Today I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like you were
the wrong person for the job, Like, what did you get yourself into
You didn't have the right experience or the right skill set? Well, I
know I have and you probably have too. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Okay, today we're going
to continue with the series The Manifestation of Your Life Mission. Rick is showing
us that no matter how big the thing is that God is calling us to
do, we don't have to run away from it. We can actually run
toward it. This is such a good message, and I hope you'll invite
a friend to listen along with you as we discover how to embrace God's calling
on our lives and how we can live according to the purpose and plan that
He has for us. All right, let's hear what Rick has to say
as we go into part two of a message called what to Do When You
Get a Second Chance. Circumstances may change me, but they never changed my
mission. I may go through all kinds of breaking situations where I am broken
financially, or I'm broken spiritually, or I'm broken emotionally, or my relationships
are a mess and they're all broken, or my body is broken by a
disease. I can have all kinds of circumstances, and yes they will change
me, but they never change my life mission. Everything you've gone through in
life has changed you. None of it has changed the mission that God made
you for. Before you were born, he decided that you would do.
Nothing has changed that. I said in our last session, there is no
Plan B for your life. I don't care what's happened to you. There's
no Plan B for your life. You're still on Plan A. In fact,
before you were born, when God decided what he wanted you to do
with your life, whether you did it or not is your choice, and
that's a big mistake to not do what you're created to do. But before
you were in board, he decided that He already knew all the stupid things
you do, all the dumb decisions you'd make, all the scinnons you'd commit,
all of the problems you'd face, all of the losses you'd have.
He factored it all in. He factored it all in. Your life.
Mission has not changed from the moment you were conceived in your mother's womb,
and so Jonah's going, Okay, I'm going to get on track, and
I'm going to make my mission my top priority. God has no plan be
remember this verse. I showed it to you last week. The Bible says
in Romans eleven twenty nine. God's gifts. God gives you gifts and his
call. God has called you to do something things with your life. God's
gifts and his call are irrev vocable. No sin you commit can change God's
call or God's gifts in your life. You still have the same gifts and
you still have the same call in your life. Let me show it to
you in the same verse in other translations in the Living Bible, God's gifts
and his call can never be withdrawn. He will never go back on his
promises. That's why when God had a call for Moses, yeah, Moses
went out and murdered guy, it did not change his call. Here's another
verse in Roman's eleven twenty nine and God's Word translations. God never changes his
mind when he gives someone gifts or when he calls some one. So it
is in still full force. So I live with profound gratitude, and I
know I've been given a second chance, and I get on gear, and
I start using my life for what I was supposed to use it for in
the first place. That's second thing. Here's the third thing you do that
Jonah did. Don't delay obey today. Okay, don't delay obey today.
When God gives you a second chance, this is no time for procrastination.
Well, I think I will do what God made me to do, but
I'm gonna have a little bit more fun with my life first. I think
I'm gonna do what God wants me to do. But I've got to make
a bunch of money first, or I've got to get married first, or
I got to get through school first. Or This is not a time to
procrastinate on your life mission. When you're giving a second chance, you go
at it immediately. You don't delay, You obey today. It's time to
get going. In verse three Jonah, Chapter three, here's the third thing
Jonah did this time. Now he gets the second message, go and do
what I told you to do in the first place, Jonah, immediately,
immediately, don't delay. Headed to Nineveh. It's a big city. In
obedience to the word of the Lord. I bet you he ran. I
think when that great fish spit him up on the beach. He probably hit
the ground running, and he's probably Usain Bolt. You know, he's running
all the way to Nineveh, which is five hundred and fifty miles from the
coastline of Israel. It's in inner where Iraq is today. It's up where
near where Mosel is in Iraq, and he probably land. Would you if
God had given you a second chance, like Joan, don't you think you'd
probably say, I'm gonna get with whatever God told me to do in the
first place. I spend enough time going the wrong direction with my life.
Now I'm going to make up for some time. I'm going to go fast
in the right direction. I want you to write this down in your outline.
Delayed obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is just being as any parent knows
this. If a dad tells his son son, I want you to go
take the garbage out right now, and he says, well, I will,
Dad, if I get to it next week. I want you to
go clean up your stuff in the garage. I will in a couple of
days. I need you to come help. Mom says to one of the
kids, I need you to come help wash the dishes, well, I
will in two days. Delayed obedience is disobedience. But God tells you to
do something, expects you to do it now, not later, not to
give him some excuse so you don't delay. You obey today. What has
God told you to do? And you're still dragging your feet? I mean,
you know you're supposed to be doing it, but you're still dragging your
feet. For instance, we know that God wants every one of us to
give some part of our life in sacrificial service where we're not paid to do
it. We're just helping other people out of the goodness of our heart.
We're volunteering to serve. It's called your ministry. And God says I want
everybody and you know that. But you're not volunteering anywhere. You're not You're
all. Your time is based on you, is built on you. There's
there's no place where you're doing something totally unselfish for other people. You know
that God says, I want you to be like me. I want you
to learn to be a servant. I want you to learn to serve.
You know, God says, give the first part of your income back to
me as a sign of your thanks. You don't do it. I know,
and I'm just not doing it. Some of you know, God says,
when you like Jesus, when he's thirty years old, as an adult,
he's baptized, we're not talking about his dedication as a baby. When
Jesus is thirty years old, he goes out and public as an adult,
makes his public profession of faith. Have you done that? Have you done
that as an adult? You know, Jesus said to do it, He
commanded it be baptized like he did. He wouldn't have done it unless he
wanted you to do it. He modeled it as a thirty year old.
Some of you haven't done that yet. What is it that you're putting off
that God tells you to do? You're still dragging your feet. You know,
if you're a businessman, you really need to read the Book of Proverbs
and study it because it has all of the principles for successful business in spades.
It's an unbelievable book. You could build your business multinational corporation on the
principles in God's word in the Book of Proverbs. One of the principles in
the Book of Proverbs says, when you know something's not right. Like in
your business, you fix it immediately. And he says, if you've gotten
into a bad financial commitment, get out of it quickly. You don't procrastinate.
He says, do it now. Let me just show it to you
here on the screen. The Bible says, in Proverbs six three and four,
get out of it as quickly as you possibly can. Swallow your pride,
go and humbly beg to cancel the deal. Don't put it off,
do it now, and don't rest until you do. That's pretty clear.
He saying, you don't procrastinate. If you made a bad financial decision,
get out of it immediately. God's not saying think about it and do it
maybe in a couple of years. He says, get out of it right
now. And he says, if you're wise, you do it. If
you don't do it, it's foolish. But a lot of times God gives
us commands and we go, well, I'll think about that for a while.
No, we need to don't delay obey today. Now here's the fourth
thing that Jonah does. This one takes a little time to explain, but
it's real important. When God gives me another chance, I'm going to live
with profound gratitude. I'm going to make my mission my number one priority.
I'm going to not delay. I'm going to obey today. Number four,
Accept my responsibility to warn others. Accept my responsibility to warn others. Now,
let me explain this. This is not your whole life mission, but
it is part of it. It was certainly part of Jonah's life mission.
And if you are a follower of Christ, there are going to be some
times in your life when you were called on to warn some people out of
love. Jonah, chapter three, verse three. This time Jonah immediately headed
to Nineva in obedience to the word of the Lord. And then in Jonah
the rest of it says, now the city of Nineva Jonah three, three
and four. Now the city of Nineva was so big that it took three
days to walk around it. But after walking a day, Jonah warned the
people circle that word warned again. We're going to come back to that,
Jonah warned the people Ninevah. I've told you this four was the most powerful
and the biggest city in the world at this time. Assyria is the predominant
empire in the known world, and the capital of Assyria is Nineva. It's
a huge city with big boulevards and temples and waters and parks and pools and
all kinds of wide boulevards, and it was a huge, huge city.
It's the biggest city in the world. And as a result, it's very
prideful. And he says, when Jonah gets there, it takes about three
days to walk around it. That's because there were other cities around nineveh kind
of like La is not just one city. It's a metropolitan area of a
lot of other cities, and all of those cities together would take you a
long time to walk around. And he says, I want you to go
and warn them, And it says after a day of walking, Jonah warned
people. Now what is a warning? Because if this is part of your
life mission, then you need to know how to do a warning. A
warning is cautionary advice about a danger, a trap, or a problem.
That's a warning when I give cautionary advice about a danger or a trap,
or a warning or a problem. Now, God built into your body warning
systems, and there are certain things that when your body is not healthy,
you get a fever, your blood pressure goes up. There are all kinds
of signs the doctors take. There are warning signs in your body that things
are out of whack, but we often don't even pay attention to our own
bodies. We don't listen to what God tells us. We don't listen to
what our bodies tell us. We push ourselves too far, too hard,
we don't get enough sleep, and on and on and on. So God
has to bring people in our lives to warn us because we're not smart enough
many times to listen to God's warning or even to listen to the warnings of
our own body, our own conscience. So God has to bring people in
our lives to warn us. You know, as I've traveled all around the
world, I have a hobby. One of my hobbies is collecting stupid warning
signs. I thought this might be an appropriate time to show you some of
my collection, Okay, from around the world, So let me just show
you a few of these. Here's one. There's a warning sign, keep
your hands out of the machinery. Look at that. That looks that's almost
comical, like your fingers are getting smashed. I didn't, I wasn't afraid
of that. I just laughed at it. When I saw it because it
looked like you're getting all smashed up. Here's another one. If the door
does not open, do not enter. That's very good warning. Okay,
that's profound. Here's another one. Caution, be aware that the balcony is
not on the ground floor. Yeah, so if you lean over, you
might fall further than you thought because the balcony is not on the ground floor.
Okay, that's kind of obvious. This is funny. I think I
took this in Australia. It was a trampoline place. Oh no, it's
in England because it's pounds. And then it says warning barbed wire in use.
I mean, who's gonna go on a trampoline that if you jump too
high you run into the barbed wire. Somebody who hates kids, I guess.
All right here I love this one. Big scary laser. Do not
look into beam with remaining eye. Okay, all right, somebody had a
sense of humor. All right, big scary laser. This is in Houston.
No drowning. This is on a sea wall. I'm going, yeah,
okay, I'll make sure that because you told me I won't do it
now. All right, No drowning, I mean make sure. Warning these
peanuts may contain peanuts or peanut byproduct, so eat at your own risk.
Enjoy. I mean really I like this one. No tresspassing violators will be
shot. Survivors will be shot again. All right, Okay, so we're
not always really smart when we get these warning signs. Here's another one.
Oh this, you've seen this on the road to Phoenix State Prison. Next
exit. Do not pick up hitchhikers. I passed out one hundred times when
I used to go to case parents in Phoenix, and so I shot that
picture one day. State prison, next exit. Don't pick up pitchhikers.
All right. Here's another one. This is in Australia. These toilets.
If the towel dispenser is empty, please use your clothes. What what really?
I just got and I said, thank you the management. Yeah,
well thank me, Right, I'm going to go out with well my clothes.
Oh this was a really good one. You may be at risk for
throat cancer if and it has three things. Number two is have a throat
or mouth. Okay, so if you don't have a throat or mouth,
don't worry about this. You will not have throat cancer if you don't have
a throat or a mouth. All right now, Oh, please be safe,
do not stand sid climb or lean on the fences. If you fall,
animals could eat you and that might make them sick. Thank you.
Right, yeah, I got this one. In England, Touching wires causes
instant death. Two hundred dollars fine. As if death is not enough,
I want to scare you with the two hundred dollars fine. Okay, Newcastlen
Oh, this is good. The dog danger. The dog has a gun
and refuses to take his medication. And then this was one of my favorite.
Unattended children will be given an energy drink and taught to swear. So
we have all these warning signs in the world because we're not really good at
paying attention to warnings. And yet God wants us to humbly accept warnings from
other people and humbly and lovingly offer them to people in love. So this
is what the fourth thing that Jonah has to do. After walking a day
into the city of Ninevah, Jonah warned the people. Now, this mission
of warning warning people is a ministry of every follower of Jesus Christ. And
you've probably never been taught this. Okay, warning shows that you love God.
When you warn other people, it also shows that you love other people.
If you knew that a bridge was out and I'm speeding down the country
road at fifty miles an hour and you don't tell me that the bridge is
out, is that loving? No? No, it's actually hateful. It
means you don't love me. If you truly love me, you're going to
tell me, Hey, Rick, the bridge is out at the end of
this road. If I walk up to the cliff and I'm about to fall
off and you go, Rick, you might want to step back a little
bit. The ground is unstable there. That's an act of love. Warning
is an act of love, not an act of arrogance, not an act
of hypocrisy, not an act of superiority, not act of self righteous.
Warning is an act of love. And God doesn't tell Jonah. He doesn't
say, I want you to go move into the city of Nineveh and be
a good example. We'd all like that one. I want you to move
to this wicked city and just be a good example. You don't say anything,
just be a good example. He doesn't tell him that part of Jonah's
life mission is you're gonna go to the city, and you're gonna warn him.
You're gonna warn them. It's part of your Christian responsibility. I actually
looked this up and the New Testament has over one hundred examples and verses on
the ministry or the responsibility of you and me warning other people that we love.
Has anybody ever told you that that that's part of your job of following
Christ is to warn other people, just like Jonah was told by God to
warn Paul in Acts, chapter twenty, verse thirty one says this, for
three years, I never stopped warning each of you night and day. Notice
with tears. Now, why would he warn you with tears? Because he
cares about him. You warn because you care. You warned because you love.
You warn people because you care about them. Now and Jonah chapter three,
verse four, second half, it says this, So Jonah warned the
people. Here's the warning. In forty days, nineve will be destroyed.
Oh that's a great positive message. In forty days, the world the Jenavi
will be destroyed. Is this going to be a welcome message? No?
Is this gonna make Jonah popular? No? Is this how you attract social
media friends? No? Now I want you to notice Jonah gets this all
wrong. Jonah shows no compassion at all. He doesn't have any care for
the people of Ninevah. In fact, he doesn't want to be there.
We already know that he hates these people. He's racially prejudiced against them.
They are the enemy. He's politically on the opposite side of them. And
he's being told to go to his political opponents and tell them and warn them
about God, and he doesn't want to warn them. And when he goes
to the city of Ninevah, he announces that he does the minimum possible.
I mean he announces it in a matter of fact tone. He's as brief
as possible. In fact, a sermon is only seven words. Some of
you would like a seven words sermon, but he only has seven words.
In forty days, Nineveh will be destroyed. That's it. There's no compassion,
there's no love. It's just that's about the minim minimum you can do.
And yet God still used it. He had the wrong motivation. He
had no love Jonah. This is very, very different from the most prophets,
because most prophets when they warned people, they give these passionate speeches and
they're long and they're impassioned, and they're warning and they're pleading, and Jodah
just walks in and say, He goes, you guys are gonna die bye.
That's all he says. He doesn't care two bits about this nation.
Are these people? You guys are gonna die bye? While I go to
the sky. You're gonna fry, you know? And this is very,
very different. Now what is Jonah doing me? Well, it's as if
he's saying to God. There, God, I did it. Okay,
are you happy now? Okay? I didn't want to do this. I
didn't want to go to these people. I don't like these people. But
I told him what you said. He said the minimum, He said it
with no love. He goes, there, are you happy? Now?
He gets it all wrong, and yet still God used him. Now,
why was Jonah so short and so passionless and so unloving in sharing his warning?
Because he knew something that you need to know. I want you to
write this down. When God gives a warning, write this down. When
God gives a warning, it's a good sign. When God gives a warning,
it's not a negative sign. It's a good sign because it means he
wants to give you another chance. If God doesn't want to give you another
chance, he doesn't give you a warning. If God gives you a warning,
it means he's going to cut you some slack and give you another chance.
It's a good sign. People think warnings are negative. They're actually an
example or an illustration or an expression of love, because you're going I'm warning
you, and so you won't go through all this pain, you won't go
through all these problems. Now, I'm not going to ask for confession or
to raise your hand, but I wonder how many of you have been driving
down the street of the freeway one day and you saw a red light in
the back of your window, okay, and you pull over and the officer
comes up and says, man, I see your driver's license. And you're
nervous, and then you fumble around and trying to give an explanation why you're
going ninety miles an hour or whatever. And you get this explanation, and
then you hear the sweetest words when the officer said, well, today,
I'm just going to give you a warning. When somebody says I'm going to
just give you, are you happy or sad? You're happy? Why?
Because you're not going to be judged. You're not going to jail, you're
not paying the fine, you don't get the ticket. The warning is actually
good news. I'm just gonna let you off with a warning. And when
God says to Janah, I want you to go in and warn them that
I'm about to destroy the city, he said, I really don't want to
destroy the city. If he wanted to, he wouldn't warn him. Does
this make sense. It's a good positive thing because when I'm happy when I
get a warning, it means I'm not going to pay the fine, I'm
not gonna serve the time, I'm not gonna whatever, because it's just a
warning. Thank you for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know,
I know that you would love to live a life of significance. But have
you ever wondered if you could make a contribution so unique that no one else
in all the world could do what you've accomplished. Well, you need to
stop one because God created you to make a difference in the world. He
created you to fulfill a mission that only you can accomplish. I know you
may be thinking that God couldn't use you like that, but you know what
he can and not only can he, but he will. It really doesn't
matter what you've done or what you've failed to do. It doesn't matter how
young or how old you are. It is never too early or too late
to start on the mission that God has planned for you. And that's why
I'm so excited to let you know about a brand new Bible study from Pastor
Rick called Rising to God's Call, a Journey through Jonah. In this study,
Rick is going to show you how God had an incredible mission for Jonah
and it went well beyond being swallowed by a big fish. Jonah's story is
really about second chances and redemption and the rescue of an entire nation. And
more importantly, it's the story of God, the one who shows grace to
everyone he created. You know, the story of Jonah is really like a
blueprint from God. It shows all of us how He can use you to
do significant things no matter where you are in life right now. And just
like Jonah, you're going to find that pursuing God's mission for your life is
the greatest adventure that you will ever go on. And we're going to send
you Pastor Rick's brand new Bible study, Rising to God's call a journey through
Jonah to say thank you for your gift to Daily Hope because it helps us
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