Rick Warren - From Stressed to Blessed Part Three

Hi, this is Pastor Rick Warren and I can't wait

to see what God's going to do through Daily Hope

in this coming new year. Thank you so much for

your support. I love you, I'm praying for you. I

thank God for you. I appreciate you more than words

can say. Have a happy New 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 moments we're going to let you know

how you can have your very own Transformed study kit

from Pastor Rick, which includes a seven session DVD and workbook.

You can take a sneak peek right now by going

to pastor Rick dot com while you listen, and if

you want, you can just text the word Daily to

eight hundred, six hundred five thousand and four to find

out more. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part

three of a message called from Stressed to Blest.

Any of you remember Woodstock. There's this rock concert many

many years ago. Joni Mitchell wrote a song about it

called Woodstock, and it says, well, I came upon a

child of God. He was walking along the road, and

I said, where are you're going? He said, I'm going

up the Asgars Farm for this rock and roll band.

And there's a line in the course that says this.

We are stardust, we are golden, and we're caught in

the devil's bargain and we've got to get back to

the garden. And it's a capital g she's talking about

the Garden of Eden. We've gone a long way from

the Garden of Eden on this planet. People say I

feel close to God in nature. Of course you do.

It's God's beauty, and beauty inspires and beauty motivates. Notice

the next verse, Psalm twenty three, Verse two and three.

He makes me lie down. But where does he make

me lie down? He makes me lie down in lush

green meadows golf course and leaves me beside calm, quiet

waters by the sandtrap. He restores my soul. Okay, he

restores my soul. Now, it's no wonder. Psalm twenty three

is the most beloved psalm because we can all visualize

this one. When I say think about lush green meadows

and a calm, quiet lake, you relaxus thinking about it. Okay,

If I say think about downtown in La, you get

stressed out. I say think about meadows and calm waters

and babbling brooks. Nature refreshes because beauty inspires. Now you

need beautiful scenes. You need to see beautiful scenes, and

you need to hear beautiful sounds. In order to keep

the stress down in your life. You need to add

beauty into your life. Let me give you some suggestions.

Write these down. Number one, get outside every day. If

you're not getting outside every day, your stress level is

going up, even if it's just your backyard, even as

just walk around the block, even if it's take your

lunch outside. Walk outside of the office and sit outside

and look up at a tree while you eat your sandwich.

You need to get in touch with God's creation. You

need to surround yourself with beauty. Get out side. Let

me give you a second suggestion, start the day with God,

not the media. Before you read any text, message, before

you check your email, before you turn on the radio

to some talk radio people screaming in each other, or

before you turn on the television for some morning show.

You need to get in touch with God first. The

first seven minutes of your day set your mood every day.

So do you want to start it with an alarm

clock and then the worst news of the day coming

at you. No, you don't really need to know all

the bad news first thing. When you get up, you

don't need to know that you need to turn on

some praise music, some worship music. You need to get

in touch with God. You need to let the first

five ten minutes of your day be with the Lord,

and that'll dramatically reduce your stress and improve your mood.

Another suggestion number three, intentionally put beauty around you, whether

it's pieces of art or music that inspires you, or

something a craft that something that you know. I used

to collect seashells and I collected them from all over

the world, and I did it and I had them,

had my library filled with them, because looking at those

things simply inspired me to go, wow, that the intricacy

of that nautilus, How God inspired that Looking at beauty

lowers your stress level. Listening to beauty lowers your stress level.

So I highly recommend that you either take up an

instrument or or some kind of art or craft to

create beauty. You are most like your creator when you're

being creative, and so you need art in your life.

You need beauty. And by the way, art and music

are two of the greatest arguments against evolution. Why because

they're totally unnecessary for human survival. And if the whole

survival of the fittest really works, then why in the

world do we have music and art in the world.

Because you're more than a body and God made you

for worship. Did you know more songs have been written

about Jesus than any other subject in human history? Did

you know more books have been written about Jesus than

in any other subject in human history. Do you know

that more art has been created about the Bible and

the honor and glorify God and Jesus than any other

subject in history? Why God gave us music and God

gave us art for one reason, to express emotion. That's

the only purpose of it. You don't need it for

physical survival, but you do need it to really live,

to be who God made you to be, so fill

your life with art and fill your life with music.

You know, when I get stressed out, I go home,

I pick up at katar, I start playing guitar, are

set on piano, Bang on the piano. It doesn't matter, kazoo,

you know whatever, just come and paper. It's like last

week you said, make a joyful noise. That don't have

to be pretty, Just make a joyful noise. Philippians four

to eight says this. You'll do best by filling your

minds and meditating on things that are true and noble

and reputable, and authentic and compelling and gracious. It sounds

like television, doesn't it. No, it doesn't. That is not television. Okay,

You'll do best by filling your mind with things that

are true and noble and authentic, compelling, gracious, the best,

not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly. Now, because

of sin, there's a lot of ugliness in the world.

There are a lot of unpleasant things in the world.

Whatever you give your attention to is going to either

raise or lower your stress. Some of you, during fifty

days transformation, you need to do a fast on the news.

I hate to tell you this, but you could miss

the news for the next fifty days, and I'm going

to make one difference in the world. If you read

the newspaper one day later, you'd realize how much news

really isn't news. The media is tuned to make you

think stuff's important that isn't that important. Has no bearing

on your life. And if you used all the time

that you spend listening to news, or watching news or

reading news, and instead spent that listening to God, reading

his word, listening to worship songs, your stress would be

dramatically lower. It's your choice now. If you want to

stay stressed out, keep watching local news because if it bleeds,

it leads on the local news. In other words, if

there's a crime that happened anywhere within distance, it's going

to be reported on the news. Is that really what

you want to hear? Is that what you really need?

Is that going to make you a better woman a

better man?

No, you're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Rip 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 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 to help you

go deeper in God's Word. This seven week DVD and

workbook study is perfect to do on your own or

with a small group of friends. We'll send you the

Transformed Study kid as our way of saying thanks when

you give a gift to Daily Hope to help take

the certain Hope of Jesus to people around the world.

To get your copy of this great resource, call eight

hundred six hundred five zero zero four or go to

pastororik dot com. That's eight hundred six hundred five zero

zero four or pastaik dot com.

Once again, here's Rick. Hate to tell you this, but

you could miss the news for the next fifty days,

and I'm going to make one difference in the world.

If you read the newspaper one day later, you'd realize

how much news really isn't news. The media is tuned

to make you think stuff's important that isn't that important.

Has no bearing on your life. And if you used

all the time that you spend listening to news or

watching news or reading news, and instead spent that listening

to God, reading his word, listening to worship songs, your

stress would be dramatically lower. It's your choice now. If

you want to stay stressed out, keep watching local news

because if it bleeds, it leads on the local news.

In other words, if there's a crime that happened anywhere

within distance, it's going to be reported on the news.

Is that really what you want to hear? Is that

what you really need? Is that going to make you

a better woman a better man? No, So I recharge

my soul with beauty. He makes me lay down in

green meadows and calm waters. Beside calm waters. The fourth

thing we have is go to God for guidance. Go

to God for guidance. Now this is important because a

common source of stress in your life is indecision. You

can't make up your mind. Some of you right now

are wavering. You're at the fork in the road. Or

maybe you've got multiple options and you just can't decide,

and the stress is killing you. You can't decide whether

to get in or get out, or do neither. You

got too many choices. I recommend that you make God

the number one source for guidance, not the opinions of

your friends, not some pundit on television, but that you

go to God for guidance because he always tells you

the truth. So what I do. I say, God, I

need wisdom. And in James chapter one it says this,

if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,

who gives to all men liberally and does it couldn't

condemn them or criticize them. He gives it generously and graciously.

God is waiting to give you wisdom. You just have

to ask. So you say, God, I need wisdom, and

I pray and I ask. Then I read the Bible.

I read this book and then I wait, and I think,

and I be quiet, and I listen and I sense

and at the right time, maybe not immediately, at the

right time, God will put that idea in my mind,

and you go, Wow, that's an inspiration. That's what I

need to do. I want you to write this down,

Write this affirmation down. It's an affirmation. God will guide

me at the right time. God will guide me at

the right time, not at the wrong time. And his

timing is perfect. He's never early, he's never late. If

you have to make a decision about next year, he's

not going to give you the answer today because he

wants you to trust him. The Bible says, there's enough

trouble and each day, take one day at a time.

So God's going to give you the right decision and

the right guidance if you'll trust him. But he'll do

it at the right time. So I'm twenty three. Verse

three says this, he guides me in the right paths

for his name's sake. That's an affirmation. God, I believe

you're going to guide me at the right time, in

the right way. I believe You're going to do that.

And if you have that belief, he's going to do it.

Number four or number five, I trust God in the

dark valleys. I trust God in the dark valleys. Now,

we're all going to go through dark valleys in our lives.

You'll go through many of them in your lifetime. One

of the fifth common sources of stress is loss. And

you can lose your job, and you could lose your income,

and you can lose your money, you could lose your health,

you could lose your reputation, you can lose a loved one.

We all go through many losses in life. And when

you go through loss, there are always two common reactions.

One is fear and the other is grief. Now, grief

is good, fear is bad. When we did a series

a seven messages on grief last year, and remember I said,

grief is the way we get through the transitions of life.

Grief is a good thing. The Bible says God grieves,

It's a godly emotion. In fact, if you don't grieve,

you get stuck. Some of you've had a major loss

in your life in the past and you just shoved

it down. You stuffed it instead of grieving. And when

you stuff it you get stuck at that stage emotionally,

and you've never gone any further because you didn't go

through the grief. You got stuck, and you maybe need

to go back and grieve some things in your life

you've never grieved over. So you get unstuck because you

got unstuffed. Stop pushing the pain down. Just grieve it.

Let it out. It's not going to kill you. Grief

will not kill you. You let it out. It's good

for you. It's how you go through the transitions of life,

and then you get unstuck and you can move on

and you can grow up emotionally. Grief's a good thing.

On the other hand, fear is a bad thing. Not

once in the Bible does it say grieve not, sorrow not, weep,

not cry not. What it does say is fear not.

And it says that three hundred and sixty five times,

which means there's one for every day of the year.

Because grief doesn't paralyze fear does. Fear does. So I'm

twenty three, verse four. Here's what David says, even though

I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no either. I don't fear anything. Why

for you are with me, your rod and your staff

comfort me. Now, remember he's using this shepherd metaphor shepherd

with his sheep. Shepherd's always carried a rod and a staff.

These are the two tools that you use to protect

the sheep, to ward off wolves, and to protect the sheep.

He says, I'm not going to stress out about this

because God is my protector. God is helping me, and

I'm going to trust God. In the dark valleys, even

though I walk through the valley of the shadow, some

of you are going through the valley of the shadow

right now. Maybe the valley of the shadow of death.

It may be the valley of the shadow of debt.

It may be the valley of the shadow of conflict.

It may be the valley of shadow of depression. It

may be the valley of the shadow of discouragement. But

you're going through the valley of the shadow now. Shadows

are scary. I remember how I used to get afraid

of shadows when you're laying in bed as a little kid.

Some of the things though I've learned about shadows of this,

Shadows can't hurt you. They can't hurt you. Can run

over that hurts you. But if a truck shadow runs over,

it doesn't hurt you. Shadow can't hurt you. Shadows are

always bigger than the source, and that true. It's your

fear of that greater than the actual event. Shadows are

always bigger than the source because it makes them look

bigger than they really are. But here's the good news.

Wherever there's a shadow, there's a light. You can't have

a shadow without a light. And so the key of

when you're going through the value of the shadow and

to not be afraid is to turn your back on

the shadow and look at the light. Because as long

as I keep my eyes on the light, the shadow

can't scare me. And Jesus is the light of the world.

That's how you go through the valley of the shadow death.

That's how you lower the stress. I trust God in

the dark valleys. Maybe you're going through that right now.

You need to pray like David som one verse three.

When I'm ready to give up, he knows what I

should do. When I'm ready to give up, He knows

what I should do. I want you to write this

down on your outline. I don't have to know the

answers when I know God.

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 leatherbound

interactive workbook and a seven video session DVD. These video

sessions can be used independently or with a small group

of friends. This kit will help uncover key Biblical principles

that will completely transform your life in every area including spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial,

and vocational. Will send you the Transformed Study Kit as

our way of saying thanks when you give a gift

to help Daily Hope, take the certain hope of Jesus

to people around the world. To get your copy of

this great resource, call eight hundred six hundred five thousand

four or go to Pastorrick dot com. That's eight hundred

six hundred five thousand and four or Pastorick dot com.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick to tell us how God

is using this ministry to change lives.

Here's a letter from Catherine, a listener who says that

hearing the truth of the Bible on Daily Hope transformed

her life. She wrote me this, She said, Pastor Rick.

A few months ago, I was angry all the time

about everything. My husband was drinking too much, and my

marriage was headed for divorce. Years ago, I'd forgotten about

my faith. But one day, on my long drive home

from work, I changed the station from my angry music

and I found you speaking on Daily Hope on the radio.

You know, it was as if through you, Jesus said, oh,

you're finally listening, and I have something to tell you. Well.

Your message spoke directly to me, to my problems and

to my many failure, and you spoke some hard truths,

Pastor Rick, that I needed to hear about the things

that I was doing wrong and the things that I

wasn't doing at all. But it made me look at

myself and I realized that I had forgotten about Jesus,

and I was making myself miserable trying to do everything

on my own. I wasn't trusting in God, or seeking God,

or even a relationship with Jesus. But a few days later,

after a lot of inward reflection, I shared your words

with my husband. You know what, We're now both reading

our Bibles again, We're going to church again. We're mending

our relationship with each other and with Christ, our Savior.

And it is your daily hope program that changed our

lives and the direction of our lives. Now I'm listening

to you on my way home from work every day.

So thanks for allowing yourself to be a vessel through

which God can work to restore lives and marriages. I

was hopeless, but now I'm full of hope and full

of joy through my faith in Jesus. So God bless

you Rick for bringing me back to God. Friends, you

may have heard me say this before that I am

addicted to change lives. I am passionate about watching God

at work in your life and giving people hope when

everything else seems hopeless. It's why we do what we do.

Catherine and her husband have now mended their relationship and

they're both reading their Bibles. That is incredible news. The

family that prays together stays together. None of this, by

the way, would be possible without your support of Daily Hope.

It is your gifts, your financial gifts, and your prayers

that allow me to teach millions of people every day

all around the world about the hope of Jesus Christ.

Now have you just heard People are being saved, Lives

are being changed, marriages are being restored, people are finding hope.

Why because of you and your financial gifts and your prayers.

So thank you everybody for your caring about others and

the relationship with God. And if you can send a

gift today, please do so. We want to reach more

and more people with the hope of God's word. You know,

if God is blessing you through Daily Hope, would you

share your story with me? Write me Rick at Pastorick

dot com.

If you'd like to let Rick know how this broadcast

has blessed you, feel free to send him an email

at Rick at Pastorrick dot com. That's Rick at Pastorrick

dot com. Be sure to join us again next time

as we look into God's Word for our daily hope.

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