Join Pastor Rick as he dives deep into discovering your destiny in this compelling episode. Learn how a focused life, akin to a laser, can make a significant impact. Pastor Rick walks us through the importance of determining where you currently stand in various aspects of your life—spiritually, mentally, and physically—and how this awareness is crucial for setting the right goals.
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 here’s Rick with part one of a message called Getting to Where You Want to Be.
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The goal of Decade of Destiny is to help you get a focus on your life so that the next 10 years of your life are the best 10 years of your life. There is nothing more powerful than a focused life. It’s kind of like light. Light that is unfocused, light that is diffused has no power. But if you focus it, like with a little magnifying glass, some of you remember when we were kids, little boys, we used to burn bugs and grass and light, you know, paper on fire with a magnifying glass. That was a really cool thing to do. You focus light even more, it becomes a laser. And a laser can cut through steel. And a laser can kill a cancer. And the more focused your life is, the more impact it will have. Now during Decade of Destiny, in the next six weeks ahead of us, We’re going to look at the very different important key areas of your life, your health, your wealth, your career, your family, your time, your dreams and vision, and all of the major areas, both in our small groups and here on the weekends together. Now, the classic chapter on having a dream, having a vision, having goals is Genesis chapter 24. And I want us to begin this week looking at an interesting story and how it applies to our lives. It happened thousands of years ago, but it has a lot of implication for you today. Because we’re gonna help you in the weeks ahead set some goals and some plans in your health and in your work and in your family and in your finances and all of these different areas. As your pastor, I am committed to you being successful in the next 10 years of your life. I want your life to be meaningful. I want your life to be successful. I want your life to be significant. Now, the chapter on success in the Bible is Genesis 24. The word success is used five different times. It’s the story of Abraham, who obviously is the father of all Jews, and also the father of all Arabs too, because he had a son named Ishmael. And God promised that Abraham would be the father of a great nation. But he had Isaac and as time went on, Isaac still hadn’t married. And so Abraham’s going, I don’t have any grandkids, where’s my great nation gonna come from? So he gets serious and he sends his servant, A guy named Eleazar to Iraq, which is, by the way, where Abraham came from, back to Iraq, and he says, I want you to find a wife for my son Isaac. And he said, what in the world does this have to do with me today? It has enormous implications. Because in this mission of Eleazar, he does the very nine things you need to do to fulfill a goal, to reach a dream, to see your vision become reality, to make the next 10 years the best 10 years of your life. So we’re gonna look at that. If you have a Bible, you can open to Genesis 24. If you don’t have one, it’s okay. All the verses are there on the outline that we’re gonna look at. To get where you need to go in the next decade, you need to do all nine things that are in this story. Now let me just begin by saying, if I were to call you up and I called you on a cell phone and I said, I wanna come over to your house, how do I get there? What would be the first thing you asked? Yeah, where are you? Where are you? And that’s the first step. If you’ll write this down, the first step is determine your present position. You can’t figure out where you wanna go until you know where you already are. You’ve gotta know your present position, your current condition. You have to know where you are right now. And there are two questions you need to ask yourself. Write these down. Number one, you need to ask, where am I now? And number two, what would I like to change? First, where am I now, which is where am I now financially? Where am I now emotionally? Where am I now in my career? Where am I now relationally? Where am I now spiritually? What is my current position? How am I doing right now? What is my current location? What’s my GPS right now? And then you wanna ask yourself the question, what would I like to change? Now, this is the first question Abraham asked because he figures, I’m getting old and my son doesn’t have a son. What would I like to change? I’d like to get my son a wife. I’d like him to get married. So God had promised Abraham he’d be the father of a great nation. But as I said, he was very old. In verse one of this chapter, it says, Abraham was now old. and well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed him in every way. Time’s running out for Abraham. He says, I better get moving. Now let me just, I’m not gonna harp on this point, but whatever you intend to do with your life, you better get on it. You better get on it for two reasons. Number one, everything takes longer than you think. Have you found that to be true? Everything takes longer than you think. And number two, you’re not getting any younger. So whatever you’re gonna do with your life, the things that you’ve said, one of these days, I’m gonna get around to it, someday I’ll, you need to do it now. And that’s why during Decade of Destiny, we’re gonna help you get started on where you’re going in the next 10 years. I don’t want the next decade to be like your last decade. You can either drift through life or you can be directed through life. And I’m gonna help you find some direction for these key areas of your life. So everything’s running out for Abraham. He’s getting older and Isaac doesn’t have a wife. And he said, I better set a goal and I better go after it. Now you may think I’m too old to set a goal. Well, I wanna remind you that when Abraham set this goal, he’s 115. So once you reach 116, you can stop making goals. Actually, you will always need a dream in your life. You will always need a vision in your life. No matter how old you are, whether you’re retired or not, you need a goal, a dream, a vision, because if you don’t have a dream, you’re not living. You’re just existing. You’re just drifting. Without a dream, you drift. And so as long as you’re alive, as long as you’re breathing, as long as your heart is pumping blood, you need a dream. You gotta determine first your present position. Step two, you describe exactly what you want. And I suggest you actually write it down on paper. What do I want to accomplish in the next 10 years? And don’t be vague. Vague goals are never accomplished. The more specific you are, the better it is. And when you are specific, you not only want to know what you want, what you don’t want in life. And you need to be specific. Abraham paints a clear picture for his servant Eleazar. He tells him what he wants and he tells him what he doesn’t want. Look at this verse. Verse three and four. Don’t get a wife for my son from the Canaanite girls who live around here. Instead, go back to my country, to the land of my relatives, and get a wife for my son, Isaac. He’s saying, I want a wife for my son, same nationality, same hometown, same faith. He’s very specific, he’s very precise. Now let me let you in on a little secret. You will never reach a vague goal. Nothing becomes dynamic until it becomes specific. And the more specific and the more precise you have, what you want to accomplish in the next 10 years, what you want to be different in the next 10 years, the more it’s gonna be compelling. It needs to be clear, it needs to be concise, it needs to be compelling. Now, to do that, you have to ask four questions. Write these down. You need to ask yourself, as you look at the next 10 years of your life, first, what do I wanna be That’s the most important thing. What do I want to be? Then number two, what do I want to do? What do I want to do? That’s second most important in life. What do I want to be? What do I want to do? And number three is what do I want to have? What do I not have that I would like to have in 10 years? And then the most important question of all is this one. Why do I want it? Why do I want it? You must know not just the what in life, but you must know the why. I want a new job. Well, what kind of new job and why? I wanna lose weight, why? I wanna spend more time with my family, why? I wanna grow spiritually, why? Every goal has to have a value to it. It has to have a reward to it. It has to have a payoff to it. If you don’t have a reward or goal or payoff attached to your goal, it won’t hold you. That’s why Jesus in the New Testament talks about rewards often. He says, if you do this, here will be your reward. Jesus understood that there are benefits to living in the right way. Now, what is it that’s gonna motivate Eleazar to go find a wife for Isaac in another country? Well, he’s got four motivations. Number one, Isaac will get a wife. Number two, his master Abraham will be pleased. Number three, God’s purpose will be fulfilled. And number four, he’ll get a reward. He knows not only what he’s gonna do, but why he’s gonna do it. Why is this important? Why is it important to know why? Why clarify the why of your life? You can set all kinds of goals, but if you don’t set the why, you’re never gonna achieve them for a couple reasons. First, if you don’t know why you’re going after what you’re going after in life, you’re gonna give up when times get tough. because the what is not enough. You have to know why you do what you do. Many times I’ve wanted to quit, but the why I do what I do kept me going. You wanna know how many times I’ve wanted to resign at Saddleback over the last 30 years? Just every Monday morning. I get PMS, post-message syndrome. And I think, oh God, surely somebody could have done a better job than I did yesterday. There’s a lot of people there. This church is too big for me. Can somebody who’s smarter, brighter, figure out how to help these dear, dear people that I love? If you don’t know why, then when things get tough in your life, you’re gonna give up on your goal, give up on your dream, give up on your vision. The other reason, and this is just as important as this, when you figure out why, God will show you how. When you figure out why you do what you do, God will show you how. We’re always so concerned about the how. How am I gonna do it? How am I gonna pay for it? How am I gonna have to find the time? How am I gonna get the help? We’re always asking the how question. God says you need to be asking the why because motivation is more important than method. You figure out the motivation of why you do what you do in life and God will give you the methodology to do it. Would you write this down? Never confuse the decision-making phase with the problem-solving phase in your life. Never confuse decision-making with problem-solving. Most people, they try to solve all the problems before they set their goal. Bad idea. If you try to solve all your problems before you go after that goal, let’s say I wanna be a registered nurse at the end of this decade. Or I want to be financially free at the end of this decade, out of debt. Or I want to be, whatever your goals are, I want to be able to travel and serve the Lord. Whatever your, you have to set the goal, make the decision, and then solve the problems. Back in the early 60s, John F. Kennedy announced at Rice University in Houston, Texas, on a major goal for America. He said, we’re going to put a man on the moon by the end of this decade. Now that was the decision that was made. The problems had not been solved. In fact, when Kennedy said, we’re going to the moon by the end of this decade, it was scientifically, physically, and mathematically impossible. The technology had not been invented. The science had not been invented. The mathematic equations had not been invented. when he said, but he made the decision and then over the years, they solved the problems. If you try to solve all your problems first, you’ll never get ahead, you’ll never move forward. So Abraham says, I know where I am, I’m getting old, my son doesn’t have a wife. And he says, Eleazar, I want you to go back to my home country, Iraq, I want you to find these things, and here’s what I want and here’s what I don’t want. He defines and describes in specifics what he’s looking for. Now Eleazar, his servant, automatically gets nervous. He gets worried. He starts wondering. He gets a little anxious and a little afraid. In verse five here on the screen, then the servant asked Abraham, well, what if the woman who he’s going to find is unwilling to leave her home in Iraq and come back with me, a stranger, to this land to marry a guy she’s never met? Not a bad question. Now I want you to circle two words. Circle the word what if, the phrase what if. Listening to the what ifs of your life will keep you from fulfilling your destiny. You cannot listen to the what ifs of your life because there will be a laundry list of them so long you’ll never get around to starting. Worry and fear paralyze you. Worry and fear postpone the vision. Worry and fear cause you to procrastinate. Worry and fear cause you to put it off. If you what if yourself, you’ll what if yourself to death. You cannot do that. And that’s why you need step three, which is the antidote to the natural fears that happen when you start dreaming bigger. Step three is you need to find a promise from God. Find a promise from God, where God says, I’m gonna help you with this vision, this dream, this goal. Did you know that this book, the Bible, has over 7,000 promises in it from God to you. Did you know that? God promises over 7,000 times. He says, if you do this, I’ll do this. If you do this, I’ll do this. There are promises of security, promises of safety, promises of provision, promises of prosperity. There are promises of success, promises of stability, promises of strength when you don’t have it, promises of wisdom, and on and on and on. And they’re just like blank checks waiting for you to claim. And most people go through life never claiming any of the promises of God that he’s made. Now, why does God make all these promises? Well, I’ll tell you why. Because he wants you to learn to trust him. Any dad understands this. I want my kids to learn to trust me. Nothing brings me greater happiness, greater pleasure, greater joys when they say, well, if you say so, dad. I trust you, Dad, I don’t understand it, doesn’t make sense to me, but Dad, I trust you, I trust your wisdom. And when you trust your heavenly Father’s wisdom, and he says if you do this, then he always rewards you. He rewards trust. And there are over 7,000 promises in the Bible. And what you need to do is you need to find one of those promises that you can hold on to for hope, to give you hope in the tough times for every single one of your goals or your dreams or your vision in this decade of destiny. Now at this step, you don’t focus on your problems. There’ll be problems in reaching your goal. You focus on the promises, not the problems. You focus on God’s provision, not your problem. You focus on what God has promised to do, not what you don’t have in your life. You don’t focus on the problem or you’ll never get to the next step. But you just look at what God has promised to do, not the barriers, not the obstacles, not the roadblocks to reaching your dream and your vision. Otherwise you’re just filled with fear. Now Abraham allays, allays our fear by telling him that God had promised that he was gonna be the father of a great nation. So obviously he was gonna succeed because Isaac would get a wife. Here’s what Abraham says, verse seven. Abraham said, the Lord brought me from the land of my relatives to this land. And he solemnly promised, circle that on your outline. He solemnly promised me, it’s based on a promise, that he would give this land to my descendants. So he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife there for me and for my son. Now, Do you think you would have a lot of confidence if God told you that an angel was gonna go before you in your project? Oh yeah, yeah, if God said, okay, I’m gonna send an angel before you, before this deal, before you close this contract, before you, I’m gonna send an angel, you’d be confident, but you don’t need an angel. You don’t need an angel, why? Because now, dozens of times in scripture, God says, I’ll be with you. I’ll be with you. I’m gonna be with you everywhere you go. Now you may not feel God’s presence, but there is never a time in your life when God is not with you. You need to plug into that power. You need to realize what is a reality. And the reality is you are never alone. God is already in the future. He already knows everything that’s gonna happen. He’s already been there. He’s not surprised or shocked. God is with you every moment of your day.
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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.
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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, 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.
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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.
