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Pastor Rick
Hey, everyone. Thanks for joining us here on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Today, we're continuing with a series called Growing in the Seasons of Life. And in these messages, Rick's gonna share biblical wisdom that you need to live your best life, no matter what stage you're in. And right now, here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called the Season of Financial Stress.
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Co-host
It it is a fact of life that when your outgo exceeds your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall. And everybody goes through this season, regardless of how much or how little money you have. It is a myth that only poor people experience financial stress. In fact, the more you have, the more you have to worry about, the more you have to maintain, the more you have to insure, the more you have to protect, the more you have to consider. And so you will go through this season of financial stress many times in your life because God wants to teach you some lessons. He wants to teach you to trust him. And God, for one reason or another, has used money as an acid test of our faith and our character. Now, does God have anything to say when we go through the seasons of financial stress? Absolutely. There are numerous promises and principles in God's word. One of the most amazing verses in the Bible is Philippians 4:19. I'd like for you to read it with me aloud on your outline. Let's read it together. God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Now, I want you to circle some words on this. First, circle the word all. It says, God will meet all your needs. Now does that include car payments? Yes. Does that include mortgages? Yes. Does that include college tuition? I definitely hope so. I really hope so. On that one, it says, God will meet all your needs. Now that is pretty inclusive. Now I want you to circle the word will. It says, God will meet all your needs. It doesn't say he might. It doesn't say he'll consider it. He'll think about it. It says, God will. This is a promise on which God's character is based. He will meet all your needs. Now circle the word needs. Now notice that it does not say there. God will meet all your greeds. Is there a difference between needs and greeds? Yes. Have you learned the difference between what you need and what you want in life? Those of you who are parents, do you give your children everything they want? No. Of course not. Because if you did, they'd be spoiled brats. And God doesn't want to spoil you either. God has not promised to make everybody millionaires. God has not promised to give everybody a Porsche. He has said, I will meet all your needs, legitimate needs. Now notice he says, according to his glorious riches, in other words, not based on your assets, not based on your bank account, not based on your investments, but on God's assets. In Christ Jesus. Circle the phrase in Christ Jesus. The phrase in Christ Jesus means for those who are Christians, for those who are believers. Now, I need to tell you right here at the start, this is not a promise for everybody. God has not promised to meet everybody's needs in the whole wide world. This is only a promise for those who have put their faith in Christ, for those who've trusted him for salvation, for those who've said, Jesus Christ, I want you to be the CEO, the manager in my life. I want you to call the shots. You be my leader, my guide. You be the president of my life. God says for those of us who do make that commitment, he says, I will meet all your needs, financial and otherwise. Quite a promise. Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking, then how come I've got financial needs? Is God a liar? I mean, is he just making this up? He's just lying. Is he exaggerating a truth? Is this like a pleasant little thought, a positive affirmation? Well, I would hope he meets all my needs. Is he exaggerating? Has he failed the bottom line? Is, is God a liar when he says, I'll meet all my needs and yet all my needs aren't being met? No, God is not a liar. Then why aren't my financial needs always met? Because there are conditions with this promise in the Scripture, every promise has a premise. There are conditions, there are requirements. You can't just take this verse out of context and say, well, you know what? I'll go blow all my money on the horse race and be flat broke and then expect God to meet all my needs? God has not guaranteed to bail you out from stupid decisions you make. That's not what he's saying here. There are specifically, there are five conditions. There are five requirements. And God says if you meet these five requirements, you will never again have to worry about your finances. You will never again. You will have financial struggles because God's going to allow these seasons in your life to teach you faith. But you'll never have to worry about it when you're in this season because you know he's going to take care of you. So what I want to do this morning is I want us to identify these five conditions. That God says, if you do these five things, then I guarantee that you'll never have to worry about your finances again. And then we're going to also hear a story of a couple in our church who went through a season of financial difficulty, a season of stress, and applied these five principles and not only survived the crisis, but thrived during it. And have a tremendous story to share with you. So let's get right into it. Number one, God has promised to meet my needs, all my financial needs, if, number one, I ask for his help. If I ask for his help, you see, God is waiting for you to ask. The Lord never shuts his storehouse until you shut your mouth over 20 times in scripture, the Bible says, ask, ask, and it shall be given. Seek and you'll find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you. And God wants you to learn to ask about financial things, about cars and clothes and shoes and homes and all kinds of material things. God wants you to ask. Now, you see, one of the reasons why we see so few miracles in our lives is we just don't ask for them. And instead of living a life based on Christ, we live a life based on credit. Are you familiar with this? And we have a little thing called credit cards that when we have something that we need in our life, instead of stopping and asking God for it, before we even think about asking God for it, we use that credit card and we trust credit instead of Christ. Now let me give you a little principle. If you want to see God work in your life, here it is. Write this down. I will pray for it before I pay for it. I will pray for it. I'll learn to pray for it before I pay for it. Do you pray about major purchases before you make them? Or you just say, well, let's just go do it. We got a credit card. Every time you use that credit card before you pray about it, you're short circuiting a possible miracle in your life. Now listen, I'm telling you right up front, God is not going to give you everything you pray for. So don't be surprised he's not going to give you everything you pray for. But there are some things he does want to give you just to do a miracle in your life. And many of you have never had a financial answer to prayer because you've never prayed specifically. Notice what the Bible says, James 4. 2. You do not have. Because you do not what? Ask God. He said you don't ask God. And I am just saying, before you charge a purchase, why don't you ask Christ about it first. Give God a chance and let him if he wants to do a miracle. Now, why does God tell me over and over again in the scriptures at least 20 times in the New Testament, he wants me to ask him for things in my life. Well, look at the next verse. Jesus says, you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive so that your joy circle, that will be the fullest possible joy. Do you know why God wants you to learn to ask for things in prayer? So he can give them, so you'll be full of joy. Because God is a loving father. He's not some ogre, some meanie, some guy sitting in the sky waiting to make your life miserable. Deal you a bummer. What he wants to do is bless your life because he's a loving father. You know, I love to give my kids gifts as a father. In fact, I would spoil them rotten if it weren't for my wife, because she has a little good sense in life, and she'll say, you know, Rick, you're giving them too much. I love to give my kids things, and God is that way with you. God is a giver. The Bible says God is love, and you can't love without giving. God is the greatest giver, and so he wants us to learn to be giving, too. When I first fell in love with Kay, I could not keep money in my pocket. I mean, I was spending. Every time I'd turn around, I was buying or something, I'd see something on TV and go, oh, I got to get that for Kay. You know, this kitchen magician, it really looks cool. You know, it looks so. But wait, you get the Ginzu knives with it and the oriental lock steamer. Oh, we got one of those. And I was buying everything. Why? You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. And God loves you, and he wants to give to you. Why? So that your joy will be full. Why? Because the greatest advertisement for Jesus Christ is a happy Christian. And while everybody else all or on your block and in your neighborhood is struggling to keep up with the Joneses and they're going deeper and deeper and deeper in debt, and you're sitting there, and all of a sudden there's one house on the block that's going, we don't pay for it. We pray for it first. We give God a chance to get it. And look what God did. He provided this. You can write it out. This. That's a testimony. And it shows to the world what kind of God God really is. Does that make sense? The first condition for you to have all your needs met is you must be willing to ask. Now, God knows what you need in advance, but he's not going to give it until you ask. God didn't save you until you asked. And God won't provide for some of the needs in your life until you first ask. Learn to be specific. Number two. God has promised to meet all my financial needs if I learn to be content. If I learn to be content. Because God is much more interested in my character than in my comfort. So he's not going to give me things if I haven't learned this principle first. Contentment. Now, what is contentment? Contentment is not not having financial goals. You ought to have financial goals. In fact, the Bible says you ought to plan your spending. You ought to budget. All through the book of Proverbs, it teaches us principles of spending, principles of investing, principles of tithing, principles of saving. And all these principles you must follow if you want God's blessing in your life. And one of them is the principle of learning to be content. Now, contentment, as I said, is not having no ambition. It's, well, I don't have any ambitions for life. It's not having any goals. No, that's not it at all. Contentment is this. Would you write it down? Contentment means my happiness doesn't depend on circumstances. My happiness doesn't depend on circumstances. How do you know when you're not content? Well, when you're not content, you fall prey to what I call when and then thinking. When and then thinking. And it goes like this. When I get this car, then I'm going to be happy. When we get this house, then we're going to be happy. When I get that dress, when I develop that retirement account, when we retire, when I am financially secure, then I'll be happy. No, you won't. I want to tell you. You won't. Because things do not bring lasting happiness. They do for a while, but the happiness wears off. Why? Because things don't change and you do. Why is it that you want to redecorate your house every so often? Because things don't change and people do. And so that painting that used to really thrill you, you can't stand anymore, or that bedspread you thought was so cool when you got it, you don't like it anymore. Why? Things don't change. And we're made to like change. We're made to like variety. And so we want to get a new model car and we want to do all These other things and we become discontent. Now, how do you eliminate discontent? Well, the way you learn to be content is by eliminating the cause. And the cause of discontent is always the same thing. It's comparing. Comparing is what causes discontent. Now, in Orange county, we have made comparing an indoor sport. We compare everything in this county. We compare lawns. Is this greener? We compare cars, we compare husbands and wives, we compare clothes. We even compare the education of our kids and put little stickers as. My kid was student of the Month. I like the one that says my kid was inmate of the month at Chino Prison. But we are incessantly comparing everything around us. And whenever you compare, you're always going to become discontent. You got to learn to stop comparing yourself to others. Most of you know I am a computer nut and I love state of the art computers. And a while back I got the top, primo, top of the line computer. I mean, it had everything on it. And I got this. And when I got it and I unpacked it, I want to note I was happy. There is happiness in things for a little while. But, you know, it wore off because just a few, I mean, it was minutes or hours later, I don't remember when it was. I picked up the latest issue of PC magazine, opened it up and the new model had come out and I'm going, they sold me last week's model and all my joy just went blur. I mean, I thought I had the screaming machine and now it was already out of date before I had even used it. And boy, was I upset. Now you know what I'm talking about. You get a new stereo and you put it in. You go, wow, look at this, this sounds so great. And then you go next door and they just got one that has twice the power. And the speakers are this big and they're hidden and you can't even find them. And it gives this surround sound that gives you goosebumps, bumps on your goosebumps. And all of a sudden your little Radio Shack version isn't worth it anymore. Comparing always gets you in trouble. You gotta learn to be content. Notice what Paul says. Philippians 4:12. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of contentment in every situation. Circle the word, learn. Contentment is something you have to learn. It does not come natural by nature. Human beings are not content by nature. We are discontent. And so God says, I want you to learn to be content. And if you'll do this, then I promise to meet all your financial needs first. Timothy 6, 8 says this. There is a great gain in Godliness combined with contentment. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. Now, you know that's true. I mean, I know that's true. You didn't bring anything in the world. I was there at the birth of my three kids. I was in the Lamaze thing. And when they all popped out, not one of them had a boombox on their shoulder, you know, and I've been at the funerals. And when you die, you don't cram a whole bunch of goodies into the coffin with you and take it with you. Now listen, one of the greatest secrets in life, in learning to be happy and peace of mind, is to realize that you really don't own anything. You really don't own anything. It's all on loan to you. For about 80 years, you didn't bring a single thing into this world. And you're not going to carry anything out of it either. You just get to use it while you're here on Earth. The Bible calls that stewardship that you are the manager or you are the steward of what God allows you to have while you're here. But it's not really yours because you're not going to take it with you and you didn't bring it in in the first place. And if God wanted you to lose it, you could lose it all overnight in a dozen different ways. So when you have this idea of I'm just a manager of. Of the blessings God allows in my life, and you hold them with an open hand, you're not always grasping, you're not always hoarding, you're not always uptight about, what if I lose it? Well, so what if you lose it? God can turn off one faucet and turn on another just as easily. You learn to be content. Why? Because things don't last. What does last? Your character. And God's far more interested, as I said, in your character than. Than in your comfort. Now, if you only intend to use your wealth in life for personal selfishness, why should God help you in that? If you buy into the myth of thinking that having more will make me more happy, why should God affirm that myth in your life if you think that that life really consists in he who dies with the most toys wins. God is not going to subsidize your addiction. God is under no obligation to meet all your needs if you think that money is what life's all about. And so he says, the second condition for Me to meet all your needs is you got to have the right attitude toward money, that you love God and use money. You love people, use money. You're verseless to you, you get in trouble. If you start loving money, you're going to start using people and you get them out of order. So what I'm saying is that God's not going to indulge your greed, so he watches your attitude. Let me ask you a very personal question. Could God trust you with wealth? Can God trust you with wealth? I'm not really sure. Why? Well, yes, I do know why. But God has chosen the handling of money to be the acid test in this life of your faith and your character. And in scripture it says that God watches how you handle money, how you save it, spend it, share it, give it all these things as an acid test of your character and your faith. Why? Because we spend our entire lives trying to get it, save it, make it, use it. It envelops our life so much. So God has chosen money as an acid test of your faith. And if you don't learn contentment, you're never going to be happy. A while back in Money magazine, they did an article on the affluence of Orange County. And they reported in this article that the median income in Orange county is 80% higher than the rest of America. 80% higher. But when they surveyed Orange county residents, every income strata said the same thing. We need more than we have. And they asked them, how much more do you need? And the answer was average of 20 to 40% more. If we could have 20 to 40% more income, then we'd be happy. Now, when it comes to wealth, listen to the voices of people who've been at the top. John D. Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest men in American history. I have made many, many, many millions, but they brought me no happiness. I would barter it all away for the days when I sat on a stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on $3 a day. John Vanderbilt. Listen to this. The care of $200 million is a burden too great for for any brain or back to bear. It is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it. Andrew Carnegie once said, millionaires seldom smile unless they know the Lord. Howard Hughes was once asked, how much more does it take to make a man happy? He said, just a little bit more. That's a little bit more. I don't know if you saw today's Register on page 16, Sunday edition. They did a study of lottery winners and they discovered that the average amount of Happiness that it brings to the lottery winner lasts. Listen, Three months. Three months. Because unless you learn contentment, you'll always want more, no matter how much you've made. Number three. If God is going to meet all my needs the way he guarantees, he says I will meet them if I ask for his help. If I learn to be content. And number three, if I practice giving in faith. If I practice giving in faith. Now, this is the law of the harvest. This is a long passage of scripture here, but it has a lot of truth into it. So I want you to read it with me. Notice it says, remember this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He's talking about planting seed. And whoever sows generously will also reap what generously. Now, he says each one of you should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. That means under pressure. For God loves a cheerful giver. Now, let me stop here before we go on. If you ever feel pressured to give, don't. If somebody ever comes to your door and pressures you to give, or you watch a TV show and feel guilt and pressured to give, or you hear a preacher pressuring you to give, don't. Because you don't get any credit for that kind of gift. It says, God loves a cheerful giver. And God is looking not at the amount you give, but at the attitude. And if you're giving it out of pressure or guilt, it doesn't count. So the next time somebody pressures you to give some money somewhere, you just say, I don't have to give, because my pastor said I don't have to. And I'm telling you, you don't have to. Because God says you don't have to. Because you don't get any credit if you give it with the wrong attitude anyway. Get it? Good. Now, it says, God loves a cheerful giver. But it says it's the way you sow. Now, you know this principle of sowing and reaping. And the principle of sowing and reaping applies to every area of life, not just finances. That whatever you sow in life you're going to reap. Whatever you deposit is going to be returned to you. If you sow criticism in life, you are going to reap criticism from other people. Just count on it. If you, on the other hand, sow kindness in life, you're kind to people, count on it. You're going to reap kindness in your life. It's a law of the harvest. If I plant apple seeds I don't get pears, I get apples. If I plant pear seeds, I don't get oranges, I get pears. Whatever I sow, I'm going to reap in life. If I sow generously financially, I will reap generously, financially. If I sow energy, I will reap energy. That's the whole principle behind when you go to Family fitness and you work out and you expend energy, the result of that is the next day you actually have more energy because you worked out. You have more energy by expending energy than you would as if you sat home and watched Matlock and ate chips and dips on the couch, you wouldn't have more energy the next day. So whatever you sow, you're going to reap. Now, when a farmer looks out at his barren field and he knows if I don't get any crops, I'm going bankrupt, he doesn't start griping about it and go, oh, my barren field. He just goes out and starts sowing, planting some seed. And if he only has a little bit of seed, he has a choice. I can either eat this seed, what I've got, hold onto it, hoard it, hold onto it and eat it, or I can give it away. If he holds onto it, that's all he's got. But if he gives it away in the economy of this world, God has set it up that when you give it away, God multiplies it back to you. And the amazing thing is this. You don't just sow what you. You reap what you sow. You. You always reap more than you sow. For instance, if you are critical of somebody, you're gonna get more criticism back than you gave out. If you go sue somebody, guess what they're more likely to do? Countersuit at a bigger price. This is the law of life. For instance, in the physical world, if you plant two bushels of wheat, are you gonna get back two bushels of wheat? No. You plant two bushels, you will get back, you can expect an average of 67 bushels back. If you plant 3 bushels of oats, you will harvest, on average, 79 bushels of oats back. This is amazing. If you plant just seven and a half pounds of corn, seven and a half pounds of corn,. You will reap 120 bushels of corn back. Now, those of you who are home gardeners understand this. I had to learn this the hard way. One day I said, I want some tomatoes. So I went out and I bought. I said, Well, I like 18 tomatoes. So I bought 18 tomato plants and I planted them. Good night. I had no idea how productive those things were. I was begging people to take my tomatoes. I was throwing them at neighbors. I mean, I was just throwing. Take a. Please take it. I had more tomatoes than I can imagine. You always reap more than you sow.
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Pastor Rick
Hey everyone. Thanks for listening to Pastor Rick's daily Hope. We're so glad you're here. I really hope that you were as touched and blessed by this broadcast as I was. And now, here's Rick to tell you about today's offer.
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Rick Warren
It doesn't matter how much you work out or how healthy you eat. If you're not feeding and exercising your spirit, you're going to feel run down and tired. You're going to run out of gas. Maybe you've been feeling that way lately. Often it's not what you eat, it's what's eating you. And the truth is you've got to do more than just take care of your body. You've got to energize your spirit. Now, now, the best way to do that is to get into God's word. It's the soul food. It's the spiritual food for your soul. And that's why I put together a new interactive guide called Re Energize youe Life. This resource will help you learn everything you need to know to re energize your life the way God intended. And so what it does is just step by step, you begin a journey of personal renewal. And it's a hands on guide, very practical, to take you at your own pace. You don't have to rush this. Okay? This is not a book or a journal that you go through fast. In fact, I encourage you to stop and spend time in each section where you need the most encouragement. You'll not only benefit from the biblical wisdom that's included, but you're gonna learn how to apply it to your life in practical ways. Now let me just mention a couple of things that you're gonna discover in Re Energizing your Life. You're gonna learn the steps to how to let Jesus lighten your load. Does that sound good? You need your load lightened? Well, we talk about it. In Re Energizing your Life, you're gonna learn the three biblical steps for managing stress the way Jesus did. You're going to learn five ways to build margin into your life. Very important principle. And even the principle of the Sabbath is a margin principle. You're gonna learn how to determine what matters most a lot of the confusion and fatigue comes in your life. It's because we give major attention to minor things. Not everything in your life matters. Not everything has to get done. We can help you learn to clarify the difference between what's urgent and what's important. There's a whole lot more that I don't have time to get into, but the pages of Re Energize youe Life Journal are packed with full color devotionals and Bible verses and teaching that's gonna dramatically impact your spiritual life. Not just today, but forever. So don't miss out. I hope you'll get this resource that we wanna provide to you through Daily Hope.
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Pastor Rick
Just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's pastorrick.com or just text the word hope to 70309 that's that's the word. Hope to 70309 and thanks so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere. Hey, be sure to join us next time when we look into God's Word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.
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Co-host
Sa.