Rick Warren - God's Unbreakable Promises About Your Future - Part 2

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. It 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.

When Satan gives you an idea and puts it in

your mind, we call that temptation. When God gives you

an idea and he suggests that in your mind, we

call that an inspiration. Temptation, inspiration. And then you have

your own thoughts. Have you ever been praying and like

you're trying to be serious about praying at something and

you're praying and all of a sudden the most awful,

ugly thought comes into your mind while you're praying? And

you go, where did that one come from? Anybody ever

had that happen? Oh, come on. Anybody ever had that happen?

The rest of you are liars. Because it happens to everybody.

You're trying to pray and all of a sudden something

just comes out of here. You're not responsible for that.

That was from Satan. It was just an idea. Martin

Luther said, you can't keep the birds from flying over

your head, but you can keep them from building a

nest in your hair. And I should not feel guilty

about a thought that I didn't have. Satan just threw

that in there real quick. I know where that one

came from. Get out of here. And I just toss it.

And you get intimidated. The bad news is you're going

to be tempted the rest of your life. The good

news is it's not a sin to be tempted. It's

a sin to give in to temptation. But it's not

a sin to be tempted. The Bible says Jesus was

tempted in every point as we were, but he never sinned.

Temptation is just a choice, that's all it is. So

don't get intimidated about, how am I being tempted by this? Well,

because you're human, that's why. It's just a choice, and

every time you choose to do the right thing, you grow.

Every time you choose to do the wrong thing, you stumble,

you fail, and you go back. But temptation is just

an opportunity to grow. So don't be intimidated by it

and don't be ashamed of it. I meet Christians all

the time who, you know, they get a thought from

the devil or they have an attraction or they have

an arousal and they go, oh, I shouldn't be doing that.

I shouldn't have that. Would you write this down? Write

this down. Attraction is not a sin. Action is. Write

this down. Attraction is not a sin. Action is. You

are not responsible for your attractions. You are responsible for

your actions. If we're walking down a buffet, I might

see a certain kind of potato salad that's very attractive

to me. And I'm salivating and everything. Where did that

come from? It's just inside me. You're walking, I hate

potato salad. And you just walk to the next one.

We all have different attractions. An attraction or an arousal

is not necessarily lust. It just means you're human. Ladies,

if today you walk out of church and you walk

into the parking lot and you just see some gorgeous,

sexy hunk of a man, kind of looks like me,

you know? And you're going, man, I find that guy attractive. Attractive.

But I'm married. I shouldn't be having that. It's just

an attraction. It's not an action. It's not a lust.

Lust is when you start going, man, I'd like to,

what would it be like to be married to him?

And what would it be like to go to bed

with him? And then you're fantasizing on it. Let me

say it another way. You might write this down. I

can't control what gets my attention. I can control what

keeps my attention. Hear the difference? I can't control what

gets my attention. If I'm at a beach and a

beautiful woman walks by, it's probably gonna get my attention.

I'm just not gonna do anything about it. I'm gonna

turn my mind and think about something else. I'm not

gonna fantasize, I'm not gonna linger. Wow, that girl's beautiful. God,

you did a good one on her, you know. Good God, man. Wow.

Good going, God. She looks nice. Okay? But that's not lust.

Lust is when you start to say, I want that

instead of who I have. Does that make sense?

A lot of.

People feel ashamed when they get attracted or get aroused.

You can't control your arousals. That's just, that's part of humanity.

It's what you do with it. Like I said, I

can't control what gets my attention. I can control what

keeps my attention. And so I'm just gonna change my mind,

something else. Now this could be heterosexual, it could be homosexual.

You might have a same-sex attraction. And you go, I'm

not supposed to have this, I'm a Christian. Well, it's

not the attraction, it's the action. It's not a sin

for what attracts you. Some people are attracted to barbecued ribs.

That's no sin. Eating five pounds of them is a sin. Okay,

but am I clear on this? Okay, so what I'm

trying to relieve is a little bit of false shame

that you shouldn't be ashamed that things are getting your attention.

I mean, it could be a material thing. You walk

past a store window and go, man, that's a pretty

shopping bag or that's a pretty suit or dress or something.

That's not materialism. It's just it caught your attention. It

just caught your attention. It's what you do with it. Now,

I said the bad news is you're never going to

outgrow temptations. The good news is it's not a sin

to be tempted. It's a sin to give in. So

you shouldn't feel, oh, I shouldn't feel this way. But

the best news is this. God has promised to provide

a way out of temptation. The Bible says this in

1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. Remember that the temptations that

1 Corinthians 10:13

come into your life are no different from what others experience. Now,

I know Satan tells you, Nobody else feels this like

you do. Nobody's tempted this way. And he wants to

isolate you. The Bible says, no, we all have the

exact same temptations. Now, if they're common to humans, then

there are common solutions to them. And here's the thing.

If we all share the same temptations, then if we

talk about it with each other, they lose their power

over us. When you have a temptation and you keep

it a secret, then it's going to get worse. For instance...

If all of a sudden you're being tempted at work

by a coworker to like have an affair, if you

keep that a secret, it's just gonna get worse. It

would be better for you to tell, if you're a woman,

another woman, or if you're a man, another man, or

even tell your spouse, I'm being tempted right now. If

there were more confession of temptation, there'd be less need

to confess sin. Because we'd stop it early. A lot

of times we don't want to admit we're being tempted.

That's setting us up for the failure. It would be

better to say, you know what? I'm being tempted right now.

And tell your friend or your spouse or whoever, tell them,

and then all of a sudden it lowers the tension.

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

control in your life. If you can't talk about it,

it's already scaring you. And so it's not a sin

to be tempted. It's a sin to give in. But

God says this, remember the temptation that comes into your life.

They're no different than the ones others experience. We all

have the same ones, so let's talk about them. And

God is faithful. And because God is faithful, he promises

two things. First, he will keep the temptation from becoming

so strong that you can't stand up against it. That's

his first promise. Second, and when you're tempted, he'll show

you a way out so that you'll not give into it.

Now it's comforting to know that God understands our struggles.

And he knows exactly what you're going through, when you're

going through it. He's pulling for you. Jesus experienced the

same temptation. He's prepared an escape route. He says, I'll

strengthen you and I'll prepare an escape route. That's the

promise of God. Now, sometimes people come to me and say,

hey Rick, you know, I just fell, I stumbled here.

I couldn't help myself. The temptation was just too strong

And I could not resist it. And when they tell

me that, I know they're not telling the truth and

they're not being honest with themselves. Why? Because God says,

I will never allow more on you than I put

in you to bear it up. And God also says,

with every temptation, I will make a way of escape

that you can get out of there. it wasn't that

the temptation was too strong for you you didn't want

to resist it you wanted to give in you're not

being honest to yourself you wanted to give in at

that moment because if you had wanted to not give

in God said I'll give you the strength and I'll

give you a way out so it's just not true

to say the temptation was too strong You wanted to

give in to that. Second Thessalonians chapter three, verse three

says this. The Lord is faithful. There's that phrase again.

He keeps his promises. And he will give you strength

and will protect you from the evil one. I've noticed

that a lot of believers are not only just afraid

of temptation, they're actually afraid of the devil. What in

the world are you afraid of the devil for? Greater

is he that is in you than he that is

in the world is what the Bible says. For the

devil to get, if you're a Christian believer and you

have Jesus in your heart, you have the Holy Spirit,

you have God's love around you, for Satan to get

at you, he's gotta go through the Trinity. That isn't

gonna happen. You got triple protection around your life. The

only thing Satan can do to a Christian is make suggestions.

That's all he can do. And if you buy that

suggestion and you believe that fear, you just lost. If

you buy that idea, you believe that fear, you just lost.

But he can't do anything other than give suggestions. And

for Satan to get at a believer, he has to

go through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says you're in Christ. The Bible says Christ

is in you. The Bible says you're hid with Christ

and God. The Bible says you're sealed with the Holy Spirit.

That's triple protection. There's no way he can get at you.

If you're trusting in God at that moment, you're a believer.

It's only if you believe his suggestion and you open

the doorway. So he says, don't worry about it. I'll

give you strength and I'll protect you from the evil one.

Let's go to the third promise. The third promise about

your future is another good one. And it's this, God

promises to support me in trouble. God promises to support

me in trouble. He's gonna guide me when I'm confused.

He's gonna help me when I'm tempted. And he's gonna

support me when I'm in trouble. Now what's the difference

between temptation and trouble? Oh, big difference. Temptation is inside me,

trouble is outside me. Temptation is internal, trouble is external.

Temptation has to do with my character. Trouble has to

do with my circumstances. 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, there's all kinds of trouble. There's relational trouble, financial trouble,

physical trouble in your body. There's mental trouble. There's all

kinds of different trials and troubles and tribulations in life.

Some people expect life to be heaven on earth. This

is not heaven. They expect everything to be perfect. Well,

now that I'm a Christian, shouldn't everything be perfect in

my life? Of course not. It is in heaven. Where

there is no sorrow, no suffering, no sickness, no sadness,

no trials, no tears, no tangles. There's nothing wrong in heaven.

It's all great there. But this is earth. That's why

we pray thy will be done on earth as it

is in heaven because it's done perfectly. On earth, God's

will is seldom done. Sometimes you hear a big disaster

or you hear a big terrorist attack and people say

it must have been God's will. That wasn't God's will.

God is not the author of evil. If I go

out and I get drunk and I get in an

accident and kill myself, that wasn't God's will, that was

my will be done. So don't blame God for evil.

The Bible says God cannot do evil. God's will is

not always done on earth. That's why we're to pray

thy will be done on earth. But when that happens,

that people expect it to be heaven. Have you noticed

that everything on this planet is broken? The weather's broken,

the economy's broken, Your body is broken. It doesn't always

work right. Relationships are broken. You can find brokenness everywhere. Why?

Because of sin. Because we make bad choices. Now, the

Bible says God will promise to support me in trouble.

In a church family our size, today, in our 20

or so locations, there's about 30,000 people in our church

family going to church worship at Saddleback Church in a

crowd that big the law of average is that some

of us this next year are going to lose loved

ones and some of us this next year are going

to get cancer and some of us this next year

are going to get laid off or fired or go

bankrupt and some of us this next year maybe face

a divorce you know bad things happen in this world

But God says, I will support you in trouble. One

of the greatest promises in the Bible is the next

one on your outline, Isaiah chapter 43, verse 2 and 3.

Isaiah 43:2

And here's what God promises about your future. When you

go through deep waters, notice he doesn't say if, it's

a matter of when. Okay, you're going to go through

deep waters at times in your life. When you go

through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you.

I'm gonna support you. And when you go through rivers

of difficulty, you will not drown. And when you walk

through fires of oppression, you know, when the heat's on,

you will not be burned up for I am the

Lord your God. Now look at that verse and what it,

it doesn't say when you go through deep waters and

rivers of difficulty, you won't get wet. Doesn't say that.

It says you won't drown. You're gonna go through some

problems that have pain. You're gonna get wet. You're not

going to drown. And it says when you go through

the fire, when the heat's on in your life, it

doesn't say it won't get hot. It doesn't say it

won't get uncomfortable. It says you're not gonna burn up.

I'm gonna make sure you make it through. The next verse,

Philippians 4.13 says, I have strength for all things, the

good and the bad. Everything that's gonna hit me in

the future, which I don't know about. I have strength

for all things. This is confidence. I have all strength

for all things in Christ, not in myself, who empowers me.

I am ready for anything and equal to anything through

him who infuses inner strength in me. That's a confident

way to look at the future. I can do anything.

I can handle whatever God allows in my life with

the strength of Christ. Now, I know you're saying, Rick,

I don't feel very strong right now. In fact, I'm

feeling pretty weak right now. Write this down. Very important.

Write this down. The strength I need will come when

I need it. The strength I need will come when

I need it. God doesn't give me strength today for

a problem I'm going to have next week. The Bible

doesn't say we're to pray, give us this day our

weekly bread or our monthly bread. It says, God, give

me my daily bread. I need just enough strength for today.

God's not gonna give you strength for tomorrow until it's tomorrow.

And God knows what you can handle. And he says,

I will support you in trouble and the strength I

need will come when I need it. God promises to

repay those who hurt me Oh, baby, oh, baby. Let's

just camp here for a moment, okay? God promises to

repay those who hurt me. And he doesn't want you

repaying him. He doesn't want you seeking retaliation. He says,

let me handle this. Have you noticed that the world

seems to be getting meaner? More hateful. More rude. More uncivil.

More unfair. More unfair. Do you ever listen to the

news or watch the news and you go, man, that's

just not fair. You know, like on the other side

of the world right now, there are people living in

total poverty simply because they were born into that. And

we get to benefit from all the blessings here. Is

that fair? Of course it's not fair. And we say, well,

it just isn't fair. Well, you know what? The truth

is life is not fair. God never said that life

is fair. In fact, it's unfair because of the sin

in the world. Jesus came to make things right. And

one day they will be made right. But life is

not fair right now. Sometimes bad people win. Sometimes good

people suffer. Come sometimes the innocent get hurt. Sometimes well-meaning

people get abused and are betrayed and are cheated on

and have their heart broken and on and on and on.

If you have been discriminated against because of your race

or culture or language or gender, if you've been abused,

if you have been harassed, if you have been mistreated

As your pastor, as your shepherd, that breaks my heart.

I grieve for that. And I'm sorry. I really am.

I'm sorry for your hurt. That's not fair. It's just

not fair. And we should do whatever we can to

correct injustice. But there's something even more important than the

way I feel about it. It's the way God feels

about it. It's the way God feels about it. And

God You need to know that God has seen every

hurt in your life and he grieves over it too.

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked

by somebody, where was God when your son died? And

I say he was the same place he was when

his son died. Grieving. Grieving over man's inhumanity to humanity.

God looks down and sees so much of what's happening

in the world today and it hurts and it grieves.

And the Bible says God grieves over and over and over.

God has seen every hurt in your life, every mean word,

every mean action, every injustice, abuse, prejudice, bias, or anything

like that. You say, well, why didn't he stop it then? Well,

God could stop all the evil in the world just

like that, take away our freedom to do it. But

if he's gonna be fair, he's not only gonna have

to take away other people's freedom, he's gonna have to

take away yours too. If we're gonna be just and fair.

And the fact is, you've hurt people. You haven't always

done the right thing to people. I've hurt people. Yes,

God could get rid of all the evil in the

world instantly. Just take away our freedom to choose to

not follow him. Take away our freedom to say, I'm

gonna do what I think's best. That would instantly get

rid of all the evil in the world. So we

can't blame God for that because he's given us the

freedom to make that choice. God's never stopped me from

hurting people, stopped you from hurting people. But I do

know this, God is keeping a record. The Bible says

very clearly that God is keeping a record of all

the ways you've been hurt in life. Did you know

that in Psalms, Psalm 56 verse 8, it says God

Psalms 56:8

stores up your tears in a bottle. You don't even

know all the tears you've shared. God does. It says

he's kept an accounting of how many tears you've shed

in your life. That's how much your good, good father

cares about you. And that kind of God says this,

Romans 12, 19. Here's the next promise. Never avenge yourselves.

In other words, don't retaliate. Don't try to get revenge

against the person who's hurt you. Never avenge yourselves. Leave

that to God, for he has said that he will

repay those who deserve it. Wow, now follow me on this.

God is a God of love. And because God is love,

that's why we all have love in our lives. If

our creator wasn't loving, there would be no love in

the universe. God is the source of all love. Because

God is loving, as a loving God, he is also

a God of justice. God is a just God, God

is a fair God, he is a righteous God, why?

Because to allow evil to hurt his children and not

seek justice would be unloving. Justice is sometimes the loving

thing to do. And protection, sometimes if somebody tried to

hurt my wife, or my kids, or my grandkids, and

I did nothing about it, and I didn't care about it,

that's called being unloving. Sometimes love fights. Sometimes love defends.

Sometimes love fights for the protection of other people. The

Bible says, greater love hath no man than this, that

a man lay down his life for his friends. The

greatest compliment Jesus ever gave, he gave to a Roman soldier.

He said, I've never seen great faith like in this. Why?

The guy was given his life for a cause greater

than himself and for the protection of other people. 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.

Thank you.