From Overwhelmed to Overflowing - Part 2

0:26 Now, how do I experience an overflowing life? Four daily habits. Write these down very quickly. If you'll do these, they will change your life. Here's the first habit for living an overflowing life and stop living an overwhelmed life. Number one, stay connected to Jesus every day. You gotta stay connected to Jesus every day. In John chapter 15, verse five, Jesus compares this to like a grapevine. And he says this, I am the vine and you are the branches. If you stay connected to me, you'll produce a lot of fruit. But you can't do anything without me. I grew up in Northern California in the wine country. Everybody had vineyards in their backyard. And every season I would harvest grapes and I learned something real quick.

1:22 If a cluster of grapes happens to be on a branch that's been cut off, it dies. You can tag on, you can tie on grapes to dead branches, but if they've been cut off from the root, cut off from the vine, they're gonna die. And the same thing is true with you. If you try to go through life on your own power, you're gonna be overwhelmed. But if you're connected to the vine, if you're plugged into Jesus, you're gonna have power. I've told you this before. A toaster cannot fulfill its purpose unless it's plugged into the power. And a vacuum cleaner cannot fulfill its purpose unless it's plugged into the power. And you as a human being, as a woman, as a man, cannot fulfill your purpose unless you're plugged into the power. And if you're cut off like a grape branch from the vine, you're going to shrivel up and die. You're going to be overwhelmed. He says, you got to stay connected.

2:17 He says, you can do nothing without me. He said, I'm the energy. I'm the power. How do you stay connected? How do I stay connected to Jesus on a daily basis? You spend some time with him. We talked about this in a previous message on having a banquet in the Bible, that every day when you get up in the morning, you sit down, you read the Bible for a little bit, let God talk to you. You talk to God, that's called prayer. You listen, you be quiet. You spend some time. If you wanna have a relationship with anybody, you gotta spend time with them. You can't have a relationship with your husband or your wife or your best friend or God if you don't spend time with them. If you're not spending any time with God, you don't have a relationship with God.

3:05 You have to have a relationship, you have to have proximity, and you have to have frequency. And the way you stay connected is to have that daily time alone with God, and then throughout the day, you just review it and you go back over it. Jesus continued about this in John 15, verse seven. He says this, If you stay connected to me and my words remain in you, you may ask, you may request, ask any request you like, that's in prayer, and it will be granted. Circle that. It will be granted. That's a promise.

3:42 My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings glory to my Father. So stay connected. Stay connected to my love. He says you stay connected to my love when you obey me. I've told you this so that you will be filled with my joy yes your cup of joy will overflow there's that word the overflowing life rather than overwhelmed life comes from being connected to God that means you got to spend time with him now circle the phrase my words remain in you it says if you stay connected to me you spend some time with me every day and my word stays connected to you how do you do that there's a word for that in the bible it's called the word meditation. Now, when I say the word meditation, I'm not talking about what most of you are thinking of. You're thinking about sitting in a lotus position with your hands out like this, and you're going um, and contemplating the lint in your navel, or whatever. No, no, no, no. That's Eastern meditation. Okay, that's New Age meditation. Meditation simply means seriously thinking about God's Word, what God has said. You get a verse, you read it, and you think about it over and over and over. Question, how many of you know how to worry? Can I see your hands?

4:57 All right. If you know how to worry, you are already a pro at meditation. When you take a negative subject and you go over and over and over in your mind, that's called worry. When you take a verse from the Bible and you go over and over in your mind, that's called meditation. So if you are good at worrying, you're going to be great at meditation. Some of you are professional meditators and don't even know it. Instead of taking a worry or a fear or an anxiety and thinking about it over and over and over, how am I going to do that, which leads to overwhelming, you take a verse from the Bible and you think about it over and over and over, that leads to overflowing. Big, big difference. One takes you down, one builds you up. He says, if you let my word remain in you, notice the promise. He says, you may ask any request you like and it will be granted. Whoa, that's like a blank check for prayer.

5:55 You say, well, wait a minute, Rick. I'm not seeing this in my life. I pray a lot and I don't see a lot of answers because you're not connected. When was the last time you spent an extended period of time just alone with God, saying, hey, God, is there anything you want to tell me? When was the last time you were alone with God for more than two minutes? You're not connected. He says, you've been cut off from the vine. and no way you're gonna have any fruit in your life. You're not gonna be overflowing. You're gonna be overwhelming because you're not connected to me. The more connected you are, the more fruit you're gonna bear, the more success in your life, the more good fortune God says you're gonna have in your life. You gotta stay connected to me. It's a simple principle, but it's one that we overlook over and over and over. Now let me give you a second key. Each of these steps get a little bit harder.

6:48 Here's the second key to overflowing. The first is stay connected on a daily basis to God, to Jesus. Number two, stop griping and start being grateful. Stop griping, stop grumbling, and start being grateful. Did you know that science has proven that each of these attitudes, actually that the Bible talks about, are good and bad for your health? That complaining is a very, very unhealthy emotion for you. Griping is unhealthy for you. but gratitude, study after study of study have shown gratitude is the healthiest emotion. You want to be healthy? Learn gratitude. When you are grateful, it changes the chemistry of your brain. Studies have shown that when you are thankful, when you're grateful, it produces serotonin in your brain, it produces dopamine in your brain, and it produces oxytocin in your brain.

7:42 Now don't confuse, that's not oxycontin. oxytocin is the feel-good hormone when a husband and wife make love it releases oxytocin in both of their lives when a mother nurses her baby it releases oxytocin in both the mom and the infant studies have shown that if you pet a dog or a pet for 30 minutes you pet the dog for 30 minutes it releases oxytocin in the dog and in you. You want this drug. You want this hormone. You want this chemical in your life. And one of the key things that's produced for smarts, for peace, and for happiness, those chemicals, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, happen every time you're grateful.

8:35 So you ought to get up in the morning before you get out of bed, you make a list of 10 things you're grateful for. God, I'm grateful for air. God, I'm grateful for this bed. God, I'm grateful that I'm not in a war right now. God, and you just start, and that will change the chemistry in your brain. Study after study has proven this. In fact, one study showed that if you try to make a list of 10 things you're grateful for, and you can't even think anything up, just thinking up, trying to think of things to be grateful for changes the brain chemistry in your mind. Even if you can't even think of anything. but just the attitude of trying to be grateful in your mind. Philippians 2.14 says this in the Bible. In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing. Hmm, because that's the exact opposite of gratitude. Let me ask you, what do you complain about?

9:29 No, don't tell me. Second thought, don't tell me. Let me ask you this. When you complain about something, how does that help you? Does that work out pretty good? You complain about the weather, does it change the weather? You complain about the way you look, does that change the way you look? You complain about your spouse, or your children, or your job, or anything. Complaining is a total waste of time. It's doing without doing. It's worthless. You should stop complaining and start being grateful. Stop grumbling, stop griping, and start being grateful. Because you're not gonna feel better from complaining. Colossians 2.7 says this. Let your lives overflow, there's that word, with thanksgiving for all God has done. I suggest that you start your day with gratitude for God, what God has done for you, and for others.

10:25 And just go through that. In fact, did you know, I read a study recently that if in the morning you get up and you send, the first thing you do is you send an email of gratitude to somebody you love or somebody who's helped you, it actually lowers your stress for the rest of the day because of the chemicals that are released in your mind. It'll actually lower your stress if you'll start your day with good news, not bad news. And if you actually start with gratitude, send an email a day. It'll help you be healthier. 1 Thessalonians 5.18, no matter what happens, always be thankful for this is God's will for you. who belong to Christ Jesus. You know, I have people come to me all the time and say, you know, Pastor Rick, I just want to know God's will. I just want to know, what does God want me to do in marriage?

11:17 What does he want me to do in my career? What does he want me to do in school? What does he want me to do? I just want to know God's will. Well, here it is. This is God's will for you, that in everything you give thanks. Why would God teach you step two when you haven't done step one? You want to know God's will on who to marry. God's saying, why don't you start with step one? Are you being grateful and everything? That's my will.

11:40 That is my will. God says, do step one, and then we'll move to step two, and then we'll move to step three, and then we'll move to step four. What is my will for you in every specific situation? But if you're not doing what I've already told you to do, why should I tell you step two? If I want to be living an overflowing life rather than an overwhelmed life, I first stay connected to Jesus. I make that a habit every day. I spend time. You can't get to know somebody you don't spend time with. And then number two, I stop griping and I start being grateful. All right, here's the third thing the Bible says to do. If you want to live an overwhelming life, overflowing life, stop comparing and start being content. Stop comparing yourself to other people and start being content. Each of these gets a little bit harder. the Bible says anytime I compare myself to anybody else that I'm foolish.

12:37 It's a waste of energy. Anytime you compare, see God made you to be you. He doesn't want you to be anybody else. When you compare, you get envious, you get resentful and you often start trying to copy somebody else. God says, wait a minute, I made you to be you. If you don't be you, who's gonna be you? God has never made a clone. Human beings make clones. God only makes originals. Even identical twins are different in thousands of ways. When you get to heaven, God isn't going to say, why aren't you more like your sister? or your mom, or your dad, or your brother? Or why aren't you more like some famous person? He goes, wait a minute, I made you to be you. If you're not gonna be you, God should just go ahead and kill you right now because we don't need two of anybody else.

13:31 God wants you to be you. But comparing gets you in trouble. Look at this verse on the screen. Here's what the Bible says. 2 Corinthians 10, 12. We do not make the mistake of comparing ourselves with others. Because when we compare ourselves, we are foolish. I'm acting like a fool anytime I compare with anybody else. Now, there's two problems with comparing yourself to other people. And we do it all. You know, Americans, we've made this an indoor sport. We compare how we look. We compare our careers. We compare our grade point average. We compare academic ability. we compare our kids, we compare our spouses, shoot, we compare how green the lawn is. Theirs is greener than our lawn. And that just always causes you to be overwhelmed, not overflowing.

14:25 God says don't do it, it's foolish. And there are two reasons. One, you'll always find somebody in life who's doing a better job than you. And you're gonna get full of discouragement. They got more money. they've got more talent, they're better looking, and you get full of discouragement. Number two, you can always find somebody, you're doing a better job then, and you get full of pride. Pride and discouragement will also set you on the bench. They take you out of the game. In fact, you don't even get in the game when you're full of pride or ego, or when you're full of discouragement or resentment because of somebody else. Now, the Bible says, stop comparing and start being more contented and you'll live an overflowing life. And yet today it's easier than in any other time in human history to compare yourself to other people. Why? Two words, social media. It's right in your face every day. If you're on social media, you say, oh, look what they did. Oh, look what they're wearing. Shoot, we compare what we do. We We compare what we wear.

15:35 We even compare what we eat on social media. I just got a caramel macchiato frappuccino cappuccino. Well, I don't have one of those. I better run out and take a picture too of mine. So I'm going to go get the caramel macchiato frappuccino cappuccino al pacino. Because that's the really exclusive one. And you got to know the owner to get that at Starbucks. Most people don't even know about the Al Pacino, Cappuccino, Frappuccino. But it's a good one. And it makes me feel better because I posted on Instagram. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And we do this all the time. It is so easy because of social media to get stuck in staging your so-called pretend perfect life. Everybody knows you don't have a perfect life.

16:30 We know it, you know it, and you know everybody else doesn't. But on social media, everybody's trying to put their best foot forward. And we're living for the approval of other people. Like, oh man, I haven't posted in a day. I better put something out there so people will think, it's the fear of missing out. FOMO, the fear of missing. I better get something out there, show how cool I am.

16:54 And there's two downsides. I'm not saying social media, you should just leave it, but some of you should go on a social media fast to break the addiction. You know, fasting's good for your body, gives your body a rest. social media fasting is a good thing too because the truth is that kind of always putting yourself in front of other people it's your own little reality show and it does two things it feeds your narcissism it's all about me it's all about me look at me look at me you know when a little kid a three year old comes up to me and say papa papa look at me look at me look at me that's cute as a three year old it sucks as a 30 year old okay okay look at me look at me look at me look at me look at me look at me and that's what you're doing on instagram and that's what you're doing on twitter and facebook and look at me look at me come on be a grown-up it's okay as a baby but not for everybody else it creates narcissism in you and it creates envy in everybody else and by the way you know what the worst the worst is self-righteousness showing off in a spiritual way.

18:11 Like, notice how I'm raising my hands in prayer and my new sweater too. or see me highlighting my notes in my quiet time alone with God that I just shared with one million people. If you're having a quiet time to impress other people on Instagram, stop it. That's the worst form of hypocrisy. And I'm showing how spiritual I am. It's the humble brag, like, you know, please pray for me, I've gotta go pray for Bono. like putting in a little name dropping there or something all of the you know if you're a worship leader and all the you know you post the picture where all the lights make you look like a rock star don't that's the overwhelming life that's not the overflowing life Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

19:13 I hope that you were just as blessed as I was from today's broadcast. Right now, here's Pastor Rick with a special message. You know, when I started Saddleback Church over 40 years ago with just a handful of people in our living room, I also began writing a simple devotional just for the people in our church to help them start each day with hope and with truth and with peace that comes from Jesus Christ. Well, you know, that little devotional grew and grew and grew, and today, Daily Hope is one of the largest email devotions in the whole world. And each day, people all around the globe are reconnecting with God's promises and finding fresh strength in his word to face whatever comes their way. Now here's the best part. It's absolutely free. Okay. We don't have any charge for this. Every day you'll get a quick devotional read and a podcast that you can listen to on the go. Now, you know, in a world that's more distracted and uncertain than ever, I want to help you start your day centered on what never changes. And what never changes is a God's love, his unconditional love for you and his promises to you. You know, if you'll just spend just a few minutes a day in the morning with the Lord, it can bring so much more clarity, more purpose, more peace to everything that happens in your day. Particularly psychologists have said that what you do with the first five minutes of your day pretty much sets the tone. So friend, you were never meant to go through life alone. I want to personally invite you to just sign up for the Daily Hope Devotional. Do it today.

21:00 I think it's going to bring fresh encouragement to your walking God.