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This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.

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Today we continue with our series called
Doing Business with God. In this

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series, Rick helps you understand why
you work, what you should be working

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for, and how God can use
you in your workplace. Right now,

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here's Pastor Rick with the final part
of a message called making wise Decisions at

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Work Number four. The fourth thing
that Solomon tells us to do in the

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Book of Proverbs is set a goal. Set a goal. When you're going

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to make a decision, you need
to set a faith goal that I'm going

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to do such and such by such
and such a date. Now, what

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terms a dream into a goal?
You set a date. When you put

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a date on a dream, it
becomes a goal. And a goal is

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simply a statement of faith. A
goal says I believe that God wants me

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to do this by this time,
and it's a statement of faith, and

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it focused your attention, it sets
your priorities. If you don't have a

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goal, you're not the leader.
Prior to seventeen twenty four says this.

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An intelligent person aims at wise action, but a fool starts off in many

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directions. A fool starts off at
me, says you got to know your

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goal. And so the fourth thing
you do is you say, what is

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my goal in making this decision?
And you have a deadline. When I

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moved here to the Saddleback Valley in
January, I said we're going to start

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services in twelve weeks, whether we're
ready or not. That was my faith

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goal. And why did I say
we're going to start services in twelve weeks.

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Well, I didn't want us to
just stay as a small group.

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I wanted to force us to Having
a goal causes you to do more quicker.

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But also twelve weeks was Easter,
and I thought, if anybody comes

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to church, what's the one Sunday
they come to church. They may not

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come back week number two, but
at least I'll have some people to go

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visit. So I set off and
then and we set a goal of one

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hundred and fifty people at our first
service. And there were about fifteen of

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us in a little Bible study at
that time. And we hand addressed and

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handstamped fifteen thousand letters the fifteen of
us, and mailed them out ten days

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before Easter. And we thought,
if a half our percent response show up,

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that's seventy five people. And if
you got two people in family,

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that's one hundred and fifty. So
we said, our first goal is one

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hundred and fifty people, and I'll
never forget. On Easter Sunday at Laguna

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Hill High School, two hundred and
five people walked up that ramp for the

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first service, a saddle back church, and Kay looked at me and I

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said, this is going to work. And they breathed the big sigh of

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relief. And I remember we had
decided that a week earlier we were going

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to try a trial run service.
I said, I'm going to take the

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fifteen of us down to Laguna Hill
High School and we're going to I'm going

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to preach to you, and We're
going to practice the music and everything.

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So next week when people show up
and it makes it look like we know

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what we're doing, so we at
least have had one week practice. Some

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people that letter that we sent out
got it a week early, misread it,

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got a week early, came a
week early. We had sixty people

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at the trial run. Five of
them gave their lives to Christ that day.

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I want to say, no,
no, you can't get saved.

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Till next week. Please come back
later. This is just practice. You

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cannot go to heaven right now.
You got to wait one more week.

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You know. The Bible says this
in Proverbs for twenty five and twenty seven.

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Look straight ahead. Let is talk
about goal setting. Look straight ahead,

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fix your eyes on what lies before
you. Have you set a goal,

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mark out a straight path for your
feet. Then stick to the path

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and stay safe. Don't get sidetracked. Now, when I started this church,

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I didn't know how to do this. I didn't have any you know,

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I wasn't a management expert. So
I found a guy who lived up

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in Anaheim, who had been a
Pentagon planner for the US Pentagon, And

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I said, would you help me? Here's my goal to start by Easter.

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Will you help me lay out everything
I need to do in the next

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twelve weeks to get the church started. And he said sure. So he

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sat on and he said, what
do you need to do? And I

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just told him he'd write it on
a card. I tell him something we

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need to write on a car.
We think you something, Oh, oh,

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we need to write that on a
card. Then he got a big

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piece of butcher papers about eight feet
long, and we tape those down there

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in order. We got to do
that before we do that. We got

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to do that before we do that. It's called a gant chart. And

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we laid it all out and we
had a goal, and I knew where

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I was going, and we set
a goal. This is the principle of

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selection, and we said we got
to do this by this date and this

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by this date. Here's the question
you ask on a major decision, what's

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my goal and milestones? What's my
goal and my milestones? That's the little

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mini steps on the way to your
big goal. All right, the Bible,

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get the facts, ask for advice, then set a goal. Now,

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the fifth thing that Solomon tells us
to do in the Book of Proverbs,

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if you've got a major decision to
make, is this very important.

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Count the cost. That's the fifth
thing you got to do in a major

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decision. Count the cost. This
is the principle of evaluation. You figure

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out in advance what the decision will
cost. And you're going to need a

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budget. And because every decision has
a price, take and you have to

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ask yourself what's it going to cost? In four areas, you might write

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these things down, what's it going
to cost in time, So just time

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you write that down time. Question
mark what's it going to cost in money?

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Question mark time money. The third
one is what's it going to cost

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an energy? And the fourth one
is what's it going to cost my family,

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my relationships. You need to know
what that cost is, and you've

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got to count the cost Proverbs twenty
twenty five. Solomon gives this wise advice.

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It is foolish and rash to make
a promise to the Lord before counting

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the cost. Circle that counting the
cost. He says, it's a trap.

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It's a trap to decide without deliberating. It's a trap to promise without

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pondering. It's a trap to make
a decision without having counted the cost.

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That's why when people come to saddle
Back and I say, are you ready

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to make that decision about giving your
Christ? And they say no, I'm

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not, I said, well,
that's okay, And I always tell him

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this, take the time to make
the right decision. I'm never in a

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hurry to push somebody to receive Christ. I say, take the time to

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make the right decision, because I
truly believe that they're intellectually honest, and

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they take the time this genuine really
consider the facts. It's the most logical,

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rational, makes sense, beneficial decision
you can make to get in harmony

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with the creator who made me.
I mean, I don't understand the logic

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of being out of whack with my
creator who made me. But I say,

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take the time to make the right
decision. So you got to deliberate

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before deciding. You got to ponder
before promising. And what I'm telling you

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is, as your pastor, I'm
giving you permission to tell people I'll get

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back to you. It's okay to
say I'll get back to you on a

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decision. When a salesman or anybody
else makes makes an ask of you.

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If I make an ask of you, it's okay for you to say,

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I'll get back to you, to
ponder it, to decide on it,

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to count the cost. Don't be
pressured, because there is a law of

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life that Proverbs and Ecclesiastes teach,
and it's this, It's always easier to

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get in than to get out.
You know what I'm talking about. It's

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always easier to get in than it
is to get out. It's always is

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it easier to get in debt than
out of debt. Oh baby, oh

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baby, Yeah. Is it easier
to get into a relationship than out of

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a relationship? Oh yeah. Is
it easier to fill your schedule then fulfill

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your schedule? Yeah, It's always
easier to get in than to get out.

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And so Jesus even said count the
cost. He tells two stories.

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Look at this verse in Luke,
Jesus said, if you want to build

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a tower, it's here on the
screen. If you want to build a

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tower, you must first sit down
and figure out how much it will cost.

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If you don't, you might not
be able to finish it, and

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people would ridicule you. And if
a king is considering going to war,

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he must first sit down and plan. He must count his ten thousand soldiers

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and decide if they can defeat a
king who is twenty thousand. Jesus even

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himself is saying you need to count
the cost. In following me, is

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the cause worth the cost? So
here's the question you want to ask when

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you're making a major decision. After
you've counted the cost, is it worth

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it? That's the question. Is
it worth it? Before I started saddleback

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church, I had to count the
cost of what it would be to me

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in terms of time, money,
energy, my family and everything else.

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Anybody want to guess the first year
budget of Saddleback Church, the entire budget.

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This included all staff salaries. The
entire budget of our church sixty thousand

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dollars. That was the first year's
budget. I knew that there would be

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sacrifices to be made in the startup, but I had to ask is it

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worth it? Oh? Yeah,
Oh yeah, it's worth it knowing that

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people are going to be in heaven
for you eternity. Thousands and thousands.

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Now people are going to be in
heaven for eternity. Is it worth it?

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Yes? So you count the costs
and you ask is it worth it?

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Number six? The sixth thing that
Solomon says to say you need to

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do is plan for problems. Plan
for problems. Now you may not want

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problems, but they sure want you. Okay, So you got to plan

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for problems in any major decision.
Everybody knows Murphy's law. If something can

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go wrong, it will I saw
a bumper stick the other day that said

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Murphy was an optimist. I think
that's true. If you can go wrong,

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it will go wrong. Now,
you can't ignore problems, as I

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said, because they're not going to
ignore you. You're going to face them.

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So you've got to prepare. Now, how do you do that with

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faith? Here's the key. Hope
for the best while preparing for the worst.

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That's what the Bible teaches. I
hope for the best, but I

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prepare for the worst. Because all
sunshine and no rain makes the desert.

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There are going to be storms that
come in life. Jesus said, when

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you have tribulation. He didn't say
if you have. He said when you

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have tribulation, when you have troubles, it's inevitable. And so just a

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matter of time, problems are going
to find you. So you hope for

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the best, but you plan for
the worst. And when I say plan

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for the worst, I mean plan
for problems. Let me tell you what

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that doesn't mean. It doesn't mean
you solve them in advance. Listen closely.

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You cannot solve tomorrow's problems today.
You have to solve them when you

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face them, but you can prepare
for them. You can't solve them today,

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but you can prepare for them today. When you get there, God

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will give you the energy to solve
it. But you're going to face them.

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Never confuse decision making when problem solving. Never confuse the decision making phase

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with the problem solving phase in life. If you have to solve all the

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problems for you ever make a decision, you're never going to make a decision

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because some problems you can't solve till
you get there. Nineteen sixty three,

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John F. Kennedy stood up at
Rice University and announced to the entire world,

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We're going to the Moon by the
end of this decade. When he

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said that it was physically, technologically, and scientifically impossible, we couldn't do

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it. We didn't have the technology. There's more technology in your cell phone

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today than there was at NASA when
they sent the guide to the Moon,

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more computing power in your cell phone
here if you got smart for it than

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all of NASA had at that day. And you realize what they used to

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get a guy out of the moon, and back then we didn't even have

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that in nineteen sixty three. Leaders, make the decision, then solve the

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problem. Don't confuse decision making phase
with the problems. You make the decision

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because it's the right thing to do, not because you can solve all the

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problems. And then when you solve. When you get to the problems,

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you solve them in the problem solving
phase. So when I say plan for

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problems before you make the decision,
I'm not saying you got to solve them.

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You're not going to. I mean
when you made the decision to become

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a parent, those of you who
are parents, had you solved all the

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problems with your kids first, no, of course not. You didn't even

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know what the problems were, you
wouldn't have had kids. God is so

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gracious that he unrolls the scroll a
little bit at a time, because if

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he showed you the end, it's
scared you spitless. And so God says,

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make the decision and then solve the
problem. But you plan for the

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problems in preparation. Proverbs twenty three, verse three. Twenty two Verse three

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says this, a sensible man watches
for problems ahead and prepares circle that prepares

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to meet them. In other words, you're looking ahead, I can see

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that storm cloud coming. The simpleton
never looks and suffers the consequences. So,

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in the sixth step of biblical decision
making, you ask two questions,

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what could go wrong and what will
happen if it does? What could go

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wrong, and what will happen if
it does. I'll never forget. In

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two thousand and on the last day
of nineteen ninety nine, when we decided

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to have a millennial celebration party at
Saddleback many of you remember that we close

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this back parking lot and we set
up a giant stage about the size of

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woodstock and and we planned a great
evening that was going to start at like

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seven o'clock and go to after midnight
with fireworks to bring in the new millennium.

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It was the coldest night in thirty
years at Saddleback Valley. It froze,

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it rained, sleep came down.
We had a backup plan that people

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who were too cold could come in
here, and we actually had a secondary

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place where people could come inside.
Most of the people actually braved the weather

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and sat out there. We're going
to have fun if it kills us.

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And we were under our rain tents
as it's pouring down rain and fortunately nobody

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got electrocuted. And that night I
baptized about fifty people in a big hot

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swimming pool out there. I was
so glad. You get in that hot

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pool at midnight, had to be
in cold for five hours. But we

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had a backup plan, and people
who couldn't handle e cold could come in

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here and they could watch it on
the screens and stuff like that. So

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you plan for the worst. What
could get wrong? What will happen if

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it does? Number seven, The
seventh step in biblical decision making is face

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my fears. I must face my
fears, and this is the principle of

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confrontation. I've got to confront my
own inner fears if I'm going to make

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a major decision. Because the root
of all indecision, the root of all

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indecision, the root of all indecision
is fear. Fear, fear, false

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evidence appearing real. And we all
have all different kinds of fears. I'm

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afraid that I will make mistakes and
embarrass myself. You will, but it

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won't kill you. It won't kill
you. I'm afraid that I won't be

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able to finish what I'm started.
I'm afraid I'm not good enough. All

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of these fears start pouring in you. Will you face your fears now?

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Since we hate to face our fears, what we do is we make up

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all excuses. God came to Moses, said Moses, I got a big

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plan for your life, and Moses
said, I can't speak well. Lord.

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God came to Gideon and said,
Gideon, I got a big plan

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for your life. Gideon said,
I'm too young. Lord, I'm the

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youngest kid in the family, in
the poorest family, in the smallest tribe

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of Israel. You picked the wrong
guy. God came to Abraham, said

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I got a great plan for your
life. Abraham said, I'm too old.

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One was too young, one was
too old. We all make excuses,

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but you got to remember this verse
on the screen Ecclesiastes eleven to four.

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Oh, it's not on the screen, you know it. If you

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wait for perfect conditions, you'll never
get anything done. We looked at it

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last week. If you wait for
perfect conditions, you'll never get anything done.

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Now. One of the great fears
that everybody has that tends to keep

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us not making decisions is the fear
of disapproval Proverbs twenty nine to twenty five.

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On your outline, fear of man
is a dangerous trap. But to

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trust in God means safely. In
other words, the moment I start worrying

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about what other people think, it's
over for me. The party's over.

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I'm dead in the water. It's
done because disapproval, that fear is actually

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worse than disapproval. The fear of
disapproval is always worse than disapproval. So

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here's what you need to ask,
what am I afraid of? When you

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have a major decision and you're pausing
and you're hesitant, you need to identify

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the fear, face it and confront
it. You need to face your fear

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head on. The Only way to
defeat a fear is to face it and

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move against it in faith. That's
the antecdote fear. A lot of times

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we think, well, if I
just ignore it, it'll go away.

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It won't go away. That fear
won't go away if you ignore it.

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A lot of times we think we
can talk ourselves out of a fear.

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I'm not fearful, I'm not fearful. That doesn't work, Okay, you

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can't. You know, fear has
always got more excuses. How do I

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get rid of a fear? Fly? One way to get rid of a

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fear, face it and move against
it, physically, move against you,

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do the thing you fear the most, and all of a sudden boom,

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the Boogeyman wasn't as big as you
thought it was you open that closet door

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and the boogeyman wasn't even there?
What am I afraid of? Now?

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The only antidote fear is faith,
and that brings us to the last step.

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Step eight is this step out in
faith. Step out in faith.

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This is the principle of initiation.
Initiation. At some point, you got

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to pull the trigger. You got
to stop aiming, you pull the trigger.

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Step out in faith. Romans eight
thirty one says, if God is

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for us, who can be against
us? You got to trust God and

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start moving. You got to do
the thing you fear the most. So

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you say, well, what do
you do if you don't have faith?

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When I don't have faith, I
act like I do and I do it

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any Let me say that again.
When you don't have the faith to do

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something, you act like you've got
the faith and you do it anyway,

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and guess what the faith will show
up. Courage, you know this is

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not the absence of fear. Courage
is moving ahead in spite of your fear.

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You're not courageous unless you're afraid.
At the same time, if you're

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not afraid, you're not courageous.
If you're not afraid, you don't need

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courage. Courage comes because you're scared
to death, but you happen to believe

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this is what God wants me to
do, So I'm going to do it

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even though I'm scared to death.
Probabs three five and six says this,

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Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord
with all your heart. Trust the Lord

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with all your heart, and don't
depend on your own understanding. Remember the

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Lord in all you do and will
give you success. Circle that. Trust

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the Lord with all your heart.
Don't depend on your own understanding, your

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own fears, your own weaknesses,
your own perspective. Remember the Lord in

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all you do, and he will
give you success. You see, God

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supports those who move in faith.
I have seen that thousands of times in

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my life. Thousands of times in
my life. God supports those who move

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in faith. So here's the question
you want to ask, where do I

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need to trust God? You haven't
really believed God until you've attempted something you

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can't do in your own power.
Sometimes you feel so weak. You're physically

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weak, you're emotionally weak, you're
mentally weak. You are drained. Friends,

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I can't tell you how many sermons
I've preached in that condition. Physically,

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emotionally, mentally drained everything coming at
me from this way and that way.

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I can't tell you how many sermons
I've preached like that. God supports

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those who move in faith. Where
do I need to trust God? Now?

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I don't know what decision you need
to make this weekend, but I

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want to dare you to do something
significant with your life. Why is this

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important? Why did I spend a
whole week in teaching you about how to

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make whyse decisions? Because your decisions
determine your destiny. Your choices determine your

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character. They determine your eternity.
Your decisions determine your destiny. We become

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whatever we are committed to. That's
power. Heads. Where do you need

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to trust God? If you've never
opened your life to Jesus Christ, that's

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the starting point. You need to
say, Jesus Christ, I need to

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make a first time commitment to you. I've never stepped across the line,

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and I don't understand it all,
and I haven't figured out all the problems.

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But I'm going to step out in
faith and I'm going to open my

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life to you. You need to
just tell him, say yes, Jesus,

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that's me today, I'm stepping across
the line. I don't understand it

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all, but I'm stepping across the
line. I am stepping out in faith.

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I want you in my life,
and I want my life to be

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living your purpose for me. Thank
you for dying on the cross for me.

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If you've never been baptized, that's
the next step you need to do.

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You need to publicly come out as
a Christian, say I'm not ashamed

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to be a follower of Jesus.
Maybe you were baptized like a lot of

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us were as babies. I'm talking
about as a Jesus was thirty years old

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when he was baptized. He was
dedicated in the temples of baby, but

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he was baptized as an adult because
it was his faith now, not his

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parents. Maybe you need to say, Jesus Christ, I don't know what

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you want me to do with my
life, but I'm saying yes in advance.

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If you're not in a small group, that would be a next step,

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a baby step. I'm going to
get in a small group. I

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don't know. I don't really know, but I do know this. There's

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a next step for you. God
didn't bring you here tonight or today just

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to say this and have you not
do anything about it. Pray this prayer

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in your heart. Dear God.
I want to follow these steps for the

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rest of my life. And when
I have a major decision to make.

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First, I want to check the
Bible and know your revelation. Then I

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want to do the best I can
to get the facts and get the information.

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And then Father, I I want
to ask for advice and get the

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consultation. Help me to be humble
and look to people who've already been where

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I am headed. I want to
set a goal. I want to count

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the cost. Help me to plan
for the problems, what could go wrong,

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and plan for that. Most of
all, Lord, I need you

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to help me face my fears,
confrontation, to move against the thing that

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I fear the most. Tonight,
today, this week, this month,

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I want to step out in faith
and trust you. I want to be

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a man or a woman of courage
to do the thing that I fear the

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most. I pray you'll give me
the power to do it in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Hi, everybody, this
is Rick and I hope you enjoyed

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today's broadcast. You know, if
you just prayed that prayer for the very

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first time, or you just recommitted
your life to Jesus again today, would

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you let me know about it.
There's something real about sharing your commitment.

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00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:22.200
So write me Rick at pastor Rick
dot com and say, Rick, I

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00:26:22.359 --> 00:26:26.200
prayed that prayer of commitment, I
gave my life to Christ. And I'll

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00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.319
send you some material that will help
you on your journey with Jesus. And

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I'll also pray for you. God
bless you. That was Pastor Rick Warren

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with his current series Doing Business with
God. Right now, here's Pastor Rick

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with a letter from one of our
listeners friends. Today, I want to

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tell you about a guy named Chris. I found out that he shares daily

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Hope with his family and his friends
and his coworkers as often as he can,

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and then he has seen a ripple
effect as they all shared daily Hope

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with other people. Let me read
you a portion of what he wrote to

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me, Pastor Rick, I first
encountered daily Hope when a coworker forwarded the

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daily devotional to me years ago.
My friend was sending the devotionals each morning

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to an email list of about fifteen
or twenty people. By the way,

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that's a good idea. For you
to do too. And when my friend

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retired from our company, he passed
along the email group list and I continued

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the tradition of sending the devotionals each
morning. That email group grew to about

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thirty five or forty people. Now. I recently retired, so I passed

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the email group to another coworker in
order that they can continue the ministry.

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Each morning, I wake up,
Pastor Rick, and I come to my

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quiet place just to listen and to
journal your messages for the day. Now,

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depending on what the message is all
about, I often forwarded to many

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individuals for them to enjoy or to
ply it in their own personal life and

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faith journey. Entire family now listens
to you and Daily Hope ministry, and

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00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:10.039
it spreads all over through them as
they forward it to people in their circles

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of influence. I can't thank you
enough, Rick, for all that you've

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done in my life and to strengthen
and grow my faith in Christ. Daily

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Hope without a doubt has changed the
way that I approach every new day.

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You know, Chris, all I
say is wow. I love how you

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00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:34.400
are exponentially sharing Daily Hope with your
coworkers and with your family. You know

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you're actually an evangelist. You are
partnering in God's eyes with me to help

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00:28:40.839 --> 00:28:44.000
spread the good news of the Gospel. And the good news is too good

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to keep to ourselves. We have
to share it now. Anybody can do

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this. Anybody can do this,
and it's an easy way to give other

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people hope through deepening their faith.
So if you don't know what to say,

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00:28:56.599 --> 00:29:00.440
just forward on some of the things
you've heard me say and God will

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00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:03.880
use you to make a difference in
people's lives. To share this broadcast,

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00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:10.079
go to pastorick dot com. That's
pastorick dot com. Be sure to join

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00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:15.039
us next time as we look into
God's word for our daily hope. This

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00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:19.799
program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily
Hope and your generous financial support