Skip to content How to Be Happy No Matter What - pt 2 (happiness, serving, generous, joy) May 1 · 23 min ...more
How to Be Happy No Matter What - pt 2 (happiness, serving, generous, joy)
May 1, 2026 · 23 min
God’s Word reminds us that lasting happiness comes from the choices we make each day. In this message, Pastor Rick explains how serving others and living generously lead to deeper joy.
Series The Habits of Happiness 2026 May 1, 2026 · 23 min · The Habits of Happiness 2026
God’s Word reminds us that lasting happiness comes from the choices we make each day. In this message, Pastor Rick explains how serving others and living generously lead to deeper joy. ...more Show the full description Show less God’s Word reminds us that lasting happiness comes from the choices we make each day. In this message, Pastor Rick explains how serving others and living generously lead to deeper joy.
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Pastor Rick Warren shares the hope and encouragement you need to hear everyday. Listen in as he shares biblical truths to help you live the purpose driven life
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In this video 0:00 Crazy Makers Can't Steal Your Joy7:06 Trust God: Four Sources of Strength10:00 Purpose Over Problems: Live is Christ20:22 Commitment Prayer and Life-Changing Testimony
Crazy Makers Can't Steal Your Joy 0:02 Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. And today, we're continuing our series called the habits of happiness. In this series,0:14 Rick dives into the book of Philippians and helps you discover God's path to true and lasting happiness. Alright. Now, here's the final part of a message called how to be happy no0:26 matter what.0:27 Paul says, you know what? Even in the ministry, there are competitors, and they're selfishly, ambitiously, and insincerely preaching the good news. And then in the second part of verse 17, he talks about conspirators0:39 or enemies. These are people who just wanna mess him up. He says other people just wanna stir up more trouble for me, and they wanna add to my pain while I'm I'm in prison. I did a whole series on this.0:51 Remember called the crazy makers. Remember that 1? Crazy makers. There are troublemakers, there are crazy makers and they will rob your happiness unless you know how to deal with them.1:03 By the way, you know what is the favorite tool of crazy makers and troublemakers? Gossip. Gossip. Gossip is the number 1 sign of a troublemaker. The Bible1:15 says in the book of Proverbs that a person who gossips is as bad as a saboteur. They're an emotional terrorist. That's what the Bible said. You should not gossip.1:27 Now you're gonna have all 4 of these in your life. Critics, comrades, competitors, and conspirators. I certainly have. Don't let them rob you. Now I want you to see Paul's attitude1:39
1:51 trying to get at me. Look at verse 18. Here's Paul's attitude. What others do, he says, what they do, what what these people do, it doesn't
2:02 really matter. It doesn't really matter. Circle that. The important thing is that in every way whether for right or wrong reasons the message of Christ is being shared. So he says,
2:15 I am happy and I will continue to be happy. I love that. I'm not gonna let other people control my attitude. There may be people criticizing me for what I'm doing. There may be people competing for
2:27 me with what I'm doing. There may be people who are conspiring to make sure I fail in what I'm doing, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna focus on Christ and I am
2:39 choosing to be happy and I will continue to be happy. He says, I'm not gonna let anybody steal my joy. There are a few well known guys in America who
2:51 like to take pot shots at me, pastors and people, and and every once in a while on social media someone say, Pastor Rick, have you heard what so and so said about you and what do you think about them? And my
3:02 answer is always the same. It's been the same for years and years and years. And I say this, what they think of me in no way controls what I think of them, And
3:14 I have nothing but the highest admiration for their ministry. Why? I'm not gonna let anybody rob my joy. I'm not gonna let anybody rob my happiness. I don't care what they say about
3:26 me, they do not control what I choose to think about them. And that's why I don't let people rob my happiness. Some of you remember I told you this during the last series
3:38 that you know when Matthew died there were some really mean spirited people out there We're saying all kinds of vile and mean things and celebrating Matthew's death and saying I should die and go to hell too and on
3:50 and on and on. I remember, you know, going through that fire and Greg Laurie, my friend asked me said, Rick, what do you feel coming out of this? And I said, honestly, I feel fearless. I told you that. I
4:02 said, I honestly feel fearless. I said, because the truth is if I ever cared about what other people think, I certainly don't now. Okay. You can't throw anything worse at me
4:14 than what what's been thrown at me in the last 6 months. You you just can't. And I said I feel fearless and I've always felt that since since that moment since he asked that. And then this
4:26 week I was studying this passage and I saw verse 28 where Paul says this, be fearless. Be fearless no matter who opposes you. It
4:38 will be assigned to them of their downfall, and that God is with you, and that he will save you. Okay. So the cool thing here is that is if I wanna stay happy even
4:49 if I'm in prison, I look at everything that's going in my life from God's viewpoint and I realize he's gonna work it all out for good and it's worked out for the gospel. It's a witness to
5:01 unbelievers, it's an encouragement to believers and then I just say no matter who the critics are, and who the complainers are, and who the conspirators are, and who the competitors are, they're just not gonna stop me
5:13 from being happy. I'm gonna keep my focus right. I'm gonna be fearless. Jesus said it like this in Matthew chapter 5. It's called the beatitudes.
5:25 It's the beginning of the sermon on the mount. He says this, blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of
5:37 evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad For great is your reward in heaven
5:49 for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. He says celebrate. And Paul explains why you can be happy no matter what.
6:01 Look at the next verse, verse 29 and 30. He says this, for you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for Him.
6:14 We are in this fight together. Paul says, you have seen me suffer for him in the past and you know that I'm still in the midst of a great struggle.
6:26 Paul says, it is a privilege to suffer when you're doing the right thing. Great is your reward in heaven. He said it's a privilege to believe in Christ and it's a privilege to suffer with Christ and for Christ
6:39 because you're most like Jesus when somebody is nailing you to a cross, When somebody's trying to to get at you. So he says, I am not gonna let other people rob
6:51 my happiness. I can be happy no matter what happens. If I look at every problem from God's viewpoint and I can be happy no matter what happens, if I never let what other people say, or never let what other people do
7:03 control my happiness. They just don't. Number 3. Here's the third habit. It's the next 3 or 4 verses, verses 19 to 20. I can always be happy no matter what happens
Trust God: Four Sources of Strength
7:16 if I always trust God to work things out. I can always be happy no matter what happens if I always trust God to work the
7:28 earth. I don't try to work it out myself. When things are falling apart, I don't try to put them back together. I just let God put them back together. This is the faith factor. You've heard me say this
7:40 before that when you're going through a problem, you got 2 options. You can worship or you can worry. That's it. Worship or worry. Worship or worry. Worship or worry. And if you worship more, you'd have a whole
7:52 lot less to worry about. You can pray or you can panic. And those are the options you've got. This is the faith factor. Paul says this in
8:03 Philippians 1 19. I will continue to rejoice. Now circle the word phrase I will. Will, that's an act of the
8:15 will. It is your choice to rejoice. I don't care how bad things are in your life right now, it's your choice to rejoice. It's an act of the will. He says, I
8:27 will continue to rejoice in spite of all the things that's going on that are bad. For I know, circle that, I'll come back and explain this a minute. For I know that as you pray for
8:39 me, circle pray for me, and as the spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, circle that spirit of Jesus Christ help me, all that's happened will all turn out
8:51 for my deliverance. Now this is a very powerful verse here. And in that 1 verse, Paul gives 4 sources of strength in tough times. You just circle them. 4
9:03 sources of strength. And this is how you stay positive. This is how you stay happy no matter what happens in your life. He says first, my first source of strength is I have God's perspective on my
9:15 problems. That's when he says for I know. It's what you know that keeps you going. He says I I know God is working in this. I have God's perspective on my on my problems for I know. And then he says number 2, I
9:27 have people praying for me. And he said that keeps me going. And then he says I have the Holy Spirit helping me, that keeps me going. And then he says, you know I
9:39 expect that I'm gonna be delivered so he says I have faith that God will work it for for good. And so I've got perspective, I've got prayer, I got the Holy Spirit, and I've got faith. And then he says therefore I choose
9:51 to be happy. I will continue to rejoice. That's your choice to rejoice. Finally number 4. I can be happy no matter what happens
Purpose Over Problems: Live is Christ
10:03 in my life. If I look at every problem in God's viewpoint, if I never let other people control my attitude, if I always trust God to work things out, and number 4, if I
10:14 stay focused on my purpose not my problems. God's purpose for my life. If I stay focused on my purpose not my problem,
10:26 I can be happy even when life seems to be falling apart. I stay focused on my purpose Paul says, not my problem. Now picture this, Paul is old,
10:38 he's an old man now. He's in prison, he's a long way from home, he's in Rome. He is awaiting death by execution.
10:51 These are not exactly normally happy times and they have taken away everything from Paul. They've taken away his friends, they've taken away his freedom,
11:03 they have taken away his ministry to travel around, they have even taken away his privacy. He's got a guard chained to him 24 hours a day. But there's
11:15 1 thing they cannot take away from Paul, his purpose. It cannot be taken away from him. And his ability to make choices. I
11:27 never forget reading Viktor Frankl's book And with Man's Search for Meaning. Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who was taken to 1 of the, Dachau,
11:38 Auschwitz, Buchenwald death camps in in Nazi Germany. And all of his family and all of his friends and everybody were being gassed and murdered and killed. And he said, I remember 1 day
11:50 when we stood in front of the gestapo, stark naked. They'd taken away our clothes. They'd even taken away my wedding ring. I stood there with nothing at all. And he said, all of a sudden I realized there was
12:02 1 thing they could not take away from me. And it was my choice in how I would respond. Nobody could take that away from me. I cannot
12:14 control what other people do to me. I cannot control what other people do around me, but I can control how I respond. And Paul says I'm gonna stay focused on my purpose even though they've
12:26 taken away everything from they could not take away his purpose. And what was his purpose? Serving God by serving others. Look at this. Philippians chapter 1 verses 22 to 25. He's talking about
12:37 the conundrum of sometimes I want to go to heaven and sometimes I want to stay here and serve the Lord to help other people. And he says this in verse 22, if by continuing to live,
12:50 I can do more worthwhile work for Christ, then I'm not sure which I should choose. Remember, he's old. He's in prison. He's waiting execution. If I continue to live, I can do more worthwhile
13:02 work for Christ, so I'm not sure what I should choose. I'm pulled in 2 directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better
13:13 thing. But for your sake for your sake, it's much more important that I remain alive. Notice Paul saying I stay alive not for my sake but for your sake. I am sure of this.
13:26 I'm sure of this, that for your sake, it's more important that I remain alive. So I know that I will stay on with you all so that I can add to your progress and your
13:38 joy in the faith. Now here's an amazing thing. Paul is such an amazing man. He didn't just have a purpose for living, he's got a purpose for dying.
13:50 We talk about purpose in life. You have purpose in death? Paul says I've got a It doesn't matter whether I live or whether I die, I've got a purpose. I've got a purpose either way. On earth my purpose is
14:02 to serve God by serving other people. How do you serve God on earth? You can't serve God directly because you can't even see him. The only way you can serve God on earth is by serving other people in Jesus name. That's
14:12 why we do the peace plan. We serve God by serving others. When you give a cup of cold water in his name, when you help an orphan, when you care for the sick, when you assist the poor, when you educate the next
14:22 generation, when you fight corruption, when you plant a church, the all the things we do in peace plan, you're serving God by serving others, meeting needs in Jesus name. And he says,
14:34 so when I'm when I'm alive, my whole purpose is simply to serve Christ by serving people. They said when I die my purpose is to be with Christ. So either way I win. Either
14:46 way, he says I stay alive just for the sake of others, and he said actually selfishly it would be better for me if I go ahead and die. Because when I die I'm going to place where there are no
14:57 problems, no pressures, no picky people and no pain. In other words there are no kill joys in heaven. So he said selfishly I'm ready to die, I'm ready to go to heaven.
15:12 But he says I stay alive for the sake of others. Now I don't want you to miss this secret because most people on this planet do. They miss the secret I'm about to tell you. The reason why
15:24 most people are miserable is because they think that happiness comes from self gratification. If I just get more possessions, if I get more pleasures, if
15:36 I get more position, if I get sex, salary, status, if I get more things, if I live for myself, if I get better stuff for me, I'll be happier.
15:49 That doesn't work. Actually self gratification is not the way to happiness. The way to happiness is self sacrifice,
16:01 not self gratification. Paul says the reason I'm happy is because as long as I'm alive I'm giving my life away to help others. Are you doing that? Or are you living
16:13 for yourself? If you're living for yourself I can tell you right now you're not very happy, you aren't. Because happiness does not come from status and happiness does not come from salary and happiness does not
16:25 come from sex. Happiness comes from service and giving your life away. And until you understand that you're not gonna be happy much of your life. Happiness does not come
16:37 from self gratification, it comes from self sacrifice. Paul sums up his purpose, if I wanna be happy I've got to stay focused on my purpose not my problems. And so
16:49 Paul sums up his purpose in verse 21, for me to live is Christ. That's pretty simple purpose. And to die
17:01 is gain. Now let me ask you this, for me to live is Christ. If somebody came up to you today and asked you to fill in the blank, what word would you use? For me to live
17:13 is entertainment. For me to live is sports, golf, baseball, football. For me to live
17:25 is clothes. For me to live is make money. For me to live is my family. For me to live is
17:37 friends. You see, there can be a lot of good things, but nothing deserves the place of for me to live except the 1 who created you and gave you your life,
17:49 Jesus Christ. For me to live is Christ. And I wanna say this, how you fill in that blank will determine how happy you are in life.
18:01 Because if you say for me to live is money, uh-uh. You're going to be unhappy a lot of your life. For me to live is success, you're not going to be happy a lot of your life. For me to live is fame, pleasure, possession,
18:13 position, power, prestige. There's nothing wrong with those things. They just don't deserve first place in your life. You weren't created to make a bunch of money,
18:24 die, and give it away. No. No. God has a far greater purpose in your life. For me to live is Christ. There's only 1 answer that leads to happiness, and I want you to be honest and settle this issue. So let's
18:36 bow our heads as we pray. And as I pray this prayer you say, dear Jesus me too in your mind. Dear Jesus, you know that I often let circumstances
18:48 determine my happiness. And you know that I often allow the killjoys of pain and problems, and pressures and picky people to rob my
19:00 happiness. Starting today, I want to practice the 4 secrets that Paul modeled. Help me to look at every problem in my life from your viewpoint. I want to
19:12 handle problems in a way that it's a witness to non believers and an encouragement to believers. Help me to remember that what others say and do does not control my happiness unless I allow
19:26 it. And as for the things that happen that I don't understand or can't figure out, I wanna trust you to work it all out for good. Help me to stay focused on your purpose for my life not my
19:38 problems. I want to use the rest of my life to serve you by serving others. And I pray that most
19:50 dangerous prayer, Lord, use me. And so I have a purpose for living and for dying, and my purpose for living is to serve you by serving others. And then I want to be
20:01 with you in heaven for eternity. From this day on, from this day on for me to live will be Christ.
20:13 In your name I pray, amen. You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the very first time
Commitment Prayer and Life-Changing Testimony
20:26 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, rick, at pastor rick dot com and say, Rick, I
20:38 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.
20:52 What a moving message from Rick, and I'm also so moved when we hear from you. In fact, here's Rick with a letter from 1 of our listeners.
21:00 Have you ever taken a step of faith with no idea what's next? Well, with the help of Daily Hope, Nicole did just that. She wrote this note to me. Hello, pastor Rick. A close friend of
21:12 mine suggested I listen to Daily Hope 4 years ago, and while I had faith and I loved the Lord, I was lost. But Daily Hope rescued me. My relationship with Jesus grew in ways that I I never knew
21:23 possible. I was soon baptized and over the next 4 years I I grew in boldness and in faith in the Lord, and I even left a high powered and high salaried position to follow a different purpose driven path with the
21:35 Lord's guidance. It's been a literal step forward in faith without knowing the next steps. Certainly not something I was capable of years ago, and already God is showing me his his goodness.
21:48 You know, as my husband explores his own relationship with Jesus, again, your ministry is literally a godsend. Your ability to teach the good news in ways that are easy to understand and apply it is
21:59 just amazing. We also follow your suggestion to find a good local church. So thanks for all you do for believers and those who are seeking Christ around the world. Rick, you're loved and
22:11 appreciated and no doubt a vessel of God's grace and mercy. Signed, Nicole. Well, Nicole, I'm so glad that you've grown in your relationship with Jesus and you've taken the important
22:23 step of getting baptized. What an important step this is. Finding a church home, really listening to the Lord, and living a purpose driven life. All of that happens when you take time to listen to
22:35 God's word. I love how your friend shared, daily hope with you, and and now you shared it with your husband. You know, any of you can do this. Anybody can do this. You
22:47 can share daily hope with your friends and with your relatives and with people you don't even know, and then watch how God brings life to others through his word.
22:57 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
23:12 support.
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