Rick Warren - Jesus' Secrets of Resilience—Part Two

Hey everybody, we'd like to welcome you to Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope with Rick Warren. We're so glad you're here,

and today we're bringing our series called Strategies for Stressful

Times to a close. In these messages, 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. Here's Rick with the final part of

a message called Jesus' Secrets to Resilience.

If you're to look up the word drive in the dictionary,

it means to guide or to control or to direct.

When you drive a car, you guide, control, direct it

down the street. When you drive a nail with a hammer,

you guide, control, direct the nail into the wood. When

you drive a golf ball, hopefully you guide, control, direct

it down the fairway. Every life is driven by something.

Some people are driven by guilt. Some people are driven

by fear. Some people are driven by the pressure of others.

You're going to be guided through life by either pressure

or purpose. Let me say that again. You will be

guided through life by either pressures or purpose. And that's

why this is know your calling, know your purpose. We

have a whole series of classes on this at Saddleback Church.

And when you know your purpose, then you determine what's important,

the purpose or some people's idea for your life. What

am I saying to you this weekend? That the direction

of your life is your choice, okay? And by clarifying

your calling and go, you know what? God shaped me

in a certain way. That means whatever you're shaped to

do is what you should be doing. When you know

your shape and you know what God's called you, then

you can avoid the tyranny of the urgent. And until

you clarify your calling, you're going to be controlled by others.

How many times have you already learned that God loves

you and everybody else has a plan for your life?

James chapter 1 verse 8 says this, A person who

James 1:8

has doubts is thinking about two different things at the

same time. They can't make up their mind about anything.

The Bible says you're wishy-washy when your purpose isn't clear,

when your calling isn't clear. That's why Paul says in

Ephesians 4.1, I urge you to live a life worthy

of the calling you have received. Everybody has a calling.

not just missionaries or pastors or church leaders. Everybody has

a calling. Some are called to be pharmacists. Some are

called to be accountants. Some are called to be school teachers.

Some are called to be cab drivers. Each day you

need to ask, am I moving toward my purpose? And

that leads me to the fifth principle of resilience that

we learn from looking to Jesus as our model. And

here's what Jesus did. Number five, focus, on what matters most,

focus on what matters most. Now, this is the principle

of concentration. We've talked about, you know, motivation and we've

talked about the compassion of God. This is the principle

of concentration. And what I mean by this is when

you know where you're headed and you focus, then you're

not distracted by less important things. It's a matter of priorities.

You know what matters most in life And you focus

on those things. As I said, everybody has a plan

for your life. You know what I've discovered? That if

Satan can't get you to do wrong, he'll just wear

you out with too many good things. Yeah, yeah. There

are a lot of good things you shouldn't do. Did

you know that? Jesus was a master of concentration. He

was a master of focusing his life. He focused his

life like a laser. and he refused to be distracted.

Let me show you some verses. Luke 9, 51. Here's

an example of this principle. As the time drew near

for his return to heaven, Jesus moved steadily onward toward

Jerusalem with an iron will. That's the living Bible. What

does that mean? He had a goal. He knew what

his goal was. He knew he was going to die

in Jerusalem. He's persistent. He's determined. He's focused. He focuses,

he's clarified his priorities. Paul's the same way. Paul says,

this one thing I do. Paul didn't say these 40

things I dabble in. That's what we do. We dabble

in 40 things. This one thing I do. If you

want your life to count, if you want your life

to have impact, focus is the name of the game.

You know, you have incredible spiritual potential. But the barrier

is often you haven't really settled what's most important. I

don't really have time to serve God. I would rethink

that one. I would rethink that, knowing that one day

you're going to stand before God and he's going to say,

what did you do with what you were given? Some

guys gave that same excuse to Jesus. Lord, let me

first go do something else before I follow you. And

that phrase, let me first, that's always the problem. Me first.

You can't say, Lord, let me first. Lord and me

first are contradictory. Jesus said in Luke 9, 62, anyone

who lets himself be distracted from the work that I

plan for him, God has planned a work for you

to do. Anyone who lets him be distracted from the

work I plan for him is not fit for the

kingdom of God. The older I get, the more I

realize selection is the name of the game. Lots of opportunities.

Lots of options, but the key to effectiveness is selection.

1 Corinthians 10.23 says this, we're free to do anything,

but not all things are helpful. Not all things are profitable.

Not all things are wholesome or constructive to your character

and your spiritual life. I love that, the way it's

brought out in the Amplified Translation. What is he saying?

Some things aren't necessarily wrong, they're just not necessary. That's

one of the keys to resilience. It's one of the

keys to stress resistance. And here's the sixth secret of

resilience that we learn from looking to Jesus as our model.

This is a big one. Number six, spend time alone

with God. Now this secret of resilience and this secret

of stress resistance may be the secret that you do

the least, spending enough time alone with God. And yet

it is absolutely essential to building a resilient spirit and

managing chronic stress. It is the principle of meditation. You know,

prayer is a great stress reliever. It's a decompression chamber.

It's cathartic. It's one of the ways to unload your burdens.

The Bible says in Luke 22, 39, it was Jesus' habit.

Notice this on your outline. It was Jesus' habit to

go to the Mount of Olives to pray, and his

disciples followed him. Circle the word habit. How do you

develop a habit? Well, habit is something you develop through

practice and through repetition. It's not a habit unless you

do it over and over and over. It was his

habit to go to the Mount of Olives. He would

leave the city of Jerusalem, go across the valley to

the Mount of Olives and pray there. Now, this next

verse says, in the morning, while it was still dark,

Jesus got up, left the house and went off to

a solitary place where he prayed. Do you have any

time like that in your life? You need quiet times

to renew, to reflect, to recharge. I wanna challenge you

on this principle of resilience. Study that Jesus was convinced

of the fact that no matter how busy he was,

he took time to get alone with God and pray.

In Luke chapter five, verse 15 and 16, we have

a good example of it. It says, news about Jesus

spread even more and crowds came to hear him to

be healed. But Jesus often slipped away to be alone

so he could pray. Now circle the word often. Often

means frequently. If Jesus felt the need to frequently leave

the crowd and get alone with God, how much do

we need that? You know, I would say as a pastor,

the larger Saddleback gets, the more I find myself personally

seeking solitude. It was the famous philosopher Pascal who said,

most of our problems, man's problems, come from our inability

to sit still. Psalm 46 says, be still and know

that I'm God. Sit down and shut up. Would you

agree that noise is a stress? Well, let me give

you a suggestion. Start your morning with God instead of

your phone, instead of TV, instead of radio. Set your

mood with the good news. Colossians 2, seven says, plant

your roots in Christ. Do that every morning. Plant your

roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for

your life. Now there's one more secret of resilience that

we learn from looking to Jesus as our model, and

it's this. Number seven, get a small group for support.

Get a small group for support. Do you know the

first thing Jesus did when he started his ministry? He

formed a small group. You see, you were never intended

to handle stress by yourself. If I were to ask

you to complete this sentence, if you want a job

done right, you'd typically say, do it yourself. That's the

motto of a perfectionist headed for burnout. If you want

a job done right, do it yourself. You can't do

every job by yourself. Now, if anybody had a right

to say, if you want a job done right, do

it yourself. If anybody had a right to say that,

it was Jesus. Yet even Jesus knew the power of

having a small group for support. And in Mark 3,

Mark 3:14

verse 14, it says he chose 12, that was his

small group, designated apostles that they might be with him.

That's the point of a small group. He gathered a

small group before starting his ministry. You know, so much

of our stress, friends, is self-imposed. We get uptight when

we think it all depends on us. It doesn't. God

hasn't called you to be the general manager of the universe.

Here at Saddleback Church, this church outgrew me decades ago,

decades ago. I could never do it all by myself.

From the very start, my goal was to give the

ministry away, even preaching. And that's why I have other

guest preachers, because I think you need to hear God's

word from more than just one voice. God never meant

for the church to be a one-man superstar show. Even

Jesus needed a small group for support. You remember that

when he went to the Garden of Gethsemane before the

cross in Matthew 26, verse 38, Jesus said to his disciples,

Matthew 26:38

my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

That's severe stress. And here's his antidote. Stay here and

keep watch with me. Even Jesus needed people to pray

with him. Even Jesus needed the support of a small

group when he was in a crisis. Why don't we

accept help from other people? Well, there's a couple of reasons,

insecurity and pride. And it is insecurity, it's our own

insecurity and our own pride that we don't accept help

from others, so we stay stressed out. Here's the secret,

join a small group. If Jesus needed one, you need one.

And the fact is, stress is increasing in our culture.

So you have to take these seven intentional steps to

counteract it. It's not gonna go away. Your life isn't

gonna get less stressful by accident. It only is gonna

get less stressful, more manageable, and you're gonna have greater

resilience if you choose to do these seven things that

Jesus modeled. Now I wanna close by reading again the

passage that we started with in Hebrews 12, one to three.

Listen to it again in light of the seven things

that I said. gave you as a model from Jesus.

Here's what Hebrews 12 says. Since we are surrounded by

such a huge crowd of witnesses to the 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 the race that God has

set before us. We do this, he's gonna give us

the answer, We do this by keeping our eyes on

Jesus from start to finish. Jesus was willing to die

a shameful death on the cross because of the joy

he knew he would be his afterwards. Now he's seated

at the place of highest honor besides God's throne in heaven.

Then it says this, think about all he endured. When

you think you're going through a tough time, think about

all the, what Jesus endured. when sinful people did such

terrible things to him, so that you don't become weary

and give up. You know, I remember many years ago,

this is gonna date me, when the long awaited fourth

installment of Schwarzenegger's Terminator movie series came out. The fourth

of the Terminator movies was called Terminator Salvation. And I

remember reading an online review of this many years ago,

and the review said this, quote, in Terminator Salvation, most

of humanity has been wiped out by a nuclear holocaust.

A grown up John Connors is fighting with the resistance.

His adult life is certainly purpose driven. Now that caught

my attention. This is a movie review. His adult life

is certainly purpose driven. And this rebel with a cause

has the weight of the world on his shoulders. You've

heard that phrase, I'm sure, many times. We hear that

phrase used when people are under intense stress. They had

the weight of the world on their shoulders. But you know, friends,

the truth is only one person in all of history

has ever carried the full weight of the world on

his shoulders. It's Jesus. So in closing, I need to

mention one more stress reliever that Jesus didn't need because

he was the son of God. What's the seventh or

the eighth stress reliever? You need a savior. You need

far more than the model of Jesus. You need that.

But you need Jesus himself in your life. You need

his presence in your life. You need his power in

your life. You need his pardon for your sins. You

need his peace in your life. You need his salvation.

We've looked at this verse before in this series, Matthew 11, 28, 29.

Jesus said, come to me, all of you who are

weary and carry heavy burdens, and I'll give you rest.

Take my yoke on you and let me teach you

because I'm humble and gentle and you will find rest

for your souls. You know what that verse is? It's salvation.

This is salvation. Are you stressed out? Don't give up.

Look up because Jesus' offer still stands. Come to me.

The single greatest source of stress in your life is this,

trying to live your life apart from a daily connection

to Christ. God is God and you're not. And when

I'm disconnected from Christ or when you're disconnected from Christ,

it causes all kinds of problems, fear, guilt, worry, loneliness.

Come back to Christ today. Give him your stress. He's

aware of the load you're carrying and he says, I'll

carry it with you. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father,

Thank you for not only being a model for stress relief,

a mentor for stress relief, but for being the answer

to our stress. We need a savior. If you've never

opened your life to Christ, say, Jesus Christ, come into

my life right now. I need a savior. I need

your power. Just say that. I need your power. I

need your presence. I need your pardon for all the

things I've done wrong. And I need your peace in

my heart and in my mind. I open my life

to your love. I need to not just practice your model,

but I need to have a relationship with you. Please

save me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Hey, if you just prayed to receive Jesus as your

Lord and Savior, awesome. Congratulations. And we would love to

hear from you. and send you some free materials to

help you know him better. So email rick at pastorrick.com.

That's rick at pastorrick.com. And now let's end our time

with a letter from one of our listeners.

Here's a note that I got from a woman named Becky.

She said, Pastor Rick, the Daily Hope ministry has truly

helped me in many ways. I attend church on a

regular basis. However, the Daily Hope broadcast has taught me

so much, and I can honestly say that I never

miss it. one of those Monday through Friday morning quiet times,

listening to Pastor Rick's teaching, growing closer to the Lord,

and applying what he's taught me through his messages. I

am blessed beyond measure, and I absolutely love the way

the Lord is using Pastor Rick to reach out and

teach Christians and non-Christians as well. One day, I believe

I'm going to be able to increase my monthly contribution.

I also believe that in the not-too-distant future, that will happen. Woo-hoo!

Faithfully fit, Becky. I love your heart and I love

your faith. And I love this phrase, faithfully fit, Becky.

That's great. I want everybody to please pray with me

that the Daily Hope radio broadcast and all of our

online resources will continue to transform lives with the simple

truth of hope through Jesus Christ. And thanks for listening today.

Let's all stay, like Becky, faithfully fit. God bless you.

Be sure to join us next time as we look

into God's word for our daily hope. This program is

sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.