Rick Warren - Stop Self Sabotage and Start Trusting God’s Plan for Your Life

How do I trust God for my needs instead of

worrying about my needs? Well, the Bible says you do

four things. Write these down. Number one, you do this

every day. It's not a one-time thing. Every day, ask

him to be my shepherd. Every day, I ask Jesus

to be my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. And

if I ask him to be my shepherd, then he's

going to feed and he's going to lead and he's

going to meet my need in that day. By the way,

he'll not only feed, lead, and meet your need, he

can also forgive your misdeed and help you succeed. Every

day you need to pray the prayer that David prayed.

It's this next verse, Psalm 28, verse 9. Come, save

Psalms 28:9

us and bless us. Be our shepherd and always carry

us in your arms. That's what you do. Every day,

I ask you to be my shepherd. Number two. Second,

it's very important, I give him, Jesus, first place in

every area of my life. This is extremely important, that

I give Jesus first place in every area of my life. Now,

if you're a believer, you've given him first place in

your life, so I want you to be number one,

but there's different parts of your life that are not

under his control. And when you say, Jesus, come into

my house, you need to say, have the whole house.

You got access to the bedroom. You got access to

the bathroom. You got access to the kitchen in my life.

You got access to that closet over there where I

got all kinds of stuff hidden. You got access to

the garage, to the living room, to the dining room.

It's all yours. Jesus, take over the whole house. Have

you ever said that? Now, the Bible says this, Matthew 6,

Matthew 6:31–33

verse 31 to 33. Your heavenly father already knows perfectly

well what you need. And he says, and he will,

not might, he will give you what you need if,

here's the condition, if you give him first place in

your life and you live as he wants you to.

So you give God first place in every area of

your life. Here's the third thing. This is the third

thing God wants to say to you, and we're going

to cover this more in detail next week. Relax. Relax

and give him my worries in prayer. God wants you

to relax. He wants you to give him your worries

in prayer. And you say, Jesus, just take these things

I'm worried about. And you just hand them over to him.

You know, last week we talked about counting your blessings.

I said, you know, look at all the things God

has done for you in your life that are good.

I said, make a list. Make a list of all

the good things God's done for you. And when you

start getting down, pull out that list and read, wow,

God really has been good to me The freedom I have.

I have a brain. I can see. I can hear.

All of the many things that you take for granted.

So you make a list of blessings. But sometimes, you

know what you need to do? You need to make

a list of worries. And you say, you know, sometimes

you have this sense of, I just feel anxious. I

have this general anxiety. I feel a little uptight, a

little nervous. And I don't really know what's causing it. Well,

you can just say, God, I give you my generalized worry.

But It's even better to stop and go, what is

it that's really bugging me? Am I worried that somebody's

going to disapprove of me? Then you write that down.

Am I worried that I'm going to be rejected? Then

you write that down. Am I worried that I'm going

to be insecure and not have enough? You write that down.

Am I worried that I'm going to be lonely the

rest of my life? You write that down. You write

them all down, and then you give God your worries.

You say, here's the list, Lord. Here's some stuff that's

on my mind today. I'm not going to keep them.

I'm going to give them to you. Notice this next verse,

1 Peter 5, 7. Give all your worries and cares

to God. In other words, don't stuff them. For he

cares about what happens to you. So you relax and

you give him your worries and you just say, God,

here are the things I'm worried about. Then you remember earlier,

we read that verse where Jesus said, you know, don't

worry about anything. I'm going to meet your needs. Well,

right before that, he had said this. Look up on

the screen. Matthew 6, 32. He says, for the people

who don't know God, the unbeliever, the people who don't

know God, they run after all these things. He said,

you know, do I look good? Do I feel good?

Do I have the goods? Am I living the good life?

Do I have the clothes? Do I have the food?

Do I have the appearance? Do I have the car?

Do I have the right clothes? Jewelry, do I have

accessorizing myself? And all these different things. So the people

who don't know God run after all these things. Now

I don't have to go into this because you know

what people are running after. Material goods, keeping up with

the Joneses, all those things. They run after all these things.

You know, it's interesting. I looked up this word, run.

It says these people who don't know God run after

these things. It actually means in Greek, frantically seeking. Frantically seeking.

Frantically seeking materialism, passions, pleasures, possessions, frantically seeking. It's scurrying

to get about. When I think of this verse, they

run after these things. I think of shopping crowds at

the mall on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. They're running after

these things. I'm afraid I'm not going to get the deal.

And there's a limited number of items on sale. So

I got to get there and I got to elbow

you and push you. He says, unbelievers, people who don't

know God, they're like this. They're frantic. Get, get, get grabbing.

He said, they run after all these things. They're hurrying

and scurrying all the time. I want you to write

this down. Hurry creates worry. Hurry creates worry. And the

faster you go in life, the more likely you are

to worry. You need to slow down. You need to relax.

You need to take a little bit slower pace. Hurry

creates worry. If you're hurrying and scurrying, you're going to

end up worrying. Now, the Bible says this. We looked

at the verse earlier, but I'm going to go back

on the screen. Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7. It

Philippians 4:6

says this. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything.

Don't panic, pray. Tell God about all your needs. Give

it to God. And thank him for all he's done

for you. If you do this, if you do this,

you'll experience God's peace. God's peace, not your own peace.

God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human

mind can understand. The Bible calls this the peace that

passes understanding. What is the peace that passes understanding? It's

when you're at peace and you have no logical, rational

reason to be at peace. I just lost my job.

Somehow I'm at peace about it. Why? The Lord is

my shepherd. You just got the dreaded word and report

from the doctor. It's cancer. For some reason, I got

peace about it. Why? Peace that passes understanding because the

Lord is my shepherd. I just found out some bad

news that a dear friend of mine just died. Somehow,

I'm at peace about it in my heart. Why? Because

the Lord is my shepherd. He feeds and he leads

and he meets my needs. That's the peace that I understand.

And that's a witness to the world. People go, man,

I want to be like that guy. I want to

be like that woman. She's at peace in the middle

of chaos. Anybody can be at peace when you're out fishing.

You know, but if... If you're at peace in the

middle of chaos, that's the peace that passes understanding. He says,

don't worry about it. God's peace will give you what

you need. So every day, I start the day, and

throughout the day, I say, the Lord is my shepherd.

I ask you to be my shepherd. Then I give

him first place in every area of my life, not

just this area, every single compartment of my life. And

then I relax. And every time a worry comes up,

I say, the Lord's my shepherd. And I give that

worry to God. I don't hold on to it. I

don't think I got to think about it later. I said, God,

take that one. I don't have time to think about

that worry. Take that worry, God. Take that worry, God.

You just keep loading them on. He can handle it.

He can handle it. Now, the fourth thing is this

very important. Trust him. Trust God. Trust Jesus for one

day at a time. Trust him for one day at

a time. Don't try to steal the whole future into

the day and bring it back here, have worries about

all the kind of stuff that's coming up. Trust him

for one day at a time. Matthew chapter six, verse 34,

Jesus says this. So don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow

will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble

of its own. Anybody agree with that verse? Yeah, you

don't need to borrow trouble. He's saying, don't borrow trouble

for tomorrow. I'm gonna give you enough grace for today.

I'm not gonna give you the grace for tomorrow until

you get to tomorrow. You don't need it today. He's saying,

don't open your umbrella until it starts to rain, okay?

Don't start, that stuff hadn't happened yet. Can't change the future,

can't change the path. Just work on today. There are

two days of every week you should never worry about.

Yesterday and tomorrow. because you can't do anything about them.

And you don't worry about the future until you successfully

learn to manage today. Some of you aren't doing that

good a job on that one. So why are you

borrowing trouble and worrying about something that's happening in two weeks?

You see, when you think about it, today is the

tomorrow that you worried about yesterday. And so yesterday, you

messed up yesterday because you worried about today. Now today,

you messed up today because you're worrying about tomorrow. Don't

do that. Take one life, take one day at a

time through your life. Now why? Why does God say

that you should only live your life one day at

a time? Well, because it's true. It's the only thing

you can do. You can't live in the past. You

can't live in the future. You can only live today.

But there's a couple reasons why you should only live

one day at a time. First, when you worry about

tomorrow's problems, you miss all the blessings of today. Some

of you, you got something coming up in two weeks

or a week or a month and it's scaring you

to death and you're making it worse because you're ruining

every day between now and then by worrying about it.

What is that worrying doing? It's unhelpful, it's unuseful, all

those different things. And so you're missing today's blessing. Some

of you are so worried about retirement. You're not enjoying today.

You're missing the blessing of today. And he says, I

don't want you doing that. Take it one day at

a time. And the other reason is you cannot solve

tomorrow's problems with today's power. When you get there tomorrow,

God will give you the power and the perspective and

the grace and the wisdom. He'll give you what you

need when you need to get there. But he's not

going to give you the power and promise and purpose

and all those things for tomorrow, today. So you're taking

on a problem. God says, I'm not giving you power

for that. Because I want you to trust me one

day at a time. The Bible does not say, give

us this day our weekly bread. No, you're to pray,

give me today my daily bread. Give me just enough

strength to make it through the day. He wants you

to depend on him one day at a time. Now,

let me be clear as your pastor, because I love you.

It's okay to plan for tomorrow. It's okay to plan

for the future. Just don't worry about the future. Planning

is good. Worrying is bad. Jesus highly recommends planning. There's

a whole book in the Bible about planning. It's called

the book of Proverbs. God says it's foolish not to plan.

Like only a fool would go all the way through

life unprepared for something you know is inevitable called death.

Are you kidding me? You haven't made your peace with God.

You know you're gonna die. You don't know when it's

gonna happen. To go through life unplanned for death, you're

not ready to live till you're ready to die. So

you gotta plan. Planning is good. Worrying is bad. You

can plan for tomorrow, but you can't live in tomorrow.

You can only live today. Now I know that the

future can often seem very overwhelming. But God graciously divided

it up into 24-hour segments. So you don't get all

the future at once. You get it 24 hours at

a time. And if God gave you all the future

at one time it would overwhelm you but you're not

there yet you're not ready for it and so God

gives it to you in 24 hour increments think of

your life like an hourglass remember where the sand goes

through the hourglass the sand there's all this sand up

here but it goes through one grain at a time

you can handle that you can handle one grain at

a time you can't handle all the sand at once

so it's not going to come at you all at

once You're going to hit the future one day at

a time. You can handle that. Why? Because the Lord

is my shepherd. I love this in the message translation.

It says this. Give your entire attention to what God

is doing right now. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Right now.

Don't get worked up about what may or may not

happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard

things come up When the time comes. When the time comes. Now,

having said all this, is it possible that worry may

be one of your most chronic sins? It's unhelpful. It's unreasonable.

It's unbiblical. It doesn't work. It's irrational. It's unbelief. And

maybe you just need to say, God, I'm sorry. I

haven't been saying the Lord is my shepherd. I have

been saying I'm worried. I'm worried. Now, let me just

add here. If you struggle with chronic anxiety and you've

had it for years and years and years, you need

more than just this. And you need a care team

around you. You need a support team around you. Because

if you have chronic anxiety, first you need a doctor.

You need to go and get some tests done. You

may need some meds. That's okay. It's a chemical issue.

When people's chemistry is messed up, some people are chronically

anxious like others are chronically angry or others are chronically depressed.

So you need a doctor. And second, you need a coach.

You need a counselor. You need somebody to talk with

about it. And the third thing you need is a

support group. And you need at least those three things

to make it through. Because if you're having a chemical

imbalance in your mind, and for me to just say, well,

just trust God, it's like cutting off the wing of

a bird and say, well, just fly. And they go,

saying all you want, fly, fly. If it doesn't have

a wing, it's not going to fly. And so you

might have to get your brain stabilized. Now, let me

give you one last principle I want to share on this.

It's not on your outline, but I want you to

write it down. God is a good shepherd who will

give you what you need. Here's what I'm gonna say.

What God gives to me, he wants to give through me.

What God gives to me, he wants to give through me.

In other words, everything God gives you, he wants you

to share with others. The Lord is my shepherd. When

he meets your needs, God wants to use you to

meet the needs of other people. The fact is, I

don't know if you've ever realized this, but God is

constantly testing how much you trust him. Every day of

your life, your faith, your trust is being tested by God.

He's going to see, are you going to trust him?

And he does it many, many ways. By the way,

do you know what is the number one way God

tests your trust and your faith? Money, money, finances. Why? Why?

because we spend so much of our life trying to

earn it, make it, spend it, use it, save it,

invest it, whatever. And what I've learned is that the

more you have, the less likely you are to trust God. Why?

Because you start trusting your bank account. And this is

a test. It's a test. But when I meet other

people's needs with what God has blessed me with, God

gets extremely happy because God is a generous God. And

he gives nine promises. I'm going to close with a

verse you may have never read. It's not on your outline,

so write it down. Because I want you to go

home and read this verse again. Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah 58,

Isaiah 58 · chapter mention Isaiah 58:7–11

verses 7 to 11. And in this passage, God makes

some amazing, astounding promises as our shepherd. And he says,

if you'll do these certain things, I'll make sure all

of your needs are met. I'm going to read it

to you. It's up here on the screen. Isaiah 58,

7 to 11. Now, he starts off with what he

wants you to do. God says this. I want you

to share your food with the hungry. You're eating well.

He says, I want you to share your food with

the hungry. Then he says, and I want you to

welcome the homeless poor into your homes. That could even

include immigrants. I want you to put clothes on those

who need them. Great, got it. And then he says,

and I want you to help your relatives who need

your help. Oh, come on, God. The first three I

can get okay. I don't want to help that crazy uncle.

He's such a flake. But God says, I want you

to help your relatives who need your help. This is

a test. Then he says, if you do these things,

and he makes nine promises. These are amazing. Look at this.

If you do these things, number one, my favor will

shine on you. Like the morning sun, God smiles on

your life, your business, your career. Number two, your wounds,

the things where you're hurting, your wounds will be quickly

healed because you're helping somebody else. Number three, I will

always be with you to save you. All right? Number four,

my presence will protect you on every side. I like that.

Number five, fifth promise, when you pray, I will answer you. Now,

he says, goes back a little more, he says, now,

I'll do this if you put an end to oppression.

And that would include racial prejudice and bigotry. Put an

end to oppression. And if you stop every gesture of

contempt of others, including people who are politically different from you. Uh-oh.

He said, you've got to stop pointing the other side

with contempt. If you stop every gesture of contempt of

others and you end your vicious talk and pointing fingers

on social media. I just thought I'd throw that in. Okay.

He says, okay, if you stop being such a gripey,

complaining person, you stop saying they're nuts, they're dumb, they're stupid,

and I don't care who your favorite group is to

say that about. He said, if you'll do that, and instead,

if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry, and

you take care of the needs of the oppressed, then

darkness around you will turn into the brightness of noon.

He said, your light's gonna shine like crazy. And he said,

and I, the Lord, will, here's the other promises, always

guide you, and I will satisfy your needs. That's number eight.

And I will keep you strong and well. Hello. Okay. Now,

if that's not true, God's a liar, you should go

home and never come back to church again. Because I'm

not going to worship a God who's a liar. But

God has said, if you do these things, I will

do these things in your life because I am your shepherd.

Let's bow our heads. Dear God, you are the source

of everything we need to live, and yet we look

everywhere else. And there's nothing that we need that you

can't supply. And it's really clear in your word that

you do not want us to ever, ever worry about anything.

You said it repeatedly. You've told us that worry is unreasonable.

It doesn't make sense. It's illogical. It blows things out

of proportion. You've told us that worry is unnatural. We

humans are the only people in the entire universe that worry.

Nothing else that you've created worries. Everything else in creation

trusts you. You told us that worry is unhelpful, that

it's not going to add a single hour to our life,

not make us taller or shorter, cannot change the past,

cannot control the future. You told us that worry is unnecessary,

that you have promised to meet our needs if we'll

just trust you. And you told us that worry is unbelief,

that when we worry, we're actually acting like atheists. We're

acting like orphans that don't have a loving Heavenly Father,

don't have a shepherd. He said, don't be worried. Believe

in God and believe in Jesus. So Lord, today, we

want to learn to trust you to meet our needs.

And we want to practice it this week. Now you pray. Say, God,

every day, I want to ask you to be my shepherd.

And if I have to say it 20 times a day,

the Lord is my shepherd. I'll remember that when I worry,

you're going to feed, you're going to lead, and you're

going to meet my need Jesus Christ, I'm going to

give you first place in every area of my life.

Have access to every room in my home. No drawer,

no closet, no room is off limits to you. And

whenever I worry, help me to realize that that area

is an area that's not under your control. That I've

held it back and that I love it more than

I love you. God, this week and during this entire series,

teach me to relax. And to not hold on to

my worries, not to stuff them or repress them, but

to confess them. To give you my worries in prayer.

To not hold on to them and say, God, here's

a worry. I'm worried about this and give it to you.

And then Jesus, help me to trust you for one

day at a time. To not worry about tomorrow. It'll

have enough trouble of its own. But depend on your

power today to solve today's problems and your power tomorrow

to solve tomorrow's problems. I just want to trust you

in every single area. If you've never said it before, say,

Jesus Christ, I want you to become the shepherd. The

Lord is my shepherd. Jesus, be the Lord of my life.

And I humbly ask this in your name, I pray. Amen.