Rick Warren - Jesus Secrets of Resilience

Hello, Saddleback. Have I told you lately that I love you?

You know? I want to encourage you to take out

your message outline right now because this is going to

be a very useful message that I know is going

to help you a lot. So pull out your message

notes wherever you are now. The reason that I'm speaking

to you from the farm is because I'm doing something

this weekend that I hope every one of you will

do before the end of the year, and it's this.

I want you to plan a getaway with your small group.

We have I don't know thousand and seven thousand plus

small groups at Saddleback Church. Plan a getaway with your

small group on a day or a weekend. Just go

away for a day, or if you can go away

for a weekend, plan something fun together, plan a retreat.

Believe me, after the last nearly two years of limited

fellowship due to the COVID nineteen pandemic, you need to

plan a getaway with your small group and have some

serious fellowship and some serious fun. That's why I'm modeling

it for you this weekend. So I'm away with my

small group that we've been together almost twenty years now.

For most of you. I doubt that your schedule is

as busy as mine is, and I don't want you

to use busyness as an excuse for not getting away.

So if you've got the desire to do this with

your small group, and you make a commitment to do it,

you'll figure out a way to plan a fun getaway

and a spiritual retreat with your small group. That's the

doctor's orders this week. Now, this week, I want us

to continue with part five of my series called Strategies

for Stressful Times. Specifically, we're going to look at how

Jesus personally handles stress, and I want you to see

what I call jesus Seven Secrets of Resilience. Now, maybe

you've never thought about it, but the Bible says that

we are to look to Jesus as our model for

enduring tough times. The Bible says, as we are to

look to Jesus as our model for enduring tough times,

we are to follow his example of resilience, and we

are to follow his example stress management. And the Bible

says it this way. If you've got your notes there

right at the top of your outline, Hebrews chapter twelve

says this verses one to three out of the New

Living Translation. Since we are surrounded by such a crowd

of witnesses to this life of faith, let us strip

off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin

that so easily hinders our progress, and let us run

with endurance. Underline that, run with endurance the race that

God has set before us. We do this by keeping

our eyes on Jesus. You see that we do this

by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith

depins from start to finish. Jesus was willing to die

a shameful death on the cross because of the joy

he knew would be his afterwards. And now he is

seated in the place of highest honor, beside God's throne

in heaven. Think about all he endured. That's what we're

talking about this weekend, resilience. Think about all he endured

when sinful people did such terrible things to him. So

that you so that you don't become weary and give up. Now,

what is that verse? At passage Thomas nobody experienced greater

stress than Jesus Christ. He experienced enormous pressure. He was

criticized constantly, he was misunderstood. There were constant demands on

his life. He had little privacy, and there were people

who were trying constantly to kill him. I doubt that's

true of you, but that's stress. And yet when we

look at the life of Jesus Christ, we look at

his ministry, we see that he walked and he lived

with an amazing peacefulness, no matter how difficult the situation became.

He modeled a calmness and a resilience in the face

of outrageous demands. This is the Book of Hebrews advises

us to keep our eyes on Jesus. That's what we're

going to do today. We're going to watch his example

of endurance. We're going to learn his secrets of resilience.

And today I'm going to unpack jesus seven secrets of resilience.

You're going to need this, so I want to encourage

it to take notes. Now we learn these seven secrets

of resilience from Jesus's own words. Let's get started. The

first secret of resilience when you're under stress is this.

Write this down. Remember how much God loves me. That's

the first antidote to stress. It's the first secret of resilience.

It is the principle of compassion. Jesus had no doubt

in his mind that God the Father loved him. He

talks about it over and over and over and over.

Just one verse on your outline, John ten, verse seventeen.

The Father loves me. The Father loves me now knowing

and remembering that God loves you unconditionally, and God loves

you extravagantly, and God loves you continuously, and he will

never stop loving you. That is the foundation. That's the

first secret, the foundation of a resilient life. As Paul

says in the Book of Romans, if God's for us,

who can be against us? Okay, who could be against us?

We are resilient because we know that God will never

stop loving us. Now, I know what you're thinking, think, well,

of course God loves Jesus, he's his son. But did

you know that Jesus said the same thing about you two. Yeah.

In John fifteen, verse nine to ten says this. Jesus says,

just as the Father has loved me, So if I

loved you, now remain in my love, and if you

obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Now.

I've talked to you many, many times about how much

God loves you, because it is really the basis of

your personal security. If you're not convinced that God always

loves you, that he loves you unconditionally, completely, instantly, continuously,

that he never stops loving you, that you can't make

him stop loving you. If you don't really have this

foundation of God's unconditional love in your life, You're going

to be easy, pray for the disapproval of other people.

You're going to be a people pleaser. How much does

God love you? We'll look there on your outline. First,

John three, verse one says this, how great, How great

is the love of the Father that He's lavished on us,

that we should be called the children of God, and

that is what we are. So the first key to

resilience is to build the baseline that God will never

stop loving me. Jesus knew it. You need to know it.

Number two. The second key that we see in the

life of Jesus, and you need this for your stress resistance,

is this, remember who I am. Don't just remember that

God loves you unconditionally. Remember who I am. This is

the principle of identification. Now why is this important? Because

if you're not sure who you really are. You're going

to be whipped around and manipulated and molded by the

pressures and the problems and the other people around you.

When you have a confused identity, when you have an

unclear identity, when you don't really know who you are,

it makes you more prone distress. Why because our culture

will try to fit you in it's mold. It's going

to make you into what you want it wants you

to be. And until you settle this issue first, God

loves me unconditionally, and I know who I am. I'm

a child of God, You're going to be prone distress.

Now we know that Jesus never had any doubts about

his identity. He knew exactly who he was. In fact,

eighteen times in scripture he publicly defines himself eighteen times.

These are famous statements called the I Am statements of Jesus,

the I Am statements of Jesus. I've listed just a

few of them there on your outline, mark Chapter fourteen,

John eight, John fourteen, John six. Many different places Jesus

says I am, and then he fills it in I

am the light of the world, I am the Son

of God, I am the way, I am the truth,

I am the life, I am the bread of life.

Over and over, he defines himself. He knew exactly who

he was. Why is this helpful in knowing in handling stress? Well?

In John eight eighteen, Jesus says, in other words, I

testify to my own behalf. I don't need other people

to tell me who I am. I know who I am.

I don't depend on the opinions of others to validate myself.

Do you do that? If you depend on the opinions

of others to validate yourself, you are prone to stress,

and you certainly aren't resilient to chronic stress. The fact is,

if you don't know who you are, other people will

decide it for you. They'll force you into a mold.

They'll create stress. You'll end up pretending. You'll end up

faking it. You'll end up wearing a mask. You'll end

up trying to be a man or woman that you're

not really who you are. You're who everybody else wants

you to be. And that's called stress. Stress happens when

you try to be something you're not. Doesn't matter if

it's for the sake of your parents or the sake

of your boss, or the sake of your spouse, or

the sake of your boyfriend. Doesn't matter who you do

it for. You're going to be pressured and you're going

to be stressed, and you're not going to be resilient.

Now you say, well, of course Jesus knew he was

the light of the world. Of course he knew that.

But did you know that Jesus said the same thing

about you. He said the exactly he said, I'm the

light of the world. But in Matthew five thirteen sixteen,

Jesus says this, you are the light of the world.

He says, you are the salt of the earth, and

you are the light of the world. Don't hide your light.

Do you realize how special God says you are. There's

nobody in the world exactly like you. When God made you,

he broke the mold. Just like God doesn't make two

snowflakes the same. God doesn't make clones of people. Even

identical twins are different in thousands of different ways. There

will never be in the history of humankind someone like

you at all. You're unique, and you need to know

that God loves you unconditionally, and you need to know

who you are now. Identity, this issue of identity, This

is the second principle, the principle of identity. When you

don't know your identity, it increases your stress. And it

comes out two different ways, comparing and copying, comparing copy comparing.

When you say, well, I'm going to compare myself to

everybody else, God says, don't do that, and copying others.

We all begin as originals, but we end up as

carbing copies of other people. God does not want copies

of anybody. God does not want clones. That's why I

only created one of you. God wants you to be you.

When you get to having God, I'm going to say,

why weren't you more like Moses? The point is you

must be comfortable, become comfortable with being you. You must

accept your strengths, and you must accept your limitations and

your weaknesses. You must accept the truth about you. When

you do that, this second principle, the principle I know

who I am, you'll have a lot less stress. All right. Now,

here's the third secret of resilience that we learn from

looking to Jesus as our model. I know that God

loves me, I know who I am. Here's the third thing.

Know who I'm trying to please. Know who I'm trying

to please. In other words, know who you're living for now.

This is the principle of motivation. You need to know

what is your deepest motivation. If you don't know that,

if you haven't figured it out, you are prone to

get stressed. What motivates you every day? You see, Mixed

motivations are a third great cause of stress. Jesus said,

no man can serve two masters. This third cause of

stress is trying to please everybody. The truth is you can't.

You get crowd A please, crowd B ticks off, get kissed,

kicked off. You about the time you get crowd B happy,

crowd A is upset again. Did you know that even

God can't please everybody. Somebody's praying for it to rain,

and somebody's praying for it to be sunny. On the

same day, somebody's praying for some team to win, and

others praying for another team to win or this guy

to get elected, and somebody else is praying for somebody else.

You know, as a path I have learned that for

forty two years I'm always disappointing somebody. Why because everybody

has different expectations. Okay, they have different expectations. The Bible

says the fear of man is a trap. It's it

will capture you, it will cause you to stumble. That's

why Jesus says, I and John five point thirty, I'm

not trying to do what I want, but only what

my father, who sent me wants. I know who I'm

trying to please. Now, if you're not trying to please

God in all likelihood, you're trying to please a bunch

of people, it's a whole lot easier to say, I'm

just going to focus on pleasing God and let the

chips fall where they me because if you please God,

it will always be the right thing. If you don't

please God and you're trying to please others, you just

get stressed out with what this person wants that person wants.

This was the third reason Jesus was so stressed resistant

he was only trying to please please one person. Notice

there on your outline, John eight twenty nine. I always

do those things that are pleasing to him, And if

you're pleasing God, it's always the right thing. It also

simplifies your life because I don't have to worry about him.

I please to every veilse. I'm just trying to please God.

Jesus never let approval or that matter of rejection control him.

He lived for an audience of one, as I mentioned

earlier Luke sixteen thirteen. No man can serve two masters.

You can't please multiple audiences. He focused only on pleasing God. Now,

this is what you need to do if you want

to be resistant distress and if you want to be

resilient to when you get knocked down. Galatians one ten.

Paul says, I'm not trying to be a people pleaser.

This is Paul. I'm not trying to be a people pleaser. No,

I'm only trying to please God. If I are still

trying to please people, he says, I wouldn't be Christ's servant.

I love that. In the New Living Translation, one of

the biggest myths that will make you miserable is this,

I must be loved by everybody in order to be happy.

That's just not true. You don't need other people's approval

to be happy. But let me ask you right now,

who's approval are you depending on for your happiness? Who

you're still trying to please? Somebody been trying to please

an unpleasable parent and they've been dead for a while.

You know, we love to blame other people for our stress.

I have to do this, I must do this. I

can't do that. The truth is, nobody's holding the gun

to your head. You're not a victim. You are as

free as you choose to be. Nobody can pressure you

without your permission. That's why the third secret of resilience

is know who you're trying to please. Jesus said, I

know who I'm trying to please. I'm only trying to

please my father. I'm not worried about anybody else. That's

why we're looking at him as our model. Now here's

the fourth thing that Jesus did. Here's the fourth secret

of resilience and resistance to stress. I need to not

only know God loves me. I need to not only

know that that who I'm trying to please. I need

to not only know that God has called me. That's

the fourth thing. I know my calling. If you want

to be resistant to stress, you need to get alone

with God until you know your calling. I must know

exactly and believe exactly what God has called me to

do with my life. Now, this is the principle of vocation.

Vocation and until you clarify this and it becomes crystal

clear in your mind, you're going to be more prone

to getting stressed out. But when when you know what

God's called you do, you know what God has called

you do you all still know what God has called

you not to do. In other words, when you're sure

of your calling, you know what's your business, but you

also know what's none of your business. And that simplifies life.

To Jesus, knew exactly what he was called to do.

Here's the fourth thing. And John eight fourteen. He says,

I know where I came from, and I know where

I'm going. To me, that sounds like a purpose driven life.

I know where I came from, and I know where

I'm going. He lived a purpose driven life. If you're

to look up the word drive in the dictionary, it

means to guide or to control, or to direct. When

you drive a car, you guide control directed down the street.

When you drive a nail with a hammer, you guide control,

direct the nail into the wood. When you drive a

golf ball, hopefully you guide controlled, directed down the fairway.

Every life is driven by something. Some people are driven

by guilt, some people are driven by fear. Some people

are driven by the pressure of others. You're going to

be guided through life by either pressure or purpose. Let

me say that again. You will be guided through life

by either pressures or purpose. And that's why this is

no You're calling. Know your purpose. We have a whole

series of classes on this at saddle Back Church. And

when you know your purpose, then you determine what's important,

the purpose or some people's idea for your life. What

am I saying to you this weekend? That the direction

of your life? It's your choice, Okay, nobody, as I said,

nobody's holding a gun to your head. And by clarifying

your calling and goes you know what God shaped me

in a certain way, That means I, whatever you're shaped,

it is what you should be doing. But when you

when you know your shape and you know what God's

called you, then you can avoid the tyrannage of the urgent.

And until you clarify your calling, you're going to be

controlled by others. How many times have you already learned

that God loves you and everybody else has a plan

for your life? James, Chapter one, verse eight says this,

a person who has doubts is thinking about two different

things at the same time. They can't make up their

mind about anything. The Bible says, you're wishy washy when

your purpose isn't clear, when your calling isn't clear. That's

why Paul says the Ephesians for one, I urge you

to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Everybody has a calling, not just missionaries or pastors or

church leaders. Everybody has a calling. Some are called to

be pharmacists, some are called to be accountants, some are

called to be a school teacher, some are called to

be cab drivers. Each day you need to ask, am

I moving toward my purpose? And that leads me to

the fifth principle of resilience that we learned from looking

to Jesus as our model. And here's what Jesus did.

Number five, Focus on what matters most. Focus on what

matters most. Now, this is the principle of concentration. We've

talked about, you know, motivation, and we've talked about the

compassion of God. This is the principle of concentration. And

what I mean by this is when you know where

you're headed and you focus, then you're not distracted by

less important things. It's a matter of priorities. You know

what matters most in life, and you focus on those things.

As I said, everybody has a plan for your life.

You know what I've discovered that is Satan can't get

you to do wrong. He'll just wear you out with

too many good things. Yeah, yeah, good things. There are

a lot of good things you shouldn't do. Did you

know that Jesus was a master of concentration. He was

a master of focusing his life. He focused his life

like a laser, and he refused to be distracted. Let

me show you some verses Luke nine fifty one. Here's

an example of this principle. As the time drew near

for his return to heaven, Jesus moved steadily onward toward

Jerusalem with an iron will. That's a living Bible. What

does that mean? He had a goal, he knew what

his goal was. He knew he was going to die

in Jerusalem. He's persistent, he's determined, he's focused, he focuses,

he's clarified his priorities. Paul's the same way. Paul says,

this one thing I do Paul didn't say these forty things.

I dabble in. That's what we do. We dabble in

forty things. This one thing I do. If you want

your life to count, if you want your life to

have impact, focus is the name of the game. You know,

you have incredible spiritual potential, but the barrier is often

you haven't really settled what's most important. I don't really

have time to serve God. I would rethink that one okay,

I would rethink that, knowing that one day you're going

to stand before God and he's going to say, what

did you do with what you were given? You know,

some guys gave that same excuse to Jesus, Lord, let

me first, go do something else before I follow you.

And that phrase let me first, that's always the problem.

Me first. You can't say Lord, let me first. Lord

and me first are contradictory. Jesus said in Luke nine

sixty two. Anyone who lets himself be distracted from the

work that I plan for him. God has planned a

work for you to do. Anyone who lets him be

act from the work I plan for him is not

fit for the Kingdom of God. The older I get,

the more I realize selection is the name of the game.

Lots of opportunities, lots of option, but the key to

effectiveness is selection. First Corinthians ten twenty three says this,

We're free to do anything, but not all things are helpful,

not all things are profitable, not all things are wholesome

or constructive to your character and your spiritual life. I

love that the way it's brought out in the amplified translation.

What is he saying Some things aren't necessarily wrong, They're

just not necessary. That's one of the keys to resilience.

It's one of the keys to stress resistance. And here's

the sixth secret of resilience that we learn from looking

to Jesus as our model. This is a big one.

Number six. Spend time alone with God. Now, this secret

of resilience, and this secret of stress resistance may be

the secret that you do the least spending enough time

alone with God, and yet is absolutely essential to building

a resilient spirit and managing chronic stress. It is the

principle of meditation. You know, prayer is a great stress reliever.

It's a decompression chamber, it's cathartic. It's one of the

ways to unload your burdens. The Bible says in Luke

twenty two thirty nine, it was jesus habit. Notice this

on your outline. It was Jesus' habit to go to

the Mount of Olives to pray, and his disciples followed him.

Circle the word habit. How do you develop habit? Well,

habit is something you develop through practice and through reputation.

It's not a habit unless you do it over and

over and over. It was his habit to go to

the Mount of Olives. He would leave the city of Jerusalem,

go across the valley to the Mount of Olives and

pray there. Now, this next verse says, in the morning,

while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the

house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

Do you have any time like that in your life?

You need quiet times to renew, to reflect, to recharge.

I want to challenge you on this principle of resilience.

Study that Jesus was convinced of the fact that no

matter how busy he was, he took time to get

alone with God and pray. In Luke chapter five, verse

fifteen to sixteen, we have a good example of it.

It says, news about Jesus spread even more, and crowds

came to hear him to be healed. But Jesus often

slipped away to be alone so he could pray. Now

circle the word often often means frequently. If Jesus felt

the need to frequently leave the crowd and get alone

with God, how much do we need that? You know?

I say as a pastor, the larger saddleback gets, the

more I find myself personally seeking solitude. It was the

famous philosopher Pascal who said, most of our problems, man's

problems come from our inability to sit still. So I'm

forty six says be still and know that I'm God,

Sit down and shut up. Would you agree that noises

a stress? Well, let me give you a suggestion. Start

your morning with God instead of your phone, instead of TV,

instead of radio. Set your mood with the good news.

Colossians two seven says plant your roots in Christ. Do

that every morning. Plant your roots in Christ and let

him be the foundation for your life. Now, there's one

more secret of resilience that we learned from looking to

Jesus as our model, and it's this number seven. That's

what I'm doing this weekend, Get a small group for support.

Get a small group for support. Do you know the

first thing Jesus did when he started as ministry He

formed a small group. You see, you were never intended

to handle stress by yourself. If I were to ask

you to complete the sentence if you want a job

done right, you typically say, do it yourself. That's the

motto of a perfectionist headed for burnout. If you want

a job done right, do it yourself. You can't do

every job by yourself. Now, if anybody had a right

to say, if you want a job right, it done right,

do it yourself. If anybody had the right to say that,

it was Jesus. Yet, even Jesus knew the power of

having a small group for support. And in Mark chapter three,

verse fourteen, it says he chose twelve that was his

small group, designated in the Apostles that they might be

with him. That's the point of a small group. He

gathered a small group before starting his ministry. You know,

so much of our stress, friends, is self imposed. We

get up tight when we think it all depends on us.

He doesn't. God hasn't called you to be the general

manager of the universe here at Saddleback Church. This church

out grew me decades ago, decades ago. I could never

do it all by myself. From the very start, my

goal was to give the ministry away, even preaching. And

that's why I have other guest preachers, because I think

you need to hear God's word from more than just

one voice. God never meant for the church to be

a one man superstar show. Even Jesus needed a small

group for support. You remember that when he went to

the garden of guestsebite before the cross. In Matthew twenty six,

verse thirty eight, Jesus said to his disciples, my soul

is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. That's

severe stress. And here's his antidote. Stay here and keep

watch with me. Even Jesus needed people to pray with him.

Even Jesus needed the support of a small group when

he was in a crisis. Why don't we accept help

from other people. There's a couple reasons, insecurity and pride,

And it is insecurity. It's our own insecurity and our

own pride that we don't accept hell from others, so

we stay stressed out. The fact is There are people

in this church family waiting to help you, waiting to

support you, waiting to encourage you, waiting to assist you,

if you'll just be humble enough to ask. Here's the secret.

Join a small group. If Jesus needed one, you need one.

And the fact is stress is increasing in our culture,

so you have to take these seven intentional steps to counteract.

It's not going to go away. Your life isn't going

to get less stressful by accident. It only is going

to get less stressful, more manageable, and you're going to

have greater resilience if you choose to do these seven

things that Jesus modeled. Now, I want to close by

reading again the passage that we started with in Hebrews

twelve one to three. To it again in light of

the seven things that I gave you as a model

from Jesus. Here's what the Hebrews twelve says. Since we

are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to

the life of faith, let us strip off every weight

that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily

enters our progress, and let us run with endurance. You've

needed that the last eighteen to twenty months run with

endurance the race that God has set before us. We

do this, He's going to give us the answer. We

do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus start to finish.

Jesus was willing to die a shameful death on the

cross because of the joy he knew he would would

be his afterwards. Now he's seated at the place of

highest honor besides God, God's throne in heaven. Then it

says this, think of about all he endured. When you

think you're going through a tough time, think about all

what Jesus endured when sinful people did such terrible things

to him, So that you don't become weary and give up.

You know, I remember many years ago, this is going

to date me when the long awaited fourth installment of

Schwarzenagger's Terminator movie series came out. The fourth of the

Terminator movies was called Terminator Salvation, and I remember reading

an online review of this many years ago, and the

reviews said this quote in Terminor Terminator Salvation, most of

humanity has been wiped out by a nuclear holocaust. Cost

a grown up John Connors is fighting with the resistance.

His adult life is certainly purpose driven. Now that caught

my attention. This is a movie review. His adult life

is certainly purpose driven, and this rebel with a cause

has the weight of the world on his shoulders. You've

heard that phrase, I'm sure many times we hear that

phrase used when people are under intense stress. They have

the weight of the world on their shoulders. But you know, friends,

the truth is only one person in all of history

has ever carried the full weight of the world on

his shoulders. It's Jesus. So in closing, I need to

mention one more stress reliever that Jesus didn't need because

he was the son of God. What's the seventh or

the eighth stress reliever? You need a savior. You need

far more than the model of Jesus. You need that,

But you need Jesus himself in your life. You need

his presence in your life. You need his power in

your life. You need his pardon for your sins. You

need his peace in your life. You need his salvation.

We've looked at this verse before in this series. Matthew eleven,

twenty eight, twenty nine. Jesus said, come to me, all

of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens. And

I'll give you rest. Take my yoke on you and

let me teach you because I'm humble and gentle, and

you will find rest for your souls. You know what

that verse is. It's salvation. This is salvation. Are you

stressed out? Don't give up? Look up because Jesus' offer

still stands. Come to me. The single greatest source of

stress in your life is this trying to live your

life apart from a daily connection to Christ. God is

God and you're not. And when I'm disconnected from Christ,

or when you're disconnected for Christ, it cases all kinds

of problems. Fear, gil worry, loneliness. Come back to Christ today.

Give him your stress. He's aware of the load you're carrying,

and he says, I'll carry it with you. Let's power heads.

Heavenly Father, thank you for not only being a model

for stress relief, a mentor for stress relief, but for

being the answer to our stress. We need a savior.

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

come into my life right now. I need a savior.

I need your power. Just say that. I need your power,

I need your presence, I need your pardon for all

the things I've done wrong, and I need your peace

in my heart and in my mind. I open my

life to your love. I need to not just practice

your model, but I need to have a relationship with you.

Please save me in Jesus' name. Amen, God bless you. Everybody.

We'll be talking to you next week. Have a great weekend.