Letting Go and Letting God – Part 2

SPEAKER 02 : 0:02

Hey everyone, it’s so great to have you with us today on Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. We are going to continue our very encouraging series today called Life’s Healing Choices. And in these lessons, Rick Warren will guide us through a deep biblical exploration of how to overcome the hurts, hang-ups, and habits that really hold us back. So get ready for some practical insights and powerful truths that can lead to lasting change and freedom in your life. And now, here’s Rick with the final part of a message called Letting Go and Letting God.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:40

God gave us the Bible to be an authority. You say, well, I don’t want an authority in my life. Well, I hate to tell you this, but you’re already controlled by something. As Bob Dylan used to sing years ago, you’re going to have to serve somebody. Right now, you’re controlled by something. You may be controlled by popular culture. And so you buy a certain kind of car because everybody else buys that kind of car. You may be controlled by the opinions of others or the approval of your parents. You may be controlled by your husband or your wife. You may be controlled by your own desires, appetites, and drives. You may be controlled by an addiction or a habit. You may be controlled by a memory. But I want to tell you something. Everybody in this room is controlled by something. You may even be controlled by your own ego. Everybody’s controlled by something. God gave us the Bible for four reasons. Notice the next verse. It says there, all scripture is inspired by God and it is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. Notice the four things. It’s useful to teach us what is true, number one. Number two, it makes us realize what’s wrong in our lives. Number three, it straightens us out And number four, it teaches us to do what is right. That’s why God gave us this signpost called the Bible. Here’s a letter that represents the difference the Bible can make in your life. Dear Pastor Rick, I was raised in a good Christian home and we went to church every week, but for years I made myself the authority for what was right and wrong. Instead of following God’s standard, I just made up my own. I thought I knew what would make me happy. Even though I knew what the Bible said, I often ignored it thinking it was impractical or uncomfortable. I didn’t want anything cramping my style. I made a lot of money in business, but the feeling of success would fade quickly and I turned to an illicit affair to fill the hole in my heart. In my heart, I knew adultery was wrong, but true to form, I made up all kinds of excuses for ignoring God’s standard, for having an affair, and eventually for justifying my divorce. Next, I tried partying and pleasure, alcohol and cocaine were the order of the day. It gave me a way to mask my pain and deny what I had become, totally self-centered and egotistical. In spite of all the hurt that I caused her, my girlfriend agreed to marry me. And in 1994, as my wife, she told me enough was enough. I knew I had to get my life together. I was going to lose both my wife and my little daughter. So I stopped going to bars, but I continued drinking at home every night. At my wife’s urging, we started to come on Saddleback in 1996. Every Sunday, always nursing a hangover, the music would move me to tears and your message from God’s word gave me hope that God still loved me and could change me. One Sunday I heard a testimony that was just like my story. It made me realize how much unnecessary pain I had caused by ignoring God’s commandments. But it also gave me hope that God could straighten out my life if I just start following His Word and trusting Jesus Christ to guide my life. So in 1996 I began attending Celebrate Recovery. What I found was a bunch of guys who had nothing but love in their hearts and a desire to follow God’s Word in order to get healthy. Five years later, my life is completely changed for the better. Jesus Christ has become the most important person in my life. My wife and I were baptized and joined Saddleback, and God’s word has become my guidebook for living every day. This week, my dad passed away on Wednesday. He was a devout believer, and I now have the peace that I will see him again in heaven because I’ve put my trust in Christ too. I don’t always understand why God commands us to do certain things, but I have learned that when I trust him and I follow the directions, I always end up in a better place than I could have imagined. And I might add, you end up with less stress, too. Now why should I depend on God’s word? Why should I make this book my standard? If God says do it, I do it. If God says don’t, I don’t. Tell you why, because it’s dependable. Why is it dependable? Because it doesn’t change. Fads change, opinions change, even science changes. Today, by the time a science textbook is in print, it’s already out of date. A couple weeks ago, I threw out a list, a stack of computer books about that big because they’re all worthless now, they’re irrelevant. Wrong operating systems, wrong programs, et cetera. Everything else changes, but God’s word doesn’t change because the truth never changes. And God’s laws don’t change. When Alan Shepard, who was the first American astronaut in space, was interviewed by a reporter before the first space shot, the reporter asked him, on what are you depending? And Alan Shepard said that God’s laws will not change. Pretty good answer. I mean, what do you think if, say, gravity worked every other day? Would that kind of cramp your style? I would think so. God’s laws are immutable. They are unchanging. And if you want to get healthy again emotionally, if you want to get healthy again relationally, if you want to get healthy again physically or any other way, you just need to make Jesus Christ the manager of your life and you need to make God’s word the authority of your life. And you need to commit the commitments that David did in Psalm 119. Look at these. I have made up my mind to obey your laws forever, no matter what. Have you made that commitment? Have you made that commitment to obey God’s laws forever, no matter what? That’s a stress reliever. How about the next one? I will never lay aside your laws, for you have used them to restore my joy and health. God says, I’ll restore your joy and health if you just do what I tell you to do, follow the instructions. Meekness, letting go and letting God is saying, God, I really believe you’re smarter than me. So I’m gonna do what you tell me to do. Pastor Tom is gonna come and teach.

SPEAKER 01 : 7:17

On the back of your outline, the second E in meekness, if I wanna really enjoy God’s power in my life is to embrace God’s spirit as the power for my life. When you take a look at God’s Word and what it says and how we’re to live life, are there some things in here that seem a little difficult to do? In fact, even some that seem impossible to do? How about that one, don’t worry about anything? Is that tough for any of you like it is for me? How about that one, don’t ever grumble about anything? You ever struggle with that one? You begin to look through this book and you think, that’s impossible. I can’t love everyone. I can’t do that. If you’ve ever felt that way, congratulations. You’re in exactly the right spot. Because you’ve realized the power doesn’t come from you, it comes from God. It comes from what only God can do. It’s His power that makes the difference. God never asks us to do anything without being willing to provide us the power to do it. Look at this verse from Ezekiel 36. I will put my spirit in you and I will enable you to live by my laws. The secret of power in life, the secret of reducing stress in life is living life not by your willpower but by God’s power. Galatians 3, verse 10 says, anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. One of the reasons you and I face so much stress is we try to do it on our own. When God is willing and able to give us the power that we need to live life. You see, meekness is really about two words that we don’t like. It’s about submitting and surrendering. And those are scary words for us. A month or so ago when I had surgery to repair my Achilles tendon, the surgery part of it didn’t really make me as nervous as that part where they were gonna put me to sleep and I wasn’t gonna know what was going, don’t look at me like you wouldn’t worry about that kind of stuff. Whenever we’re out of control and whenever we feel like we have to give control to somebody else we worry about that. But if I was going to get healthy again I had to submit and surrender to some doctors who knew how to do what I didn’t know how to do. If you’re going to get healthy again you’ve got to submit and surrender to God who knows how to do and can give you the power to do what you can’t do on your own. One of the greatest tragedies of life is the fact that because we’ve been hurt in human relationships people we’ve trusted have let us down. Times that we have let somebody’s promise begin to change our lives and we found out they didn’t mean it at all. We feel like that maybe we can’t trust God either. The truth is do not let those human relationships that have let you down keep you from trusting the only one who will never let you down. You can trust him in any and every circumstance to give you the power that you need. He will never hurt you. The fact is, you and I are saved by God’s grace. That’s how we’re forgiven. But we also live by His grace. It’s the same grace that gives us the power to live. Look at this verse in your outline from Galatians chapter 3. Would you read it with me? You began your life in Christ by the Spirit. Now are you trying to make it complete by your own power? That is foolishness. As we grow older and older as Christians the longer you are a believer in Christ the more you begin to struggle with trying to do God’s will on your own power. Suppose I got on a 747 headed to Dallas. And about halfway to Dallas when we get up in the air I just start sitting in my seat I start doing this. I hope you get the point here because I know how goofy I look doing this. So I really hope you are going to get this point. And the flight attendant comes by and says, what in the world are you doing? And I say, well, I’m just trying to help the plane along. I feel like I could use a little help. Ridiculous. But we do the same thing. We try to help. We try to worry a little bit for God to help him along. And when life gets difficult, what do we do? Instead of trusting him more, we just flap faster. And some of you are worn out from flapping. You’re just exhausted. You know what you need to do? Lean back and rely on God’s power, a power to do what you cannot do. Captain Howard Rutledge was shot down over North Vietnam while flying on combat mission, and for the next seven and a half years was a prisoner of war in various POW camps, including the infamous Hanoi Hilton. The conditions were inhumane and unspeakable that he faced. He was tortured repeatedly. He was left in solitary confinement for five solid years. When he was finally released he wrote a book about how he and the other prisoners kept their hope alive entitled, In the Presence of Mine Enemies. And in that book he wrote, nobody can teach you to survive the brutality of being alone in a dark, filthy, smelly, infested, cramped cell. At first you panic. You want to cry out. You fight back waves of fear. You want to die, to confess, to do anything to get out of that ever-shrinking world. One time I was tortured continuously for 28 days. and then put back into cuffs and irons in solitary confinement. I couldn’t move for five days. The humidity was unbearable and I developed heat rash that turned into about 60 one-inch boils all over my body. Day after day I sat in my own filth and odor, helpless to the insects and rats that crawled across my body. The sights and smells of death were all around me. But my hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak. I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die. To talk to God and to Christ. But in the heartbreak of solitary confinement, there was no pastor, no Bible, no hymn book, no community of believers to guide me and sustain me. All I had was my relationship to Christ. The Bible verse that kept all of us going was, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Now if God… and His power could keep a man going for eight years in a POW camp. Don’t you think that God and His power can help you to face what you’re having to face today? He has the power to make a difference. He has the strength to do what you cannot do. That verse, Philippians 4.13 is in your outline. Would you read it with me? I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.

SPEAKER 03 : 14:03

The fourth way to let go and let God is to keep Jesus the focus of my life. I make Jesus the manager of my life, I establish God’s word as the authority of my life, I embrace God’s spirit as the power for my life, and I keep Jesus Christ as the focus of my life. That is a stress reliever. Hebrews 12, two says, we must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. Do you remember when Peter was walking on water, that miracle out there in the Bible? as long as he kept his eyes on jesus he’s doing the impossible what nobody could do but when he took his eyes off jesus he looks down at the water he sank and the reason why some of you are sinking today is you’ve got your eyes on your problem you’ve got your eyes on your circumstance you’ve got your eyes on the difficulty you’ve taken your eyes off the lord When I’m driving, I tend to get distracted very easily. And my wife constantly says, Rick, keep your eyes on the road. Keep your eyes. One time I got so distracted, I actually missed a plane flight to a speaking engagement because I missed the turnoff to LAX. And about the time I got to Canada, I figured out, hey, you know, I should have turned off back there. And some of you have spiritual ADD. It’s easier to get spiritually distracted even than physically distracted, to get your eyes off the Lord. Some of you have started with God in the past. You’ve started down a road to recovery. You’ve started down getting healthy again, but you’ve relapsed into your old patterns of grief, of guilt, of shame, of habits and hurts and hangups. And you’ve relapsed because you took your eyes off the Lord. You put them on yourself, you put them on another person, you put them on a job opportunity, whatever, but you took your eyes off the Lord and you start sinking again. Proverbs 25, 15, read it with me. If I keep my eyes on God, I won’t trip over my own feet. You won’t get distracted, you won’t get off course. Look at the next verse. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do. Everywhere you go. He’s the one who will keep you on track. You know, for centuries, sailors used the Polaris principle, which means they would look to the North Star to navigate across the seas. And the reason they would always keep their eyes on the North Star is because it doesn’t change. And so they know where it is, and so they know if that’s where that is, and I’m here, then here’s where I need to go. They could navigate based on something unchanging in their life. You need a North Star in your life. You need something that never, ever changes. That rules out every human being because people change. So you can’t put your faith for your life in another human being. You have to have something that doesn’t change. Of course, now you don’t need the North Star. We have these things. which are GPS units, global positioning satellite units. It’s a Magellan little thing here. I can flip it on, and because it’s connected to an unchanging point of reference, then I can figure out where I am, where I need to go, and how to get there. Everybody needs a GPS for life. And that’s what Jesus Christ is. If you’ll put your focus on him, he is unchanging. And while everything else around you is changing, the people around you, they’re not going to be with you forever. But Jesus will. You need an unchanging position and focus on him. Now these four secrets of letting go and letting God, make Jesus the manager of my life, make God’s word the authority of my life, make this Holy Spirit the power in my life, and make Jesus Christ the focus of my life, they’re all summed up in step three on this road to getting healthy again. They’re on your outline. Step three says this. consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control. This is the commitment step of getting healthy again. If you don’t make this one, you can’t take any of the rest of the steps. There has to be a point where you say, okay, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna commit all of my life and will to God. Now, there’s one thing that will keep you from doing that. A lack of trust. It takes trust to take step three. But why wouldn’t you trust God? Why wouldn’t you trust the creator who made you, who loved you, and sent his son to die for you? Why would you not trust God? Do you realize that you trust your life to total strangers every single day? You do it all the time. John Baker told me about the time that he and Cheryl were taking a vacation in Northern California and they were going up in the mountains behind one of these windy roads where you couldn’t see behind the curve. And they got behind one of these long semi trucks. And there were about 10 or 12 cars lined up behind this truck that was going slow up the mountain. And nobody could pass because nobody could see around the curve to see if it was safe to pass. but the one guy who could see was the trucker. And so periodically, he would motion outside his window to come on around, and one car would gingerly go on around, trusting that this guy could see what they couldn’t see. So finally, one car after another began to pass this truck, and eventually it came up to John’s turn. And he said, you know, he looked out, and here was this arm motioning him around, and so he pulled out around the truck to go around this curve, and he said, all of a sudden, it hit me. Not a car. He said, an idea hit me. I am trusting the lives of my entire family to a total stranger. I don’t know this guy. For all I know, he could be on Quaaludes. He could have been up all night. He’s tired, he’s blurry, he’s drunk. In fact, I have never even seen him. All I can see is his burly, hairy arm. I’m trusting a hairy arm with a mom tattoo on it. I haven’t even seen the guy. And I’m putting the lives of my entire family on the basis of an arm. Now you do this all the time. You trust your life to total strangers every day. When you go through an intersection that’s green, you’re trusting that some idiot at the red light will not go through it and plow into you. When you go eat at a fast food restaurant and some teenager hands you your food, you don’t know what, he could’ve spit in it for all you know. You have no idea, you are trusting your life to a total stranger. When you came in, you sat on that chair trusting that I hadn’t removed all the screws out of it. Every day of your life, you trust, you can’t live without faith. You all have faith, everybody has faith. You just, it’s what you put it in. Why would you not put it in God? Why would you not put it in God? So are you ready to take this step? Notice the benefits. The payoff for meekness is plenty and honor and a satisfying life. Sounds pretty good. But this decision has to be made over and over. Some of you have made this step three. You consciously have chosen to commit your life and will to Christ’s care and control. But it’s not enough just to do it one time in your life. You’ve got to do it every single day of your life. Step three, you do over and over and over and over. Moment by moment basis if you need to. You have to do it on a daily basis because it’s a constant decision. Who’s going to be in charge, me or God? The last verse says this. Don’t be anxious about tomorrow. In other words, let go and let God. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Let go and let God. Live one day at a time. Let go and let God. Are you ready to take step three in this journey to health, emotional, physical, spiritual health? Now is the time. Let’s bow our heads. Now the truth is, you let something or someone control or lead your life all the time. You may have surrendered your life to the goal of making money. You may have surrendered your life to another person and their approval. You know, if I don’t do this, my spouse or my girlfriend will break up with me You may have surrendered your life to a habit, to a memory. Your life may be controlled by a hurt you can’t let go of, a resentment you can’t let go of, a hang-up. You may be controlled by the approval or opinion of your parents or popular culture. Here’s my question. Has what you’ve been living for up to this point made the life that you’ve always wanted? Or… Has it betrayed you and left maybe an emptiness that you really don’t like to admit? This is a daily struggle, folks. Who’s going to be in charge of your life? And no doubt some of you are locked in a WWF match with God over this. And you may think you’re the rock, but you’re up against the rock of ages. You’re going to lose. Your arms are too short to box with God. Why box with somebody who loves you, made you, sent his son to die for you, and knows what will make you happy more than you do? Are you ready to take step three? Then I invite you to pray this prayer in your heart. Say, God, I want to stop quarreling with you. I want peace at last. I want things to go well. And so I want you to be in the driver’s seat, Jesus. And I give myself to you. I want to learn to trust you. I want to place myself under your authority. I want to do what your word says to do. I’ve made up my mind that I’m going to obey you from this day forward no matter what. You will be my standard for right and wrong. And I ask you to put your spirit in me to enable me to live by your principles. I know I can’t live apart from you, but I ask you to give me the strength to face all conditions by the power of Jesus Christ. Help me to keep my eyes on you, Jesus. Help me to listen to your voice. Keep me on track. I consciously choose to commit all my life and all my will to your care and your control, Jesus Christ. And most of all, I ask you to help me to live this one day at a time. In your name I pray. Amen. You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the very first time or you just recommitted your life to Jesus again today, would you let me know about it? There’s something real about sharing your commitment. So write me, Rick, at PastorRick.com and say, Rick, I prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ. And I’ll send you some material that will help you on your journey with Jesus, and I’ll also pray for you. God bless you.

SPEAKER 02 : 25:43

What a great and timely word from Pastor Rick. And now here’s Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

SPEAKER 03 : 25:50

Today, I want to share a letter from a listener named Joanne, who wanted to make sure that her neighbor understood what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. Now, I’ve edited Joanne’s letter to help with the flow, but here’s what she writes. Dear Pastor Rick, this morning my neighbor and I were listening for the second time to the last segment from the What on Earth Am I Here For DVD study kit. Now, we’ve been going through this study for the last eight weeks in a small group, but the two of us listened again to this segment because I wanted to make sure that my neighbor understood her salvation and that she had perfect assurance that she was saved, that there was no doubt in her mind. Well, we had a wonderful session as we watched you teach us how to have a relationship with Jesus and how to believe God’s promises to know for sure that we are saved for eternity. Well, Pastor Rick, we bowed our heads as you led in that salvation prayer, and when the DVD was over, we reviewed what we had learned, and now my neighbor knows for absolute certainty that she’s a child of God, she’s saved, she’s going to heaven. And next week, we’re going to start the Healing Choices DVD study kit, which we’re both very excited to start this new study. Joanne, I am overwhelmed by your note, and thank you so much for taking the time to write me. I love reading these letters, for caring enough about your neighbor. that you made extra sure that she understood the most important thing in life, how to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, how to follow him on a daily basis. So thank you for your encouragement. I’m glad I’m encouraging you, but you are encouraging me. And may God continue to use all the resources that Daily Hope produces to help you and others win our friends to Christ.

SPEAKER 02 : 27:38

Hey, if you’d like to let Rick know how this broadcast has blessed you, he would love it. Please feel free to send him an email at rick at pastorrick.com. That’s rick at pastorrick.com. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God’s word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support.