Are You Learning from Those Who Came Before You? — Part 2

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I'm so glad that you found us today, and whether you're at home or in your car, we're so glad that you're here, and we pray that God will give you hope in times of difficulty. Rick is taking us through the Book of Daniel, and that's so we'll be equipped to handle whatever curveball life throws at us, even the most difficult trials. I can't wait to listen to today's message. So here's Rick. He's got the final part of a message called, are you learning from those who came before you?

First, you need mentors. Now, mentors are your coaches. They're the people who help you along in life. In my life, I've had nine different mentors. Why? Because nobody can teach you everything. So you don't need one mentor for your life. You need somebody who teaches you this. You need somebody else over here who teaches this and somebody else who teaches you over this and this. Nine mentors in my life, probably the most famous mentor I had was Peter Drucker. Peter Drucker was the father of modern management, pretty much invented the modern corporation. And for the last 20 years of his life, I would go to his home, and he mentored me from age 75 to 95 and died at 96 and taught me stuff that I didn't know about. How do you organize a very large, complex system? So you need mentors in your life. Second thing you need is you need models. Now, models are. They're already doing what you want to do with your life. We learn fastest by model, everything. You learned all these skills in your life by other people modeling it for you, like how to talk. So you need models in your life. I want to recommend if you're going to have a model for your life, that they be dead. You say, why? Because the jury's still out on people who are alive. The jury's still out on me, on you and everybody else. Some people start off well, but they don't end well. And so you might want to choose a model from history, because then you can see their life from beginning to end. You can see the arcs in it, the ups and the downs, highs and lows, the problems and the pitfalls. But you don't want to choose as a model somebody who you think, wow, that's my model. And a few years from now, they really crack up and burn out. And you've been climbing this ladder of success, and you get to the top and you realize it's leaning against the wrong wall. So you need mentors. You need models. I would have live mentors, dead models. Then you need partners. Partners are the people in your life who row the boat with you. They're your co workers in your profession. And partners can help you and challenge you, can support you. Everybody needs partners. And then of course, you need friends. Now friends aren't helping you with your goal. They're just friends. And friends love you no matter what you do. You can really mess up when they love you. They say, hey, you're a good egg, even if you are a little cracked. What is a friend? A friend walks into your life when everybody else walks out. Then you know who your friends are. You know they're there when you need them the most. When you don't deserve a friend. But you need to have in your life always somebody you're building into and somebody who's building into you. You need a mentor. You need a Paul and you need a mentee, you need a Timothy. Everybody. You need to have somebody who's pouring into your life. And you need somebody you're pouring into their life. And usually they are older and younger. But you need to learn the lessons of the prior generation. Now it says, ask the former generation. How do you ask them if they're dead? Well, biographies. Read biographies. I tell my staff, paid staff, and I'm telling them all the time. I'm telling them all the time. All the lessons are in the past and all of the opportunities are in the future. But you can't take care of the future. You won't even see those opportunities unless you know the past. Become a student of history. The more you understand what's happened in the past, it's all been done before, just in various forms. Well, we saw that 300 years ago. We saw that 900 years ago. We saw that 1500 years ago. And the more you know it, build your foundation. The Bible says, listen to the past generations and learn from them and learn from biographies. Which is why so much of this book, the Bible, it's stories, it's filled with biographies. Now these aren't fairy tales. Little Peter Cottontail and you know, Jeopardy Rabbit or something. These are real people. Moses was real. Nebuchadnezzar was real. Daniel was real. Jesus was real. These are people that actually happened. And the reason I love the Bible, cause it always tells the truth. It doesn't just say the good stuff about them. It tells all of the, you know, the bad stuff too. So you go, well, okay then I can relate to that. In Fact. All of these life lessons that are in this book, you need. And the more you know these, the wiser you're gonna be. The wiser you're gonna be. In fact, look at this next verse on your outline. What the Bible says about itself. First Corinthians, chapter 10. These things, talking about the stuff that's in the Bible, these things occurred as examples to warn us and to keep us from wanting to do the same evil kind of things they did. For the Scripture says that we should avoid drunken parties, sexual immorality, worshiping things that aren't God. We should not test the Lord's patience or grumble and complain as some did, and they died. And he said these things happened as examples, and they were written down as warnings for us. So these are the first two things. Make a commitment to never stop learning and then learn the lessons of prior generations.

Number three.

The Bible says, maintain a humble attitude that honors God. Maintain throughout your life a humble attitude that honors God. I said it earlier, humility and teachability actually go together. Be humble or you'll stumble. The more humble you are, the less you'll stumble. The Bible says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Now, humility begins by simply realizing you're not God. If you ever get under stress, repeat this three times and call me. God is God, and I'm not. God is God, and I'm not. God is God, and I'm not. You need to realize you're not God. And you need to realize you need God. That's humility. If you don't realize that, you're not a humble person. Now, the Bible says in Proverbs 15, this verse 33, reverence for the Lord is an education in itself. Hmm. You must be humble before you can ever receive honors. So he says, you know, you wanna start out with a lifelong goal to be wise. Get to know God. And the more you get to know God, the more you get to know His Word. You're gonna simply be a wiser person. You'll be wiser in relationships. You'll be wiser in the way you manage your money. You'll be wiser in handling conflict. You'll be wiser in defusing problems. You'll just be wiser in a whole lot of different areas because you're not simply depending on your own intellect. You're getting the wisdom of God, the wisdom of the ages. And he says, maintain a humble attitude. By the way, do you know what the first mark of humility to God is? Being Baptized? Yeah, being baptized. Being baptized is a humble statement saying God, you're God and I'm not. And I recognize this. Have you ever been baptized? If you haven't, I would encourage you to do so.

Now.

Number four, the fourth key to wisdom is to refuse to fill my mind with garbage. Refuse to fill my mind with garbage. You know, we're all worried about water pollution and air pollution and we ought to be, we're to take care of the planet. But those very people are often not even worried about the pollution they allowed in their mind. The concepts, the words, the thoughts that are actually harmful to your life. On television, in movies, in books. And actually when it comes down to what you feed, your mind is as important as what you feed your body. So what do you need to eat more of? What do you need to eat less of? In the content that you fill your mind with, there's basically four kinds of content you can fill your mind with. You can fill it with poison. Poison is stuff that'll kill you. There are concepts that'll actually derange you, or degrade you, or demoralize you, or defeat you. There are self defeating thoughts that you tell yourself. There are self defeating thoughts that other people tell you that's just poison. Pornography is poison. You don't fill your mind with that kind of stuff, so you stay away from that. But then a lot of stuff is just junk food and a lot of stuff that's on tv, I call it the equivalent of mental Twinkies. There's no nutritional value in it, it's just there. And yeah, you can eat junk food, but you're not gonna be very wise. Then the third thing you can fill your mind with is brain food. That's good stuff. You need to fill your mind with, you know, stuff that educates you, makes you a stronger, more rounded person. But then you also need, in addition to brain food, you need superfood. And that's what this is, this is superfood. It can teach you stuff that you're not going to get anywhere else in. How to relate to life and how to relate. It answers the fundamental questions like who am I? Where am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Does my life matter? Is there purpose to my life? Is there meaning? Am I significant? Those kind of questions are in this book. The answers are right there. Now the reason why people say, well, I don't really have much appetite for reading the Bible is cause you're filling up on junk food. I mean, if I go and I sit down and I watch six, eight hours of television. I'm not gonna feel like reading the Bible. Of course not. I have no appetite for the truth because I'm filling up on Twinkies. That kind of stuff. Or social media. Now, today, okay, number five, the fifth thing, and this is the most important of all. If you're gonna learn to be wise, you must put into practice what I've already learned. Put into practice what I've learned. God doesn't teach you the second thing about life until you actually act on the stuff you already know. God is not in the business of simply satisfying your curiosity. And I'll tell you 15 really cool things about life. No. He tells you one thing and he waits for you to act on it. Once you act on it, then you get to go to the next step. And once you act on that, you get to go to level stage 2 and 3 and 4 and 5. You have to apply the truth. You have to act on the truth. You have to internalize what you've learned. There's a GEICO ad on TV right now. It goes like this. You're not really a firefighter until you've fought a fire. You're not really an actor till you've actually acted in something. You're not really an author till you actually authored a book. And I would say you're not really a believer in God until you start living by what you claim to believe. I have to act on it. I have to apply it. I have to internalize it. I want you to write this down in your outline. I haven't learned it until I do it. I haven't learned it until I do it. If I were to say, do you believe the Bible? A lot of you say, sure, I raise my hand. I believe the Bible. I'd say, well, do you do it? Well, no. Then you don't really believe it. You only believe the things in life that you actually do. The Bible says you're to forgive your enemies. Do you believe that? Yeah. Do you do it? No. Then you don't really believe it. I only believe what I actually do. And I haven't really learned until I do it. Now, Belshazzar, this guy, this king, he loses everything because he failed to do this last point. He failed to put into practice what he had seen and learned. And he pridefully refuses to learn the lessons of the prior generation. Remember, this guy is the grandson of the most famous king of the biggest empire of that day, Nebuchadnezzar. He saw Nebuchadnezzar literally lose his mind for about seven years out of pride. He saw all the mistakes his grandfather made. He saw his grandfather come back and correct those things. He saw the good and the bad in his life. And. And he chose to ignore God. He chose to ignore the lessons. He chose to be prideful and throw parties. And God said, okay, you know, I might understand if you didn't know this, but you know this. And so your kingdom is being taken away. It's gonna be divided. And Daniel was the one guy in the empire who had the courage to point it out. Look up here on the screen. Here's what the Bible says. Daniel said to King Belshazzar, even though you knew, you knew what happened to your father, you knew all that happened to your father, Nebuchadnezzar. Now, actually, you need to understand that Nebuchadnezzar was his grandfather. But in Babylonian culture, you called any predecessor father. So they're using the predecessor term here. He said, you knew what your predecessor did, but you didn't learn from his life. And you still refuse to humble yourself before God who rules from heaven. Now, notice on that verse, he says you knew, and he says you didn't learn. Is there a difference between knowing and learning? Yes. You know a lot of things, but you haven't learned it till you put it into practice. I can go to a marriage seminar and learn all about how to have a good marriage and come home. And if I put the seminar on the shelf and I don't do anything about it, I haven't learned a thing. It's like if I say, you know, I want to lose some weight, I'm going to get a diet book down, and I start reading it and underlining it while I'm eating my Twinkies and my guacamole and chips and Coke float, and I'm going, man, I feel so healthy just reading this book. Has it changed anything in my life? Nothing. Not a thing. Not a zip, zero. I haven't learned it until I do it. Do you know certain foods are bad for you, but you eat them anyway? Yeah, I can know about God and never learn to trust him. That's the difference. The Bible says wisdom comes not from the knowing. Wisdom comes from the doing. So here's the big lesson of this story. Why don't you write it down? If I don't humbly learn from the generations before me, this King Belshazzar didn't, then I'm gonna end up making the same mistakes. If I don't humbly learn from the Generations before me. I will end up making the exact same mistakes. And you learn a lot of things and have a lot of head knowledge, but not heart knowledge. Some people say. Some people are gonna miss heaven by 18, 18 inches. Cause they got it in their head, they don't have it in their heart. They know, but they haven't learned. They haven't learned it, you know? True confession. I went to school a lot. A long time. I went to school for 24 years to get my master's, to get my doctorate. And in my field, the languages you have to learn took a long time. And I will say I've forgotten a lot of it. But I have never forgotten the most important thing. So let me tell you what I learned in 24 years of school. This is the most important thing to learn. You were made by God, and you were made for God. And until you understand that, life is never gonna make sense. You were not made for you. You were made by God and for God. And until you understand that, life is never gonna make sense. Here's what the Bible says. Look up here on the screen. First Timothy 6. 21. Some people have missed the most important thing in life. They don't know God. Do you? You might know string theory, you might know chaos theory. You might know quantum physics. But if you don't know God, sorry, you missed the purpose of your. Some of you students, you're honor students. Congratulations. You get straight A's. Congratulations. But at the end of your life and all of our lives, God's gonna give us a final test. And the good news about that, it's an open book test. Okay? All the answers are here. So you got an entire lifetime to prepare for God's final test. It's an open book test. And on that test, God is not gonna say, show me your report card. Did you get straight A's? And God's not gonna say, how'd you do in your career? God's not gonna say, let me see your bank account balance. He's not gonna say any of those things. He's gonna say this. Did you get to know me? Were we friends? Did you build a relationship with my son who I sent to Earth to die on the cross for you? You know anything. You know about it. But did you learn it? Did you build. You had the religion? Did you have the relationship? Let me ask a real question. Do you have God in your life? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've got God in my life. Really? Has he made any big changes? Has he transformed your life in any way. No, no. But God's in there. Oh, yeah. God's. He's never changed anything. No. Let me just say this as I'm not an authority on a lot of things, but I am an authority on human behavior. Cause I've dealt with people for 45 years, tens and tens of thousands of people. God is big. And God is really, really, really, really, really big. And somebody who's just really, really, really, really, really big can't come into your life without it making a really, really, really big change. So you may have gotten something, but you didn't get God. You might have gotten religion, but you don't have a relationship. Some people have missed the most important thing in life. They don't know me. Would you like to get to know him? That I can help you do. It starts with humility. Let's bow our heads. Would you pray a simple prayer? It doesn't really matter what you say. Just talk to God. The most important thing is that your attitude is humble. You might just start with the thing. God, I've never really said this to you. You're God and I'm not, and I need you in my life. I'll pray a little prayer right now. If you want to follow me, you can just say these words, too. Just go, me too, God, what Rick's saying, that's me. I agree with that. So if you want to pray it, you can just say it, too. Dear God, you don't have to say it aloud. Say it in your mind. He knows your thoughts. Dear God, I. I know you made me. I know you love me, and I know about you. But I really want to know you personally, and I want you in my life. And so today, as humbly as I can say it, I open my life to you. I want to start the journey of learning, and I want that to be a lifelong journey of learning. Not just about the world, but about you and about others and about myself. And I want to learn more and more about you every day. And so I want to take these five statements of growing in wisdom, and I want to begin this process today. First, I want to make a commitment to never stop learning. To learning more about you and more about life than anything else. You want to teach me. Help me to learn the lessons of prior generations, to not make the same mistakes they did. Help me to maintain a humble attitude that honors you. God, help me to be more discriminating in what I allow in my mind. To. To refuse to put junk in my mind, but to fill it with brain food and Superfood. And then most of all, help me to practice what I've learned. I don't want to get to the end of my life at the final exam and how you say you didn't pass. And so, as best I know, how I humble myself. And I ask you today to accept me into your family. I want to learn you. I want to to love you. I want to learn to trust you. I want to learn to understand what Jesus you came to do. And I simply pray this in your name. Amen.

Hi, everybody, this is Rick, and I hope you enjoyed today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the very first time or you just recommitted your life to Jesus again today, would you let me know about it? There's something real about sharing your commitment. So write me rickastorrick.com and say, Rick, I prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ. And I'll send you some material that'll help you on your journey with Jesus. And I'll also pray for you. God bless you.

Thanks so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know, I share Pastor Rick's Daily Hope all the time. So whether it's a friend or someone you meet at a restaurant or wherever, because everyone needs hope and encouragement from the Bible every day. Now, here's Rick with a letter from a listener that shares Daily Hope.

I want you to listen to this testimony from a listener in Monterrey, Mexico. Jonas Alvarez writes. Hi there, Pastor Rick. My name is Jonas Alvarez, and I'm an English teacher in Monterrey, Mexico. I listen to Daily Hope every day by podcast, and it has profoundly enriched my life. I recommend to my students to listen to it and to practice their English skills. Hey, that's a great idea. And I know for sure that if they do, they're going to get much more than just learning English. Thank you so very much. Sincerely, Jonas. Well, thanks for writing, Jonas. My prayer is that Daily Hope will bring the hope that we find in Jesus to your students, just as we're praying that it brings hope to people all around the world. By the way, did you notice how Jonas is sharing Daily Hope podcast with his students? I think that's a great idea. My question to you is, who are you sharing the Daily Hope podcast with? Who could you tell about this good news? You know, good news is so good.

We can't keep it to ourselves. You gotta share it.

So if you share Daily Hope with somebody else, would you let me know about it? Write me, you know the address rickastorrick.com it's just rickastorrick.com and tell me your story of how you're sharing Daily Hope with other people.

Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's Word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.