Rick Warren - How God Gets You Through Life's Most Difficult Times

You know, shake-ups are a normal part of life in

a broken world. We do not live in heaven. In heaven,

everything's perfect. Everything's done great. There are no tears, no sorrows,

no suffering. But on earth, everything is broken because of sin.

Every relationship is broken. Every body is broken. We don't

have healthy minds. The weather's broken. The economy's broken. And

so we shouldn't expect things to be perfect here on earth.

And when something bad happens in your life, instead of going,

why me? You might want to say, why not me?

I live here on earth and we're not, this is

not heaven. That's coming later. And so there are going

to be sufferings. There are going to be trials and

don't be surprised by it. Jesus said it like this,

John 16, 33. Jesus said, in this world, you might

experience difficulties. Well, that's not what he said. In this world,

you what? Circle that, will. Now, if Jesus said it,

you can count on it. You will have problems in life.

You are gonna face adversity. You are going to have

times where your world is tossed upside down and everything

is shaking and baking and flying and you don't know

which way is up. In this world, you will experience difficulties.

Jesus promised that. But he said, take heart. I have

conquered the world. He said, I've told you this so

that in trusting me, you will be unshakable and deeply

at peace. Jesus warned us that adversity is gonna be

a part of life. Don't let it blow you away.

Don't be surprised. Don't be shocked. But you need to

be unshakable. I'm telling you so you won't cave in.

Proverbs 20 verse 13 says this. Sometimes it takes a

Proverbs 20:13

painful experience to make us change our ways. And every

one of you could give a testimony on that verse.

Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change

our ways. Sometimes God has to light a fire on

you so you become uneasy, become uncomfortable, it gets hot.

I mean, even Aristotle said we cannot learn without pain.

Some things, as I said, you learned by being burned.

It's like when the prodigal son He didn't change until

he hit bottom. And everything's going great, he's living it

up his life. But when he hits bottom, he runs

out of friends, money, and food. Now he goes, hmm,

he came to his senses. Maybe this isn't the way

I should be living. God shakes things up to direct

us in a new direction. We rarely think about the

direction of our lives when things are going good. When

your life's going good, you got it on cruise control.

You're not even thinking about your goals. You're not even

thinking about God. You're not thinking about anything but cruise control.

This is fun. I'm in the driver's seat right now.

But all of a sudden you have a traffic jam

or car accident. All of a sudden it gets your attention.

And God gets our attention many times and he changes

the direction. One of the values of pressure is and

problems and crisis in your life is it forces you

to think about stuff you wouldn't normally think about on

your own. You want to just live in denial. And

you would just like to take that part of your

life that needs changing and just forget it. And go

on with your life and go, well, I'll just isolate

that over here. I'll compartmentalize it and that'll be just fine.

But it doesn't work. When David's life fell apart, he

wrote this, Psalm 119 verse 59 says, I have thought

Psalms 119:59

about my life. Probably didn't even think about it until

the problem came. I've thought about my life and I've

directed my feet back to your written instructions. What's that?

That's the Bible. Your written instructions. He says, I'm redirecting

my life. Now that I got problems, God, you got

my attention. What is a problem in your life that

you're pretending isn't a problem? What's the big problem, the

big elephant in your life, in your marriage, in your relationships? Well,

it's not a problem. I know we got that there,

but we've had it in this relationship all this time. No,

it's still a problem. And God will use difficulty to

correct you, inspect you, and redirect you if he needs to.

We would rarely change unless we had problems. We postpone

difficult decisions. We put it off. I mean, if you

had a disease that didn't hurt you, you'd never go

to the doctor about it. You just let it keep

taking over your life until you die. Pain gets your attention.

We ignore illnesses if they didn't hurt. So God uses

problems to prod us and to poke us and to

push us and to prompt us. And he uses things

to direct us. Write this down. Question, where is this

problem leading me? You want to ask yourself. You want

to get the most out of your problems. Where is

this problem leading me? Problems never leave you where they

found you. You know, Jonah, God told Jonah to go

east to Nineveh, we talked about this the other week,

and he didn't wanna go there, he's racially prejudiced, so

he went to Spain, Tarshish, headed that direction, went as

far west as he could, and God arranged a custom-made problem.

A custom-made fish swallowed him up. And sometimes you get

swallowed up by a big problem, but when it spits

you out, you're headed in the right direction. And sometimes

you're going this way and a problem swallows you up

and when it spits you out you're going the right direction.

God uses problems to direct us. Sometimes God shakes things

up to protect us. Did you know that sometimes pain

protects you from something worse? That you're going through a

problem but it's actually preventing you from a bigger problem.

It's keeping you from greater harm. You might have wanted

a certain job at a certain business and it didn't

happen and God was protecting you because he knew that

there was a relationship there that was gonna mess you up.

And he kept you out of that situation. Sometimes a

problem is a blessing in disguise. Honestly, there will be

times you have problems when you did the right thing,

not the wrong thing. Not every problem is because you

did something wrong. Sometimes you have a problem because you

did the right thing. I mean, I remember one time

there's a guy here at Saddleback who, good business friend

of mine, and he was asked to do on a

corporation something very unethical. And he said, sorry, I just

can't do it. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. I

cannot be unethical in that area. And they fired him.

And he lost his pension and he lost his job

and he lost his, you know, all of that. And

it looked bad. But about a month later, the SEC

hauled that entire corporation into court, and they're all in

jail now, and he's not. And he's going, well, thank God.

The problem was getting fired. The bigger problem was going

to jail for 20 years, which is the worst problem.

Sometimes God, he did the right thing, and he had

a problem. He lost his job, but it saved him.

Maybe getting fired might be the best thing to happen

to you because it keeps you from a real problem.

Job 36, verse 16, God led you away from danger.

Job 36:16

God often does this and you don't even realize it.

God has led you away from danger, giving you freedom.

Problems are the preparation for success and it really comes

down to a matter of faith. Will you trust God?

You remember the story of Joseph Joseph in the Bible,

you know, he had this vision and one day he'd

be a great leader. And literally for the first 40

years of his life, everything went wrong. He's betrayed by

his brothers. He's sold into slavery. He's taken down to Egypt.

He gets a job as a slave in a boss's home.

The woman, the wife of the boss is attracted to him.

She comes on to him, offers herself to him. He refuses.

He said, I have integrity. I'm not going to have

an affair with my boss's wife. And so she feels spurned,

she accuses him of rape, and he's put in prison

for the rest of his life for a crime he

never committed. Everything's gone wrong in his life. But it's

exactly where God wanted him. And a series of circumstances,

the second half of his life is like this, and

he ends up second in command, helping Pharaoh save the

most powerful nation of that time. You don't know. Sometimes

God is protecting you with a problem in your life.

And when it was all over, Joseph said to his

brothers who had betrayed him, Genesis 50, 20, you intended

to harm me, but God intended it for good. Now

there are people in your life, there are people in

this world who intend to harm you. Not everybody's nice

in this world. There are evil people. There are mean people.

There are people who don't like you because you're a

Christian or because of a moral stance or an ethical

decision you've made or because you won't go with the

flow and won't party with the crowd. and they think

you're too good, or they think you're self-righteous, and they

misjudge you, and they want to bring you down. They

mean it for bad, but God means it for good.

And God is bigger than your enemies. God is bigger

than your critics. God is bigger than the people who

put you down. You intended to harm me, but God

intended for good. Sometimes God shakes things up just to

protect you. It's kind of like a fever. When you

get a fever and you feel really bad, Fever's not

the problem, friend. Fever is just a symptom. The fever

is telling you something worse is going on in your body.

And if you didn't have the fever, you wouldn't get

the help. A fever warns you of an infection that

needs to be dealt with, and sometimes a small pain

can alert you to a life-threatening disease. And this goes

true with your emotions, too. Sometimes you're feeling really bad.

and you're feeling really, really bad, and you're down, and

you're depressed, and you're discouraged, and you got all these

bad negative feelings, and you're praying, you go, God, take

away the feelings. He doesn't take away the feelings. You go,

why don't you take away the feelings? God said, because

the feelings aren't your problem. The problem is what you're

thinking about is causing those feelings. You gotta stop believing

the lies. And when you stop believing the lies about you,

the lies about me, and the lies about other people,

you're gonna feel better. I'm not gonna take away the feelings.

The feelings are telling you that your thinking is stinking.

You need to check up from the neck up. And

you know, you gotta get your thoughts right. I remember

when we were doing the 23rd Psalm series and I

read about how shepherds in the Middle East will sometimes

intentionally break a leg of a healthy sheep. Why? Why?

because that sheep is prone to wander and it'll wander off.

And in order to protect that sheep from wolves and

bears and other predators, they will break the leg of

the sheep and the sheep walks with a limp so

it doesn't wander off. And if God has to break

your leg to keep you from wandering off and getting

in a worse problem, he will. He loves you that much.

That's no fun. to hurt somebody you love, but just

like a surgeon will cut you to heal you, God

will break you to save you if that's what it takes.

And sometimes God may do that to you. You see,

those things that you think are disappointments, disappointments are his appointments.

Disappointments are actually his appointments. God has appointed them, and

there's a reason behind it for your own good. Now,

Sometimes God removes a harmful person in your life, and

it breaks your heart. Don't run after them. Some of you,

that's all you need to hear. You just need to

hear your pastor say that. Sometimes there's a harmful person

in your life, but you're addicted to them, and God

will remove them from your life. Don't run after them.

God as shaking things up to protect you. So ask

this question, question number four. How could this problem protect me?

How could this problem be protecting me? What's being prevented?

What could be worse in my life than this problem? Well,

there are a lot of things that could be worse.

All right, number five. The fifth way that God shakes

things up in your life and the fifth reason for

shaking things up in your life is not to correct

me or inspect me or direct me, but God uses

things and problems to perfect me, to make you more

like Jesus Christ, to grow your character, to grow you up.

Margaret Carlson years ago wrote a book called Grace Grows

Best in Winter. You know, that's possible to grow during

the bright, fair weather times, but Growth is faster and

deeper often during your darkest days. Like when you lose

a child. And that's where you grow deep. I could

read you thousands of letters that have been written to

me over the last 36 years from people who say,

you know, I grew more, Pastor Rick, through that separation.

I grew more, Pastor Rick, through that unemployment. Right? through

that illness, through that tragedy, through that loss, through that storm,

than I ever would have grown if things were going

good in my life. Pain is the high cost of growth.

If you wanna grow up, you wanna be mature, there

is no way to do it without pain. Pain is

the cost of growing up. You can't grow up on

easy street. And see, we want the product without the process.

It is a cliche, but it is true. There is

no gain without pain. There is no maturity without growing pains.

And the very thing that discourages you is the very

thing that God is using to develop you. When you

learn this, you're going to be unshakable in life like

Daniel was. We're going to see all these things in

his life. The things that discourage you are actually the

things that God wants to use to develop you. And

there is a reward coming. 1 Peter 5.10, the Bible

says this. After you have suffered a little while, the

God of all grace... who calls you to share his

eternal glory, God's gonna share his glory with you in

union with Christ, will himself perfect you, circle that, will

perfect you and give you firmness and strength and a

sure foundation. Why? Because you're not taking your car or

your cash or your career or your clothes or your

China to heaven. You're taking your character. God is not

interested in making your life easy on this earth. He's

interested in growing your character. The easy part comes for eternity.

You're in school right now. You're in school. And in school,

God says there are eternal rewards coming and I'm going

to perfect you. So knowing that God can even use

the bad things in my life to inspect me, to

direct me, to correct me, and to even perfect me,

what should be my response? Romans chapter five tells us.

We can rejoice. We can rejoice. We can rejoice when

we run into problems and trials for we know, it's perspective,

that they're good for us. We run into problems and trials.

We know they're good for us. They help us learn

to be patient. And patience develops strength of character, boom,

in us and helps us trust God more each time

we use it. So here's the fifth question. How can

I grow from this problem? See, the bottom line, your

problems are not your problems. All those things that you

think are your problems, they're not your problems. Your problems

are not your problems. Your real problems are how you

choose to respond to your problems. And if you respond

to them in a way where you trust God and

you praise God and you thank God and you maintain

your integrity and you don't give up and you don't

give in and you do the things that we'll see

Daniel do in 70 years of his life, You're just

gonna get promoted and promoted and promoted and promoted and

promoted into eternity. How can I grow from this problem?

And those problems you think you've got right now, really,

when do problems really become problems? When do your problems

really become real problems? Well, my problem becomes a real

problem when I lose my perspective. My problem becomes a

real problem when I give up on important values. And

I just say, forget it. I'm not going to waste

time anymore. I give up. I'm giving up important. Our

problem becomes a real problem when you lose your sense

of humor. Your problem becomes a real problem when you

start feeling sorry for yourself and have a pity party.

Your problem becomes a real problem when you get bitter

and you start blaming everybody else for your unhappiness. Now

it's a problem. That's the real problem. So God is saying,

and we're gonna see these, this is an index to

Daniel's life. He's saying, don't be surprised when you have adversity.

In the world you will have tribulation, Jesus said. Realize

that I can use it five different ways. I can

inspect you and I can correct you and I can

direct you and I can protect you and I can

perfect you. I can use all these different ways in

what's going on in your life. And so what's the

third suggestion? Here it is. Finally, trust God for what

I don't understand. When there's a problem in my life,

I go, this one does not make sense. I don't

get it. I don't see the perfection. I don't see

the inspection. I don't see the correction. I don't see

the protection. I don't see the perfection. This problem does

not make sense. Then I trust God. for what I

don't understand, knowing that he has my best interest at heart.

Last two verses, Proverbs 20, 24. Since the Lord is

directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens

along the way? Hello? Some of us need to memorize

that and tattoo it on our arm, okay? If ever

you're gonna get a tattoo, get that verse right there, okay?

Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to

understand everything that happens along the way? It's foolish. It's foolish.

You trying to understand God's ways like an ant trying

to understand the internet. You don't have the brain capacity.

God is God and you're not. So what do you

do when you don't understand? You trust, last verse, Proverbs 3, 5,

and 6. Trust the Lord with all your heart. It

doesn't say intellect, heart. Trust the Lord with all your heart.

Don't depend on your own understanding. Honor the Lord in

everything you do and he will give you, what's the word?

Circle that, success. Success. I want you to be a

success in life. God wants you to be a success

in life. As your pastor, as your spiritual coach, it

is my goal, my job, my role to help you

succeed in every area of the life that God has

given you. I want you to be a success. Not

just survive when times are tough, not just survive in

a hostile culture to Christians, but to thrive and actually

get promoted and have greater influence and be used by

God in an amazing way. Let me close with a

little self-evaluation. Why don't you ask these questions to God

in your mind? Here's the first one. Just say, Lord,

are you using these problems to inspect me? You know

the ones I'm going through right now? Are you using

these problems to inspect me? If so, what does it

reveal about my life? Is there a weakness? Is there

a misplaced priority in my life? Is there someplace I've

compromised the truth and you're trying to show it to me?

And then say, Lord, are you using this problem to

correct me? If so, what do you want me to learn?

I'm not gonna ask why, why is this happening to me?

I'm gonna ask what, what do you want me to learn?

What do you want me to know? Lord, are you

using this problem not just to inspect or correct, are

you using this problem to direct me? If so, what's

the direction? What do you want me to change? What's

the new direction? Where do you want me headed? Lord,

are you using this problem to protect me? Did that

thing not happen because you knew something that I didn't know?

And I was walking into a bigger trap, a bigger problem,

a bigger fiasco, a bigger difficulty. And you protected me.

And so, Lord, I'm just gonna tell you, I trust you.

I know that you know best. Thank you for protecting me.

And God, I want you to protect me. And when

there's something that I want that would be bad for me,

don't let me have it. I want your will more

than my will. And then say, Lord, are you using

this problem to perfect me? You see, God's at work

in your life even when you don't recognize it or

even understand it. God's work in your life is not

dependent upon you understanding it. So I want you to

pray this prayer very simply. Say, dear God, I want

to trust you with all my heart. Just say it

in your mind. I trust you with all my heart,

not my intellect. I'm not gonna depend on my own understanding.

And God, I want to honor you in everything I do, work, home,

anywhere else. And if I trust you, and I don't

depend on my own understanding, and I honor you in

everything I do, you've promised to give me success. And

I'm going to believe that. Teach me through the life

of Daniel in these weeks ahead. Jesus Christ, I want

to trust you with all of my life. As best

I know how. And I'm doing it today. In your

name I pray. Amen.