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. In just a few moments,
we're going to tell you how to get a hardcover copy of Pastor Rick's
wonderful book, The Purpose of Christmas, just in time for the season.
Go to pastor Rick dot com to find out more, or text the word
daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com,
or the word daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.
Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part three of a message called Choose
your Future. See, you can't blame anybody else for the direction of your
life. If it sucks, it's because you're letting it suck. Now,
let me be real clear. We are products of our past, but we
are not prisoners of our past. Yes, your past has influenced you,
but it doesn't control you. Other people can hurt you, and they will.
I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. Other people can hurt you, they
can harm you, and other people can scar you, but nobody can ruin
your life except you. They don't have the power to ruin it because you
have the power of choice. They can harm you, they can hurt you,
they can scar you, but they cannot ruin you unless you allow them
to do. You accept responsibility and say I'm gonna choose short term pain for
long term gain. Now, let me just say to I know we've got
a young students in our services today, so let me just tell you this.
You're going to have pain in life either now or later. And you
can either do the easy thing now, easy life now, hard life later,
hard life now, easy life later. In other words, if I
do the hard thing right now, and I put in the effort and the
discipline to learn, to grow, to become strong, to mature, and
I do the hard things now later in life, I get to benefit from
all of that. I right now am benefiting from decisions I made in my
twenties. And I'm benefiting from those financial decisions that I made in my twenties
to not spend more than I made to save, to tithe to honor God
all of the I'm benefiting from that many years later because I was disciplined.
I did the hard thing first. Now, if you're a teenager and you
do the easy thing first, you're gonna do the hard thing later. My
life will be hard. The rest of your life. You can goof off
in school and you not learn, and you cannot grow, and you not
accept responsibility, not grow up, and then the rest of your life it
will be hard. So it's either going to be pain now or later.
I suggest you get the pain out of the way early. There are a
couple promises from God about pain there on your outline. First thing God says
is even the pain you go through Number one, it's going to help you
grow. Romans five, we can have joy even in our troubles because we
know that these troubles produce patients, and patience produces character, and character produces
hope. So I even know when I'm going through the short term pain,
it's producing character in my life. And the second thing I know God promises
is He's going to reward me for the pain I go through in heaven next
verse. Yet, these present troubles that we're going through are quite small,
and they won't last very long. I mean, even if they lasted my
entire life, that's only nine years compared to trillions of years in heaven.
Yet they produce problems, are productive. They produce for us an immeasurably great
glory that will circle this last forever. We're gonna have eternity to celebrate short
term pain for long term gain. Because God's more interested in your character than
your comfort. Why are am I going through all these problems. God's more
interested in your character than your comfort, and there's long term gain for the
short term pain. The verse after that, when we just read, is
verse eighteen. Look up here on the screen, Paul says, So we
fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
What is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. The problems
that I'm looking at right now in my life, I have seen you on
my problems, financial problems, relational problems, physical problems, emotional problems,
mental problems. I see those problems. But then I gonna last. What's
gonna last is the character I developed from going through them. What's gonna last
is my trust in God that I'm going through. What's gonna last is the
reward I get for putting my faith in Christ when I'm going through the problems.
So what do I do. The first thing I do is I say,
I am going to refuse to define, let myself be defined by other
people. And second, I'm gonna choose short term gain for long term short
term pain for long term gain. That's what Moses did. Third thing Moses
did, third life shaping resolution. I choose God's values, not the world's.
I choose God's values for my life, not the world's values. This
is what Moses did, and this is why God used him. Hebrews eleven,
verse twenty six. The next verse Moses regarded. Now that word regarded
means to evaluate. It means to consider, It means to way in the
balance. He's making a value judgment. He's clarifying what matters most. Moses
regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ. In other words, I'm gonna be
treated like a slave. He regarded being disgraced for sake of Christ as of
greater value. That's a value judgment than the treasure of Egypt. He would
have inherited all the treasure of Egypt as Pharaoh's grandson, because he was why
looking ahead to his reward long term gain. I'm not gonna have short term
gain. I'm gonna have long term gain. Okay, he's making a valuate.
He clarifies what matters most. Let me ask you this question. What
matters most in your life? What are the top three four five values in
your life? Can you name him? Just like that? Bam bam bam,
bam bam. What are the most important values in your life? If
you ask me, I would tell you real simply integrity, humility, generosity.
Because they decided over thirty years ago that's what I wanted to build my
life on. Integrity, humility, generosity. I'm not there, but that's
what I want to build my life on. Integrity, humility, generosity,
because are the antidotes of the three traps of leadership. Can you just name
the three most important values in your life right now? If you can't,
you certainly can't live by them. You're not living your values if you can't
even name them. So you need to go home, and before you go
one more day into this year, you need to sit down and say what's
most important to me? What are the top values in my life, and
you need to write them out. Until you clarify them, you can't live
by them. Moses chose God's values over the world's values. And why is
this so important? I'll tell you why. Here's a little secret. If
you don't decide what's important in your life, other people are going to decide
it for you, and they're going to push you into their mold, and
you're going to live their values, not yours. You got to decide what's
important to me and then live by those values, not live by other people's
values. No, Moses said, I'm not going to live by the world's
values. What are the world's values? Whether the same ones that the world
is valued throughout history? Every single advertisement is built on one of the three
values of the world passion, possession, position or sex, salary and status
or less of the flesh, less of the iyesh, pride to life.
They haven't changed in thousands of thousands of years. We see them in these
three verses. In verse twenty four, we see the world values popularity,
power, and prestige. In verse twenty five, we see the world values
pleasures the pleasure of sin. In verse twenty six, we values possessions,
the Treasures of Egypt. Moses walks away from the very thing we spend our
entire lives trying to get. We want the world's treasure, we want the
world's pleasure, and we want the world's measure of success. Moses walked away
from a all what we just say. I want to look good, I
want to feel good, and I want to have the goods. I want
to be famous, I want to be rich, and I want to have
fun. That's the world's value system, pleasure, passion, position, popularity,
possessions. It's ironic by moses standards. He had it made in the
Pharaoh's house, he would have all of these things. There would be nobody
else wealthier in the world, nobody else more important. And he walks away
from what we call the American dream. He walks away from what most people
spend their entire lives trying to get. Why because he knew it wouldn't last.
The Bible says this on the screen first John, chapter two. The
world and everything that is in it that people desire is passing away. But
those who do the will of God live forever. That's long term gain.
So the wise way to live is to live not by the world's value system,
but by God's value system? What does God value? You're listening to
Pastor Rick's Daily Hope rip will be back in just a moment with the rest
of today's lesson. If you've missed any part of today's teaching, you can
listen online anytime at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com. What the
True Reason for the season? Fill your heart with hope this year when you
discover Pastor Rick's inspirational book The Purpose of Christmas. In it, Rick shows
you how Christmas is designed to meet your three deepest needs and out receiving the
three Christmas gifts God has for you will transform your life forever. This book
is sure to become a loved family favorite, to be read at every and
to be shared with your friends who may not know how much God loves them.
We'll send you the inspiring and beautifully illustrated book The Purpose of Christmas as
our way of saying thanks when you give a gift to help daily hope take
the Certain Hope of Jesus to people around the world. To get your copy
of this great resource, just call eight hundred six hundred five zero zero four
or go to pastor Rick dot com to get yours. That's eight hundred and
six hundred five zero zero four or Pastorick dot com. There's only three days
left to get the Purpose of Christmas book. So don't wait. You're listening
to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again. Here's Pastor Rick Warren. I want
to be famous, I want to be rich, and I want to have
fun. That's the world's value system. Pleasure, passion, position, popularity,
possessions. It's ironic by Moses' standards. He had it made in the
Pharaoh's house, he would have all of these things. There would be nobody
else wealthier in the world, nobody else more important. And he walks away
from what we call the American dream. He walks away from what most people
spend their entire lives trying to get why, because he knew it wouldn't last.
The Bible says this on the screen first John, chapter two. The
world and everything that is in it that people desire is passing away. But
those who do the will of God live forever. That's long term gain.
So the wise way to live is to live not by the world's value system,
but by God's value system. What does God value. Well, these
verses of Moses tell us the three things God values. You might write them
down. Number one, Godd's purpose is more valuable than popularity. God's purpose.
Doing God's purpose for your life is far more important for your life than
being popular. Now, as Pharaoh's grandson, Moses is heir to the throne.
He's a celebrity, he's a young playboy, he's the it guy,
and he's famous. He's Pharaoh's grandson. Now, let me tell you,
as somebody who has had an experience with just a little bit of fame,
fame does it last? And fame is worthless. Never invest one second of
your life trying to be famous, because it doesn't last. Does anybody remember
who was on the cover of People magazine two weeks ago? No, because
that's how quick. One minute you're the hero and the next minute you're the
zero. Do you remember when you were in high school how important it was
for you to be popular. Do any of those people actually even care about
you today? Doubtful. In fact, when you were on campus, you
were trying to be the big man on campus, or the beauty queen or
whoever you wanted to just be with the in crowd and you wanted to be
popular, you could graduate from that high school, go back two years later,
walk on the camps name campus, and people go and who are you?
That's how long it lasted. And you're trying to win the favor of
people who don't even care about you. So never waste your time on popularity,
on trying to be famous, because God's purpose. Doing God's purpose for
your life is far more important than being popular. Number two, people are
more valuable than pleasure. That's the second thing. Moses decides that freeing those
slaves was far more important than living a life of luxury in Pharaoh's palace twenty
five, and he trades a royal lifestyle in order to help the neediest of
the needy slaves. This is why we're doing the Peace Plan, to help
people around the world, who are in poverty, who have disease, who
have a literacy, who are under oppression, who have aids orphans. You
can't get more vulnerable than that. And the first ten years of the Peace
Plan, we said we're going to go to every nation, and we did
that. And now the second over seventeen thousand of you, you went out
and it was at personal expense to go help somebody else, and you valued
you valued people more than pleasure. The money you spent to go on a
peace plan. You could have bought a widescreen TV with that, but you
didn't. God took note of that. You valued people over pleasure and the
things you could have done with that money just for pleasure. You help people.
And now in this next ten years, we're going to the remainings,
now down to about three thousand tribes who have no christian no church, and
no Bible. And they're all small tribes around the world, and we're gonna
go and we're gonna take the Peace Plan to them, and many of you
will go, and you're gonna sacrifice pleasure in order to go because these tribes
when you get there, Hey tell you this, there's no Rich Carlton,
there are montage, they're not even a holiday inn where these tribes are.
And people go, Why would you sacrifice money you could spend on your personal
pleasure to go help somebody in some tribe in some distant country. Because people
matter more than pleasure, and God's purpose is more valuable than popularity. Number
three, peace of mind is more valuable than possessions. You could have a
house stuffed full of possessions. And if there's antagonists and anger and disappointment and
discouragement in the house, peace of mind is far more valuable than possessions.
And where do you get peace of mind from doing the will of God?
You know, advertisements lie. Advertisements tell you that you can buy peace of
mind. You can't. You can't. You know why people buy things because
it gives temporary happiness when you when you buy a new car, or you
buy an iPad, or you get you get a new video game or something
like that. You love that and you feel happy for a while, but
after a while it wears off. Why Because people change and things don't,
and so we get bored with things that don't change. That's why you have
to redecorate, because that piece of art you just thought was so cool and
so beautiful and brought you so much pleasure, and five years later on e
can we do something else with this? Why? Because they possessions don't give
ultimate pleasure, and they certainly can't give you peace of mind. You can't
buy it. Peace of mind comes from doing the will of God. Now
again, Moses gave up what everybody else spends their life, trying to get
success, fame, power, money, in order to do God's will because
people are more valuable than pleasure, and peace of mind's more valuable than possessions,
and God's purpose is more valuable than popularity. And I'm going to do
short term pain for long term gain. Why the Bible says there he was
looking ahead to his reward. Wants you to write this down. Vision sets
values, vision sets values. What you're looking at will determine what you value.
And if you keep your eyes on Jesus, that's what you're going to
value. If you keep your eyes in the catalog, that's what you're gonna
value. Now there's a fourth life shaping choice that Moses made. It's a
fourth and it is this number four. I choose to live by faith rather
than by fear. I choose to live by faith, not by fear.
If you will make this resolution and you'll keep it, it will change your
life dramatically for the rest of your life. You stop living in fear and
you start living in faith Verse twenty seven. By faith, Moses left Egypt,
in other words, with all of the slaves not fearing the king's anger.
That's favors angery. Circle, faith and circle. Not fearing. You're
gonna live by one or the other. You're gonna live by faith in life,
You're gonna live by fear in life by faith. Moses left Egypt not
fearing the king's anger. He persevered because he saw him who is invisible as
Christ. Now Moses goes to the most powerful man in the world, and
he says, you know these slaves that are building all your pyramids, I'm
taking them and we're all leaving. We're packing up and we're leaving, and
you're not going to have slave labor anymore, letting my people go. Now,
Moses had every reason to be afraid because he's going up against the most
powerful man on the planet. At this point. Pharaoh's Egyptian empire is the
most powerful empire on the planet at this point. Pharaoh in those days was
considered a god. And whatever Pharaoh said, you had to do. If
Pharaoh said cut your right arm off, you had to cut your right arm
off. If Pharaoh said murder your wife, you had to murder your wife.
If Pharaoh said you got to drown your children, you had to drown
your children. What he said was the law. And Moses comes and says,
We're not going to do that anymore. I'm going to choose to live
by faith, not by fear. We're leaving, We're out of here.
Goodbye, and Pharaoh goes you and who else? And Moses, I'm not
afraid of you because I report to a higher authority. And the closer you
get to God, the less fear you're going to have in your life.
The more further you get away from God, the more you're going to be
filled with fear. The closer you get to God, the more you're going
to be filled with faith. I cannot overemphasize the importance of faith for the
rest of your life. The Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin.
This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so thankful that you've chosen to
spend some time with us today. If you've missed any part of this broadcast,
including portions we didn't have time for, just go to pastorrick dot com
and listen online anytime. Rick will be right back to close out our time
today. But first, let the true reason for the season fill your heart
with hope this year. When you discover Pastor Rick's inspirational book, The Purpose
of Christmas. In it, Rick shows you how Christmas is designed to meet
your three deepest needs and how receiving the three Christmas gifts God has for you
will transform your life forever. Right now, here's Pastor Rick to tell you
more. Have you noticed that people are more open to talking about Jesus at
Christmas than at any other time of the year, regardless of their religious background,
or their problems or the circumstances. Everybody needs to know that Jesus loves
them, that Christmas means that God has a plan for their life, and
that God is with us. So this Christmas season, I want to encourage
you to share the story of Christmas with your family, your friends, and
your neighbors. Now. One of the ways you can do this is through
a little book I wrote called The Purpose of Christmas. It explains the true
meaning of Christmas and the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. And when
you give somebody a copy of The Purpose Christmas, it's going to start a
conversation with them about Jesus and about the purpose of his love and the purpose
for their lives. You can invite them to a Christmas Eve service at your
church this month. I'd like to send you a copy of this book,
The Purpose of Christmas. You can read it, you can pass it on
to friend who needs to know the true meaning. Just partner with us at
Daily Hope and let us partner with you in reaching your friends and family for
Christ. By the way, write to me Rick atpastorick dot com and let
me know who you're praying for, who you want to come to Christ this
Christmas, who you're inviting to church. I'd love to pray with you about
that. God bless you. This book is sure to become a beloved family
favorite, to be read every Christmas and to be shared with your friends who
may not know how much God loves them. We'll send you a hardcover copy
of the inspiring and beautifully illustrated book The Purpose of Christmas as our way of
saying thanks when you give a gift to help Daily Hope take the certain Hope
of Jesus to people around the world. To get your copy of this great
resource, just call eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four or go to
Pastorick dot com to get yours. That's eight hundred six hundred five thousand and
four or Pastorick dot com There's only three days left to get this great resource,
so don't wait. 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.