Rick Warren - Why Is Life in This World So Hard — 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 with part one of

a message called why is life in this world so hard?

Now? We spent about four weeks looking at the battle

inside Why do I struggle with what's inside me? Why

do I do the things I don't want to do

and don't do the things that I want to do?

And why don't I do the stuff that's good for me?

And why is it such a battle inside me? Now

we're going to move to the second phase, and I'm

very excited about this as we look at how do

I live in a broken world? Before we can look

at God's strategy for you to succeeding, survive and actually

be fulfilled in a broken world, we need to look

at what happened first. So if you have a message notes,

if you'll take them out, I want us to deal

with this question this weekend, Why is it so hard?

Why is life so hard? In this world? Everything seems

to be a battle. Nothing is easy, And the fact

is life is difficult. Would everybody agree with that? It's

not easy. Life is difficult. It just doesn't come handed

to you on a plattern. And so we asked this question,

why is life so hard? Why is there suffering in

the world? Now, friends, that's one of the most important

questions you'll ever ask in life. It's been asked by

thousands millions of people, and has actually asked thousands of

years ago by a guy named Job in Job chapter seven,

verse one, he says this, why is life so hard? Why?

Why is life so hard? And why do we suffer?

This weekend, I want us to look at the reason,

the results, and the right response to the difficulties you

face in life. Now. I want to begin by first

looking at the cause, the reason, why is it so

difficult to live on this planet? You might write this down.

The Bible says, rebellion against God broke everything. Rebellion against

God has broken literally everything in life. Now. It all

started back with the first couple, Adam and Eve in

the Garden of Eden. When God created the world, everything

was perfect. It was paradise, and Adam and Eve had

no problems, no pain, no sorrow, suffering, sadness, sickness, no trials, temptations, troubles,

no defeats, distractions, discouragements, despair, depression. None of this was

in the garden of Eden. It was all perfect. It

was paradise. But one day Adam and Eve decided that

they wanted to do what they wanted to do. Now,

God had said, you can do everything you want to

do in paradise, but just one thing. That's the minimum

temptation possible. He said, you can do anything you want

to in this paradise except one thing. What does man

and woman do? Immediately do the one thing God says,

don't do? Now, why did he even give him a choice,

because without a choice, they can't choose to love God

if you have to, if you're forced to love God.

If you have no choice, then it's not real love.

Adam and Eve said, we know better, we know what

will make us happy. We're going to do what we

want to do. We want to be God's and they

chose to do the one thing God said don't do,

and the Bible says this Romans chapter five. Sin came

into the world because of what one man did, and

with sin came death. Before there was no death in

the world, there was no sadness in the world. There

was no sorrow, there was no difficulty in the world.

People would not die. Adam and Eve could have lived

forever as long as it was a perfect environment. It

is only when everything got broken that sin had brought

death into the world. Now, not only did Adam and

Eve make that choice, I've made it, and you've made it,

and everybody else in the world has made it. We

have all said I don't want to do the right thing.

I want to do the easy thing. We've all said

I don't want to say the truth. I want to

say what's convenient. We've all said I don't want to

be what God wants to me be. I want to

be what I want to be. I want to be

my own boss. I think I know what will make

me happy more than God does. We've all done this,

and the Bible says in Isaiah chapter fifty three, all

of us, all of us have strayed away like sheep.

You know you don't have to teach a sheep to stray.

It's natural, it's in their nature. They just naturally are

prone to wander. And it says like sheep, all of

us have straight away. We have left God's path to

follow our own paths, and that means we've all done

our own thing. We've all said many times in our lives, God,

I'm gonna do what I want to do, even though

I know what you said to do is the right thing.

I don't want to do the right thing. I want

to do what I want to do. The Bible says

in Proverbs twenty verse nine. In the next verse, no

one can say I'm innocent. I've never done anything wrong.

So we've all broken God's laws. We've all done wrong things.

We don't measure up to our standards, much less God's,

and we have all not done what God told us

to do. The Bible calls that rebellion. Anytime God tells

you to do something you don't do it, you're actually

in a war with God because God created you to

do certain things. When you say no, I don't think so,

I don't think so, it's like a little kid's sun

in those I don't think so, I'm going to do

what I do. I know Mommy told me to do this.

I know Dabby told me that. I don't think so

that's called rebellion. Now, I don't want to go too

detailed into this, but there are three kinds of rebellion.

And you need to know this. So you know these

terms because one of them is real familiar, but the

other two aren't familiar to you. There are three kinds

of ways that we rebel against God. Would you write

these down? The first one, you know this one. It's

called sin. Sin. Now, that's a very common term sin.

What's the middle letter of the word sin? And that's

what sin is all about. I want what I want,

and I want it now, and I'm going to be

the center of my own life. I am in charge.

Sin is all about I, me, myself and I. But

actually the word sin means to fall short, It means

to miss the mark. It's actually an archery term. It

comes from like shooting a bow and arrow. Sin is

actually an archery term. If you were to set up

a bullseye here on this stage, and you had a

bow and arrow, and you were to aim for the

bulls eye, and you shoot the arrow, and if that

arrow didn't have enough energy, and it fell short. In archery,

that's called a sin. It means you missed the mark.

It means you fell short. It means you didn't reach

the goal. And sin means I don't measure up to

God's perfect goal. For me, I missed the mark. I

fall short. I don't quite make it. I'm not perfect.

I am inadequate to make perfection in my life. I

fall short. Yesterday afternoon, I was watching one of my

favorite shows on TV, the old Robin Hood reruns, and

I've watched him a dozen times, and there's one episode

where the Sheriff of not to Hand decides he's going

to smoke out Robinhood to capture him by planning a

archery competition because he knows Robinhood's the best archer in

the land and he cannot not show up at a competition,

so he plans this competition. Robin Hood shows up dressed

in disguise. Of course, everybody knows who Robinhood is except

the king, who's kind of blind. And Robinhood gets up

and he starts shooting, and he pulls his bow and

arrow and he shoots and it hits the target bullseye

dead on. Then he pulls out another arrow, and he

shoots it again, and that arrow splits the arrow in

the bullseye. Nice story, but you've never done that with

your life, and neither have I. We all fall short

and we don't make it to the standard of perfection.

Now that's called sin. Now there's a second word that

you're probably not familiar with, but it's just as important,

and it's called transgression. Would you write that word down? Transgression? Now,

transgression is the exact opposite of a sin. It doesn't

mean you fall short. It means you go too far.

It means you go past the boundary, you break the law.

It is an intentional, deliberate disobedience. And it can be

I just didn't measure up. I wasn't good enough, I

wasn't perfect. But transgression means I intentionally break the law.

I go past the boundary. If I'm driving down the

freeway and the speed limit says fifty five miles an

hour and I'm going eighty five, that is not a sin.

That's a transgression because I'm breaking the law intentionally. You

see what I'm saying. It's not like I'm not measuring up,

not that I fall short. It's that I'm breaking the law.

I go. I know it's the law, but I'm still

gonna go eighty five. Anyway, that's called a transgression. And

you go deliberate disobedience, willful defiance, breaking God's laws. Now

there's a third word, and I want you to get

this one, and it's called iniquity. Iniquity. Now this one's

not used at all in English today, but iniquity means

intention to hurt, intention to hurt somebody, intention to damage,

intention to do evil. Maybe because you're mad, or you're jealous,

or you're envious, or you're bitter, or you're prideful, or

somebody's offended you, you want to hurt them back. That's

not a sin. That's not a transgression. That's an iniquity.

It is an intentional desire to hurt somebody else. When

Hitler and the Nazis killed six million Jewish people in

the death camps, that was not a sin, that was

not a transgression. That was an iniquity. They intended intentionally

to hurt those people. They wanted to kill them, They

wanted to eradicate that entire race, and that was evil.

That was iniquity. It wasn't measuring not in just measuring enough.

It was it was intentionally meant to hurt, caused by anger, resentment,

and be hatred, bitiness whatever. Let me explain these three

in football terms. If I'm in football and I want

to know the difference between a sin, a transgression, and

an iniqolity. A sin would be kicking a field goal

and it misses, it falls short, or it hits the

goal post and it goes over to the side. That

is a sin would be I have missed the mark.

I fell short. Kicking a goal and I don't make

the field goal. That's I've missed the mark. A transgression

would be off sides if I jump off sides before

the snap is taken. In football, I intentionally was going

after to get you and I'm out of bounds, I'm offside.

If I go out of bounds with the ball and

I step out of bounds, that's not a sin. That's

a transgression. Does that make sense, I've gone out of bounds.

I've broken The law says you stay within these boundaries

if you're playing football. But I'm going to go out

of bounds, and that's called a transgression. Now, if I

come up and I head butt you, and I kick

you in the face and I break your that's a

personal foul, that's an iniquity. I want to intentionally hurt you.

I want to take you out of the Jesus once

told three stories in Luke chapter fifteen, the Parable, the

Story of the Lost Sheep, the Story of the Lost Coin,

and the story of the Lost Son or the Prodigal Son.

Each of those stories explains one of the three kinds

of rebellion, sin, transgression, iniquity. Now David in Psalm thirty

two talks about all three of them. In fact, here's

what he says. Look here on the screen, and it's

on your outline. I acknowledge my sin circle that to you.

I did not cover up my iniquity circle that, and

I confessed my transgressions circle back, and you forgave my guilt,

he said. You know, really, it didn't matter which one

it was, whether I didn't measure up or I missed

the mark, or I went out of bounds, or I

intend fly meant to hurt somebody. You're still going to

forgive me if I confess it to you. If I

confess it to you, now, let me just summ up

what I'm trying to say in this introduction, we all

have broken God's laws. We have all rebelled by sins,

transgressions of nicolays. We've all done it, all three of them.

We break God's laws, and then sin has broken the world.

And that's why nothing works correctly. Your marriage, your health,

your finances, your body, your relationships. Nothing works correctly because

sin broke everything. Now, what I want to do this

weekend is help you understand this and fully, because when

you understand what I'm going to teach you this weekend,

you will never again have to ask the question why

is this happening? Or why is this happening to me?

Those questions are questions that reveal you don't understand what

I want to teach you this weekend. What the Bible says.

When you understand why life in the world is so hard,

you're no longer going to be surprised by it. You're

not going to be surprised when things don't go your way,

You're not going to be surprised when plans don't pan out,

You're not going to be surprised when things actually go bad,

and you will be able to handle the hard times

of life. The difficulties of life much much easier. So

why is life so hard? Now? Why do we suffer?

Why is everything a battle? Well, the answer is rebellion

against God broke everything. That's the reason. Now what's the result.

What's the damage? Well, the damage, friends, is significant, because

it's in every single area of your life. You might

write this down. Nothing works perfectly because I have made

poor choices. You have made poor choices. The entire human

race has made poor choices. Everything's broken, and nothing and

this planet works perfectly. Sin has damaged everything. Sin has

ruined everything. Sin has destroyed everything. Sin has corrupted and

spoiled everything. Sin has injured everything. Every relationship, every idea,

every dream, every human body, everything has been touched by

this damage. Now, the Bible is very specific and it

mentions six dimensions of your life where sin has damaged

stuff in your life and it's not perfect, and if

you expect it to be perfect, you're going to be

severely disappointed. These six areas or dimensions of your life

are talked about intensively in a book called Ecclesiastes. Now,

Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. He was

the wealthiest man who ever lived, and at one point

he was the king of Israel, and Solomon wrote book

three Books of Wisdom, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Songs of Solomon.

They're in the middle of the Bible. But in Ecclesiastes,

one of these books, he mentions six dimensions of life

that are damaged on our broken planet. Let's look at

them real quickly. The first result, the first damage is

natural disasters and deformities. The world has natural disasters and deformities,

not because that's what God wants, because that's what sin

does in the world. The environment has suffered from human

sin and human poor choices, and we're on a broken planet.

It's not perfect anymore. We're not living in Eden anymore.

As John Milton wrote a very famous poem, Paradise was lost.

We don't live in Paradise. We live on a broken planet.

And as a result, we have hurricanes and typhoons and

wacky weather and earthquakes and all and droughts and floods.

And you know, it's amazing to me that insurance calls

all these things acts of God, but doesn't call the

birth of a baby an act of God. In other words,

an act of God is only the negative stuff that happens.

God does not want these things happening in the world.

The world was broken when sin damaged everything, and so

now we have all of these natural disasters happening all

around us, and God is as upset by him as

we are. The Bible says in Romans eight twenty creation

was condemned to lose its purpose. Everything on this planet

has lost its original purpose, and that's why we have

to get it back. It has to be restored. In

the CEV version, it says creation is confused. You know,

when you look and you see the birth of, for instance,

a pair of Siamese twins who are joined at the head,

that's confusing, and you go, what was God thinking there?

That wasn't what God wanted. That's what God never planned.

That's the result because everything in the world is damaged,

including your DNA, your parents' DNA, their parents' DNA, and

everything else. Have you figured this out? Your body doesn't

work right, doesn't If everybody's body work pritically, there would

be no need for doctors. And so we have defects

and disabilities in animals and in people. There are emotional disabilities,

there are mental disabilities, There are physical disabilities. Every one

of us have defective parts of our mind, our bodies,

and our spirits because sin has broken everything. Creation is confused,

and you go, why do animals do that? Because creation

is confused? And why is there that kind of deformity

to the fact? Because creation is confused. Romans eight twenty

two says, all of creation groans with pain. You know

what that means. It means that the earth needs salvation,

not just people. The environment needs to be saved, not

just people, because it's all been damaged by poor decisions

and rebellion against God.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy

you've chosen to study along with us today. Why is

everything in life so hard? Why does the right thing

often feel like a battle. It's because every day there's

a spiritual war raging all around you. Here's Pastor Rick

to tell you more.

You know, we all face temptations every day. It's a

spiritual battle that takes place inside us, and it makes

us vulnerable, particularly if we don't know how to fight it.

To overcome temptation is absolutely essential that you know the

tactics that Satan uses to trip us up and it's

vital to learn the biblical defenses that God gives us.

He has told us in his Word how to handle

and how to manage the attacks of Satan. In order

to help you learn how to respond to the predictable

patterns that Satan uses to tempt you, I've created a

study kit called The Invisible War Winning the Battle of Temptation.

This kit, The Invisible War Winning the Battle of Temptation,

includes a DVD with seven different sessions and a simple

booklet that will help you learn how to overcome and

defeat temptation in your life. You really need this. In

the series, I will teach you the three kinds of temptation,

God's antidote to temptation, and even how to avoid temptation

in the first place. It is a steady guide that

you can use by yourself, but you'll actually get more

out of it if you'll gather a small group of

friends together and study it together as a small group. Now,

I want to send you the Invisible War Winning the

Battle for Temptation study Kit as my gift to say

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