Pastor Rick unpacks the wisdom of setting long-term goals while revealing the potential obstacles that may arise over the next decade of your life. Discover how the strategic planning advised in the Decade of Destiny series encourages spiritual, emotional, and relational success. Listen as we discuss the four pitfalls that distract and detour your journey, and find out how faith and trust in God’s vision can lead you to fulfilling your dreams sustainably. Explore how the Daniel Plan integrates faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends for a healthier lifestyle.
00:00:02 Welcome and Introduction to Discover Your Destiny
00:00:39 Understanding the Four Pitfalls in Your Path
00:03:23 Cultural Distractions and Voices of Doubt
00:05:57 Tempting Shortcuts and Discouraging Delays
00:14:36 Listening to God’s Voice Over Voices of Doubt
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 The Life God Blesses.
SPEAKER 02 :
As your pastor, I am committed to helping you succeed spiritually, emotionally, financially, physically, relationally, in your career, in your family, and in every area. Now last week, we looked at a plan on the weekend To get where you want to go, where God wants you to go, your destiny for the next 10 years. And there were nine steps. If you missed that message, I would encourage you to go back and listen to it because each week builds on the next during Decade of Destiny. This week, I want us to look at the four pitfalls in your path. On your journey of the next 10 years, there are going to be four things that can keep you from fulfilling your destiny, reaching your dream, accomplishing your goal, fulfilling your vision. Now, so many people in life begin well. They start off great. but they end poorly because they don’t know how to plan ahead. The Bible says it’s wise to plan ahead. I know this is a stretch to get you to think about 10 years, much less just a year or even a month. But the fact is, the Bible says it’s smart, it’s wise to set goals and to plan ahead. But as you go through this journey of the next 10 years, there are gonna be traps. There are gonna be problems. There are gonna be troubles that test your life. Life is a marathon. It’s not a 50-yard dash. And there are things that will detour you if you don’t know that they’re coming and you don’t know how to avoid them or solve them. Now, these four pitfalls on your path will test you. This week in our small groups, we looked at the fact that the Bible teaches life is a test. And God is testing us for eternity. And life is a trust. God is seeing how much he can trust us with responsibility. And life is a temporary assignment. And all of this life is preparation for the next. You’re going to spend far more time in the next life than in this life. The trillions and trillions of years there, only maybe 80 at the most 100 years here. Now there are four pitfalls on your path. You might write these down. The first is cultural distractions. Cultural distractions will test you. If you intend to do anything significant with your life, it’s going to be in spite of the culture around you, not because of the culture around you. Everything in this culture pulls you down, not pushes you ahead. Everything in this culture gets you to think about here and now, not 10 years ahead. Would you agree that there are many things to distract you from your destiny in our culture? Yeah, of course, I could give you dozens and dozens of them. Let me just mention four, four distractions that are in our culture that’ll keep you from fulfilling your long-term destiny. Number one is pleasure. You might just write that down somewhere. If you live only for fun, only for comfort, only for entertainment, you will never fulfill your destiny. Now, there’s nothing wrong with entertainment. There’s nothing wrong with fun, but if it’s your sole goal you will miss your destiny. Number two, possessions. Possessions can get you off track. And our society says that you judge your success by how many things you acquire, how many things you accumulate. And yet Jesus said a man’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of things he possesses. It’s not about things. The greatest things in life aren’t things. Number three, popularity is a common goal in our culture. You wanna be loved, you wanna be respected, you wanna be looked up to, you wanna have status. If you’re always worrying about what other people think, you will never reach your destiny. You will never worry about popularity and worry about purpose or be concerned about purpose at the same time. And number four is profit. Our society teaches that the number one goal in life is to get rich. Now, there’s nothing wrong with profit. In fact, the Bible says it’s smart to make a profit. The Bible commands and commends the people who are smart enough to make a profit. There’s nothing wrong with profit, but if your number one goal in life is to get rich, you will never fulfill your destiny because that’s not why you were put here. In fact, Jesus said you cannot serve God and money at the same time. Money is a tool to be used, it is not something to be served. So you have to decide what’s number one, because whatever’s number one in your life is your God. Now, cultural distractions are gonna test you. Number two, the voices of doubt will test you. We’ll come back and talk about these, but the voices of doubt are what I call the dream busters. Once you establish a dream for your life, there are gonna be all kinds of people who don’t want you to fulfill that dream. They can be critics, they can be cynics, they can be culture, they can be the media, they can be competition, it can be the devil. All kinds of people will put doubts in your mind, but it also can be friends. It can also be family. Sometimes your family doesn’t want you to succeed in your dream for many different motivations. But the greatest dream buster in your life is you. The way you talk to yourself, the own voices of doubt inside you can keep you from fulfilling your God-given destiny. We’ll talk about that. Number three, the third pitfall on the journey is tempting shortcuts. Tempting shortcuts will test you. These are moral shortcuts, ethical shortcuts. Financial shortcuts that you’re tempted to make. Relational shortcuts, when you start skimming on your relationships. And these kind of temptations to do something faster rather than do something right. Our society values speed. God values doing it right, doing it right. And you’ll be tempted to take shortcuts, and you’ll say at some point in the journey in the next 10 years, Lord, I think my way could help me reach my goal faster than your way. Shortcuts are always short-sighted, and we’ll look at those. And number four, discouraging delays. are another common pitfall that you’re gonna have in the next 10 years in trying to reach your destiny. Now last spring, remember as a church family, we studied the six phases of faith. So you already know that if you set a dream, you’re gonna have delays, difficulties, detours, and dead ends. Those are gonna come into your life. And that’s why this week in our small groups, we’re gonna look at managing your troubles. and the five purposes of the problems on the pathway to fulfilling your destiny. Now the antidote to these four traps, these four pitfalls are all found in Genesis chapter six to nine in the story of Noah. Now we all know who Noah was, Noah and the flood and the ark and everybody’s always fascinated by how did the flood happen and what is the miracle of the ark. I’m much more fascinated by the man Noah than I am the miracle of the flood because the flood was a one time event. God said he would never flood the earth again like he did then and he promised that but what Noah did, And what Noah became are the same things you can do and the same things you can become to have the blessing of God in your life in the next 10 years. Now let’s look at these four things that Noah did which are the antidote to the four pitfalls on the pathway. Number one, if I wanna make it to my destiny, if I wanna fulfill my dream, my God-given goal, my vision, my ambition that God has given to me, number one, I must dare to be different from my culture. I must dare to be different. from my culture. Until you settle this issue, you will never reach your dream. You cannot try to fit in and be different and make a difference at the same time. You’ve got to decide, I’m willing to be different than the culture because the culture’s headed one way and God’s headed another way. In Noah’s day, the human race had hit bottom. It was morally bankrupt. There was really nothing good about it. The Bible says in Genesis chapter six, look there in your outline, verse 12, God observed all the corruption in the world and he saw the violence and he saw depravity everywhere. Corruption, violence, and depravity. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, okay, look at the next verse. Genesis six, five, and six. When God saw the extent of human wickedness and that the trend and direction, circle that, the trend and direction of men’s lives was only toward evil He was sorry he had made them, made men. It broke his heart. This is only 10 generations in, and God says it’s already a mess. The world was broken by all kinds of sin and all kinds of evil. By the way, what’s the trend today? Is the trend toward God or away from God? Yeah, it’s away from God in our culture. In fact, Jesus told us this. He said to expect it. Look here on the screen. Luke 17, Jesus said, when the Son of Man, that’s Jesus, comes again, it will be like it was when Noah lived. Jesus said, it’s gonna get worse. Count on it. Culture is going to get worse. And he said, right up to the time when I come back. But in all of this darkness, the world is in a mess. God looks down in the darkness and he sees one bright spot. And his name was Noah. Now Genesis 6 verse 8 says this. I love it, the message. But Noah… was different and God liked what he saw in Noah. Circle the phrase, but Noah. An entire culture is headed one way and two words save the world, but Noah. Would God save the whole world because of you? If God looked down on the world today and said, you know, I’m tired of the world. It’s messed up, it’s sick, it’s broken. There’s sin, violence, evil, perversion, abuse, rape, corruption everywhere. Would God look at your life and say, but, and say your name? There’s a bright spot. Would God say, I’m going to save the world just because of you? See, there are only two people who have ever saved the world. Noah saved it physically. Jesus saved it spiritually. By the way, one of the reasons you should be interested in Noah is because you’re related to him. I mean, think about that. If you trace your tree back far enough, it’s got Noah in it. So, turn to the person next to you, you don’t have to do this, say, hey brother, or distant relative, or whatever, because really you are related, okay? You may be a brother from another mother, but you are related. Okay, now here’s the thing about Noah. Noah isn’t worried about what other people think. He isn’t worried about the approval of others. He isn’t worried about being popular. He isn’t trying to keep up with all the latest trends because the trends are all evil. They’re headed in the wrong direction. He’s willing to be different to fulfill his destiny. And you must be willing to be different to fulfill your destiny. You just can’t fit in with a crowd and fulfill your dream at the same time. People who do great things with their lives march to a different drummer. Their number one goal is not what do other people think. Would you write this down? I can only make a difference by being different. I can only make a difference by being different. I can only make a difference in my family by being different in my family. I can only make a difference in my finances by being different with my finances. I can only make a difference in my career by being different with my career. I can only make a difference in my church, my community, or the world by being different in my community, or the church, or the world. Great people never follow the crowd. They take what is the road less traveled. And that means you can’t stop, you can’t be worried about what other people think if you’re gonna go after your decade of destiny in the next 10 years. The Bible says this, Noah was a pleasure to the Lord. God looked down and he goes, that guy makes me smile. I look at that guy’s life, he makes me smile. This is what I want so badly for your life in the next 10 years. I want when God looks down at you to go, that’s my boy. He’s doing what I told him to do. That’s my girl, that’s my woman. She is doing exactly what I made her to do. She’s fulfilling her destiny. I want God to smile when he thinks of you. But in order for that to happen in the next 10 years, You gotta be willing to be different from the culture. The Bible says in verse nine, Noah, Genesis six, nine, Noah was the only truly righteous man living on earth at that time. Can you imagine that? The only person on earth? He lived with such integrity, but that integrity required that he’d be different from everybody else on the planet. Number two, the antidote to the second pitfall is if I’m gonna reach my destiny and fulfill my dreams and goals that God gives me, I must listen to the voice of God, not the voices of doubt. And there are plenty of voices of doubt who will try to dissuade you, detour you, cause you to fall off the road into the ditch. Listen to the voice of God, not the voices of doubt. Now you imagine all of the dream busters that had to be in Noah’s life. Everybody’s going the opposite direction in the world. He’s the only guy and he’s building an ark in his front yard. Now, the ark was about the size of a battleship. If you look at the dimension in the Bible, it’s about the size of a battleship. How’d you like to be Noah’s neighbor? And people, what’s going on with the guy next door? Oh, he’s a nut. He’s a crackpot. He’s a kook. That guy, oh no, he thinks he hears from God. You know? That guy’s building a Queen Mary in his front yard. I mean, where’s the homeowners association when you need it? I mean, the guy is lowering property values for the whole valley. by building this ark in the front yard. What in the world is he doing? Imagine the pressure he got from his own family. The Bible says Noah had three sons. Imagine them coming home from school and saying, hey dad, that ship on the front yard, it’s gotta go. I mean, that’s embarrassing. Dad, why can’t you just get a normal job? Come on, Dad, I mean, this news of doomsday, it’s all over the community. I mean, yesterday our family was in National Enquirer. Come on, Dad. You know, they’re there, and this is bad for our social life. Would you be willing to endure that kind of misunderstanding? Would you be willing to endure the voices of doubt decade after decade to go year after year with no encouragement from not anybody? That’s the kind of person Noah was. He listened to the voice of God, not the voices of doubt. Now why is this important? Because in the next 10 years, dream busters are gonna try to destroy your dream. It may be critics, it may be competition, it may be cynics. Who do you think you are? You gotta be kidding me. You’re going after that in this economy? Forget it. Don’t even think about it. And they’ll try to talk you out of it. Or you may have family and friends who try to talk you out of God’s dream for your life. They’re often wrong. Friends tried to talk Jairus out of going to Jesus when his daughter was sick. Joseph’s family tried to talk him out of a dream. God gave Joseph in the Bible a great dream and his brothers tried to talk him out of it and he said no, so they sold him into slavery and went home and told dad he was eaten by a bear. Jesus’ family, did you know this, tried to talk Jesus out of many things. It’s in the scripture. Jesus had younger brothers, they were half brothers and sisters, obviously, because Joseph was the father and Joseph wasn’t the father of Jesus. But the Bible says several times they came up to Jesus, they said, hey, Jesus, don’t talk like that. Don’t say that, you’re disturbing the crowd. And they certainly didn’t want him going to the cross. His family tried to talk him out of his purpose in life. You need to understand there will be dream busters in your life. But the biggest dream buster will be you. Be you. The most important words you say in life are the words you say to God in prayer. The second most important words you say in life are the words you say to yourself. And you talk to yourself all the time. Now, if you talk to your friends the way you talk to you, you wouldn’t have any friends. Because you say, I must, I should, I have to, I’ve got to. Why can’t I do that better? I’m no good, I’m worthless, I should have known. And you’re constantly talking negative to yourself. The truth is, you can’t be trusted to tell yourself the truth. You say, what do you mean by that? We talked about this a couple weeks ago. The Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. What does that mean? It means we have the amazing ability to lie to ourselves. You lie to yourself all the time. And so do I, without even knowing it. You tell yourself things are good when they’re not good. You tell yourself things are bad when they really aren’t that bad. You tell yourself things are hopeless when they’re not. You lie to yourself all the time. You can’t be trusted to tell yourself the truth all the time. That’s why you don’t even listen just to your own voice. You listen to the voice of God who will only tell you the truth. God will never lie to you. Look at this verse, Hebrews 11, seven. It was by faith that Noah heard God’s warning about things he could not yet see. Circle the word heard. Noah trusted what he heard because he could not see it at that time. God said one day there’s gonna be a flood. He heard it, he couldn’t see it. Now, why is this important? Because you can’t see your future either. You don’t know what’s gonna happen to you in the next 10 years. I don’t know if I’m gonna be alive. Neither do you. You cannot see your future, so you must trust God. You must trust what you hear from his word. It’s right here in this book. And when you hear from his word, you don’t sin. You have a repentant mind. That means you turn and you go God’s way. And you trust God in the things that you cannot see. You see, you can’t see your destiny. But when you trust what you hear from God, there’s a word for that. It’s called faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
