Pastor Rick Warren often says you were made by God and for God, and
until you understand that, life will never make sense. Welcome to Pastor Rick's
Daily Hope. Today. In our series called God's Vision for the Rest of
your Life, Rick continues in his effort to help you discover the unique purpose
and vision that the Lord has for your life. Now, before we get
started, we want to let you know that a very generous friend has given
one hundred thousand dollars matching grant to Daily Hope. That means that all this
month, every dollar you give to help Daily Hope share the hope of Jesus
around the world will be matched up to one hundred thousand dollars. You can
find out more by going to Pastorick dot com or by texting the word daily
to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com,
or the word daily to a eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.
Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part two of a message called Embracing
the Vision the purpose driven Life. Now, how do you know when you're
disconnected from God? How do you know when you don't really know God?
You know about him, but you don't really know him well. There's a
warning light that comes on in your life when you are disconnected from God.
It's called stress. Stress. Are any of you familiar with this term?
Stress? Worry is the warning light that at that moment in your life,
you're disconnected from God. Whenever I'm worrying, it says, I'm acting like
I'm God. I'm acting like it all depends on me. I'm pretending I'm
the general manager of the universe, that I've got to make it all happen.
God isn't going to help me. I'm out here on my own,
and that causes stress. And the reason you're tired all the time, and
the reason you're fatigued, and the reason you're stressed out is because you're trying
to live your life disconnected from God. It's like having a radio transistor radio
with a battery pulled out. There's no power, but you plug in the
battery and get connected to God. You're gonna hear all kinds of great things.
This is God's plan for your life. He wants you to know and
love him. See the Bible says in Matthew six, people who don't know
God are always worrying why because they think it's all on their own. You
see, God has wired you with a God shaped hole in the middle of
you so that you need Him in your life. Well, there's this emptiness
inside of us now. The problem is we try to fill it with a
lot of other things instead of God. And you can try to fill that
God shaped hole with passion or position, or possessions or pleasure or popularity,
or you can try to fill that hole in your heart with sex or status
or salary. But none of those things are going to fill the whole that
only God can fill in your life. You were made by God and for
God, and until you understand that, there's going to be a hole in
your heart that leaves you empty. Here's the second purpose of life. The
Bible says, God formed me for his family. God formed me for his
family. In other words, God wanted a family. He wanted more than
creatures. He didn't want just angels and animals and plants. He wanted a
family. And the Bible says, the whole reason you exist is God wanted
you to become a part of his family, which makes you unique. And
that family is going to last forever. The Bible says this, God's unchanging
plan has always been to adopt us into his own family. This is amazing
by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ, and this gave him great pleasure.
In other words, again, he did it for his own enjoyment.
God wanted a family and he wanted you to be a part of it.
Now, your spiritual family, God's family is going to even outlast your physical
family. Physical families don't last. They grow up, they move away,
they die, there's divorce, there's death. Physical families don't last. But
the spiritual family of God is going to go on and on and on for
eternity. And the Bible says that God never meant for you to go through
life alone. In fact, God hates loneliness. When God created man,
he put him in the garden of Eden, a perfect environment, and the
first thing God said was it is not good for man to be alone.
Now he's not talking about whether you get married or not. That is irrelevant.
He's talking about the fact whether you marry or not is not the issue.
The issue is God wants to put you in a spiritual family, and
that family is the family of God. Now, when you were born physically,
you automatically became a part of the human family. You didn't have a
choice. The moment you were born, you became a part of the human
family. But becoming a part of God's family is a choice. You have
to choose to become a part of it. You're not automatically a part of
God's family. It is your choice. The Bible says this in One Peter.
God has given us the privilege of being born again, so that we
are now members of God's own family. What is born again mean? It
means I make the choice to say I don't want to just be a part
of the human family. I want to be a part of God's family,
and I'm going to follow him in his ways. It means I get a
fresh start in life. Everything I've ever done wrong, everything I've ever regretted,
all the shame, all the things I wish hadn't happened in my past.
God says, wiped out, forgiven, completely, start over. We're
gonna give you a fresh, clean slate. It's like starting over, new
life, fresh start. That's all it means. Born again, like reincarnation.
It just means you get a fresh start on life. Now. What
is God's family. We'll look at the next verse. That family is the
Church of the Living God, the support and foundation of the truth. Now
this is very important. The church is not an institution. The church is
not a bureaucracy. The church is not an organization. It's not a social
club. The church is God's family. And I don't know why some churches
don't get this, but they don't. It's not about rules and regulations and
rituals and religion. It's about relationships. The church is about those who've decided
to become a part of God's family forever and ever, and it's all about
love. It's about relationships. Now, notice it says that family is the
support and foundation of the truth. So underlying support and foundation. Now you
know what happens when a building has no support and foundation. It collapses.
We in California understand this above everybody else because we have a thing called earthquakes.
And if you don't have a good support and foundation in a building,
it's going to collapse when the earthquake comes. God says, your life is
the same way. Thank you so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
We've got some incredible news to share with you. A very generous friend
has given a one hundred thousand dollars matching grant to this ministry all this month,
every dollar you give to help Daily Hope share the certain Hope of Jesus
around the world will be matched up to one hundred thousand dollars, So twenty
five dollars becomes fifty dollars, fifty becomes one hundred and five hundred becomes a
thousand. Whatever you give will be doubled by the matching grant up to one
hundred thousand dollars, but only till midnight December thirty first, so please please
contact us today go to Pastorick dot com or just call eight hundred six hundred
five thousand and four. If you want to make your time in prayer the
best it can be, then you're going to want to get a copy of
the brand new twenty twenty one Daily Hope Prayer Journal. This year's theme,
God's Great Adventure for You, will help you tap into God's power and presence
when you learn how to pray with passion and purpose. Covered in soft vegan
leather with full color pages, this prayer journal has sections to pray for specific
people and situations, as well as space to express your gratitude and personal prayer
requests to God. Each page is beautifully designed and filled with inspiring Bible verses,
photos and artwork. The God's Great Adventure for You Prayer Journal is a
spiritual growth tool designed to help you enjoy a vibrant prayer life, connect with
God, and establish a consistent daily prayer time. When you give a gift
to help daily Hope take the certain Hope of Jesus to people around the world,
will send you the all new twenty twenty one Daily Hope Prayer Journal to
say thanks. Quantities are limited, so don't wait. Call eight hundred at
six hundred five zero zero four to get your Prayer Journal and have your gift
matched up to one hundred thousand dollars. Or you can visit Pastorick dot com.
That's eight hundred at six hundred five zero zero four or Pastorick dot com.
You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again, here's Pastor Rick Warren.
You're gonna have some earthquakes in your life, personal earthquakes, financial earthquakes.
You're gonna have health earthquakes. You may have marriage earthquakes. If you
get married, you're gonna have relational earthquakes. You're gonna have career earthquakes.
And when these tough times come along in life, if you don't have a
spiritual family, you're gonna to collapse. You cannot fulfill God's purposes by yourself.
God wired us to need each other. We need each other in the
family of God. That's why in our church we have two thousand, six
hundred small groups. The church isn't this group right here, it's the group
that meets in little groups all over southern California, two thousand, six hundred
locations, in small groups, in homes in eighty three different cities. And
when you have a problem and you're in a small group, they help you.
When you're in the hospital, they take care of your needs. When
you need a meal brought to you because you're sick, they bring meal to
you. In this church, we take care of each other. And honestly,
I feel sorry for people who don't have a spiritual family to take care
of them when they're in a crisis. Now, let's look at the next
verse. Let's read it aloud together. One Peter says this love your spiritual
family. Are you doing that. Do you love your spiritual family so well?
I don't even have one. Well, we invite you to be a
part of Saddleback. There's lots of good spiritual families in this area. Just
choose one. Now, why is this important love your spiritual family? Because
when you get to heaven, two of the things you're going to do in
heaven. One is love God and two is love the other people. That's
called worship and fellowship. And what does God wants you to do while you're
here on earth, same thing? Practice. He wants you to not only
love God, he wants you to learn to love other people. Why.
Because God is love, he wants you to practice. So write this down
on the next page. The second purpose of life is to learn to love
others. The first purpose of life is to learn to love God. The
second purpose of life is to learn to love other people. Because God wants
you to be like he is. He loves you and he loves others.
That's why you need a church home. It's the laboratory for learning to love
God's family. Now, I hear people say all the time, You know,
Rick, I don't need a church. I can go out in nature
by myself. And I could worship God by myself in nature, Well,
of course you can. Who do you think comitted nature God did? That's
why you feel so close to him in nature. Of course, you can
worship God on your own nature, but you can't love other people in nature
by yourself. That's why you need a family. And God wants us to
learn real love, which means to learn to love real people, not just
ideal people. So he puts some people around us that are a little bit
unlovable. I call him heavenly sandpaper, you know, anybody like that to
kind of just rub you the wrong way. God wants to teach you real
love. To dwell above with those we love, oh that will be a
glory. But to dwell below with those we know, that's another story.
You see, every family has an Uncle Wilbur, just a little bit out
of kilter, you know, a little bit off. You know, it's
coming to Eastern and you're going, oh, no, Uncle Wilbur's going to
be there. They're in every small group, they're in every family, they're
in every church, and God intentionally puts them there so we can learn to
love. You know, the light's on, but nobody's home a few fries
short of a happy meal. You know, the elevator doesn't go all the
way to the top. They don't get all the social clues. And in
every one of our twenty six hundred small groups, there's at least one person
like this that just needs egr extra grace required. Okay, Now, if
you don't immediately think of who I'm talking about, I hate tell you this,
but you're it. Okay. I mean, if that person didn't come
to mind, who is it in my family that's like that. I hate
to tell you. It's you. But we need you and you need us
because God wants us to learn real love. It's easy to love the lovely
people, but God puts us around people that are a little difficult to love
because you cannot fulfill God's purposes on your own. Nobody has it all together.
I don't. You don't. That's why we need each other. Look
at this next verse. The Bible says we belong to each other, and
each of us needs all the others. Let's review. Let's review number one.
You were planned for God's pleasures. So the first purpose of life is
to get to know and love God. Back. Second, God formed you
for his family So the second purpose of life is getting us spiritual family and
start learning to love other people. Love God, love other people. Number
three, the Bible says, God created me to become like Christ. God
created me to become like Christ. Now this takes a little explaining, but
once you understand it, life will make so much more sense. The bottom
line is this, God wants you to grow up spiritually. When you grow
up physically, that's automatic. You grew up automatically and you're an adult.
But God wants you to grow up spiritually too. And I know people are
twenty thirty, forty fifty, sixty years old physically and spiritually, they're still
babies. God says, I want you to grow up while you're on Earth.
Grow up spiritually. This is the kindergarten, the preschool, the dress
ursul grow up to be like my son Jesus. Christ is the model of
spiritual maturity. That's why Jesus came to earth. One of the reasons that
came to earth is to model what maturity is like. Now, notice these
verses. The Bible says, from the very beginning, God decided that those
who came to him, in other words, those who chose to become a
part of his family. And all along he knew who would should become like
his son. And look of the next verse. We look at the sun
and we see God's original purpose in everything created. Now, this is God's
Plan A, not Plan B. From the very begin he said, let
us make man in our image. God's goal has always been to make you
like himself. Now, don't misunderstand me, not to become a god,
but to become godly, to have godly character. You're never going to be
a god. Okay. There are some cults out there that teach you,
oh, you're divine, you're a god. You're no God. If you
were a god, you'd have all your problems solved by Now you're not God,
all right, You're just not God. And so what God wants you
to do is he wants you to become godly in character like integrity and generosity
and humility and all the characteristics of God. Now, God is far more
interested in what you are than what you do. Why, because you're not
taking your career to heaven, you are taking your character. Aren't you glad
you're not taking your career to heaven. Yeah, you're not gonna have to
do that one in heaven. But God says, I don't care really what
you do. There might be a dozen different jobs. He said, God,
what job do you want me to do? God says, your choice,
whatever you feel like doing, because I'm more interested in what you become
while you're doing the job rather than what you do. God isn't interested so
much in what you do as he is in what you become while you're doing
it. Does that make sense? He wants you, He's more interested in
you than your job. So any job can be used to grow up spiritually.
Now, the number one question I'm asked as a pastor is Rick,
why is this happening to me? And I'll tell you why. It's to
help you to grow up spiritually. Everything in life is designed to help you
grow up spiritually. The good, the bad, the ugly, the stuff
you bring on yourself, the stuff that other people do to you. God
is not the author of evil. God never does evil. But God can
bring good even out of bad. That's the cool thing about God. See,
anybody can bring good out of good, anybody can do that, but
God's specializes in bringing good out of bad. That's what Easter is all about.
He turns crucifixions into resurrections. He takes a terrible thing, the death
of his son, and uses it to save the whole world. God brings
good out of bad, and there's nothing in your life that you can't learn
from if you'll just respond with the right attitude, and instead of saying God,
why is this happening to me? Say God, what do you want
me to learn? What do you want me to learn from this? Every
situation in life will either make you bitter or better, and it's your choice.
It's how you choose to respond to it. So the problem you're going
through right now, you can just think of it. Right now, think
of the problem you're going through. Every problem has a purpose. Every problem
has a purpose, and the purpose is to help you grow up spiritually,
to not be a spiritually immature person, but to grow up. And the
model of perfection is Jesus Christ. Notice the next verse, let's read it
aloud from Philippians. In your lives, you must think and act like Christ
Jesus. So the question then becomes, if God's third purpose for my life
is for me to grow up spiritually and become like Jesus, what is Jesus
like? Well, The Bible calls it the fruit of the Spirit, and
it says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control. These are the
qualities that God wants to build in your life. He wants you to live
a life that's overflowing with love, overflowing with joy, overflowing with peace,
and patience and all those things. Now, how does God then produce those
qualities in my life? How does God grow character in you and help you
grow up spiritually? How does he make you like Jesus? I mean,
are you just walking down the street one day? No alson zap? God
zaps you with love, and for the rest of your life you love everybody.
I don't think though. As I said, God teaches you these qualities
by putting you in the exact opposite situation. He teaches you love by putting
you around unlovely people. It's easy to love people who are cool, people
who are like you, people who get along with But He'll put you around
some unlovely people. How about joy? Joy is not happiness. Happiness depends
on happenings circumstances. I can go to Disneyland and I'm happy. I come
out, I realize how much money I spent. I'm not happy anymore.
Joy is internal and God will teach you joy in the middle of grief.
How about peace? Oh, it's easy to be peaceful when you're out fishing
by the lake. Hey, it doesn't get any better than this. No,
God teaches you real peace in the middle of chaos when everything in your
life is falling apart, and you say God, I need your and He
puts you full of peace. How does God teach us patience? Department of
Motor Vehicles. Oh, you've been there. Thank you so much for listening
to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We've got some incredible news to share with you.
A very generous friend has given a one hundred thousand dollars matching grant to
this ministry. That means that all this month, every dollar you give to
help Daily Hope share the certain Hope of Jesus around the world will be matched
up to one hundred thousand dollars. Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.
Did you know that today there's still almost three thousand groups of people around the
world that have no Bible, no believer in Christ, and no body of
Christ, no church. Over three thousand of those small tribes. One of
the reasons I started Daily Hope was to help bring this awareness to the world
and and raise the funds to get a Bible, a believer, and a
body of Christ in these last three thousand tribes. I call it the final
Frontier. These people not only need to hear about the love of Jesus,
they need to grow up. They need to be discipled in their faith.
Now, I admit this is a big vision, but it's an important vision.
It's a global vision, it's a timely vision. But every vision requires
provision. And honestly, we wouldn't be able to even go after these tribes
without your help. And that's why I can't fully express how much I appreciate
your support for Daily Hope. When you give to this ministry, you're not
only supporting this broadcast, but you're supporting our efforts to go to the final
frontier, the final three thousand tribes that have no Bible, no believer,
and no body of Christ. Now, the reason I'm telling you this is
I'm excited to share we have a generous couple who's offered a one hundred thousand
dollars matching grant gift to Daily Hope. What does that mean? It means
any gift you give between now and the end of December will be doubled to
match that amount. So I want to ask you to please prayerfully consider how
you could give today help us reach the final frontier of these tribes that have
never heard the name of Christ in the coming year. Friends, even if
you can't help us financially, I want to ask you to pray, pray
for us, and pray these specific prayer requests that I will faithfully teach God's
word in a way that blesses you and penetrates the hearts of people who don't
know Christ. Pray for the Daily Hope team that God will encourage them as
they create all of our discipleship tools and materials which we want you to have
to help you. And most of all, pray for these unreached tribes and
groups of people who've never heard the name of Jesus. I'm praying for you
during this Christmas season. Thank you so much for your generosity, Thank you
for your prayers, Thank you for your support. You make it possible.
Remember, as Rick just shared, whatever you give today will be doubled by
the matching grant up to one hundred thousand dollars, but only till midnight,
December thirty first. Anything not matched will be lost, so please contact us
today. You can give right now by going to Pastorick dot com or by
calling eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. We'll say thanks by sending
you the brand new Daily Hope Prayer Journal that's Pastorick dot com or call eight
hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Be sure to join us again 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