Rick Warren - God's Unbreakable Promises About Your Future

Today, I want us to look at God's promises about

your future. Now, you ought to be interested in this

for three reasons. First, the rest of your life is

in your future. None of your life is left in

the past or even today. All your life is in

the future. And the two things I could say about

that are, number one, you don't know what it's gonna be,

and two, you can't control it. So I should definitely

be interested in what God has to say about my future,

because I don't know, none of us know what's gonna

happen tomorrow, much less next year, and we certainly can't

control it. One of the ways we try to control

the future is worry, but worry is worthless, it doesn't work.

Now before we look at six promises of God, and

I've asked Buddy to help me with one of these promises,

before we look at the six promises about your future,

I wanna give you four facts about your future. I

know this is review, you already know this, but it

gives us a foundation for what we're gonna look at today.

Number one, four facts the Bible says about your future.

Number one, God knows everything that will happen. God knows

everything that's gonna happen in your life already. He knows

the beginning and the end. This is called the omniscience

of God. It means God knows everything. There is nothing

that God doesn't know. Now in a practical sense, what.

That means is this. God is never surprised.

God never goes, wow, I didn't see that coming.

Oh wee, you could have blown me over with a

feather on that one. Wow, really?

Are you kidding me? God never says those kind of things.

God knows everything you're ever gonna say in life. God

knows every thought you're ever gonna think in life. God

knows everything you're gonna do in life already now. There

is nothing that you do that he doesn't already know,

that he already knows the end of your life.

Why?

Well, it's a little hard to get, but follow me

on it. God is not limited by time. God is timeless.

You see, your concept and my concept of time happens

because we're on a planet that turns around every 24

hours and goes around the sun every 365 days. If

you were on a different planet, you would have a

different concept of time. And if you weren't on a

planet at all, you'd have a totally different concept of

time because you could be timeless. This is what Einstein

talked about in the space-time continuum.

God is timeless.

God can be in the past and in the present

and in the future all at once because God isn't linear.

It's all the same to him. He's in the past

and the present and the future at the same time.

I know that's kind of hard to grasp, but it's

kind of like this. If I were to take you

to the Rose Parade up in Pasadena, California on New

Year's Day. And if you were standing there on the

ground watching the parade, all you could see is what's

right in front of you. You can't see the parade

that's already passed and you can't see the parade that's

coming in the future. All you can see is what's

in front of you. And that's the way we pretty

much live our lives. On the other hand, if I

were to take you up in a plane or a

helicopter or a blimp and we got up real high

with a different perspective, you would be able to see

the beginning and the end of the parade all at

the same time. You wouldn't have a problem. You could

see the beginning of the parade and the end at

the same time. It's a matter of perspective. God is

so high, he can see everything in history. He can

see the beginning and the middle and the end all

at the same time. It doesn't bother him because he

has a different perspective. Now, because God knows everything will

happen and is not limited by time, we know these verses.

Hebrews 11, 13. Nothing in all creation is hidden from

God's sight.

He can see it all.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before his eyes. So

there are no secrets with God. I wonder what secret

you foolishly think you're hiding from God.

You don't have any secrets from God.

God knows every good, every bad, every ugly part of

your life, still loves you, loves you unconditionally, but you

don't have any secrets from God. He knows every thought

you're going to have. You haven't even had those thoughts yet,

but he knows what you're gonna think because he knows

everything that will happen. Psalm 139 verse 16 says this.

Psalms 139:16

The days allotted to me, in other words, my life,

my lifespan, the days allotted to me had all been

recorded in your book. before, circle before, any of them

ever began. God already knows what's gonna happen on every

day of your life before you even took your first breath.

When you were in your mother's womb.

God says, I already knew every detail of every second

of every moment of your life.

By the way, this is why abortion is wrong.

Because abortion short circuits God's plan. God's plan for your

life doesn't start the moment you take your first breath.

Your life began when God thought you up. And when

he thought you up, before you ever took your first breath,

every day of your life was planned before you were born,

and so if you don't end up not being born,

then God's plan just got aborted. That's why it's wrong.

Now here's the second thing that we know, second fact

about the future. God's plan for my future is good.

God's plan for my future is good. It's not a

bad plan. In fact, God has no bad plans for people.

God is a good God. And because God is a

good God, all of his plans are good. He doesn't

have any bad plans for you. All of his plans

for you are good. One of the most famous verses

in the Bible, we've read it hundreds of times here

at Saddleback, is Jeremiah 29, 11. Let's read it aloud together, okay?

Read it with me.

I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to

give you hope and a future. Now I want you

to circle some words in this verse. Circle the word know.

God says I know, I already know everything about you.

And then he says I know the plans. Circle the

word plans. God has long range plans for your life.

He has a purpose for your life. He has a

plan for your life. I know the plans and then

circle the word future. God says, I know the plans

I have for your future. Now, what does this promise

tell us? That's a promise of God right there. Plans

to prosper you, plans not harm you, to.

Give you a hope and a future.

What this tells us is that God has thought more

about your future than you have. You may have not

even given much thought to your future. Some people have

no plans for their future. They're just letting life happen

to them. They don't have any plans. They don't have

any goals. It's just like, well, I kind of like

to do this, but they're just kind of, skating through life,

kinda coasting through life. God has thought far more about

your life than you ever have. He's thought about every detail,

every thought, every part of it, and he has a

plan for your life, and his plan.

Is good for you.

His plan to prosper you, plan to give you hope,

a future. You say, well, can I miss God's plan? Well,

of course you can. In fact, most people do. We,

they miss God's plan because they choose their own plan.

You have to choose God's plan for your life. It's

not automatic. You see one of the greatest gifts, but

it's also a hindrance to us is the freedom to choose.

God didn't want to create a bunch of puppets. He

could have made us where we don't have any choice.

You couldn't choose to do bad. You couldn't choose to

do other things, but he made us in his image,

which means he gave us free will. And every day

you make choices. The problem is we often make bad choices.

And God doesn't force you to do his plan and purpose.

He created you. What God wanted is he didn't want puppets.

He wanted children who choose to love him. And you

can't say it's real love unless you have the choice

to not love. So God says, hey, you can choose

to love me or you can choose to not love me.

You can choose my plan for your life or you

can choose your own plan for your life. You can

choose to obey me and trust me or you can

choose to not obey me and trust me. He wants

you to make the choice. Unfortunately, most people in the

world make the wrong choice. And they choose, they say,

you know what? I'm gonna do what I wanna do.

And that causes all problems. And so most people die

without ever knowing the purpose of their life and without

ever fulfilling the plan that God created them for because

they didn't choose it.

They miss it.

You say, well, how in the world would anybody miss

God's plan, God's purpose for that?

One way, one word, pride.

Pride keeps people, keeps you from fulfilling the purpose that

God made you for. Because pride shows up like this.

I know God has a plan for my life, but

I think I know better than God, and I think

I know what will make me happy more than God,

so I'm gonna disobey what he says to do, and

I'm gonna do what I wanna do.

That's called pride.

Pride.

It's pretty arrogant to think I know better than God does.

I know God says this about sex, but I'm going

to do it my way. And I know God says

this about money, but I'm going to do it my way.

And I know God says this about my future and

my goals. And I know God says, you know, to

forgive people instead of be resentful and retaliate, but I'm

going to do it my way.

That's called arrogance. It's called ego. It's called pride.

There's only one thing that caused you to miss the

purpose you were created for, your own ego, your own pride.

You think you know better than God. And this causes

so much problem. And instead of the plans to prosper

and the plans to have hope and plans that are

good plans for the future, You know, you end up

with a mess in your life. Now, let me just

encourage you. You can't miss God's purpose for your life

if you really want it. If you say, God, I'm

willing to do whatever you say to do. I'm willing

to trust you. I don't understand it all. Some of

the stuff you tell me to do may not make sense.

It may be politically incorrect. It may be unpopular. It

may be counterculture, but I'm still gonna do it because

I want your plan instead of mine. If you do that,

you can't miss God's purpose for your life. I know

many of you use the Daily Hope Devotionals as part

of your regular Bible study. And so I want to

share some exciting news. We've put 365 of the best

devotionals into a brand new book that we're calling the

Daily Hope Devotional.

Purpose. Peace.

And promise for every day. This devotional book is designed

with clear, practical, biblical teaching to help you make knowing

God your number one priority. I believe it will help

you stay focused on God throughout the day as he

provides you with real purpose, lasting peace, and his unfailing promises.

Imagine starting every day like that.

This book is a great way to share the hope

you have in Jesus with your friends, co-workers, and relatives.

I hope you'll get a copy for everyone you know.

Be sure and request your copy when you partner with

Daily Hope to take the word of God to a

hurting world.

Now, to fulfill my created purpose, here's the third thing.

I must choose to trust and obey God. God knows

everything that's gonna happen in my life and he has

a good plan for my life, but I have to

choose that plan, I have to choose to trust God

and I have to choose to obey God and every

single day of my life, God's given me a free choice.

And every day, every moment, I'm gonna go with God's

plan or I'm gonna go with my plan. I'm gonna

choose what God tells me to do or I'm gonna

do what I wanna do. I'm gonna do what the

Bible says or I'm gonna do what I think is

the right thing to do or is the most convenient thing.

Every day, we're making this choice. Here's what the Bible says.

God says this in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19. God says,

Deuteronomy 30:19

today I'm giving you the choice between life and death,

between blessings or curses. And then he says, I call

on heaven and.

Earth to witness.

He goes, I want all creation to witness the decision

you make, the choice you make. I'm giving you the

choice on what you're gonna do with your life.

And he said, I.

Want everybody in creation to witness this. The choices you're

gonna make. And then you can hear the love in

his heart when he says, so, come on, choose life.

I mean, why would anybody choose a dead end? Why

would anybody choose destruction, death, and to be separated from

the God who made you and loves you and created you?

Why would anybody do that? He says, choose life.

Then you and your children will live. He's saying that

the choices you make in your life actually affect the

next generation too. And the blessing that I put on

your life can actually be blessing your next generation in

your life, if you choose life.

But it's up to you.

I'm not gonna force you to do the right thing,

because I want you to love me out of free will. Now,

here's the fourth fact, and then we can start looking

at the promises. God will be with me every step

of the way. In my future, I don't know what

it's gonna be like, and I know I can't control it, but.

I do know this.

God will be with me every step of the way.

How do I know that? Because in the Bible, one

of the most repeated promises of God is this. You're

not gonna be alone. I will never leave you. I

will never forsake you. I will never abandon you. I'm

gonna be with you. My presence will be with you.

He says it hundreds of times. I'm going to be

with you because God made you to be connected to him. Now,

you may not always feel God's presence, but God is

not a feeling. Something doesn't have to be felt for

it to be real. Right now, through this airspace, there

are radio waves going through it. There are TV waves

going through it. There are internet waves going through it.

They're going through my body and yours right now. I

don't feel them, but they're real. And if I have

a receiver and I can tune in, I can see

the color picture that's going through me right now. You

don't have to feel something for it to be real.

There are a lot of things that are real that

you can't see. You can't see protons and electrons. You

can't see atoms, but they're real. Everything's made up of atoms.

And so I may not feel God, I may not

sense God, but he is always with me. Now, that's

an encouragement because although I don't know what the future holds,

I do know I'm not gonna face it alone. And

God says this in Hebrews chapter 13, verse five and six.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Keep your lives free from the love of money. In

other words, don't be greedy. And be content with what

you have. Because God has said.

Never will I leave you and never.

Will I forsake you. Now, I looked up this Greek

word in the Bible, never, and it means never.

Never.

It means no way, Jose, never, never, never, never, never, never,

not in a thousand years, there's no way, you're never

gonna be without me, I will. Other people may abandon you,

God says I won't. Other people may betray you, I won't.

Other people may discriminate against you, I won't. Other people

may walk out of your life, God says I'm not. Never, never, never, never,

never will I leave you. Now why does he tie

that to don't worry about money and be content? Well,

he says, if I'm here, what are you worried about?

Don't you think I'm gonna take care of your needs if.

I'm with you?

One of the things I learned growing up is always

go to lunch with dad because he always picked up

the tab. I never had to pay if dad was

with me. So I wanted to make sure I always

had lunch with dad or dinner with dad. And your

heavenly father says, hey, if I'm with you, what are.

You worried about?

You're worried about bills. Don't you think I'm gonna help

you through this? Don't worry. And he says, I'll never

leave you. I'll never forsake you. So we can say

with confidence. A lot of people are scared about the future.

He says, we can say with confidence. Christians can be

the most confident people when it comes to the future.

Why?

Because the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid.

Because what can people do to me? One plus God

equals a majority. And if God likes me and I

like me, you don't like me, what's your problem?

God.

God says, I'll be with you and I love you.

So no matter what happens in your future, you're not

gonna go through it alone. Now this comforting truth that

I just shared with you is called the faithfulness of God.

That God is not only a good God, he is

a faithful God. That means he keeps his word and

he always does what's good in your life. And it's

part of his character. He keeps every promise. Now I

want you to write this down. Just find a spot

where you can write this down in your outline. If

you're struggling with anxiety or worry in your life, write

this down. Every fear is a misunderstanding of who God

is and what he's promised. Every fear is a misunderstanding

of who God is and what he's promised. If you

knew what God is really like and you knew what

he's really promised, you wouldn't be afraid. You wouldn't be

anxious about the future. You wouldn't be worried or nervous

about what's gonna happen tomorrow because if you really knew

who God is and what he's promised to do in

your life, you wouldn't be afraid. Pastor Buddy's gonna come

and give you the first promise about your future.

Now because God's word is everlasting, then we know that

we can trust his promises. Rick said we're gonna look

at his promises about your future, so here's the first

one you can write down. God promises to guide me

when I'm confused. God promises to guide me when I'm confused.

One thing that you can predict about your future is

that you're gonna have a lot of decisions to make.

You're gonna have a lot of choices, and some of

those choices are difficult, some of them are even confusing.

Do I take this job? Do I move to this city?

Should I buy this house? Should I marry this girl?

There are some big, life-changing decisions, and a lot of times,

we can be confused about them. We get confused because

they're scary decisions. And they're scary decisions because we're afraid, well,

what happens if I make the wrong choice? And we

just sort of get stuck in our confusion. And we think, well,

who can I talk to? Is there anybody that can

help me think this through? And I guess on one hand,

you could think, well, I can talk to my friends,

but one of the problems there is they probably think

just like you do. That's why they're your friends.

They're probably as confused as you are.

You can look at the media, talk to them, but,

you know, good luck there. Their opinions change with the

wind There's only one.

Authority.

One authority who is always right and completely reliable. And

that is your creator. If you want to know the

purpose of something, you have to ask the inventor. And

God knows the purpose that he created you for. Here's

what the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

Look at this verse.

It says, trust in yourself with all your heart. I'm sorry,

I read that wrong.

I'm sorry.

It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Let me ask you a question. Who do you really

trust deep down in your heart? He says, trust in

the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what

you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do,

and he will show you the right way. If you

trust him with all your heart, he'll show you the

right way. Why trust God? Well, think about it. He

created you. He loves you. He knows everything about you.

He gave his son to die for you. If God

did all of those things and cares that much about you,

Why in the world do you think he would tell

you to do something wrong? Why would he send you

in a direction that was not the best for you?

God wants the best for you. He is completely reliable

and trustworthy. And he has a perspective about your life

and your future that you desperately need to have. It's

like if you're driving on a mountain road, a windy

mountain road, and you're trying to get to the top,

and you're in a hurry, you want to get there,

And then you get stuck behind some old guy in

a camper.

Right?

And he's cruising along about 10 miles an hour. He's

in no hurry to get anywhere. And he's just looking

out the window and talking to his wife. Hey, look

over there, Mabel. There's a stump. You know, he's just

not in any kind of hurry. And you're going, I

got to get around this guy. But it's curvy road

and I have no idea what's coming. And you think, man,

wouldn't it be great if I had that helicopter that

Rick was talking about on the parade. Somebody up high

who could see the whole road and who could radio

down to me and say, hey, you know what?

It's safe.

You can pass the guy because I can see what's coming.

That's a perspective that we need to have. And the

only way to get God's perspective is in his word,

is in the Bible. The will of God is in

the word of God. If you want to know God's will,

you have to know God's word. Now, let's look at

the second promise and Rick is going to come and

explain it to us. But write this down. God promises

to help me when I am tempted. Not only when

I'm confused, but he promises to help me when I

am tempted.

This is the second great promise about your future. God

promises to help me when I'm tempted. Now, another thing

that's not gonna change in your future is you're gonna

have the same old temptations.

Hate to tell you that.

Hopefully you'll get better at resisting them but you're gonna

have the same temptations.

The rest of your life.

The weaknesses that you have today, you'll probably have to

struggle with them the rest of your life. As I said,

you'll get better, but if you, for instance, have a

predisposition to be controlling, and in every situation, you tend

to try to control everything, the rest of your life,

you're gonna be tempted to try to control things. As

I said, hopefully you'll get better and not give into

it so much, but you're gonna be tempted to do

that the rest of your life.

If you're tempted to.

Be depressed, you're probably gonna have to deal with the

temptation to be depressed the rest of your life. If

you are tempted to be arrogant or not listen, or

if you're tempted to, anything in life where you say,

I'm anxious, I tend to be anxious. Well, if you

tend to be anxious, The rest of your life, you're

probably gonna be tempted to worry a lot in your life. Hopefully,

you'll get better at it as you grow in Christ,

but you will be tempted. Or if you have an

anger problem, you say, I tend to blow up. I

tend to lose my temper easily. You're gonna follow in

that temptation the rest of your life. But God promises

to help you. This is a good thing. So let

me give you the bad news, the good news, and

the great news about temptation. The bad news is, you're

never gonna outgrow temptation. Some people think, well, maybe I'll

get to the point in my spiritual life, I'm just

not tempted anymore.

Fat chance. It's gonna happen the rest of your life.

In fact, I know this, I've been walking with the Lord,

I've been a friend of Jesus for over 50 years.

You know what I've discovered? The more mature I get,

the more Satan tempts me. Because Satan doesn't bother with

you if you're not doing anything. But if you can

make a difference with your life, he's gonna really go

after you. And so actually some of the temptations in

your life, the more mature you get, the more you'll

be tempted. You just have better resources, you know how

to deal with it. Doesn't mean the temptation to go away,

just means you don't give in to them anymore. And

so they will actually increase. See, some people, some of

you are carrying false shame Because you think, I should

be at the stage, this doesn't tempt me anymore. I

shouldn't have this thought. I shouldn't have this feeling this way. Well,

that's just not true because you're not responsible for every

thought that comes into your mind. You're responsible for what

you do with it. I know many of you use

the Daily Hope Devotionals as part of your regular Bible study,

and so I want to share some exciting news. We've

put 365 of the best devotionals into a brand new

book that we're calling the Daily Hope Devotional. Purpose, peace,

and promise for every day. This devotional book is designed

with clear, practical, biblical teaching to help you make knowing

God your number one priority. I believe it will help

you stay focused on God throughout the day as he

provides you with real purpose, lasting peace, and his unfailing promises.

Imagine starting every day like that.

This book is a great way to share the hope

you have in Jesus with your friends, co-workers, and relatives.

I hope you'll get a copy for everyone you know.

Be sure and request your copy when you partner with

Daily Hope to take the Word of God to a

hurting world.