Rick Warren - When Your World Is Shaken Up - Part 3
Now, we’re living in a time of great upheaval, when there’s a lot of shakiness going on, but I’m not here to talk about doom and gloom because this book is not about doom and gloom, it’s about the answer to those. And God says, «No matter how bad the world gets in a rapidly changing world and even in a decaying culture,» God says, «I want you to survive and not only that, thrive, and not only that, I want you to succeed». Jeremiah 29:11 says this, God says, «The plans I have for you are plans for good and not to harm you. They’re plans to give you hope and a future». In Daniel’s life, God did five things with the problems that he had to face, and they are the same five things that God wants to do in your life, regardless of what kind of problems you’re going through.
And number one, sometimes God shakes things up 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. I want you to write down a question. I’m gonna give you a question in 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, and 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. 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. 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 wanna 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 and Parshus, headed that direction. Went as far west as he could and God arranged a custom-made problem. A custom-made fish swallowed him up. 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 and 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. Job 36:16, «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? You remember the story of Joseph in the Bible? You know, 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 gonna 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, the 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».
Sometimes God shakes things up just to protect you. It’s kinda 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, you’re down and you’re depressed and you’re discouraged and you got all these bad negative feelings and you’re praying to God take away the feelings, he doesn’t take away the feelings.
You know, «Why don’t you take away the feelings»? God says, «Because the feelings aren’t your problem. The problem is what you’re thinking about is causing those feelings. You gotta 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 gonna feel better. I’m not gonna take away the feelings. The feelings are telling you that you’re thinking is stinking. You need a checkup from the neck up. You know, you gotta get your thoughts right».
I remember when we’re doing the 23rd Psalm series and I read about how shepherds in the Middle East will sometimes intentionally break a leg of a healthy sheep. Why? Because that sheep is prone to wander. And it’ll wander off. And in order to protect that sheep from wolves and bears and other predators, they will break the leg of the sheep and the sheep walks with limp so it doesn’t wander off. And if God has to break your leg to keep you from wandering off and getting in a worse problem, he will. He loves you that much. That’s no fun to hurt somebody you love, but just like a surgeon will cut you to heal you, God will break you to save you if that’s what it takes. Sometimes God may do that to you.
You see those things that you think are disappointments, disappointments are his appointments. Disappointments are actually his appointments. God has appointed them, and there’s a reason behind it for your own good. Now sometimes God removes a harmful person in your life, and it breaks your heart. Don’t run after them. Some of you, that’s all you need to hear. You just need to hear your pastor say that. Sometimes, there’s a harmful person in your life, but you’re addicted to them. And God will remove them from your life, don’t run after them. God has shaking things up to protect you. So ask this question, question number four, how could this problem protect me? How could this problem be protecting me? What’s being prevented? What could be worse in my life than this problem? Well there are a lot of things that could be worse.
All right, number five. The fifth way that God shakes things up in your life and the fifth reason for shaking things up in your life is not to correct me or inspect me or direct me, but God uses things and problems to perfect me, to make you more like Jesus Christ, to grow your character, to grow you up. Margaret Carlson years ago wrote a book called «Grace Grows Best in Winter». You know, it’s possible to grow during the bright fair weather times, but growth is faster and deeper often during your darkest days. Like when you lose a child. And that’s where you grow deep. I could read you thousands of letters that have been written to me over the last 36 years from people who say, «You know, I grew more, Pastor Rick, through that separation. I grew more, Pastor Rick, through that unemployment, through that illness, through that tragedy, through that loss, through that storm than I ever would have grown if things were going good in my life».
I want you to write this down in your outline. Pain is the high cost of growth. Pain is the high cost of growth. If you wanna grow up, you wanna be mature, there is no way to do it without pain. Pain is the cost of growing up. You can’t grow up on the easy street. And see, we want the product without the process. It is a cliche, but it is true. There is no gain without pain. There’s no maturity without growing pains, and the very thing that discourages you is the very thing that God is using to develop you. When you learn this, you’re gonna be unshakable in life like Daniel was. We’re gonna see all these things in his life.
The things that discourage you are actually the things that God wants to use to develop you, and there is a reward coming. 1 Peter 5:10, the Bible says this, «After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who calls you to share his eternal glory,» God’s gonna share his glory with you, «in union with the Christ, will himself perfect you,» circle that, «will perfect you and give you firmness and strength and a sure foundation,» why? Because you’re not taking your car or your cash or your career or your clothes or your china to heaven, you’re taking your character. God is not interested in making your life easy on this earth. He’s interested in growing your character. The easy part comes for eternity. You’re in school right now. You’re in school. And in school, God says, «There are eternal rewards coming and I’m going to perfect you».
So, knowing that God can even use the bad things in my life to inspect me, to direct me, to correct me, and to even perfect me, what should be my response? Romans chapter 5 tells us, We can rejoice, we can rejoice, «We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials, for we know,» it’s perspective, «that they’re good for us». We run into problems and drugs. We know they’re good for us. «They help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character,» boom, «in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it».
So, here’s the fifth question, how can I grow from this problem? See, the bottom line, your problems are not your problems. All those things that you think are your problems, they’re not your problems. Your problems are not your problems. Your real problems are how you choose to respond to your problems. And if you respond to them in a way where you trust God and you praise God and you thank God and you maintain your integrity and you don’t give up and you don’t give in and you do the things that we’ll see Daniel do in 70 years of his life, you’re just gonna get promoted and promoted and promoted and promoted and promoted into eternity. How can I grow from this problem? And those problems you think you’ve got right now…really, when do problems really become problems? When do your problems really become real problems?
Well my problem becomes a real problem when I lose my perspective. My problem becomes a real problem when I give up on important values, and I just say, «Forget it. I’m not gonna waste time anymore. I give up. I’m giving it up». Our problem becomes a real problem when you lose your sense of humor. Your problem becomes a real problem when you start feeling sorry for yourself and have a pity party. Your problem becomes a real problem when you get bitter and you start blaming everybody else for your unhappiness. Now it’s a problem. That’s the real problem.
So, God is saying, and we’re gonna see this. This is an index to Daniel’s life. He said, «Don’t be surprised when you have adversity». «In the world you will have tribulation,» Jesus said. «Realize that I can use it five different ways, okay? I can inspect you and I can correct you and I can direct you and I can protect you and I can perfect you. I can use all these different ways in what’s going on in your life». And so, what’s the third suggestion? Here it is. Finally, trust God for what I don’t understand. When there’s a problem in my life, but this one does not make sense. I don’t get it. I don’t see the perfection. I don’t see the inspection. I don’t see the correction. I don’t see the protection. I don’t see the perfection. This problem does not make sense. Then I trust God For what I don’t understand, knowing that he has my best interest at heart.
Last two verses, Proverbs 20:24, «Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way»? Hello. Some of us need to memorize that and tattoo it on our arm, okay? If you’re ever gonna get a tattoo, get that verse right there, okay? «Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way»? It’s foolish. You’re trying to understand God’s ways like an ant trying to understand the internet. You don’t have the brain capacity. God is God and you’re not. So, what do you do when you don’t understand? You trust. Last verse, Proverbs 3:5-6, «Trust the Lord with all your heart,» it doesn’t say intellect, heart. «Trust the Lord with all your heart. Don’t depend on your own understanding. Honor the Lord in everything you do and he will give you,» what’s the word? Circle that, «Success».
I want you to be a success in life. God wants you to be a success in life. As your pastor, as your spiritual coach, it is my goal, my job, my role to help you succeed in every area of the life that God has given you. I want you to be a success. Not just survive when times are tough, not just survive in a hostile culture to Christians, but to thrive and actually get promoted and have greater influence and be used by God in an amazing way. That’s what we’re gonna look at in this series. Let’s bow our heads. Let me close with a little self-evaluation. Why don’t you ask these questions to God in your mind. Here’s the first one to say, «Lord, are you using these problems to inspect me? You know, the ones I’m going through right now? Are you using these problems to inspect me?
If so, what does it reveal about my life? Is there a weakness? Is there a misplaced priority in my life? Is there someplace I’ve compromised the truth and you’re trying to show it to me»? Then say, «Lord, are you using this problem to correct me? If so, what do you want me to learn? I’m not gonna ask why? Why is this happening to me? I’m gonna ask what? What do you want me to learn? What do you want me to know? Lord, are you using this problem not just to inspect or correct, are you using this problem to direct me? If so, what’s the direction? What do you want me to change? What’s the new direction? Where do you want me headed? Lord, are you using this problem to protect me? Did that thing not happen because you knew something that I didn’t know, and I was walking into a bigger trap, a bigger problem, a bigger fiasco, a bigger difficulty and you protected me?
So Lord, then I’m just gonna tell you, I trust you. I know that you know best. Thank you for protecting me. And God, I want you to protect me. And when there’s something that I want that would be bad for me, don’t let me have it. I want your will more than my will». And then say, «Lord, are you using this problem to perfect me»? You see, God’s at work in your life, even when you don’t recognize it or even understand it. God’s work in your life is not dependent upon you understanding it. So, I want you to pray this prayer very simply. Say:
Dear God, I wanna trust you with all my heart. I trust you with all my heart, not my intellect. I’m not gonna depend on my own understanding. And God, I wanna honor you in everything I do, work, home, anywhere else. And if I trust you, and I don’t depend on my own understanding, and I honor you in everything I do, you’ve promised to give me success, and I’m gonna believe that. Teach me through the life of Daniel in these weeks ahead. Jesus Christ, I want to trust you with all of my life, as best I know how, and I’m doing it today. In your name I pray, amen.