[MUSIC] This is Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we begin a series called 40 Days of Prayer. In these teachings, you’ll learn how to cultivate a powerful prayer life and experience breakthroughs in your relationship challenges, financial difficulties, bad habits, health crises, and many other areas of your life. Don’t miss a single day of this life-changing series. Now in just a few moments, we’re going to tell you how to grow a deeper, more vibrant prayer life with the amazing 40 Days of Prayer DVD study with workbook. This six-part study featuring Pastor Rick is perfect for your personal Bible study or for use with your small group. And you can take a sneak peek by going to pastorrick.com or by texting the word daily to 800-600-5,000-4 while you listen to today’s broadcast. That’s pastorrick.com or text the word daily to 800-600-5,000-4. Right now, here’s Pastor Rick with Part One of a message called, “Do you really want to grow up?” Most of the problems in your life come from spiritual immaturity. When we’re not spiritually mature, we make dumb decisions. We build our decisions based on how we feel, which is a terrible basis for making decisions. Well, I just feel like doing it. Well, your feelings are wrong a lot of the time. And you’re manipulated by your moods. Mature people make decisions based on truth, not based on feelings. So many of the problems in our world today, national debt and other things like that happen because of immaturity. The people don’t know how to do what’s wise, how to do what’s mature. And so the Bible tells us that growth is God’s will for your life. You know earlier, we had these little girls out here with Toshan and Christi and they’re cute. Babies are cute. Kids are cute. But a child that doesn’t grow up, that’s not cute. That’s tragic. It is possible to grow old and not ever grow up. You know, as well as I do, I know a lot of old people who are spiritually and emotionally immature. They never grew up. They grew old without growing up. God wants you to not stay as a baby in diapers. He wants you to be spiritually strong. He wants you to be a man. He wants you to be a woman of God. And that’s what we look at every spiritual growth campaign. Growth is God’s will. Ephesians chapter four, they’re on your outline at the top. Verse 14 says this, “We’re not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every wind of teaching.” In other words, you just fall for anything when you’re immature. Instead, we’re meant to hold firmly to the truth in love and to grow up in every way into Christ. We’re not meant to remain as children, but we’re meant to grow up, circle the word grow up, we’re to grow up in Christ. And what is the perfect picture of maturity? Look at Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate picture of spiritual, emotional, intellectual maturity. And to have the thoughts of Christ and to know how to respond like He did, be a whole lot better in your life. Now, every campaign that we do is built on six pillars of spiritual growth. And before we actually get into the subject of prayer, which is an important thing for breakthroughs and miracles, and all that God wants to do in your life comes through prayer. We’ll talk about that starting in the next session. In this week, I want us to look at why we do what we’re going to do the next 40 days. So you understand the reason behind it. And there are laws of spiritual growth that you cannot violate. God is a God of order and He makes things based on principles. He designed the universe, built on principles of physics. And the physical laws like gravity and the second law of thermodynamics and a lot of other laws are what guide the universe and make the universe actually work. And just as there are physical laws that God invented for the universe, there are spiritual laws that God has invented for your life. And if you want to grow, you’ve got to cooperate with them. Why don’t you write these down? Number one, the first law is we grow when we feed on God’s word. We grow when we feed on God’s word. This book, this Bible, is your soul food. Now, you know that you can’t be physically healthy if you eat junk food all the time. You can’t be spiritually healthy unless you feed on the truth, feed on the word of God. Now, what kind of health would you have? If every Sunday, you ate this giant Sunday brunch buffet and just gorge yourself with all this food and the rest of the week, you ate nothing. Well, it would harm your health. And it harms your health if all you get a spiritual truth, it’s what you get on Sunday. That’s not enough. You got to eat a little bit every day. You’ve got to feed your soul, not just once a week going to church. You got to feed your soul a little bit every day. Are you going to be a spiritual wimp? You’re not going to have the strength that you need in order to do what God wants to do in your life. Matthew 4 verse 4, Jesus says this, people need more than bread for their life. They need peanut butter and jelly too. That’s not what it says. Okay, people need more than bread for their life. They must feed on the word of God. And that’s what God wants you to do to feed on it a little bit every day. We want to help you develop that habit with this 5, 10, 15 minutes a day. In Acts chapter 20, the Bible says this, verse 32, Paul says, the word of grace, that’s the Bible, the word of grace is able to build you up and give you all, notice this, all the blessings that God has for his people. Would you like to have all the blessings that God has for you? Yes. And as your pastor, as your friend, as your spiritual coach, I want you to have all the blessings that God has for you. That’s why we do these campaigns. And how do you get all of the blessings that God has for you? And he says right there, the word of grace will build you up. When you get mature, then God can give you all the blessings he has for you. There are some gifts you can’t give a baby because they don’t destroy them. There are some gifts you can’t give a young child. It will destroy them. There are some gifts God wants to give you, but he’s waiting for you to grow up. He says the word of grace, the more you get into this book, he says the word of grace will build you up, build you up to maturity, and then give you all the blessings that God has for his people. Now, how do you do that? How do you feed on the word of God? Well, let’s go back to what we call the hand illustration of five ways, and then the poem is the sixth way to get a grasp on the word of God. We teach this in class 201, but some of you took 201 in the 1800s. So let’s just review it again. Your hand represents six ways to get into God’s word. Hear it. That’s your pinky finger. Read it. That’s your ring finger. Study it. That’s your middle finger. Memorize it. And then meditate on it. Meditate means to seriously think about it, and the poem is to apply. Now, if all you do, the only spiritual input you get is by hearing, like you come to church on Sunday, that’s the only time you hear the word of God, or maybe you listen to it on the radio, then you only have a grip like this. And the Satan can steal the word from you very easily. He can steal your joy, steal the promises, all these things. He can steal it from you because you don’t have a grip on the word of God. Why? We forget 95% of everything we hear within 72 hours. That depresses me as a pastor. By Wednesday, you will have forgotten everything I said, unless you happen to write it down, which is why we never teach without giving out notes, because the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory. If you hear the word of God, and then you read it a little bit every day, you’ve got a better grip. Satan can’t pull it away for me as quickly. If you hear it and you read it and you study it, okay, and we have ways to teach you, how to say it by, well, you’ve got a bigger grip. When you memorize it, now you’ve got a really good grip, and when you actually think about it, that’s called meditation. You seriously think about, what does this mean to my life? Now you’ve got a grip, and when you apply it, that’s the poem. Nobody is taking this out of my hand. They’re not going to get it out of my hand, because I’ve got a solid grip on the word of God. For the next 40 days, we’re going to teach you, or re-teach you, how to hear, read, study, memorize, meditate, and apply the word of God, specifically in the area of prayer. And these are some habits, so we’re going to teach you how to do this, so you get a good grip, so you’re not a immature baby, and you forget all that stuff, but you know what God wants you to do. So that’s the first principle. Here’s the action step we’re going to do for 40 days, a daily time with God for 40 days. And I’m going to ask you for the next 40 days to spend five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen, whatever, half an hour, whatever you got, a little bit every day where you’re going to feed on the word of God, and that’s going to make you healthier. Okay, number two, second law of spiritual growth. We grow when we learn in different ways. We learn when we grow in different ways. And let me explain this. God made us all different. We’re all unique. There’s nobody in the world like you, never will be, never, can be, even, even identical twins are different in thousands of different ways. You have a unique voice print, a unique eye print, a unique thumb print, finger prints, hand print, a unique footprint, you have a unique heartbeat, and you have a unique learning style. You learn differently than the person sitting next to you learns. And so if you’re going to grow, you’ve got to learn other learning styles, and you have to know what your learning style is. Notice in Luke chapter 3, verse 18, it says about John the Baptist, in many different ways, John preached the good news to the people. How did he preach in different ways? Why did John use different teaching styles? Because we all learn in different ways. Which by the way, is one of the reasons I don’t do all the teaching here. I think it’s important for you to hear the word of God from other people besides me. I know what you have. Your entire spiritual diet coming through one personality. Pastor Tom has a different personality. Pastor Buddy has a different personality. When they teach, they use different styles. And then I bring in the best teachers that I can from across America and around the world. Because I want you to hear God’s word more than from just me. I want you to hear it in different styles. And it doesn’t bother me to go, “Well, I like Buddy’s teaching the best.” I like Tom’s teaching the best. I like that guy we had, or that woman we had, or whatever. That’s good. We all have different styles of learning. So we need different styles of teachers. Now let me explain this in a little more detail. Some of you are auditory learners. You learn by listening. You learn, you hear it, you get it. I got it. Okay, all you have to do is tell me I got it. You learn through the ear. If you’re an auditory learner, you love church. Why? Because that’s the primary way we use in most churches. What we’re doing right now, sits still while the teacher instills. And everything you’re hearing right now is going through the ear gate. And if you learn that way, well, that’s good. The problem is we forget what we learn unless we write it down. And the other problem is a lot of people aren’t auditory learners. There’s some people say, “I don’t like to listen, but I like to read or watch.” And so I’m a visual learner. Show it to me. Don’t tell me. Show it to me. And I see it. Then I can do it. I can watch a video. I can read a book. And I learn through the, not the ear gate, but the eye gate. You’re a visual learner. Some of you are actually oral learners. And you learn by talking. You learn through the mouth. And if you’re an oral learner, you love small groups. Why? Because that’s where you get to talk. And so that’s where you learn. You’re cut. You can’t talk in a crowd this big. So you may not be learning as much, whereas when you get in a small group, and if you’re an oral learner, when you talk, your mind starts engaging. In fact, all of us know people who their mind doesn’t really engage until first their mouth starts engaging. Now don’t look at them. You know who they are. You’re listening to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. Rick will be back in just a moment with the rest of today’s lesson. You can sign up for Pastor Rick’s free email devotional at pastorrick.com. That’s pastorrick.com. We all experience disappointments, obstacles, and seemingly impossible circumstances in our lives. Maybe you need a breakthrough in your marriage, your finances, relationships, or with habits and painful memories that have held you back. You’ll get a breakthrough in your life when you seek one. And the way you do that is through prayer. That’s why Pastor Rick created the 40 days of prayer study kit. In this life changing, succession DVD and workbook study, Pastor Rick helps you cultivate a powerful prayer life. You’ll learn how to pray for a breakthrough and how to pray with more confidence and greater faith than ever before. Get the 40 days of prayer study kit today and experience the blessing of answered prayer. When you give a gift today to help Daily Hope take the certain hope of Jesus to people around the world, Wilson Hew the 40 days of prayer study kit to say thanks. Call 800-600-5004 or go to pastorrick.com to get your copy of the 40 days of prayer DVD study kit. That’s 800-6004 or go to pastorrick.com. Your listening to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. Once again, here’s Pastor Rick Warren. Some of you are actually oral learners and you learn by talking. You learn through the mouth. And if you’re an oral learner, you love small groups. Why? Because that’s where you get to talk. And so that’s where you learn. You can’t talk in a crowd this big. So you may not be learning as much whereas when you get in a small group and if you’re an oral learner, when you talk, your mind starts engaging. In fact, all of us know people who their mind doesn’t really engage until first their mouth starts engaging. Now don’t look at them. You know who they are. And it’s no different. Some people learn through the ear, some people learn through the eye and some people learn through the mouth. And actually, you don’t really think about a stuff until you start talking about it. And when you talk about it, you go, “Hmm, that’s what I believe.” And maybe you’ve never even thought about it, but as you say the words, your mind is actually activating. And so it’s important for you to talk about what you believe because that actually helps you form what you believe. Does that make sense? Now there are some people who say, “I don’t like to listen, I don’t like to read, and I don’t like to talk.” They’re called men. Now that’s a generalization. Generalizations are often generally wrong, but it is true. A lot of guys, their kinesthetic learners, in other words, they learn hands-on, they learn actually by doing it. Nobody learns to play football, reading a manual. Nobody learns to play golf listening to a lecture. People go, “Let’s just go play catch. Let’s go, you know, shoot some hoops. Let’s go after the driving range and knock some balls around, and you actually learn by doing.” And those are kinesthetic learners who learn with your hands. It’s hands-on learning. And the average guy, I’ll say, you know, something’s wrong with the car. Let me just get into the hood here. I’ll try to figure out, don’t give me a manual. I’ll just figure out how to put this carburetor back together, or let me figure out how to plug in this stereo, and how to wire it all right, and I can figure out how to download that app, and how to install that program. And I’ll just figure it out by doing it. That’s not right or wrong. And so what we’re going to do during the next 40 days is we’re going to teach you on one truth prayer, but we’re going to teach it through the ear. You’re going to hear sermons on it every week, seven messages. You’re going to learn it through the eye. You’re going to watch seven videos about it. You’re going to learn it through the math. You’re going to read a daily devotional, and it’s like taking a nail, and instead of just hitting it one time, you hit it four times. If all you do is come the next 40 days and listen to sermons, you’re not going to get anything out of this. Because the sermons, the messages I’ll teach, the next time I’ll teach, are 10% of the campaign. So we learn in different ways. Now notice even God understands this. He made you, and so on Job 33, 14, he says, God speaks in different ways, and we don’t always recognize His voice. And so God speaks in different ways because people learn in different ways. And we don’t always recognize what’s going on. You know, growing up in a pastor’s home, my dad was a pastor. And he’s a pretty good teacher, but I would watch us say, how come people could be in my dad’s church for 20 years? And they’re still cranky, self-centered, grippy, gossips mean to people, and you don’t feel like the gospel of the good news actually penetrating their heart. It’s not changing them. And I think, how in the world can they sit and hear the truth? Week after week after week, and it doesn’t even change them. They’re still self-centered. Well, there’s a couple possibilities for it. One is, they’re not taking notes. And so everything they’re learning, they’re forgetting, all but 5% by Wednesday, you could have come to Saddlebacker, everything I’ve taught, and you don’t remember 5%, unless you wrote it down. So they’re not writing it down, so they’re learning it. And the other is, maybe it’s not their learning style. If they’re primary style is not through the ear, but through the eye or the mouth or the hands, sermons aren’t enough to get them to maturity. They need more than that. So we’re going to use all four of these learning styles, and rather than just hitting it one time with a message, we’re going to hit it with hearing it and reading it and studying it and memorizing it and meditating on it and doing it and the eye gate and the ear gate and the mouth. Does this make sense? That’s where we’re going. It’s more than a simple sermon series. Much more complex. That’s why it takes the better part of a year to produce our spiritual growth campaigns. All right? Here’s the third law, a spiritual growth. We grow when we develop spiritual habits. We grow when we develop spiritual habits. I cannot overestimate with you the importance of you building good habits in your life. If you build good habits in your life, you’re going to have good character. If you have good character, you’re going to have a great destiny. Your habits determine what you are and what you are determines where you go in life. Your character is the sum total of your habits. Now you can’t say, for instance, I’m a kind person. I have the character quality of kindness, unless you’re always kind, unless it’s habitual to you. It’s your habit to be kind. If you’re only kind 25% of the time, you’re not a kind person. If you say, well, I have integrity. I’m honest. If you’re only honest 25% of the time, you don’t have integrity. Integrity means you are habitually honest. You are habitually doing the right thing. If I were to say to my wife, honey, I’ll be faithful to you 28 days of the month. Partial faithfulness is unfaithfulness. This is Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. We’re so happy that you’ve chosen to study along with us today. Now if you’d like to receive Rick’s free daily devotional, go to pastorrick.com and sign up right now. Rick will be back to close out our time today. But first, what we all know that life doesn’t always go as planned. There are obstacles, barriers, and uncertainty. But God has made a way for you to handle these things. It’s called prayer. In his six part 40 days of prayer DVD study kit, pastor Rick offers deep insight on how to cultivate a powerful prayer life. Here’s Rick to tell you more. I’ve put together a brand new six part Bible study. It’s called 40 Days of Prayer. Now the six sessions in this study are first, we talk about the purpose of prayer. You have to understand why prayer works before you can understand how prayer works. Then we’re going to talk about how to pray in a crisis. If you’re in a crisis, get this material right now because you need to know there are kinds of prayers in the Bible. God says you need to pray this kind of prayer in a crisis. Then in the third part, we’re going to talk about praying and fasting for a breakthrough. If you’ve never learned to fast and you’ve never learned how to pray a breakthrough prayer, this will be eye opening to you. Jesus once said of someone who needed a miracle, this kind happens only through prayer and fasting. I want to teach you how to pray a breakthrough prayer. If you need to break through in your life, this is important. And then we’re going to talk about talking to your Heavenly Father. You’re not talking to some impersonal force in the sky. It’s all about relationship. And finally, we talk about how do you be persistent in prayer? We often pray for a while and then we start and we stutter and sputter and then we give up. And yet Jesus said, you have to always pray and not give up. And you know what? In your life, you’re always doing one of the other. You’re either praying persistently or you’re giving up. If you’re not praying persistently, you’re giving up. If you are praying persistently, you’re not giving up. So this is the key to not giving up. Now this study on 40 days of prayer is going to show you that really prayer is about a relationship. Not fancy formulas. It’s about getting to know God on a personal basis and realizing how deeply he wants to hear you talk to him and he wants to talk to you back. You’ll stop worrying and you’ll start trusting more. You’ll pray with more confidence. You’ll claim his promises and you’ll see answers to your prayer. So join me in a lot of other daily hopeless listeners all over the world as we unite together. We’ll be praying with you and for you. You’ll be praying as we spend 40 days in learning how to pray consistently and persistently and effectively and expectantly and successfully. Get this resource. You can only get it through Daily Hope. God bless you. Call 800-600-5,000-4 or go to PastorRick.com to get your copy of the 40 Days of Prayer DVD study kit. That’s 800-600-5,000-4 or go to 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 PastorRick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support. [Music]
