Join Pastor Rick Warren as he unpacks the misconceptions of self-sufficiency and the subtle traps of modern busyness that can leave little room for divine connection. By sharing biblical insights and personal experiences, Pastor Rick guides us to evaluate what truly occupies our hearts and encourages a shift from living a ‘good life’ to experiencing the fullness of God’s ‘better life’.
Welcome back to Pastor Rick Warren’s Daily Hope. We are so glad that you’re here with us to help us celebrate this season. You know, on the very first Christmas, when Mary was just about ready to give birth to Jesus, she and Joseph were turned away by the innkeeper because there was no room. Well, today, Pastor Rick is going to continue his Christmas series, Will I Make Room for Jesus?, And he shows us how, just like the innkeeper, we can miss out on being part of God’s greatest plans if we don’t make room for Jesus in our everyday lives. All right, let’s get right to it. Here’s Rick with part two of a message called, Will I Make Room for Jesus?
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus had some friends named Mary and Martha. They were sisters. And one day they invite him over for dinner. So Jesus goes over for dinner. Mary figures out what’s important. This is the Son of God at our house. We’re only gonna get this once in a lifetime. So she sits down at the feet of Jesus and starts listening. Mary, on the other hand, is busy. And she’s busy worrying about the hors d’oeuvres. And, you know, is everything in its place? And here’s where the story picks up in Luke chapter 10. It says Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. Okay, but Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. Sounds like Christmas. You could have spent the entire last month buying gifts, wrapping gifts, decorating the house, putting up the lights, fixing the tree, sending out the cards, preparing the meals, getting everything done. Have you had any time for Jesus? No, it’s his birthday. We’re so busy with the preparation, you don’t have any time. For him, there’s no room in your heart, it’s crowded. Martha was distracted at all the preparations that had to be made and she came to Jesus and said, Lord, don’t you care that my sisters left me to do all the work by myself? Sounds like a sister. Tell her to help me. But Jesus said, dear Martha, You get upset over all these little details, but there’s really only one thing worth being concerned about. And Mary has discovered it. What is that? Getting to know the Son of God, getting to know Jesus Christ. Why? Because everything else you do isn’t gonna matter in eternity. Your career isn’t gonna last beyond your lifetime. Your hobbies aren’t gonna last beyond your lifetime. Your bank account isn’t gonna last beyond your lifetime. The only thing that’s gonna last beyond your lifetime is your relationship to God. And God puts you on earth, not just to take up space, breathe, use air, retire and die. He puts you here so you could get to know him. To know and love him the way he knows and loves you. That’s gonna last forever and ever and ever. So Jesus says, Mary has figured out the one thing that’s worth being concerned about. You know, as somebody who does care about you as a friend, as a pastor, if I could give you any gift this Christmas, my wish would be that you would figure out what’s the one thing that matters most. And it isn’t getting more money. And it isn’t becoming famous. And it isn’t even having fun. It’s getting to know the creator who made you and building a relationship so you go to be with him forever in eternity when this life’s over. You know what I’ve discovered? See, as I was saying here, you can do lots of good things and still not have any room for Jesus in your life. What I’ve discovered is if Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll just make you busy. He doesn’t care what distracts you. It doesn’t have to be evil as long as you pay no attention to God in your life. It could be all kinds of good things that are proper. In fact, they’re all gifts from God. They’re not God. And you can’t have them at the center of your life because if that’s the center of your life, then when that dies, you fall apart. If your job’s the center of your life, your life falls apart when you lose it. If your bank account’s the center of your life, your life falls apart when the stocks tank. But if God is the center of your life, nothing can shake you because it can’t be taken from you. Deuteronomy, the Bible says it like this. Make sure that you don’t become so full. In other words, your life is so crammed, there’s no room. You’re so full of yourself and your things that you forget God. You see… We don’t pay attention when God’s around. We’re just not even listening. And we crowd our lives with so many other things, even good things, that we don’t have any time for God. The third reason we don’t make room is because we really don’t think we need to make room for God. The bottom line is we really don’t think we need to make room for Jesus. We have a sense of self-sufficient that says, I’m doing fine on my own. Oh, really? Now, you may be living a good life. You say, I’m living the good life. Great. Would you like to know if there’s a better life? Because there is. The good life is good, but the good life is not good enough. You need the better life. I mean, when I was a kid, my mom fed me SpaghettiOs. Now, I thought they were the world until I discovered In-N-Out Burger. And I went from the good life to the better life. If there was a better life than you’re living right now and God wanted to give it to you, don’t you think you’d be interested in it? Well, yes, you would. Don’t you think I’d think I at least ought to check it out? Yeah, I think you would. Otherwise, it’s dumb. And he’s saying here, we don’t think we need to make room for him. See, this is what the innkeeper did. The innkeeper’s saying, why do I need any more guests? Sorry, no room. I’ve already sold out. I’ve made my bundle. I bankrolled it. I made as much money as I’m gonna make tonight. So I really couldn’t care less about anybody else because my life, my inn, my rooms are full. And a lot of people say that to Jesus today. My life, the rooms of my heart are full. I don’t have any room for God. Don’t have any room for Jesus. There’s really an arrogance about that. There’s really a self-satisfaction that doesn’t realize what we’re missing. Psalm chapter 10 says this in the Bible. People are too proud to seek God. They don’t look for him, and there is no room for God in their thoughts. Do you wanna know what your God is? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s whatever you think about most. Whatever you think about most in your life is your God, because that’s what’s most important to you. Now, for some people, their God is their career. For some people, their God is their family. For some people, their God is making money, or whatever. But whatever is first placed in your thought, what you think about most is your God. And anything that’s not God becomes what the Bible calls an idol, let’s say a false god. See, the deeper reason for our inattention is really, we don’t want God. I’m doing just fine, thank you very much. So God, you created me, you made me, yeah, Jesus came and died for me, but I tell you what, God, you stay on your side of the fence and I’ll stay on mine, thank you very much. Well, there’s only a problem with that. You miss the very purpose of your life. You weren’t made to be disconnected from God and you don’t have any power in your life when you are disconnected from God. A disconnected toaster is worthless without power. A disconnected blender is worthless without power. It’s just a piece of junk. A vacuum cleaner is a piece of junk if there’s no electricity to it. Those things cannot fulfill their purpose unless they’re plugged into the power. You cannot fulfill your purpose unless you’re plugged into the God who made you, who gives you that power. So we run out of power. But the truth is, it’s human nature to wander. It’s my nature to go, forget you, God. I’m gonna do my thing. I got my plans. In fact, I think, God, I know what will make me happy better than you do. And so we just kind of wander off. The Bible calls us, it says we’re like sheep. We just kind of, sheep are naturally wanderers. The Bible says this, there on your outline. We are all like sheep. We’ve all wandered off. We’ve all gotten lost. In other words, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next year. Where am I coming from? Where am I going? What is the purpose of my life? What am I supposed to do with my life? I’m not directed, I’m drifting through life. We’ve all gotten lost, we’ve all done our own thing, and we’ve all gone our own way. Now that’s the bad news. What’s the good news? Is the good news is that if I make Jesus, make room for Jesus in my life, an amazing number of benefits take place. What are those benefits? Why should I make room for Jesus in my life? Even if it means clearing out some other stuff. Well, let me just give you two reasons. I could give you a lot of them. Let me just give you two that are very simple, but they’re very profound. Here’s the first reason. First reason I should make room for Jesus in my life is because I want to know my creator and my savior. He made me, and he saved me. So I need to know that. I mean, if I said, hey, I’ll introduce you to Bono, and you go, I don’t really care, well, it’s no big deal. If I said, let me introduce you to three or four of the presidents I know, well, you say, well, no big deal. But if I were to say, let me introduce you to God, he created you and has a purpose for your life, I would think I’d want to be interested in that. He is my creator. I said, I thought you were talking about meeting Jesus. I am. I thought God made us. He did. Jesus is God. come in human form. Look at what the Bible says. Before anything else existed, there was Christ with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is, that includes you and me. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. He made it all, so he owns it all. Eternal life is in him, and this life is gives light to all mankind. It helps me see in the dark when I don’t think I can see any other way. So I definitely want to make room in my life for Jesus Christ because he made me. And that would make life a whole lot better. You know, like they say, when in doubt, consult the owner’s manual. When in doubt, read the directions. That’s the Bible. When in doubt, talk to the inventor. God invented you, but he didn’t just create you. He saves you. And the reason he came at Christmas is to die for all your sins. Let me explain this. We’ve all messed up. I think that’s pretty common knowledge. We’ve all, I don’t measure up to my own standards, much less God’s, and you don’t either. I don’t know really anybody who’s perfect. We’ve all sinned, we’ve all made mistakes, faults, fumbles, flaws, bloopers, sins, rebellion. I mean, really, I’ve talked to thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people around the world. I’ve never met anybody who claimed to be sinless. I’ve never met anybody who said, I’m perfect. In fact, if you think you’re perfect, there’s really only one solution for you. You need to get married. Okay? That’ll solve that one really quick. All you need to do is get married and you’ll know you are not sinless. Marriage doesn’t create problems, it reveals them. And you are the problem. And like I always say, before you get married, opposites attract. And then after you get married, opposites attack. Now, I wanna not only know my creator, I wanna know my savior who came to die for my sins. Now why? Here’s the reason, follow me on this. Heaven is a perfect place. No sorrow, no sadness, no sickness. It’s incredible. Full color, amazing. You think the world’s cool, heaven’s unbelievable. Now, heaven is perfect, I’m not. And by the way, neither are you. I stopped being perfect about day two. So if God lets imperfect people into heaven, it’s not gonna be a perfect place anymore. If God lets all of us into heaven with all of our imperfections, heaven’s gonna be no better than earth because we’ll take with them our lust, our ego, our betrayals, our rejections, murders, rapes, heaven would be no better than earth. So God had to come up with a plan B. And he said, here’s what I’ll do. I will come to earth at Christmas time. I’m gonna send my son, Jesus Christ. And he’s gonna live a perfect life in your stead, in your place. And then he’s gonna die for all your sins so you don’t have to pay for them. They’ve all been paid off. And then you get to go scot-free into heaven by just trusting him. What a deal. What a deal. And so the Bible says this. The most famous verse in the Bible, God so loved the world, that’s you and me, that he gave his one and only son, that’s Jesus, that whoever believes in him, who’s whoever involved? Everybody. I don’t care what your background is. I don’t care what your age is, what your ethnic group is. I don’t care what your religion is. You may be Baptist or Buddhist or Methodist or Muslim or Mormon. or Hindu, you may be atheist or agnostic or no religion at all, doesn’t matter to me, the Bible says, whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That’s a good deal. I get to become a part of God’s family and that family is gonna last forever. Jesus said it, the Bible says it like this, John chapter one, he, Jesus, came into the world which belonged to him, remember he made it, so we all belong to him anyway. But those who were his did not receive him, no room, and did not welcome him, no room. But those who did receive him and welcome him, come on into my room, come into the rooms of my heart, all the rooms, bathroom, bedroom, living room. To those who did receive him and welcome him, he gave the privilege and the power to become the children of God because, and here’s how you become a child of God, they believed in his name. And that way I become a part of God’s family and God becomes my father. So wait a minute, isn’t God the father of everybody? No, he is not. God created everybody. God loves everybody. God has a purpose for everybody. But God is only the father of those who choose to become a part of his family by meeting the family requirements, which are believe in the son he sent at Christmas. That’s the condition. Now, I not only get to be a part of God’s family, I get to know my Creator and my Savior, which is a big deal, but there are actually some benefits here and now, right now, for the rest of your life here on Earth. And the second reason I want to open every room of my heart to Jesus is to enjoy a life of purpose, peace, and power. Purpose, peace, and power. These are the three things that God says, I fill your life with when you invite Jesus Christ into your life and you give him more and more rooms. As you give him more and more rooms, he gets more and more in control. It gives peace, power, and purpose. I’ve been walking with the Lord now for 50 years. I have lived a life of purpose and peace and power. I can tell you, this works. This really does work. You know, I got a letter a while back from a very well-known business leader. In fact, if I told you his name, you would know who it is. And it was a very gut-level letter, and he said, in the eyes of everybody around me, I am a raving success. But he said, inside, I feel inferior. No, excuse me, he didn’t say that. He said, I feel insecure, insignificant, and small. Took a lot of guts to write that. Inside, I feel insignificant, insecure, and small. Now what he’s talking about is what psychologists commonly call the imposter phenomena. A lot of people have written books about this and it basically sums up in this. If I’m so successful, why do I feel like a fake? If I’m so successful, why don’t I feel more fulfilled? If I’m so successful and I’m living this good life, how come I still feel like there’s gotta be more? Something’s missing in my life. Well, the answer is there is something missing in your life. The answer is you were made for more than money. You were made for meaning. You were made for more than a salary. You were made for significance. You need to move beyond success to the higher level of living from success to significance. Success is not enough because it doesn’t satisfy. You were made not for money, but meaning. Now, I know some of the wealthiest people in the world, probably a dozen billionaires, and I could bring every one of them in here and they would tell you this, money will make your life easier, but it will not give you meaning. It will make your life easier, but it will not give you meaning. And life without meaning and purpose is petty, pointless, and trivial. and you were made for so much more. And that guy was saying, the reason I feel so small, when I heard that, I thought, I know why. I wanna share the verse that I would share with him, 2 Corinthians 6. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. What’s the antidote? Make room for Jesus. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansive. Don’t be closed-minded. Don’t shut God out of your life. Be open-minded, be expansive, live openly. He said, your life is not small, but the way you’re living it is small.
SPEAKER 01 :
Wow, thank you, Rick, for that amazing message. You know, people are being transformed by these messages every day, but that’s only because of your partnership with us. In fact, here’s Rick to share some important news with you. Let’s be honest about this time of year.
SPEAKER 02 :
At the end of every year, there are so many ministries that ask for you to support them in the end-of-year giving. And you know what? We believe in every ministry that proclaims the name of Jesus, and we thank God for them, and I know it can be difficult to decide who to give to. So let me just give you some biblical foundations for giving, some simple guidelines for end-of-year giving. You might think of these three or four things. Number one, give to the ministry that God tells you to support. Go to God, pray to him, ask him, say, God, who do you want me to support? And you know what? I support you giving to whoever God tells you to give to. And if it’s not daily hope, I still support you to give to who God tells you to give to. So pray and ask God. Second, never give when you feel pressured. The Bible says in Corinthians that we are to never give under pressure or compulsion or under guilt. So if you ever feel guilty about giving, don’t give, because God tells you in the Word not to give at that time. Give because you want to give, not out of guilt or pressure. Number three, give to where you support and believe in the goals of that particular ministry. Now, every ministry has different goals. You know the goals of Daily Hope. Our goal is ultimately to take the good news, the gospel, to the 3,000 tribes left in the world that have no Bible, no believer, and no body of Christ, no church. This is the final frontier. That’s our goal. It’s called the Great Commission. Now, other churches and other ministries have other goals, and that’s fine. Some only have the goal of just preaching in America. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you believe in and have a heart for going to the last, the least, and the lost, this would be a ministry you should consider supporting because I don’t know others that are doing what we’re doing, trying to go to these final 3,000 tribes. And then finally, give where your gift will be multiplied. For instance, at the end of every year, there is a donor to Daily Hope who offers to give a matching grant to apply to any donation that we receive before the end of the year. Now, what this means is that for every dollar you’re able to give this month to Daily Hope, it’s going to be doubled. that donor will match it. That multiplies your gift, like the little boy who brought his loaves and fishes to Jesus, and Jesus fed the 5,000. If you give $25 to Daily Hope this month, the matching grant will match it at $25. If you’re able to give $100, the matching grant will add another $100. That multiplies your gift. I would consider that as a factor in where to give during this month. Now, let me just say this. If you can’t help us financially, that’s okay. I understand. But I would ask that you pray for us. I’m so grateful for those of you who are a financial supporter of this ministry, that monthly giving, month after month, it means so much to me. It means much to God, but it means so much for eternity to those who are hearing the good news for the very first time. You know I don’t take any salary or any income from this ministry. I serve it for free. And so you and I are partners together in reaching people for Christ all around the world. In closing, let me just ask you to continue to pray. Pray for me as I pray for you. And pray that God’s word will be taught clearly, with compassion, with clarity, with simplicity in this new year. And that it will not only help you as you listen to these broadcasts, but it will help us reach people for Christ and disciple believers and build churches all around the world, especially in the tribes that have never heard the name of Christ. Thanks for your generosity. Thanks for your prayers.
SPEAKER 01 :
And God bless you. You can give right now by going to PastorRick.com or you can just text the word HOPE to 70309. Again, that’s PastorRick.com or just text the word HOPE to 70309. And thank you so much for your support. 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.
