How To Trust God When You Don't Like the Changes In Your Life—Part One

Announcer: Hello everybody. Thank you so much for joining us here on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. Well, today we're continuing in this timely series called Strategies for Stressful Times. In this series, Pastor Rick shares timeless truths from God's word that will help you manage stress, overcome worry, and experience the peace and stability that only God can provide. This is a message I know we'll all get a lot out of. Here is part one on how to trust God when you don't like the changes in your life.
Pastor Rick Warren: This week, in part three of the strategies for stressful times. I want us to look at 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 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 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. They are literally reeling, and so many people, maybe you 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 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 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 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, 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. 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 the way things have been, they're not going to 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 going to keep changing. Every moment of your life, you are changing for good or for bad. Now, when God created the earth, way back in the beginning, here's the one of the first things he said in Genesis 8 verse 22. As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, 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 the same that you used to be. As I said, even inanimate 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 20 years. Why? I liked it. Okay? I didn't I don't buy a car for for bling or to to show my status. It got me the same way a Rolls-Royce would and it was comfortable. And frankly, I would have driven that 20-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, 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 I don't drive it anymore. Now, I've taught this for decades. Look there on 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. 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 tummy to get bigger 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 ladies want to testify to that right now? 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 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 lives of those who trust him. One of the greatest promises of the Bible, Romans 8:28. We know, 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, 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 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 know how to make them. I once made a German chocolate cake from scratch, no box, for my wife's birthday. 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, it doesn't taste good. You eat butter by itself, it doesn't taste good. If you eat baking powder by itself, oil by itself, it 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 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. And you go, 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 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? It's 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 in that verse that we just looked at on your outline, Romans 8:28, 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 him. That means all. It literally means all. It means every 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 18 months, all work together for the good of those who love God. You know, some people act as if God was caught off guard by COVID-19. 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 it was going to do to all my churches. Man, am I in a mess? God is not sweating this pandemic. The church has outlasted everything for 2,000 years. Every dictator, every pandemic, every fire, every flood, every revolution, every critic, it's 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 of rapid change and relentless change, are you going to be bitter or are you going to be better? The difference is the letter I. The difference between 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 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 8:28 is a wonderful promise, but it doesn't really make sense until you read the next verse, Romans 8:29. 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 work together for the good of everybody. No, 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 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 to develop the family characteristics of a daughter of God or a son of God, a child of God. Like Father, like son, 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. 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 60 or 80 or 90 or at the most 100 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 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 2 verses 23 and 24, 22 and 23. They're called 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, meekness, kindness, self-control. These nine qualities are a perfect picture of Jesus. Now, 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 zap. There's no pill you can take, no seminar you can attend that's going to 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 you this before, but I'll tell it to you again. By putting you in the exact opposite situation where you get a chance 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 them right now. Don't hit them in the elbow with your elbow. Be cool. But God puts people around you who get on your nerves to teach you real love. They're heavenly sandpaper, they're rubbing roughing down your rough edges. Anybody can love the lovely. How do you learn to love the unlovely the way Jesus 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, at a bonfire at the beach and the sun setting, man, it doesn't get any better than this. Anybody can be happy fly fishing in the mountains. If God's going to 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 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, delayed doctors' appointments, and on. Anytime 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 more patience, and my problems got worse. Lord, I need more patience, it got worse. Finally after six months, I realized, I'm a lot more patient than when I started out. It's easy to be patient when everything goes your way. Have you thought about maybe the last 18 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 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? And on and on and on. This is a school we're in right now. And God's watching. Change is not always good, but God uses it for good and the purpose is to always make me more like Jesus.
Announcer: What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to tell you how you can help support this ministry.
Pastor Rick Warren: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to love God with all your heart, that's worship, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment. And then Jesus said, go make disciples, that's evangelism, baptize them into the family of God, that's fellowship, a sign of fellowship, and then he said, teach them to obey everything I've taught you. That's discipleship, and we call that the Great Commission. We believe at Daily Hope that a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company, a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just across America, but all around the world. And we want people to know that God's word is filled with hope and truth. And the power that we need to follow him every day is available to every single one. You know as well as I do that the word of God changes lives. It's alive, it's active, and it breathes new life and new love into all of our lives. So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on the website, whether you listen on a radio station, or whether you listen through a podcast, you're a part of the Daily Hope family, and I need your help. We could not do this without your support. We're 100% listener funded. Would you continue to pray for this broadcast and would you continue to support us? And let write to me. Let me hear from you. I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me. So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry. And God will bless it, and God will bless you, and we'll get to heaven, and we'll thank God for all the people going to be in heaven because you cared.
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