Rick Warren - The Prayer of Deliverance Part three

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Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Today,

Rick continues teaching a series called Connecting with God the

Lord's Prayer. In these lessons, Rick shows you what it

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

Rick with the final part of a message called the

Prayer of Deliverance.

Don't resist, refocus. Whatever you have in your life that

you resist, you're just nailing it harder into your life.

Whatever you resist persists. I'm not gonna have another cigarette.

I'm not gonna have another cigarette. I'm not gonna have

another I'm not gonna take another drink. Whatever you resist persist.

The key is not did you know that? In the Bible,

not once are you told to resist temptation. We are

told to resist the devil, and that's the whole different issue.

That's another sermon. But in temptation, the key to overcoming

temptation is not push back.

The temptation has just.

Changed my focus, and all of a sudden, I'm not

interested in not anymore. When I get a new focus,

when I refocus, all of a sudden, that which had

my attention I forget about. It's not that I'm resisting it,

I just forget about it. And that principle works in

every single area of life. Whatever gets your attention gets you.

The battle for sin always starts in the mind. That's

why the Bible says this up here on the screen,

thinking about your commands will keep me from doing some

foolish thing. Why because if I'm thinking about your commands,

I'm thinking about truth. I'm not thinking about the dumb

stuff I.

Could be doing.

You ever looked over a cliff bent up real line,

looked over cliff and felt like you were being drawn

to jump off, kind of like you're being pulled off,

not like a temptation, but just like felt like there

was this force that was pulling you. It's because whatever

you focus on pulls you. It's true in every single

area of life, good or bad. You focus on good

things in life, godly things in life, true things in life,

it's gonna pull you that direction. You focus on the

stuff that's at the movies and the stuff that's in

the magazine and the stuff that's in all the harlequin

romance novels.

That's going to pull you that direction.

Whatever you focus on gets your attention, and whatever gets

your attention is going to get you. I don't know

if you've realized this, but the more you think about something,

the more it upsets you, and it gets worse and

worse and worse, and it gets a stronger hold, and

you repeat it and repeat it and reinforce it and

reinforce it. And you know, the first time you think

about that really upset me. The more you think, man,

that really did upset me. The more you think about, man,

I am kicked off, then you know, and then you're

ready to drop an atomic bomb on that person. By

the time you've thought it over and over, you know what,

it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So whatever

is tempting you whoether it sex or food or anything else.

Whatever you focus on is going to pull you that direction.

And so the key is to just change your mind.

You see, temptation always follows a predictable pattern. Attention arousal action.

Attention arousal action. That's the way every single temptation works.

Attention hmm, what was that, Paul and lean and long

and lanky.

Do know something?

Your mind gets hooked arousal, Your mind kicks in emotions action,

you act on it.

That's what the Book of James says, chapter one.

So you don't fight a temptation, you just churn your

mind to something else.

Look at this verse.

We capture every thought and make it obey Christ. We

capture every thought. Now, friends, what that verse says to do.

That's a secret to temptation. You're not good at that.

You're not very good at that, capturing every thought and

turning at the car, Chris, because that takes practice. That

takes practice. You can't always control your circumstances. And by

the way, you can't always control the way you feel,

but you can control what you think about. That's always

your choice. You can't always control the way you feel.

But you can control what you think. And if you

change the way you think, it changes the way you feel,

and that will change the way you act. When Jesus

was resisting temptation in the Bible and Satan said, turn

these stones to bread, he did and say.

Oh, no, I'm not hungry.

He was hungry, fasted for forty days. He just turned

his mind to something else. Quoted the Bible, would you

write this down. The more I fight it, the more

it controls me. The more I fight it, the more

it controls me.

So the answer is, I'm not telling you to go.

Out of here and fight temptation. You can't fight a feeling.

But let me tell you how you ignore a very

powerful feeling.

I just told it to you. You ignore it. That's it.

You don't fight a feeling. Can't fight this feeling anymore.

What you go gotta do is you just ignore it.

You refocus on something else, and the feeling loses its

attraction because of your attraction and attention on something else.

Look at the next verse Romans twelve twenty one. Don't

let evil conquer you, but overcome or conquer evil with good.

Now, what is this right.

Underneath that the principle of replacement. That's what this is.

It's the principle of replacement. Fill your mind with truth,

good thoughts, good things, and it pushes out all the

junk in your mind.

Now, learning this kind.

Of stuff that I'm talking about is this pattern of

thinking is not easy, but it is possible, and you

can learn how to do it. So here are the steps.

First five, Identify what makes me vulnerable. I know why

I get tempted. Then I plan to avoid those places.

Just stay away from those things. Don't watch that channel.

Have somebody put a block on your on your computer,

your your wife, or on your on your television or whatever.

Guard your heart. Know when you're emotionally low, pray for

God's help. Ask God to give you deliverance. Pray the

prayer of deliverance. Turn my attention elsewhere. And then here's

number six, and this is the number one thing. Get

a group and a partner, the friends. I've been helping

people through temptation for over thirty years and nothing works

like this. That's why I keep talking about you need

to have an accountability partner. You need to have a

spiritual partner. You need to have a spiritual you need

to be in a small group. So I told you

when we started. The reality is willpower is not enough

for permanent change. You've got to get a group, and

you've got to get a partner. Now, look up here

on the screen. The Bible says this. I love this

in a message paraphrase. Sheer, muscle and willpower don't make

anything happen. But every word I've spoken to you Jesus

is a spirit word. So it is life making, it's

life changing. Change has to come inside. Here's my question

to you, is your pastor somebody who loves you, how

serious are you about breaking free that thing that just

you keep going back to it, and you keep going

back to it, and that habit, that pattern of thought,

that pattern of I always get angry in that situation.

I always get impatient in that situation. I always tend

to build myself up in that situation. I always get whatever,

How seriously are you interested in changing and breaking free?

Because if you are, let me be very blunt with you, you.

Will never do it without support. You will never do

it on your own. I don't give you any hope

of success in changing by yourself.

Zero.

Because God has wired us in a way that we

need each other to grow. We need each other to

break free of habits and hang ups and hurts. And

you need accountability in your life. The very thing that

you want least is the very thing you need most.

You need a friend who checks up on you, and

you need a group that supports you.

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

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This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again.

Here's Rick.

The Bible says this Ecclesiastes four. Two are better than

one because together, if one falls down, the other can.

Help him up.

But if somebody is alone and he falls into temptation,

there's no one there to help him up.

It just doesn't work.

I can't tell you how many times I started a

program of exercise and quit, started another one and quit,

and started another one and quit and starting another one.

Quit.

Can I give an excuse? You're an excuse there, an

excuse there, and all of that. And so this year

when we started it, said, I know this principle. You've

got to have a group and you've got to have

a friend. And so I asked a friend in this

church named Tom, and I said, Tom, he's a remember

of the.

Church, said will you be my partner? Will you help me?

I said, I want to set five days a week

to work out, so I'll hit four of them because

nothing goes as planned in my life or yours. So

I'm setting five days a week, So I hit four

and I've been consistent for two months now. Is that

because of me? No, it's because of Tom. Okay, you

need a Tom in your life, or a Terry or

Tony or something you need in your life to help

you on the three biggest habits in your life that

you want to change. You're not going to change them

on your own, So just quit kidding yourself. If you could,

you would, but you cancel, you won't. And you're never

gonna change without a group giving you support and without

a person giving you accountability. They were talking about this

Thursday night in my small group, and we were talking

about temptation. One of the people in our small group said,

you know, the temptation I really struggle with most is

the temptation to make myself look good all the time?

Would you ever have enough authenticity to say that.

In your small group? Would you? Would you ever.

Own up to the fact that ninety nine percent of

the time you're all about trying to make yourself look good?

Would you ever own up to that? You see, you're

never gonna be free. And until you own up. If

there's just one thing I could do as your pastor,

it would be to get you in a group and

get you with a person that you could be totally

honest with on the things that you think I don't

want to tell anybody about, because you're never going to

break free until you share them. And if we were

more consistent in confessing our temptations to each other, then

we wouldn't have to spend so much time confessing.

Our sins to each other.

I'd rather have you confess in temptations in having to

confess sins, wouldn't you? Yeah, So, what's the big deal? Well,

I've never been tempted. Liar, everybody's tempted. It is a

myth that says you're going to get to a point

in your spiritual life you're not tempted. No, in fact,

tell you this. The more mature you become, the more

Satan's going to put you on as most wanted to list.

You're going to get worse temptations as you grow.

It doesn't just go away. It gets worse different kinds,

but they're there. And if we are more consistent confessing

our temptations, if men would confess their temptations to other men,

they wouldn't have to confess their sins. If women would

confess their temptations to other women, they wouldn't have to

confess their sins.

The Bible says this, brothers.

And sisters, if someone in your group, we're talking about

small groups right now, if somebody in your group does

something wrong, you who are spiritual. That means you who

haven't done that week, because next week it'll be you. Okay,

you are spiritual, should go to that person gently, help

them make it right again. Who'll be careful because you

can be tempted by sin too, But by helping each

other with your troubles. You obey the law of Christ.

What's the law of Christ? Love your neighbor as yourself.

How do we love our neighbors as ourselves? The Bible

says right there, by helping each other through temptation.

That's how you love your neighbor.

By helping them through temptation, by helping them be consistent

in the things they want to be consistent in, to

help them break bad habits and help them start good habits.

That's the best way you can love your neighbor and

obey the law of Christ. God wired us to need

each other. And when we do this, when you're authentic

and you start admitting your temptation other people, it's liberating.

The moment you admit your temptation, you start moving to

freedom that second, because if I can't talk about it,

it's already out of control.

In my life.

If you can't talk about it, it's out of Whatever

you can't talk about is out of control in your life.

Otherwise you're just in denial. It's out of control.

And when you talk about a problem, it helps you

gain control. And holding on to a hang up only

intensifies that, it makes it worse. And you, and wearing

a mask makes you miserable, and pretending makes it worse.

It's liberating, it's empowering. The moment you share with somebody

in your small group, and you don't have to share

even with everybody in your group. Just get one person.

Say will you be my partner?

Here's some stuff I want to change, things I want

to work on for good, positive habits, get in shape

or whatever. Or here's some negative things I want to

stop doing, watching pornography or whatever. Okay, and remember I said,

everybody's got different temptations, so nobody has a right to

judge anybody else. We're all shaped for different things. But

the moment you enlist somebody, the pressure starts dissipating, the

temptation starts weakening. And you know what else it does

when you are authentic, it is endearing.

We love.

We gravitate toward people who are authentic. We gravitate toward

people who are real. We don't want to hang around

phonies who pretend like everything's going right in their Life's

why we have.

Testimonies in this church.

We've had thirty years of a parade of people saying,

my life is so messed up. And here's what's happening.

And it's not even completely fixed yet, but here's what

I'm working on, and here's how God's helping me. And

why do we do that to model that this is

a safe place. There is no sin that shocks me anymore.

I've heard every one of them. There's no sin in

our church that could shock me. It's all here in

our church. Why, Because we're human beings, Following Christ.

Does not exempt you from temptation.

Now, what I'm telling you is on this earth, you're

never going to be sinless, but it is possible to

sin less. Okay, you're never going to be sinless, but

it is possible.

To in less. And look at this first James five.

My dear friends, if you know people who've wandered off

from God's truth, don't write them off, go after them,

get them back, and you will have rescued precious lives.

Let me ask you, do you know somebody in your

life who's struggling right now who needs your help and

you need to go after them. You don't need to say, well,

that's none of my business. It is your business as

if you love them, it's your business to go after

them and to bring them back and help them out

and be their partner and love them unconditionally and listen

to their confession and encourage them and help them grow.

That's bower heads. Why don't you pray this prayer if

you're ready for a change. Dear God, you know all

the habits and temptations in my life that have tripped

me up for years, and you know the tempting situations

I'm facing right now. And you even know the temptations

that lay ahead of me this week that I don't

even know about yet. So I'm asking for your help.

I'm praying the prayer of deliverance, and I'm willing to

follow the path of your principles of escape so I

can change and be free. Help me to clearly see

the patterns in my life that lead to temptation. Give

me the strength to start avoiding them, to plan to

avoid them. Help me to refocus my attention on other things.

When I'm tempted today, I want to commit to getting

in a small group or starting a small group. Or

I can be encouraged and help others too and find

a partner. Most important, Lord, I need you to do

some heart surgery on me. Remove the negative emotions that

make me vulnerable and replace them with your love, and

you forgive us and your trust. I ask you, Jesus Christ,

to start changing me from the inside out, beginning today.

In your name, I pray Amen.

This is Pastor Rick's daily Hope. We are so happy

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be back to close out our time in just a moment.

But first fall is here and that means Christmas is

right around the corner. That's why we want to let

you know that Pastor Rick and his wife Kay created

an advent calendar with specially commissioned custom artwork. It's beautiful.

Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.

You know, friends, one of the most common questions that

you hear this time of the year is are you

ready for Christmas? It's a question that shows how much

preparation we think is necessary just to celebrate this holiday

and this holy day. We think getting ready for Christmas

means putting up decorations and buying and wrapping gifts and

sending cards and planning meals, and helping with school plays

and church musicals and office parties, and the list goes

on and on, making sure that we help all the

people who are in need. But does doing all that

really get us ready for Christmas? We'll making it through

a checklist prepare me for celebrating the Birth of Jesus.

We both know the answer is no, And we both

know that it's too easy to get so caught up

in doing too many things, many of them good things,

but so many things that we forget the real reason

for the season. So you know what, Here at Daily Hope,

we put together a brand new resource that I want

you to have. I hope it will help you really

get ready for celebrating the Birth of Jesus. It's an

advent calendar, a calendar of preparation. And each day on

this calendar, you'll open one Bible verse and then you

just turn to the corresponding page and a companion book

that we've put together, and you read through the very

short Spiritual Growth devotional. Not only takes a couple of

minutes to read the Bible verse and the devotional, but

it's going to prepare your heart for the coming of Christ.

At Christmas. My hope is at this resource. This advent calendar.

Preparing your heart for Christmas will help you spend the

holiday expressing your gratitude to God, worshiping instead of worrying,

and taking things off your schedule so you can appreciate

the true meaning of Christmas.

I don't want you.

To miss the miracle of Jesus this Christmas.

You'll want to get the Daily Hope Advent Calender and

devotional booklet in your hands now to start using it

on December first. This resource is a perfect way to

share the gift of Jesus at Christmas with your friends

and family, and we'll send it to you to say

thanks when you give a gift to Daily Hope to

help take the good news of Jesus Christ to people everywhere.

Quantities are limited, so get yours now. Call eight hundred

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