Rick Warren on the Life's Healing Choices 2009 Fall Campaign...
(WARNING: Warren's interpretation and application of The Beatitudes is not supported by Scripture or scholars)
"Now, there are choices that you must make to grow spiritually; and actually this fall Saddleback and thousands of other churches, we’re going to do a spiritual growth journey together called Life’s Healing Choices. We’re going to look at the eight most significant choices you have to make in life in order to grow and what are they, they are the Beatitudes."
Choice 1 ~ Admitting Need
Choice 2 ~ Getting Help
Choice 3 ~ Letting Go
Choice 4 ~ Coming Clean
Choice 5 ~ Making Changes
Choice 6 ~ Repairing Relationships
Choice 7 ~ Maintaining Momentum
Choice 8 ~ Recycling Pain Choice
I didn’t make these choices up. This is not my plan; this is the two-thousand-year-old Jesus Model plan where he says, “You’ll be happy if you do this.” Think about this: the greatest sermon ever preached—the word blessed means ―happy, translated happy in many translations and Jesus starts off, “Let me tell you eight ways to be happy.” And Jesus’ way of happiness is the exact opposite of the world’s happy. He said “You’ll be happy if you choose to do this, you’ll be happy if you choose to do this, you’ll be happy to do this.” We call that Life’s Healing Choices and so we’re going to have to go through those stages together making those choices.
...And by the way, we’ll be doing it for eight weeks because there’re eight beatitudes, but there’s another reason: psychologists have discovered that it takes about six to eight weeks to make a habit. It takes about three weeks for you to get comfortable doing something, and it takes about another three weeks for you to really pound it in your life. And the reason why most people have never stayed consistent in a quiet time is they’ve never gone six to eight weeks without a break.
"...the Bible doesn’t teach resisting temptation; the Bible teaches resisting the tempter, and the Bible teaches reflecting and refocusing and changing your attention. Whatever you focus on you move towards. Now I want to give you the solutions to how God changes us.
( Editor's note: Really? The Book of Proverbs is part of the Bible. It is full of admonitions to resist temptation Proverbs 1, 4, 5, 7.
Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.)
Now, what we’re going to do today is not the process of change but we’re going to look at the principles underlying change. There is a process that God uses and it’s called the Beatitudes.
There are eight steps, the eight steps of the Beatitudes... And those steps are an actual step on how God transforms us, and they’re actually step-by-step procedure when you understand...I want to lay the foundation to understand how Jesus changes people. It’s very important since you’re in the life-changing business that you understand that the tools Jesus uses for change, he modeled for us. And if we don’t use the tools Jesus gave us, we don’t use the principles Jesus gave us, we’re going to miss out."
But our ultimate goal is not to be happy or to be contented or to be balanced or even to be successful. God has a much bigger picture for our lives. Our goal is holiness. Happiness comes from holiness. If you’re holy you’ll be happy, but you can’t have true genuine happiness without holiness in your life.
The Bible says, “We should see him and as he is we will become like him,” but right now we’re in a slow-by-slow, step-by-step process of becoming like Jesus and there’s a word for that. It’s called discipleship. It’s also called renewal; it’s also called recovery; it’s also called spiritual development; it’s also called formation. I don’t care what you call it, just do it—
...So the goal of spiritual maturity, the goal of recovery, the goal of renewal is to become like Jesus.
So there’s a God part and there’s a you part; and in recovery, in growth, in renewal, in spiritual formation you have to understand both parts.
Both God and you have a part in spiritual development and in recovery from the brokenness of our sinfulness.
Change always begins with choices...Change always starts with a choice and really your character is the sum total of your choices and your destinies be determined by a thousand little choices that you make every day that don’t seem significant but they all add up.
And again, this fall when we do Life’s Healing Choices, we’re going to talk about the truth, the eight truths that Jesus said in the Beatitudes that set us free.
Number five—the fifth principle of how Jesus transforms us, transforms our lives—is (this is extremely important; most people don’t get this in America): Lasting change requires community.
You know that perpetual in your life, that habit that you can’t break, that you’d like to change, you’re never going to get well on your own, you’re never going to get freedom on your own, you’re never going to get release from it on your own, if you could you would but you can’t so you won’t because God wired us in such a way that we need each other in order to grow, in order to be transformed.
So the journey we take in all of these spiritual growth emphasis—these spiritual growth journeys, the experiences, the campaigns, whatever you want to call them—the key to them is not the preaching, the key to them is the small groups.
Choice 1 ~ Admitting Need
Choice 2 ~ Getting Help
Choice 3 ~ Letting Go
Choice 4 ~ Coming Clean
Choice 5 ~ Making Changes
Choice 6 ~ Repairing Relationships
Choice 7 ~ Maintaining Momentum
Choice 8 ~ Recycling Pain Choice
I didn’t make these choices up. This is not my plan; this is the two-thousand-year-old Jesus Model plan where he says, “You’ll be happy if you do this.” Think about this: the greatest sermon ever preached—the word blessed means ―happy, translated happy in many translations and Jesus starts off, “Let me tell you eight ways to be happy.” And Jesus’ way of happiness is the exact opposite of the world’s happy. He said “You’ll be happy if you choose to do this, you’ll be happy if you choose to do this, you’ll be happy to do this.” We call that Life’s Healing Choices and so we’re going to have to go through those stages together making those choices.
...And by the way, we’ll be doing it for eight weeks because there’re eight beatitudes, but there’s another reason: psychologists have discovered that it takes about six to eight weeks to make a habit. It takes about three weeks for you to get comfortable doing something, and it takes about another three weeks for you to really pound it in your life. And the reason why most people have never stayed consistent in a quiet time is they’ve never gone six to eight weeks without a break.
"...the Bible doesn’t teach resisting temptation; the Bible teaches resisting the tempter, and the Bible teaches reflecting and refocusing and changing your attention. Whatever you focus on you move towards. Now I want to give you the solutions to how God changes us.
( Editor's note: Really? The Book of Proverbs is part of the Bible. It is full of admonitions to resist temptation Proverbs 1, 4, 5, 7.
Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.)
Now, what we’re going to do today is not the process of change but we’re going to look at the principles underlying change. There is a process that God uses and it’s called the Beatitudes.
There are eight steps, the eight steps of the Beatitudes... And those steps are an actual step on how God transforms us, and they’re actually step-by-step procedure when you understand...I want to lay the foundation to understand how Jesus changes people. It’s very important since you’re in the life-changing business that you understand that the tools Jesus uses for change, he modeled for us. And if we don’t use the tools Jesus gave us, we don’t use the principles Jesus gave us, we’re going to miss out."
But our ultimate goal is not to be happy or to be contented or to be balanced or even to be successful. God has a much bigger picture for our lives. Our goal is holiness. Happiness comes from holiness. If you’re holy you’ll be happy, but you can’t have true genuine happiness without holiness in your life.
The Bible says, “We should see him and as he is we will become like him,” but right now we’re in a slow-by-slow, step-by-step process of becoming like Jesus and there’s a word for that. It’s called discipleship. It’s also called renewal; it’s also called recovery; it’s also called spiritual development; it’s also called formation. I don’t care what you call it, just do it—
...So the goal of spiritual maturity, the goal of recovery, the goal of renewal is to become like Jesus.
So there’s a God part and there’s a you part; and in recovery, in growth, in renewal, in spiritual formation you have to understand both parts.
Both God and you have a part in spiritual development and in recovery from the brokenness of our sinfulness.
Change always begins with choices...Change always starts with a choice and really your character is the sum total of your choices and your destinies be determined by a thousand little choices that you make every day that don’t seem significant but they all add up.
And again, this fall when we do Life’s Healing Choices, we’re going to talk about the truth, the eight truths that Jesus said in the Beatitudes that set us free.
Number five—the fifth principle of how Jesus transforms us, transforms our lives—is (this is extremely important; most people don’t get this in America): Lasting change requires community.
You know that perpetual in your life, that habit that you can’t break, that you’d like to change, you’re never going to get well on your own, you’re never going to get freedom on your own, you’re never going to get release from it on your own, if you could you would but you can’t so you won’t because God wired us in such a way that we need each other in order to grow, in order to be transformed.
So the journey we take in all of these spiritual growth emphasis—these spiritual growth journeys, the experiences, the campaigns, whatever you want to call them—the key to them is not the preaching, the key to them is the small groups.
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