Rick Warren - From Stressed to Blessed Part Four

Hi, this is Pastor Rick Warren. You know, the Bible

says that God's mercies are new every morning. That means

every day you get a chance to start over, new day,

new vision, new goals, new mercy. That's good news. We're

going to be talking about it all year here at

Daily Hope. So God bless you everybody. I'm glad you're

listening today and stick with us through the whole year.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series

called Transformed. In these lessons, Rick uncovers key principles found

in God's Word that will completely transform our lives from

the inside out in every area including spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial,

and vocational. Now, if you can improve in any of

these areas I just mentioned, stay with us, because in

just a few months we're going to let you know

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Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part

of a message called from Stressed to Blessed.

Now, another common source of stress is conflict, opposition, criticism, attacks,

and there are people in your life who simply don't

like you. There are people you work with they criticize you,

maybe out of jealousy, maybe out of fear. But maybe

there are people in your life in your own family.

Maybe there's a family member who will not let you

enjoy anything. They just are always ragging on you. They're

always putting you down. They never have a positive word.

If you have any success, they downplay it, they minimize it.

And you've had these people in your life and they're

always attacking you, and they're always putting you down, and

they're always criticizing you. And when that happens, your natural

response is what attack back, criticize back, retaliate, get even.

But when you get even with somebody who's criticizing you,

it puts you on the same level. Now, if you've

forgive them, it puts you above them. But if you

get even, you're no better than they are. Now because

of the pluralization in our society. We have people around

us all the time who totally disagree with us. People

live with around you and work around you who don't

agree with you and don't like you, and maybe don't

even like Jesus, And as a result, they will criticize

you and they will put you down. And there are

other reasons too too, not just because of that, but

in our society today, our civilization is losing its civility.

The world is getting more rude. Would you agree with that?

And one of the things that's causing that is the Internet,

Because the Internet allows you to hide behind anonymously, behind

the screen and spout all kinds of vile things against

other people, and things that people would never say to

you face to face. They wouldn't have the curious say.

They'll spout off and they will minimize you and belittle you,

and they'll be rude to you, and they'll criticize you,

and they will attack you. On the internet, all they

are doing is revealing the smallest of their heart. Little

people be little people, Little people be little people. Great

people make people feel great. So when somebody's always belittling

other people, they are just revealing the smallness of their heart,

that they have a little not for a heart, and

they have to be little others thinking that it's going

to make them feel better. How do you handle rude people?

How do you handle mean people? You don't? You let

God handle them. You let God be your defender. Now,

David is a pro at this because David knows what

it means to be attacked, not just emotionally or verbally,

but literally physically. In the story of King David, David,

as a young man, was anointed by Samuel, God's prophet

to be the next king of Israel, but it was

done in secret, so nobody knew about it. David knew

about it, His family knew about it. He knew he

was the rightful king. But then for the next years,

the better part of much of his life, he spends

it running from the first king who wants to kill him.

And he's hiding in caves, and he's being maligned, and

he's being demeaned, and he's being put down, and rumors

are being told about him. He's being criticized constantly, and

yet he never would say a bad word against the king.

He would never attack back, he would never retaliate. He

only said good and God was preparing David to be

the king after his own heart. And David says, so,

I'm twenty three verse five. Look at this verse. You

prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,

and you anoint my head with oil my cup overflows.

What's David talking about here? It's a metaphor. He's saying,

you know what, God is so good to me. He says,

I'm going to give you, David, a banquet in front

of your enemies, and I'm going to anoint your head

with oil, which is a symbol that says, I'm going

to say to the world, this is my guy. Back off,

this is the guy I've chosen. This is the guy

who's going to be the next leader. He anoints my

head with my cup overloads. God, you are so good

to me, in spite of my attackers, in spite of

my critics, You just keep blessing me and blessing me

and blessing me. And he says, I'm just gonna trust

you and I'm gonna let you be my defender. Saw

I'm eighteen verse one and two. David says this, how

I love you, Lord, You are my defender against criticism

and everything else. You are my protector. You are my

strong fortress. In you, I am safe. You protect me

like a shield. Does David sound stressed out there? No,

but he's riding this in a cave. I'm not worried.

God's in control. God is my defender. I don't have

to defend myself. God'll take care of me. Let me

tell you something. It takes a lot of faith to

rest when you're under attack. It takes a lot of

faith to trust God and just not defend yourself. When

you're being maligned, you're being misunderstood, you're being misjudged in

your office by other workers, rumors are spreading about you,

or people saying things about you online. When that happens,

everything and you wants to rise up saying I've got

to do something about that. I got to correct this,

I got to teach the truth when you're under attack.

But it takes faith to rest God. It also takes humility.

It takes humility to not retaliate, but to let God

be your defender. You are most like Christ when you

remain silent under attack.

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

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

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Have you ever noticed that the world has ever changing

so called answers to your relationship struggles, solutions to your

financial troubles, and explanations to your search for meaning? But

what the world offers often leaves us empty and searching

for more. The good news is God's Word contains timeless

truths that can transform every area of your life from

the inside out. That's why Pastor Rick created a very

special Bible study called Transformed. In it, he'll help you

discover the key Biblical principles that will completely transform you

by changing the way you think. Pastor Rick covers every

area of your life spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial,

and vocational, filled with weekly lessons, daily devotions, and exercises

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week DVD and workbook study is perfect to do on

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send you the Transformed Study kid as our way of

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to help take the certain Hope of Jesus to people

around the world. To get your copy of this great resource,

call eight hundred to six hundred five zero zero four

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hundred five zero zero four or Pastorick dot com.

Once again, here's Rick.

You are most like Christ when you remain silent under attack.

Jesus was constantly attacked, and who is the attack by

the religious people. The religious people did not like Jesus.

Common ordinary everyday people. They love Jesus. Prostitutes, the pimps,

the tax collectors, the crooks, the thieves, the poor, all

the outcast people, the lepers, they all loved Jesus. It

was the religious people who could not stand Jesus. They

called them a glutton, They called them a drunk. They

called him a son of the devil, They called him

the devil himself. They said he came from the devil.

They said he's a false leader, false prophet, and on

and on and on. Jesus never ever retaliated, He never

got him back, he never corrected them. He just remained silent.

In fact, even right before he goes to the cross.

The Saddestcees and the Pharisees take Jesus into custody. They

make him a prisoner. They take him to the Roman

governor pilot and they say the pilot, this guy is

trying to overthrow Rome. Now they couldn't even find any

witnesses to corroborate this. It was just a total bogus lie.

Jesus said this, blessed to you. When men shall revile

you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil

against you falsely, for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad,

For great is your reward in heaven. Not only are

you going to be rewarded in heaven, but God gives

you when you refuse to retaliate, but you respond in love.

You say nothing but good things about your critics. When

you do that, God gives you more power, gives you

more influence, gives you more authority, and gives you more anointing.

Your critics end up actually helping you. Is that cool

or what?

So?

Then that's how you can thank God for your critics,

Because thank you God for these critics, because it allows

me an opportunity to be more like Jesus, which means

I'm going to get more love, more power, more grace

than my life, more blessing, and they end up actually

causing you to be more blessed than before. You're blessed,

not stressed. Peter has a good way to say this

one Peter four nineteen. So, if you're suffering according to

God's will, keep on doing what is right. By the way,

notice some suffering is God's will. Some people say, well,

suffering is never God's will. Well, they just haven't read

the Bible, because it says it right there. Some suffering

is God's will. If you're suffering according to God's will,

keep on doing what is right and trust yourself to

the God who made you, for he will never fail you.

Now there's one more common source of stress, and that

is fearing the future. And so the seventh thing David

says in this beautiful psalm is I expect God to

finish what he starts in me. I expect God to

finish what he starts in me. Now, are you a

person who's afraid of the future? Are you a what ifer?

You're always what ifing? What if this happened? If this

this went wrong? What if that went bad? If what if?

What if, what if? If you're a what iffer, it

leads to enormous amount of stress in your life. It's

unnecessary stress, because here's what David says. So I'm twenty

three verse six. Surely goodness and love. Goodness and love

will follow me all the days of my life. That's

what I've got to look forward to. Goodness and love

will follow me all the days of my life, and

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I'm going to heaven anyway. You know, when a shepherd

has a flock of sheep, he usually has a couple

of sheep dogs. He's leading it from the front, and

the sheep dogs are at the back, keeping everybody kind

of in line. And these twin sheep dogs of mercy

and love or goodness and love, or like little sheep

dogs in your life, following along through your life? Is

that what you expect? Are you? You can even look

at your future on two ways. You could say, man,

what if everything goes wrong? What if I don't have

enough money, what if I lose my job? What if

somebody walks out on me? What if? What if? What if?

You can do that, or you can look at the

future and say, surely, goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in

the house of the Lord forever. Those are your options.

You can neither see it from God's viewpoint or you

can see it from your fearful anxiety. How do you

lower the stress? You say, I'm going to expect God

to finish what he starts, and even if everything went

wrong in my life, I'm still going to heaven. I

will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Now,

what do you expect? What you expect? There's a word

for that. It's called a goal. And that's why I remember,

I'm trying to get you each week to set one

goal during fifty days of transformation. If you don't set goals,

you're not living by faith, because goals are statements of faith.

Set a goal for your physical health and your spiritual

Next week, we're going to look at emotional and mental

and spiritual, all these other areas. He said, I'm just

tired of the pace I've been living. I can't maintain this.

It's not sustainable, it's not satisfying, it's not even any fun.

And we'll deal with those in the weeks ahead. I

don't know what burden you're caring. I don't know what's

weighing you down, but I do know the answer. The

last verse on your outline, Jesus says this, come to me.

Come to me, not come to church, not come to class,

not come to clinic. Come to me. Jesus says, all

you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I

will give you more work to do. I think some

people actually think that's what the verse says. Come to me,

if you're weary in carrying heavy burdens, and Jesus says,

I will give you what circle that rest rest. Take

my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm

gentle and humble in heart, and you'll find rest for

your souls, for my yolk is easy and my burden

is light. For many years I never understood that verse

first place. As a kid, I didn't know what a

yolk was. I thought it was like the part around

the egg, okay, in the middle of the egg. A

yoke is a board that is stretched with two arches

in it, that you put over two cattle, so the

two cattle will pull a cart. The value of a

yoke is it halves the load without a yolk, you

got one cow, he's got to pull that entire load

by itself. But if you yoke up the cow with

another cow, then the two cows together pull the load together,

and the load is half as heavy. That makes sense.

So when Jesus says take my yoke upon you, I

didn't know. I just thought it was like sounded me like, oh,

he's gonna give me something else I gotta deal with.

Take my yoke. I gotta have enough burden myself. Lord,

I don't need to take your problems on me. That's

not what at all that he's saying when he says

take my yoke upon you. He's not saying I'm gonna

give you my problem. Jesus doesn't have any problems. He's saying,

take my yoke upon you. I'm gonna share your problem.

I'm gonna share your load. I'm gonna take your stress,

and I'm gonna pull it with you. Wow. Now he

says three verbs in this verse. He says, come to me, Jesus,

and he says, take the yoke on you. Team up

with me, and then learn how I do it. This

is going to lighten your load. This is going to

reduce your stress. This is going to make it easier

for you to navigate. Now write this down. When I'm

yoked with Christ, we move together, because you're obviously yoked together.

We move together in the same direction and at the

same speed. And those two are the problems that you have.

You're going in the wrong direction and you're going at

the wrong speed. But when yoke up with Christ, you

will go in the right direction, and you will go

at the speed that you can handle. And when you're

yoke to Christ, you're not going to go off in

a ditch because he's going to keep you on the

right path. And when you're yoke to Christ, you're not

going to run too fast and burn yourself out. Because

your yoke to Christ, you need to come to him. Now,

that's power heads, Jesus, you said to come to you,

So I come to you, and I want to take

your yoke on me. I want to team up with you.

I want to learn of you, and I want to

move forward in the direction and at the pace that

you choose. Slow me down, Lord, that I may see

your plan for my life. Jesus Christ, I invite you

to take over every area of my life. And my

mind and replace my stress with your serenity. In your name,

I pray 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 pastor Rick 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.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy that

you've chosen to study along with us today. If you'd

like to receive ricks free daily devotional, just go to

Pastorick dot com and sign up Right now. Rick will

be back to close out our time today. But first,

you know the world is shouting for our attention with

answers to our relationship struggles, solutions to our financial troubles,

and explanations to our search for meaning. But the world's

promises leave us empty and searching for more, God's word

contains the only answers that promise to transform your life

from the inside out. That's why Pastor Rick has put

together the Transformed Study Kit, which includes a vegan leather

bound interactive workbook and a seven video session DVD. Right now,

here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.

During this series on transformation, we've been talking about seven

key areas of your life spiritual health, physical health, mental health.

We've talked about emotional health, your relational health, your financial health,

even your vocational your career health. God cares about every

one of these areas in your life. And did you

know He wants to bless each of these areas. And

He's given us principles and steps in his words for

living healthy, fulfilled lives, not for our happiness alone, but

ultimately for God's glory, for his happiness, for his joy.

God enjoys watching his children be effective in life. Now,

the truth is we can't change or transform these areas

on our own. We have to start trusting God to

create the changes within us. The Bible teaches that the

closer we get to God, the more our lives will

be transformed. And in Jeremiah twenty nine, thirteen. God says,

you'll find me when you get serious about finding me

and want it more than anything else. So I want you,

and I want me and all of us to get

serious about discovering God's wisdom and allowing him to transform

our lives. Imagine the difference the world would be if

lives were really transformed by the grace of God. Now,

it's always been my goal here at Daily Hope not

just to show you what God says to do and

how to do it, but to supply you with practical

tools for doing it on a daily basis. So I've

created a special Transformed Bible study Kit. Now, in this kit,

there are a number of resources that I want you

to have. First, seven lessons on DVD that help you

go deeper and explore what the Bible has to say

about each of these seven key areas of your life.

And then there's a two hundred and twenty five page

workbook filled with tools for personal evaluation, goal setting, daily devotions,

versus to memorize, a place to take notes and journal

information about additional resources. This study kit can be used

not just in your personal life, but as a small

group study guide with your friends. I want to send

the Transformation Bible Study Kit to you as my gift

to tell you how much I love you and to

say thanks for your financial support of Daily Hope. If

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hope you'll join me next time as we continue to

look into God's Word for our Daily Hope.

To get your copy of this great resource, call eight

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