- Hello, everybody! - [Congregation] Hello! - For the past several
weeks here at Saddleback I've been teaching through
the book of Daniel, and we're calling the series Unshakable, which is about how do you thrive no matter what they throw at you in life. And we're looking at how Daniel as a young 15-year-old prisoner of war was taken to Babylon, and by the end of his life, 85 years of age, 70 years later, he becomes the second most powerful man in the entire kingdom. And it's an amazing story of how do you keep your integrity and how do you keep your faith in a culture that is increasingly anti everything you believe. Does that sound familiar? - [Congregation] Yes! - Yeah. But this week at Saddleback we are celebrating the 25th, as you know, anniversary of Celebrate Recovery, which started as a simple ministry of the church and now, of course, is a global movement. Literally tens of thousands of churches have used Celebrate Recovery. It is a program that's used as the official recovery program at about 47 state prison systems. It's used around the world. It's used in Russia and
many, many other countries. And I wanna just pause and I want us to look at why has God blessed Celebrate Recovery? I think it's important for
everybody to know this. It's a signature issue of this
church, Saddleback Church. And what I wanna do today is kinda share with you the underpinnings of why recovery's important. And it's so important that I want everybody to understand this. And I'm gonna give you eight values or eight principles or
you could've titled this, Eight Things I've Learned
About Human Behavior, (congregation laughs softly) in now over 40 years of ministry. Eight things I've learned
about Celebrate Recovery. So if you'll take out your
notes, your message notes, let's get right into this. The first thing that I've learned, and I deeply believe this
with all of my heart is this: Everybody needs recovery from something. - [Congregation] Yes! - Everybody needs recovery from something. There are only two kinds
of people in the world. Those who know they need recovery and those who haven't got there yet. And are still in that
river in Egypt, denial. And so everybody needs
recovery from something. Now why is that? Because everybody's broken. - [Congregation] Amen. - Okay, everybody's broken. And let me just show you three verses on this message outline. Romans 3:23. "For all have sinned." Okay, who does that include? - [Congregation] All. - Yeah, all. Okay, I looked up this word,
the Greek word for all, in the Greek New Testament in the Bible, and the word here in Greek
means all. (chuckles) (congregation laughing) It means you, me, the pope, the president, everybody, all, A-L-L. Nobody's not included in it. Everybody's included and
nobody's not included. "All have sinned." We could just stop with
that one right there, but look at these other two verses. Isaiah 53:6. "All of us have strayed away like sheep. "We've wandered off God's path "to go our own way and do our own thing." Everybody's done their own thing. We've wandered away from God. Now the result of that is the next verse, Isaiah 59, verse two. "So there's a problem. "Your sins have cut you off from God." Have you ever been praying and felt your prayers were
bouncing off the ceiling? Yeah. Have you ever prayed and talked to God and felt like God was
a million miles away? Well, guess who moved. (congregation laughing) God didn't move away from you. The Bible says, "Your sins
have cut you off from God." Now this estrangement from God causes every other single
problem in your life. Relational problems, financial problems, sexual problems, mental
problems, physical problems. because of this estrangement from God, everything is broken. The weather is broken,
the economy's broken, politics is broken. History is broken. Have you noticed your body
doesn't work perfectly? (congregation laughing) Anybody wanna give a
testimony on that one? Yeah, okay? It's all broken. But today, I want us to just focus on one big problem that
it causes and it's this. You might write this down, number two. My disconnect from God
blurs my birthrights. I'm gonna explain this to ya. My disconnect from God
blurs my birthrights. Because we're not in
harmony with our Creator, it causes so much confusion about the most fundamental
issues of your life. And there are four fundamental
issues of your life that you're always confused about when you're out of whack with God, when you're out of fellowship with God, when you're disconnected from God. And the first one, you
might write this down, is my identity. Who am I? That's my identity. The reason why everybody's
asking this question today, and the whole world's
having an identity crisis. Who am I? Who am I, who am I really? Because we're disconnected from God. It's cut us off from God. Who am I is the question of identity. The next question that everybody asks is, where did I come from
and who do I belong to? That's called my heredity. My heredity. So you've got my identity and my heredity. Who am I, where did I come from and who do I belong to? The third big question, and I hear all of these
questions over and over and over, is why I wrote the book
Purpose Driven Life is that does my life matter and have purpose? And that is the question of dignity. Dignity. When you don't know who you are, where you came from, who you belong to, what's your purpose, does your life have any meaning, you lack dignity. You lack significance. You lack meaning, you
lack purpose in your life. So we got identity, heredity, dignity, and then the fourth question that is confusing to
everybody is this one, where am I headed? And that's my destiny. My destiny. Now we see the evidence of confusion in these four areas everywhere. People confused about their identity, their heredity, their
dignity, and their destiny. These four things, your identity, your
heredity, your destiny, and your dignity are called your birthrights in the Bible. Your birthrights, that's
what they're called. And your birthrights include your identity, your heredity, your dignity and your destiny. And if you don't know your birthright, then you can't answer these questions. Now number three. Third thing I want you to understand. I have two birthrights. One of them's natural and
the other is supernatural. You have a natural birthright, which you get from your parents, and you have a spiritual birthright, which you get from God. You got your natural
birthright when you were born. You get your spiritual birthright
when you're born again. The first is a physical,
the second is a spiritual. The first birthright,
your physical birthright, your natural birthright is for Earth. It's really only applies here on Earth. But your spiritual birthright
applies for eternity. Earth and eternity. Parents, God. Born, born again. Physical, spiritual. Now your natural birthright comes from your DNA. And the DNA that you
were given, your parents, whether you even know your parents or not, is really irrelevant. Why did God choose your parents? You say, why didn't God
give me better parents? Some of you didn't even know your parents. Some of you had an absentee parent. Some of you had an abusive parent. I'm sorry, I really am. God chose your parents to be your parents. Not because of their parenting skill. But God chose your parents, listen very closely, out of love, He chose your parents because they had just the
right DNA to create you, and He was far more
interested in making you than He was their parenting skills. (congregation cheering and applauding) That make sense? So God wanted you alive. You are not an accident,
you are not an accident. There are accidental parents, there are no accidental children. (congregation cheering and applauding) There are illegitimate parents, there are no illegitimate children. - [Congregation] Amen.
(applauding) - Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He wanted you alive. And so you are to honor your parents even if they were not very good parents or you never even know them. You're to honor them simply because they had the DNA, that in
that particular mixture, would create you. And if they hadn't gotten together, you wouldn't exist, and
God wanted you alive. So God is much bigger than the character or the
personality of your parents. That make sense? - [Congregation] Yes. - God is more interested in you. He loves you. When you were born. SO both of these birthrights, your natural and your spiritual. Your natural and your supernatural. They're both extremely important. From your parents, you got your physical birthright, which means God decided what was gonna be your gender, you're either male or female, what's your race, he determined your
physical characteristics, he had determined your talents, he determined your nationality because of where they were gonna be born and where you would be born. And there are many, many characteristics that have to do with
your physical birthright. Now, in some cultures, firstborn sons have an advantage. This happens in Eastern countries and Middle Eastern countries, certainly in the Jewish culture. Firstborn son received
a special birthright. And they got all kinds
of additional values if they were the firstborn. By the way, I was not the firstborn. How many of you were not the firstborn? - [Congregation Member] Yeah! - Alright, how many of you are glad that your parents didn't say after they had the first kid, "We got the one quality child, "let's just stop here and focus on "quality, not quantity." (congregation laughing)
Okay? You wouldn't be alive. So when a church says, "We
want quality, not quantity," they're going, "The rest of
the world can go to hell," is what they're saying. That's what they're saying. No, we want both. When you go fishing, you wanna catch the most
fish or the biggest. I want both. (congregation laughing) In my church, I want quality and quantity. I wanna catch the most fish I can, and I want 'em to grow as deep and as big in Christ as
they can possibly be. So I want both. So in some cultures, if you're the firstborn, in the birthright it means the wealth is being passed onto you. The authority, the
influence, the inheritance. For instance, in the
United Kingdom right now, Prince William will become
the king of England one day, not Prince Harry. 'Cause William was born first. So that's an advantage
of a physical birthright. Most of us were not firstborn sons, but some of you are, and goody for you. (congregation laughing)
Okay. Now... What I really wanna
focus on in this message is the second birthright and its relationship to your future, your identity, your heredity, your dignity and your destiny. And the reason I wanna focus on this 'cause it's the least understood. Your spiritual birthright. The birthright you got
when you were born again. Now the first thing we learned about it in these verses here I've
put on your outline is that our spiritual birthrights
come from believing and receiving Christ. That's how you get your
spiritual birthright. From believing and receiving Christ. John 1:12 and 13. "To all who received Him
who believed in His name, "Jesus gave the right to
become children of God." Now I want you to circle "the right." That's a birthright. Those who believe in
Christ, who receive Him, Jesus gives the right,
that's a birthright, to become children of God. Everybody in the world is loved by God, everybody in the world's created by God, but not everybody in the
world is a child of God. They're all loved by God, He has a purpose for their lives, He wants them to be a child of God, but a child of God is a choice when you believe and you receive. Jesus gives the right to
become children of God. "These children are not
born of natural heritage, "or human decision or desire, "this rebirth comes from God." Okay, the second verse says that your rights as a child of God from being born again are eternal. They're eternal. Now the birthright you
get from your parents, it only lasts as long as
you're on this planet. But this birthright lasts for eternity. Psalm 37:18. "The lives of the just are in God's care; "their birthright will endure forever." Circle that last phrase, "forever." So this birthright's important 'cause it's gonna last for
trillions and trillions and trillions of years. The next verse, 1 Peter 1:4 tells us that your rights as a child of God are protected in Heaven. We believe in protecting people's rights. Well, God protects your
spiritual rights in Heaven. 1 Peter 1:4. "God has reserved a priceless inheritance "for His children. "It's kept for you in Heaven, "kept in Heaven for you, "pure and undefiled, "beyond the reach of change and decay." Now by the way, another word
for birthright is inheritance. If you wanna do additional study on this, study the word heir, H-E-I-R, or inheritance in the New Testament to find out what your
spiritual birthright is. Many, many verses in the Bible tell us what you're
gonna inherit in Heaven. But it's not just in Heaven. Your birthright from God
is not just in Heaven. Your spiritual birthright is all of the benefits
you get here on Earth. In fact, this week, I went
through the New Testament, and I made a list of over 180 benefits that God gives to you the moment you're born again. That nobody else gets until they're born again. 180 different benefits. They're all a part of your birthright. Your spiritual heritage. And I made that list when you become a part of God's family, you get all of these things. Ephesians 1:3 says this. "For in our union with Christ, "He has blessed us by giving us "every spiritual blessing." Circle the word "every." "Every spiritual blessing from Heaven," and what I'm saying here is that the Bible teaches your birthright includes everything God does for
you because of the cross. Everything, answers prayers. Protects you, comforts you, takes you to Heaven, saves you. All of the many different
things that God does because of Jesus Christ. Now I could give you
literally 180 examples, but let me just give you one. How do I put this. Coming backstage here, to get to see me backstage
between the services, pretty difficult to do. Probably isn't gonna happen. Because I'm usually back there resting, praying, talking
with other staff about issues, reformatting what I'm
gonna cut from the sermon 'cause it went too long and, (congregation laughing) many, many other things like that. And so you're probably not
gonna get back to see me between the service. But there are five little people who can walk past every guard and security agent in this church. And they don't even
have to worry about it. And they can just walk straight in, and they have instant access to me because they're called my grandkids. (congregation laughing) (congregation applauding)
Alright? And when they walk backstage, they're not paying any attention to any security guard or
any door that's locked, they're just walking straight through. They have direct and unequivocal access to me, because to them, I'm not Pastor Rick Warren, I'm Papa. (congregation laughing and applauding) Okay, so I'm Papa. So they can get direct access to me. And that's one of the benefits
of being in my family. (congregation chatters) You have a Heavenly Father, who, because of what Jesus did for you, have given you direct access to Him. (congregation cheering and applauding) You don't have to go through a priest, you don't have to go through a saint, you don't have to go through anybody else, you can go directly to
Jesus in Jesus' name. You have direct. That's part of your birthright. Does that make sense?
- Yes. - And there are about
180 of those benefits that God has given to you. And God has given us the assurance that every one of those things
in your spiritual birthright are going to happen. And as a guarantee, as an assurance, he has given us His Spirit. Look at the next verse. Ephesians 1:14. "The Holy Spirit is the guarantee "of our inheritance "until we acquire possession
of it," in Heaven. So he said, "This is a little guarantee "that everything I've
promised you is gonna happen." So everybody needs recovery because my disconnect from God confuses and blurs my birthright in identity, heredity, dignity, destiny. I have two different birthrights, physical and natural, the supernatural. The fourth thing I
wanna point out is this. And I'm trying to
summarize the whole Bible in about eight statements here. (congregation laughing)
Okay? Number four. Satan wants to keep me from
enjoying my birthrights. Satan wants to keep me from
enjoying my birthrights. And what Satan wants to do is he wants to confuse your identity. He wants to steal your heredity, what's rightfully yours in Christ. He wants to destroy your dignity by causing you to miss your purpose. And he wants to prevent your destiny. Jesus called Satan a thief. Jesus called Satan a thief. In fact, in John 10:10, Jesus said this: "The thief comes to steal
and kill and destroy, "but I came to give life, "life in all its fullness." Now friends, don't be fooled. Satan wants nothing good for your life. - [Congregation Member] Amen. - He may offer you kind
of things of money, pleasure, fame, fortune, whatever. Satan wants nothing good for your life. He came to steal, to kill and destroy your God-given birthrights. On the other hand, Jesus came to help you enjoy your
God-given birthrights to the fullest. Life in the fullest. Now, number five. The two tools that Satan uses. The two tools that Satan
uses to steal my birthrights. And this is where we have to get into recovery here, are these. Avoiding pain and short term pleasure. Avoiding pain and settling
for short term pleasure. Those are the two tools that Satan uses over and over and over and over and over in your life to rob your dignity, steal your heredity,
confuse your identity, prevent your destiny. He wants to confuse you identity, steal your heredity, destroy your dignity, prevent your destiny. He came to steal and kill and destroy. And how does he do this? Through avoiding pain and through short term pleasure. Let's talk about both these. So much of our self-defeating problems, the ones we bring on ourselves, all the behavior that causes all kinds of problems in relationship, is because we're trying to avoid pain. We wanna avoid it, we wanna mask it, we wanna self-medicate it, the pain in our lives. What we don't wanna do is identify it and do surgery on it. What we wanna do is put a band-aid on it. When we're in pain, we don't say, we don't stop and go, oh, what's the pain caused by? We just say stop the pain. And if I can avoid it, if I can mask it, if I can pretend it's not there, if I can deny it, if I can medicate it in different ways, and by the way, the world
just keeps inventing new ways to put a band-aid on your pain. Today I just made a list of the band-aids that
the world offers to you, these are just distractions from A to Z. Alcohol, betrayal, collecting, I'm into collecting stuff, drugs, entertainment, Facebook. (congregation laughing) Gambling. I'm just going A to Z here. Gambling, hobbies, illicit relationships. These are ways we medicate our pain. Junk food, killing time, loving kinds of relationships that mess us all up. Making more money is a
way we try to mask it. Neediness, obsessions, pornography, Quaaludes. (congregation laughing)
I had to have a Q. I had to have a Q, okay? Had to have a Q. Quaaludes, alright? I wanna thank Johnny Baker for that one 'cause I was stumped, so, yeah, alright. (congregation laughing) I'm not say anything. I'm just saying he knew that Q, "Oh, that's Quaaludes, Rick," okay. (congregation laughing) S, sex, sex and more sex. Okay, T, travel and television. Okay, U, unavailable people, V, video games. Now that's a medication. Work for W. Excitement. Yes-pleasing people. And Z, all the other
habits, hurts and hang-ups. (congregation laughing)
Okay. So the world just keeps inventing new ways to put a band-aid on your pain, but when we try to avoid pain, it always leads us down the path to losing our birthright. Now the second cause of
our self-defeating behavior is our unwillingness
to delay gratification. I want pleasure, and I want it now, and I want it right now. I want it now, I want it all. I want it now. And people say, "I can't
wait, I've gotta have it now, "no matter what I feel." This is why you're in debt. You buy things you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't even like. (congregation laughing) Last year, the average American spent about 2% more than they made. That's called going the
wrong direction, why? "Because I gotta have it now, "even if I have to charge it." - [Congregation Member] Yes, that's it. - You don't have the ability to wait. Wait until you got the money to buy it. "No, no, I gotta have it now." And we are charging in
every area of our lives. There are things in your
life that need to be managed. Power needs to be managed, sex needs to be managed, your words need to be managed, your energy needs to be managed. And when we don't manage it, well, then we go after
these short-term pain. Now the Bible says in Hebrews 12:25 that "Moses chose not to
enjoy the pleasures of sin "for a short time." Now I want you to circle the
phrase "pleasures of sin." The Bible says sin is fun. Says it right there. He chose not to enjoy
the pleasures of sin. Sin is fun. If sin was painful, nobody'd do it. (congregation laughing) Okay, so let's just admit it. There's pleasure in sin. The Bible even says it. But it says, notice the next phrase, for a season, "for a short time." You can have your kicks, but you're gonna have the kickbacks. You can get high, but you're gonna have the hangover. And so maturity is the
ability to deny yourself temporary, illegitimate pleasure and wait for a greater,
legitimate pleasure in the future. What happens here is when we're trying to avoid pain, we're trying to get pleasure right now, not wait for it legitimately, is we get impulsive. The Bible says this in Proverbs 20:25. "An impulsive vow is a trap, "and later you wish you
could get out of it." Okay, I want you to write
this on your outline. This is a Warren principle. It's always easier to
get in than to get out. That's what that verse teaches, okay? "An impulsive vow is a trap, "later you wish you could get out of it." It's always easier to get
in than it is to get out. Is it easier to get in
debt than out of debt? Anybody wanna agree with that? - [Congregation] Yes. - Yeah, yeah. Is it easier to get
into a bad relationship than to get out of a bad relationship? - [Congregation] Yes. - Oh, baby, oh, baby, oh, baby, alright? (congregation laughing) Is it easier to get unhealthy than it is to get unhealthy? I mean, get unhealthy
than it is to get healthy? (laughing)
- [Congregation] Yes. - Yeah, yeah, it is, alright? Let me put it another way. Is it easier to fill your schedule than to fulfill your schedule? - [Congregation] Yes! - Hello. Yeah, it's always easier
to get in than to get out. Is it easier to start an
addiction than to break it? - [Congregation] Yes! - Hello. It's always easier to
get in than to get out. Now the Bible always warns us to not make impulsive decisions without considering the impact, the unintended consequences. Here's a good verse on it. Hebrews 12:16 and 17. I love this in the Message paraphrase. "Watch out for the Esau syndrome." Circle that phrase there, 'cause we're gonna come back to this. We're gonna spend a little time on it. "Watch out for the Esau syndrome: "trading away God's lifelong gift," that's your birthright, "in order to satisfy
a short-term appetite. "You well know how Esau later regretted "that impulsive act "and he wanted to inherit God's blessing, "but by then it was too late "even though he wept bitter tears." I want you to circle
phrase "bitter tears." I just wanna be honest with you. As a pastor whose dealt with
tens of thousands of people, you know what I've discovered? Tears are not enough to change you. I have sat in small
groups, support groups, I have counseled people who were a bucket of tears, and they're weeping over
their shame and their sorrow for what they've one, and they have no intention of changing. Tears are not enough. Some people are like, "Oh, they're crying, "they're really repenting. No they're just being sorry. Big difference. You know what I've discovered? Is that you can be cryin'
and still be lyin'. (congregation laughing) And you can have somebody
sitting in the group going, "Oh, I just hate, I fell
again, I fell again," and they're crying and
they're crying and crying, they have no intention of changing. They're cryin' and they're
lyin' at the same time. Because tears are not enough. It says here that Esau wept over the dumb decision he made, but it didn't change anything. You can have somebody just cry and cry, "I would never do that to you!" And they did. And they'd do it again. - [Congregation Member] Yeah. - They can be cryin' and
lyin' at the same time. Now I wanna pause here and look at Esau for just a minute. Because the details of this
story are very relevant because our whole culture has fallen into the attitude of Esau, or what the Message paraphrase
calls the "Esau syndrome." Now here's the background. God came to Abraham and said to Abraham, "I'm gonna bless you
like I've never blessed "anybody in the entire world "or will ever bless anybody
in the entire world. "I'm gonna make you a great nation. "And out of your family "will come the Ten Commandments "and the law of God, and the Bible, "and the Messiah, and
everybody's gonna be blessed "because of your family." God made this birthright
promise to Abraham and to nobody else. So this is a big birthright, "you're gonna be a great nation." Abraham has a son named Isaac. And the birthright's passed on. Now Isaac is gonna be that person. Isaac has twins. He has two boys. Esau and Jacob. Now Esau is the firstborn son, and he comes out of his
mommy first, Rebecca. And so he should get
the birthright by law, by God's law. But Jacob comes out, and there's a fight for this birthright for the rest of their lives, and he actually cheats
his brother out of it. Second born is Jacob. Now, throughout the Bible, we read this phrase: "The God of Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob. "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." What's the problem with this? It wasn't supposed to be Jacob. It was supposed to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Esau. Abraham, Isaac and Esau. He was the guy who got the birthright. He was the firstborn child. He was the rightful heir. And this is the most significant
birthright in history. If you think about this, Israel today could've been named Esau. (congregation laughing softly) It could be the nation of Esau. Jacob later got the birthright. And later God changed his name to Israel, and so it's called Israel today. But originally, it was supposed to be Esau who gets the birthright. So it should've been, the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Esau. So what happened? How did he miss all that God
had planned for his life? He foolishly gave up his birthright. I want you to see how and why he did it, so you don't. - [Congregation Member] Yes! - And so you can help other people not make this mistake, too. Genesis 25, verses 24 to 34 gives us all of the verses. And I didn't have room to
put 'em on your outline, so they're here on the screen. The Bible says this. First, that the competition
between these twins actually started in the womb. Says, "When Rebekah gave birth to twins, "the first baby to come out
was covered with red hair, "so they named him Esau. "When the second baby came out, "he was grabbing onto his brother's heel, "so they named him Jacob," which, there's some debate on this, but the word Jacob
probably means supplanter or it means schemer. Schemer, okay? The guy's hanging out here, "You're not getting out first. "I'm gonna be the first one out." And so there's already
competition between the twins. Now as they grew up, the boys became the exact opposite. Here's what the Bible says, "And as the twins grew older, "Esau loved the outdoors
and became a hunter, "but Jacob was a quiet man "who liked to stay indoors." Now there's nothing wrong with that, we all just have different
kinds of personality. But the bad part, it was
dysfunctional family, it caused the mom and dad
to each choose favorites. Is that ever a good idea? - [Congregation] No. - No. Does that cause a lot of pain? - Yeah.
- Yes. - And do we try to avoid pain? Yes, and does it cause need for recovery? Yes. Okay. So here's what the Bible says. "Now Isaac," that's the dad, "loved Esau the most but
Rebekah loved Jacob the most. "And the reason Esau
was his dad's favorite "was because he often
brought home wild game "that his dad loved to eat." Oh, good job, Dad. (congregation laughing) "I love the one who brings me steaks." (congregation laughing) That's good, that's a
really legitimate reason to mess up your whole
family, okay, thank you. Now here's what the Bible says, "One day, when Jacob
was cooking some stew," he's a homebody, "Esau came home from hunting, "exhausted and starving." Now I wanna pause right here. When you get exhausted
and when you get hungry, you're being set up for temptation. You need to make sure
you don't get exhausted, you don't get hungry. Your blood sugar's low, you're gonna make some bad decisions. Exhausted and hungry, when
you are at a weak point, Satan is setting you up
to steal your birthright. Okay, so "Esau came home
hunting, exhausted and starving. "He smelled Jacob's stew," (sniffs) oh, man that's smells good. "And he said, 'I've got to
have some of that right now!'" That's inability to delay gratification. "I gotta have it right now! "I can't wait!" Inability to delay. "I gotta have sex now! "I gotta have drugs now! "I gotta have this now! "I've gotta have it
right now, I can't wait! "I'm about to collapse! "Just give me a little bit "to keep me from dying!" (congregation laughing) You hear his voice, "keep me from dying! "Man, I'm begging you, please, "I'm down on my knees! (congregation laughing)
Okay. "Keep me from dying!" Now, notice the setup for this temptation. Because Satan uses this on you, he just doesn't use it with stew. (congregation laughing)
Okay, alright? He might tempt me with stew, but probably not you. (congregation laughing)
Okay, now. Number one, when you're worn out and you're low on willpower, you're in a weakened state. That make sense? - [Congregation] Yes. - And you have a normal need to eat that is unmet here. And you have normal drives in your life, that there's nothing
wrong with those drives, there's nothing wrong with a sex drive. There's nothing with a eating drive. There's nothing wrong
with a drive to sleep. There's nothing wrong with a drive to wanna be loved, and respected, there's
nothing wrong with that. Satan always takes legitimate drives and pushes them to an extreme and says, "You're gonna do it now, "in a illegitimate way." And what happens is you get in a hurry to meet your own need. And you don't wait on God. And you don't wait for God to provide. "I can't wait! "I'm dying out here! "You know how long it's
been since I've had sex? "You know how long it's been since I "had somebody hug me?" And on and on and on. And here's the big issue. You exaggerate your discomfort and pain. "I'm dying." No you're not. You're just hungry. (congregation laughing) You haven't gone 30 days without food, 40 days without food. You go on a day without food. You probably had breakfast before you went out to go hunting. He's not dying. (congregation laughing) He's not, in any sense of the word, dying. But how many times have you used as an excuse to do something wrong to take matters in your own hands and say, "I'm dying. "I gotta do this. "I gotta do this, I gotta
do what's best for me." And so this is going on. Now here's what Jacob does. "Jacob thought about it "and he came up with a bargain. "He said, 'Okay, here's the deal. "'I'll trade you my delicious,'" notice, "'delicious, hot stew.'" It's delicious, it's hot, it's homemade, you can smell it, baby. "'And I'll trade you
my delicious hot, stew "'if you'll trade me your
natural birthright.'" Seem fair? (congregation laughing) - [Guy] No! - Uh, no. No. Now what's your birthright? That's the right you naturally inherit because you were the firstborn. Now here's what Esau says. This is the dumbest line in the Bible. (congregation laughing) (chuckling) Esau says, "Done! "Done deal, great, done deal, "fine, you can have my birthright. "What good are these future rights "if I die of starvation now?" (congregation laughing) Yeah, right, okay. He goes, "My birthright isn't
helping me at this moment. "I'm hungry, "and if I'm dead," oh, I love this logic. "If I'm dead, all of my father's wealth "will be worthless to me anyway. "So, done deal, go ahead. "It's done." And let me pause here for a minute. Because I don't preach this the way that most preachers preach it. Most preachers and most people give Jacob too much credit for craftiness. They think he sneaked in and was crafty and wily and schemey, and he wanted that birthright, and so he cooked up this big plan. No, this is not crafty, friends. How about if this. If I said to you, what's you're name right there? Yeah. Can't read it. - [Congregation Member] Dave! - [Congregation Member] Michael. - Michael, okay, great. Okay, if I said, Michael,
I'll tell you what, I'll give you this cup of water and you give me your car and home. (congregation laughing) Okay. That's not a trick. That's not a tactic. That's not a strategy. It just means, if Michael
does it, he's stupid. (congregation laughing) So it's not that Jacob was really smart, it's that Esau was the
dumbest man on the planet. (congregation laughing) I'll give you a cup of water, and you're gonna give me
your car and your home and your future and your birthright. That's just, that is stupid. You can't fix stupid, alright? (congregation laughing) (crowd cheering and applauding) Now if you told this story to anybody, hey, there was these two brothers, and one of them said, "Look,
I'll give you a bowl of soup, "and you give me your
entire future inheritance." Nobody would say, "Oh,
that's a wise deal." They wouldn't even think
that Jacob was smart. They would just think
Esau was really dumb. So it wasn't Jacob's sneaky, it's that Esau's stupid. He doesn't care about future pain. He only cares about pleasure now. "I want it, and I want it now." Is this vaguely hitting
any buttons in your life? (congregation laughing) Because a lot of the problems in your life is you wanted to have the pleasure now. "I gotta get rid of the pain, "and I gotta get the pleasure now." And so Esau here makes
in irreversible choice based on an irresistible emotion. He put his feelings before his future. This is why we all need recovery. 'Cause we've all done this. We've put our feelings before our future. He chooses short-term pleasure over long-term profit. You know anybody like that? Just the whole world. (congregation laughing softly) We may have not done it this blatantly, but every one of us have done this. There are even phrases in our culture, if it feels good-- - Do it!
- Do it. Yeah. Doesn't matter what happens in the future. Doesn't matter what the payoff is. "I gotta do what's best for me." You look out for number one. And the result of this simple choosing feelings over his future, he gives away his
identity, his inheritance, his dignity and his destiny. Now let me just give
you a little advice here as a pastor who loves you. When you are tempted to be manipulated by your moods and listen to a feeling instead of looking at the future, whenever you're manipulated by a mood, you need to tell yourself this phrase, write it down. This feeling won't last. You need to write that down. You need to memorize it and say it over. This feeling won't last. Because no emotion ever lasts. By their very nature,
emotions are temporary. They cannot last. You can't stay angry forever and ever and ever, 'cause it's built on adrenaline, you run out of adrenaline instantly. You can't stay depressed
forever and ever and ever. You're gonna, at some point,
it'll lift a little bit. Every emotion is temporary. And when you're tempted to be manipulated by a mood, just say, this feeling
won't last, it's temporary. What I'm saying is this. You may feel lonely, but it's not gonna last. So don't make a dumb
decision in your loneliness. You may feel afraid, but it's not gonna last. So don't make a dumb
decision when you're afraid. You may feel aroused, but it's not gonna last. Don't make a dumb decision
when you're aroused. You may feel discouraged. But you're not always
gonna feel discouraged. It's not gonna last. You may feel like a failure. You're not always gonna feel that. No feeling lasts forever. And what I'm telling you and trying to teach you on this is, so that you don't lose
all that God has for you in your life, is your hunger will pass. And it's not gonna be your
last opportunity to eat. Your loneliness will pass. And it's not gonna be
your last opportunity to find somebody. "If I don't go to bed with
this person, ooh, man." Your frustration will pass. But it's not gonna be the
last time you find a solution. You just need to realize if I'm feeling it, it is, by nature, temporary. And instead of obeying my feelings, I should test my feelings. Write that down. Instead of obeying my feelings, I should test my feelings. When I'm in that Esau moment. And I'm tempted to throw away something. Okay, this is what's going on here. You should test your feelings. Now Jacob, evidently
smart enough to know this, and he knows that Esau's later, his feelings are gonna change. What he's feeling right
now, it's not gonna stay. So Jacob tries to make
this a permanent decision. And here's what the Bible says. Look up here on the screen. "But Jacob wanted to lock him in." Pause. Satan wants to lock you in with a temporary emotion. "Jacob wanted to lock him in," 'cause he knew this
emotion isn't gonna last. "I'm dying, I gotta have
some food right now." "So he said, 'First, "'before I give you my delicious stew, "'first you must vow,'" there's a vow. Remember, it's don't
make an impulsive vow, it's always easier to
get in than to get out. "'First you must vow that you're giving up "'your birthrights to me
in exchange for my stew.'" So dummy saw, (congregation laughing)
that's in the Greek, "swore," actually in Hebrew
'cause it's in Genesis, "Esau swore a binding oath to Jacob. "After that, Jacob gave
Esau a big bowl of stew "and some bread," oh,
he got added value here, now we're getting bread, too,
thrown in, isn't that great? Esau's going, "Not only do I get the stew, "I get bread, whoo-hoo! "Yeah, man, I didn't even ask for bread. "He gave me a big bowl and some stew." Esau is dumb, man, he's just dumb. He's as dumb as a rock.
(congregation laughing) "So Esau swore a binding oath, "Jacob gave Esau a big bowl
of stew and some bread. "And when Esau had finished
eating," notice this, "he got up and went back to his business. "He was indifferent to
what he had just done." Is that not the saddest
thing you've ever seen? And people are selling their
birthright by the second in our culture. - [Congregation Member] Amen. - Selling it out to whatever
happens to catch their fancy. It may be a drug, it may be a co-dependent person
that they're connected to, it could be anything. We know that there's a
thousand ways to make stew. And Satan knows your favorite flavor. - [Congregation Member] Amen! - Esau should've
remembered Proverbs 20:25, 'course it hadn't been written
yet, but it's (chuckles), (congregation laughing) it's always easier to get
in that it is to get out. Now here's the lesson. Never make a permanent decision
on a temporary feeling. Never make a permanent
decision about your life, like give up my birthright, sell out my marriage, leave my career, quit a church or what, never make a permanent decision based on a temporary
emotion, temporary feeling. And never sacrifice long-term blessing for short-term relief. "I'm dying, I gotta have
something to eat right now." Let me say it another way. Never give up the next 40
years for the next 40 minutes. - [Congregation Member] Amen. - [Congregation Member] Amen, yeah. (whistles) - [Congregation Member] Amen! - Am I getting anywhere with this? - [Congregation] Yes! (scattered cheering) - Alright, so never give
up the next 40 years for the next 40 minutes. Let me show you a verse on the screen. Galatians 6:8. "Those who live only to
satisfy their sinful desires "will harvest the consequences
of decay and death." Here's the point. God has given you the freedom to choose. And you can choose whatever you want, and God's not gonna stop you. You can make bad choices. You can make good ones or bad ones. You are free to make any
choice you wanna make in life, but you are not free the
moment you make that choice. You're no longer free. Because you're free to make the choice, but you are not free from the consequences of that choice. Those are gonna happen
whether you like it or not. So you need to say, "Well, I'm free, "I'm free to make this choice," you are, but you are not free
from the consequences of it the moment it happens. And every one of us could
give a testimony on that one. Alright, now that's the bad news. Let's get to the good news. Point number six I wanna make is this. Jesus came to recover my
God-given birthrights. - [Congregation Member] Amen. - [Congregation Member] Thank you, Jesus. - The ones that got stolen by the world, the flesh and the devil, the ones that I stupidly
gave up or sold out. Jesus came to recover
my God-given birthrights Integrity or dignity and identity and heredity and destiny. Jesus does not leave us to save ourselves. He sent a Savior. I love this verse, Galatians 4:4 and 5. "God sent His Son to redeem us. "So we've been set free "to experience our rightful heritage." Isn't that beautiful? - [Congregation Member] Yes, it is. - What God said, "You
have a right to this, "and you gave it away." In the NIV, this verse,
Galatians 4:4 and 5 says this, "that we might receive the
full rights of his children." If you're a child of God, you have rights. You're a child of the
King, you have rights. When I was a teenager, Joni Mitchell wrote a
song about Woodstock. Some of you remember that song. And in that song about
Woodstock, she says, "We are stardust, we are golden, "and we're caught in the devil's bargain, "and we gotta get ourselves
back to the Garden." Now if you read the music, the word Garden is a capital G. She's talking about the Garden of Eden. Says we've lost our innocence. "We are stardust, we are golden, "we're caught in the devil's bargain, "and we've got to get
ourselves back to the Garden," where it all started, Adam and Eve. Here's the problem. You can't do it and neither can I. I can't get back there. And you can't either. We need a Savior. We need a Restorer. We need a Rescuer. We need a Recoverer. - [Congregation] Amen. - We need a Savior. And ever since man's fall
in the Garden of Eden, Jesus has been on a rescue
and recovery mission. Jesus is all about recovery. Luke 19:10. "I've come to seek and to
save that which is," what? - [All] Lost! - Lost! "I'm on a recovery mission. "I'm gonna recover that which you lost." - [Congregation Member] Amen! - "From all of the bad decisions." I just paused here, and I'm
gonna encourage everybody who's watching this right now or listening right here. Do a Bible study on these words. Repair, restore, renew, refresh, recover, bring back, these are all recovery terms. And they're all through the Bible. In 2017, Saddleback is going to lead hopefully, thousands, maybe
tens of thousands of churches in what we're calling the Year of Hope. And we're going to look at every one of these words in detail. Repair, restore, recover,
renew, refresh, bring back. How do I renew my life? How do I renew my marriage? How do I renew my church? How do I recover what God
says is rightfully mine? I invite your church to
join us in the Year of Hope. We're gonna start in January, it'll be 12 months. We're gonna look at personal renewal, and we're gonna look
at relational renewal, and we're gonna talk at
missional church renewal, and we're gonna talk about
renewal in the country, in the nation. Now let me just pause here and say this. The key to overcoming any habitual area of failure. Well, you just keep giving in, and you go back and get
another bowl of stew. You just keep going back. "Man, that was good. "I know I gave up my birthright to get it, "but it was good, "and so I'm gonna go back, it was good!" Okay, here's what you need to do. You need to switch your focus from the taste of the stew to the benefits of the birthright. You need to stop looking
at the short-term pleasure and you need to look at the
long-term gain for eternity. Remember that's forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. That make sense?
(scattered applause) - Yes!
- Okay? So that's the key. You switch your mind. There's a word for this. Switching your mind from focusing on the short-term pleasure to focusing on the long-term benefit that God has for me. Alright? Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through
Christ who gives me strength." And He will give you
that strength to switch your focus, to change your mind. Now, number seven. That's what Jesus came
to do, help us recover. Number seven is, once we're
recovering, here it is, we are to help others recover. We are to help others recover. In fact, helping others recover is part of my own recovery. The Bible tells us that God restored and recovered
all that Job had lost in his painful years. Not when he prayed for himself, but when he prayed for his friends. It says in the end of the book of Job, everything had gone wrong in his life. He lost everything, all
his wealth, all his family, lost his health, the only thing that was
left was a nagging wife. (congregation laughing) "Well, thank you, God." And she said, "Job, why don't
you just curse God and die?" "Thanks, honey, that's good advice. "Really good, thank you, babe." (congregation laughing)
Right? And in his life, it says, "God reversed his fortunes, "restored all that he's
lost, twice as much "what he'd lost when he prayed," not for himself, "for his friends." So we help others in their own recovery. Galatians 6:1, look on the screen here. Helping others, it says this, "If any person is overtaken in a sin, "any sort of sin, "you who are spiritual
should set him right, "and restore and reinstate him, "without any sense of superiority," this a good verse for recovery. "And with all gentleness, "keeping an attentive eye on yourself, "lest you should be tempted also." So the Bible says, "You see somebody going
through a tough time, "you help recover them, "you help restore them, "you help rescue them, "and don't do it with
a superior attitude." Hey, we're all in the same boat. Evangelism is just one
baker telling another baker where to get bread. I saw a perfect example of it this week. Some of you maybe have seen some of these headlines
that's been in all the papers. ESPN did a documentary
on it, you can see it. I was gonna show it, but we
don't have time to show it. It says, "Olympic swimmer
star Michael Phelps "says Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life "saved him from suicide." (congregation cheering and applauding) I don't have the time to show you the 16-minute video, but let me just explain it to you. Michael Phelps, the most winningest gold medal person in history, nobody has won more at the Olympics than Michael Phelps. He had 18 gold medals when he retired in 2012. When he retired in 2012, he had no more swimming to do, he lost the meaning of his life. 'Cause he had nothing more than swimming. He got depressed. He got bored. He started partying. He started drinking. He started doing drugs. He got arrested for drunk driving. He got to the point, and he says this in the ESPN, you can watch it online, he said, "I got to point I thought, maybe it would be better if
I just took my own life." The most decorated Olympic
athlete in history. He said, "I was suicidal, "I was ready to take my life." Fortunately, he had a friend who was willing to help others recover. Somebody who had been through it himself, the world-famous NFL star Ray Lewis. Ray Lewis had his own set of problems. Ray Lewis was even at one point up for a murder charge,
which he was cleared of. But all kinds of bad things happened, and he ended up having six kids with three different women, and the big thing with Ray, if you go back to his 2006 cover issue of Sports Illustration, called The Gospel According to Ray Lewis, and he says there, "I
had no father in my life. "And every time I wanted him in my life, "he said he left the day I was born. "And the only time I'd, is
when he would want money, "and then he would make promises "and never, never showed up." He said, "One time he even said, "I've been kicked out by
my girlfriend in Florida, "can you come back and get me?" Ray goes down to get him, and his dad had left him there. He said, "I can't count
the number of times "my mom said, 'Your dad's
coming to pick you up today,' "and I'd make my little sack "and sit out on the stairs
and wait for him all day, "and then he'd never come. "And I'd sit there and cry myself." And he said, "I had a good mom, "but my mom couldn't
teach me how to be a man. "I didn't know how to be a man." And he got into all kinds of problems. But he found a good believer
named Chuck Singletary, who had been, you know, a athlete, and with Chicago Bears. Mike Singletary, not Chuck. Mike Singletary. And anyway, Ray got a copy
of Purpose Driven Life. I talked to Ray yesterday on the phone. We were talking on the phone. He said, "Rick, I read the
book through seven times." Said, "Not once, not twice, I
read it through seven times." And he said, "It changed my life. "So when my friend Michael
Phelps was suicidal, "I said, Mike," I mean, Michael Phelps, said,
"You gotta do two things, "one we're gonna check you in "to an in-patient recovery
clinic in Arizona, "and you're gonna read Warren's book." And so he started reading, this is all in the documentary, it shows pictures of the book
and everything like that, and Phelps, it blew his mind. And it opened his heart to Christ. And his life was turned around so much that he began reading the book to everybody else at the clinic. (congregation laughing) And they changed his
name to Preacher Mike. (congregation laughing) Okay? Out of that, he decided, "Well, maybe I could
go to a fifth Olympic. "Maybe God does have a
purpose and plan for my life." And his life was turned around. You know he's back at
the Olympics right now. He's won three more golds (congregation applauding)
just in the last few days. Nobody even comes close. Now, I'm not here to talk about Michael. What I'm here to talk about is Ray. - [Congregation Member] Yeah. - [Congregation Member] Amen. - Ray saved Michael's life by getting him into recovery. - [Congregation Member] Amen! Whoo! - Ray saved Michael's life
(congregation applauding) by getting him Purpose Driven Life. So we're to help others recover. And we're to help everybody. And by the way, since we're here, this is my challenge to
everybody at Saddleback Church and this is my challenge to every church who's a part of the Celebrate
Recovery Family, is this. Let's take this message,
not just to America, but to the whole world. To the whole, whole world. (congregation applauding) One day, Isaiah started
having a pity party. And the Bible tells us his story. In the book of Isaiah, he records it in Isaiah chapter 49. And he says in this conversation with God, "God, I know you've
called me to serve you, "and I know you've gifted me, "and I know I've been true to you, "but I feel like my
ministry has been in vain "and to no purpose." He uses the phrase, "I've
lived and served to no purpose. "I'm not purpose driven, "I don't know what the
purpose of my life is." He's having a pity party. God doesn't say, "Well, here, have some
warm cookies and milk." (congregation laughing) He said, "You know what,
Isaiah, your problem is?" He says, "You're not thinking big enough." His antidote to his
depression, discouragement was, "Your eyes are too small." He says, "I didn't call you "just to win your nation to Christ. "I called you to care
about the whole world." Look at this verse on the screen. God said to Isaiah, "It's
not a big enough job "for my servant to just recover," there's the word recovery, "not big enough job for
my servant just to recover "the tribes of Jacob,
that's your own people," the Israelites, "I'm setting you up as
a light for the nations "so that my salvation goes global!" - [Congregation Member] Amen! - "Goes global!" That's what God wants to do. Alright, one last thing. And we'll wrap this up. I do want you to join us in the global glory of God. Taking the message of peace, the message of purpose,
the message of recovery, all around the world. Number eight. One day our recovery will be completed. One day our recovery
is gonna be completely, completely, completely completed. You're not gonna stay broke
for the rest of eternity. - Hallelujah.
- Amen! - Hallelujah. - [Congregation Member] Hallelujah! - Okay? And the Bible says, "You're not gonna stay
with broken emotions, "broken relationships, "broken body, broken mind, "broken spirit, broken heart. "You're not gonna stay broken." The Bible says this is
how it's gonna happen. Acts chapter three. Verses 19 to 21. Tells us how to do it
and then the results. "Repent and turn to God, "repent and turn to God, so
your sins may be wiped out." I like that. "Then wonderful times of
refreshment will come." I like that. "Wonderful times of refreshment
will come in your life "from the presence of the Lord, "and he will send Jesus to you again." He's talking about second
coming of Christ right here, "he will send Jesus to you again." Jesus is gonna come back one day. He says, but right now,
"He must remain in Heaven "until the time for the final restoration "of all things, as God promised long ago." One day there's gonna
be the final restoration of all things. There's gonna be the
recovery of all things. The renewal, the repairing, the restoration, the recovery of all things God created. Now notice the condition
for this to happen. Circle the first word. "Repent. "Repent and turn to God." Now, most people don't know
the meaning of the word repent. When I say repent, most
of you think of a guy standing on a street
corner with a sign saying, "Repent, turn or burn, "you're gonna die and fry
while we go to the sky." (congregation laughing) And if you ask the average
person on the street what repentance means, it means stop all your evil, wicked, mean, bad and nasty stuff. That is not what repentance means. - [Congregation Member] That's right. - Repentance does not have
anything to do with behavior. It doesn't mean you stop doing bad. It does not mean that. There's not a single Greek or Hebrew lexicon in the world that says repentance means
stop doing bad things. It doesn't mean that. What does repentance mean? The word in Greek is metanoia, noia is the word for mind noose, meta means to change. Metanoia means to change your mind. That's repentance. I stopped looking at darkness, and I look to light. I make a 180 degree change in my thinking. It has nothing do with your behavior. Your behavior will follow. It's all about changing your mind. And the definition of repentance is the decision and the process of changing your mind. At Saddleback and in CR,
we call that recovery. (congregation cheering and applauding) Okay? Repentance is recovery, and recovery is repentance. The decision and process
of changing your mind. Now let me give you an illustration or two and then we'll close. Anybody's who's ever worked on a computer probably knows what
Microsoft Word is, right? Okay, the word processing problem. And word processing
program, when you're typing, it sets what's called a default. And it chooses the size and the font and the color that you're gonna type with. That's called the default settings. Now, if you wanna change the font or change the size or change the color, you can do that, it lets you do that. And you can make the change, and you can change it for a paragraph or a page or whatever, but it's only temporary change. It's only a temporary change. And so when you go back the next day and you open up the program again, it's gonna go back to the default. Does that make sense? - Yes.
- Okay? And so what happens is it automatically reverts back the next time you open a document. If you want to make a permanent change, you have to change the default. - [Congregation Member] That's right. - In theological terms, changing the default is called repentance. Metanoia, changing your mind. You have to change the way you think. You have to change the default settings. And all of a sudden, I've used this illustration before, but I wanna use it again. It's if you got a boat, and it has a automatic pilot in it, and you're going across the lake, and the automatic pilot says, "Go north," then it's gonna head north, 'cause the autopilot, the default setting is to go north. Now if you want to change
the boat's direction and you wanna go south, you wanna make a 180 degree turn, you want to repent. You got two options. One of them is, by sheer willpower, grab onto the handle of
the wheel of this boat that's set automatically to go north and force it to go south,
and you're going south. And the whole time it's now going south, but you're under tension 'cause the boat naturally wants to go that way, and you're forcing it by sheer
willpower to go this way. And you know what, the whole time your arms are under stress 'cause it wants to go that way. And pretty soon, you get tired, because you're tired of holding on. Willpower doesn't work long-term. It's why willpower works great
for a diet for three weeks. (congregation laughing) Then you get tired of willpower. And what happens is you let go of the wheel, and you start eating again. Junk food. You're forcing is, "I'm
not gonna do this," and you let go, and you
start drinking again, you start smoking again, you start going back to
the sexual addictions or whatever kinds of
problems in your life. You go back to the same way 'cause you haven't changed the default. The easier way to change your life is to change the automatic pilot. When you change the automatic pilot, it's no stress at all. It just naturally goes that direction. You're not under tension 'cause you're not forcing
it to go against its nature. This make sense? - [Congregation] Yes. - What is your automatic pilot? Complete this sentence 10 times, I'll tell your automatic pilot. It's just like me to be. - [Congregation] It's just like-- - Yeah, okay. If you say that phrase
10 times and finish it, I'll know what your automatic pilot is. It's just like me to be lazy. It's just like me to be a critical. It's just like me to be late. It's just like me to be, and you have programmed yourself. You need to repent. Metanoia, change your mind. This is a decision followed by the process. And the 12 steps and the
eight principles of recovery are literally baby steps of repentance. The whole thing from step one to step 12 is repentance. The whole thing of the eight Beatitudes, the principles, from one
to eight is repentance. Celebrate Recovery is
the life of repentance. It's the life of changing your mind. It's a decision followed by a process. And the longer you go, your default changes, and now you've got a new normal. - [Congregation Member] Yeah! - A new normal. (congregation applauding)
That make sense? Now let me be clear on this. When you change your autopilot, you get a new normal. Repentance changes the way you think. And during the Year of Hope, we're gonna spend an entire time on how to change the way you think. So you don't wanna miss that. But you change the way you think, the new normal is I naturally go this way. Does it mean you're never
gonna stumble or fall? No, no, you're gonna stumble or fall. You'll have those stumbles, relapse is part of recovery. But it's not your default anymore. - [Congregation Member] Amen!
(congregation applauding) - Okay, it's not your default. You may have a stumble here. Oh yeah, (mumbling), that's not me. And you go back this way. The new normal is this way. The default has changed in your life. That's repentance and that's recovery. And that's how you get the birthrights of God in your life. Let's bow for prayer. - [Congregation Member] Yeah. - I want you to pray this
prayer in your heart. You don't have to pray it
aloud, God knows your thoughts. The first thing I said to you was that everybody needs recovery. So it starts with an admission. And wherever you are
listening to this right now, I want you to just say
to God in your heart, God, I need recovery. You can say it in your mind, you don't have to say it aloud, God, I need recovery. All have sinned, all have strayed away, we've all wandered off God's path to go our own way, do our own thing, and the problem is it's
cutting me off from God. I'm estranged. Say, God, I admit I have sinned. I admit that I've been my own god. And then say, God, this has caused a disconnection from you. And I haven't always felt close to you. And it has burned my
birthrights, blurred them. I don't know who am I, my identity. I don't know where did I come from, where do I belong to, my heredity. I don't always know my dignity. Does my life matter, what's my purpose? I don't know my destiny,
where am I headed? I now understand because of today that I have two birthrights. The ones from my parents, my natural and the ones from You, the spiritual. The priceless inheritance you've
laid up for your children. And Lord, I realize
today that Satan wants to keep me from enjoying all the blessings that are rightfully
mine as a child of God. Help me to be aware when I'm avoiding pain instead of dealing with the problem. And help me be aware when I'm settling and selling out for short-term pleasure instead of looking at
the long-term future. I don't wanna sell out like Esau did. Help me to remember it's always easier to get in than to get out. Jesus Christ, thank you for coming to recover my
God-given birthrights, that You came to seek and save that which is lost, and that's me. I ask you to help me to recover what you have given to me, what's rightfully mine as your child. And then I want you to
help me recover others, to restore and reinstate without
any sense of superiority. Lord, I thank your for the hope. As we go to the Year
of Hope this next year I thank you for the hope of the wonderful times of
refreshment that will come, and even eventually the final
restoration of all things. Thank you, God, that
I'm not gonna be broken for all of eternity. And so today I start the
decision and the process of changing my mind, by filling it with Your Word. I repent. I wanna work the steps of recovery. These Biblical principles of repentance. And I ask You to give me
the power that I don't have. Lord, I pray for every person
who just prayed this prayer, that you give them the wisdom to get in Your Word every day, the power to get in a small group, to be in community, to be better together, to not try to do this on their own, and that we would not just depend on You, and not just depend on each other, that we would depend on both, and we would depend on Your
Word and Your promises. I ask You to start a mighty movement of people who have recovered from their habits and their
hurts and their hang-ups, that goes not just
national but international and global, so that Your
salvation goes global. And I humbly pray this
in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and everybody said-- - [Congregation] Amen! - God bless you, everybody. (congregation cheers and applauds)
