The Growth Choice – Part 3

SPEAKER 01 : 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. Okay, let’s jump right in with Rick as he begins the final part of a message called The Growth Choice.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:40

What does God do when I come to Him with my relapses? Does He go, oh, come on, not that sin again. Can’t you come up with any new ones? You’ve come to me with that sin 9,900 times. Can you come up with any? Come on, I’ve already forgiven you 9,900 times. No, he doesn’t say that at all. God is love. He never tires of forgiveness. He’s waiting on you. So you come to him. The Bible says this. Read it with me. Psalm 103 on the screen. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He keeps me from the grave and blesses me with love and mercy. Not criticizes me with judgment and and scorn. He blesses me with love and mercy. God gives me what I need, not what I deserve. So if you have been stumbling an area, a thing that you’ve had a natural attraction to do, you just need to come to God and say, one more time, Lord, I need your forgiveness. Now that’s not the end of it. There are ways to get over it, but that’s the starting point. And you don’t hold it back. The Bible says God is the healer of the brokenhearted. And when my heart is brokenhearted over something I’ve done again, God says I’m here to heal you. Now there’s three more steps. If I’m gonna make it to the finish line, if I’m gonna be all God wants me to be, I have to fix a daily time with God. I have to fill my mind with his word. I have to focus on the future and what I want, not what I don’t want, all my faults and hangups. I have to forsake and forgive and face my failures instantly, quickly, and then I have to flee temptation, but not fear it. I’m not afraid of it. That’s number five. I flee temptation, but I don’t fear it. So many people, when they’re tempted, get all intimidated by it. Like, whoa, I shouldn’t even be tempted. Oh, yes, you should. Don’t ever let temptation… Listen, it is not a sin to be tempted. So don’t feel guilty about temptation. It’s not a sin to be tempted. It’s a sin to give in to temptation. The Bible says Jesus was tempted in all points like as we, yet he sinned not. That means Jesus experienced every single temptation known to man. Every one of them. But he didn’t give in to it. Temptation is not a sin. It’s what you do with it. You know, have you ever had kind of some just kind of gross thought come through your mind and go, where’d that come from? Or maybe you’re even praying and you’re praying and all of a sudden just some gross thought comes through your mind and you go, where’d that come from? I’ll tell you where it came from, it came from Satan. And you’re not responsible for the thoughts you have, you’re responsible for what you do with those thoughts. When God gives you an idea, we call it inspiration. You’re inspired. When Satan gives you an idea, we call it temptation. What you do with those determine whether it’s good or bad, right or wrong, sin or righteousness. Don’t be intimidated by temptation. Go, well, I know where that one came from. Get out of here, Satan. When he reminds you of your past, you remind him of his future. He doesn’t have one. You do. And so where does that come from? Martin Luther said you can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can’t keep them from building a nest in your hair. Which, by the way, let me explain to both men and women the difference between lust and attraction. Attraction is not a sin. Lust is. It is normal for both men and women to be attracted to beauty. A woman sees a good-looking guy, man, he’s a hunk. It’s like when you look at me. Okay? You can’t keep your eyes off me. That’s no sin. Okay? That’s just normal. Attraction is not lust. It’s what you do with lust. If a good looking woman comes by and a guy goes, wow, she’s good looking. That’s not lust. That’s not lust, friends, that’s attraction. And God wired men to be attracted to women. And God wired women to be attracted to men. That is a normal, God-given attraction. It’s what you do with it. If you start mentally undressing her, if you start wishing you could have sex with her, if you start wanting, I wish I could drop my wife and have her, that’s lust. But attraction is not lust. And a lot of guys go around beating themselves up over God-given attraction. If you’re attracted to women, congratulations, you’re a man. It’s not what the attraction is, it’s what you do with it that makes it wrong. Now as a normal male, if I’m attracted to other women, that doesn’t make it wrong. What makes it wrong is if I acted on it or I thought about it all the time. And maturity is when I don’t act on my attractions, I act on my commitments. Does that make sense? That’s maturity. And God calls us all to act on our commitments. I might, for instance, have a natural attraction if you get mad at me. I might naturally wanna hit you. Doesn’t mean I do it. I might feel anger and I wanna smack your face. But I say, well, I should be able to smack your face because I naturally feel like doing it. Friends, you don’t always get to do what you naturally feel like doing. Does that make sense? That’s called maturity. Okay, so I flee temptation, but I don’t fear it. The temptations come into your mind. You don’t get intimidated by, I know where that came from. Some people think they actually get shamed because I’ve been a Christian 20 years. Why would I have that temptation? Let me let you in on a little secret. The closer you get to God, the harder Satan’s gonna fight you. If you’re not close to God, Satan doesn’t even worry about you, because you’re messing up your own life. But if you get close to God, he’s gonna throw out all the attacks. I wrote a tweet the other day, I’m on Twitter, did you know that? You can follow me at Rick Warren on Twitter and about five or six times a day I put out these little gems of insight and one of them the other day I sent out to young pastors and I said, guys, if you have quick, early success in your ministry and no problems, just realize that Satan is more than happy to wait until you get some notoriety. He’s happy to let you go for a long time and let you become famous. And then he’ll pour out all the attacks. Because he can do more damage that way. So you just need to understand that temptation, you know, I would guess Billy Graham probably got more temptation than maybe anybody. Why? Because Satan wanted to take him down. And if you know, given the right situation, you are capable of anything, and I am too, then you walk humbly before God. Now, it’s not a sin to be tempted, but the Bible says we need to flee it. In fact, look at these verses. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, be alert. Continue strong in the faith. Have courage. Be strong. Circle, be alert. That means you need to know what tempts you, and you need to stay away from it. And there are two things you need to stay away from, tempting situations and tempting associations. Tempting situations, stay away from circumstances, and tempting associations, stay away from people that tempt you. If you don’t wanna get stung, you stay away from the bees. John Baker always says, you hang around a barber shop long enough, you’re gonna get a haircut. It’s true. If you have a problem with alcohol, you don’t go to the bar to eat a sandwich. You just don’t go to a bar. You stay away from it. So you need to know what tempts you, when it tempts you, where it tempts you, who tempts you, and just stay away from those situations. If you get tempted by airport bookstores, don’t go to airport bookstores. If you get tempted by a certain channel, don’t have that channel on your TV. Do you have parental block on your television? I do. And the youngest person in my family at our house is Kay. We don’t have kids at home anymore. But you know what? I don’t want to even be going over the channels, and all of a sudden a picture comes up, whoa, what was that? I don’t even want to see the flicker. So you just got to put a block, a parental block. And if you want me to come over and set the password, I’ll send Rick Machow. You need to avoid tempting situations. You need to avoid tempting associations. Look at the next verse. Don’t be fooled. Bad companions ruin good character. There’s some people you need to stop relating to. There may be some friends who need to not be your friends because it’s always easier. If you’ve got a friend down there, it’s always easier for them to pull you down than for you to pull them up. There’s some friends you need to drop. They’re not friends. If they’re leading you away from Christ, they’re not friends. Bad company corrupts good character. Now there’s so much we could go into on this, but let me just give you two real common areas you need to flee from. One of them is sexual temptation. The Bible says this, 1 Corinthians 6, 18. Saunter away from sexual sin. No, it doesn’t say walk, it says what? Run, my lady, run, run. When Joseph was tempted by a woman in the Old Testament, he left his coat. If you have to leave your coat, you run. You don’t argue and say, no, no, no, I don’t want this, I don’t want this, I don’t want this, I don’t want this, I don’t want this, I don’t want this, I don’t want this. I always tell kids when I was a youth pastor, you don’t make up your mind to be pure in the backseat of a car. You make the decision much, much sooner so you don’t end up in the backseat of a car. Because if you get in the backseat of your car, you’re going by your glands, not your plans. And in that moment, you’re going to lose. Glands win over plans. And so you need to just get out of the situation. Don’t fight it, oh, I’m not gonna have that drink. Oh, I’m not gonna read that magazine. I’m not gonna watch that channel. I’m not gonna lose my temper. No, you just walk out of the situation. Just get away from it, run. Not only that, not just in sex, but how so money? This one might hit a little home here. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, people who want to get rich, fall into temptation and a trap. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. That’s one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible. It doesn’t say money is the root of all evil, it’s not. Money is a tool. But the love of money is a root. It’s one of the three roots of evil. Love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. They’ve sold out for money. But you, man of God… Flee, there’s that word, flee. Flee from greed. Flee from all this. Flee from the desire to make money, number one, in your life. Flee from all this and pursue righteousness, goodness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. He says, you don’t fight it, you flee it, and you go after the good stuff in life. Number six. If I’m going to make it to the finish line, if I’m going to grow continuously, I must form an ongoing support group. Form an ongoing support group. Now I don’t again have to cover this a lot because we talk about small groups all the time here. We have 4,500 of them in our church. But there are two reasons why you need to be in a support group. First is prayer, and the second is encouragement. The Bible says, first, we are confident that God will continue to rescue us. That means he’s gonna recover us, he’s gonna restore us, he’s going to renew us, he’s gonna revive us. This is a recovery verse. We’re confident that God will continue to rescue us since you are also joining to help us. When you pray for us, you need other people in your life. How many times have you heard me say, you’re not gonna get well on your own. You will not get well on your own. If you could, you would. You can’t, you won’t. You need other people. God wired us to need each other. That’s why you have to be in a small group. You have other people praying for you. Do you have anybody praying for you? Are you praying for anybody? You don’t have a small group praying for you. I pity you because you’re out there on your own. You’re helpless. You don’t have anybody else giving you prayer support. I know when people are praying for me. I can feel it. You need people praying for you. You need a small group who support you in the things that you need prayer for. And you need to pray for others. You also need encouragement. The next verse says, we should not… stop gathering together. In other words, don’t give up on your small group. We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing, you’re giving up on your group. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other. You need continuous encouragement. Now, some people say, well, I tried my group and I don’t really like it. Well, let me let you in on a secret. They don’t like you. But just because a group doesn’t work for you once doesn’t mean you give up on groups. Oh, come on. It’s like going to a doctor. Well, I didn’t like a doctor, so I’m never gonna go to a doctor again. Or I didn’t like that restaurant, so I’m never gonna eat out again. It’s the old myth of, well, I’m inconsistent, so I’m not gonna do it. It’s like, oh, I missed a meal yesterday. I’m so inconsistent. If I can’t be consistent, I’m never gonna eat again. No, no. If you miss a meal and you’re inconsistent, what do you do? You make up for it the next meal. And you just eat a little bit more. You don’t say, I’m giving up on eating. I mean, let’s say one of my goals in life was, I know I need eight hours of good sleep every night to honor God and to get done what I need to do. You know, pastor’s lives are kind of like doctors. We’re on call 24 hours a day. And our schedules get messed up. Yesterday I got in bed at 5.30 a.m. And I had to speak twice last night. Now, what would I say? Well, you know, I’m inconsistent in my sleep pattern. I got to bed at 5.30, I was up all night. And if I can’t be consistent, I’m just gonna give up on sleep. I’m never gonna sleep again. No, it’s illogical. Now, if you don’t like your small group, maybe it’s the wrong group, maybe the wrong person, maybe the wrong day, maybe you say, I need something else. Let me tell you, you don’t have to stay in your small group. I’m telling you, as your pastor, you don’t have to stay in that small group, okay? You don’t have to stay, but you do have to be in a group. Number seven. Follow Christ to the finish line. Follow Christ to the finish line. One of the great promises of the Bible is Philippians 1.8. I am sure, that means I’m certain, I’m confident, I know for certain, I am sure that God who began the good work within you will continue, there’s that word again, will continue his work until it is finally finished, circle finally finished, on the day when Jesus Christ comes back. What God starts, he finishes. You may be feeling a little discouraged right now. You may be feeling a little discouraged, but I have a verse for you, Galatians 6, 9. Don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up. For we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time. God brought you here today to say this to you. Don’t give up. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER 01 : 19:58

What a great message today from Pastor Rick. There’s something I always can use in my own life after listening to this show. And now here’s Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

SPEAKER 02 : 20:10

So many of you have written to encourage us here at Daily Hope. And not only me, but our entire staff are encouraged by your notes, your letters. And I’m so grateful for your trust in this ministry. It’s your prayers and it’s your support that help us tell people around the world about the hope of Jesus Christ. Now, one of the ways I can give back to you is through my free daily devotionals. You can sign up for them. If you’re not getting them right now, go to PastorRick.com. That’s PastorRick.com. And sign up to get the free Daily Hope devotionals. By the way, here’s a letter from Holly, who reads the Daily Hope devotionals every day. And she says this, Pastor Rick, I’ve been receiving your daily devotionals for several weeks, and I’ve been overwhelmed by how positively my life has been impacted. My faith has been growing greatly these past couple of years, and now it is growing exponentially. People say they notice joy shining from me, and I know it’s because my heart is being fed every day. And she writes, you know, my story is one that I rarely tell, but as God has brought me through hell and now is showing me the why I went through it all. and it’s beginning to make such perfect sense. She writes, I stand behind you, Pastor Rick, along with thousands of others holding you up in prayer during those moments that maybe even you have second thoughts. Blessings 1,000-fold. Wow. Thank you, Holly. I mean, Holly, you know, everybody needs encouragement, including me, and I especially need your prayers as much as you need encouragement and prayers from others and from God’s Word. You know, I’m always so encouraged when I hear about how God is transforming lives. I love these stories. So tell me your story. You can email me, rick at pastorrick.com. Just email me, tell me your story. And thanks for listening today to Daily Hope. Let’s be on the lookout for how God is working in each of our lives.

SPEAKER 01 : 22:04

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.