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In this enlightening episode, Pastor Rick Warren guides listeners through the intricate relationship between faith, finances, and God's ultimate design for our lives. Tackling misconceptions about prosperity, Pastor Rick directs our focus to Jesus' teachings on money, revealing how they challenge and inspire us to live with generosity and purpose. Through engaging storytelling and scripture-based insights, he puts forward a compelling argument for seeing money as both a tool and a test in our spiritual walk. The discussion moves into practical territory with step-by-step guidance on effective money management, detailing essential practices that honor and glorify God. From the significance of tithing and trust to the nuanced difference between wealth creation and wealth redistribution, Pastor Rick paints a comprehensive portrait of financial stewardship. Engage with these teachings and transform your understanding of how to handle wealth in a way that aligns with your beliefs and contributes to the greater good.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. And whether today is your first time tuning in or if you're a regular listener, we're really excited that you're here. Well, today, Pastor Rick is continuing his series called Discover Your Destiny. So get ready to explore the practical steps to grow in all areas of your life. spirit, mind, body, relationships, and even your career. So stick with us as we uncover God's incredible plan for your future. So let's get right to Rick. Here's part one of a message called God's Plan for Financial Blessing.
SPEAKER 02 :
God has made some incredible promises of financial blessing in the word of God, but they all have premises. Now, before we look at the promises of God, I wanna make something very clear right here at the start. God does not want everybody in the world to be a millionaire. God doesn't want everybody in the world to be enormously rich. The Bible doesn't teach that. Sometimes you get on TV or radio and you hear some preacher that's called the prosperity gospel or the health and wealth gospel. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's basically God wants everybody to be rich. Not only does the Bible not teach that, Jesus taught the exact opposite. So before we look at the promises of God for financial blessing, I want you to look at two statements of Jesus. First, Luke chapter 12, verse 15, Jesus said, Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. In other words, life is not about acquisition. It's not about he who dies with the most toys. The guy who spends his life getting the most toys has wasted his life. Jesus said, you're not gonna take any of it with you. I did not put you on earth just to pile up stuff. The greatest things in life are not things. Your value and your valuables are not the same. Your net worth and your self-worth are not the same. It's not about getting. A man's life does not consist in what he acquires. So you never want to let the things that money can buy keep you or rob you of the things that money can't buy. Now look at the second passage. Luke 16, Jesus said this. I tell you, use worldly wealth. Circle the word use. Money is to be used. You don't love it. You don't serve it. You don't idolize it. You use it. Money is to be used. I tell you, use worldly wealth. to gain friends for yourselves, eternal friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Now, I don't have time to go into this in detail, but we've talked about it before. What this verse is simply saying is you should use some of your money to help reach people for Christ so that when you get to heaven, there are people there who go, hey, I'm here because of you. I'm your friend forever because you helped build a church building, you helped finance a program, you helped reach me for Christ, you bought a Bible, you shared a book, you used some of your money to spread the good news, and as a result, I'm in heaven, I'm your friend forever. That's all he's talking about here. Then Jesus gives four tests about money management. He says this, whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. God looks to see if you can handle what he gives you a little, then he gives you more. And whoever's dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. Then he says, second test, if you haven't been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, what does that mean? Trustworthy in handling worldly wealth. He's talking about money management. He said, if you don't manage your money well, if you're in debt all the time, you're behind on your payments, you're not saving, you're not tithing, you're not doing all the different things that God tells you to do, you're not investing wisely. He said, if you're not managing your money well, He says, if you haven't been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you the true riches? He's saying money is a test and God is determining what he's gonna bless you with in heaven for eternity based on how you do what he gives you here. And then he says, number three, if you've not been trustworthy with somebody else's property, Who's gonna give you your own? And I've told you this before. You don't really own anything on this planet. It's all on loan. God owns it and he loans it. And he loans it to you for about 80 years. It wasn't yours before you were born. It's not gonna be yours after you die. He's gonna loan it to somebody else. You don't really own it. You're not taking it with you. It's just all on loan. And God says, I'm testing you while you're on earth to see if you are faithful with what I loaned you, Who's going to give you your own property in eternity if I can't trust you with what's mine here on earth? And then he says, number four, no one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money. Now circle the word serve. He didn't say you should not serve, he says you cannot serve. Money should never be served. Money should never be loved. Money should be used. Now these passages teach us two very important truths. Would you write these down? Number one, money is a tool and a test. Money is a tool, it's a tool to be used, and it is a test. What does it test? God uses money to test your gratitude. God uses money to test your faith. God uses money to test your priorities. God uses money to test your values. God uses money to test how responsible and mature you are. God uses money to test your character. It is a very important test. And the second thing God says here is that managing money is a spiritual discipline. Managing money is a spiritual discipline. It is far more important than you realize. You may think, oh, I just need to manage my money so I'm not in debt. Or, oh, I just need to manage my money so I can live a more comfortable lifestyle. Now there's nothing wrong with that, either of those things. But money management is far more important than that. The Bible says it is the spiritual discipline that God uses. He says if you're not faithful with worldly wealth, who's gonna trust you with the true riches of the universe and the true riches in heaven? Now there is so much that the Bible has to say about financial money management, literally hundreds and hundreds of verses. You may not realize this, Jesus spoke more about money than he did either heaven or hell. Half of all of his parables mention money. A third of all of his parables, his stories, deal with investments. And Jesus commends wise investors and criticizes foolish investors. Why? Because life is a test and life is a trust. And so there are many, many verses. In fact, there were so many, I had to give you a double outline today. Now... Because there's so many verses, I'm not gonna have time to illustrate all these. I'm gonna let the word of God just speak for itself. Most of these verses are from the book of the Proverbs of Solomon. Now why is that important? Because Proverbs of Solomon was written by King Solomon who was the wisest man who ever lived and the wealthiest man who ever lived. So we're not giving you advice from Rick Warren today. This is advice from the wisest and wealthiest man who ever lived and he's in the Bible and God says this is true stuff. Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at eight habits. for financial blessing. God says, I have these promises for you. If you do this, then I will bless you in this way. And you gotta do all of them. All eight are important. These eight financial habits. It's really an index of where we're going for the next three years. Now let's get right into it. Number one, the first habit for financial blessing is I must trust God as my source and supply. I must trust God as my source and supply. Now what does that mean? It means your source of your income is not your job. The source of your income is God. Now he may use a job or anything else, but that's just the tool. When I turn on a faucet, I don't really think the faucet is the source of the water. I know that that water's coming from Northern California. The faucet just happens to get it to me. It's not the supplier, it's just the channel. Your job is not your supplier. It's your channel. And if one faucet gets turned off, God can turn another one on just as easily because he's the supplier. Does that make sense? Now, not only is God the supplier of your financial blessing and the source of it, he is the security, the source of your security. You see, if you're gonna have security, you must put it in something that can never be taken from you. You can lose your money, you can lose your savings, you can lose your job, you can lose your house, you can lose the people you love. The only thing that can never ever be taken from you is the unconditional love of God. So I suggest you put your security not in how much you got in the bank, but how much love God loves you with. Because anything else can be taken from you and if you don't, how do you know when something other than God is your security? Real simple, you worry. Worry is the warning light that you are trusting something other than God for your security and your supply. Now look at these verses. Romans 11, 36. Everything comes from God. Everything exists by his power. And everything is intended for his glory. God owns it, but God loans it to you while you're here on earth. Deuteronomy 8, 18 says this. Always remember the Lord. Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. Now circle the phrase produce wealth. God wants you to be a wealth creator. I didn't say that, the Bible says it. God puts you on this earth and one of the things you're to do is you are to produce wealth. You are to create wealth. Now, there are makers and there are takers in life. There are people who create wealth and those are people who just use it. Right now in our culture, about 60% of Americans take more out of the economy than actually put in it. There are more takers than there are makers. God says, I give you the ability to create wealth. Why? Because this is the way God's economy works. We will never raise people out of poverty through wealth redistribution, only through wealth creation. Big difference. Does that make sense? Wealth redistribution is socialism. Wealth creation is Christianity. God says the only way you can get people out of poverty is J-O-B-S, create jobs. You can never give people enough money because as soon as you give it to them, it's used up and you have to give more. In the last 50 years, the West has put about $50 trillion into Africa, and the standard of living is lower in most of those countries than it was 50 years ago. Why? Because they don't need a handout, they need a hand up. They don't need just aid, they need trade. They don't need wealth redistribution. They need wealth creation. And my goal for you is that in the next 10 years, you will be a wealth creator. Now write this down. God wants me to be a wealth creator and a kingdom builder. Don't confuse these. God says he wants you to be a wealth creator, in other words, a generator of wealth, but a kingdom builder. Not a wealth builder, because the Bible says, don't store up treasure here on earth. Money is like manure. You pile it all up, it starts stinking. You spread it around, it makes things grow. It is a tool to be used, not to be hoarded. And so God says, I want you to be a wealth creator, but I want you to be a kingdom builder. Now, the next verse says, Proverbs 16, three, commit your work to the Lord and then your plans will what? Circle the word succeed. God says, I want you to succeed in your work, but you gotta commit it to me. You gotta trust me as the source and supply. Whatever you want God to bless, you put him first in. You want God to bless your marriage, put him first in your marriage. You want God to bless your work, put him first in your work. If you want God to bless your time, you put him first in your time. If you want God to bless your health, you put him first in your health. You trust God as your source and supply. Number two. Second habit you must develop, I must do my work as an act of worship. If I want God's financial blessing on my life, I must do my work, whatever I'm doing, as an act of worship. And no matter what you do, you may sweep the streets, it's more than just a job. God says it's to be an act of worship. Look at this verse up here on the screen. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. That means with enthusiasm. You're to work with enthusiasm as working for the Lord, not for men. What does that mean? It means your boss isn't really your boss. She may be your supervisor, but your boss really is God. You're doing it as if you're working for the Lord, no matter what you do. Now, let's say you work at a hotel and you clean rooms and make beds. If you're doing it for the Lord, if you think Jesus is gonna sleep there, you're gonna do a better job of making that bed? Oh, baby. Yeah, so your standard of excellence goes up when no matter what you're doing, you say, Lord, I'm taking out this garbage as if I'm doing it for you. I'm washing these dishes as if I'm doing it for you. I'm closing the sale, I'm making this deal, I'm delivering this product as if I'm doing it for you. Every act of work can be an act of worship. Martin Luther said, you can milk cows to the glory of God. There is nothing that you cannot say in legitimate work, do it for the glory of God. Whatever you do, you do it with all your heart. Now, some of you, your heart isn't in your work. You're not doing it with enthusiasm. You can barely get along. Then you're in the wrong job because life is too short to spend it doing work your heart isn't in. There's a lot more, in fact it's a sin. The Bible says whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. If you can't do what you do with all your heart, you need to change jobs. Because it needs to be an act of worship. Now what kind of work does God bless? He blesses all kinds of work as long as it's done five ways. You might write these down, it's these next five verses. First, God blesses planning. Look at that verse at the bottom of the first page. Proverbs 21, five, good planning and hard work leads to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to what? Poverty. God blesses planning. That's the first thing he does. God blesses planning. He wants you to plan your work and he wants you to work your plan. Number two, God blesses initiative. He not only wants you to plan your work, he wants you to take the initiative. God never blesses laziness. The Bible says in Proverbs 10, 4, lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands will bring what? Wealth. Now, what is he saying? He's saying, stop waiting for your ship to come in. Swim out to it. You gotta take the initiative. Stop waiting for something to happen. You take the initiative. He says you need to make a plan and then you need to take the initiative. That's what God blesses in wealth creation. Number three, God blesses integrity. God blesses integrity. If you want God to bless your finances, you must be honest. That means you pay your taxes and you don't cheat people. God never blesses dishonest gain in any way. Proverbs 16, 11, the Lord demands fairness in every business deal. So he's not gonna bless it if it's unfair. He sets the standard. God says, I want you to plan your work. I want you to take the initiative. I want you to have integrity and do it with honesty. Number four, God blesses focus. He says, you need to stay focused. Don't just keep moving around from project to project, jumping around from job to job, from idea to idea, from opportunity to opportunity. Get an idea and stick with it. Stay focused. You don't get distracted by pipe dreams, everything that comes along. Proverbs 12, 11, hard work brings prosperity. Only fools waste time chasing fantasies. And then number five, God blesses persistence. In other words, when you get a job, you keep at it. You don't give up the first time you have a failure. You don't give up the first time the stock goes down. You don't give up the first time somebody looks at you crossways and criticizes you for what you're doing. You are persistent. The Bible says wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears, but wealth from hard work grows. You ever heard the phrase easy come, easy go? Well, that's where it comes from. It comes from this verse. It's from the Bible. Money that is made quickly and easily is gone quickly and easily. It is not an accident that people who win the lottery are often bankrupt within about five to 10 years. Why? Because they made it so quick, they had no skills to deal with it, and they lose it very quickly. So God says work can be an act of worship. You know, in Proverbs 31, that chapter's about what makes a godly woman. If you ever wanna know what a godly woman is, you read Proverbs 31. And that Proverbs 31, it talks about a guy's wife. She's a businesswoman. She's a businesswoman. Let me read you a little of it. Proverbs 31, verse 15, she gets up before dawn and prepares breakfast for her household and then plans the day's work for her servant girls, which means she's got staff. She's actually creating jobs. She inspects a field and buys it with her earnings. She's buying property and she's paying for it with her own money. She's energetic and strong. She's a hard worker. She watches for bargains. There's a biblical basis for using coupons. and she helps the poor. The godly woman, there is a businesswoman. She's contributing in her way. Okay, number three, third habit you're going to have to develop. Keep good records. If you want God's financial blessing on your life in the next 10 years, like I want it to be for you, You wanna get out of debt, you wanna be financially free, you're gonna have to keep good records. This is the principle of accounting. That means you write it down. You gotta keep track of your finances. You say, oh, Rick, I hate to do that. Yeah, well, you say, I don't have time to do it. Do you have time to worry? If you wrote everything down, you'd have a whole lot less to worry about. Now notice this verse, Proverbs 27, 23 and 24. Riches can disappear fast. Everybody agree with that part? Yeah, okay. Riches can disappear fast, so watch your business interest closely. Know the state of your flocks and herds. Now why do you say flocks and herds? Because when the Bible's written, this passage here, all wealth was tied up in your livestock. You could easily tell who was rich in Bible days. If you had a lot of cows, a lot of sheep, or a lot of goats, you were wealthy. If you had no animals, you were poor. There were no banks, there were no stocks, there were no businesses per se. Everybody's wealth was tied up in the animals that they had. So when he says know your flocks, he's saying watch your business interest. Today, instead of saying know your flocks, God would say know your stocks. In other words, you need to know where they're going. Now he says riches can disappear fast. People say money talks. It does not. It just walks away quietly. and you end up with more of the month left over at the end of the money, and you go, where is all this going? Anytime you say, well, I just don't know where it goes, it means you're already in trouble. Because easy credit plus ignorance equals disaster. You must keep good records. It's a warning. If you don't know where it's going, you are already headed in deep trouble. You gotta keep good records. 1 Corinthians 16, 2 says, On the first day of every week, that's Sunday, when you go to worship, put aside some of what you have earned during the week and use it for the offering. Now, the amount depends on how much the Lord has helped you to earn. It's in a proportional giving. Now, this verse is primarily about planning your tithing, but that's not why I put it in there. I put it in there because I want you to circle the phrase put aside. Put aside. You can't set aside some for the offering or you can't set aside some for savings or you can't set aside some for vacation unless you're keeping good records. You can't put aside anything if you don't know what you've got and where it's going. You must keep good records. Habit number four, if you want God's blessing on your finances, give the first 10% back to God. Give the first 10% back to God. Now I don't have to spend time on this because this is tithing. Most of you know this principle and most of you are tithers in this church. Tithing means the first 10% I give back to God. Tithe means 10 or 10%. Proverbs 3, nine and 10 says this. Honor the Lord by giving him the leftovers of all your income. Oh, that's not what it says, is it? What's it say? First part, circle that, first part. That means right off the top, right off the top. And he will fill your barns to overflow. You say, Rick, why did God say give him back 10%? Why 10? I don't know. I really don't know. It's one of the questions on my, I've got a list of things I'm gonna ask God when we get to heaven. One of them is, I mean, he could have said 5%. He could have said 20%. He could have said two. He could have said 90. Why he said 10? I don't know. The point is God doesn't need my money. He just wants what it represents, my life. And the most sensitive nerve in my body goes from the heart to the wallet. Now, look at the next verse. The purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put God first in your lives. That's what it's there for. And tithing does three things. It's a statement of gratitude. God, I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for you. It's a statement of purpose. God, you're first in my life, so I'll give you the first part of my money on the first day of the week. And it's a statement of faith. God, I believe you've You'll keep your promises that if I put you first, you'll take care of all my needs. So it's gratitude, it's priority, and it's faith. Now in Malachi 3.10, God says this. Bring to my storehouse, that's the temple, it's where you worship. Bring to my storehouse a full 10th of what you earn. 2% is not a tithe, 8% is not a tithe, 10% is a tithe. Bring a full 10th of what you earn. Test me in this, says the Lord, and see if I will open a window of blessing for you and pour out all the blessings you need. There are more promises in the Bible about tithing than anything else. Now let me just give you a suggestion here. If you have a hard time remembering to honor God with the first part of your income, let me give you a simple, easy tip. Online giving. You can just set it up automatically. So you make God part of your regular schedule in your giving. Now number five, this one's just as important as tithing. I must save and invest for the future. You must save and invest. and invest if you want God's blessing on your life. You can't just tithe. You can't just keep good records. You can't just honor God. You must save and invest for the future. Now, the Bible calls savings God's IQ test. It really tells how smart you are, whether you're saving or not. In Proverbs 21, 20... The wise man saves for the future. That's wise, it shows you're smart. But the foolish spends whatever he gets. Did you know that the average Japanese saves 25% of their income? The average European saves 18% of their income. Last year in America, the average American spent 1% more than he made. Now, let me give you a question that will help you increase your savings ability. You just ask this question, do I really need this? You just ask yourself that question. You start to buy something. Could I put this money in the bank and save it or do I really need this? You see, when you save, you're getting your money to work for you. The problem is most people are poor or never get out of debt because they're working for their money instead of getting their money to work for them. When you say, every time you save, every time you invest, you're getting your money to work for you. Money should work for you, not you for money. Does that make sense? The Bible says that savings and investing is a mark of wisdom.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey everybody, thank you so much for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know, just a short time back, God put it on Pastor Rick's heart to connect with a team of leading health experts, and they created the Daniel Plan. Meet Joel.
SPEAKER 03 :
I tried to lose weight, I tried to make the changes, and nothing seemed to work because it was all based on my willpower. When I started with the program, I immediately noticed changes, mainly because I wanted to be healthy. I had the tools to eat properly. I understood exercise and I had motivation. I saw that I could get healthy finally, that I could make the changes that I tried my whole life to make.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, more than 180,000 people are following the Daniel plan. Yeah, to lose weight, increase their energy and improve their relationships and all while growing closer to the Lord. And they're doing it with the Daniel plan.
SPEAKER 03 :
I've lost 75 pounds and I've reached what I think is my ideal weight where I feel healthy. In fact, I just recently competed in an Ironman triathlon competition. That's 140.6 miles of racing. When I found the Daniel plan and its principles, I was given the tools to finally make the changes.
SPEAKER 01 :
I sure hope you'll let Pastor Rick send you a hardcover copy of his bestselling book, The Daniel Plan, today. It's his way of saying thanks so much for your financial gift to this listener-supported ministry. Just go to PastorRick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's PastorRick.com. Or you can just text the word HOPE to 70309. That's the word HOPE to 70309. And thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ with people all over the world. 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.
Pastor Rick teaches that, from the beginning, God’s plan has been to make you like his Son, Jesus—this is your destiny. The Bible describes Jesus as “the exact likeness of God,” “the visible image of the invisible God,” and “the exact representation of his being” (2 Corinthians 4:4 GNT, Colossians 1:15 NLT, Hebrews 1:3 NIV).
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. And whether today is your first time tuning in or if you're a regular listener, we're really excited that you're here. Well, today, Pastor Rick is continuing his series called Discover Your Destiny. So get ready to explore the practical steps to grow in all areas of your life. spirit, mind, body, relationships, and even your career. So stick with us as we uncover God's incredible plan for your future. And here's Rick with the final part of a message called, How Can I Know My Destiny?
SPEAKER 03 :
Number three. Now the third thing that Esther did, she not only got disturbed, and she not only looked at what God had given her, but you've got to take the time to hear God's call on my life. I must take the time to hear God's call on my life. You need a retreat. You need a getaway. You need to get away for at least a day, maybe two or three days, where you sit down and you listen to God. You sit down, you shut up, you be quiet, and you pray and you plan and you think about the next 10 years of your life. And you think, what does God want me to do, given my gifts and given my passions and the needs I see around me? What does God want me to do? And you're not gonna do this on your own. So you gotta have like a little retreat time. Now notice this, Mordecai, who's her adopted father, they all know about this plot to kill all of the Jewish people. And in verse 13 and 14 of Esther 4, it says, Mordecai sent this word to Esther. Do not think because you're in the king's house that you alone of all Jews will escape. For if you remain silent, and he said, you can't remain silent. If you remain silent at this time, he said, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place. In other words, Mordecai said, I've got faith in God. He's not gonna let this God's chosen people be eliminated from the face of the earth. He's not gonna happen. So God will provide, but he says, if you don't do anything about it, you and your father's family will perish. Besides, he says, who knows? but that you have come to this position for such a time as this. Now remember, Esther is a 20 year old, in her 20s, young, poor, orphaned, Jewish girl. And she's now the queen of Persia. And Mordecai's going, Esther, you think this is by accident? I don't think so. Do you not think that God puts you in this position for such a time as this? This is no accident. And don't just think you can ignore these disturbing trends out there in society. You cannot remain silent. You gotta do something about it. Now I wanna tell you, that's not just true of Esther. It's true of you. Some of you young women, you're exactly where God put you for the reason he put you there. Some of you young guys, you're exactly where God put you. It doesn't matter what your age is. You are where you are for such a time as this. And God brought you to Saddleback Church not to sit, soak, and sour, but to make a difference with your life. He has a destiny for your life. God says, I brought you to this place, and I brought you to this time, and I want you to hear my call. Now you gotta take the time to hear God's call on my life. Now God has called everyone. We've talked about this before. A lot of people think God only calls preachers and missionaries and nuns and priests. Those are the called people. No, everybody is called. Your calling is your vocation. As I told you, it's this Latin word, voce, which means vocal. Your vocation is your call, your voice. Everybody has a vocation. Everybody has a calling of God. God has called every one of you to make a difference with your life. Some of you are not picking up the phone. Now here's the point. You don't call God. He calls you. You don't just go, what would I like to do with my life? Sorry, you don't get that option. Unless you don't want any blessing. God says, no, no, I created you for a purpose. I have a vision and values and I have a purpose, plan and a destiny for your life. And God calls you and you gotta pick up the phone. I wish what we were doing were just a matter of life and death. That'd be easy, but it's not. It's more important than life or death because eternity is in the balance, heaven and hell. Jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven. They're real. We're not just talking about helping people now. We're talking about their eternal destinies. It's bigger than life or death. And God has brought you to this place just like he brought Esther to her place, including the good and the bad that happened. I'm sure it was no fun going and having sex with a king you didn't even love. and knowing that the night before and the night after you, it's gonna be somebody else. But God said, you know what, I can even use that. I can even use date rape. I can bring good out of anything. Esther 4, verse 15. Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai. Go and gather together all the Jews who are in Susa. They're the capital. and fast for me. Said, I want you to find everybody you can, get everybody who's Jewish, and I get everybody to fast for me, because I'm gonna have to go confront the king. And I know that this is a scary thing. She's going, you know what? First place, it's against the law for me to go to him. You only go to the king if he invites you. It's against the law for me to take the initiative and go to the king. If you read the story, she said, in fact, he hadn't called for me in 30 days, so I haven't had any contact with him in a month. So I don't know if he still loves me or what. And number two, I'm gonna have to reveal that I'm Jewish, which means I'm gonna keep it a secret from my husband. And number three, I'm gonna ask him to publicly renounce a decree he's already signed and he's gonna look foolish. to reverse a command. So I'm gonna probably die for this. I'm gonna probably lose my life for this. I'm taking my life in my own hands. So she says, you go gather all the Jews who are in Susa and fast for me. And do not eat or drink for three days or night or day. And I and my maids will fast as you do. And when this is done, Then I'll go to the king. She's saying, before I initiate any confrontation with the king, which is no light matter and can cost me my life, I'm gonna have to have a little retreat. And I'm gonna need to get off by myself and I'm gonna fast and I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna think and I'm gonna plan out my words and I'm gonna give some serious time to my destiny. Now, Esther does two things that you're going to need for your destiny in the next 10 years. Number one, just like Esther, you're going to need all the support you can get. She said, go get everybody you can to pray for me. That's why you must be in a small group. Because you cannot fulfill your destiny on your own. We get well in community, we serve in community, we share in community. God meant for us to be in community. The very first thing God said to man, it is not good for men to be alone. Whether you marry or not is irrelevant. You have to be in a family. You have to be connected. You have to be in community. She says, get everybody praying for me. You're going to need that. And the second thing Esther did, and you're going to need to, you're going to need some time alone. You're going to need to go on a retreat, at least an overnighter, where you get alone. Because if I tell you, go home and make these lists of all the things that you're gifted in and make a list of all the things you care about, you know what? You're not going to do it. You're gonna walk out of here and you're gonna forget it and you're not gonna do it and you're gonna come back next week and it still won't be done. So I'm going to force you to do it. And in the next three years, I want everybody in this church to take a retreat. a life planning retreat to plan goals in all the key areas of your life. What are my goals financially? What are my goals for my family? What are my goals for my personal life? What are my goals for my health? What are my goals in learning? And I'm gonna help you. Nothing becomes dynamic till it becomes specific. Now, number four, one last thing. The fourth thing you have to do is what Esther did is that is you must make a faith commitment. You must make a faith commitment. The Bible says without faith it's impossible to please God. The Bible says according to your faith it will be done unto you. The Bible says the just shall live by faith. The Bible says all things are possible to him who believes. Now Esther says I know this is scary and I know it's a big risk and I'm scared to death to take this initiative to go to the king and tell him I'm Jewish and ask him to rescind a stupid decree that a bad guy got him to approve. But It's the right thing to do, so I'm gonna do it. She's an amazing woman. Now in Esther 4.16, she makes this faith commitment to do the thing that she's most afraid of. She says, and when this is done, you know, my three-day retreat, we've all prayed, we've all fasted, and I've thought through where I'm going. When this is done, I will go, that's a faith commitment, I will go to the king, even though it's against the law. And if I perish, I perish.
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What a woman. What a woman. What an amazing woman. If I perish, I perish.
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But I'm gonna die doing the right thing. Friend, you're not ready to live till you know what you're ready to die for. You cannot live until you have qualified and clarified in your heart what you're willing to die for. You're not ready to live the next 10 years. If you don't know what you're willing to die for, you're not living, you're just existing. Not knowing what's worth dying for makes life motion without meaning. You gotta know what's worth giving your life for. On the other hand, when you understand your destiny and you really get it, it grabs you. That calling grabs you and you go after it with total abandonment. And you say, if it takes my life, it takes my life. And if I perish, I perish. But I'm gonna die doing what God tells me to do. Now I want you to write this sentence down. I can only manage what I measure. Would you write that down? I can only manage what I measure. If you don't have measurable goals, it's just a wish, it's a dream, it's a hope, but it's not a real goal. And if you don't set some measurable goals for the next three years, in phase one of Decade of Destiny, to measure, that you can measure, you're not gonna be any different in three years, much less in 10 years. And so I'm gonna help you set some spiritual goals and I want them to be specific. And I'm telling you right now that on the last Sunday of this two month campaign, I'm going to ask you, I'm gonna challenge you to make four faith commitments. You don't have to write these down. But you'll say, four faith commitments. Number one, what do I wanna learn in the next four years, in the next three years? My goal for you is that you'll be smarter, as I said, smarter and sharper, and you'll be more skilled and more successful. What do I wanna learn? What am I gonna commit to become in the next three years? What am I gonna commit to contribute in the next three years? What am I gonna commit to do with my life in the next three years? These three year faith commitments come up in another month, because all the messages are worthless. If we don't make it measurable, I don't need it, you need it. It's not for me, it's for your benefit. So you can measure your progress over the three years. Jesus said it like this on the screen. According to your faith, it will be done to you. You know, every morning, I sit on the side of my bed and I pray a prayer. And that prayer, I pray the same prayer every day. It's a little prayer I've just written and memorized. And then I say the words to a song. I don't sing it because I can't sing, especially in the morning. But I say this as I'm sitting on the bed. I don't even get out of bed until I've done this. I say, Lord, Lord, I offer my life to you. Everything I've been through, use it for your glory. Lord, I offer my days to you. Lift up my praise to you as a living sacrifice. Lord, I offer you my life. I say it every day before I get out of bed. I think this is the attitude Esther had when she knew that going to her husband, the King of Persia would likely mean her head would be cut off because first she did admit she's Jewish. And second, she's asking him to reverse a decree that would make him seem foolish. But Esther says, Lord, I offer my life to you. Everything I've been through. My parents died. I was in the cattle call of a harem. Everything I've been through, use it for your glory. Lord, I offer my days to you. Lift up my praise to you as a living sacrifice. Lord, I offer you my life. And if I perish... I perish. And because she was willing to lay it on the line for the destiny God had planned for her, the Jewish nation was saved. You see, you wouldn't be saved without Esther. Because if the Jews had been annihilated, there would be no Jesus the Messiah. And you would be hopeless. That's the impact of Esther. Let's bow our heads. Would you pray this prayer in your heart? Dear God, I want the rest of my life to be the best of my life, I want my life to count. I don't wanna live for myself, I wanna live for you and for the destiny you've created for me. Help me to recognize the gifts that you've put in my life. Not just the assets, but even the liabilities, the limitations, the handicaps. even the hurts, and to realize that even those are part of the plan to get me where you want me to be in the time and place and what you want me to do with my life. Help me to identify the needs that stir my heart. To realize that when I see something, I go, that's wrong. That needs to be corrected. Somebody ought to do something about that. That you're speaking to me. Help me to take time to hear your call, to be quiet, to settle down. Lord, without even knowing when I'm gonna do it, I commit right now to going on retreat. And in the weeks ahead, help me to consider what faith commitments you want me to make in the key areas of my life. If you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ, regardless of your religious background, say, Jesus Christ, please make yourself real to me. I don't understand it all, but if you're real, I open up my life to you. I want to know you. I want to learn to trust you and love you. I open up my life to your plan and purpose, dear God. I want to fulfill your destiny that you have for me. In your name I pray. 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, Rick, at PastorRick.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.
SPEAKER 01 :
What a life-giving message from Pastor Rick. Now let's join Rick with today's offer. Thanks for listening today.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, honestly, I never paid much attention to my health until I had a little epiphany a few years back when I baptized over 800 people in a single day by immersion. Now looking at myself and everybody that I was baptizing, it was real clear that we all needed to get healthy. So I put together a team of nationally known doctors to help me develop a program for our church. I called it the Daniel Plan, based on the passage in the book of Daniel, where Daniel has a contest with King Nebuchadnezzar on who can be the healthiest. The Daniel Plan is centered on five essentials that will help you become healthier. faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends. There are a lot of diet plans out there that deal with food and fitness, but the secret sauce in the Daniel plan is focus, learning to have your mind renewed, friends, learning to grow in community, and faith, trusting God's power rather than willpower. You know, we found that when individuals addressed health issues in each of these key areas, they are transformed. In fact, in the first year of the Daniel Plan, over 15,000 people from 190 countries participated, and the results were life-changing. In fact, our own church, Saddleback Church, lost over a quarter of a million pounds in one year. Can you imagine that? What did it do for our church? It increased our energy. We started sleeping better. It reduced our need for medication. The whole church was healthier. Now, the Daniel Plan has recently been released in a book format, and I want you to have a copy of this book today so you can start getting healthier now. And I'll send you a hardcover copy of the Daniel Plan book as a very special thank you for your gift to this ministry.
SPEAKER 01 :
Just go to PastorRick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's PastorRick.com. Or you can just text the word HOPE to 70309. That's the word HOPE to 70309. And thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ with people all over the world. 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.
Join Pastor Rick as he provides a roadmap to harnessing your unique gifts for the benefit of others. Through intriguing discussions on stewardship and selflessness, he outlines how every talent we possess is meant for a greater purpose beyond personal gain. Inspired by the compelling concept of SODSAT moments, this episode challenges listeners to step up and address the cries for change they see in the world, supported by powerful Biblical promises of blessings for every act of kindness and generosity.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. And whether today is your first time tuning in or if you're a regular listener, we're really excited that you're here. Well, today, Pastor Rick is continuing his series called Discover Your Destiny. So get ready to explore the practical steps to grow in all areas of your life. spirit, mind, body, relationships, and even your career. So stick with us as we uncover God's incredible plan for your future. All right, well, I can't wait to get started today. Here is part two of a message called, How Can I Know My Destiny?
SPEAKER 02 :
Unpleasant obstacles are often God-ordained opportunities for you to make a difference in the life of other people. Here's the problem. You never see it. while you're in the pain. You just can't see the purpose when you're in the pain. Let me give you an example. The story of Job, that's the book next to Esther. And you know this story, Job was the wealthiest man in the world, and one day, actually in 48 hours, he lost all his wealth, he lost all his health, he lost all his family, he contracted a very painful terminal disease, And he starts saying, God, I've served you all my life. Why is this happening? And for 39 chapters, God says nothing. And he can't figure it out. Some of you are right there right now. You're still in chapter 39 or 35. It's not until chapter 40 that God starts explaining to Job what's going on. A lot of times God is giving you a test and God seems a million miles away and you've been doing the right thing and everything still sucks in your life. And you can't feel God. Did you know that in the book of Esther, this is the only book in the Bible that does not mention God one time? God seems to be nowhere in this story. All the theologians, Jewish and Christian, say this is the hiddenness of God. And instead of God doing some fantastic miracle, he just uses normal people in normal situations, making normal decisions to change the destiny of the world. God is hidden. Now Job says it like this in Job 23, here on the screen. He's in the middle of all his problems. He says, I don't see God. I don't see God in the north, for he's hidden. So I turn to the south, but I can't find him. But he knows where I'm going. In other words, I don't know where I'm going, but God does, and I'm going to trust him. He says, and when he has tested me like gold in a fire, he will pronounce me innocent. This is an exhibit, a faith. For I have stayed in God's path, even though nothing in my life makes sense. I have followed his ways, even though I'm in enormous pain. I have not turned aside even though I have lost everything. I have not departed from his commands. In other words, I'm still doing the right thing. I'm not a fair weather believer that if God doesn't bless me, I'm just gonna walk away from him. But I have treasured his word in my heart. He says, you know, I still trust God's word, God's promises, even though I don't feel him, I don't see him, and everything in my life sucks right now. He says, his mind, God's mind concerning me remains unchanged. And who can turn him from his purposes? For whatever he wants to do, he does. And here's the sign of hope. He will do for me. He will do for me. God says, Job says, he will do for me all he has planned. He controls my destiny. Now, Nothing in your life is accidental. Zero, nada, zip. Both the pleasures and the pains, the assets and the liabilities, the limitations and the opportunities, they're all a part of the plan. In fact, even when and where you would be born and the fact that you're here today is a part of the plan. A thousand years before you were born, God knew that you would be at Saddleback Church. I don't care if you're Buddhist, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, or whatever. God knew you would be here because he wanted to say to you, I have a destiny for you. I have a destiny for you. In fact, the Bible says this. Look in Acts 17 here on the screen. God determines the time set for them and the exact places they should live. You live here and you came here or you attend here because God planned it. And God wanted you to hear this message on decade of destiny because he wants to do something in your life different than the next 10 years. In the next 10 years. He wants to do that. You're here. That's why he brought you here. Now notice this next verse, 1 Peter 4.10. In fact, let's read this verse aloud together with great gusto, whoever he is. All right, 1 Peter 4.10. Each of us, as good manager of God's different gifts, must use for the good of others the special gifts we have received from God. Now, very important verse, so let's leave it on the screen for just a minute. I want you to notice every phrase. Each of us, that means everybody's included. There are no no-talent people. There are no gifted-less people. You got gifts. Everybody, everybody has gifts. Everybody has talents. Each of us as good managers. The Bible word for management, if you've been in the small group studies these weeks, know is the word stewardship. The word steward means manager. The word manager means steward. Management is stewardship. It means what I have is on loan. What I think I own is only on loan. I don't really own anything. I don't own my wealth. God just loaned it to me for 80 years. If somebody's before me, it'll be somebody's after me. I don't really own my health. I don't own my body. I don't own my time. It's all on loan from God. God is the owner of everything. He owns it all. We are simply stewards. We're simply managers. We are to use what he loans, but God owns for his glory and for his purpose. Now it says, as good managers, you are to manage the gifts God gave you. It says, we must use, if you don't use it, you lose it, for the good of who? Would you circle that? For the good of others. One of the most important lessons you have to learn in life is this. Your gifts are not for you. Hate to tell you that, but your gifts are not for you. They are for the benefit of other people. Your ability to make a sale, to close a deal, to crochet a sweater, to make a meal, to teach a child, to whatever gift you've got, to, you know, Be as good as sports, be good at math, be good at music, whatever. Your gifts were given for you to bless other people. God did not put you on this earth just to live for yourself as a selfish little clod, as George Bernard Shaw used to call it. No, God put you here to live for others. And your gifts are for the benefit of others, and their gifts are for the benefit of you. Now there's a lot of things I'm not good at, but one thing I am good at is I'm good at teaching. If I don't use my gift, you get cheated. If you don't use your gift, I get cheated. No gift is more important than the others. They're all equally important. Some are hidden, some are visible, but they're all important. And God puts you here not to just be a passenger on planet Earth, but to be a part of the crew. You're a part of the crew and to make a difference with your life. So one of the major decisions you're going to have to make before we get into Decade of Destiny starting in January is why and how am I going to use my talents in the next 10 years? And am I going to use my talents simply for me or am I going to use them for the benefit of other people? God never blesses selfishness. If you think that the purpose of a decade of destiny is just so you can get a whole lot more things, you're in the wrong church. Because God never blesses selfishness. On the other hand, if you say, I want to fulfill my destiny, which I guarantee you will include benefiting other people. If you bless other people, you will be blessed so much, you won't be able to handle it. I am exhibit of A of this story. That the more you give your life away, the more God blesses your life. The more you give it away, the more you think about others, not yourself, the more God blesses your life. So you have to decide, will I be a giver or a taker in life? Takers are never happy. Givers are the happiest people in the world. Am I gonna be miserly, which is miserable? Now, here's your homework. On this step one, I want you this week to go home and make a list of what has God given me to use for good. And you make a list of all the, what's my background? Good and bad. What is my parenting and family life like? Good and bad. What are the connections? What are the opportunities? What's my wealth? What's my language? What's my health? What are the things I struggle with in my health? What's my location? What's my passion? You look at everything in your life, none of this is insignificant. It's all a part of the plan for your destiny as much as it was for Esther, this poor Jewish orphan girl who becomes queen of Persia. So you've gotta know what you've got and only until then can you then ask the question, what will be my greatest contribution? Now the second key is just as important to discovering your destiny. Gifts plus needs plus calling equal destiny. So the second thing you have to do is this. I must identify the needs that stir my heart. I must identify the needs that stir my heart. When you look around you and you say, what is it that ticks me off? When I look at the world, what irritates me? When I look around and I see a need, a hurt, an injustice, a problem, what do I look around and I go, that's not right. What is it that if you could, you'd change it right now in our society? What would you do? It's gonna be different for different people because we have different passions. What is it that keeps you awake at night? What disturbs you? What causes you to think, Somebody ought to do something about that. You see, everybody, I've learned, at some point in their life has what I call a sod sat moment. S-O-D-S-A-T, sod sat moment. A sod sat moment is when you come and you say, somebody ought to do something about that. Everybody at some point has a sod sat moment. And you look around and you go, that's just not right. That's just not right. Somebody ought to do something about that. Moses had a sod sat moment. He looked around and he saw this entire nation in slavery. He goes, this is not right. Somebody ought to do something about that. A guy named Nehemiah in the Bible looked at the city of Jerusalem that was decaying and defeated and the walls had all been broken down and Nehemiah goes, somebody ought to do something about that. We need to rebuild that wall. King David, wasn't king at the time, he sees an arrogant giant named Goliath making fun of God and all of his people and he goes, somebody ought to do something about that. Goliath guy. Yeah. There's a guy named Haggai, a little book in the end of the Old Testament. And he looks around and says, hey, we're all living in these nice, beautiful paneled homes and God doesn't even have a place of worship. Somebody ought to do something about that. There's a guy in the Bible named Amos. He wrote a little short book and he says, you know what? All these politicians, they're corrupt and they're unjust and they're ripping off the poor and the middle class. Somebody ought to do something about that. It's called the Book of Amos. Nothing happens to somebody as a sad, sad moment. Now this happens in Esther's life. She hears that her people, the Jews, are gonna be annihilated by this nutcase, Haman. And that he's got her husband, the king, to sign off on a decree that all the Jews can be put to death without fear of retribution. And there's gonna be a genocide of her entire race. And she says, somebody ought to do something about that. Now remember, she has kept her identity a secret from her husband. And she's thinking, a lot of people are going to die if I don't act. And here's what happens. Esther 4, verse 4. She gets very disturbed. It says, when Esther's servants told her what Mordecai, this is her adopted father, was doing because of this genocide thing coming up, she was deeply, deeply disturbed. Question, does anything disturb you? Or is your life so self-centered and so isolated you're not living in community? You're living such an individualistic life that nothing disturbs you as long as it's not about you. That stuff can happen all around you and you're impervious to it. You don't even notice it. You're not disturbed about anything unless it's something disturbing you. You know, the thing I'm so proud of of you in this Saddleback Church, is that we have over 300 ministries, well over 300 ministries to the community that deal with hurts and habits and hangups, that deal with problems and injustices and difficulties simply because somebody in the church said somebody ought to do something about that. None of those 300 ministries did I personally start. They were started by you and by others. I gotta tell you a story. This week I had to go up to Pasadena and I went into the Pasadena library and after it was over I walked across the street and I got a lunch, I ordered a sandwich, some coleslaw and some french fries and I said I wanna take it to go, I'll eat outside. So I have my lunch and I'm walking down Pasadena, downtown Pasadena, just looking for a place to sit down and we come upon this big stone church. and these big stone steps down the front. There are three homeless guys sitting on these steps. There's a white guy with really bright red hair. There's a black guy, African American guy, and there's a Hispanic guy. And the three guys are just sitting there, homeless. So I walk over and I sit down among them. They go, oh, you brought lunch. And I said, that's exactly what I did. And I, you know, as soon as I saw him, I thought, you gotta help these people. So I walk over and I sit down and I start dividing it all up. I kind of felt like Jesus in the 5,000 feeding, you know. The only problem was mine wasn't multiplying. And so I only got one fourth of my lunch, okay. But I'm passing the french fries around, the coleslaw around, we're splitting up the sandwich a little bit. And we had a great time just talking, chewing the fat, having a good time. It's nice, and when I got ready to leave, I didn't really have any cash to give them, and I don't like to give cash to people anyway, because I might use it for drugs or to support an alcohol habit or something. But I opened up my wallet, and I had three Starbucks cards in there. So I thought, oh, that's a good idea, because that can't be used for drugs. So I gave Meech a Starbucks card, and I said, you know, this will help you get some food. And as I'm starting to walk away, the white guy with the red hair says, I know who you are. And I go, excuse me? He says, let me tell you a story. He says, five years ago, on the other side of LA, this is 30 miles away from Pasadena, in East LA, five years ago, you pulled up to a taco shack. He said, you were going up to visit the Dream Center. And he said, you stopped there to get some tacos. And he said, you looked over and you saw me and I was homeless. And he said, you looked at me and said, hey, would you like a burrito? And I said, yeah. And you said, would you like two? And I said, yeah. So he said, you bought me two burritos. He goes, you're Rick Warren. And I'm going, now what is the likelihood of me running into the same homeless guy in a metropolitan area of 15 million people, five years later, 40 miles away, and it's the same guy? Now we were only two blocks away from Fuller Seminary. And these guys goes, we can't wait to tell all these Fuller students we had lunch with Rick Warren. Oh yeah, we're like this. We ate five years ago too, you know. The second thing to know your destiny, you gotta find a need and you go after it. You say, identify the needs that stir my heart. Now let me show you an amazing promise of God. to those who get disturbed about helping people less fortunate. I want you to notice the actions and the promises. There are actually 10 promises of God to you in this passage. Isaiah chapter 58. First he tells you what to do. He says, remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice and let the oppressed go free. There are a lot of people put down by society. He said, you are to defend the defenseless. You're to speak up for those who had no voice. Then he says, share your food with the hungry, open your homes to the homeless poor, give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives. I wish he hadn't said that last sentence. I like all the other parts. I don't like that part. Then he gives the promises, and he gives 10 promises. Then he says, number one, my favor will shine on you like the morning sun. You will be blessed if you help others. And he says, number two, your wounds will be quickly healed. You got a hurt, you want your hurt to be healed, you help somebody who's in more pain than you. I'll say it again. If you want God to help you in your hurt, You go help somebody else. You don't wait till you're finished, till you're healed. You go help somebody else in their pain, he said, and your wounds will be quickly healed. And then he says, I will always be with you to save you. How'd you like to have that as a promise in the next 10 years? And my presence will protect you on every side. That's another promise of God. And he says, when you pray, I will answer you. How'd you like to have every year prayer answered? When you call to me, I will respond. These are promises of God. If you put an end to oppression and to every gesture of contempt, what's every gesture of contempt? That's racism, friends. That's what it is. It's racism and it's wrong. And to every evil word, what's he talking about there? He's talking about being civil. that you are to treat with respect and dignity everybody, no matter what they believe, no matter what their religion, no matter what their race, no matter what their worldview is. You don't have to agree with them. You don't have to agree with their lifestyle, but you are to treat them with respect. When people give evil words on blogs, you do not retaliate. You put away every gesture of contempt and every evil word, you are positive. And if you give food to the hungry and you satisfy those who are in need, then, here's the rest of the promises, darkness around you will turn to brightness of noon. All that depression in your life, it's gonna lift. And God says, I will always guide you and I will satisfy you, satisfy you with good things. I will keep you, read this with me, strong and well. Is that an amazing promise? How'd you like to be strong and well for the next 10 years? Every one of those 10 promises is geared to how generous you are in life. Because you can spell, you spell love G-I-V-E. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. And God wants you to learn to be generous. Now here's your homework assignment. I want you to make a list of what do I see around me that disturbs me. First you make a list of all your gifts, your background, your talents, assets, and liabilities. Then you say, what is it where I want to feel like saying somebody ought to do something about that.
SPEAKER 01 :
Wow, some powerful words from Pastor Rick today. And now this is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast. This is letters from our listeners. And now here's Rick.
SPEAKER 02 :
Did you know that there are people listening to Daily Hope broadcasts and following our message all over the world? Here's an example of an email from a listener that just came in from Brazil. He says, hi Rick, my name is Marcelo and I'm from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Every day I listen to Daily Hope on my way to work and God has used your life to speak his truth into my life. Today, I'll be speaking to a group of retail leaders from all over Brazil about living a life of integrity. Hope you won't mind, but I've translated a lot from your message, living a life of integrity, to share with this group. That message touched me so much that I felt the need to share it with others. Well, that's so great, Marcelo. I'm so proud of you. You're being a light for Jesus Christ in his workplace. You're sharing a message of hope with business people. That is just fantastic. Now, I want to say everybody can do the same thing. It doesn't matter where you work. You can share the message of Daily Hope or any of these Daily Hope messages with your coworkers and your friends, and I want to encourage you to do that. And when you do, let me know about it. Be sure to write me and tell me your story, just like Marcelo did. Email me today, rick at pastorrick.com. Thanks for listening to Daily Hope today.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
Join us as we explore the fascinating story of Esther, a young Jewish girl who rose to become the Queen of Persia and saved her people from annihilation. Pastor Rick walks us through the principles that determined her destiny and how those same principles apply to our lives today. The episode sheds light on understanding personal gifts and limitations, the unique shape that these create, and how both good and bad circumstances are integral parts of God's plan. Tune in to find out how to stop the pity party and embrace your unique path towards a fulfilled life.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. And whether today is your first time tuning in or if you're a regular listener, we're really excited that you're here. Well, today, Pastor Rick is continuing his series called Discover Your Destiny. So get ready to explore the practical steps to grow in all areas of your life. spirit, mind, body, relationships, and even your career. So stick with us as we uncover God's incredible plan for your future. Okay, let's get right into it. This is part one of a message called, How Can I Know My Destiny?,
SPEAKER 01 :
You see, God didn't create you just to take up space to breathe, use resources, retire, and die. He has a plan. He has a purpose. He has a destiny, a calling for your life. Now, the question I'm often asked is, well, how do I know? I mean, really, how do I know what God wants me to do with my life? I want to give you a little equation. Would you write this down at the top of your outline? Gifts... Write this down, gifts plus need plus calling equals destiny. Your gifts, the gifts God gives you, that's the assets and the liabilities in your life, the needs that you see around you plus the individual calling God has on your life, that's called your vocation, Your calling comes from vose, the Latin word for call or voice, vocal. Gifts plus need plus calling equals your destiny. Now what I want us to do this weekend is look at a very well-known story in the Bible, the story of Esther. as a model of the four things you must do in order to fulfill your destiny and in order to discover what your destiny is. Now next week, we're turning the corner on this eight-week campaign where we're gonna look at four key areas of your life. We're gonna look at your finances. And my goal for you in the next three years is that your finances will be determined and disciplined and debt-free. Some of you it's gonna take a little bit longer than three years, it may take you the whole decade. But we're gonna help you, I want you to get directed and disciplined and debt free in your finances. We're going to look at your health and I'm gonna look at my own health. I want you to be holy and happy and I want you to be healthy as we go into this decade. We're going to look at what you have to learn, and that'll be another specific week. What are your learning goals? We're going to look at the fact that I want you in three years, the end of phase one, to be more skilled. I want you to be smarter, and I want you to be successful because of what you have learned. And when it comes to what you do in life, I want you to be... more caring, more creative, and more cheerful, because the Bible says do everything with a good attitude. And we're gonna look at those specifically, but this week I want us to look at how do you know your individual destiny? And we're gonna look at lessons from the life of Esther. Now, one of the most gripping stories in the Bible is this story of Esther, which is in the book of Esther. It is an amazing story of how a young Jewish woman saved the entire Jewish race, changed destinies of history, and prevented an entire people from genocide. Now let me give you a little background. 2,500 years ago, the Persians ruled the world. The Persian Empire stretched from India all the way into Africa. In fact, look up here on the screen. Here's the map of the Persian Empire. And you know modern day Persia is Iran. And the mighty king Xerxes was the emperor of the mighty Persian empire, which, as I said, goes from India to Africa. And Xerxes was a very powerful king, but he also liked to party. And he held a banquet, and I'm not making this up, a banquet that lasted six months. Now that's a party animal, if you ask me. That's a party animal. And one day, when he had all of his cronies, I don't know, hundreds or thousands of people partying at this party, while he is drunk, he asks his wife, Queen Vashti, to come pose naked for all of these drunk guests, because he wants to show off his lovely wife. Vashti was a woman of integrity, and of course she refused to do this. And so Xerxes divorced her and banished her and took away her queenship. So then he decreed an empire-wide search for a new young wife. And he has a mandatory Miss Persia contest. And so they go all over the empire and they're looking for bachelorette number one and number two and number 500 and number 1000. And this is not optional. They took the most beautiful young women in the empire and they forced them to all come to Susa, where was the capital of the citadel. Now, at this point, They narrow it down to a finalist group. And a young, poor, orphaned girl named Esther, who was Jewish, was not Persian, but Jewish, is one of the selected finalists. And she is put in a harem run by a guy named Haggai. And Haggai has, I don't know, hundreds of these young virgins. And for one year, they are given the spa treatment. And they are fed certain foods, and they're pampered, and they are given facials and hair and makeover. I mean, anybody can look good after a year, don't you figure? I mean, if you were at Burke Williams for a year, you'd probably be pretty pretty too. And she is being pampered for a purpose. And then each of these girls is to go spend one night with the king, have sex with him. Now, this sounds like a disaster in the making. This poor orphan but attractive young girl named Esther. Now, each of the women go to this one night with the king, and when the king, Xerxes, the Persian king, sees Esther, and she's been told by her adopted father, Mordecai, don't tell him you're Jews, you're Jewish. He falls head over heels in love with her, and he makes her queen. So the queen of Persia is now an orphaned, poor, young Jewish woman. Now the plot begins to thicken. And after Esther becomes queen, they uncover a plot by an evil man named Haman. Haman is a government official who is the original anti-Semite. And he decides that he's going to get all of the Jews in the empire destroyed. And he gets the king to approve a genocide decree. The king does not know his wife is a Jew. It's a true story. Does not know his wife's a Jew, and he approves Haman's genocide. By the way, during World War II, many of the Jews called Hitler Haman because he was trying to do the exact same thing that Haman did 2,500 years ago. Well, I don't have time to go into all the details of this story. It is a fascinating political thriller filled with intrigue, lots of double dealing. It's a great, great story, but the bottom line is Esther, this young girl, risks her life at great personal expense, she could die for this, to save the Jewish nation. And it's a phenomenal story. In fact, I highly encourage you to read this story this afternoon. It is a fascinating story. But what does it have to do with your life and what we're gonna call Decade of Destiny? Esther did four things to discover her destiny. And you're gonna need to do these same four things. Would you write these down? Number one, first, I must recognize the gifts God has given me to use. I must recognize the gifts that God's given me to use. These are the gifts that you had nothing to do with. They were just given to you by God sovereignly. These are the cards you're dealt. This is the hand you got. There are a lot of things in your life you had no control over. You didn't choose your parents. You didn't choose your background. You didn't choose your race or nationality. You didn't choose when you would be born. You didn't choose where you would be born. You didn't choose the natural talents that you were given. You didn't choose the color of your hair till much later. There are a lot of things you had no choice over when you were born. Now, God gives every individual a different shape. We call these gifts that God gives you your shape. We talk about it in Purpose Driven Life. Shape is S-H-A-P-E, the five things that make you you and make you unique. And everybody has a different shape. Spiritual gifts, heart, ability, personality, and experiences. These five things make you. Spiritual gifts, what am I gifted to do? Heart, what do I love to do? Abilities, personality, we're all different personality, and experiences. We all have different kinds of experiences. There's nobody in the world like you. God never makes a clone. God never makes a copy like a snowflake. He never makes two snowflakes alike. You have a unique thumbprint, eye print, voice print, heartbeat, you have a unique footprint. There's nobody, and when God made you, he broke the mold. Now, you have different gifts. Now, you've heard it said in the Constitution that all men are created equal. Now, that's true in one sense, in that we're all equally loved by God. We are all equally valuable. We are all equally worthy of respect. We all have human dignity. There is nobody who is unimportant. And so we are all equal in that way. But we are not all equal in giftedness. And we are not all equal in background. And we are not all equal in opportunities. And we are not all equal in education. And we are not all equal because We're all in different places. You could have been born in Sudan, southern Sudan, where you don't have any, one set of clothes, no home, and are starving to death. You're fortunate, you live in America. And you've had many, many blessings that other people don't have. I don't know if you've realized this, but the truth is life is not fair. The Bible never says life is fair. In fact, that's why one day God's gonna settle the score. That's why there is a heaven and a hell. One day God is gonna even the odds. He's going to bring about justice. He's gonna settle the score. He's gonna balance the issues. And all the unfairness is gonna be taken care of in eternity. Life is not fair here because this is not heaven. This is earth. Now, God does dole out different gifts and we all have different gifts and different abilities and different background and all these different things. Now, I am not accountable for the gifts God did not give me. Does that make sense? In other words, I'm not very good, for instance, at art. In fact, I can't draw stick figures. I'm a terrible artist. I'm really not very physically coordinated. I have not very good hand-eye coordination. I can actually be clumsy. I was never very good at sports. I'm not good with mechanical things. I couldn't rebuild the carburetor if I had to. And I get very impatient. I'm very patient with people. I'm very impatient with things. And I'm just not good at that. So when I get to heaven one day, God isn't gonna say, hey, Rick, why didn't you paint like Rembrandt? Because he didn't give me those gifts. He's not gonna say, why didn't you shoot hoops like Kobe Bryant? Because he didn't give me Kobe Bryant's physique. Mine's better. I mean, I'm a hunk of burning love, you know, when you think about this. Yeah. Why are you laughing? My own church makes fun of me. I can't believe it, but anyway. The truth is, I'm not accountable for the gifts I don't have. Does that make sense? And you aren't either. And when you get to heaven, God isn't gonna say, why weren't you more like your mom? Or why weren't you more like your brother? Or why didn't you have the talents that your dad did? And why didn't you accomplish what your sister did? And on and on and on. God is not gonna compare you to anybody else. He's gonna compare you to you. He's gonna say, what did you do with what you were given? And the evaluation of your life will not be on what you did compared to everybody else, but what you did given the hand that God dealt you. Does that make sense? Now the Bible says this on the screen, Romans chapter 14. Each of us will have to give a personal account to God. You're not gonna give an account for anybody else, just yourself. Now, listen to this carefully. What we consider to be limitations in our lives, are actually part of the giftedness. That God, when he decides what he wants you to do with your life, what he creates you for, what your destiny is, he gives you both assets and limitations. It's not just good things. There are actually bad things in your life, too, that he allows them to happen in order to shape you for what he wants to do with your life. Life is not fair. Now, let's just take this young girl, Esther. She has some assets, but she has some liabilities. Let's start with the liabilities. First liability. Number one is that she's orphaned. Both her mom and dad died. So she's starting off with not an intact nuclear family. Mordecai, her relative, adopts her, but she doesn't have a mom and dad. So that's a strike against her. Second, she's a minority. She's a minority. She's a Jew living in Persia. So she's a minority. That's gonna be tough. Third, she's a single woman. And in the Persian Empire, women had zero rights and single women had less rights than married women. So she's got no rights, okay? She's poor, she's young, she's a minority, she's a single woman, and she's a believer in God in a pagan culture. So she's got five strikes against her. Exactly the kind of person God says, I think I'm gonna use to change the world. God loves to use the unexpected people. We always wanna choose the superstars. God says, no, I think I'm gonna take a single, young, poor, orphaned, minority woman to change the world. This is typical of God. He loves to use the unexpected. Now, that's not to say she didn't have some gifts because she did have some gifts. Number one, she was smart. Esther is very, very bright. She's intelligent. When you read the story, she's extremely smart in knowing how to use her words and knowing how to get back against the political intrigue of the palace and knowing how to make things happen. She's extremely smart. She listens to advice. And that's a sign of intelligence. So she's got a sharp mind. Second, she's attractive. She's a looker. Obviously, she made the finalist group. And then she's given a year of these treatments. She's purpose-driven pampering. You know? getting her ready for her one night with the king. And the third thing is she's winsome. Esther has an attractive personality. She's engaging. She's charming. In fact, as you read her story, everybody just falls in love with Esther. Okay, yes, she's minority. Yes, she's a believer. Yes, she's got all these things that strikes me. But she just knew how to get along with people. And three times in the story, we're told that she found favor with different people. Look at these verses on your outline. Esther chapter two. Verses eight and nine. Esther pleased Haggai and won his favor. Now who's Haggai? Haggai is the supervisor of the harem. So there's hundreds of women in this harem who've made the finalist thing and it says that Haggai liked Esther and he gave her preferential treatment. Immediately he provided her with beauty treatments and special food and he assigned to her seven maids selected from the king's palace and he moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem. So she gets favor with the guy running the harem. Then in verse 16, 15, it says, Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. This girl is winning miscongeniality. Everybody's going, oh, we love Esther. They don't consider her competition. She's just so charming, so engaging. And in verse 17, it says, then she won the king's favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he, this is Xerxes, set a royal crown on her head and made her queen. Now, you need to understand this. Orphan girl, now the queen of Persia. But none of it would have happened if she hadn't had her limitations. Not just the gifts, but the bad things in her life. I mean, if she had been a rich, married man, she's not even in this story. Because the king wasn't looking for a rich, married man. And if she hadn't been a minority, if she hadn't been Jewish, she couldn't have saved the Jewish race. She wouldn't have even cared about it. So the things that seem to be kind of on the downside were actually on the good side. The point is this, what often looks like a disaster, in this case, I'm part of a cattle call and I'm gonna go out to have sex one night with somebody I don't even love and then probably would be discarded and because I'm no longer a virgin anymore, nobody's gonna wanna marry me. What looks like a disaster was actually God's plan to save the Jewish race from genocide. What's the point? Even the bad things in your life have a purpose. It all has a purpose. It all has a purpose. And you will never know and you will never fulfill your destiny until you stop having a pity party about the bad things that have happened to you. You gotta stop having the pity party. You gotta realize that not just the assets, but the liabilities in your life are God ordained to make you you for what he wants you to do. Not what he wants somebody else to do, what he wants you to do. See, so many people wish they were somebody else. Well, if only I were like that person. If only I had her talent. If only I had her husband. If only I had his wife. If only I had that job. If only, if only, if only. And what you gotta do is you gotta stop saying, well, it'd be nice to be that person. Sucks to be me, but it'd sure be nice to be them. That will, as long as you have that attitude, you will never fulfill your destiny in life. You gotta stop the pity party. You gotta stop moaning and murmuring, and you've gotta realize that even the downsides in your life are part of the plan.
SPEAKER 02 :
Wow, such a great message from Pastor Rick today. And I hope you were just as encouraged as I was. You know, the truth is that most of us don't pay much attention to our health until something goes wrong. We put on a couple of pounds every year and think, no big deal, right? But a few pounds over five or ten years really adds up. Yeah, I know about that. But on a more serious note, it can lead to major illness like diabetes and heart disease. So that's why Pastor Rick worked together with medical and fitness experts to create the Daniel Plan Study. This is a six-session video and workbook study kit from Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mark Hyman. This is an out-of-the-box approach to a healthy lifestyle based on five essentials – faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends. The Daniel Plan study gives individuals and small groups the encouragement and accountability needed to succeed. So if you've been watching the scale going up lately, or your health may be in trouble because of your weight, it's really not too late. So join the thousands of people who've lost weight, improved their health, and improved their relationships through the Daniel Plan. So be sure to request your copy when you partner with Daily Hope to take the Word of God to a hurting world. Just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's pastorrick.com. Or you can just text the word HOPE to 70309. That's the word HOPE to 70309. And thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ with people all over the world. 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.
Join Pastor Rick as he shares insights on living a decade of destiny by adhering to God's word and resisting shortcuts. Through Noah's incredible journey of faith and persistence amidst monumental challenges, learn about the antidotes to discouragement and the importance of maintaining faith in God's promises. This episode is a testament to how unwavering trust in God's grace paves the way to fulfilling your life's divine purpose.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. And whether today is your first time tuning in or if you're a regular listener, we're really excited that you're here. Well, today, Pastor Rick is continuing his series called Discover Your Destiny. So get ready to explore the practical steps to grow in all areas of your life. spirit, mind, body, relationships, and even your career. So stick with us as we uncover God's incredible plan for your future. And now let's join Rick for the final part of a message called The Life God Blesses.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Bible says, We don't look at troubles that we could see right now. Instead, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For troubles we see will soon be over, but the unseen joys to come will last forever. Faith is seeing, believing what you cannot see. And it says here, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. You see, the things you see right now are temporary. Everything you see is not going to last. It's what you don't see that's going to last forever. So he says, what are you going to focus on, the temporary or the eternal? I realize that short-term thinking is what our culture teaches. And I realize that Decade of Destiny is a counterculture move. For me to get you to think 10 years is highly unusual, because most people don't even think a year or a month in advance. They're only thinking from day to day. So I realize this is against our culture to think about what am I gonna do in the next 10 years? But you can't see it, but you trust God. We look at what we have not yet seen. The troubles we see will soon be over, but the unseen joys will last forever. So what does this mean? It means that whether you are blessed or whether you are stressed in the next 10 years will be completely dependent upon what you choose to focus on. If you focus on your problems, you're stressed. If you focus on God's potential and power, you're blessed. If you focus on your troubles, you're stressed. If you focus on God's truth, you're blessed. If you focus on your circumstance, you're stressed. If you focus on Christ's control, you're blessed. It's all what you have your eyes on, blessed or stressed. And the Bible says this, By Noah, Noah's belief in God, this is faith that caused him to see what he couldn't see. Noah's belief in God was in direct contrast to the disbelief of the rest of the world. See, this is a counterculture move, to believe in what you cannot see. His belief in God was in direct contrast to the disbelief of the rest of the world. How was he able to believe? The Bible says he heard God. Noah heard God. You say, well, I don't hear God. How do you hear God? Listen, you hear God by getting near God. You need to write that down. You hear God. I hear God by getting near God. You can't hear God from a distance. You can't hear God if you got the TV or the radio on. You can't hear God if you're always got iPhone plugs in your ears. You can't hear God if you're listening to everything else in life. The Bible says, be still and know that I am God. That means sit down and shut up. It means get alone with God and be quiet and read the Bible a little bit and talk to him in prayer and say, God, is there anything you wanna say to me? You can't hear God unless you're near to God. Now the Bible calls being near to God walking with God. It's a phrase that you find in the Bible. Adam walked with God, Enoch walked with God, Noah walked with God, not physically. It means they were near to God. Near to God. Notice this verse. The Bible says, Noah, Genesis 6, 9, third part of it, Noah walked with God. Now, walking implies three things. Follow me on this. Walking with somebody, when you walk with somebody, implies affiliation, it implies agreement, and it implies alignment. What do you mean by that? First, when you walk with somebody, it implies affiliation. It means, I'm not ashamed to be seen with this person. Are you embarrassed by being seen with Jesus? Are you embarrassed that people might know you're a believer, that you're a Christian? Are you embarrassed by your relationship to Jesus Christ? You can't walk with God unless you're affiliated, you're associated, you have a relationship with God. And not only do you have to have affiliation, you have to have in the same thing alignment. That means you're walking in the same direction at the same pace. You can't walk one way and your partner walk another way. Some of you have tried to walk with somebody who they walk slower than you do or faster. And you're in a mall and you're walking and like every 10 steps you have to slow down and wait for them to catch up. Don't look at them right now because some of you, you married a person like that, okay? And the person you married either walks too fast or too slow for you. And you find yourself, you have to be at the same pace and headed the same direction. If you're gonna walk with God in the next 10 years, you gotta walk at the same pace, not fast, not slower than God, and you gotta walk in the same direction. You got affiliation, you gotta have alignment, you gotta have agreement. The Bible says in Amos 3.3, can two people walk together if they don't agree? The answer is no. No, they can't. How do I know if I'm walking with God? How do I know that? Same three things. I'm in agreement with God, I'm in alignment with God, and I'm not ashamed to be affiliated with God. Oh, and there's one other thing. How do you know if you're walking with God? You'll be out of step with the world. Because the world's walking the opposite direction at a different pace. You'll be out of step with the world. What's the result of walking with God? What's the result of walking with God the next 10 years? Let me tell you what it is. You have no fear. You fear nothing. When you walk with God, it takes all the fear out of your life. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, nothing, nada, zip, because you are with me. You lose your fear when God is near. If you're afraid for your finances, you're not walking with God. If you're afraid for your marriage, you're not walking with God. If you're afraid for your career, you're not walking with God. When you walk with God, you have zero fear. You lose your fear when God is near. Noah was totally unafraid. Everybody in the world's going the opposite direction. He doesn't care. He walked with God. He's not afraid. Many of you have been living in fear for the entire year. God brought you here today so he could say this to you. Stop being afraid. I don't want the next decade to be a decade of fear. I want it to be a decade of faith for you. Last decade, there were a lot of fears in your life. Don't carry those fears into this decade. This should be a no fear decade. I'm not afraid anymore. How do you lose your fear? When God is near. And when God is near, then you can hear. And when God is near and you can hear, There is no fear. No room for fear, perfect love is living here. The Bible says perfect love casts out all fear. In your heart, you're either gonna have love in your heart, you're gonna have fear in your heart. When you bring love in the front door, fear goes out the back door. When you bring fear in the front door, love goes out the back door. Love and fear cannot operate in the same heart at the same time. Now, where do you get the perfect love? Well, not from anybody on earth because nobody on earth can love you perfectly. Nobody can love you perfectly. But the Bible says God is love. The only reason you can love is because God is love. And God loves you perfectly. And when you invite God into your heart in Jesus Christ, it knocks the fear out. Every time you start to get afraid in the next 10 years, you say, perfect love, come into my heart. Perfect love, fill my heart, because it takes out the fear. Love is the opposite of fear. And when you love God and you love your neighbors yourself, your life will be filled with love. Now there's a third antidote that we find in Noah's life, and that is the antidote to tempting shortcuts. Number three, I must do exactly as God tells me to do. I must do exactly as God tells me to do. This is the third key to making it to the finish line. You can have all those nine steps we talked about last week, how to get to your goal, but if you don't do this, you're gonna give up too soon. God will tell you exactly what to do, and then you don't take any shortcuts. You see, Noah didn't just hear the word of God, he heeded the word of God. Verse nine, I love this. It says, Noah always tried to conduct his affairs according to God's will. Do you do that? Do you try to conduct all your affairs according to God's will? Do you say, Lord, what do you want me to do today? What do you want me to do in this interview? What do you want me to do with this sale? What do you want me to do with the next hour? He always tried to conduct affairs His affairs according to God's will. Now, what if God asked you to build a battleship? He's not going to, but let's say he did. You'd probably have some questions. I can think of at least four. First, I would ask, what's a flood? Because in those days, the Bible says at the beginning of time, it had never rained on the earth up to this point. Genesis chapter 2 says that God watered the earth from up within. You know, we know there's water under the ground. And he watered it up from within, almost like a dew that condenses on the ground in the morning. It had never rained. That's one of the reasons. We know that after the flood, the atmosphere changed. We know that simply from fossils that Earth had a tropical climate for a long, long time. And you can find tropical fossils on the top of some mountains that are now covered with snow. You can also find seashells, which obviously we know where those came from too. But the fact is it was a tropical environment. By the way, we know that's why people live longer. When you read in the Old Testament, they lived for hundreds of years. which helped perpetuate the human race when it was just starting off pretty small. Obviously, there was a reason for that. After the flood, something changed in the canopy, in the environment, in the atmosphere, and people didn't live as long. Evidently, more of the sun's rays were getting through or whatever. We don't really know. But the fact is, the Bible said it had never rained. So when God says it's gonna flood and it's gonna rain, not only did Noah not see it, he couldn't imagine it. It had never been done. It's an incredible thing. The second thing I'd ask is, how do you build an ark? How do you build a battleship? And remember, in those days, there was no Home Depot to get lumber from. I mean, you can't be like Evan and Almighty and have the trucks pull up and deliver the lumber. You've got to go out and cut the timber down. That's why it took decades and decades and decades to build this ship. I'm gonna ask the question, how do I get it to water? Because Noah lives hundreds of miles to the nearest ocean. By the way, when the flood came, the Bible says it not only rained, it rained for 40 days solid, but it also says God opened up the springs and the wells under the earth and they, long after the rain stopped, the flood kept rising because of the waters underneath that we know, the subterranean waters. might ask the question, God, how do you intend to round up all these animals? Now, really, I don't have a problem with this. If you believe God can create a universe, God is omnipotent. He can do anything. So he could just snap his finger if he wanted to. It doesn't really matter to me how he did it because if you believe God can create the universe, God can do anything he wants to. Now, it's amazing that Noah did not argue. He did not complain with his assignment. He just goes, whatever you say, Lord. I'm going to do it exactly like you do it. Noah's faith is incredible because the request is incredible. It's unbelievable. It's ridiculously out of human imagination. And yet the Bible says this, Genesis 6, 22. Noah did everything exactly right. as God had commanded him. This verse is actually quoted twice. It's also in chapter seven, verse five. Two times it tells us Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him. Now what does that have to do with your life? In the next 10 years, God blesses people who do what he says even when it doesn't make sense. God blesses people who obey him when it doesn't make human sense. God blesses me when I do what he tells me to do, when I follow his instructions, even when I don't understand it. If you could understand everything God does and why he does it, you'd be God, but you're not, so you're not going to. You don't have the brain capacity to understand what God does. It would be like an ant trying to understand the internet. So a lot of life is just, okay, you say so. Doesn't make sense to me. In fact, it seems stupid. In fact, all the cultures go in the opposite way. But I'm gonna do what you tell me to do in your word. So I'm gonna follow you. Now, this is so important because faith is obeying when I don't understand it. At this stage in your journey, in the next 10 years, let me tell you when you're gonna have the most difficult time. The next month isn't gonna be hard for you. Well, it could be, but nothing like it's gonna be because in the middle of the years, it is in the middle of your life that you have the test that determines how you're gonna end life. Most people think, well, if I wanna end well, I have to start well. No, you really don't. You can actually have a lot of false starts early on in life. You can mess up the early years of your life. You could really just really mess it up and have a bunch of false starts and still end well. Where the real test of where you're gonna end up is is in the middle years when you are discouraged to give up on your dreams. When you are tempted to take shortcuts, to take the easy way out, to skim a little, to fudge a little, to do the easy thing, to skimp, to cut corners and to say, Lord, I know this is what you want me to do and I think I can do it faster if you let me do it my way instead of your way. That's the tempting shortcuts. God told Abraham and Sarah, you're gonna have a baby that will be the father of a great nation. And at 80 years of age, Sarah still didn't have a baby. And now she's going, hmm, shortcut. So she says to her husband, why don't you take my handmaiden, Hagar, and have a baby through her? God says, shortcut, not my plan. It happens all the time. You'll be tempted to take shortcuts in the next 10 years. Ethical, moral, financial, spiritual, relational shortcuts. Don't do it. Don't do it. You do it exactly the way God tells you to do it. Hebrews 11, 7, Noah obeyed God and built a large boat to save his family. Now the fourth antidote is to the fourth trap you're gonna face in the next 10 years, and that is discouraging delays. Because when God gives you a dream, it never, never, never happens immediately. Because God wants to work on you during the delay. We talked a little bit about that last week. Now if anybody had the right to be discouraged over delays, it was Noah. Do you know how long it took him to build the ark? 120 years. Do you think you could sustain motivation on a project that took you 120 years? I doubt it. Do you think you could go 120 years without a single word of encouragement except from God? I doubt it. This man models persistence, determination, endurance. He's an amazing thing. And so the fourth antidote is I must refuse to give up on the dream God gives me. I must refuse to give up on the dream God gives me. You just keep on going, whether you feel like it or not. You don't give up in the middle. You gotta sustain it over the long haul. It is in the middle of your life that determines the end, whether you end successfully or not. Now again, I told you this earlier, Decade of Destiny, what I'm doing with you and our entire church is really a counterculture move because nothing in our society teaches you to think ahead. Everything in our society teaches you live for today and if it feels good, do it. And don't worry about tomorrow or next month or next year or anything like that. Don't even plan for it. To get you to think 10 years ahead is a counterculture move. Would you write this down? Everything takes longer than I think. Isn't that the truth? Everything takes longer than I think. So if you're gonna be different 10 years from now, you better start on it now. You gotta start on it now before you get to the end of the decade. Everything takes longer than we think. Now I'm sure Noah in that 120 years got discouraged, was tempted to give up. I'm sure he faced loneliness. I'm sure he faced fatigue going after his dream. You will face loneliness and you will face fatigue going after the dream God gives you. Count on it. You will face loneliness and fatigue going after the dream God gives you. But you just keep on going. And the reason Noah kept on going is faith in God. Look at this next verse. Hebrews 11, seven, in the Living Bible, Noah trusted God. When he heard God's warning about the future, Noah believed him. It's faith, even though there was no sign of a flood. Now for 42,001 days, Noah has only one goal. fulfill my destiny, do what God made me to do. I'm sure in many days as Noah's building the ark, he's thinking, this is not the life I signed up for. This is not the life I signed up for. Little did he know he was gonna save the world. And I bet many days he didn't feel like working and he'd come home at night tired and Mrs. Noah would say, how was work, honey? Same place, same thing, but he never gave up. you may feel like giving up right now and we haven't even started. You may already feel like giving up. You say, just life is tough. And I think God brought you here this weekend so he could say to you, don't, don't, don't, don't give up. God is in control. And the final of your chapter, final chapter of your life, you haven't read yet. Now God's already written it, but you haven't read it. And you need to not give up. The Bible says this, look here on the screen. Well, let's read this verse aloud. Let us not get tired of doing what is right. For after a while, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up. The most difficult part of that verse, the after a while part. After a while, we will reach our goal. We will fulfill our destiny. We will accomplish our dream. It's after a while. Now, did you know that the ark is a symbol of salvation? In the Bible, just like Noah's family was saved by being in the ark, they were saved from destruction, you are saved from destruction by being in Christ. Christ is the ark. How was Noah saved? The same way you and I are. We're saved, some people think, but the people before Jesus were saved by works, and then after Jesus, they're saved by grace. No, no, everybody who's ever been saved by God has been saved the same way, by faith in God's grace. The word grace, the first time it's mentioned in the Bible, is in Noah's life. The word righteous, the first time it's mentioned, is in Noah's life, and Noah lived by faith. Look at these next two verses. The Bible says, by faith, Noah, by his faith, Noah showed the world was wrong. Everybody said, we're going this way, but the whole world was wrong. The crowd is often wrong. The majority is often not right. By his faith, Noah showed that the world is wrong. And he became one of those who are made right with God through faith. And the next verse, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We are saved by our faith in God's grace. Friend, this is the only way you're ever gonna be saved. It's the only way you're ever gonna get to heaven. You must put your faith in God's grace and you need to do it today. Now the Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles 16, 9, God is looking for people to bless. God is looking for people to use. He's looking down, anybody I can bless in the next decade? It says, "...the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, and He may show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him, are leaning toward Him." God is looking for people to use and to bless. I want you to be one of those people. I want our church to be filled with blessable, usable people in the next 10 years. But to do that, to fulfill your destiny, you must do what Noah did. Let's bow our heads. Father, I know that in our broken culture today, you're looking for men and women who will choose to be like Noah. May our family, our church family, be filled with people of faith like Noah. Now you pray. In your heart say this, dear God, I wanna be the kind of person like Noah who brings a smile to your face. I want my faith to be strong to the finish line. I don't wanna fall into any of these traps in the next decade. Forgive me for all the times I've worried about what other people think. Give me the courage to dare to be different so I can fulfill your destiny for my life. I want to listen to your voice, not the voices of doubt. I want to get near you so I can hear you. Jesus, in this next decade, I wanna do exactly what you tell me to do, even when it doesn't make sense to me. I wanna trust you. When I'm tired and when I'm discouraged, help me to be like Noah and never give up. If you've never invited Jesus Christ in your life, say, Jesus Christ, I know I can never save myself. I need to put my faith in your grace like Noah did. I'm asking you to forgive me because of what Jesus did on the cross. And I want to open my life to you. In your name I pray. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey, if you just prayed to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, awesome. Congratulations. And we would love to hear from you and send you some free materials to help you know him better. So email rick at pastorrick.com. That's rick at pastorrick.com. And now this is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast. This is Letters from Our Listeners. And now here's Rick.
SPEAKER 02 :
Today I want to share a note from Dion with you who listens to Daily Hope and she came to faith in Jesus along with her husband. Isn't that wonderful? Here's what Dion wrote. Pastor Rick. A couple of years ago, I would describe myself as a person who believed in God but definitely was not a Christian. My husband started listening to pastors on YouTube, and he started sending me your different videos, and you spoke my language. Your explanation about Jesus Christ described the person I was striving to be more like. I then found your podcast at Daily Hope and A Purpose Driven Life and even The Daniel Plan. Basically, I became a super fan. Ha, ha, ha. You always emphasize the need for a church home in small groups, and I began asking God to lead my husband and I to find the right church home. Well, the third church that we tried just happened to be a church where we attended a weekly AA meeting for over three years, and we loved the Sunday messages from the very first service. It felt like home. They have small groups like you talk about, and we jumped into attending the small group meetings weekly. Within two months, we both got baptized and are now official members of our church. I truly believe God allowed you to plant this seed in our souls. That led me to want a deeper relationship with God through Jesus. I'm now a Christian that's working to spread the love of Jesus to others. Thank you so much. I pray that you can continue being a vessel for others who seek Jesus. May God bless you, Dion. Well, wow. Dion, I am so encouraged to know that you and your husband became followers of Jesus. And it's always so exciting to hear how God uses our simple small steps of faith to make a lasting difference in our lives. You know, those of you who are listening right now, did you notice that Dionne and her husband also got baptized and they joined a local church and they're part of a small group? Have you done that yet? If you haven't, I want to encourage you to do that. I hope everybody listening here will get baptized, will join a church family and get involved there. This is how we grow in the body of Christ. We need each other. We're better together.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey, if you'd like to let Rick know how this broadcast has blessed you, he would love it. Please feel free to send him an email at rick at pastorrick.com. That's rick at pastorrick.com. 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.
