May 21, 2025 • 22 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there, and welcome back to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Rick continues in his series called Connecting with God the
Lord's Prayer. In this series, Rick shows us what it
means to be truly spiritually connected to God and to
each other through the power of God's love and God's word. Okay,
here's Pastor Rick with the final part of a message
(00:26):
called the Prayer of Deliverance.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And then number five.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
This is a real key on the six steps on
the pathless Gape. I turn my attention elsewhere. I turn
my attention elsewhere. I change the direction of my thoughts.
I refocus on something else. I shift my attention. If
you're watching something on TV you don't like, you don't
(00:51):
sit there and go I'm not gonna listen. I'm not
gonna listen. I'm not gonna listen. I am not gonna listen. No,
you just poop flip the channel. That's all you need
to do. Temptation. Here's the little secret to temptation. Don't
fight it, just refocus. Don't write this down, don't resist. Refocus.
(01:16):
Whatever you have in your life that you resist, you're
just nailing it harder into your life. Whatever you resist persists.
I'm not gonna have another cigarette. I'm not gonna have
another cigarette. I'm not gonna have another I'm not gonna
take another drink. Whatever you resist, persist. The key is
(01:40):
not did you know that? In the Bible, not once
are you told to resist temptation. We are told to
resist the devil. And that's a whole different issue. That's
another sermon. But in temptation, the key to overcoming temptation
is not push back.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
The temptation has just change my focus, and.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
All of a sudden, I'm not interested in that anymore,
and I get a new focus. When I refocus, all
of a sudden, that which had my attention I forget about.
It's not that I'm resisting it, I just forget about it.
And that principle works in every single area of life.
Whatever gets your attention gets you. The battle for sin
(02:19):
always starts in the mind. That's why the Bible says
this up here on the screen, thinking about your commands
will keep me from doing some foolish thing. Why because
if I'm thinking about your commands, I'm thinking about truth.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I'm not thinking about the dumb stuff I could be doing.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
You ever looked over a Cliff bent up real a
line and looked over Cliff and felt like you were
being drawn to jump off, kind of like you're being
pulled off, not like a temptation, but just like felt
like there was this force that was pulling you.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It's because whatever you focus on pulls you.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It's true in every single area of life, good or bad.
You focus on good things in life, godly things in life,
true things in life, it's gonna pull you that direction.
You focus on the stuff that's at the movies, and
the stuff that's in the magazine, and the stuff that's
in all the Harlequin romance novels, that's gonna.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Pull you that direction.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Whatever you focus on gets your attention, and whatever gets
your attention is going to get you. I don't know
if you've realized this, but the more you think about something,
the more it upsets you, and it gets worse and
worse and worse, and it gets a stronger hold, and
you repeat it and repeat it and reinforce it and
reinforce it. And you know, the first time you think
(03:37):
about that really upset me. The more you think, man,
that really did upset me. The more you think about, man,
I am kicked off, then you know, and then you're
ready to drop an atomic bomb on that person. By
the time you've thought it over and over, you know what,
it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So whatever
is tempting you, whoether it sex or food or or
(04:00):
anything else, whatever you focus on is going to pull
you that direction. And so the key is to just
change your mind. You see, temptation always follows a predictable pattern.
Attention arousal action. Attention arousal action. That's the way every
(04:23):
single temptation works. Attention hmm, what was that?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Paul and lean and long and lanky. Do know something?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Your mind gets hooked arousal, your mind kicks in emotions action,
you act on it.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
That's what the Book of James says, chapter one.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So you don't fight a temptation, you just churn your
mind to something else.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Look at this verse.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
We capture every thought and make it obey Christ. We
capture every thought. Now, friends, what that verse says to do.
That's a secret to temptation. You're not good at that.
You're not very good at that, capturing every thought and
turning it to Christ. Because that takes practice. That takes practice.
(05:18):
You can't always control your circumstances. And by the way,
you can't always control the way you feel, but you
can control what you think about.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
That's always your choice.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
You can't always control the way you feel, but you
can control what you think. And if you change the
way you think, it changes the way you feel, and
that will change the way you act. When Jesus was
resisting temptation in the Bible and Satan said, turn these
stones for bread, he didn say, oh no, I'm not hungry.
He was hungry, fasted for forty days. He just turned
(05:50):
his mind to something else. Quoted the Bible, would you
write this down? The more I fight it, the more
it controls me. The more I fight it, the more
it controls me. So the answer is, I'm not telling
you to go out of here and fight temptation. You
can't fight a feeling. But let me tell you how
(06:13):
you ignore a very powerful feeling. I just told it
to you. You ignore it. That's it. You don't fight
a feeling, can't fight this feeling anymore. What you go
gotta do is you just ignore it. You refocus on
(06:34):
something else, and the feeling loses its attraction because of
your attraction and attention on something else. Look at the
next verse Romans twelve twenty one. Don't let evil conquer you,
but overcome or conquer evil with good. Now, what is
this right underneath that? The principle of replacement. That's what
(06:55):
this is. It's the principle of replacement. Fill your mind
with truth, good thoughts, good things, and it pushes out
all the junk in your mind.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Now, learning this kind.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Of stuff that I'm talking about is this pattern of
thinking is not easy, but it is possible, and you
can learn how to do it. So here are the steps.
First five, identify what makes me vulnerable. I know why
I get tempted. Then I plan to avoid those places.
Just stay away from those things. Don't watch that channel.
(07:28):
Have somebody put a block on your on your computer,
your your wife, or on your on your television or whatever.
Guard your heart. Know when you're when you're emotionally low,
Pray for God's help. Ask God to give you deliverance.
Pray the prayer of deliverance. Turn my attention elsewhere. And
(07:51):
then here's number six, and this is the number one thing.
Get a group and a partner, the friends I've been
helping people through temptation. For over thirty years, and nothing
works like this. That's why I keep talking about you
need to have an accountability partner. You need to have
a spiritual partner. You need to have a spiritual friend.
(08:12):
You need to be in a small group. So I
told you when we started. The reality is willpower is
not enough for permanent change. You've got to get a
group and you've got to get a partner. Now, look
up here on the screen. The Bible says this. I
love this in the message paraphrase. Sheer, muscle and willpower
don't make anything happen. But every word I've spoken to
(08:37):
you Jesus is a spirit word. So it is life making,
it's life changing. Change has to come inside. Here's my
question to you, is your pastor somebody who loves you,
how serious are you about breaking free that thing that
(08:57):
just you keep going back to it, and you keep
going back to it in that habit, that pattern of thought,
that pattern of I always get angry in that situation,
I always get impatient in that situation. I always tend
to build myself up in that situation. I always get whatever,
How seriously are you interested in changing and breaking free?
(09:18):
Because if you are, let me be very blunt with you.
You will never do it without support. You will never
do it on your own. I don't give you any
hope of success in changing by yourself.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Zero.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Because God has wired us in a way that we
need each other to grow. We need each other to
break free of habits and hang ups and hurts. And
you need accountability in your life. The very thing that
you want least is the very thing you need most.
You need a friend who checks up on you, and
(09:57):
you need a group that supports you. The Bible says this,
the Ecclesiastes four, two are better than one because together,
if one falls down, the other can help him up.
But if somebody is alone and he falls into temptation,
there's no one there to help him up.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It just doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I can't tell you how many times I started a
program of exercise and quit and started another one and quit,
and started another one and quit and starting another one
and quit.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Can I give an.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Excuse here, an excuse there, an excuse there, and all
of that. And so this year, when we started it
just said, I know this principle. You've got to have
a group, and you've got to have a friend. And
so I asked a friend in this church named Tom,
and I said, Tom, he's a member of the church.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Said will you be my partner? Will you help me?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
I said, I want to set five days a week
to work out, so I'll hit four of them. Because
nothing goes as planned in my life or yours. So
I'm setting five days a week. So I hit four
and I've been consistent for two months now. Is that
because of me? No, it's because of Tom. Okay, you
(11:20):
need a Tom in your life, or a Terry or
Tony or something. You need somebody in your life to
help you on the three biggest habits in your life
that you want to change. You're not going to change
them on your own, So just quit kidding yourself. If
you could, you would, but you can't, sol you won't,
and you're never going to change without a group giving
(11:46):
you support and without a person giving you accountability. They
were talking about this Thursday night in my small group,
and we were talking about temptation. One of the people
in our small group said, you know, the temptation I
really struggle with most is the temptation to make myself
look good all the time. Would you ever have enough
(12:11):
authenticity to say that in your small group, would you
would you ever own up to the fact that ninety
nine percent of the time you're all about trying to
make yourself look good? Would you ever own up to that?
You see, You're never gonna be free until you own up.
(12:34):
If there's just one thing I could do as your pastor,
it would be to get you in a group and
get you with a person that you could be totally
honest with on the things that you think I don't
want to tell anybody about, because you're never gonna break
free until you share them. And if we were more
(12:56):
consistent in confessing our temptation to each other, then we
wouldn't have to spend so much time confessing our sins
to each other. I'd rather have you confess in temptations
in having to confess sins, wouldn't you. Yeah, so what's
the big deal? Well, I've never been tempted, Liar, everybody's tempted.
(13:24):
It is a myth that says you're going to get
to a point in your spiritual life you're not tempted.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
No.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
In fact, let me tell you this, the more mature
you become, the more Satan's gonna put you on as
most wanted to list. You're going to get worse temptations
as you grow. It doesn't just go away. It gets
worse different kinds, but they're there. And if we are
(13:49):
more consistent confessing our temptations, if men would confess their
temptations to other men, they wouldn't have to confess their sins.
If women would confess their temptations to other women, they
wouldn't have to confess their sins.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The Bible says this, brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
If someone in your group, we're talking about small groups
right now, if somebody in your group does something wrong,
you who are spiritual, That means you who haven't done
that week, because next week it'll be you. Okay, you
are spiritual, should go to that person gently, help them
make it right again. Who'll be careful because you can
(14:30):
be tempted by sin too, But by helping each other
with your troubles, you obey the law of Christ. What's
the law of Christ? Love your neighbor as yourself. How
do we love our neighbors as ourselves? The Bible says,
right there by helping each other through temptation.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's how you love your neighbor by.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Helping them through temptation by helping them be consistent in
the things they want to be consistent in, to help
them break bad habits and help them start good habits.
That's the best way you can love your neighbor and
obey the law of Christ.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
God wired us to need each other.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
And when we do this, when you're authentic and you
start admitting your temptation other people, it's liberating. The moment
you admit your temptation, you start moving to freedom that second,
because if I can't talk about it, it's already out
of control in my life. If you can't talk about it,
it's out Whatever you can't talk about is out of
(15:29):
control in your life. Otherwise you're just in denial. It's
out of control. And when you talk about a problem,
it helps you gain control. And holding on to a
hang up only intensifies that. It makes it worse and
you and wearing a mask makes you miserable, and pretending
makes it worse. It's liberating, it's empowering the moment you
(15:50):
share with somebody in your small group, and you don't
have to share even with everybody.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
In your group.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Just get one person, say you will you be my partner.
Here's some stuff I want to change, things I want
to work on for good positive habits, get in shape
or whatever. Or here's some negative things I want to
stop doing, watching pornography or whatever. Okay, and remember I
said everybody's got different temptations, so nobody has a right
to judge anybody else. We're all shaped for different things.
(16:17):
But the moment you enlist somebody, the pressure starts dissipating,
the temptation starts weakening. And you know what else it
does when you are authentic, it is endearing.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
We love.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
We gravitate toward people who are authentic. We gravitate toward
people who are real. We don't want to hang around
phonies who pretend like everything's going right in their Life's
why we have testimonies in this church. We've had thirty
years of a parade of people saying, my life is
so messed up, and here's what's happening, and it's not
even completely fixed yet. But here's what I'm working on
(16:51):
and here's how God's helping me. Why do we do
that to model that this is a safe place. There
is no sin that me anymore. I've heard every one
of them. There's no sin in our church, that could
shock be it's all here in our church. Why because
we're human beings, following Christ.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Does not exempt you from temptation.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Now, what I'm telling you is on this earth, you're
never going to be sinless, but it is possible to
sin less. Okay, you're never going to be sinless, but
it is possible to sin less.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
And look at this first James five.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
My dear friends, if you know people who've wandered off
from God's truth, don't write them off, go after him,
get them back, and you will have rescued precious lives.
Let me ask you, do you know somebody in your
life who's struggling right now who needs your help and
you need to go after them. You don't need to say, well,
(17:53):
that's none of my business. It is your businesses if
you love them, it's your business to go after him
and to bring them back and help them out and
be their partner and love them unconditionally and listen to
their confession and encourage them and help them grow. That's
bower heads. Why don't you pray this prayer if you're
(18:19):
ready for a change. Dear God, you know all the
habits and temptations in my life that.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Have tripped me up for years.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
And you know the tempting situations I'm facing right now.
And you even know the temptations that lay ahead of
me this week that I don't even know about yet.
So I'm asking for your help. I'm praying the prayer
of deliverance, and I'm willing to follow the path of
(18:48):
your principles of escape so I can change and be free.
Help me to clearly see the patterns in my life
that lead to temptation. Give me the strength to start
avoiding them, to plan to avoid them. Help me to
refocus my attention on other things when I'm tempted today,
(19:12):
I want to commit to getting in a small group
or starting a small group. Or I can be encouraged
and help others too and find a partner. Most important, Lord,
I need you to do some heart surgery on me,
remove the negative emotions that make me vulnerable and replace
(19:36):
them with your love and your forgiveness and your trust.
I ask you, Jesus Christ, and start changing me from
the inside out, beginning today, in your name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You know sometimes the most important role you can play
in the life of a child is teaching them to
trust God. Through prayer. Yeah, we believe it's the key
to living with hope. Jesus said this, we should always
pray and never give up. That's why it's so important
to strengthen the hope of children by introducing them to
(20:21):
Jesus's model for prayer at a very early age. So
now we're so excited to tell you about a very
special resource to help you do just that. It's called
The Lord's Prayer Words of Hope and Happiness. This book
brings the poetic scripture from the King James version alive
for readers young and old, and you'll find thoughtful insights
(20:44):
from New York Times bestselling author Pastor Rick Warren and
stunning illustrations by award winning artists Richard Jesse Watson. This
will become a meaningful bedtime ritual, a treasured memory, and
a lasting legacy. See that bears good fruit for generations
to come. Be sure to request your copy of the
(21:06):
book The Lord's Prayer Words of Hope and Happiness today.
When you give a gift to help take the life
transforming word of God to the world through daily hope,
this is our way of saying thanks so much for
your support of this ministry. Just go to Pastororick dot
com to get your copy of this great resource. That's
(21:26):
Pastororick dot com. Or you can just text the word
hope to seven oh three to oh nine. That's the
word hope to seven oh three oh nine. And thank
you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily
Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ with
people all over the world. Be sure to join us
next time as we look into God's word for our
(21:49):
daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily
Hope and your generous financial support.
Hey there, and welcome back to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Rick continues in his series called Connecting with God the
Lord's Prayer. In this series, Rick shows us what it
means to be truly spiritually connected to God and to
each other through the power of God's love and God's word. Okay,
here's Pastor Rick with the final part of a message
(00:26):
called the Prayer of Deliverance.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And then number five.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
This is a real key on the six steps on
the pathless Gape. I turn my attention elsewhere. I turn
my attention elsewhere. I change the direction of my thoughts.
I refocus on something else. I shift my attention. If
you're watching something on TV you don't like, you don't
(00:51):
sit there and go I'm not gonna listen. I'm not
gonna listen. I'm not gonna listen. I am not gonna listen. No,
you just poop flip the channel. That's all you need
to do. Temptation. Here's the little secret to temptation. Don't
fight it, just refocus. Don't write this down, don't resist. Refocus.
(01:16):
Whatever you have in your life that you resist, you're
just nailing it harder into your life. Whatever you resist persists.
I'm not gonna have another cigarette. I'm not gonna have
another cigarette. I'm not gonna have another I'm not gonna
take another drink. Whatever you resist, persist. The key is
(01:40):
not did you know that? In the Bible, not once
are you told to resist temptation. We are told to
resist the devil. And that's a whole different issue. That's
another sermon. But in temptation, the key to overcoming temptation
is not push back.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
The temptation has just change my focus, and.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
All of a sudden, I'm not interested in that anymore,
and I get a new focus. When I refocus, all
of a sudden, that which had my attention I forget about.
It's not that I'm resisting it, I just forget about it.
And that principle works in every single area of life.
Whatever gets your attention gets you. The battle for sin
(02:19):
always starts in the mind. That's why the Bible says
this up here on the screen, thinking about your commands
will keep me from doing some foolish thing. Why because
if I'm thinking about your commands, I'm thinking about truth.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I'm not thinking about the dumb stuff I could be doing.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
You ever looked over a Cliff bent up real a
line and looked over Cliff and felt like you were
being drawn to jump off, kind of like you're being
pulled off, not like a temptation, but just like felt
like there was this force that was pulling you.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It's because whatever you focus on pulls you.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It's true in every single area of life, good or bad.
You focus on good things in life, godly things in life,
true things in life, it's gonna pull you that direction.
You focus on the stuff that's at the movies, and
the stuff that's in the magazine, and the stuff that's
in all the Harlequin romance novels, that's gonna.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Pull you that direction.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Whatever you focus on gets your attention, and whatever gets
your attention is going to get you. I don't know
if you've realized this, but the more you think about something,
the more it upsets you, and it gets worse and
worse and worse, and it gets a stronger hold, and
you repeat it and repeat it and reinforce it and
reinforce it. And you know, the first time you think
(03:37):
about that really upset me. The more you think, man,
that really did upset me. The more you think about, man,
I am kicked off, then you know, and then you're
ready to drop an atomic bomb on that person. By
the time you've thought it over and over, you know what,
it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So whatever
is tempting you, whoether it sex or food or or
(04:00):
anything else, whatever you focus on is going to pull
you that direction. And so the key is to just
change your mind. You see, temptation always follows a predictable pattern.
Attention arousal action. Attention arousal action. That's the way every
(04:23):
single temptation works. Attention hmm, what was that?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Paul and lean and long and lanky. Do know something?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Your mind gets hooked arousal, your mind kicks in emotions action,
you act on it.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
That's what the Book of James says, chapter one.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So you don't fight a temptation, you just churn your
mind to something else.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Look at this verse.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
We capture every thought and make it obey Christ. We
capture every thought. Now, friends, what that verse says to do.
That's a secret to temptation. You're not good at that.
You're not very good at that, capturing every thought and
turning it to Christ. Because that takes practice. That takes practice.
(05:18):
You can't always control your circumstances. And by the way,
you can't always control the way you feel, but you
can control what you think about.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
That's always your choice.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
You can't always control the way you feel, but you
can control what you think. And if you change the
way you think, it changes the way you feel, and
that will change the way you act. When Jesus was
resisting temptation in the Bible and Satan said, turn these
stones for bread, he didn say, oh no, I'm not hungry.
He was hungry, fasted for forty days. He just turned
(05:50):
his mind to something else. Quoted the Bible, would you
write this down? The more I fight it, the more
it controls me. The more I fight it, the more
it controls me. So the answer is, I'm not telling
you to go out of here and fight temptation. You
can't fight a feeling. But let me tell you how
(06:13):
you ignore a very powerful feeling. I just told it
to you. You ignore it. That's it. You don't fight
a feeling, can't fight this feeling anymore. What you go
gotta do is you just ignore it. You refocus on
(06:34):
something else, and the feeling loses its attraction because of
your attraction and attention on something else. Look at the
next verse Romans twelve twenty one. Don't let evil conquer you,
but overcome or conquer evil with good. Now, what is
this right underneath that? The principle of replacement. That's what
(06:55):
this is. It's the principle of replacement. Fill your mind
with truth, good thoughts, good things, and it pushes out
all the junk in your mind.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Now, learning this kind.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Of stuff that I'm talking about is this pattern of
thinking is not easy, but it is possible, and you
can learn how to do it. So here are the steps.
First five, identify what makes me vulnerable. I know why
I get tempted. Then I plan to avoid those places.
Just stay away from those things. Don't watch that channel.
(07:28):
Have somebody put a block on your on your computer,
your your wife, or on your on your television or whatever.
Guard your heart. Know when you're when you're emotionally low,
Pray for God's help. Ask God to give you deliverance.
Pray the prayer of deliverance. Turn my attention elsewhere. And
(07:51):
then here's number six, and this is the number one thing.
Get a group and a partner, the friends I've been
helping people through temptation. For over thirty years, and nothing
works like this. That's why I keep talking about you
need to have an accountability partner. You need to have
a spiritual partner. You need to have a spiritual friend.
(08:12):
You need to be in a small group. So I
told you when we started. The reality is willpower is
not enough for permanent change. You've got to get a
group and you've got to get a partner. Now, look
up here on the screen. The Bible says this. I
love this in the message paraphrase. Sheer, muscle and willpower
don't make anything happen. But every word I've spoken to
(08:37):
you Jesus is a spirit word. So it is life making,
it's life changing. Change has to come inside. Here's my
question to you, is your pastor somebody who loves you,
how serious are you about breaking free that thing that
(08:57):
just you keep going back to it, and you keep
going back to it in that habit, that pattern of thought,
that pattern of I always get angry in that situation,
I always get impatient in that situation. I always tend
to build myself up in that situation. I always get whatever,
How seriously are you interested in changing and breaking free?
(09:18):
Because if you are, let me be very blunt with you.
You will never do it without support. You will never
do it on your own. I don't give you any
hope of success in changing by yourself.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Zero.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Because God has wired us in a way that we
need each other to grow. We need each other to
break free of habits and hang ups and hurts. And
you need accountability in your life. The very thing that
you want least is the very thing you need most.
You need a friend who checks up on you, and
(09:57):
you need a group that supports you. The Bible says this,
the Ecclesiastes four, two are better than one because together,
if one falls down, the other can help him up.
But if somebody is alone and he falls into temptation,
there's no one there to help him up.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It just doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I can't tell you how many times I started a
program of exercise and quit and started another one and quit,
and started another one and quit and starting another one
and quit.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Can I give an.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Excuse here, an excuse there, an excuse there, and all
of that. And so this year, when we started it
just said, I know this principle. You've got to have
a group, and you've got to have a friend. And
so I asked a friend in this church named Tom,
and I said, Tom, he's a member of the church.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Said will you be my partner? Will you help me?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
I said, I want to set five days a week
to work out, so I'll hit four of them. Because
nothing goes as planned in my life or yours. So
I'm setting five days a week. So I hit four
and I've been consistent for two months now. Is that
because of me? No, it's because of Tom. Okay, you
(11:20):
need a Tom in your life, or a Terry or
Tony or something. You need somebody in your life to
help you on the three biggest habits in your life
that you want to change. You're not going to change
them on your own, So just quit kidding yourself. If
you could, you would, but you can't, sol you won't,
and you're never going to change without a group giving
(11:46):
you support and without a person giving you accountability. They
were talking about this Thursday night in my small group,
and we were talking about temptation. One of the people
in our small group said, you know, the temptation I
really struggle with most is the temptation to make myself
look good all the time. Would you ever have enough
(12:11):
authenticity to say that in your small group, would you
would you ever own up to the fact that ninety
nine percent of the time you're all about trying to
make yourself look good? Would you ever own up to that?
You see, You're never gonna be free until you own up.
(12:34):
If there's just one thing I could do as your pastor,
it would be to get you in a group and
get you with a person that you could be totally
honest with on the things that you think I don't
want to tell anybody about, because you're never gonna break
free until you share them. And if we were more
(12:56):
consistent in confessing our temptation to each other, then we
wouldn't have to spend so much time confessing our sins
to each other. I'd rather have you confess in temptations
in having to confess sins, wouldn't you. Yeah, so what's
the big deal? Well, I've never been tempted, Liar, everybody's tempted.
(13:24):
It is a myth that says you're going to get
to a point in your spiritual life you're not tempted.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
No.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
In fact, let me tell you this, the more mature
you become, the more Satan's gonna put you on as
most wanted to list. You're going to get worse temptations
as you grow. It doesn't just go away. It gets
worse different kinds, but they're there. And if we are
(13:49):
more consistent confessing our temptations, if men would confess their
temptations to other men, they wouldn't have to confess their sins.
If women would confess their temptations to other women, they
wouldn't have to confess their sins.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The Bible says this, brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
If someone in your group, we're talking about small groups
right now, if somebody in your group does something wrong,
you who are spiritual, That means you who haven't done
that week, because next week it'll be you. Okay, you
are spiritual, should go to that person gently, help them
make it right again. Who'll be careful because you can
(14:30):
be tempted by sin too, But by helping each other
with your troubles, you obey the law of Christ. What's
the law of Christ? Love your neighbor as yourself. How
do we love our neighbors as ourselves? The Bible says,
right there by helping each other through temptation.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's how you love your neighbor by.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Helping them through temptation by helping them be consistent in
the things they want to be consistent in, to help
them break bad habits and help them start good habits.
That's the best way you can love your neighbor and
obey the law of Christ.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
God wired us to need each other.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
And when we do this, when you're authentic and you
start admitting your temptation other people, it's liberating. The moment
you admit your temptation, you start moving to freedom that second,
because if I can't talk about it, it's already out
of control in my life. If you can't talk about it,
it's out Whatever you can't talk about is out of
(15:29):
control in your life. Otherwise you're just in denial. It's
out of control. And when you talk about a problem,
it helps you gain control. And holding on to a
hang up only intensifies that. It makes it worse and
you and wearing a mask makes you miserable, and pretending
makes it worse. It's liberating, it's empowering the moment you
(15:50):
share with somebody in your small group, and you don't
have to share even with everybody.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
In your group.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Just get one person, say you will you be my partner.
Here's some stuff I want to change, things I want
to work on for good positive habits, get in shape
or whatever. Or here's some negative things I want to
stop doing, watching pornography or whatever. Okay, and remember I
said everybody's got different temptations, so nobody has a right
to judge anybody else. We're all shaped for different things.
(16:17):
But the moment you enlist somebody, the pressure starts dissipating,
the temptation starts weakening. And you know what else it
does when you are authentic, it is endearing.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
We love.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
We gravitate toward people who are authentic. We gravitate toward
people who are real. We don't want to hang around
phonies who pretend like everything's going right in their Life's
why we have testimonies in this church. We've had thirty
years of a parade of people saying, my life is
so messed up, and here's what's happening, and it's not
even completely fixed yet. But here's what I'm working on
(16:51):
and here's how God's helping me. Why do we do
that to model that this is a safe place. There
is no sin that me anymore. I've heard every one
of them. There's no sin in our church, that could
shock be it's all here in our church. Why because
we're human beings, following Christ.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Does not exempt you from temptation.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Now, what I'm telling you is on this earth, you're
never going to be sinless, but it is possible to
sin less. Okay, you're never going to be sinless, but
it is possible to sin less.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
And look at this first James five.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
My dear friends, if you know people who've wandered off
from God's truth, don't write them off, go after him,
get them back, and you will have rescued precious lives.
Let me ask you, do you know somebody in your
life who's struggling right now who needs your help and
you need to go after them. You don't need to say, well,
(17:53):
that's none of my business. It is your businesses if
you love them, it's your business to go after him
and to bring them back and help them out and
be their partner and love them unconditionally and listen to
their confession and encourage them and help them grow. That's
bower heads. Why don't you pray this prayer if you're
(18:19):
ready for a change. Dear God, you know all the
habits and temptations in my life that.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Have tripped me up for years.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
And you know the tempting situations I'm facing right now.
And you even know the temptations that lay ahead of
me this week that I don't even know about yet.
So I'm asking for your help. I'm praying the prayer
of deliverance, and I'm willing to follow the path of
(18:48):
your principles of escape so I can change and be free.
Help me to clearly see the patterns in my life
that lead to temptation. Give me the strength to start
avoiding them, to plan to avoid them. Help me to
refocus my attention on other things when I'm tempted today,
(19:12):
I want to commit to getting in a small group
or starting a small group. Or I can be encouraged
and help others too and find a partner. Most important, Lord,
I need you to do some heart surgery on me,
remove the negative emotions that make me vulnerable and replace
(19:36):
them with your love and your forgiveness and your trust.
I ask you, Jesus Christ, and start changing me from
the inside out, beginning today, in your name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You know sometimes the most important role you can play
in the life of a child is teaching them to
trust God. Through prayer. Yeah, we believe it's the key
to living with hope. Jesus said this, we should always
pray and never give up. That's why it's so important
to strengthen the hope of children by introducing them to
(20:21):
Jesus's model for prayer at a very early age. So
now we're so excited to tell you about a very
special resource to help you do just that. It's called
The Lord's Prayer Words of Hope and Happiness. This book
brings the poetic scripture from the King James version alive
for readers young and old, and you'll find thoughtful insights
(20:44):
from New York Times bestselling author Pastor Rick Warren and
stunning illustrations by award winning artists Richard Jesse Watson. This
will become a meaningful bedtime ritual, a treasured memory, and
a lasting legacy. See that bears good fruit for generations
to come. Be sure to request your copy of the
(21:06):
book The Lord's Prayer Words of Hope and Happiness today.
When you give a gift to help take the life
transforming word of God to the world through daily hope,
this is our way of saying thanks so much for
your support of this ministry. Just go to Pastororick dot
com to get your copy of this great resource. That's
(21:26):
Pastororick dot com. Or you can just text the word
hope to seven oh three to oh nine. That's the
word hope to seven oh three oh nine. And thank
you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily
Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ with
people all over the world. Be sure to join us
next time as we look into God's word for our
(21:49):
daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily
Hope and your generous financial support.
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