Daily Hope - Rick Warren

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, friends, thanks so much for joining us today on
Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor
Rick Warren. We're so glad to have you with us.
And today, Rick continues in his series called Transformed. Together,
We'll dive into God's word and discover powerful principles that
can truly change our lives from the inside out spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, financially,

(00:31):
and vocationally. You'll experience how God's truth brings real transformation
to every part of your life. Okay, and now here's
the final part of a message called how to Get
Closer to God.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Now, when I own up and I say God, I've
owned it. I've been going my way. I've been I've
been doing your way. I've been going my way. I've
been doing what I want to do. When I do that,
What is God's response to my facing up to my sin?
He goes, yeah, yeah, and let me tell you what
else you're doing wrong. No, he doesn't rub it in.

(01:08):
When I come and I say God, I've really you know,
you know what I've done. I'm really sorry. What does
he do? Well, look at the next verse. Here's the
prayer you should pray Psalm fifty one. By the way,
David prayed this prayer after he'd committed adultery and killed
the wife's husband. So this is a pretty serious sin here, Pal,

(01:28):
I'm fifty one to one to four. David says, this
be merciful to me, Oh God, because of your constant love,
because of your great mercy, wipe away my sin, Wash
away all my evil and make me clean. I recognize

(01:50):
my faults, and I'm conscious that I have sinned against you.
What's your circle of phrase? Recognize my faults means to
own up. I face up to my sins. I own
up to my sins. He says. I recognize my fault.
And what is God's response when I own up? When

(02:11):
I face up? Look at the next verse, the Lord says,
no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I
can remove it. I can make you clean as freshly
driven snow. Not a beautiful verse. He says, no matter
what you've done, no matter who you've done it with,

(02:31):
I can remove it. This is the uh, this is
the oxy clean versus the Bible. Okay, he said, Man,
I can take it out. You know that staining thing.
Man I'm never gonna forget that one bad and that
was so bad, and it's gonna haunt me the rest
of my life. God says, I can remove that stain.

(02:53):
This is the stain Remover verse in the Bible. Now,
this next week, you're going to study seven habits for
spiritual growth. But I want to give you two more today. Okay,
I'm going to give you two more. You're going to
study seven habits for spiritual health and spiritual growth, but

(03:14):
let me give you two more. And the first one
goes with this point, and it's this is you want
to develop the habit of a regular spiritual checkup. Now,
doctors will tell you that every so often you need
to go and get a checkup, and you need to
have your heart checked every so often, and you had
need to have your colon checked every so often. That's

(03:35):
a fun one. Anybody want to give a testimony on
that right now? Okay, anybody have personal story from this week? Yeah, okay,
But you have to get regular checkups quiet because if
something's growing wrong in your body, you want to know
sooner or not later. Right And the same is true

(03:57):
with your life. Is the sin starts growing in you,
it can become a cancer. It's better to nip it
in the bud, like Barney Fife would say, before it
gets really big. You gotta do this spiritual checkup on
a regular basis. And where do you do it. You

(04:17):
do it in your thought life. It's a checkup from
the neck up, and you got to think about your thoughts.
I have a spiritual checklist that I use to evaluate
myself and I've used it for now almost forty years.
The Bible says that you can test yourself, and here

(04:40):
are five areas that you can test yourself. Worship and
fellowship and discipleship. These are the purposes of God for
a life, ministry and evangelism. You know how we're talking
about setting a spiritual goal each week, Well, here's your
goal for this week that you're going to do a
checkup today or this and you're going to do it

(05:01):
at least every six months. That would be a good goal.
And you can write down what do I need to do,
and how am I going to get a partner to
help me with it? And then what progress have I
made on it. That's a good spiritual habit that you
need to do. The habit of owning up the habit
of checking your life. Just like you need a physical

(05:22):
checkup regularly, you need a spiritual checkup regularly. Here's the
memory verse for this week two Corinthians five seventeen. Let's
read it aloud together. Anyone who belongs to Christ has
become a new person. The old life is gone, a
new life has begun. Now that's a positional statement. What
that means is God says you are a new person.

(05:44):
Doesn't mean you don't have to stay the same anymore.
You don't have to listen to those old impulses. You
now have a new power in your life to make
it through. You have a new power, the Holy Spirit
in you, a new ability. You have a new community
the Church, a new identity, and you have a new destiny.
Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

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The old life is gone and new has become second
Cristians five seventeen. That's the verse we're going to work
on this week. Now, this habit of a regular spiritual checkup.
Look here on your outline. Here's a couple verses. The
Bible says this, test yourselves and make sure you're solid
in the faith. Don't drift along, taking everything for granted,

(06:28):
give yourself regular checkups, and if you fail the test,
do something about it. I love that message paraphrase, and
that's what we're talking about here. In owning up, the
Bible says that before you take the Lord's supper that
you should do a spiritual checkup every time. That this
is a time to pause and not to just get

(06:49):
fed up, but to own up and say, Okay, is
there anything in my life? Psalm one thirty nine, Search me,
oh God, and know my heart, Try me and know
my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. Have you a
good verse to memory someone thirty nine, twenty three and
twenty four. It's a it's a search light verse. God
says this verse in the First Corinthians eleven. A man

(07:13):
ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread
and drinks of the cup. So, in other words, we
need to do this second thing. I get fed up,
and then I do an own up. I get a
face up to what I need to do. Okay, Now
here's the third step to get in back to God,
to getting back in his love and his grace. Not

(07:37):
that he doesn't love you. He always loves you, no
matter where you are. But to feeling that love. Here's
a third thing. I get fed up. I own up
number three. I offer up. I offer up my life,
I offer up myself. I offer up my total being.
And this is a third thing that we find this

(07:59):
young man did. He got fed up. He came to
his census. He owned up. He says, I've sinned against God,
and then he offered up. Now. Notice in Luke chapter fifteen,
verse twelve, the son drifted away saying, give me my share.
And in Luke fifteen nineteen, when he comes back, he
returned to the father saying, make me a servant. Do

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you notice any change in attitude there? Hello, He leaves
saying give me, give me, give me, give me, give me,
give me. He comes back saying, make me. That is transformation.
That is true transformation. When your heart moves from self

(08:42):
centeredness to God's sinneredness, that's transformation. Are you there yet?
Are you still in the gimme, gimme, gim me, give me, gimme.
What can God do for me? Give me my stuff
now to make me your servant. That's the transformation. He returned, saying,
make me that's a heart transformation, and that is the

(09:04):
greatest transformation. Well, from self centered to God's thereness. Are
you letting God do that in you? Now? That transformation,
it doesn't happen overnight. God is still working on me
on this one, and it's gonna be your entire life.
He's going to work on It's never instant, but there

(09:25):
is a decision that starts the process. Second, during these
three eighteen says this, we reflect the Lord's glory and
are being transformed. That means a continuing process. We are
being transformed, not just once, but on a ongoing basis.
It's a process. We're being transformed into His likeness now

(09:50):
with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord. Was
the spirit that word transformed? You know the Bible was
written the New Testament in Greek. You know what the
word there is in Greek? Metamorphous. Ou does that sound
like anything? You know? Metamorphosis? It's the word we get
met what's the metaphor of morphosis. It's when a butterfly

(10:13):
goes from a caterpillar to a pupa a chrysalis, and
from a pupa a chrysalis into a butterfly. That's metamorphosis.
It hadn't happened overnight. In fact, there's that stage where
it's sitting there in that chrysalis, it forms that little cocoon.
It's pretty ugly. Ever seen one of those things. Doesn't

(10:37):
look very beautiful to me, But when it breaks out,
that butterfly is stunning. I so badly want to be that,
and I want you to be that. I want you
to be transformed from the lowly caterpillar into the beautiful butterfly.

(11:02):
That is what transformation is all about. It is metamorphosis.
It is going from you know, when you're a caterpillar,
what can you do? Not much except munch on leaves
ba boom boo boom boo boom boo, boom boo boom boom,
and you're stuck on the ground. And I'm sure when
caterpillars have looked in the air, butterflies go. You never

(11:25):
get me up in one of those things. God made
you to be a butterfly. God made you to soar.
God made you to be beautiful, not ugly beautiful. But
you've got to go through the transformation process. And the

(11:45):
transformation process is number one. Get fed up with the
way you've been living and then own up. Get honest
to God. God, I admit I have been living for myself.
I've been doing it my way, and do that check
up and then offer up myself. Transformation is a process,

(12:08):
but the starting point is what the prodigal son said.
Make me. That's offer up, make me, transform me, Change me. God,
I don't want to live the rest of my life
the way I'm living right now, Change me. Romans twelve

(12:29):
to one. This is our theme verse, but let me
read you the verse before it. Because God is merciful
to you. Offer yourselves. Offer yourselves. That's it. I offer
up myself. That's step one. I get fed up. Okay,

(12:50):
I own up, and now I offer up. Offer yourselves
as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This
is your spiritual act of worship. And don't conformed to
the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. No transformation until you do the
offer up. And it's important to notice the father's response.

(13:11):
Luke fifteen twenty three. Filled with love and compassion, he
ran out to his son, threw his arms around him
and kissed him. He said, bring the best, bring the
best robe, bring the best bring, bring the best shoes,

(13:33):
bring the fatted calf. In all these things. The father's response.
Notice he didn't wait for the son to come home
while he was still distant. He ran out the moment
you just say, God, I'm tired of live in the
way I've been living.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
God, I'm tired.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
He will do more than halfway. He will run out
to meet you. God is not waiting for you to
come knock on the door. He's waiting for this moment
in your life where he runs out to you. He
takes an issue, He throws his arms around you, he
kisses you, and he says, Okay, look, I know you

(14:16):
blew it. Go get the best rope, get the best
clothes in the house. And then he says, go get
my signet ring. You know why, he says that, you
know what a signet ring is. In those days, the
signet ring was your credit card because you take the
ring and you press it into wax, and that was
like a credit card. He said, go get my unlimited

(14:39):
black American Express. And bringing out to my son who
just blew half of my income. God isn't holding the grudge.
He's ready to lavishly pour this on you. Bring out
the best, bring out the best shoes, do all these things.
God has a better plan for your life than you

(15:01):
can imagine. I've told this story before, but I'm gonna
tell it again because it just fits right here. When
I was a kid, my parents fed me strange spinach,
and I thought it tasted great. I now think it
tastes like turtle spit, But as a baby, that's all
I knew. So I thought strained spinach was pretty good

(15:22):
until I got a little older and my mother introduced
me to chef Boyard Spaghettios. Now we're talking forget strained spinach.
I've gone to the higher level. And I thought Spaghettio's
were pretty good as a great school kid, until one
day I discovered In and out Burger. Now I could

(15:49):
have gone my entire life eating strained spinach and not
known there was a better taste out there. If you
knew there was a better way to live than there
is right now, the way you've been living, wouldn't you
want to know about it? Yeah, that's what transformation is
all about. People said, well, I'm living the good life.

(16:14):
You're looking good, you're feeling good. You got the goods,
you know, there's only one problem with the good life.
It isn't good enough.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
You were made for more than the good life. You
were made for the better life.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Life. You cannot even imagine anymore than that caterpillar can
imagine what it's like to be a butterfly. You can't
even imagine it. You cannot even imagine it. It is
so much better. And there are people who live next

(16:55):
to you, and they got the car, and they got
the cash, and they got the and they're going, I'm
living it. I'm living the good life, and they're missing
the better life. How do I get back to God?
I get fed up, I own up, and I offer up.
And then there's one other thing I do. Once I

(17:18):
come home and I'm enwrapped in God's love and he
hugs me and he kisses me, and he says, bring
out the best. All is forgiven, All is forgiven. Go
get the credit card, Go get the rope, Go get
the shoes. Let's let's have a barbecue. Get that fatted calf,

(17:38):
and we're gonna have Lucille's barbecue tonight, okay, and we're
giving him the ribs, all right, and it's gonna be great.
It's gonna be finger licking good time. All right, here
we go, and in that celebration, you now come home,
not the condemnation. You come back to God in celebration.

(18:00):
Here's the fourth thing. I lift up my praise and
I just go, thank you God, thank you for your grace,
thank you for your love, thank you for your goodness.
I lift up my praise. Luke fifteen, here's what the
Father says. We're gonna celebrate. We're gonna celebrate with a

(18:24):
feast of eating and drinking. We're gonna celebrate with a
feast of eating and drinking. He was lost, but now
is found. So the party begins and life becomes a party.
When life comes to transformation, the Bible says in Psalm
sixty eighty four, sing to God, sing praises to his name.

(18:46):
Lift up. There's that word, lift up my praises, lift
up a song to him. His name is the Lord.
Now let me just tell you something for your own transformation.
You need to start singing at church. Some of you
just I'm just coming to hear rick. You know that.

(19:09):
That's all nice, But you know I I you know
I couldn't carry a tune in a baggy, And you
know many of you are prison singers. You're always behind
a few bars and never have the right key. I've
heard some of you. Okay, you have a voice that
could be cultivated, plowed under. But the Bible doesn't say

(19:32):
it could be pretty in your singing. It says make
a joyful noise. You can do that. Anybody can make
a joyful noise. You don't have to be on key.
You just have to make a joyful noise. For your
own transformation, you need to sing. I had a psychologist
friend who anytime somebody came to see him for depression.

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They His first question was did you sing all of
the songs at church last week? And if they said no,
he said, then I want you to go and I
want you to sing all the songs at church for
the next three weeks and come back and see me.
I never really understood why he was doing that until
this week a global study came out done by Swedish

(20:19):
researchers and that they've done this scientific study. It concluded
that the habit of group singing, not singing by yourself.
The habit of group singing is good for your health.
It is great therapy to sing with other people. It's
good for mental health. They prove it's good for emotional health,

(20:39):
it's good for your social health, and it's good for
your physical health in all different areas. And extensive study
and they discovered that singing with other people lowers your
blood pressure, releases endorphins which makes you feel good, improves
your mood, build your confidence, leive's loneliness, releases negative emotions

(21:03):
and stress, and creates positive study emotions. Another study showed
that people who sing and worship each week live longer.
I want you to live longer now. It referred to
this book. So I went out and bought this book
this week. It's called Imperfect Harmony, Finding Happiness in Singing

(21:26):
with Others. It's fascinating study that these guys have done
on this. So we're going to do something good for
your health right now. You're going to live a little
bit longer. I told you I was going to give
you two new habits. One of them is the habit
of a regular checkup. And here's the other habit. I
want you to intentionally start singing all the songs, even

(21:49):
the ones you don't know, even the ones you don't like,
even the ones you think are too loud, even the
ones it's not your style. I want you to sing
them because it will lower your blood pressure, released in doorphins,
improved mood, bill confidence, relieve loneliness, reneath legan emotion of stress,
and create posmotion. That's called transformation. Now the Father celebrated.

(22:10):
He had a celebration, not a condemnation, a celebration. When
the sun came back home. I'm fed up and I'm
owning up, and I'm going to offer up and now
I lift up my praise and we're going to party,
and we're going to celebrate, and we're going to sing.
One Corinthians eleven twenty four says this, On the night

(22:34):
he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread and he
he he spoke a prayer of thanksgiving, and he broke
the bread, and he said, this is my body which
is given for you. Do this to remember me. He said,
I never want you to forget how much I love you.

(22:54):
So I'm going to give you two symbols to remember
my death, my burial, and my resurrect And those two
symbols are baptism and the Lord's supper. If you haven't
been baptized, you should be baptized. It's one of the
ways of saying I have come home. I'm getting close
to God, I'm coming home, And baptism is one and

(23:16):
the Lord's Supper is the other. Now it says he
prayed a prayer of thanksgiving before he served communion. The
word thanksgiving in Greek is the word EUCHARISTO you ever
heard the word eucharist, The Lord's supper communion is often

(23:37):
called Eucharist. Where is that word from? It's from. Eucharist
is simply the Greek word for thanksgiving. And when we
take the Lord's Supper, when we take the Eucharist, when
we take communion, we are saying thank you God, Thank
you God for not coming and condemn me when I

(24:00):
come home, but having a celebration when I come home.
Thank you for your grace, thank you for your mercy,
thank you for what you've done, thank you for all
the things that you've done. I receive it with thanks you, Cristo.
I am so grateful God for your grace. I am
so grateful for your love. I am so grateful that

(24:23):
you don't scold me, you save me, that you don't
scare me, You save me. And I am so grateful
as I take these elements to remember what you have
done for me. And just as they had the fatted calf,
we take communion together to say, Lord, thank you. We

(24:43):
receive this with thanksgiving. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father.
When we think of your grace, we are overwhelmed. It
makes our hearts want to sing. There's no way that

(25:04):
we deserve this kind of reaction, this kind of celebration,
this kind of welcoming when we come home. But we
come to you, and first we say we're fed up.
We're fed up with the way we've been living. We're
fed up of life without Christ. We're fed up with

(25:25):
doing it all on our own power. We're just fed
up with all of that. And we own up. We
realize that you haven't moved, but we have. And the
reason we're not close is because we've allowed other things
to cloud our vision of you. We have allowed idols
in our lives. We have loved other things more than you,

(25:49):
and that has made you feel distant. But we come
back and we we own up to our sin, and
then we offer up ourselves. We're not saying give me,
give me, give me anymore. We're saying, make me make me,
make me Lord, transform our lives during these fifty days.

(26:11):
If you've never accepted jesus gift of salvation, say Jesus
Christ right now, I accept your gift of salvation. Thank
you for loving me and dying for me on the cross.
I give myself back to you. I offer up myself
to you. Make me your servant, and I ask you

(26:35):
to transform my life in your name. I pray Jesus. Amen.
You know if you just prayed that prayer for the
very first time, or you just recommitted your life to
Jesus again today, would you let me know about it.

(26:57):
There's something real about sharing your commitment. So write me
Rick at Pastorrick dot com and say, Rick, I prayed
that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ.
And I'll send you some material that'll help you on
your journey with Jesus. And I'll also pray for you.
God bless you. Hey.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
Have you noticed how the world's answers to life's biggest challenges,
your relationships, finances, and even your purpose always seem to
change or leave you searching for more. Well, here's the
good news. God's word offers timeless truths that can truly
transform every area of your life from the inside out.

(27:39):
And that's why Pastor Rick created the Transformed Bible Study,
a life changing resource designed to help you renew your
mind and discover God's principles for lasting transformation. Now, in
this seventh session video and workbook study, Rick's going to
guide you through all the key areas of life spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial,

(28:04):
and vocational, equipping you with practical steps to experience real
lasting change with weekly lessons, daily devotions, and exercises that
will help you dive deeper into God's word. This study
is perfect for personal growth or sharing with your small group.
Request the Transformed Study Kit today when you give a

(28:27):
gift to Daily Hope and join us in bringing the
hope of Jesus to people around the world. Your transformation
starts here. Just go to Pastorick dot com to get
your copy of this great resource. That's Pastororick dot com.
Or you can just text the word hope to seven
oh three oh nine. Again, that's the word hope to

(28:49):
seven oh three oh nine. And thank you so much
for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope helps us
share the hope of Christ with people everywhere.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
We hope you'll.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Join us next time as we continue to look into
God's Word for our daily hope. And this program is
sponsored by Pastorick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.