Speaker 1: Now, it's really interesting. As little kids, we often want
Speaker 1: to become things. Well, let me just ask you.
Speaker 2: How many of.
Speaker 1: You, when you were a kid you wanted to be
Speaker 1: a fireman, a policeman, or an astronaut? Can I say
Speaker 1: your hands? Yeah, that's that's one of the most How
Speaker 1: many of you wanted to be a nurse when you're
Speaker 1: growing up?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: How many of you wanted to be Barbie?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Here's the more likely question.
Speaker 1: How many of you did not become what you thought
Speaker 1: you would become when you were eight years old? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's universal, pretty universal. But the Bible says God created
Speaker 1: you not just to be loved and not just to belong.
Speaker 1: But the third calling in life is you are called
Speaker 1: to become. Now, what is a calling? We said, that's
Speaker 1: the same thing as a purpose. God has five purposes
Speaker 1: for your life. God has five reasons for creating you.
Speaker 1: God has five assignments, five missions, five rationales for your life.
Speaker 1: The callings of God are the purposes of God for
Speaker 1: your life. The Bible uses the word calling at least
Speaker 1: ten times more often than the word purpose when it
Speaker 1: talks about your life. Romans eight twenty eight twenty nine
Speaker 1: from the Bible says this. We know that God causes
Speaker 1: everything to work for the good together for the good
Speaker 1: of those who love God. It's not all good, but
Speaker 1: God causes everything to work together for the good of
Speaker 1: those who love God and are called. There's that word
Speaker 1: according to his purpose. There's that word for them. Calling
Speaker 1: and purpose go together. Your calling in life is your
Speaker 1: purpose in life. For God knew in his people in advance,
Speaker 1: before you were even born. God knew you. He thought
Speaker 1: you up. You were his idea. You're not an accident.
Speaker 1: For God knew his people in advance, and he chose
Speaker 1: them to become like his son. That's talking about Jesus.
Speaker 1: Why don't you circle that phrase, become like his son.
Speaker 1: That's your third calling in life. Once you get into
Speaker 1: God's family. God wants you to grow up and become
Speaker 1: like your older brother, Jesus Christ. He chose them to
Speaker 1: become like his son so that his son Jesus would
Speaker 1: be the first born with many brothers and sisters. All right,
Speaker 1: I want you to write this down. My third calling
Speaker 1: in life is to become like Christ. And what does
Speaker 1: that mean. Well, you're not going to be a God.
Speaker 1: You're never going to be a god. You're not even
Speaker 1: going to be a little mini me God. God is
Speaker 1: God and you're not. That's an antidote distress when you
Speaker 1: realize that. But God wants you to become Godly. In
Speaker 1: other words, he wants you to take on the characteristics
Speaker 1: of his family, like father, like son. And the Bible
Speaker 1: says that God is loving, and God is joyful, and
Speaker 1: God is peaceful, and God is patient, and God is kind.
Speaker 1: The Bible tells that God is self control, God is merciful.
Speaker 1: These are called the fruit of the spirit. They're perfect
Speaker 1: picture of Jesus. If you're going to become like Jesus,
Speaker 1: it means to be filled with love, to be filled
Speaker 1: with joy, to be filled with peace, to be filled
Speaker 1: with patience, and all of those other qualities. Now five
Speaker 1: times in the Bible it compares becoming like Jesus to
Speaker 1: running a race. It is the race of life. Life
Speaker 1: is not a fifty yard dash, it's a marathon. And
Speaker 1: you're running this race right now. And the goal is
Speaker 1: to become the man God wants you to be. The
Speaker 1: goal is to become the woman God wants you to be.
Speaker 1: This is your third calling in life, to become what
Speaker 1: God made you to become. And as I said, the
Speaker 1: Bible calls this a race, and the Bible talks about
Speaker 1: walking the Christian walk. It talks about running the race,
Speaker 1: it talks about finishing the course. And so what I
Speaker 1: want to do this weekend is take the five different
Speaker 1: passages of the Bible that compare life to a race
Speaker 1: and compare becoming who God wants you to be to
Speaker 1: a race, and draw out from them eight principles. I
Speaker 1: call this the marathon to maturity. This is how you
Speaker 1: get to where God wants you to be in life.
Speaker 1: God doesn't want you to stay the same. He doesn't
Speaker 1: want you to be in spiritual diapers your entire life.
Speaker 1: He wants you to grow up. And what is full maturity?
Speaker 1: Look at Jesus and you know that's what God wants
Speaker 1: you to become. Like, now, how do I do this?
Speaker 1: How do I run the marathon to maturity? Well, as
Speaker 1: I look at these five passages, I can summarize them
Speaker 1: in eight statements.
Speaker 2: You might write these down.
Speaker 1: The first step in making it to the end of
Speaker 1: life and finishing the course God has for you is first,
Speaker 1: I must simplify my life. I must simplify my life.
Speaker 1: I have to cut out out and clean out and
Speaker 1: discard all the junk that's holding me back from becoming
Speaker 1: the person God wants me to become. You got to
Speaker 1: clean out the clutter. You got to clean out your mind.
Speaker 1: You got to clean out your schedule, You got to
Speaker 1: clean up your relationships. You got to get rid of
Speaker 1: unnecessary baggage. In other words, you don't run a marathon
Speaker 1: in a parka. You don't wear nine layers of clothes.
Speaker 1: If you've ever seen somebody running a marathon, they strip
Speaker 1: down to the bear essentials, a pair of shorts, a
Speaker 1: T shirt, and the lightest pair of shoes you can find.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be carrying extra baggage through your life.
Speaker 1: So really, if you're going to become the man God
Speaker 1: wants you to be or the woman God wants you
Speaker 1: to be, first thing you gotta do.
Speaker 2: Is you gotta let go of some stuff.
Speaker 1: You got to let you gotta eliminate the diversions, the distractions,
Speaker 1: the detours, the dead ends, the time wasters. Hebrews Chapter
Speaker 1: twelve is one of the books of the Bible chapters
Speaker 1: that deals with this metaphor of of life is a race.
Speaker 1: So we're going to spend a lot of time. In
Speaker 1: Hebrews twelve, verse one says this, let us strip off
Speaker 1: anything that slows us down or holds us back. Circle
Speaker 1: that word anything. That word in Greek is the word odcosts,
Speaker 1: and it actually means a weight. That means something bulky,
Speaker 1: something a burden, something heavy that holds you back. Let
Speaker 1: us strip off anything that slows us down or holds
Speaker 1: us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so
Speaker 1: tightly around our feet and trip us up.
Speaker 2: We've all had that.
Speaker 1: Let us run with patience the particular race that God
Speaker 1: has set before us. You have a particular race that
Speaker 1: God wants you to run in life, and everybody else
Speaker 1: has a race that God wants them to run. Here's
Speaker 1: the problem. Everybody wants you to run their race. Everybody
Speaker 1: has a plan for your life. Your parents wanted you
Speaker 1: to run the race they wanted you to run. You
Speaker 1: may be married to a husband or wife who want
Speaker 1: you to run the race. They want you to run.
Speaker 1: You may have a boss who wants you to run
Speaker 1: a race he or she wants you to run.
Speaker 2: But you got to decide this Whose race am I
Speaker 2: gonna run? In life? I can run my own race.
Speaker 1: I can run a race that somebody else wants me
Speaker 1: to run, or I can run the race that God
Speaker 1: created me to run.
Speaker 2: You can't run all three. I can't do.
Speaker 1: God's plan for my life and my plan at the
Speaker 1: same time, and I can't do your plan for my
Speaker 1: life and God's.
Speaker 2: Plan at the same time.
Speaker 1: So the starting point, if you're gonna win in the
Speaker 1: race of life, you got to decide which.
Speaker 2: Race You're gonna run.
Speaker 1: The particular race that God has designed for you, then
Speaker 1: that's the one you want to run. They say, God,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna strip off everything, the sins that mess me up.
Speaker 1: I do a moral inventory, and I get the junk
Speaker 1: out of my life, and I and the weights, the
Speaker 1: things that hold me back that have and the hurts
Speaker 1: and the hang ups that hold me back. I let
Speaker 1: go of those things and I run the particular race,
Speaker 1: which means you're going to have to let go of
Speaker 1: some expectations too, because you can't please everybody else and
Speaker 1: please God.
Speaker 2: You got to decide.
Speaker 1: Did God put me on this earth to please my parents,
Speaker 1: to please my girlfriend, to please my teacher, to please
Speaker 1: my clique, my club, my fans, my peers, my parents,
Speaker 1: my partners, or did God put me on this earth
Speaker 1: to live for the plan that he made me for,
Speaker 1: and so you have to kind of say, I'm willing
Speaker 1: to not just let go of sinds and not just.
Speaker 2: Willing to let go of weights.
Speaker 1: I'm willing to let go of what everybody else expects
Speaker 1: me to do with my life. And when you're doing
Speaker 1: When you're doing that, then you're saying God, I'm ready
Speaker 1: to become the woman you made me to be. I'm
Speaker 1: ready to become the man you made me to be.
Speaker 1: That's the first step simplify my life. Step two is
Speaker 1: in the next verse or the next part of that verse,
Speaker 1: and it's this, don't get impatient or in a hurry.
Speaker 1: This race is gonna take your entire life. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna finish it in a week, a month, or even
Speaker 1: next year. God's plan to make you the person he
Speaker 1: wants you to be is a lifetime plan. It's gonna
Speaker 1: take your entire life, and you can't run the race quickly.
Speaker 1: It's not a short fifty yard dash. It's a marathon.
Speaker 1: So you don't get impatient. You know, when I was
Speaker 1: growing up as a kid, I actually was a long
Speaker 1: distance runner, and pretty quickly you learn. Your coaches teach
Speaker 1: you that if you're gonna run ten miles or fifteen miles,
Speaker 1: or if you're gonna run a marathon, you.
Speaker 2: Have to pace yourself.
Speaker 1: You can't start out really really fast, because if you do,
Speaker 1: you'll get winded, you run out of steam, you run
Speaker 1: out of energy, you get fatigued, you give up.
Speaker 2: And you don't finish. You got to pace yourself.
Speaker 1: Now, when you become a Christian, you start growing really fast.
Speaker 1: Just like babies in the early months, they grow enormously fast.
Speaker 1: They'll double in size. You know, their first and they learned.
Speaker 1: But thank god, you're not growing as fast as you
Speaker 1: did your first year, aren't you glad? You'd look pretty funny.
Speaker 1: In fact, you'd probably take up the whole row if
Speaker 1: you grew as fast every year as you did your
Speaker 1: first year. Growth slows down, but it's stable and it's secure,
Speaker 1: and over a period of time, God says, I'm not
Speaker 1: in a hurry to growing you to where I want
Speaker 1: you to grow.
Speaker 2: God is in a hurry. Not in a hurry. You are,
Speaker 2: but he's not.
Speaker 1: When God wants to make a mushroom, he takes six hours.
Speaker 1: When God wants to make an oak, tree he takes
Speaker 1: sixty years. Where do you want to be a mushroom
Speaker 1: or an oak tree? I want to be solid like
Speaker 1: an oak tree. I want my life to be deeply rooted.
Speaker 1: I want it to be strong, stable, secure, so that
Speaker 1: when the rogue winds of life and the storms of
Speaker 1: life buffet me, and when I get blown over by
Speaker 1: problems and pressures and suffering and sorrow and scandal and
Speaker 1: loss and all of the financial problems that you have
Speaker 1: in life, whatever it is, it doesn't blow you over
Speaker 1: because you're as solid as an oak tree. I can
Speaker 1: show you how to become a man of God. I
Speaker 1: can teach you how to become a woman of God.
Speaker 1: I cannot teach you how to do it quickly. It's
Speaker 1: going to take your entire life. You spell maturity, tim
Speaker 1: Now we get in a hurry, but God's not in
Speaker 1: a hurry. So you need to just relax and realize
Speaker 1: that He's not impatient with you. Champions know how to
Speaker 1: pace themselves. Here's the second verse in Hebrews chapter twelve,
Speaker 1: verse one. Notice that part it says, let us run
Speaker 1: like the race of life. Let us run with patience.
Speaker 1: The peculiar or particular race that God has set out
Speaker 1: before us circle with patience. That's why you know each week,
Speaker 1: at the end of every service, I always give you
Speaker 1: like one or two baby steps to take. I usually
Speaker 1: say take out a card you know this, and in
Speaker 1: fact I got one this week. You're gonna look at
Speaker 1: it later, and I'll say, take out the card my
Speaker 1: decision to become. And each week I give you one
Speaker 1: or two baby steps to take. Why Because if every
Speaker 1: week you take one or two baby steps, at the
Speaker 1: end of the year, you're much further down the road
Speaker 1: than you thought you were going to be.
Speaker 3: Matters or what on earth you're here for. Pastor Rick
Speaker 3: wants to let you know that God has a good
Speaker 3: plan and purpose for your life. In his best selling book,
Speaker 3: The Purpose Driven Life, he lays out a simple, life
Speaker 3: changing roadmap to help you discover and live it. This
Speaker 3: book has transformed millions of lives and it could transform
Speaker 3: someone you love. And great news, it's been updated for
Speaker 3: today's generation. This edition includes a video introduction and audio
Speaker 3: teaching from Pastor Rick for each chapter, and two powerful
Speaker 3: bonus chapters on the biggest barriers to living a purpose
Speaker 3: driven life. As you go through this book, you'll uncover
Speaker 3: that your deepest meaning and fulfillment doesn't come from success
Speaker 3: or status, but from understanding and living out the purpose
Speaker 3: that God created you for. Request your copy today. When
Speaker 3: you give a gift to help daily hope, share the
Speaker 3: gospel around the world, it's our way of saying thanks.
Speaker 2: Number three.
Speaker 1: The third key to running the race of life God
Speaker 1: as for you is I must spend time focusing on
Speaker 1: Jesus every day. I must spend a little bit of time.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about an hour, two hours, three hours,
Speaker 1: ten hours. I'm going to start with five minutes, ten minutes,
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. Spend some time focusing on Jesus every day.
Speaker 1: And that's what the next verse said about this race
Speaker 1: and life. Now, why do I need to spend some
Speaker 1: time focus seeing my thoughts, my mind on Jesus. Because
Speaker 1: whatever you want to become, you need to think about it.
Speaker 1: If you want to become like Jesus, you need to
Speaker 1: think about it. And if you want to be like somebody,
Speaker 1: you become like whoever you spend the most time with.
Speaker 1: If you hang out with people who have no ambition,
Speaker 1: you're going to have no ambition. If you hang out
Speaker 1: with people who are critical, you're going to become critical.
Speaker 1: Whoever you spend the most time with is who you're
Speaker 1: going to become like.
Speaker 2: It's like that old cliche.
Speaker 1: You can't soar with the eagles if you're running with
Speaker 1: the turkeys. So maybe there's some relationships you need to
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, not spend so much time with
Speaker 1: those people because they're tearing you down.
Speaker 2: They're taking you down.
Speaker 1: But if you spend time with Jesus five, ten, fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes a day, then you become more and more like him.
Speaker 1: Now we call this a quiet time. A quiet time
Speaker 1: is I don't care when you do it. You just
Speaker 1: the best time, I think is in the morning. Get
Speaker 1: up and you go find your favorite chair and you
Speaker 1: sit down in it and you spend some time and
Speaker 1: you read the Bible for five minutes, and then you
Speaker 1: talk to God about stuff that's on your heart. God,
Speaker 1: here's the stuff I'm worried about. Lord, here's the stuff
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about. Here's my schedule today. I'm really stressed.
Speaker 1: I need your help. And then you be quiet and
Speaker 1: you let God talk to you, and you say, God,
Speaker 1: is there anything you want to say to me?
Speaker 2: And you be quiet.
Speaker 1: The reason why God's never talked to you is you've
Speaker 1: never been quiet long enough. You always got the radio on,
Speaker 1: and you gotta just sit there and be quiet and God.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God will put a thought in my mind and
Speaker 1: sometimes like everything's say okay, go along with your life
Speaker 1: and you move on. God doesn't have to speak aloud
Speaker 1: to me. He's the one who created radio ways and
Speaker 1: television ways. He can put a thought immediately in my mind.
Speaker 1: We call it inspiration. The devil gives your thought, that's temptation.
Speaker 1: God gives your thought, that's inspiration. You get a thought,
Speaker 1: that's stupidity, just kidding.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 1: Gotta spend some time focusing on Jesus every day.
Speaker 2: Here's what the Bible says Hebrews twelve, verse two.
Speaker 1: We do this, in other words, run the race of
Speaker 1: life by keeping our eyes on Jesus. That's focusing on
Speaker 1: Him every day, on whom our faith depends from start.
Speaker 1: That's the beginning of your race in life. To finish
Speaker 1: the end of your race in life. You cannot become
Speaker 1: like Jesus unless you spend time with Jesus. Now, let
Speaker 1: me give you a little tip, because some of you
Speaker 1: have had this habit in your life where you would
Speaker 1: have what's called a quiet time, and every day you'd
Speaker 1: sit down for five minutes or ten minutes and just
Speaker 1: kind of center yourself and you get quiet, You read
Speaker 1: the Bible, you pray, and then you go on with
Speaker 1: your life. Maybe review your schedule for that day and say, Lord,
Speaker 1: is there anything you need to change in this? But
Speaker 1: you've stopped it, and then you started it, and then
Speaker 1: you stopped it and you started. And let me give
Speaker 1: you a little tip. Find a special place that that's
Speaker 1: where you meet with God every day, and make that
Speaker 1: your special place that when you go there, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go spend fifteen minutes with God, just being quiet, thinking, meditating,
Speaker 1: looking at God's word, praying.
Speaker 2: I don't care. Again.
Speaker 1: It might be a lazy boy chair in your living
Speaker 1: room and you get a cup of coffee and sit
Speaker 1: down and sit back and get comfortable. Or you go
Speaker 1: out in your backyard if you're an outdoor person and
Speaker 1: you look outside and hear the birds and sit under
Speaker 1: a tree.
Speaker 2: Or you know you might you might go.
Speaker 1: You just need to go where you can be alone,
Speaker 1: where you can pray aloud. I highly recommend you pray aloud,
Speaker 1: because when you pray, when I pray when I close
Speaker 1: my eyes, I go to sleep. So when I when
Speaker 1: I talk to God, I don't close my eyes, and
Speaker 1: I don't just think close my eyes and talk like this,
Speaker 1: I'd fall asleep. I talk aloud to God, I like
Speaker 1: I have a conversation. You should do that too. So
Speaker 1: you don't want to be sitting in Starbucks. Now, God,
Speaker 1: let me tell you about I wouldn't recommend Starbucks being
Speaker 1: the place. I talked to guy at the last service.
Speaker 1: He said, my favorite place for my quiet time is
Speaker 1: sitting on the toilet. And then excuse me, he said,
Speaker 1: the bathroom is the only place that'squiet at my house.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of little kids. Fine, okay, whatever
Speaker 1: floats your boat, you find the spot that becomes special
Speaker 1: and sacred.
Speaker 2: Did you know that this was Jesus' habit.
Speaker 1: Jesus liked to go to a standard place where he
Speaker 1: could talk to the Father, for God the Father. Notice
Speaker 1: this verse up here on the screen. Luke twenty two
Speaker 1: says this Jesus went out as usual to the Mount
Speaker 1: of Olives to pray. Now, not that it says he
Speaker 1: went out as usual. That means it was his habit.
Speaker 1: It was his custom. He liked to go. I've been
Speaker 1: to this garden on the mount of Olives is whereas
Speaker 1: there's a grove of olive trees. He liked to go there,
Speaker 1: and that's where he would have his quiet time. You
Speaker 1: need to choose a special place where you meet God
Speaker 1: every day. Now here's the thing. The more time you
Speaker 1: spend with God, the more you're going to become like him.
Speaker 1: The more time you spend reading the Bible and studying
Speaker 1: about Jesus, the more you're going to learn his love,
Speaker 1: his patience, his peace, his character in your life. Tewod
Speaker 1: Corinthians three says, all of us have had that veil removed.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't have to wear a veil, so
Speaker 1: that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory
Speaker 1: of the Lord. And as the spirit of the Lord
Speaker 1: works within us, as God's spirit works within you day
Speaker 1: after day, we become there's that word third calling we
Speaker 1: become more and more like Him and reflect His glory
Speaker 1: even more. Now, once you to circle a couple of things.
Speaker 1: First circle the phrase.
Speaker 2: More and more.
Speaker 1: That means that in this race to maturity, to become
Speaker 1: a woman of God, to become a man of God,
Speaker 1: to become the person that God made you to be,
Speaker 1: not what your parents wanted you to be, but what
Speaker 1: God wants you be.
Speaker 2: It takes time. It's more and more.
Speaker 1: In other words, it's sequential, it is systematic, it is day.
Speaker 1: It's one step at a time. It's a process. Becoming
Speaker 1: implies that it doesn't happen instantly. You see, all of us,
Speaker 1: what we want is a quick fix in our life.
Speaker 1: We want one thing that'll take away all of our
Speaker 1: problems and all of our hang ups and all of
Speaker 1: our fears instantly. So we go around looking for that
Speaker 1: one book to read that'll change my life, that one
Speaker 1: message to listen to on a CD that'll change my life.
Speaker 1: We want to take a pill, find a magic bullet,
Speaker 1: have an experience in boom. It's just gonna instantly transfer
Speaker 1: me and all of a sudden, I love everybody. Nobody
Speaker 1: makes me impatient anymore. I'm just cool, copasetic and I
Speaker 1: get I'm just I'm like Jesus, it ain't gonna happen.
Speaker 1: It didn't happen that way. There is no there's instant
Speaker 1: mashed potatoes. Okay, there's instant coffee. There is no instant
Speaker 1: spiritual maturity. It just does happen. It takes time, one
Speaker 1: step at a time. And God, as I said, is
Speaker 1: never in a hurry. So as I spend time focusing
Speaker 1: on Jesus every day, it says we become more and
Speaker 1: more like Him. And then it says we reflect his
Speaker 1: glory circle. That word reflect. If you spend time with God,
Speaker 1: you're going to start reflecting the qualities of God, his love,
Speaker 1: his joy, his peace, his patience. This reflection is actually
Speaker 1: has a biological basis in your brain. Scientists have discovered
Speaker 1: that inside your brain you have what are called mirror neurons.
Speaker 1: A lot of study being done on this right now.
Speaker 1: Mirror neurons. And what the mirror neurons do is they
Speaker 1: allow you to feel what other people feel when you
Speaker 1: look at them. It's why you're able to empathize and
Speaker 1: sympathize with people. And so, for instance, if I were
Speaker 1: to yawn right now, have the church with yawning. In fact,
Speaker 1: me just saying the word yawn make some of you
Speaker 1: want to yawn, and your mirror neurons are firing. It's
Speaker 1: why when you go to a movie and you see
Speaker 1: somebody in a scary situation, your body gets scared.
Speaker 2: The mirror neurons are firing in your body.
Speaker 1: And when you see somebody win a game and they're celebrating,
Speaker 1: you feel that same joy. You didn't even play the game,
Speaker 1: but you felt that because your mirror neurons are enjoying
Speaker 1: the win that that guy just had. It allows you identify.
Speaker 1: And when somebody's sad, you feel sad.
Speaker 2: And if you're.
Speaker 1: Watching a movie and somebody gets kissed, you feel that.
Speaker 1: You feel good. You feel what it's like to feel loved,
Speaker 1: to feel cherished, to feel embraced. Those are your mirror
Speaker 1: neurons at work. When you spend time with God and
Speaker 1: you focus on him, your mirror neurons begin to reflect
Speaker 1: God's love, God's qualities in your life. You tend to
Speaker 1: see things the way He sees.
Speaker 2: It, and you become more and more like him. All right.
Speaker 1: Number four, The fourth thing on the steps of finishing
Speaker 1: the race of life is this, when it gets hard,
Speaker 1: remember the reward. When life gets hard, you need to
Speaker 1: remember the reward.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: As I said, this goal for God to make you
Speaker 1: the man he wants you to be, For God to
Speaker 1: make you the woman he wants you to become. It's
Speaker 1: a lifetime process. It's not a fifty yard dash. And
Speaker 1: so you're going to go through a lot of problems
Speaker 1: and pressures and trials and difficulties and ups and downs,
Speaker 1: and God's going to use it all to make you
Speaker 1: more like Jesus. Now, since God's number one goal is
Speaker 1: to make you like Christ, that's what he wants you.
Speaker 1: He wants you to be loved, he wants you to belong,
Speaker 1: and he wants you to become like Christ. Then it
Speaker 1: means God is going to take you and very closely.
Speaker 1: If God's going to make you like Jesus, He's going
Speaker 1: to take you through everything Jesus went through.
Speaker 2: Were there times when Jesus was lonely? Yes?
Speaker 1: Were there times when Jesus was criticized, Yes, times when
Speaker 1: Jesus was betrayed?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Were there times when Jesus was worn out with fatigue
Speaker 1: and he had had to keep going?
Speaker 2: Yes? Were there times when he was misunderstood? Yes?
Speaker 1: And if God did not spare his own son those things,
Speaker 1: why do you think he would spare you?
Speaker 2: He won't.
Speaker 1: The next time you start to ask why is this
Speaker 1: happening to me, you need to realize God wants to
Speaker 1: use it to build your attitude, to build your character.
Speaker 1: God wants to use it to make you like Christ.
Speaker 1: And instead of asking why, you need to say what
Speaker 1: what do you want me to learn from this situation?
Speaker 1: The Bible says Jesus learned obedience through suffering. The Bible
Speaker 1: says Jesus was made complete through suffering. You're going to
Speaker 1: learn them the same way. So you shouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: when problems come into your life because this isn't the
Speaker 1: easy stage that happens in eternity. In eternity, no more sorrow,
Speaker 1: no more suffering, no more sadness, no more problems, no
Speaker 1: more difficulties. But right now you're gonna have all kinds
Speaker 1: of problems because this is where you do the character development,
Speaker 1: where you're growing and you're becoming, and when life gets hard,
Speaker 1: you need to remember the rewards.
Speaker 2: Problems are part of the process.
Speaker 3: Life really matters or what on earth you're here for.
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick wants to let you know that God has
Speaker 3: a good plan and purpose for your life. In his
Speaker 3: best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, he lays out
Speaker 3: a simple, life changing roadmap to help you discover and
Speaker 3: live it. This book has transformed millions of lives, and
Speaker 3: it could transform someone you love and news. It's been
Speaker 3: updated for today's generation. This edition includes a video introduction
Speaker 3: and audio teaching from Pastor Rick for each chapter, and
Speaker 3: two powerful bonus chapters on the biggest barriers to living
Speaker 3: a purpose driven life. As you go through this book,
Speaker 3: you'll uncover that your deepest meaning and fulfillment doesn't come
Speaker 3: from success or status, but from understanding and living out
Speaker 3: the purpose that God created you for. Request your copy today.
Speaker 3: When you give a gift to help Daily Hope share
Speaker 3: the Gospel around the world, it's our way of saying thanks.