Rick Warren - Jesus' Secrets of Resilience—Part One

Hello, everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us here on Pastor

Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. Well, today we're continuing

in this timely series called Strategies for Stressful Times. In

this series, Pastor Rick shares timeless truths from God's Word

that will help you manage stress, overcome worry, and experience

the peace and stability that only God can provide. Well,

I can't wait to get started with part one of

a message called Jesus's Secrets to Resilience.

This week, I want us to continue with part five

of my series called Strategies for Stressful Times. Specifically, we're

going to look at how Jesus personally handled stress. And

I want you to see what I call Jesus's Seven

Secrets of Resilience. Now, maybe you've never thought about it,

but the Bible says that we are to look to

Jesus as our model for enduring tough times. The Bible

says we are to look to Jesus as our model

for enduring tough times. We are to follow his example

of resilience and we are to follow his example of

stress management. And the Bible says it this way. If

you've got your notes there, right at the top of

your outline, Hebrews chapter 12 says this, verses one to

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

three out of the New Living Translations. Since we are

surrounded by such a crowd of witnesses to this life

of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows

us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.

And let us run with endurance, underline that, run with

endurance the race that God has set before us. We

do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus. Do you

see that? We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus,

on whom our faith depends from start to finish. Jesus

was willing to die a shameful death on the cross

because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards.

And now he is seated in the place of highest

honor beside God's throne in heaven. Think about all he endured.

That's what we're talking about this weekend, resilience. Think about

all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things

to him so that you don't become weary and give up. Now,

what does that passage tell us? Nobody experienced greater stress

than Jesus Christ. He experienced enormous pressure. He was criticized constantly.

He was misunderstood. There were constant demands on his life.

He had little privacy and there were people who were

trying constantly to kill him. I doubt that's true of you,

but that's stress. And yet when we look at the

life of Jesus Christ, we look at his ministry, we

see that he walked and he lived with an amazing peacefulness.

No matter how difficult the situation became, he modeled a

calmness and a resilience in the face of outrageous demands.

And this is why the book of Hebrews advises us

to keep our eyes on Jesus. And that's what we're

gonna do today. We're gonna watch his example of endurance.

We're gonna learn his secrets of resilience. And today I'm

going to unpack Jesus' seven secrets of resilience. You're going

to need this. So I want to encourage you to

take notes. Now we learn these seven secrets of resilience

from Jesus' own words. Let's get started. The first secret

of resilience when you're under stress is this, write this down.

Remember how much God loves me. That's the first antidote

It's the first secret of resilience. It is the principle

of compassion. Jesus had no doubt in his mind that God,

the Father, loved him. He talks about it over and

over and over and over. Just one verse on your outline,

John 10, verse 17. The Father loves me. The Father

John 10:17

loves me. Now, knowing and remembering that God loves you

unconditionally and God loves you extravagantly, And God loves you continuously.

And he will never stop loving you. That is the foundation.

That's the first secret, the foundation of a resilient life.

As Paul says in the book of Romans, if God's

for us, who could be against us, okay? Who could

be against us? We are resilient because we know that

God will never stop loving us. Now, I know what

you're thinking. You think, well, of course God loves Jesus.

He's his son. But did you know that Jesus said

the same thing about you too? Yeah, in John 15

verse nine and 10 says this, Jesus says, just as

the father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love. And if you obey my commands,

you'll remain in my love. Now I've talked to you many,

many times about how much God loves you because it

is really the basis of your personal security. If you're

not convinced that God always loves you, that he loves

you unconditionally, completely, instantly, continuously, that he never stops loving you,

that you can't make him stop loving you. If you

don't really have this foundation of God's unconditional love in

your life, you're gonna be easy prey for the disapproval

of other people. You're gonna be a people pleaser. Now,

how much does God love you? Well, look there on

your outline. 1 John 3, verse one says this. How great.

How great is the love of the Father that he's

lavished on us that we should be called the children

of God. And that is what we are. So the

first key to resilience is to build the baseline that

God will never stop loving me. Jesus knew it, you

need to know it. Number two, the second key that

we see in the life of Jesus and you need

this for your stress resistance is this. Remember who I am.

Don't just remember that God loves you unconditionally. Remember who

I am. This is the principle of identification. Now, why

is this important? Because if you're not sure who you

really are, you're going to be whipped around and manipulated

and molded by the pressures and the problems and the

other people around you. when you have a confused identity,

when you have an unclear identity, when you don't really

know who you are, it makes you more prone to stress. Why?

Because our culture will try to fit you in its mold.

It's gonna make you into what it wants you to be.

And until you settle this issue, first, God loves me unconditionally, second,

I know who I am, I'm a child of God,

you're gonna be prone to stress. Now, we know that

Jesus never had any doubts about his identity. He knew

exactly who he was. In fact, 18 times in scripture,

he publicly defines himself, 18 times. These are famous statements

called the I am statements of Jesus, the I am

statements of Jesus. I've listed just a few of them

there on your outline. Mark chapter 14, John 8, John 14,

Mark 14 · chapter mention

John 6, many different places. Jesus says, I am, and

then he fills it in. I am the light of

the world. I am the son of God. I am

the way. I am the truth. I am the life.

I am the bread of life. Over and over, he

defines himself. He knew exactly who he was. Why is

this helpful in handling stress? Well, in John 8, 18,

Jesus says, in other words, I testify to my own behalf.

I don't need other people to tell me who I am.

I know who I am. I don't depend on the

opinions of others to validate myself. Do you do that?

If you depend on the opinions of others to validate yourself,

you are prone to stress and you certainly aren't resilient

to chronic stress. The fact is, if you don't know

who you are, other people will decide it for you.

They'll force you into a mold. They'll create stress. You'll

end up pretending. You'll end up faking it. You'll end

up wearing a mask. You'll end up trying to be

a man or woman that you're not really who you are.

You're who everybody else wants you to be. And that's

called stress. Stress happens when you try to be something

you're not. Doesn't matter if it's for the sake of

your parents or the sake of your boss or the

sake of your spouse or the sake of your boyfriend.

Doesn't matter who you're doing it for. You're going to

be pressured and you're going to be stressed and you're

not going to be resilient. Now you say, well, of course,

Jesus knew he was the light of the world. Of

course he knew that. But did you know that Jesus

said the same thing about you? He said, I'm the

light of the world. But in Matthew 5, 13 to 16,

Jesus says this, you are the light of the world.

He says, you are the salt of the earth and

you are the light of the world. Don't hide your light.

Do you realize how special God says you are? There's

nobody in the world exactly like you. When God made you,

he broke the mold. Just like God doesn't make two

snowflakes same, God doesn't make clones of people. Even identical

twins are different in thousands of different ways. There will

never be in the history of humankind someone like you

at all. You're unique and you need to know that

God loves you unconditionally and you need to know who

you are. Now, identity, this issue of identity, this is

the second principle, the principle of identity. When you don't

know your identity, it increases your stress. And it comes

out two different ways, comparing and copying, comparing, copying, comparing.

When you say, well, I'm going to compare myself to

everybody else. God says, don't do that. And copying others,

we all begin as originals, but we end up as

carbon copies of other people. God does not want copies

of anybody. God does not want clones. That's why he

only created one of you. God wants you to be you.

And when you get to heaven, God isn't gonna say,

why weren't you more like Moses? The point is you

must become comfortable with being you. You must accept your

strengths and you must accept your limitations and your weaknesses.

You must accept the truth about you. When you do that,

this second principle, the principle of I know who I am,

you'll have a lot less stress, all right? Now here's

the third secret of resilience that we learn from looking

to Jesus as our model. I know that God loves me.

I know who I am. Here's the third thing. Know

who I'm trying to please. Know who I'm trying to please.

In other words, know who you're living for. Now, this

is the principle of motivation. You need to know what

is your deepest motivation. If you don't know that, if

you haven't figured it out, you are prone to get stressed.

What motivates you every day? You see, mixed motivation, are

a third great cause of stress. Jesus said, no man

can serve two masters. This third cause of stress is

trying to please everybody. The truth is you can't. You

get crowd A pleased, crowd B ticks off, gets ticked off.

By the time you get crowd B happy, crowd A

is upset again. Did you know that even God can't

please everybody? Somebody's praying for it to rain and somebody's

praying for it to be sunny on the same day.

Somebody's praying for some team to win and others praying

for another team to win or this guy to get

elected and somebody else is praying for somebody else. You know,

as a pastor, I have learned that for 42 years,

I'm always disappointing somebody. Why? Because everybody has different expectations. Okay,

they have different expectations. The Bible says the fear of

man is a trap. It will capture you. It will

cause you to stumble. That's why Jesus says in John 5, 30,

I'm not trying to do what I want, but only

what my father who sent me wants. I know who

I'm trying to please. Now, if you're not trying to

please God, in all likelihood, you're trying to please a

bunch of people. It's a whole lot easier to say,

I'm just gonna focus on pleasing God and let the

chips fall where they may. Because if you please God,

it'll always be the right thing. If you don't please

God and you're trying to please others, you just get

stressed out with what this person wants, that person wants.

This was the third reason Jesus was so stress resistant.

He was only trying to please one person. Notice there

on your outline, John 8, 29. I always do those

things that are pleasing to him. And if you're pleasing God,

it's always the right thing. It also simplifies your life.

Because I don't have to worry about, am I pleasing

everybody else? I'm just trying to please God. Jesus never

let approval, or for that matter, rejection, control him. He

lived for an audience of one. As I mentioned earlier,

Luke 16, 13, no man can serve two masters. You

can't please multiple audiences. He focused only on pleasing God. Now,

this is what you need to do if you wanna

be resistant to stress and if you wanna be resilient

to when you get knocked down. Galatians 1.10, Paul says,

I'm not trying to be a people pleaser. This is Paul.

I'm not trying to be a people pleaser. No, I'm

only trying to please God. If I're still trying to

please people, he says, I wouldn't be Christ's servant. I

love that in the New Living Translation. One of the

biggest myths, that will make you miserable is this, I

must be loved by everybody in order to be happy.

That's just not true. You don't need other people's approval

to be happy. But let me ask you, right now,

whose approval are you depending on for your happiness? Who

are you still trying to please? Somebody's been trying to

please an unpleasable parent and they've been dead for a while.

You know, we love, to blame other people for our stress.

I have to do this. I must do this. I

can't do that. You are as free as you choose

to be. Nobody can pressure you without your permission. That's

why the third secret of resilience is know who you're

trying to please. Jesus said, I know who I'm trying

to please. I'm only trying to please my father. I'm

not worried about anybody else. That's why we're looking at

him as our model. Now, here's the fourth thing that

Jesus did. Here's the fourth secret of resilience and resistance

to stress. I need to not only know God loves me.

I need to not only know who I'm trying to please.

I need to not only know that God has called me.

That's the fourth thing. I know my calling. If you

wanna be resistant to stress, you need to get alone

with God until you know your calling. I must know

exactly and believe exactly what God has called me to

do with my life. Now, this is the principle of vocation, vocation.

And until you clarify this and it becomes crystal clear

in your mind, you're gonna be more prone to getting

stressed out. But when you know what God's called you

to do, you know what God has called you to do,

you also know what God has called you not to do.

In other words, when you're sure of your calling, you

know what's your business, but you also know what's none

of your business. And that simplifies life too. Jesus knew

exactly what he was called to do. Here's the fourth thing.

In John 8, 14, he says, I know where I

came from and I know where I'm going. To me,

that sounds like a purpose-driven life. I know where I

came from and I know where I'm going. He lived

a purpose-driven life.

What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something

I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to

tell you how you can help support this ministry.

Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to

love God with all your heart. That's worship. And love

your neighbor as yourself. That's ministry. That's called the great commandment.

And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize

them into the family of God. That's fellowship. a sign

of fellowship. And then he said, teach them, obey everything

I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the

great commission. We believe at Daily Hope that a great

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