This is Pastor Rick Warren’s Daily Hope. If you’re new, we’re so glad you found us. And if you’re a daily, daily hoper, welcome back.
Today, we’re going to continue with our series called 40 Days of Prayer. Such a great series because Rick is going to help you cultivate a powerful prayer life so you can experience breakthroughs. Breakthroughs in your relationships, breakthroughs in finances, health, and really every area of your life.
So don’t miss a day of this life-changing series. Well, let’s get started with today’s great message as Pastor Rick shares part one of a message called Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?
You know, one of the things that irritates me most is when people call you on the phone and they don’t identify themselves. You know what I’m talking about? They just call and they just start talking.
You’re supposed to be like, I’m supposed to know who this is? When you don’t know who’s on the other end, then it affects your conversation a whole lot. You don’t know what you’re gonna say.
You’re a little more guarded. You don’t know what tone to use. Is this the pope or the pizza guy?
You don’t know what words are appropriate. You don’t know how to dress them properly. If you don’t know much about the person, you’re more formal.
I can always tell people who are part of Saddleback when I’m out in the neighborhood and those who aren’t. Because I’ll be pushing my cart down the aisle in the grocery store and say, Hey, Pastor Rick, how’s it going? But when someone says, Hello, Reverend Warren.
You talking to me? Moi? You clearly don’t know me if you just called me Reverend.
Okay, so proximity and relationship determines how you talk to somebody. What you know about somebody determines your conversation. Now, the same is true with God.
I wrote at the top of your outline there, your understanding of what God is really like shapes everything else in your life, including your prayer. Nothing influences your life more than how you view God. Now, a lot of people have misconceptions about God.
I made a list here. Some people think God is the grumpy God. Cranky, angry, upset all the time, never can please him.
Some people have the crouching tiger God ready to pounce on you when you make the wrong move. Some people have the flaky father God. He’s moody.
He changes his mind continually about you. Some people think of God as the cosmic cop. That the whole goal of God is just to make sure you keep the rules.
And who wants to talk to that? Our dictator God, always demanding more and more and more, and it’s never enough. Or the Santa Claus God, where he’s making a list and checking it twice.
Are you naughty or nice? Some people have what I call the Play-Doh God, which is you make him into any form you want. It’s kind of like our Mr. Potato Head God.
That would be a better one. You know, you can put him all together. I like to think of God as, well, I’m sorry, it doesn’t really matter what you like to think when it comes to God.
It’s what does he really like, not what you like to think of him as, because you’re just guessing. It’s extremely important that you know the real God. If you have a misconception about God, prayer is going to be a duty, a drudgery, it’s going to be boring, it’s something I have to do, I’ve got to do, I should do, I must do, and guilt motivation doesn’t work, folks.
So you don’t guilt yourself into praying, and God doesn’t want you to pray out of guilt. You’ve got to have the right concept of God. AW.
Tozer wrote, what comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you, because it affects everything else in your life. So what is God really like? Well, God has many characteristics.
He is all-knowing, omniscient. He is all-powerful, omnipotent. He is omnipresent.
It means he can be everywhere at the same time. The Bible tells us God is holy, God is just, God is kind, God is loving, God is faithful. There are many, many characteristics of God that we have done studies about before, but I want us this morning to just look at the goodness of God.
Because it is the goodness of God that is the basis for all prayer. If God is not a good God, you have zero reason to pray. You have zero motivation to pray.
Now, the only reason there is any good in the world is because God is a good God and God is a creator, and his goodness is in the universe. You can’t spell good without God. If there’s no God, there is no good.
There’s no right or wrong. There’s no good and bad. People say, why is there evil in the world?
Well, simple, God doesn’t force us to do good. All the evil in the world is because God gave us a free choice, and we choose not to do good a lot of the time. So do a lot of other people, and that causes all the evil in the world.
Evil is really easy to explain. The hard thing to explain is why is there good in the world. If you believe in, you know, random chance and survival of the fittest, then everything should be whoever, dog eat dog, whoever wins.
That’s just tough luck. The only reason there’s good in the world is because God is a good God. Now, because God is always good, we know four things about prayer.
And I want you to understand these because when you understand how good God really is, you’re gonna enjoy prayer. It’s not a duty, it’s a delight. When anytime prayer becomes ritual boring to you, it’s because you don’t understand how good God is.
People say, well, I just don’t love God enough. No, that’s not your problem. Your problem is you don’t understand how much God loves you and how good God is to you.
Everything in your life is a gift of God’s goodness. But let’s look at four implications of the goodness of God in your life and how that’s gonna change the way you pray from now on. All right, number one, because God is always good, God’s plans for my life will always be good.
Because God is always good. People say, is there anything God can’t do? There are a lot of things God can’t do.
He can’t deny himself. He can’t be evil. God is good, so by nature, he cannot do evil.
He cannot do bad. Everything God does is good. And so because God is good, God’s plans for my life will always be good.
Now I want us to look at some scripture. Jeremiah chapter 29 says this. Verse 11.
God’s talking. I know what I’ve planned for you, says the Lord. I have good plans for you.
Not plans to hurt you. My plans will give you a hope and a good future. There’s that word again.
And when you call to me and you pray, I will listen to you. You see the connection between purpose and prayer? Between God’s plans for your life and prayer?
Now I’ve said this many times. You’re not an accident. There’s a purpose for your life.
They’re accidental parents, but they’re no accidental children. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. And he wanted you alive.
Now, God didn’t have to create a plan for your life. He could have just let you be born and have no plan. He could have just let you be born.
He doesn’t necessarily have a plan for every ant, for every mosquito, except to bug you. But God has never made anything without a purpose, really. Everything has a purpose and has a plan.
God could have created you without a plan, but he gave a plan for your life. Why? Because he loves you.
He loves you. He is a good God. And he put a lot of thought into creating you.
And he said, well, how do I know God’s plan? God’s plan for your life are revealed. God’s plan is revealed, and it is realized through prayer.
The more you pray, the more you’re gonna understand God’s plan for your life. He says there, I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you, to give you hope, to give you a good future. And when you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you.
Look up here on the screen, the Bible says this. David says in Psalm 31, God, your goodness is so great. Everything God, good in your life, is a gift of God.
Everything good in your life. God, your goodness is so great. You’ve stored up great blessings for those who honor you.
Now notice it says stored up. That means God thought about it. It means intentional thought in advance.
When you store up something, you plan it in advance. Did you know that God has already planned the blessings he has for the rest of your life? Why?
He’s a good God. God, your goodness is so great. You’ve stored up great blessings.
I haven’t even got them all yet for those who honor you. You do so much for those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world. That’s why we’re doing 40 days of prayer.
I want God to bless your life before the watching world. But you can miss those blessings. They’re not automatic.
The Bible says you have not because you ask not. You gotta learn to ask. You gotta learn to pray.
And it is prayer that reveals your purpose and your plan, God’s plan for your life, and it’s prayer that reveals and shows you the blessings in your life. You have not because you ask not. I want you to experience those blessings.
So God says everything I do in your life is good. I don’t have any bad plans for you. They’re not plans to hurt you.
People say, God’s getting even with me. God does not get even with people. I’ve said this many times.
God is not mad at you. He’s mad about you. He says, I’m a good God.
I have good plans for your life. Other people have bad plans for your life, and you may make some bad plans yourself, but God has good plans for your life. He said, well Rick, not everything in my life is good.
God didn’t promise that. He didn’t say everything that happens in your life will be good. He says, I have good plans for you.
You can miss God’s plans by your own decisions. God did not promise that everything in your life will have a happy ending. Friends, we live on a broken planet.
Everything on this planet is broken. Nothing’s perfect. Nothing works perfectly.
Your body is broken. Have you noticed that? It doesn’t always work the right way.
Your mind is broken. It always doesn’t think the right way. The weather’s broken.
The economy’s broken. Relationships are broken. Everything on this planet, nothing is perfect.
So God didn’t say, I promise you perfection. That’s called heaven. And we should not expect heaven to be on earth.
In heaven, no sorrow, sadness, sickness, suffering. But here, there is brokenness. But God says, even in the middle of all this brokenness, I have a good plan for your life.
And he says, even when you make bad choices, I’m greater than your choices. And I can even fit the dumb decisions you’ve made into a good plan. What a God.
He can turn crucifixions into resurrections. Romans 8, 28. We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
If you say, God, I gave you my life, Jesus, I want to have a relationship with you. I want to fulfill the purpose you made me for. This is not a promise for everybody in the world.
Everything is not working together for good for everybody in the world. Everything is working together for good for those who give it all to God. And it says those who are saying, God, I want your plan, your purpose for my life.
It doesn’t say all things are good. It says they all work together. Even the bad and even the bitter.
God says, I can put that in the mix. Yeah, I will throw that into. I’ve used this illustration before that when you make a cake, the individual ingredients don’t taste good.
Flour by itself does not taste good. Raw eggs do not taste good. Vanilla by itself does not taste good.
Baking powder, baking soda doesn’t taste good. All these, oil, Crisco, does not taste good. But you put them all together and let God work them together.
That’s called batter. I like that. God wants to take the bitter, put it in the batter, and make you better.
I’ve never said that. Somebody should tweet it. Okay?
I’m going to say it again. That’s pretty good. God takes the bitter, put it in the batter, and makes you better.
In sweet and sour sauce, that tastes pretty good, but sour by itself, uh-uh. But God can fix it all the… Why?
Because he’s a good God. He’s a good God. Now, the more you pray, the better you’re going to know your purpose.
And the better you know your purpose, the more God can use everything in your life, even the stuff that people plan against you. You know the story of Joseph in the Bible, where his brothers sold him into slavery, but he ends up being second in command in Egypt, and years later, he confronts his brothers, and he says in Genesis 50-20, your plan was to hurt me, but God turned your evil plan into a good plan to save the lives of many people. That’s called redemptive suffering.
Sometimes you suffer for the benefit of other people. That’s what Jesus did for you. When he died on the cross, that’s redemptive suffering.
He wasn’t paying for his sins. He didn’t have any. He’s paying for yours.
And sometimes, like in Joseph’s case, God takes the bitter, and he makes the world better because of what you went through. God says, it’s not all good in your life, but I can use it all for good and fit it into the plan, even the hurts and the sins of other people, even when you’re an innocent person, and you’ve been hurt by others. Was that good?
No, it was not good when you were hurt. But can God use it for good? Yes, because God is a good God, and he loves to bring good out of bad.
Anybody can bring good out of good. God brings good out of bad. So the more you trust the goodness of God, the happier you’re gonna be.
Romans 5, 3. So we can rejoice when we run into problems and trials. What?
That sounds kind of masochistic. Oh, happy day, I’m in a problem. He says, we can rejoice when we even run into problems.
You can be happy even in the middle of pressure and trials and troubles and tribulation. Why? Notice the phrase, for we know.
Circle the phrase, for we know. Happiness in life depends on what you know, not what you go through. You can take two people, put them through the same circumstance, one of them is happy, one of them is devastated.
Why? Because it’s what you know. What you know makes a difference.
We can be rejoicing when we run into problems and trials, for we know, here’s what we know, that they’re good for us. Why? Because God is a good God.
And God says, I’ll even use the bad stuff in your life for good. If you’ll let me, doesn’t happen with everybody. If you’ll let me, I’ll use the bad for good in your life.
We know that they’re good for us. They help us learn patient endurance. God’s much more interested in your character, what you become, than your comfort.
You’re not taking your car to heaven, your cash to heaven, your career to heaven, your shine to heaven, you are taking your character. The only thing you’re taking to heaven is you. God wants to grow it here on earth before he takes it into eternity.
How does he do it? Through all these different things. And he says, I’ll use it all.
I’m a good God. And he says, everything that God does in my life, he says, I’m gonna use it for good on earth. God’s more interested in your character.
This is not heaven. So don’t expect life to be perfect. It’s not.
But he says, I can even bring good out of bad. Now I want you to write this sentence down. Everything God does in my life, he does for my good.
God’s not trying to get even with you. God is trying to grow you. Everything God does in my life, he does for my good, because he is a good God.
So that’s the first thing that we learn. That God’s plans for my life will always be good because God is a good God. He doesn’t have bad plans for your life.
The more you get to know God, the more you understand God’s plans. All right, number two, second pillar of God’s goodness. Because God is always good, God always gives me what I need, not what I deserve.
God always gives me what I need, not what I deserve. If you and I got what we deserved, we wouldn’t even be here. Psalm 103 says this, verse 10 and verse 12, He, God, has not treated us as we deserve.
He has not treated us as we deserve for our sins or paid us back for our wrongs. Why? Because Jesus Christ paid for all your sins and all your wrongs.
And if you had to pay for your own sins and wrongs, then why did Jesus die on the cross? That’s called double jeopardy. If you put your trust in Christ, all your sins have been paid for.
So why would you have to pay for them? He’s already paid for them. He’s not treated us as we deserve for our sins paid us back for our wrongs.
In his goodness, this is what he’s saying, he has taken our sins away and removed them as far as the east is from the west. I like that he says from the east to the west because there’s no end to east and west. There is a north pole, there is a south pole, there’s an ending to those.
But he says God takes your sins and he just wipes them out. One verse in the Bible says he puts him in the deepest part of the sea, metaphorically, and then he puts up a no fishing sign. You need to stop dragging them.
If God has forgiven you, you need to forgive yourself. Now, God is good, he gives me what I need, not what I deserve. This guy in the Bible, David, King David, commits adultery and then to cover it up, he has the wife’s husband murdered.
Pretty big sense, murder and adultery, right up there at the top. Did David deserve to be forgiven?
No.
Did David deserve mercy? No. But David knows that God is a good God, and so he asks for mercy.
Here’s what he prays, Psalm 51. If you are in a big sin right now, you need to go read Psalm 51. God, in your goodness, have mercy on me.
Not because I deserve it, but because you’re a good God. Have mercy on me. Wash away all my guilt.
Make me clean again from my sins. Sin cleans me. All of that is based on who God is, not who you are.
Let me make this real clear to you. God forgives you, not because you’re good. God forgives you, because he’s good.
It’s not based on your goodness. You think, well, if I’m just so good in this area, then God will forgive me. Uh-uh, won’t happen.
Doesn’t matter. God forgives you, not because of your goodness. God forgives you, because he is a good God.
He has a plan, and that’s a good plan. And when you blow it and you need forgiveness, he gives forgiveness, because he is a good God.
Thanks so much for listening to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. You know, your prayers and financial support have a huge impact on millions of people here and around the world. So we really appreciate that.
Thank you. And now Rick’s going to share a letter from one of our listeners who says Daily Hope is making a real difference in their life.
Hi everybody, today I want to introduce you to Allison. She recently wrote me to tell how God had saved her from a life of prostitution and used Daily Hope to help her grow as a young Christian. Here’s what she wrote.
I grew up in an atheist family, and I was taught that people who believe in God are crazy, stupid, and brainwashed. I ended up being in a hardcore drug addict for 15 years, and to pay for my habit, I sold my body on the street, and I was homeless. But I found a Bible in a hotel room where I was working, and the Lord radically saved me through his word.
Then an amazing church family embraced me fully and helped me to grow in the Lord. One day, Pastor Rick, I came across your TED Talk on the Internet, and I was blown away. So I looked up your website, and I downloaded the Daily Hope app, and I started listening to your sermons every single morning.
I then bought the book, Purpose Driven Life on audible.com. I’ve enjoyed it immensely. I am so blessed to give a monthly donation so you can share your message all over the world.
And your Daily Hope messages have meant so much to me in the past year, and I’m just an infant in Christ. I appreciate all the encouragement that I get from listening to you. Thank you, Pastor Rick.
You know, Allison, I just I can’t thank you enough for writing to me and sharing your story. We live to get these letters, and it’s so exciting to hear stories from people like you who have been radically touched and transformed by the message of hope through Daily Hope. And of course, I appreciate you giving a monthly donation.
Thank you for your prayers for this ministry, that we can pass this good news of hope on to others. I just want you to know that I’m going to be praying that God continues to use you in the lives of other people and to use Daily Hope to help you grow more like Jesus. God bless you, Allison.
If you’d like to help support Pastor Rick and this ministry with convenient, automated monthly giving, you just go to pastorrick.com or text the word HOPE to 70309. And when you do, we’ll send you a special welcome gift to say thanks. Again, that’s pastorrick.com or text the word HOPE to 70309.
And we can’t tell you how much we appreciate your support. Thank you. We hope you’ll 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.
