WEBVTT

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Pastor Rick Warren often says, you
were made by God and for God,

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and until you understand that, life
will never make sense. Welcome to Pastor

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Rick's Daily Hope. Today we begin
a series called God's Vision for the Rest

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of your Life. In it,
Rick is going to help you to discover

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the unique purpose and vision that the
Lord has for your life. In just

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a few moments, we're going to
tell you how to get a hardcover copy

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of Pastor Rick's wonderful book, The
Purpose of Christmas, just in time for

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the season. Go to Pastorrick dot
com to find out more, or text

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the word daily to eight hundred six
hundred five thousand and four. That's Pastorick

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dot com, or the word daily
to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and

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four. Right now, here's Pastor
Rick Warren with part one of a message

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called Choosing your Future. One of
the greatest gifts that God has given you

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is the freedom to choose. It's
what makes us different from animals. You

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have a free moral choice. Now, the problem is, what is our

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greatest gift is also our greatest curse. Because we make stupid choices a lot

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of time. We make dumb choices
every choice I make is not a good

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one, and neither is yours,
and so we often waste that power that

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God has given us. Now,
every year, in January, people make

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new choices, which they call New
Year's resolutions. The problem with New Year's

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resolutions is we usually make them about
trivial issues, not the most important things

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in life, and then we try
to accomplish them by willpower. And if

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you set some New Year's resolutions,
you try to accomplish them. Why willpower

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I give you to about the end
of February, Because willpower doesn't last.

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It's good to get you started,
but it doesn't last, and pretty soon

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you get tired and you give up
and you stop that habit, that commitment,

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that new thing you're trying to do. You need more than simply willpower.

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We're going to talk about that today. Now there in your outline,

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you know, it's the word to
resolve. The verb resolve means to decide,

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It means to settle, to determine, to purpose. You have a

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purpose for your life, And the
word resolution, like a New Year's resolution,

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means a firm determination to do something. What I want us to do

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this weekend is look at the four
most important resolutions you can make in your

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life. These are life shaping resolutions. Well, I'm going to share with

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you today. If you will make
these four resolutions and depend on God to

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help you, your life will radically
improve, not just this next year,

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but the rest of your life.
The rest of your life will become the

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best of your life. These four
resolutions will transform you. They will make

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your life so much better if you'll
focus on these and they come to us

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from the life of Moses. Now, Moses is the greatest man in the

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Bible, or at least the greatest
man in the Old Testament. Moses is

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the guy who led the Jews after
four hundred years of slavery to freedom.

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He challenged the greatest nation in the
world at that time, Egypt and Pharaoh,

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and set a million people free.
Moses is the guy that God gave

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the Ten Commandments to. Moses is
the guy who wrote the first five books

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of the Bible Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Why did

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God use this guy in such an
amazing way Because Moses made four resolutions.

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He made four choices that altered his
destiny. You see, these are the

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things that change your life. What
happens to you in life is not nearly

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as important as the choices you make. We make our choices, and then

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our choices make us. Your character
is the sum total of your choices.

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So while you don't control all the
circumstances in your life, you do control

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your choices, and these are far
more important than circumstances. Now in Hebrews

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chapter eleven, if you have a
Bible, you might want to open there.

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All of the verses are on your
outline. We have about five verses

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on the life of Moses that explains
the choices he made. The first verse

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is about the choices parents made when
he was a baby, and then the

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next four verses are about the choices
that Moses made. And if you will

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make these same choices, you will
benefit dramatically for the rest of your life.

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Now you know the story of Moses. Pharaoh had decided that the Jews

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were getting too large in number in
population in each so he made a decree

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that all the baby boys were to
be murdered. Moses' parents decided, we're

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not going to do that. We
believe this is a special child. We

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believe God has a plan and purpose
for his life, and so rather than

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murdering their baby boy, they made
a basket, put him in the Nile

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River as a baby, and shoved
him out in the nile nearby where Pharaoh's

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daughter was bathing. Pharaoh's daughter sees
the baby in the basket, falls in

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love with this little baby. It
decides to take him home and adopt him

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as her son. So now this
baby slave becomes the grandson of Pharaoh.

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But nobody doesn't. Nobody knows except
Pharaoh's daughter that he's actually a Jewish kid.

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Now the Bible says this here on
the screen Hebrews chapter eleven. By

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faith, Moses' parents hit him for
three months after he was born because they

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saw he was no ordinary child,
and they were not afraid of the king's

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edict. That's Pharaoh's command to kill
all the baby boys. By faith,

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Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son

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of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose instead
to be known to He chose instead to

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be mistreated along with the people of
God it's the slaves, rather than to

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enjoy the pleasures of sin. For
a short time, he regarded disgrace,

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in other words, being a slave
for the sake of Christ as of greater

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value than all the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his

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reward in Heaven. By faith,
he left Egypt, leading the Jews out

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to freedom. Not fearing the king's
anger. Pharaoh's anger, he persevered because

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he saw Him who is invisible.
In this passage, there are four verbs.

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It says Moses by faith, Moses
refused, Moses chose, Moses regarded,

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and Moses persevered. When you understand
the meaning of these four verbs and

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their implication for your life today thousands
of years later, it'll change your life.

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You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be back in just

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a moment with the rest of today's
lesson. If you've missed any part of

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today's teaching, you can listen online
anytime at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick

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dot com. What the True Reason
for the Season? Fill your heart with

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hope this year when you discover Pastor
Rick's inspirational book The Purpose of Christmas.

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In it, Rick shows you how
Christmas is designed to meet your three deepest

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needs and out receiving the three Christmas
gifts God has for you will transform your

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life forever. This book is sure
to become a loved family favorite, to

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be read at every Christmas, and
to be shared with your friends who may

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not know how much God loves them. We'll send you the inspiring and beautifully

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illustrated book The Purpose of Christmas as
our way of saying thanks when you give

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a gift to help Daily Hope take
the Certain Hope of Jesus to people around

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the world. To get your copy
of this great resource, just call eight

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hundred six hundred five zero zero four
or go to pastorick dot com to get

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yours. That's eight hundred and six
hundred five zero zero four or pastorick dot

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com. You're listening to Pastor Rick's
Daily Hope once again. Here's Pastor Rick

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Warren. Now let's look at these
four life shaping choices, resolutions that will

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flat out improve your life more than
anything else if you'll do what Moses did.

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Here's the first resolution, Number one. I refuse to be defined by

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others. I refuse to be defined
by others. God did not make you

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to be what somebody else wants you
to be. God didn't make you to

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be what your parents want you to
be. What's your girlfriend or boyfriend wants

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you to be what's your wife wants
you to be. God didn't make you

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to be what your boss wants you
to be, what your peers want you

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to be. God made you to
be you. And if you're going to

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become all that you're going to be
and what we're going to talk about the

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next six weeks, you're gonna have
to deal with this one. I refuse

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to be defined by others. Now, this is the first issue Moses had

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to deal with Verse twenty four Hebrews
eleven. By faith Moses, when he

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had grown up, and this is
a market maturity, refuse to be known

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as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Now Moses has an identity crisis. As

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I just explained to you earlier.
He's born Hebrew slave, but he's raised

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Egyptian royalty, the grandson of Pharaoh. And as he grows up, he's

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got to decide who am I?
I mean, really, who am I?

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It's going to affect the rest of
his life. He's got two choices.

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One he can pretend to be Pharaoh's
grandson for the rest of his life,

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and he can live a life of
luxury. He'll have fame, he'll

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have fortune, he'll have all the
pleasures he could possibly want in the world.

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He'll be a celebrity, he'll have
power, he'll have prestige, he'll

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have status, and one day he'll
be the most powerful man on the planet

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as Pharaoh of Egypt in its heyday. Or he can admit who he really

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is he's Jewish. At that point, they're going to kick him out.

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He's going to go live with the
slaves the rest of his life. He's

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going to be disgraced, He's going
to be humiliated. He's going to live

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a life of pain and sorrow and
drudgery the rest of his life. Now,

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which one would you do? I
mean, when you think about that,

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Moses refused to live a lie.
He's a man of integrity. Most

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people are living lies today. They're
trying to be people they're not. You're

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trying to impress people about things that
really just aren't true in your life,

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and that causes enormous tension in your
life. He insisted on being who God

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made him to be against all kinds
of peer pressure. Now here's my first

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question for you. Who are you
letting determine your identity? Your friends,

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your parents, your family. Some
of you have parents, they died years

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ago. You still hear their voices
in your mind. You're trying to live

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up to their vision for your life. Some of you're trying to live out

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what some ex husband or wife said
to you, and you're trying to prove

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them wrong. You're letting them control
your life. Some of you're trying to

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impress people. You're living a life
of culture. Keep up with the joneses,

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impress people social media, the what
culture says, your spouse says,

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what the competition says. Let me
show you some verses from the Bible,

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Romans, chapter twelve. Don't let
the world around you squeeze you into its

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own mold, but let God remold
your mind from within, so that you

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may prove in practice that the plan
of God for you is good. You

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might circle that the plan of God
for you is good, but you don't

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know the plan of God. We
can't cover it in the next six weeks

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if you don't deal with this where
you say, I'm going to refuse to

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let the world squeeze me in it. I'm not going to let other people

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define me. Look up here on
the screen, the Bible says in Exodus

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twenty three to two don't follow the
crowd in doing wrong. In other words,

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don't let peer pressure push you into
things you don't want to do,

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because they don't really like you anyway. Those people you're trying and impress,

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they don't really care about you anyway. The Bible says this, Our purpose

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is to please God, not people. He is the one who examines the

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motives of our hearts. And Jesus
said this about his disciples John seventeen.

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They are no more defined by the
world than I am defined by the world.

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Can you say that about you?
No, you can't, because you've

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been defined by the people in your
life. You see, this is so

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important that we can't deal with anything
else. Do you deal with this one?

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Because when you know who you are, it sets you free from the

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fear of disapproval, and most people
are scared to death of criticism and rejection

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and disapproval. It's so important I
wrote a new chapter on it in The

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New Purpose Driven Life, because it's
one of the two things. Envy says

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I must be like you to be
happy, and people pleasing says I must

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be liked by you to be happy. Both of them are wrong, and

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both of them will keep you from
fulfilling the life God intended for you to

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live. You have to say,
I'm going to resolve that I will refuse

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to be defined by other people,
and I'm not going to let other people's

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approval or disapproval shape my life.
I'm going to live for an audience of

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one. This is what Moses did, and your first life shaping resolution is

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to say this. I resolved that
no more will I let other people press

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me into their mold. I'm going
to be what God wants me to be.

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I'm going to do what God wants
me to do, and I'm going

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to fulfill the plan that God has
for my life, not somebody else's plan

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for my life. Why, because
you can trust God. The Bible says

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this Jeremiah twenty nine on the screen. I know the plans I have for

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you, says the Lord. They
are plans for good and not for disaster.

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Plans to give you a future and
a hope. Now, friends,

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that is real success, real success, not phony, fake artificial success.

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Real success in life is being exactly
what you were created to be and nothing

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more than that. I want you
as your pastor. I want you to

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succeed in the rest of your life. But the only way you're going to

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do that is to be who God
made you to be, not what other

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people are pressuring you to be,
not what they want you to be,

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being who God wants you to be. I refuse to be defined by others.

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Second, the second resolution that you
need to make in life to be

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all that God wants you to be. A life shaping choice is this,

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I choose short term pain for long
term gain. I choose short term pain

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for long term gain. Now,
anybody who's ever played a sports knows this

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one. You've got to put out
the effort. You've got to practice,

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you've got to work hard, you've
got to put out some sweat in order

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to play in the championship game.
You just don't walk out and win the

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championship. No pain, no gain. You got to put out to get

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back. If you're going to be
good at anything, you've got to put

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out short term pain for long term
gain. That's not just true in sports,

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it's true in finances. It's true
in relationships. I have a good

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marriage, but I worked at it
can and I have worked at it hard

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for years. It didn't come easy. Nobody just has an easy relationship.

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You got to work at it to
make your marriage work. It takes work

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to make it work. We put
out short term pain for a long term

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gain. Am I grateful for the
marriage I've got? That? Are you

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kidding me? I'd pay a million
bucks. It's incalculable what my marriage is

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worth to me. But it wasn't
always that way. We had to put

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out short term pain for long term
gain. Why is this resolution important in

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your life? Because most of the
problems in your life come from your inability

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to delay gratification. Everything in society
teaches us I want everything and I want

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it now, and I want it
free and I want it easy. Well,

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life isn't that way. So every
problem in your life comes from your

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inability to put off the pleasure in
order to get it a longer amount of

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it later on. I want it
now, I want it free, and

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I want it easy. The reason
you're in debt is because of your inability

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to delay gratifications. That's why you're
in debt, because you say, I

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see it and I want it now. Do I have the money for it?

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No? Can I afford it No? So I'm going to charge it

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and I'm going to put it on
a credit card. Every time you use

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a credit card to buy something you
can't afford, you are refusing to delay

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gratification, and you get deeper and
deeper in debt. And the reason America

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is falling off a fiscal cliff is
because our government doesn't know how to delay

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gratification. We want it all,
and we want it all now, even

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though we can't pay for it.
This is true physically in your health.

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I don't want to pay for a
good health with exercise and proper diet and

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getting the right amount of sleep.
I just want to do whatever I want

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to do and feel good. It
isn't going to happen. You're going to

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feel bad if you don't do the
pain to get the gain. It's true

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in relationships when people go and say, you know, I don't want to

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follow what God says about sex.
I want to have sex now. I'm

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not married, but I want to
have sex now. It causes problems in

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relationships because when you have sex with
somebody, you give part of your heart

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to them. There's an emotional attachment
and you give keep giving part of yourself

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away. It causes spiritual problems.
Would you agree with me that usually the

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right thing to do? Is not
the easy thing to do. Everybody agree

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with that the easy thing to do
is typically the wrong thing to do.

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This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
We're so thankful that you've chosen to spend

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some time with us today. If
you've missed any part of this broadcast,

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00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:40.359
including portions we didn't have time for, just go to pastorick dot com and

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00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:44.640
listen online. Anytime. Rick will
be right back to close out our time

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today. But first, let the
true reason for the season fill your heart

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with hope this year when you discover
Pastor Rick's inspirational book, The Purpose of

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00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:59.920
Christmas. In it, Rick shows
you how Christmas is designed to meet you

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00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.680
your three deepest needs and how receiving
the three Christmas gifts God has for you

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00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:11.599
will transform your life forever. This
book is sure to become a beloved family

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00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:15.240
favorite, to be read every Christmas
and to be shared with your friends who

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00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:21.279
may not know how much God loves
them. We'll send you a hardcover copy

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00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:26.400
of the inspiring and beautifully illustrated book
The Purpose of Christmas as our way of

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00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:30.119
saying thanks. When you give a
gift to help daily Hope, take the

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00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:36.079
certain hope of Jesus to people around
the world. To get your copy of

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00:20:36.119 --> 00:20:41.119
this great resource, just call eight
hundred six hundred five thousand and four or

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00:20:41.240 --> 00:20:47.759
go to Pastorick dot com to get
yours. That's eight hundred six hundred five

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00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:52.440
thousand and four or Pastorick dot com. Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from

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one of our listeners today. I
want to share with you a note that

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I recently received from Mariam, a
former Muslim who came to faith in Jesus

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after listening to Daily Hope. Now
we're not musing Miriam's real name on the

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air, because she lives in a
country that's actually closed to Christianity, but

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here's what she wrote. Good morning, Pastor Rick. I was born and

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raised in a Muslim family, and
I've been brought up believing and practicing in

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the Islamic faith. I want to
tell you my journey to accepting Christ and

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how listening to Daily Hope has affected
my life. Last September, I met

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a new friend. Our friendship grew
quickly and surprisingly, and I would always

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feel safe and secure and peaceful around
him, and he would always challenge me

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with some questions about my faith that
I couldn't answer. I was going through

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some rough times in life, and
for the very first time in my life,

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my new friend prayed for me.
After he prayed, tears streamed into

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my eyes, causing me to see
a very bright light even though my eyes

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were closed. I started having doubts
about my Islamic faith and doing my own

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research. With his help, he
asked me to listen to Daily Hope and

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it was so meaningful to me that
I decided to describe on my own.

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Ever since then, I have not
missed a single broadcast of Daily Hope,

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Pastor Rick. I want to thank
you for giving me the opportunity to know

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Christ better on a daily basis through
your broadcast. I now know what love

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is, that it brings people closer
and connects us to Jesus. And I'm

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truly honored and thankful to my new
friend for bringing the light into my life

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and the Holy Spirit. And I'm
proud to say that I devote my life

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now to Jesus Christ in his Holy
Name and in His Spirit. And I'm

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going to continue to enjoy and be
moved by your daily inspiration through the Daily

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Hope broadcast, Pastor Rick. My
family doesn't know about any of this which

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truly scares me at times. But
one day I hope Christ will give me

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the strength and the courage to confess
my faith to them and encourage them to

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accept the truth too. Thank you
for your time, Pastor Rick, and

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for helping me become a better Christian
every single day. Regards Mariam, you

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know, wow, Mariam, I'm
so encouraged to know that you have become

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a follower of Jesus Christ. That
makes you my sister and the Lord,

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and I want to thank you so
much for writing to me and sharing your

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story. I'm so encouraged by your
note, and thank you for letting me

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share it with literally millions of other
people around the world. Helping people find

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a relationship with Jesus is what keeps
me going. It's why we do this

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broadcast Daily Hope. And let me
say to those of you who are listening

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right now, did you notice that
a new friend of Miriam's listened to her

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and prayed for her and then shared
the Daily Hope broadcast with her? Have

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you done that with anybody? Have
you shared this broadcast with anybody who's not

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a believer. I want to encourage
each of you to notice the people that

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God places in your life and take
some time to learn their story, and

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then don't be afraid to pray with
them, and then share this Daily Hope

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00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:03.720
broadcast with them and encourage them to
listen to it. You could end up

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making a friend for eternity. And
if this broadcast has helped you grow closer

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00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:11.799
to the Lord, would you let
me know about it? Write to me

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00:24:11.960 --> 00:24:17.519
Rick at Pastorick dot com and tell
me your story so that I could share

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00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:22.839
some of these stories online with other
people who are partners with us in taking

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the good news of hope to everybody. If you'd like to let Rick know

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how this broadcast has blessed you,
you can write him at Rick at Pastorrick

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00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:36.480
dot com. That's Rick at pastor
rick dot com. Be sure to join

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00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:41.640
us again next time as we look
into God's word for our daily hope.

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This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's
Daily Hope and your generous financial support