Rick Warren - When You Feel Like Giving Up—Part Three

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

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue with a series

called how God Turns Setbacks into Comebacks. We're so glad

that you've joined us today. Now, if you know someone

who needs some encouragement right now, be sure to invite

them with a text or a phone call to listen

along with you. Now, in just a few minutes, we're

going to tell you how you can get a very

special set of Bible scripture cards hands selected by Pastor

Rick to bolster your sense of gratitude and increase your happiness.

You can find out more by going to Pastorick dot

com while you listen to today's message. If you want,

you can just text the word hope to eight hundred

six hundred five thousand and four for more information. That's

the word hope to eight hundred six hundred five thousand

and four. Right now, Here'sick with the final part of

a message called when you feel like giving up.

You know it's foolish to start a business without a

business plan. Nobody in their right mind would ever do that,

start a business without a business plan, But most Americans

plan everything except their lives. Do you have a life plan.

I want you to notice in this plan that Neamia

comes up. He says. He posted them by families. What

does that mean? He made sure that they had support.

What's your support group? One of the reasons you may

be discouraged because you're trying to handle everything by yourself.

You need a support group. You need to be in

a small group. You need to start a small group.

Hebrews four twenty five says this. Some people have got

out of the habit of meeting with other believers, but

we must not do that. Instead, we should keep on

encouraging each other. Who's encouraging you? Who are you encouraging?

You need to be in a small group. Maybe your

action step this week is that you know the reason

I'm discouraged is I'm not in a small group. I

don't have a support group. He posted them by groups

by families. You need a spiritual family. If you don't

have a spiritual family, you need to join Saddleback Church.

Take class one oh one are joining the family discovering

the benefits of being a part of a spiritual family.

We teach that class every month at every campus. So

that's what you need to reorganize whatever's not working in

your life. Don't give up on the dream. Just look

at it from a different direction, and you need to

get some support. Second thing Neamiah did, reorganize whatever's not working.

Number two, refocus on God. That's the next verse in

Neamiah four fourteen. It says this. Then Nemiah says, I

looked over the situation, and I called together all the

leaders and the people, and I said to them, don't

be afraid of the enemy. Remember the Lord. Underline that,

remember the Lord, who is great and glorious. He says,

you know what, you've been so busy working for God.

You've forgotten God. Has that happened in your life? Have

you forgotten the Lord that you're working for? You're trying

to serve. You can be so busy doing work for

the Lord, you forget God's work in you. What you

need to do is you need to refocus on God.

You need to recommit yourself to Christ. You need to

draw on spiritual resources. The Bible says when David got discouraged,

it says, quote he encouraged himself in the Lord. It

doesn't say encouraged himself by watching TV or encourage himself

by playing golf. It says he encouraged himself In the Lord.

He says, remember the Lord. Underline that what do I

remember when I'm discouraged? I remember three things. God's good

to me in the past, God's closeness to me in

the present, and God's power from me in the future.

I get my mind off the discouraging circumstances, and I

remember God's goodness in God's closeness, in God's power. And

remember that your thoughts determine your feelings. Discouragement is a feeling.

If you want to change your feelings, you change what

you think about. One of my favorite verses is in

Jonah two seven Jonah swallowed up by the great fish

and in the bottom of the ocean. He says this,

when I'd lost all hope, I once again turned my

thoughts to the Lord. That's what you need to do.

If you've lost all hope today, you need to turn

your thoughts to the Lord. David's antidote was the same

thing saw one nineteen five when he said, I'm completely discouraged,

so revive me by your word. You need to get

in the word of God. You need to be having

a quiet time if you're a discourage today, it means this,

you're not spend enough time in the Word of God.

We're spending more time on social media than you are

listening to God. That's a clear sign you're not spending

enough time in the Word. Because the word revised, refreshes, restores, rebuilds.

So I reorganize what needs to be changed. Keep doing

what you're doing, but do it in a new way.

And then I remember and I refocus on the Lord.

And then the third thing that Neamiyah does is he

tells them to do this, and you need to do

it too. Resist resist the discouragement. This is your choice.

You're gonna have to fight it. Resist the discouragement. You

don't give into it. Neamiah four fourteen second part says this.

Nemi says, Then I told them fight, fight for your brothers.

These are people who wanted to give up. Fight for

your brothers, fight for your sons, fight for your daughters,

fight for your wife, fight for your homes. Don't you

dare give in without a fight. Friends, We're in a

spiritual battle. We're in a warfare every day of your life.

We're not in a playground. We're in a battleground, and

as believers, we are called to engage in a spiritual

battle every day of our life. Ultimately, it's already been one,

but there are battles going on every day, and we

are in a supernatural struggle on mortal combat. And Satan

is called the accuser of the believers, and he's accusing

you every day, and he would love to neutralize your

effectiveness by discouraging you.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be

back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.

You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional

at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

Do you want to be happier, healthier, and more resistant

to stress, then you need to develop an attitude of gratitude.

In fact, the Bible says we're to rejoice always, continually

and give thanks in all circumstances. But it can often

be difficult to feel grateful. So to help you, Pastor

Rick hand selected fifty two verses to bolster your sense

of gratitude and increase your happiness. This set of beautifully

designed cards will help you memorize scripture so you can

recall God's word when you need it the most. You

can also use them to minister to others. Give one

to a friend and write a personalized note of encouragement

on the back. If a scripture really speaks to you,

frame it, put them in places where you can read

them during the day for encouragement. And today, when you

give a gift to help daily hope take the hope

of Jesus to a world in need, we'll send you

the Gratitude scripture card set to say thanks. Go to

pastorik 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

six hundred at five zero zero four. Thank you so

much for your support, and don't forget to let us

know which radio station you heard us on.

Hi, it's Pastor Rick with some big news. My daily

devotional is now available in French. If you know somebody

who would enjoy reading the devotionals in French, would you

please email me and I'll send you a link to

sign up. My email is Rick at Pastorick dot com.

That's Rick at Pastorick dot com.

Now let's get back to today's lesson here on Pastor

Rick's Daily Hope.

So I reorganize what needs to be changed. Keep doing

what you're doing, but do it in a new way.

And then I remember, and I refocused on the Lord.

And then the third thing that Neamyah does is he

tells them to do this, and you need to do

it too. Resist, resist the discouragement. This is your choice.

You're gonna have to fight it. Resist the discouragement. You

don't give into it. Namiyah four fourteen second part says this.

I says, Then I told them fight, fight for your brothers.

These are people who wanted to give up. Fight for

your brothers, Fight for your sons, fight for your daughters,

fight for your wife, fight for your homes. Don't you

dare give in without a fight. Friends, We're in a

spiritual battle. We're in a warfare every day of your life.

We're not in a playground. We're in a battleground. And

as believers, we are called to engage in a spiritual

battle every day of our life. Ultimately, it's already been one,

but there are battles going on every day, and we

are in a supernatural struggle on mortal combat and Satan

is called the accuser of the believers, and he's accusing

you every day, and he would love to neutralize your

effectiveness by discouraging you. His favorite weapons, Satan's two favorite weapons.

I've been a pastor for forty years, I've been walking

with the Lord for about fifty five years, and I

know that the two favorite discouragement tools are two favorite

weapons of Satan. Art distraction and discouragement. Distraction to get

you off your focus and discouragement. James four seven says this,

resist the devil. Resist the devil, and he will flee

from you. We are at war with negative thoughts, negative forces,

negative emotions that want to keep us from developing our

potential from God for God. So make this and let

me just be as clear as I can possibly say this.

If you're discouraged right now, you need to hear this.

Discouragement is a choice. It's a choice. You don't have

to be discouraged. The reason you are discouraged is you

are choosing to listen to discouraging thoughts. And that's your choice.

You don't have to listen to those discouraging choice. Those

thoughts your choice. You know the difference between great people

and ordinary people. Great people simply refused to be discouraged.

Great people are just ordinary people with an extraordinary amount

of determination. You know, I'm not that smart, I'm not

that talented, but there is one thing I've learned. I

don't know how to quit. And I never, never, never,

never give up, even when things go wrong. And if

God wants to use you the way he wants to

use you, and you're going to be used the way

he wants to use you, then you cannot give up.

Even when you're fatigued, even when you're frustrated, even when

you're fearful, even when you feel like you're failing, you

just choose to keep going. When you're going through hell,

you keep going. And maybe what God wants to say

to you is this, keep going, reorganize what's not working,

refocus on God, and resist the discouragement. It's your choice.

You're discouraged because you're choosing to think discouraging thoughts. You

don't have to think those thoughts. Let me ask you

a very personal question. What's unfinished in your life? Is

there a relationship you need to reconcile or is there

is a relationship that somebody who's dead or something that

you need to do closure on. Some of you have

unfinished business with God, and yet the walls half finished,

the projects half done. What have you known that God

wants you to do, but you just keep putting it off.

Maybe you've been checking checking out Jesus Christ, maybe considering

giving your life ten but you've never stepped across the line.

It makes me think of that verse in Jeremiah twenty

that says the summer is over and we are not

saved Jeremia eight twenty. Really you're gonna go into the

fall having not made that decision for Christ. Maybe you

need to be baptized. Maybe you need to finish all

of Saddleback's life development courses, the purpose driven courses that

teach you how to grow, how to know Christ, love Christ,

serve Christ, share Christ, live in Christ. You need to

take all those classes. Some of you got stuck at

first base. You took one on one and then you

haven't gone any further. Maybe you need to join or

begin a small group. You've been hearing me talk about

it for months or years. Now, let me, just as

your pastor, talk to you about how you're feeling today.

If you're feeling down If you're feeling discouraged, which of

these four might be causing that? Is it fatigue? Maybe

you just need to get some rest. Is it frustration?

Is it the rubble in your life? Maybe you need

to do some reorganizing and you need to do a

little house cleaning and get some of the trash cleaned

out of your life, out of your schedule, and you

need to get your goals back in focus. Is it

a sense of failure? You need to remember the Lord.

Remember that he loves you unconditionally, and he has never

stopped loving you, and he never will love you anymore

or less than he does right now. And if you're

falling and you stumble and you send, he forgives. The

Bible says there's no condemnation for those who are in

Christ Jesus, and he loves to give you second chances.

That's a theme of saddleback, where a second chance places

of grace. And how about fear? Is fear dominating your

life right now? It is causing to be discouraged. You

need to resist the devil. You need to resist a discourage.

You need to fight for your future, fight for your family,

fight for your marriage. You need to fight for your career.

Some of you are just barely holding on. I know that,

and I pray for you. And you may be thinking,

you know, Rick, this just isn't worth it. Well, don't

give up.

Look up, look up.

The answer may just be right around the corner. Hold on,

you know. In nineteen eighty one, I went through an

entire year of depression. It was the second year Saddleback

Church and I had a experience and my health had

fallen apart. And this is forty years ago, and I

was so broken emotionally and so discouraged and so pressed

that I barely had enough energy to do the services.

And every Saturday, after I'd finished the message preparing it,

I would drive the Laguna Beach and I would sit

and I would watch at the ocean. It just had

a calming effect on me as I was preparing my

heart to teach on Sunday. And I discovered that when

the tide goes out on the beach, the beach is

pretty ugly. There's driftwood and junk, and it reveals a

lot of stuff that doesn't look good. But I've noticed

that the tide always comes back in. The tide may

be out in your life, right now, but it always

comes back in There's a there is a plaque in

my office in Hebrew, and it says this, this too

shall pass. It didn't come to stay. The problem was

in your life right now. It didn't come to stay.

It came to pass. Tough times never last, but tough

people do. And Jesus Christ can give you that inner strength.

He can give you the power that you need to

make a difference. Let's power heads and prayer. Let me

pray for you, father. I know that there are a

lot of people are discouraged here today because of fear

or frustration or fatigue or sense failure. And some are

tired and worn out, and some are feeling like it's

taken longer than I thought it would take. And some

are thinking it's more complicated than I thought it would be,

and some are thing. But people are attacking me, and

I'm under it. I'm being criticized for what I'm trying

to do. And some are scared and think I might

lose my job, and I'm I'm I might even lose

my life. And there's all kinds of fears that come

in our lives. Help us to do what Neamiah did.

Now you pray, and you pray these three steps. Say Lord,

today I want to I want to refocus on you.

I want to refocus on you. I want to remember

the Lord, your goodness to me in the past. I

want to remember that you're with me right now. I

want to remember that you're You're going to give me

the power in the future. And Lord, I need the

strength to reorganize and not give up on what I'm doing,

but do it in a new way so I'm not

so frustrated and I'm not so fatigued, that i don't

feel like a failure, that I'm not afraid. Help me

to clean out the rubble in my life and help

me to see what that is. Maybe there's a relationship

that's holding me back, or I got too many things

I'm doing that I need to simplify my life and

simplify by my budget and simplify my lifestyle and so

many other things. Help me to remember the Lord and

reorganize my life. And Lord, I've asked you to give

me the power to resist the discouragement and to fight

for my future, and to fight for my family, and

to fight for my career and fight for my dreams,

and to not just give in help me to remember

that when I'm discouraged, that's a choice. Then I don't

have to remember those thoughts. But I can trust in you.

You've never opened your life to Christ. Say Jesus Christ,

please come into my life right now. I can't do

this on my own. I need a savior. I want

to follow you from this day on. I want to

do whatever you tell me to do and trust you.

I want to learn to love you, and I want

to commit and surrender myself to you as best I

know how my way has not worked. I want to

go your purpose for my life, and I humbly ask

you to accept me into your family in Jesus's 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 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 are so

happy that you've chosen to study along with us today.

If you'd like to receive hope and encouragement every day

delivered right to your inbox, then sign up for Rick's

free daily devotional by going to Pastor Rick dot com.

Right now, Rick will be back to close out our

time today. But first, do you want to be happier, healthier,

and more resistant to stress, then you need to develop

an attitude of gratitude. In fact, the Bible says we're

to rejoice, always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.

But it can be difficult to feel grateful. So to

help you, Pastor Rick hand selected fifty two verses to

bolster your sense of gratitude and increase your happiness. This

set of beautifully designed cards will help you memorize scripture

so you can recall God's word when you need it most.

You can also use them to minister to others. Give

one to a friend and write a personalized note of

encouragement on the back. If a scripture really speaks to

you frame it, put them in places where you can

read them during the day for encouragement. And today when

you give a gift to help daily hope take the

hope of Jesus to a world in need, we'll send

you the Gratitude scripture card set to say thanks. Go

to Pastorick dot com right now to get your copy,

or you can just call eight hundred six hundred five

thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com. Or call eight

hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Thanks so much

for your support, and don't forget to let us know

which radio station you hurt us on. Here's Pastor Rick

with the closing thought.

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. That's evangelism, Baptize

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

of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obay 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

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