February 22, 2025 • 57 mins
Today's episode of Sunday Service by Pray.com features Rick Warren.
Pastor Rick Warren shares biblical strategies for navigating stressful times and trusting God through life's inevitable changes. Learn how to embrace faith over fear, find stability in God's unchanging promises, and develop a deeper resilience through life's trials.
Sunday Service is a weekly podcast featuring some of the nation’s most renowned faith leaders. Every Sunday, tune in for inspiration, encouragement, and Bible-based teachings.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let us pray, and the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus Philippians four seven. My Father and my God help
me to turn my worries into prayers so that my
mind can be at peace. To day, I worry about
(00:21):
everything from financial matters to what I'll cook for dinner
or when I can get some time for myself. Father,
ease my mind from anxious thoughts so that I can
appreciate the present moment. My worries hinder me from loving, fully,
expressing genuinely, and living up to my full potential. Father,
(00:43):
guard my heart and my mind when these unfavorable thoughts
flood my mind. Amen, thank you for listening to to
day's daily prayer for more inspiration and an incredible message
from our feature pastor Stay tuned to Pray Sunday Service.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Welcome. Thanks for joining Pastor Rick Warren to hear Pastor
Rick's free daily Bible teaching program, download free sermon notes,
or sign up for his free daily devotional visit pastorig
dot com. Now let's join Pastor Rick as your pastor.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
I am deeply concerned about how you're handling the trauma
and the stress of all of the changes that have
taken place in your life in the past eighteen months now.
Certainly the global pandemic of COVID changed everything, and we're
still not out of the woods. We're still not free
(01:51):
from it yet. But there's a lot of other changes
going on in the world at the same time. And
that's why I started this short series a couple of
weeks ago that I'm calling strategies for Stressful Times, Strategies
for stressful Times, and we're looking at tips and strategies
and skills from the scripture on how do you handle
(02:13):
when things aren't good? The first message you remember a
couple weeks ago, I did a message called finding the
strength to keep going when you're emotionally worn out? Anybody
ever felt that way? Emotionally worn out? Yeah? And then
last week we looked at how do you be happy
no matter what happens? And we talked about how happiness
(02:34):
is a choice. It doesn't depend on happenings. You're as
happy as you choose to be. If you're unhappy, you
can't blame your why for your husband or anybody else.
You're as happy as you choose to be. I know
people in much worse situations than us that have chosen
to be happy. This week, in part three of the
Strategies for Stressful Times, I want us to look at
(02:54):
how do you trust God during changes you don't like?
How do you trust God for changes you don't like
during those changes? Now, we all know that everything constantly changes.
Everything is constantly changing. In fact, even material objects are
actually changing at the molecular level constantly. There are protons
(03:19):
and neutrons and electrons that are zipping around in these
metal bars. They look like they're solid, they're moving at
a molecular level. Now, while we love some changes, and
we all do, we love some changes, but there are
some changes we just hate. And there are seasons like
(03:39):
the one we're in right now, where change is so
rapid and so relentless that you just get tired of it.
And right now we have been hit with so many
unwanted changes that as I talk to people, they're reeling
from it, literally reeling. And so many people, maybe you
(04:02):
feel this way, just feel like they're in limbo right now,
they're just treading water because you're unable to get on
with your life, unable to get out of what's going on,
and it feels like we're we can't really get on
going because we don't know how long this thing's going
to last. And a lot of people are just overwhelmed
and they're just barely getting by. I care about you
if you feel that way, And so today, as I've
(04:26):
studied God's word all this week, I want to give
you some very practical guidance from God's word on how
do you trust God when you're going through changes in
your life that you don't like. You'll have plenty of
those in life. And what I want to do is
I want to give you I want to summarize what
(04:47):
Scripture says five things, five truths you need to remember
and five things you need to do. Okay, so if
you get out your message notes, we'll look at these
five things you need to remember when you're going through
changes you don't like, and how do you keep trusting
God in those situations. So anytime you're overwhelmed by change,
(05:09):
there are five things you need to remember, So write
these down. Number one. This one's kind of obvious, but
we need to start with it. Change is unavoidable. Okay,
that's the first thing. We all know that, but we
just need to be reminded that change is unavoidable. No
matter how much you like a change, or how much
you dislike a change, no matter how much you like
(05:29):
the way things have been, they're not gonna stay the same. Now.
When change happens and it's constant, you can complain, or
you can grumble, or you can get mad, or you
can blame other people. You can even try to stop
the change futilely because you can't stop change. But things
are still gonna keep changing every moment of your life.
(05:54):
You are changing for good or for bad. Now. When
God created the earth way back in the beginning, here's
one of the first things he said in Genesis eight,
verse twenty two. As long as the Earth remains, there
will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer,
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day and night. What's he saying. He's saying that everything
on this planet is seasonal. Nothing stays the same. We
live in a world of opposites, and the world isn't
the same the way it used to be. Your family
isn't the same the way it used to be. Your
job isn't the same it used to be. You aren't
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the same that you used to be. As I said,
even inanimate audience objects like this table. It looks solid,
but actually at a molecular level, it's moving constantly on
the inside. Many of you know that I drove the
same green Ford truck for twenty years. I liked it, Okay,
(07:01):
I didn't. I don't buy a car for bling or
to show my status. It got me the same way
of rolls Royce would, and it was comfortable, and frankly,
I would have driven that twenty year old truck for
the rest of the life. But after a quarter of
a million miles it started changing, and it started breaking down,
(07:23):
and it started falling apart, and I couldn't stand to
give it away. So actually it's parked in my barn,
even though I don't drive it anymore. Now, I've taught
this for decades. Look there in your outline. I've taught
you that there is no growth without change. There is
no growth without change, There is no change without loss.
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There is no loss without grief, and there is no
grief without pain. A person who wants to grow and
be better but not go through the pain of change
is like a woman saying I want to have a baby,
but I don't want my Tommy to get and I
don't want to go through labor. It ain't going to happen.
They don't call it labor for nothing. Any of you
(08:06):
ladies want to testify to that right now, every to
bring new life into the world requires pain. Things change.
But remember this, if nothing ever changed, you would have
never been born. Because you were a change. You wouldn't
(08:26):
have even been born. So change is unavoidable. Okay, we
got that one down. Here's number two. This is more important.
Change is not always good, but God uses it for good.
Change is not always good, but God uses it for
good in the lives of those who trust him. It's
not good for everybody, but it is good in the
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lives of those who trust him. One of the greatest
promises of the Bible, Romans eight twenty eight. We know not.
We're confident that in all things God works for the
good of those who love Him, who have been called
according to His purpose. Now, as I've said many times,
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that verse does not say everything is good. There's not
a lot of things in the world that are not good.
Evil is not good, cancer is not good, rape, molestation
is not good, war, prejudice is not good. A lot
of bad things in the world. But the Bible says
God specializes in bringing good even out of bad. He
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can turn crucifixions into a resurrection. And the way God
works all things together for good is kind of like
baking a cake. Now you may not realize this, but
I'm a master cake builder. I know how to bake
cakes because I figured if I want to eat them,
I don't know how to make them. I once made
(09:55):
of German chocolate cake from scratch, no box, for my wife,
so I know how to make cakes. Now, when you
make a cake, the individual ingredients don't taste good at all.
In fact, some of them are quite bitter. If you
eat flour by itself doesn't taste good. You eat butter
(10:17):
by itself doesn't taste good. If you eat baking powder
by itself, oil by itself doesn't taste good. Even a
little vanilla raw eggs by themselves. None of the ingredients
in a cake taste good by themselves. But if you
mix them all together, stir it all up, and stir
(10:38):
and stir and stir, and then put the heat on it,
it's delicious, delicious. In your life, there will be elements
of your life that are bitter and unpleasant. Anyhoy that
doesn't taste good. I don't like that change in my life.
I don't like what just happened. I don't like what's
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happening in the world today. But God takes it all,
and he takes even the bad and the bitter. Have
you ever drunk some vanilla by itself is not very tasty?
And He mixes it all up. All things work together
for the good of those who love God, who are
called according to His purpose. Now, the most important word
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in that verse that we just looked at on your outline,
Romans eight twenty eight is the word all, So circle
the word all. What does all include? In all things?
God works for the good of those who love it.
That means all. It literally means all. It means every
(11:43):
circumstance you face, every choice you make, every consequence you feel,
and every change you experience, including all of the changes
we've just had in the last eighteen months, all work
together for the good of those who love God. You know,
some people act as if God was caught off guard
(12:03):
by COVID nineteen, like God goes Wow, I didn't see
that coming. I didn't imagine that world global pandemic ever
happening and I had no idea what was going to
do to all my churches? Man, am I in a mess?
God is not sweating this pandemic. The church has outlasted
(12:24):
everything for a two thousand years. Every dictator, every pandemic,
every fire, every flood, every revolution, every critic is still
here and none of those things are now. The difference
between whether you're going to be bitter at the end
of this season we're in a rapid change and relentless change.
(12:48):
Are you going to be bitter? Are you going to
be better? The difference is the letter I the DearS
being bitter, and better is I. I make the difference
my attitude. So I need to remember that change is
not always good, but God always uses it for good
if I trust him. Number three, here's the third thing
(13:09):
to remember. God's purpose in every circumstance, every one of them,
including the ones we're going through right now, is to
make me more like Jesus. God's purpose in every change
in my life is to make me more like Jesus. Now.
The promise of Romans eight twenty eight is a wonderful promise,
(13:31):
but it doesn't really make sense until you read the
next verse. Romans eight twenty nine. So let me read
you those two verses together from the New Living Translation.
Here's what it says. We know, in other words, we're
not guessing. We know that God causes everything, even the
bad stuff, even the bad changes. God causes everything to
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work together for the good of everybody, know for the
good of those who love Him and are called to
His purpose for them. For God knew in advance who
would come to him. He already knew before you decided
to accept Christ, that you were going to accept him.
He knew in advance who would come to him, and
(14:17):
he chose them to circle this become like his son,
so that his son Jesus would be the firstborn in
his family with many brothers and sisters. God doesn't just
want you in his family. He wants you develop the
family characteristics of a daughter of God or a son
of God, a child of God like father, like son,
(14:41):
like father, like daughter. God says, I want you to
grow up, and who's the model for maturity, Not you
or me Jesus Christ. And God says, my number one
goal in your life is to make you like Jesus Christ.
His number one goal is not to make you happy.
His number one goal is not to make you comfortable.
(15:03):
His number one goal is to not make your life pleasant.
Those things are the result of becoming like Christ. This
is not heaven. In heaven, there's no sorrow, suffering, sadness, sickness.
But on earth everything's broken. And so what are we
doing here? This is a school in character for the
(15:25):
sixty or eighty or ninety or at the most one
hundred years you get on this planet. You're in school
for character. You're not taking your career to heaven. You're
not taking your cash to heaven. You're not taking your
reputation to heaven. What are you taking to heaven? Only
one thing? Your character? What you became, the man you
became on this earth, You're taking that to heaven. The
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woman you became on this earth, you're taking that to heaven.
So his number one goal, God uses everything for our good.
And what is that good? He uses it to build
my character. He uses it to make me more like Jesus.
So what is Jesus like? The best picture of Jesus
in the Bible is Galatians chapter two, verses twenty three
and twenty four, twenty two and twenty three. They're called
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the fruit of the spirit. Nine character qualities. The fruit
of the spirit are love, Jesus's love, joy, Jesus's total joy, peace,
Jesus was always at peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meetness, kindness,
self control. These nine qualities are a perfect picture of Jesus. Now,
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how does God produce that kind of fruit in you?
How does God make you more loving? Are you just
walking down the street one day and all of a
sudden zap, You're filled with love and I'm so loving.
I love everybody. I'm just the lover of lovers? No, no, no,
it doesn't doesn't zapp There's no pill you could take,
No seminar, are you going to tend that's going to
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turn you from a hater into a lover or from
a loving person into a really compassionate person. How does
God produce love in your life? How does God produce
joy in your life? How does God produce peace and
patience in your life? Listen very closely. I've told this
for but I'll talk to you again by putting you
in the exact opposite situation where you get a chance
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to learn and practice that character quality. How does God
teach you love? It's real easy to love people like
you who are cool. If God's going to teach you
real love, He's going to put you around some unlovable people,
unlovely people. Now, don't look at him right now, don't
(17:36):
hit him in the elbow with your elbow. Be cool.
But God puts people around you who get on your
nerves to teach you real love. Their heavenly sandpaper roughing
down your rough edges. Anybody can love the lovely. How
do you learn to love the unlovely the way Jesus
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loves you in spite of all your hang ups and
hurts and stuff. How about joy? How does God teach
you real joy in the middle of suffering, in the
middle of grief. Joy is not happiness. Anybody can be
happy when you're out, you know, without a bonfire at
the beach, in the sunsetting. Man, it doesn't get any
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better than this. Anybody be happy, fly fishing in the mountains.
If God's gonna teach you real joy, it'll be in
the middle when your heart's breaking. How about peace? How
does God teach you peace? It's easy to be peaceful
when everything's going your way. He'll allow chaos in your life,
conflict in your life to teach you inner peace, the
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peace that passes understanding, which says there's no reason I
should be peaceful now, but I am patience. How does
God teach you patience? The department of motor vehicles, waiting
in line, traffic jams, doctor's appointments, and honor any time
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you have to wait. God is teaching you the quality
of patience to make you more like Jesus. I remember
a number of years ago when I was going through
major problems and I said, Lord, I need patience. And
instead of getting better, they got worse. They got worse.
And I said, Lord, I need patience, and the and
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my problems got worse, and that Lord, I need more patience,
it got worse. Finally, after six months, I realized I'm
a lot more patient when I started out. It's easy
to be patient. Everything goes your way. Have you thought
about maybe the last eighteen months, God has been trying
to teach you love for people who are unlovely, joy
in the middle of crisis, Peace in the middle of
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chaos and uncertainty and transition when you feel like you're
in limbo, Patience with people who won't be won't do
what you want them to do, on and on. This
is a school we're in right now, and God's watching.
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Change is not always good, but God uses it for
good and the purpose is to always make me more
like Jesus. All right, now, here's the fourth thing you
need to remember. Write this down. God can even can
use even human error and sin. God can use even
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human error and sin. I'm talking about when you are
the innocent victim of somebody else's bad decision. My family
isn't what it used to because my husband broke it
up and left me, or my wife left me. Whatever.
God can use even human error and the sins of
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other people, not even just my own, for the good
in my He can bring good in my life in
his plan to grow your character and make you like Jesus.
Do you remember the story of Joseph. Remember the story
of Joseph, How his brothers were jealous because he was
the favorite son, and so his brothers sold Joseph into slavery,
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and he's taken to Egypt, and for the first forty
years of his life, everything goes wrong. He's falsely accused
of rape, he's sold into slavery, he's thrown in jail
for a crime he didn't commit and sitting in a
foreign jail. Forty years later, he's gone, nothing has gone
right in my life so far. First forty years. His
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whole life's downhill. But God had put Joseph exactly where
he wanted him to be, and a series of God's circumstances,
Joseph is raised up to become the second most powerful
leader in the most powerful nation in the world at
that time, which is Egypt in the Age of the Pyramids.
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And when Joseph later and he actually saves two countries
from famine. He saves Egypt and he saves Israel from
famine because of his wisdom. But it didn't look like
things were going good in his life for a long
long time. One day, though, he finally has his brothers
come to meet him, and he confronts his brothers, the
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guys who had sold him into slavery in the first
forty years of nothing going right in his life, and
what was Joseph's attitude? He treats them with grace, not bitterness.
Why well, Genesis fifty tells us his perspective that God
can use even human error and sin for good. And
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Joseph says in Genesis fifty twenty you talking to his brothers.
You intended to harm me, but God, that's the most
important thing. But God intended it for good. To accomplish
what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Two entire nations were saved. So out of the sin
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of his brothers, two nations got saved from famine and destruction.
You intended to harm me, but God intended for good. Friends,
I'll be honest with you. There are people in your
life who intend bad. You will face people in your life,
people who resent you at work, they're in competition with you,
they're critical of you, they don't like you, or whatever.
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They intend to hurt you. They intended for bad, but
God intends it for good. And so God can even
use human error and sin in all the circumstances of life.
You know here at Saddleback, we all know the story
of how God brought good even out of Danny Dushane's
(23:53):
life in prison. How he went to prison for a
double murder and was spending all his years in prison
is in there nearly thirty years. But he came to
the Lord and he lived for God. And today Danny
is a pastor of Saddleback and ministers to prisoners all
over America. That's grace. That's grace, and that's the kind
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of church we are. It doesn't matter what your background is.
I don't care what you've done, how badly you've done it,
or who you did it with, or how long he
did it. What matters is the direction of your feet today.
That's all it matters, all right. Now, here's the fifth
truth that you need to remember when we're going through
changes we don't like. It's unavoidable, but God uses it
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for good, and he wants to make me like Christ.
And even he can use the bad things that other
people do in my life that spread the problems to
me that I didn't ask for. Number five, every change
is always a test of my faith. Write that down.
Every change in your life is always a test of
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your faith. One Peter, Chapter one, verse seven says this
The purpose of these troubles, you know, the ones you're
in right now, the ones we've been facing for eighteen months.
The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith.
Circle that as fire tests how genuine gold is, your
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faith is more precious than gold. And by passing the test,
it gives praise and glory and honor to God. Now
I've told you before that having faith during a time
of change, major change, like we're going through these days,
these ugly days that we're going through, when it's rapid
(25:49):
and it's relentless. Having faith during a time of change
is like a trapeze act and a trapeze artist. You've
all seen it and the circus and stuff. Trapeez artists
out on one bar, the other one comes from the
other direction, and at one point they let go of
this bar and then grab on to that one and
swing across to the other side. At some point in
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that trapeez artist, you have to let go of this
one in order to jump over and grab the other one.
And at that point you're hanging suspended in space with
nothing holding you up. That is the moment of faith
in your life. But when you grab on to that,
it'll take you to the other side. If you don't
take that risk, if you don't step out in faith,
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you'll get out there and you go, I'm afraid to
do that. Then you swing back here, and you swing
back here, swing back here, swinging back here. Pretty soon
you're dead center and there's only one way out straight down.
You gotta let it go. You gotta stop wishing for
the good old days. They're not coming back. Besides that,
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the good old days weren't as good as you think
they were. There were problems then too, and pressures and
struggles then too. Now before we look at what God
says to do, and we're gonna look at that now
in a time of change. I want you to consider
how these five truths apply to your life. Okay, so
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let's look at them again. Number one, change is unavoidable.
Are you going to just stop complaining and gripe in
and going I wish it were like eighteen months ago
or whenever your golden days were. They're not coming back.
It's unavoidable, and you're just gonna make yourself miserable. Looking
(27:40):
in the past. It's like looking in the past like
trying to drive looking in the rear view mirror. You're
gonna crash. But you need to remember, you say, God,
I believe you're gonna use all of this, even the
stuff I don't like, the changes I don't like. You're
gonna use it for good in my life. Okay. And
I know that you want to work on my character.
You're more interested in my character that my comfort. So
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make me like Christ. Help me be more patient, help
me be more loving, help me be more at peace,
help me be more faithful, help me to have more
self control. All those nine qualities. And then though people
who've hurt you, or how society has hurt you over
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the past, you just got to go Okay, they intended
it for bad, but God can use it for good
in my life. And then to realize that everything in
my life that happens, every change, is a test of faith. Now,
let me give you five things y'at to do. These
are action steps. How can I trust God when I'm
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stressed by all the changes in my life? All right?
Number one, these are very practical. Invest more time alone
with God. If you don't get anything else side, do
you I want you to say, I want you to
get this this weekend, invest our time alone with God. Listen,
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the greater the changes that happen in your life, the
more you need to invest time alone, time alone with God.
We're talking about your quiet time where you read a
little bit of the Bible and you talk to God
in prayer and you just be quiet and you say, God,
is there anything you want to say to me? Time
alone with God is the great stabilizer in your life
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when you're stressed out. It's also the greatest re energizer
when you're worn out. It's the greatest re energizer of energy. Now,
have you guys, noticed that you don't have as much
energy as you did eighteen months ago. You don't because
chronic stress is draining it out of you every single day.
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All of the changes that we've seen in our personal lives,
in our church, in our families, in the world, in
our jobs, all those changes sap your strength. They're like
pulling it out of you constantly. So the fatigue that
you're feeling, okay, it's natural. Welcome to the club. Welcome
to the human race. You get up in the morning
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and you had a good night's sleep and a couple
hours end of the day, you're going, man, I'm exhausted.
Welcome to the club. That's called chronic stress. And it's
very normal under prolonged change like we've been through. And
so you're just trying to get by. Now when I'm
talking about this lack of energy that you've got, that
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everything's everything's harder for you to do than it was
two years ago. That you're just trying to get by.
This has nothing or little to do with your age,
because both young people and older people are feeling this
right now. What's the antidote? Isaiah Chapter forty, verses twenty
eight to thirty one, this New Living Translation. Don't you
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know that the Lord is the everlasting God, and he
created everything on this earth? Now that took a lot
of energy to create everything on this Earth and on
the planets and in the International Space Station and everywhere
everything anyway, it says, And he never grows tired or weary.
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God never gets tired, he said, What about what he
says after the six days of creation, he rested. He's
just doing that to model it for human beings. He
wanted to create the Sabbath. God does not get tired,
He doesn't get worn out. So it says, he never
grows tired to weary, which means the more time he's
been with him, the more it's going to energize you.
He never goes tired to weary. Instead, he gives strength
(31:46):
to those who are weary that's you, and worn out,
that's you. And he gives power to the weak that's you.
Even young people become exhausted and want to give up.
Millennials gen Z, they're tired too. Even young people become exhausted,
they want to give up. But those who trust and
(32:09):
wait on the Lord will find new strength, flying high
like eagles, and they'll run and not grow weary, and
they'll keep going and not faint. So here's the point.
When you are stressed by constant, continual, major changes like
you're going through right now, don't seek a quick fix.
(32:32):
It's not in what you drink or the drug you
take or what you smoke. It's not a quick fix.
Don't look for an escape, don't look for a short cut.
Don't fight changes that you can't possibly control. Instead, seek
the Lord. Seek the Lord on a daily base. God,
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i'm plugging in on My battery is empty. I need recharging.
Your quiet time is more important to you right now
than it ever has been in your entire life. Get
back to it. Make sure that if anything happens every day,
you spend time alone with God. Whether anything else gets
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done in your life, you make sure that happens. That's
the first key to trusting God. When you're stressed by change,
invest more time alone with God. Number two, Ask God
this is what you do in that time. Ask God
to help me see his perspective. In that time alone
with God, as you're reading and praying, reading the Bible
(33:35):
and praying, say, God, help me to see everything going
on around me from your perspective, not the way I
see it, not the way the world sees it, but
from your perspective you see. If you can begin to
see all the changes that are going on in the
world and in your life, and in our church and
in community and in society, you can see them all
(33:58):
from God's point of view, gonna be a whole lot
You're gonna feel a whole lot better, and you're gonna
be a whole lot less stressed. What I'm talking about here,
Listen very closely. This is extremely important. What I'm talking
is the difference between seeing everything that's going on in
the world that's one thing, and seeing how God is
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working through everything that's going on in the world that's
a whole different story. This is the difference between having
knowledge of everything that's going on in the world and
having perspective of, oh, this is what God is doing.
It is the difference between information and wisdom. Today, friends,
(34:41):
we're overwhelmed with information. There's an information glot. We're on
information overload. There are unlimited channels, millions of channels for
you to find out what's going on in the world.
You don't need any more information in your life. You
could turn off a few of those information channels to
be healthier. What's missing in your life is non information
(35:03):
about the world. What's missing in your life is understanding.
Anybody can be informed, but only wise people seek God's
perspective on current events and go, God, help me to
see this from your point, not from my political viewpoint,
not from somebody else's political viewpoint, not from that cultural viewpoint,
(35:24):
not from that racial viewpoint, not from that religious viewpoint,
but from your viewpoint God. In the Bible, what separated Moses,
one of the greatest leaders of all time, from the
people of Israel is what I'm talking about here. The
people had knowledge, Moses had perspective. The people could see
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what was going on. Moses knew why it was going on.
During the Exodus, everybody could see the current events. They
saw Moses do the ten plagues in Egypt, and the
Nile turns the Blood and all all the other plagues.
They saw the Red Sea open when they got out
there in the desert and there was no water. They
saw God bring a fountain of water out of a rock.
(36:11):
Miracle after miracle. They saw the acts of God. They
saw the deeds of God. They saw what was happening
in current events. But only Moses understood God's reasons and
his perspectives and his ways Psalm one oh three. The
next verse Psalm one oh three, verse seven, on your outline,
(36:32):
God let the people of Israel see his mighty actions,
but he revealed his ways to Moses. Now, why am
I teaching this to you? Because, friends, as your pastor
who loves you, I want you to be better than
everybody else. I want you to not just know what's
(36:57):
going on in the world. I want you to understand
the ways of God. You can get current information from
any media source. That doesn't make you better than anybody,
but it doesn't make you better. We have tons of information,
tons of news, and still are unwise. In my deepest
(37:23):
desire that this church will be filled with women of wisdom,
men of wisdom with understanding, not simply knowledge, with perspective,
not just information. People are arguing about information around the
(37:43):
whole world, and they're missing the wisdom of God. And
that's why they're fighting each other. They don't know the
wisdom of God. Where does that wisdom come from. Not
from the news, certainly not from social media. You're not
gonna get any wisdom from that. You get wisdom from
(38:08):
two sources. Number one, Write this down, two sources. Number one,
ask God two words, write it down. Ask God okay,
Ask God okay to help me see his perspective. Ask
God to make you wise. James one to five says this,
If you need wisdom, just ask God. Ask God. When
(38:32):
was the last time you asked God to make you
a wise man? When was the last time you ask
God to make you a wise woman? Ask God for wisdom.
God is generous. He'll gladly tell you what you need.
But then after you ask God, you got to do
the second thing, and that is learn from God's word
(38:53):
and those who teach it. The wisdom is in this book. Now,
this book sitting closed in your in your library, or
on your coffee table doesn't do you any good. This
book is only good if you open it. But all
the wisdom you need to handle the stress and the
change in life is here. Second Peter, Chapter one, verse nineteen.
(39:18):
Some of you maybe have never even seen this. Verse
says this, we have greater confidence in the message of
the prophets. What's the message of the prophets. It's the Bible,
God inspired prophets, godly ment to write down what God
wanted them to write down. We call it the Old
Testament of the New Testament. God inspired the message of
(39:41):
the prophets. This is the Bible, God's word, and he says,
there we have greater conference in the message of the prophets.
Pay close attention. Take a note circle that word, pay
close attention that phrase to what they wrote for their
words are like a light shining in a dark place.
(40:03):
I don't know how much how dark are our culture
is gonna get. I'm not a soothsayer, but it does
say when things get dark, you need to go to
the light. And the light is here, not anywhere else.
It says, pay close attention. Let me just ask you,
(40:23):
very honestly, somebody who loves you as your friend, what
do you pay the most attention to these days? The radio,
talk radio, the media, social media, or God's word? What
are you paying the most attention to? You're gonna be
(40:45):
a whole lot less stressed out. You're gonna be a
lot more at peace if you go to the source
of truth. That's the third thing you need to do.
Second thing you need to do. Third thing. Write this down.
Instead of asking why is all this happening? Ask God?
What do you want me to learn? Instead is going
(41:05):
to God? Why are you allowing this pandemic? Why are
you allowing the social problems? Why are you allowing people
to be at each other's throat? People are angry, They're
arguing over this and that and this and that and why.
Instead of asking why is this happening? Ask what do
you want me to learn? God doesn't know us an
explanation and why he does everything in the world, or
(41:27):
why he allows everything in the world. So here's what
I recommend you focus on your character, not the changes
in society, not the circumstances around you. Romans eight, excuse me,
Romans five, Verses three and four. It's up here on
the screen. We can rejoice even in our troubles and
(41:52):
our struggles. Troubles and struggles. Does that sound familiar. We've
had eighteen months as troubles and struggles. He says, we
can rejoice even in our troubles and struggles because we
know this is wisdom that they teach us. We learn
endurance that we learn endurance. They teach us endurance, and
(42:15):
endurance develops strength of character and character creates hope. Now,
I want to keep this verse on the screen for
just a minute. Please. I want you to notice a
couple of things about this verse. Okay. Number one, notice
that life is a struggle. Everybody agree with that life's tough.
(42:39):
We shouldn't expect it to be any less. We live
on a broken planet. This is not heaven. There's no
struggle in heaven. This is earth. Everything's a struggle on earth.
We can rejoice even on our struggles and troubles. By
the way, have you ever wondered why our struggles are
so relentless? The answer is is because God wants to
(43:02):
change us and we don't want to change. That's why
we struggle, because we don't want to surrender to the
will of God in our lives. God wants to change us,
and we don't want to change, so we struggle. Now.
The second thing I want you to notice that of
that verse is that if we develop character, If you
(43:22):
develop character, you become a person of character. You'll be
full of hope. You'll be full of hope. But if
you just complain about why everything sucks in the world today,
you're going to be full of doubt and unhappiness. Wise,
mature people with perspective, people of character, are hopeful people.
(43:49):
Unwise immature people are scared and bitter people, and they're
picked off at the world and everybody in it, or
at least half of the world. I want you and me,
I want us to not be at that level where
we don't get ticked off at people who disagree with us. No,
(44:10):
I want us to get to Paul's level of spiritual maturity,
which is Philippius chapter four. There on your outline, Paul says,
I've learned. Pause right here circle the word learned. We'll
come back to that. This is something you learn. See,
ask God, what do you want me to learn? I've
learned this secret so that anywhere, at any time, I'm content,
(44:38):
whether I'm full or hungry, or whether I have too
much or too little, I have the strength to face
all conditions by the power Christ give me. That, my friends,
is stability and its maturity. That's what God's trying to
bring in our lives. And we'll either learn it faster
(45:00):
learn it slow. Now I said circle that word learned.
He says, I've learned to trust God. I've learned to
be content in whatever circumstance I'm in, even when I'm
in an eighteen month old pandemic. Have you learned this yet?
(45:22):
Have you grown up enough to learn to be content
in whatever circumstance you're in? Let me ask you another question,
says ask God what you want to learn? What have
you learned about yourself in the last eighteen months? Not
what have you learned about the world? What have you
learned about you? And your response? I want you to
(45:44):
write this down. Every situation is an education. Every situation
is an education. There is no experience in life you
can't learn from. If you'll just have an humble appe
there is no situation, big or small, There is no problem,
(46:05):
there is no change that you cannot learn from, if
you'll just humbly say Lord, what do you want me
to learn? Every education? Every situation is in education. Number four.
Let me give you the last two quickly. Number four.
(46:27):
When you're going through changes you don't like, focus on
what never changes. Focus on what never changes. Yeah, there
are a lot of changes going on in our world
right now, and a lot of them we don't like.
They suck. I started to title this message you know
how to trust God when life sucks. There are many
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things that you don't like that are changing, but there's
also many things that will never, never, never, never, never change.
And when you're going through a time of great change,
relentless like we're talking about, and rapid, then when you're
(47:11):
going through that kind of change, you need to let
the unchangeables be your anchor. What's anchoring you right now?
You need to let the unchangeable things that are never
going to change be your anchor in this time of uncertainty. Now,
I could give you a bunch of them. Let me
just mention three. God's love for you will never change.
(47:32):
God's truth in his word will never change. God's plan
and purpose for your life will never change. Nothing can
change those things. Look at these three verses Jeremiah thirty one. Three.
I've loved you with an ever lasting love. Nothing's ever
going to change that. He's never going to stop loving
(47:53):
you no matter what happens. Isaiah forty, verse eight. The
word of God shall stand forever. What he said is
the right thing to do will always be the right
thing to do, and what he said is the wrong
thing to do will always be the wrong thing to
do the word of God will stand forever. So I'm
thirty three eleven. His plans endure forever, and his purposes
(48:14):
last eternally. Friends, I'm not a prophet and I don't
predict the future, but I will tell you this, and
you can bank on this. God will have the last
word and it's going to be good. You can count
on that God will have the last word and it's
(48:35):
going to be good. It's going to be good. When
you find someone who feels hopeless, it means they're immature
and unwise. Wise people who see from God's perspective are
always hopeful, no matter what it looks like. Not optimistic, hopeful,
big difference. I don't have time to go into that
(48:56):
number five. Here's the fifth thing you need to do.
No matter how long this pandemic goes on, Keep telling God.
In other words, say to this, to God, over and
over every day of your life, I trust you, no
matter what. Keep telling God, I trust you no matter what.
(49:20):
If you do this, you'll be a lot more at peace.
No matter what happens, and how long all these period
of this season of rapid chain lasts, regardless how long
the pandemic lasts. If you do this, God, I trust
you no matter what. I want you to be a
righteous person. Some one twelve verse seven says this, the
(49:45):
righteous man or a woman does not fear bad news
nor live in dread of what might happen. For he
is he settled in his mind or her mind that
God will take care of him. I will trust you
(50:10):
no matter what. I have had to say that thousands
of times in my life, I will trust you no
matter what. I remember when k was going through cancer
treatments and I thought I'm losing her, I'm losing the
love of my life. And I remember saying, Father, I
(50:36):
trust you no matter what, and I'll serve you no
matter what, even if I lose my wife. When our
youngest child lost his lifelong battle with mental illness and
took his life, I had to say, I will trust
(50:59):
you no matter what. Doesn't mean I understand it, and
a thousand other times, I will trust you no matter what.
Anytime anything seems to be falling apart in your life,
my friends say, I trust you no matter what. Now,
(51:26):
right now, you may feel under attack. I'm not talking
about all the stuff we all know what's going on
stuff in society. I'm talking about stuff in your personal life,
and you may feel like you're being attacked from every angle.
I leave you with Psalm twenty seven, verse three. Even
(51:47):
if a whole army surrounds me, I will not be afraid,
And even if enemies attack me from all side, I
will still trust God. That's the kind of life I'm
(52:09):
going to live. I invite you to live it with me.
Let's be different than the world that's power heads. Even
if a whole army surround me, I will not be afraid,
(52:29):
and even if enemies attack me from all sides, I
will still trust God. The righteous man does not fear
bad news nor live in dread of what may happen,
for he is settled in his mind that God will
take care of him. Follow me in this prayer. Just
(52:54):
say it in your mind. Say Dear God, I know
change is unavoidable, but I thank you that you have
promised to use it for good in my life. If
I trust you God, I want to grow up. I
(53:16):
don't want to be a spiritual baby. I want you
to make me more like Jesus with love and joy
and peace and patience and goodness of self control and faith.
And God, you know the people who've hurt me in
my life, and I thank you that you can even
(53:39):
use human error and sin for good if I give
it all to you. Help me to realize that what
I'm going through right now is a test of my faith.
You're testing me and then endurance produces character and care
(54:00):
character produces hope. Help me to remember these things. And Lord,
I want to start doing these practical steps during these
difficult days. I want to invest more time alone with you,
(54:21):
because those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.
Run and not grow weary, walk, keep going and not faint.
And God, I'm asking you to help me see your perspective.
I don't want to just know what everybody else knows.
I don't want information. I want wisdom. I want understanding.
(54:46):
I want to know your ways, God and Father. Instead
of asking and griping about what why is all this
going on? I want to ask what do you want
me to learn? Like Paul, I want to learn to
be content in any and every situation, no matter what happens.
(55:10):
That you are my stability, and you are my energy.
Help me to focus on what never changes. Thank you
that your word will always be the truth. Thank you
that you will never stop loving me. Thank you that
nothing that happens can change your plan or purpose for
(55:32):
my life. And God, I'm going to tell you the
rest of my life, including right now. I trust you
no matter what. I'm going to trust you no matter what.
Maybe you're doing that for the very first time tonight,
(55:54):
say Jesus Christ. I'm trusting you no matter what. You're
opening your life to Christ. Others you're doing it again.
I trust you. I'm going to trust you no matter what.
I surrender myself to you in your name. I pray Amen.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
We hope you've been encouraged by this message. To hear
Pastor Rick's free daily Bible teaching program, download free sermon notes,
or sign up for his free daily devotional just visit
pastorick dot com.
Speaker 3 (56:43):
You will be like God. Human unity with God was severed,
and through it all, God's promise remain true. Follow me, April,
and I will make you great. This is the Chosen People.
(57:04):
Listen to the Chosen People at the Chosen people dot com.
That's the Chosen People. Dot com
Let us pray, and the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus Philippians four seven. My Father and my God help
me to turn my worries into prayers so that my
mind can be at peace. To day, I worry about
(00:21):
everything from financial matters to what I'll cook for dinner
or when I can get some time for myself. Father,
ease my mind from anxious thoughts so that I can
appreciate the present moment. My worries hinder me from loving, fully,
expressing genuinely, and living up to my full potential. Father,
(00:43):
guard my heart and my mind when these unfavorable thoughts
flood my mind. Amen, thank you for listening to to
day's daily prayer for more inspiration and an incredible message
from our feature pastor Stay tuned to Pray Sunday Service.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Welcome. Thanks for joining Pastor Rick Warren to hear Pastor
Rick's free daily Bible teaching program, download free sermon notes,
or sign up for his free daily devotional visit pastorig
dot com. Now let's join Pastor Rick as your pastor.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
I am deeply concerned about how you're handling the trauma
and the stress of all of the changes that have
taken place in your life in the past eighteen months now.
Certainly the global pandemic of COVID changed everything, and we're
still not out of the woods. We're still not free
(01:51):
from it yet. But there's a lot of other changes
going on in the world at the same time. And
that's why I started this short series a couple of
weeks ago that I'm calling strategies for Stressful Times, Strategies
for stressful Times, and we're looking at tips and strategies
and skills from the scripture on how do you handle
(02:13):
when things aren't good? The first message you remember a
couple weeks ago, I did a message called finding the
strength to keep going when you're emotionally worn out? Anybody
ever felt that way? Emotionally worn out? Yeah? And then
last week we looked at how do you be happy
no matter what happens? And we talked about how happiness
(02:34):
is a choice. It doesn't depend on happenings. You're as
happy as you choose to be. If you're unhappy, you
can't blame your why for your husband or anybody else.
You're as happy as you choose to be. I know
people in much worse situations than us that have chosen
to be happy. This week, in part three of the
Strategies for Stressful Times, I want us to look at
(02:54):
how do you trust God during changes you don't like?
How do you trust God for changes you don't like
during those changes? Now, we all know that everything constantly changes.
Everything is constantly changing. In fact, even material objects are
actually changing at the molecular level constantly. There are protons
(03:19):
and neutrons and electrons that are zipping around in these
metal bars. They look like they're solid, they're moving at
a molecular level. Now, while we love some changes, and
we all do, we love some changes, but there are
some changes we just hate. And there are seasons like
(03:39):
the one we're in right now, where change is so
rapid and so relentless that you just get tired of it.
And right now we have been hit with so many
unwanted changes that as I talk to people, they're reeling
from it, literally reeling. And so many people, maybe you
(04:02):
feel this way, just feel like they're in limbo right now,
they're just treading water because you're unable to get on
with your life, unable to get out of what's going on,
and it feels like we're we can't really get on
going because we don't know how long this thing's going
to last. And a lot of people are just overwhelmed
and they're just barely getting by. I care about you
if you feel that way, And so today, as I've
(04:26):
studied God's word all this week, I want to give
you some very practical guidance from God's word on how
do you trust God when you're going through changes in
your life that you don't like. You'll have plenty of
those in life. And what I want to do is
I want to give you I want to summarize what
(04:47):
Scripture says five things, five truths you need to remember
and five things you need to do. Okay, so if
you get out your message notes, we'll look at these
five things you need to remember when you're going through
changes you don't like, and how do you keep trusting
God in those situations. So anytime you're overwhelmed by change,
(05:09):
there are five things you need to remember, So write
these down. Number one. This one's kind of obvious, but
we need to start with it. Change is unavoidable. Okay,
that's the first thing. We all know that, but we
just need to be reminded that change is unavoidable. No
matter how much you like a change, or how much
you dislike a change, no matter how much you like
(05:29):
the way things have been, they're not gonna stay the same. Now.
When change happens and it's constant, you can complain, or
you can grumble, or you can get mad, or you
can blame other people. You can even try to stop
the change futilely because you can't stop change. But things
are still gonna keep changing every moment of your life.
(05:54):
You are changing for good or for bad. Now. When
God created the earth way back in the beginning, here's
one of the first things he said in Genesis eight,
verse twenty two. As long as the Earth remains, there
will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer,
(06:16):
day and night. What's he saying. He's saying that everything
on this planet is seasonal. Nothing stays the same. We
live in a world of opposites, and the world isn't
the same the way it used to be. Your family
isn't the same the way it used to be. Your
job isn't the same it used to be. You aren't
(06:39):
the same that you used to be. As I said,
even inanimate audience objects like this table. It looks solid,
but actually at a molecular level, it's moving constantly on
the inside. Many of you know that I drove the
same green Ford truck for twenty years. I liked it, Okay,
(07:01):
I didn't. I don't buy a car for bling or
to show my status. It got me the same way
of rolls Royce would, and it was comfortable, and frankly,
I would have driven that twenty year old truck for
the rest of the life. But after a quarter of
a million miles it started changing, and it started breaking down,
(07:23):
and it started falling apart, and I couldn't stand to
give it away. So actually it's parked in my barn,
even though I don't drive it anymore. Now, I've taught
this for decades. Look there in your outline. I've taught
you that there is no growth without change. There is
no growth without change, There is no change without loss.
(07:44):
There is no loss without grief, and there is no
grief without pain. A person who wants to grow and
be better but not go through the pain of change
is like a woman saying I want to have a baby,
but I don't want my Tommy to get and I
don't want to go through labor. It ain't going to happen.
They don't call it labor for nothing. Any of you
(08:06):
ladies want to testify to that right now, every to
bring new life into the world requires pain. Things change.
But remember this, if nothing ever changed, you would have
never been born. Because you were a change. You wouldn't
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have even been born. So change is unavoidable. Okay, we
got that one down. Here's number two. This is more important.
Change is not always good, but God uses it for good.
Change is not always good, but God uses it for
good in the lives of those who trust him. It's
not good for everybody, but it is good in the
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lives of those who trust him. One of the greatest
promises of the Bible, Romans eight twenty eight. We know not.
We're confident that in all things God works for the
good of those who love Him, who have been called
according to His purpose. Now, as I've said many times,
(09:11):
that verse does not say everything is good. There's not
a lot of things in the world that are not good.
Evil is not good, cancer is not good, rape, molestation
is not good, war, prejudice is not good. A lot
of bad things in the world. But the Bible says
God specializes in bringing good even out of bad. He
(09:33):
can turn crucifixions into a resurrection. And the way God
works all things together for good is kind of like
baking a cake. Now you may not realize this, but
I'm a master cake builder. I know how to bake
cakes because I figured if I want to eat them,
I don't know how to make them. I once made
(09:55):
of German chocolate cake from scratch, no box, for my wife,
so I know how to make cakes. Now, when you
make a cake, the individual ingredients don't taste good at all.
In fact, some of them are quite bitter. If you
eat flour by itself doesn't taste good. You eat butter
(10:17):
by itself doesn't taste good. If you eat baking powder
by itself, oil by itself doesn't taste good. Even a
little vanilla raw eggs by themselves. None of the ingredients
in a cake taste good by themselves. But if you
mix them all together, stir it all up, and stir
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and stir and stir, and then put the heat on it,
it's delicious, delicious. In your life, there will be elements
of your life that are bitter and unpleasant. Anyhoy that
doesn't taste good. I don't like that change in my life.
I don't like what just happened. I don't like what's
(11:00):
happening in the world today. But God takes it all,
and he takes even the bad and the bitter. Have
you ever drunk some vanilla by itself is not very tasty?
And He mixes it all up. All things work together
for the good of those who love God, who are
called according to His purpose. Now, the most important word
(11:23):
in that verse that we just looked at on your outline,
Romans eight twenty eight is the word all, So circle
the word all. What does all include? In all things?
God works for the good of those who love it.
That means all. It literally means all. It means every
(11:43):
circumstance you face, every choice you make, every consequence you feel,
and every change you experience, including all of the changes
we've just had in the last eighteen months, all work
together for the good of those who love God. You know,
some people act as if God was caught off guard
(12:03):
by COVID nineteen, like God goes Wow, I didn't see
that coming. I didn't imagine that world global pandemic ever
happening and I had no idea what was going to
do to all my churches? Man, am I in a mess?
God is not sweating this pandemic. The church has outlasted
(12:24):
everything for a two thousand years. Every dictator, every pandemic,
every fire, every flood, every revolution, every critic is still
here and none of those things are now. The difference
between whether you're going to be bitter at the end
of this season we're in a rapid change and relentless change.
(12:48):
Are you going to be bitter? Are you going to
be better? The difference is the letter I the DearS
being bitter, and better is I. I make the difference
my attitude. So I need to remember that change is
not always good, but God always uses it for good
if I trust him. Number three, here's the third thing
(13:09):
to remember. God's purpose in every circumstance, every one of them,
including the ones we're going through right now, is to
make me more like Jesus. God's purpose in every change
in my life is to make me more like Jesus. Now.
The promise of Romans eight twenty eight is a wonderful promise,
(13:31):
but it doesn't really make sense until you read the
next verse. Romans eight twenty nine. So let me read
you those two verses together from the New Living Translation.
Here's what it says. We know, in other words, we're
not guessing. We know that God causes everything, even the
bad stuff, even the bad changes. God causes everything to
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work together for the good of everybody, know for the
good of those who love Him and are called to
His purpose for them. For God knew in advance who
would come to him. He already knew before you decided
to accept Christ, that you were going to accept him.
He knew in advance who would come to him, and
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he chose them to circle this become like his son,
so that his son Jesus would be the firstborn in
his family with many brothers and sisters. God doesn't just
want you in his family. He wants you develop the
family characteristics of a daughter of God or a son
of God, a child of God like father, like son,
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like father, like daughter. God says, I want you to
grow up, and who's the model for maturity, Not you
or me Jesus Christ. And God says, my number one
goal in your life is to make you like Jesus Christ.
His number one goal is not to make you happy.
His number one goal is not to make you comfortable.
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His number one goal is to not make your life pleasant.
Those things are the result of becoming like Christ. This
is not heaven. In heaven, there's no sorrow, suffering, sadness, sickness.
But on earth everything's broken. And so what are we
doing here? This is a school in character for the
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sixty or eighty or ninety or at the most one
hundred years you get on this planet. You're in school
for character. You're not taking your career to heaven. You're
not taking your cash to heaven. You're not taking your
reputation to heaven. What are you taking to heaven? Only
one thing? Your character? What you became, the man you
became on this earth, You're taking that to heaven. The
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woman you became on this earth, you're taking that to heaven.
So his number one goal, God uses everything for our good.
And what is that good? He uses it to build
my character. He uses it to make me more like Jesus.
So what is Jesus like? The best picture of Jesus
in the Bible is Galatians chapter two, verses twenty three
and twenty four, twenty two and twenty three. They're called
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the fruit of the spirit. Nine character qualities. The fruit
of the spirit are love, Jesus's love, joy, Jesus's total joy, peace,
Jesus was always at peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meetness, kindness,
self control. These nine qualities are a perfect picture of Jesus. Now,
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how does God produce that kind of fruit in you?
How does God make you more loving? Are you just
walking down the street one day and all of a
sudden zap, You're filled with love and I'm so loving.
I love everybody. I'm just the lover of lovers? No, no, no,
it doesn't doesn't zapp There's no pill you could take,
No seminar, are you going to tend that's going to
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turn you from a hater into a lover or from
a loving person into a really compassionate person. How does
God produce love in your life? How does God produce
joy in your life? How does God produce peace and
patience in your life? Listen very closely. I've told this
for but I'll talk to you again by putting you
in the exact opposite situation where you get a chance
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to learn and practice that character quality. How does God
teach you love? It's real easy to love people like
you who are cool. If God's going to teach you
real love, He's going to put you around some unlovable people,
unlovely people. Now, don't look at him right now, don't
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hit him in the elbow with your elbow. Be cool.
But God puts people around you who get on your
nerves to teach you real love. Their heavenly sandpaper roughing
down your rough edges. Anybody can love the lovely. How
do you learn to love the unlovely the way Jesus
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loves you in spite of all your hang ups and
hurts and stuff. How about joy? How does God teach
you real joy in the middle of suffering, in the
middle of grief. Joy is not happiness. Anybody can be
happy when you're out, you know, without a bonfire at
the beach, in the sunsetting. Man, it doesn't get any
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better than this. Anybody be happy, fly fishing in the mountains.
If God's gonna teach you real joy, it'll be in
the middle when your heart's breaking. How about peace? How
does God teach you peace? It's easy to be peaceful
when everything's going your way. He'll allow chaos in your life,
conflict in your life to teach you inner peace, the
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peace that passes understanding, which says there's no reason I
should be peaceful now, but I am patience. How does
God teach you patience? The department of motor vehicles, waiting
in line, traffic jams, doctor's appointments, and honor any time
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you have to wait. God is teaching you the quality
of patience to make you more like Jesus. I remember
a number of years ago when I was going through
major problems and I said, Lord, I need patience. And
instead of getting better, they got worse. They got worse.
And I said, Lord, I need patience, and the and
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my problems got worse, and that Lord, I need more patience,
it got worse. Finally, after six months, I realized I'm
a lot more patient when I started out. It's easy
to be patient. Everything goes your way. Have you thought
about maybe the last eighteen months, God has been trying
to teach you love for people who are unlovely, joy
in the middle of crisis, Peace in the middle of
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chaos and uncertainty and transition when you feel like you're
in limbo, Patience with people who won't be won't do
what you want them to do, on and on. This
is a school we're in right now, and God's watching.
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Change is not always good, but God uses it for
good and the purpose is to always make me more
like Jesus. All right, now, here's the fourth thing you
need to remember. Write this down. God can even can
use even human error and sin. God can use even
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human error and sin. I'm talking about when you are
the innocent victim of somebody else's bad decision. My family
isn't what it used to because my husband broke it
up and left me, or my wife left me. Whatever.
God can use even human error and the sins of
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other people, not even just my own, for the good
in my He can bring good in my life in
his plan to grow your character and make you like Jesus.
Do you remember the story of Joseph. Remember the story
of Joseph, How his brothers were jealous because he was
the favorite son, and so his brothers sold Joseph into slavery,
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and he's taken to Egypt, and for the first forty
years of his life, everything goes wrong. He's falsely accused
of rape, he's sold into slavery, he's thrown in jail
for a crime he didn't commit and sitting in a
foreign jail. Forty years later, he's gone, nothing has gone
right in my life so far. First forty years. His
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whole life's downhill. But God had put Joseph exactly where
he wanted him to be, and a series of God's circumstances,
Joseph is raised up to become the second most powerful
leader in the most powerful nation in the world at
that time, which is Egypt in the Age of the Pyramids.
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And when Joseph later and he actually saves two countries
from famine. He saves Egypt and he saves Israel from
famine because of his wisdom. But it didn't look like
things were going good in his life for a long
long time. One day, though, he finally has his brothers
come to meet him, and he confronts his brothers, the
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guys who had sold him into slavery in the first
forty years of nothing going right in his life, and
what was Joseph's attitude? He treats them with grace, not bitterness.
Why well, Genesis fifty tells us his perspective that God
can use even human error and sin for good. And
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Joseph says in Genesis fifty twenty you talking to his brothers.
You intended to harm me, but God, that's the most
important thing. But God intended it for good. To accomplish
what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Two entire nations were saved. So out of the sin
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of his brothers, two nations got saved from famine and destruction.
You intended to harm me, but God intended for good. Friends,
I'll be honest with you. There are people in your
life who intend bad. You will face people in your life,
people who resent you at work, they're in competition with you,
they're critical of you, they don't like you, or whatever.
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They intend to hurt you. They intended for bad, but
God intends it for good. And so God can even
use human error and sin in all the circumstances of life.
You know here at Saddleback, we all know the story
of how God brought good even out of Danny Dushane's
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life in prison. How he went to prison for a
double murder and was spending all his years in prison
is in there nearly thirty years. But he came to
the Lord and he lived for God. And today Danny
is a pastor of Saddleback and ministers to prisoners all
over America. That's grace. That's grace, and that's the kind
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of church we are. It doesn't matter what your background is.
I don't care what you've done, how badly you've done it,
or who you did it with, or how long he
did it. What matters is the direction of your feet today.
That's all it matters, all right. Now, here's the fifth
truth that you need to remember when we're going through
changes we don't like. It's unavoidable, but God uses it
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for good, and he wants to make me like Christ.
And even he can use the bad things that other
people do in my life that spread the problems to
me that I didn't ask for. Number five, every change
is always a test of my faith. Write that down.
Every change in your life is always a test of
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your faith. One Peter, Chapter one, verse seven says this
The purpose of these troubles, you know, the ones you're
in right now, the ones we've been facing for eighteen months.
The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith.
Circle that as fire tests how genuine gold is, your
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faith is more precious than gold. And by passing the test,
it gives praise and glory and honor to God. Now
I've told you before that having faith during a time
of change, major change, like we're going through these days,
these ugly days that we're going through, when it's rapid
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and it's relentless. Having faith during a time of change
is like a trapeze act and a trapeze artist. You've
all seen it and the circus and stuff. Trapeez artists
out on one bar, the other one comes from the
other direction, and at one point they let go of
this bar and then grab on to that one and
swing across to the other side. At some point in
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that trapeez artist, you have to let go of this
one in order to jump over and grab the other one.
And at that point you're hanging suspended in space with
nothing holding you up. That is the moment of faith
in your life. But when you grab on to that,
it'll take you to the other side. If you don't
take that risk, if you don't step out in faith,
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you'll get out there and you go, I'm afraid to
do that. Then you swing back here, and you swing
back here, swing back here, swinging back here. Pretty soon
you're dead center and there's only one way out straight down.
You gotta let it go. You gotta stop wishing for
the good old days. They're not coming back. Besides that,
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the good old days weren't as good as you think
they were. There were problems then too, and pressures and
struggles then too. Now before we look at what God
says to do, and we're gonna look at that now
in a time of change. I want you to consider
how these five truths apply to your life. Okay, so
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let's look at them again. Number one, change is unavoidable.
Are you going to just stop complaining and gripe in
and going I wish it were like eighteen months ago
or whenever your golden days were. They're not coming back.
It's unavoidable, and you're just gonna make yourself miserable. Looking
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in the past. It's like looking in the past like
trying to drive looking in the rear view mirror. You're
gonna crash. But you need to remember, you say, God,
I believe you're gonna use all of this, even the
stuff I don't like, the changes I don't like. You're
gonna use it for good in my life. Okay. And
I know that you want to work on my character.
You're more interested in my character that my comfort. So
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make me like Christ. Help me be more patient, help
me be more loving, help me be more at peace,
help me be more faithful, help me to have more
self control. All those nine qualities. And then though people
who've hurt you, or how society has hurt you over
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the past, you just got to go Okay, they intended
it for bad, but God can use it for good
in my life. And then to realize that everything in
my life that happens, every change, is a test of faith. Now,
let me give you five things y'at to do. These
are action steps. How can I trust God when I'm
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stressed by all the changes in my life? All right?
Number one, these are very practical. Invest more time alone
with God. If you don't get anything else side, do
you I want you to say, I want you to
get this this weekend, invest our time alone with God. Listen,
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the greater the changes that happen in your life, the
more you need to invest time alone, time alone with God.
We're talking about your quiet time where you read a
little bit of the Bible and you talk to God
in prayer and you just be quiet and you say, God,
is there anything you want to say to me? Time
alone with God is the great stabilizer in your life
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when you're stressed out. It's also the greatest re energizer
when you're worn out. It's the greatest re energizer of energy. Now,
have you guys, noticed that you don't have as much
energy as you did eighteen months ago. You don't because
chronic stress is draining it out of you every single day.
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All of the changes that we've seen in our personal lives,
in our church, in our families, in the world, in
our jobs, all those changes sap your strength. They're like
pulling it out of you constantly. So the fatigue that
you're feeling, okay, it's natural. Welcome to the club. Welcome
to the human race. You get up in the morning
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and you had a good night's sleep and a couple
hours end of the day, you're going, man, I'm exhausted.
Welcome to the club. That's called chronic stress. And it's
very normal under prolonged change like we've been through. And
so you're just trying to get by. Now when I'm
talking about this lack of energy that you've got, that
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everything's everything's harder for you to do than it was
two years ago. That you're just trying to get by.
This has nothing or little to do with your age,
because both young people and older people are feeling this
right now. What's the antidote? Isaiah Chapter forty, verses twenty
eight to thirty one, this New Living Translation. Don't you
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know that the Lord is the everlasting God, and he
created everything on this earth? Now that took a lot
of energy to create everything on this Earth and on
the planets and in the International Space Station and everywhere
everything anyway, it says, And he never grows tired or weary.
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God never gets tired, he said, What about what he
says after the six days of creation, he rested. He's
just doing that to model it for human beings. He
wanted to create the Sabbath. God does not get tired,
He doesn't get worn out. So it says, he never
grows tired to weary, which means the more time he's
been with him, the more it's going to energize you.
He never goes tired to weary. Instead, he gives strength
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to those who are weary that's you, and worn out,
that's you. And he gives power to the weak that's you.
Even young people become exhausted and want to give up.
Millennials gen Z, they're tired too. Even young people become exhausted,
they want to give up. But those who trust and
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wait on the Lord will find new strength, flying high
like eagles, and they'll run and not grow weary, and
they'll keep going and not faint. So here's the point.
When you are stressed by constant, continual, major changes like
you're going through right now, don't seek a quick fix.
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It's not in what you drink or the drug you
take or what you smoke. It's not a quick fix.
Don't look for an escape, don't look for a short cut.
Don't fight changes that you can't possibly control. Instead, seek
the Lord. Seek the Lord on a daily base. God,
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i'm plugging in on My battery is empty. I need recharging.
Your quiet time is more important to you right now
than it ever has been in your entire life. Get
back to it. Make sure that if anything happens every day,
you spend time alone with God. Whether anything else gets
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done in your life, you make sure that happens. That's
the first key to trusting God. When you're stressed by change,
invest more time alone with God. Number two, Ask God
this is what you do in that time. Ask God
to help me see his perspective. In that time alone
with God, as you're reading and praying, reading the Bible
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and praying, say, God, help me to see everything going
on around me from your perspective, not the way I
see it, not the way the world sees it, but
from your perspective you see. If you can begin to
see all the changes that are going on in the
world and in your life, and in our church and
in community and in society, you can see them all
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from God's point of view, gonna be a whole lot
You're gonna feel a whole lot better, and you're gonna
be a whole lot less stressed. What I'm talking about here,
Listen very closely. This is extremely important. What I'm talking
is the difference between seeing everything that's going on in
the world that's one thing, and seeing how God is
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working through everything that's going on in the world that's
a whole different story. This is the difference between having
knowledge of everything that's going on in the world and
having perspective of, oh, this is what God is doing.
It is the difference between information and wisdom. Today, friends,
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we're overwhelmed with information. There's an information glot. We're on
information overload. There are unlimited channels, millions of channels for
you to find out what's going on in the world.
You don't need any more information in your life. You
could turn off a few of those information channels to
be healthier. What's missing in your life is non information
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about the world. What's missing in your life is understanding.
Anybody can be informed, but only wise people seek God's
perspective on current events and go, God, help me to
see this from your point, not from my political viewpoint,
not from somebody else's political viewpoint, not from that cultural viewpoint,
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not from that racial viewpoint, not from that religious viewpoint,
but from your viewpoint God. In the Bible, what separated Moses,
one of the greatest leaders of all time, from the
people of Israel is what I'm talking about here. The
people had knowledge, Moses had perspective. The people could see
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what was going on. Moses knew why it was going on.
During the Exodus, everybody could see the current events. They
saw Moses do the ten plagues in Egypt, and the
Nile turns the Blood and all all the other plagues.
They saw the Red Sea open when they got out
there in the desert and there was no water. They
saw God bring a fountain of water out of a rock.
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Miracle after miracle. They saw the acts of God. They
saw the deeds of God. They saw what was happening
in current events. But only Moses understood God's reasons and
his perspectives and his ways Psalm one oh three. The
next verse Psalm one oh three, verse seven, on your outline,
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God let the people of Israel see his mighty actions,
but he revealed his ways to Moses. Now, why am
I teaching this to you? Because, friends, as your pastor
who loves you, I want you to be better than
everybody else. I want you to not just know what's
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going on in the world. I want you to understand
the ways of God. You can get current information from
any media source. That doesn't make you better than anybody,
but it doesn't make you better. We have tons of information,
tons of news, and still are unwise. In my deepest
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desire that this church will be filled with women of wisdom,
men of wisdom with understanding, not simply knowledge, with perspective,
not just information. People are arguing about information around the
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whole world, and they're missing the wisdom of God. And
that's why they're fighting each other. They don't know the
wisdom of God. Where does that wisdom come from. Not
from the news, certainly not from social media. You're not
gonna get any wisdom from that. You get wisdom from
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two sources. Number one, Write this down, two sources. Number one,
ask God two words, write it down. Ask God okay,
Ask God okay to help me see his perspective. Ask
God to make you wise. James one to five says this,
If you need wisdom, just ask God. Ask God. When
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was the last time you asked God to make you
a wise man? When was the last time you ask
God to make you a wise woman? Ask God for wisdom.
God is generous. He'll gladly tell you what you need.
But then after you ask God, you got to do
the second thing, and that is learn from God's word
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and those who teach it. The wisdom is in this book. Now,
this book sitting closed in your in your library, or
on your coffee table doesn't do you any good. This
book is only good if you open it. But all
the wisdom you need to handle the stress and the
change in life is here. Second Peter, Chapter one, verse nineteen.
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Some of you maybe have never even seen this. Verse
says this, we have greater confidence in the message of
the prophets. What's the message of the prophets. It's the Bible,
God inspired prophets, godly ment to write down what God
wanted them to write down. We call it the Old
Testament of the New Testament. God inspired the message of
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the prophets. This is the Bible, God's word, and he says,
there we have greater conference in the message of the prophets.
Pay close attention. Take a note circle that word, pay
close attention that phrase to what they wrote for their
words are like a light shining in a dark place.
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I don't know how much how dark are our culture
is gonna get. I'm not a soothsayer, but it does
say when things get dark, you need to go to
the light. And the light is here, not anywhere else.
It says, pay close attention. Let me just ask you,
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very honestly, somebody who loves you as your friend, what
do you pay the most attention to these days? The radio,
talk radio, the media, social media, or God's word? What
are you paying the most attention to? You're gonna be
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a whole lot less stressed out. You're gonna be a
lot more at peace if you go to the source
of truth. That's the third thing you need to do.
Second thing you need to do. Third thing. Write this down.
Instead of asking why is all this happening? Ask God?
What do you want me to learn? Instead is going
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to God? Why are you allowing this pandemic? Why are
you allowing the social problems? Why are you allowing people
to be at each other's throat? People are angry, They're
arguing over this and that and this and that and why.
Instead of asking why is this happening? Ask what do
you want me to learn? God doesn't know us an
explanation and why he does everything in the world, or
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why he allows everything in the world. So here's what
I recommend you focus on your character, not the changes
in society, not the circumstances around you. Romans eight, excuse me,
Romans five, Verses three and four. It's up here on
the screen. We can rejoice even in our troubles and
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our struggles. Troubles and struggles. Does that sound familiar. We've
had eighteen months as troubles and struggles. He says, we
can rejoice even in our troubles and struggles because we
know this is wisdom that they teach us. We learn
endurance that we learn endurance. They teach us endurance, and
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endurance develops strength of character and character creates hope. Now,
I want to keep this verse on the screen for
just a minute. Please. I want you to notice a
couple of things about this verse. Okay. Number one, notice
that life is a struggle. Everybody agree with that life's tough.
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We shouldn't expect it to be any less. We live
on a broken planet. This is not heaven. There's no
struggle in heaven. This is earth. Everything's a struggle on earth.
We can rejoice even on our struggles and troubles. By
the way, have you ever wondered why our struggles are
so relentless? The answer is is because God wants to
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change us and we don't want to change. That's why
we struggle, because we don't want to surrender to the
will of God in our lives. God wants to change us,
and we don't want to change, so we struggle. Now.
The second thing I want you to notice that of
that verse is that if we develop character, If you
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develop character, you become a person of character. You'll be
full of hope. You'll be full of hope. But if
you just complain about why everything sucks in the world today,
you're going to be full of doubt and unhappiness. Wise,
mature people with perspective, people of character, are hopeful people.
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Unwise immature people are scared and bitter people, and they're
picked off at the world and everybody in it, or
at least half of the world. I want you and me,
I want us to not be at that level where
we don't get ticked off at people who disagree with us. No,
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I want us to get to Paul's level of spiritual maturity,
which is Philippius chapter four. There on your outline, Paul says,
I've learned. Pause right here circle the word learned. We'll
come back to that. This is something you learn. See,
ask God, what do you want me to learn? I've
learned this secret so that anywhere, at any time, I'm content,
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whether I'm full or hungry, or whether I have too
much or too little, I have the strength to face
all conditions by the power Christ give me. That, my friends,
is stability and its maturity. That's what God's trying to
bring in our lives. And we'll either learn it faster
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learn it slow. Now I said circle that word learned.
He says, I've learned to trust God. I've learned to
be content in whatever circumstance I'm in, even when I'm
in an eighteen month old pandemic. Have you learned this yet?
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Have you grown up enough to learn to be content
in whatever circumstance you're in? Let me ask you another question,
says ask God what you want to learn? What have
you learned about yourself in the last eighteen months? Not
what have you learned about the world? What have you
learned about you? And your response? I want you to
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write this down. Every situation is an education. Every situation
is an education. There is no experience in life you
can't learn from. If you'll just have an humble appe
there is no situation, big or small, There is no problem,
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there is no change that you cannot learn from, if
you'll just humbly say Lord, what do you want me
to learn? Every education? Every situation is in education. Number four.
Let me give you the last two quickly. Number four.
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When you're going through changes you don't like, focus on
what never changes. Focus on what never changes. Yeah, there
are a lot of changes going on in our world
right now, and a lot of them we don't like.
They suck. I started to title this message you know
how to trust God when life sucks. There are many
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things that you don't like that are changing, but there's
also many things that will never, never, never, never, never change.
And when you're going through a time of great change,
relentless like we're talking about, and rapid, then when you're
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going through that kind of change, you need to let
the unchangeables be your anchor. What's anchoring you right now?
You need to let the unchangeable things that are never
going to change be your anchor in this time of uncertainty. Now,
I could give you a bunch of them. Let me
just mention three. God's love for you will never change.
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God's truth in his word will never change. God's plan
and purpose for your life will never change. Nothing can
change those things. Look at these three verses Jeremiah thirty one. Three.
I've loved you with an ever lasting love. Nothing's ever
going to change that. He's never going to stop loving
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you no matter what happens. Isaiah forty, verse eight. The
word of God shall stand forever. What he said is
the right thing to do will always be the right
thing to do, and what he said is the wrong
thing to do will always be the wrong thing to
do the word of God will stand forever. So I'm
thirty three eleven. His plans endure forever, and his purposes
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last eternally. Friends, I'm not a prophet and I don't
predict the future, but I will tell you this, and
you can bank on this. God will have the last
word and it's going to be good. You can count
on that God will have the last word and it's
(48:35):
going to be good. It's going to be good. When
you find someone who feels hopeless, it means they're immature
and unwise. Wise people who see from God's perspective are
always hopeful, no matter what it looks like. Not optimistic, hopeful,
big difference. I don't have time to go into that
(48:56):
number five. Here's the fifth thing you need to do.
No matter how long this pandemic goes on, Keep telling God.
In other words, say to this, to God, over and
over every day of your life, I trust you, no
matter what. Keep telling God, I trust you no matter what.
(49:20):
If you do this, you'll be a lot more at peace.
No matter what happens, and how long all these period
of this season of rapid chain lasts, regardless how long
the pandemic lasts. If you do this, God, I trust
you no matter what. I want you to be a
righteous person. Some one twelve verse seven says this, the
(49:45):
righteous man or a woman does not fear bad news
nor live in dread of what might happen. For he
is he settled in his mind or her mind that
God will take care of him. I will trust you
(50:10):
no matter what. I have had to say that thousands
of times in my life, I will trust you no
matter what. I remember when k was going through cancer
treatments and I thought I'm losing her, I'm losing the
love of my life. And I remember saying, Father, I
(50:36):
trust you no matter what, and I'll serve you no
matter what, even if I lose my wife. When our
youngest child lost his lifelong battle with mental illness and
took his life, I had to say, I will trust
(50:59):
you no matter what. Doesn't mean I understand it, and
a thousand other times, I will trust you no matter what.
Anytime anything seems to be falling apart in your life,
my friends say, I trust you no matter what. Now,
(51:26):
right now, you may feel under attack. I'm not talking
about all the stuff we all know what's going on
stuff in society. I'm talking about stuff in your personal life,
and you may feel like you're being attacked from every angle.
I leave you with Psalm twenty seven, verse three. Even
(51:47):
if a whole army surrounds me, I will not be afraid,
And even if enemies attack me from all side, I
will still trust God. That's the kind of life I'm
(52:09):
going to live. I invite you to live it with me.
Let's be different than the world that's power heads. Even
if a whole army surround me, I will not be afraid,
(52:29):
and even if enemies attack me from all sides, I
will still trust God. The righteous man does not fear
bad news nor live in dread of what may happen,
for he is settled in his mind that God will
take care of him. Follow me in this prayer. Just
(52:54):
say it in your mind. Say Dear God, I know
change is unavoidable, but I thank you that you have
promised to use it for good in my life. If
I trust you God, I want to grow up. I
(53:16):
don't want to be a spiritual baby. I want you
to make me more like Jesus with love and joy
and peace and patience and goodness of self control and faith.
And God, you know the people who've hurt me in
my life, and I thank you that you can even
(53:39):
use human error and sin for good if I give
it all to you. Help me to realize that what
I'm going through right now is a test of my faith.
You're testing me and then endurance produces character and care
(54:00):
character produces hope. Help me to remember these things. And Lord,
I want to start doing these practical steps during these
difficult days. I want to invest more time alone with you,
(54:21):
because those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.
Run and not grow weary, walk, keep going and not faint.
And God, I'm asking you to help me see your perspective.
I don't want to just know what everybody else knows.
I don't want information. I want wisdom. I want understanding.
(54:46):
I want to know your ways, God and Father. Instead
of asking and griping about what why is all this
going on? I want to ask what do you want
me to learn? Like Paul, I want to learn to
be content in any and every situation, no matter what happens.
(55:10):
That you are my stability, and you are my energy.
Help me to focus on what never changes. Thank you
that your word will always be the truth. Thank you
that you will never stop loving me. Thank you that
nothing that happens can change your plan or purpose for
(55:32):
my life. And God, I'm going to tell you the
rest of my life, including right now. I trust you
no matter what. I'm going to trust you no matter what.
Maybe you're doing that for the very first time tonight,
(55:54):
say Jesus Christ. I'm trusting you no matter what. You're
opening your life to Christ. Others you're doing it again.
I trust you. I'm going to trust you no matter what.
I surrender myself to you in your name. I pray Amen.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
We hope you've been encouraged by this message. To hear
Pastor Rick's free daily Bible teaching program, download free sermon notes,
or sign up for his free daily devotional just visit
pastorick dot com.
Speaker 3 (56:43):
You will be like God. Human unity with God was severed,
and through it all, God's promise remain true. Follow me, April,
and I will make you great. This is the Chosen People.
(57:04):
Listen to the Chosen People at the Chosen people dot com.
That's the Chosen People. Dot com
Host
Matthew Potter
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