drunk,

but then you're gonna have the hangover. There was always

a consequence to everything we do, and every kick has

a kickback. And so he's saying, you know, the sin

is fun, there's no doubt about it, but there's always

a payoff for it that.

Is not worth the short term pleasure.

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 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

listened to them regularly and I've learned so much. You know,

I realized very quickly that I needed to have a

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That's great.

She's been struggling with a verbally abusive relationship for many years,

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Rick. God has really used you to reach so.

Many people, and I think, thank you for being obedient

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