Rick Warren - When Your World Is Shaken Up - Part 2
God will sometimes shake up your life for very good reasons, and that’s why I want to cover this in detail because this is the one that’s unexpected and I want you to look at that. Now, it really doesn’t matter where your problems came from. They could be caused by the devil, they could be caused by the world, they could be caused by you, or they could be brought on in your life by God. It doesn’t really matter. God will use every one of them for your good if you will trust him. Sometimes God shakes things up in my life to inspect me. To inspect me. And what I mean by that is God will bring a problem in my life that reveals a motivation that’s out of whack, or a character, or a thought, or an emotion, or a motive. He examines and he checks it out, and he does it all the time.
And when somebody said, you know, people are like tea bags. You don’t know what’s in them till you drop them in hot water. And God will use problems to inspect you and show you what’s wrong and what’s out of whack in your life. You got a fear. You got a wrong motivation. You got a value. You got a misperception. There’s some lie that you’re believing. God uses problems to inspect you. Now, of course, God already knows what’s going on in you. He doesn’t need any problem to tell him what he knows you better than you do. When God allows a problem in your life is 'cause he wants you to know what’s out of whack. And sometimes when things are just flying off the wall and you’re in a crisis and, you know, your whole world is shaken, God is saying, «I want you to see what I want you to work on in your life. We’re going to inspect this in your life».
I remember in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve sinned. And then the Bible says one day God comes walking through the Garden of Eden metaphorically, and says, «Adam, where are you»? Now, let me let you in on a little secret. Anytime God ask you a question, he already knows the answer. It’s not like God didn’t know where Adam was. He knew exactly where Adam was every second of his life. He wanted Adam to know where Adam was. And Adam goes, «Well, God, I was afraid and I felt guilty and I hid». And we’ve been afraid and guilty and hiding from God ever since. When God asks you a question, it’s never for his benefit. He already knows the answer. He’s asking you 'cause he wants you to know. And sometimes God shakes things up to inspect you.
Jeremiah 17:10 says this: «The Lord searches our hearts and examines our deepest motives so he can give to each person his right reward, according to how he has lived». Now, notice God examines your motives. Listen to this. Why is always more important than what. What you do in life is not nearly as important to God. That’s why you do it. Not what you do but why you do. There are a lot of things you can do in life, God say, «That’s fine. Go ahead and do that. I made you. You could do that, or that, or that, or that. That all be fine with me. I just want to know, why are you doing it»? God looks at the heart. He looks at the motivation. And God inspects us because he’s much more interested in your integrity than he is in your image.
Image is what everybody else can see. Integrity is what you are in the dark. Integrity is what you are when nobody is listening, nobody is watching. And God says, «I want to test you so you can see your own heart». Have you ever thought about the fact why it took the Israelites 40 years to get across the desert from Egypt, where they were set free as slaves, to Israel? You could walk across the Sinai in a couple months easily. It took them 40 years. Are you kidding me? Why did it take them 40 years to get from Egypt to Israel? Because the Bible says that while they were in the desert, God kept testing them to show them that their faith was insufficient and they weren’t ready to go into the Promised Land. And the Bible says over those 40 years God gave them seven tests. Seven. And every time they failed, God would say, «Okay, another lap around the desert».
And some of them died in the desert. They spent their entire lives there. They didn’t pass the test. Deuteronomy in the Bible, chapter 8, verse 2 says this: «God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years, to humble you and to test you in order to know,» you would know, «what was in your heart, whether or not you’d keep his commandments». And by the way, when God takes you through a desert, he’s doing it for the same reason. When you’re in the wilderness of life, what is the desert or the wilderness of life? It’s when you can’t feel God at all. It’s when you’re in that dry period of your life. You don’t have any emotion. You don’t feel close to God. God’s just going to go, «I’m going to take away your emotions, see if you’re trusting in me or you’re trusting in your emotion».
You’re not living by faith until you don’t have any feelings. And so sometimes God will take away all your feelings and just say, «Will you do the right thing even though you don’t feel 'cause it’s the right thing to do? This is a test. This is a test. Will you trust me»? God is testing you. You see, what matters in your maturity spiritually is not how high you jump when you feel God in a worship concert. The test is how straight you walk when you don’t feel God during the rest of the week. «And, I mean, I have no emotion. I’m in the desert. I’m in a dry period. I’m in the wilderness». «Will you trust me? Will you obey me»?
You see, what God is saying is that the problems that come into your life, they’re a measuring tool. And your reactions to difficulty actually measure your faith and a bunch of stuff. Your reactions to difficulty measure your faith, measure your commitment, measure your maturity, they measure your integrity. The Bible often compares problems to a refining fire. You know how they get the impurities out of gold and silver is they put it in a vat and they heat it all up and it burns off the impurities. And when you’re going through the fire and when you’re suffering, God is burning off the impurities in your life. In life, God is testing you. And what’s he testing? Well, he’s saying if… do you really believe what you claim to believe?
You say, «Well, God is first in my life». But when the heat’s on, is he sidelined when it’s inconvenient and unpopular? You say, «You know, I have integrity». But are you willing to lower your standards because you want to be popular and approved by the people at work or school? You say, «You know, I’m totally committed to you, God». But when the pressure is on, do you give up and walk away? So I want you to write down a question. I’m going to give you a question on each of these. Here’s the question to ask about when God uses problems to inspect me. What does this problem reveal about me? When your whole life is being shaken and everything, you’re on shaky ground, the foundation is unstable, «What does this problem reveal about me»? God is inspecting you.
Number two, here’s another reason, sometimes God shakes things up in your life not to inspect you but to correct you. God wants to correct me. Now, this is exactly what happened in the nation of Israel 2,500 years ago. So I told you they’d fallen into deep idolatry, and God says, «You know, I’m going to cure you of that addiction. We’re just going to get rid of those, you know. And there’s only one true God, and I don’t want you messing around with other gods anymore». And when God allowed them to be hauled off into a foreign country for 70 years, 25% of the nation, when they came back 70 years later, they were cured. I mean, Israel never again reverted to idolatry. In fact, later on I’ll give you the seven things that changed in the nation of Israel after being in that period of captivity for 70 years, and they were all good things.
Now, here’s a very important verse. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 8 to 11. «God corrects all of his children, and if he doesn’t correct you, then you don’t really belong to him». Whoa. So if you can sin and get away with it, you should doubt, «Am I really in God’s family»? «God corrects his children, and if he doesn’t correct you, then you don’t really belong to him. God corrects us for our own good, because he wants us to be holy, as he is». Now, it’s never fun to be corrected. How many of you agree with that part of the Bible? Yeah, it’s never fun to be corrected. «In fact, at the time it’s always painful. But if we learn to obey by being corrected, we will do right and live at peace».
See, ultimately it’s for your good. So you can live at peace. I mean, did you benefit from correction growing up? Of course, you did. It’s how you learned to walk, talk, eat, bathe, read, write. And everything else you learned you learned because somebody cared enough to correct you. A parent that doesn’t correct their children doesn’t love their children. And if they don’t correct them, they don’t love, correction is proof that I’m part of God’s families. Now, how many of you who have been parents would rather not correct your children? Me, okay? I’d rather not. It’s no fun. It’s not only not fun for the kids, it’s not fun for the parents, okay? If you like to correct, you got a masochistic problem, friend, okay? But how many of you, even though you don’t like to correct your children, you want to just let them get away, that would still have to do it anyway? Yeah, we would all do that. You don’t have to raise your hand. I know you would. Because sometimes the only way to train is through pain. Sometimes the only way to train is through pain.
Now, the next verse, Hebrews chapter 12, is an extremely important verse for your life. When God spoke the Ten Commandments, and Moses chiseled them into, you know, the tablets up there on Mount Sinai, when he spoke, the Bible says he spoke so loud, he’s up in the mountains, so people down in the valley could hear him. Now, Hebrews 12 says this: «When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he says,» God says, «'I will not only shake the earth but the heavens too.'» Now, what’s that mean? «Well, by this he means that he will sift out everything without a solid foundation,» talk about your life, «so that only the unshakable things will be left».
Okay, sometimes you’re going to go through the fire, you’re going to go through a problem, you’re going to go through a difficulty, and you are being shaken. It’s like sifting, when you’re sifting, you know, flour or anything else. And what he’s doing here, he’s just saying, «We’re going to get rid of all the temporary stuff, all the man-made stuff in your life, and we’re only going to keep in your life the stuff that’s going to last forever». That’s why you’re going through that problem. Job chapter 5, verse 17, «Consider yourself fortunate when God all-powerful chooses to correct you». He says it’s a privilege, it’s an honor to be corrected by God 'cause it just means he loves you. Parents who don’t correct their kids don’t love their kids.
And so he says, you know, God whispers to us in our pleasure, but he shouts to us in our pain. And we only change, the only time we change is when the fear of change is exceeded by pain. The only time we change is when our fear of change is actually exceeded by pain. When the pain gets bad enough, then you change. I don’t know why, but sometimes God has to lay us flat on our back before we look up to him. And God wants to teach you about himself and he wants teach you about yourself. And some lessons really, you’re only going to learn through failure, you know.
«Don’t touch the stove». You don’t touch it a second time because you learn by being burned. And sometime, you know, some things in life, you don’t learn the value of money till you’ve lost it. You don’t learn the value of friendship till you’ve lost it. You don’t learn the value of your health until you’ve lost it. And so sometimes God allows pain and problems and shakeups to inspect us, what’s really in you, but sometimes God use pain and problems and shakeups to correct you like he did with Israel.
So here’s the question. Write this down. What is this problem teaching me? Instead of going, «Why me,» instead of asking why you should ask what. Don’t ask why when you go through problems, ask what. «What should I be learning». Not, «Why is this happening to me,» but, «What should I be learning»? Because God uses problems to correct you, all right? Well, let’s look at number three. Sometimes God shakes things up to inspect me, sometimes God shakes things up in my life to correct me, and number three, sometimes God shakes things up to direct me. To direct me. He wants to point us in a new direction. He wants to guide us down a different path.
Proverbs 16, verse 9, «A person may plan his own journey,» you got your own life plan out there, «but the Lord directs his steps». See, you can have all your plans, but the Lord is going to direct your steps. Question, how does God direct your steps? Real simple, problems. That’s how he directs your steps. Have you noticed that problems often change your plans? Have anybody had that happen in their life? Your problems change your plans. What is God doing? He’s redirecting you. He inspects you, he corrects you, and he directs you when things are flying off the wall. A pain is a powerful motivation to change. You’ve heard me say this before. We don’t change when we see the light, we change when we feel the heat. And when it gets hot enough, then we change. Proverbs 20, verse 13 says this: «Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways».
And every one of you could give a testimony on that verse. Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our way. Sometimes God has to light a fire on you so you become uneasy, you become uncomfortable, gets hot. I mean, even Aristotle said we cannot learn without pain. Aristotle. We cannot learn without pain. Some things, as I said, you learned by being burned. It’s like when the prodigal son, he didn’t change until he hit bottom. Ryan Holiday preached on this two weeks ago. And everything’s going great, he’s living it up his life, but when he hits bottom, he runs out of friends, money, and food, now he goes, «Hm». He came to his senses. «Maybe this isn’t the way I should be living».
God shakes things up to direct us in a new direction. We rarely think about the direction of our lives when things are going good. When your life’s going good, you got it on cruise control. You’re not even thinking about your goals. You’re not even thinking about God. You’re not thinking about anything but cruise control. «This is fun. I’m in the driver’s seat right now». But all of a sudden you have a traffic jam or car accident, all of a sudden it gets your attention. And God gets our attention many times and he changes the direction. One of the values of pressure and problems and crisis in your life is it forces you to think about stuff you wouldn’t normally think about on your own. You want to just live in denial. And you would just like to take that part of your life that needs changing and just forget it and go on with your life and go, «Ah, I’ll just isolate that over here, I’ll compartmentalize it, and that’ll be just fine». But it doesn’t work.
Now, when David’s life fell apart, he wrote this. Psalm 119, verse 59, «I have thought about my life…» Probably didn’t even think about it till the problem came. «I’ve thought about my life, and I’ve directed my feet back to your written instructions». What’s that? That’s the Bible. «Your written instructions». He says, «I’m redirecting my life. Now that I got problems, God, you got my attention». What is a problem in your life that you’re pretending isn’t a problem? What’s the big problem, the big elephant in your life, in your marriage, in your relationship? That you just figure, «Well, it’s not a problem. I know we got that there, but we’ve had it in this relationship all this time».
No. It’s still a problem. And God will use difficulty to correct you, inspect you, and redirect you if he needs to. We would rarely change unless we had problems. We postpone difficult decisions. We put it off. I mean, if you had a disease that didn’t hurt you, you’d never go to the doctor about it. You just let it keep taking over your life until you die. Pain gets your attention. We ignore illnesses if they didn’t hurt. So God uses problems to prod us, and to poke us, and to push us, and to prompt us, and he uses things to direct us.
Write this down, question. «Where is this problem leading me»? You want to ask yourself. You want to get the most out of your problems. «Where is this problem leading me»? Problems never leave you where they found you. You know, God told Jonah to go east to Nineveh. We talked about this the other week. And he didn’t want to go there. He’s racially prejudiced, so he went to Spain at Tarshish, headed that direction, went as far west as he could. And God arranged a custom-made problem. A custom-made fish swallowed him up. And sometimes you get swallowed up by a big problem, but when it spits you out, you’re headed in the right direction. And sometimes you’re going this way, and a problem swallows you up. When it spits you out, you’re going in the right direction. God uses problems to direct us.
Number four, sometimes God shakes things up to protect us. Sometimes God shakes things up to protect us. Did you know that sometimes pain protects you from something worse? That you’re going through a problem, but it’s actually preventing you from a bigger problem. It’s keeping you from greater harm. You know, you might have wanted a certain job at a certain business and it didn’t happen. And God was protecting you because he knew that there was a relationship there that was going to mess you up, and he kept you out of that situation. Sometimes a problem is a blessing in disguise.
Now, honestly, there will be times you have problems when you did the right thing. Not the wrong thing. Not every problem is because you did something wrong. Sometimes you have a problem 'cause you did the right thing. I mean, I remember one time there’s a guy here at Saddleback, good business friend of mine, and he was asked to do on a corporation something very unethical. And he said, «Sorry, I just can’t do it. I’m a follower of Jesus Christ. I cannot be unethical in that area». And they fired him. Now, he lost his pension and he lost his job and, you know, he lost his, you know, all of that. And it looked bad, but, you know, about a month later the SEC hauled that entire corporation into court, and they’re all in jail now, and he’s not. And he’s going, «Well, thank God».
Okay, the problem was getting fired. The bigger problem was going to jail for 20 years. Which is the worst problem? Yeah, sometimes God, he did the right thing and he had a problem. He lost his job, but it saved him. Maybe getting fired might be the best thing to happen to you 'cause it keeps you from a real problem. Job 36, verse 16, «God led you away from danger». God often does this, and you don’t even realize it. «God has led you away from danger, giving you freedom». Problems are the preparation for success. And it really comes down to a matter of faith. Will you trust God? Do you remember the story of Joseph in the Bible?
You know, well, he had this vision that one day he’d be a great leader, and literally for the first 40 years of his life everything went wrong. He’s betrayed by his brothers. He’s sold into slavery. He’s taken down to Egypt. He gets a job as a slave in a boss’s home. The wife of the boss is attracted to him. She comes on to him, offers herself to him. He refuses. He said, «I have integrity. I’m not going to have an affair with my boss’s wife».
And so she feels spurned, she accuses him of rape, and he’s put in prison for the rest of his life for a crime he never committed. Everything’s gone wrong in his life, but it’s exactly where God wanted him. And a series of circumstances in second half of his life is like this and he ends up second in command, helping Pharaoh save the most powerful nation of that time. You don’t know. Sometimes God is protecting you with a problem in your life. And when it was all over, Joseph said to his brothers who had betrayed him, Genesis 50:20, «You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good».
Now, there are people in your life, there are people in this world who intend to harm you. Not everybody is nice in this world. There are evil people. There are mean people. There are people who don’t like you 'cause you’re a Christian or because of a moral stance or an ethical decision you’ve made or 'cause you won’t go with the flow and won’t, you know, party with the crowd. And they think you’re too good or they think you’re self-righteous, and they misjudge you and on, and they want to bring you down. They mean it for bad, but God means it for good.
God is bigger than your enemies. God is bigger than your critics. God is bigger than the people who put you down. You intended to harm me, but God intended for good. Sometimes God shakes things up just to protect you. It’s kind of like a fever. When you get a fever and you feel really bad, fever is not the problem, friend. Fever is just a symptom. The fever is telling you something worse is going on in your body. And if you didn’t have the fever, you wouldn’t get the help. You know, a fever warns you of an infection that needs to be dealt with. And sometimes a small pain can alert you to a life-threatening disease.
Now, this goes true with your emotions too. Sometimes you’re feeling really bad, and you’re feeling really, really bad, and you’re down, and you’re depressed, and you’re discouraged, and you got all these bad negative feelings, and you’re praying, «Well, God take away the feelings». And he doesn’t take away the feelings. You go, «And why aren’t you taking away the feelings»? God say, «'Cause the feelings aren’t your problem. The problem is what you’re thinking about is causing those feelings. You got to stop believing the lies. And when you stop believing the lies about you, the lies about me, and the lies about other people, you’re going to feel better».