Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This
Speaker 1: is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Now today
Speaker 1: we're continuing into the new year, and we're digging deeper
Speaker 1: into one of life's biggest questions, does my life really matter?
Speaker 1: In today's message, Rick's going to continue his powerful series
Speaker 1: Live Your Calling?
Speaker 2: What on Earth Am I here For?
Speaker 1: In it, you'll discover how living out God's purpose for
Speaker 1: your life brings real meaning, direction, and joy no matter
Speaker 1: where you're starting from. Well settle in as Rick shares
Speaker 1: part one of a message titled you are Called to Become.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Week four of Live Your Calling? What on
Speaker 3: Earth Am I here For? And we've looked at your
Speaker 3: first calling in life, which is the calling to be loved.
Speaker 3: God doesn't want you to do anything first of off,
Speaker 3: in life. He wants you to just let Him do
Speaker 3: something to you. Let God love you, and that's the
Speaker 3: bedrock of everything that happens in your life. You must
Speaker 3: learn to let God love you. You were created to
Speaker 3: be loved, You are called to be loved. Last week,
Speaker 3: we looked at the second of the callings in life,
Speaker 3: which is you're called to belong You weren't made to
Speaker 3: go through life all on your own. You weren't made
Speaker 3: to go through life lonely. God made you to belong
Speaker 3: to His family, which is the Church. It's the family
Speaker 3: of God. And when you beloved and when you belong,
Speaker 3: then you can move to the third calling, which is
Speaker 3: you're called to become, to become. Now, these actually are
Speaker 3: building blocks that build on top of each other. You
Speaker 3: cannot become the woman God wants you to be. You
Speaker 3: cannot become the man God wants you to be unless
Speaker 3: you beloved and belong first. It is only in being
Speaker 3: loved and belonging that we are able to do the
Speaker 3: becoming in life. Now, it's really interesting. As little kids,
Speaker 3: we often want to become things. Well, let me just
Speaker 3: ask you. How many of you, when you were a
Speaker 3: kid you wanted to be a fireman, a policeman, or
Speaker 3: an astronaut?
Speaker 2: Can I see your hands? Yeah, that's that's one of
Speaker 2: the most.
Speaker 3: How many of you wanted to be a nurse when
Speaker 3: you're growing up?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: How many of you wanted to be Barbie? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Here's the more likely question.
Speaker 3: How many of you did not become what you thought
Speaker 3: you would become when you were eight years old. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's universal, pretty universal. But the Bible says God created
Speaker 3: you not just to be loved and not just to belong.
Speaker 3: But the third calling in life is you are called
Speaker 3: to become. Now, what is a calling, we said, that's
Speaker 3: the same thing as a purpose. God has five purposes
Speaker 3: for your life. God has five reasons for creating you.
Speaker 3: God has five assignments, five missions, five rationales for your life.
Speaker 3: The callings of God are the purposes of God for
Speaker 3: your life. The Bible uses the word calling at least
Speaker 3: ten times more often than the word purpose when it
Speaker 3: talks about your life. Now, one of the theme verses
Speaker 3: for this series on living out your calling God's purposes
Speaker 3: for your life is Romans eight twenty eight in the Bible.
Speaker 3: And we've looked at this verse each week, and I
Speaker 3: want us to go back to it because of its significance.
Speaker 3: There on your outline if you pull out your message notes.
Speaker 3: Romans eight eight twenty nine from the Bible says this,
Speaker 3: we know that God causes everything to work for the
Speaker 3: good together for the good of those who love God.
Speaker 3: It's not all good, but God causes everything to work
Speaker 3: together for the good of those who love God and
Speaker 3: are called. There's that word according to his purpose. There's
Speaker 3: that word for them. Calling and purpose go together. Your
Speaker 3: calling in life is your purpose in life. For God
Speaker 3: knew in his people in advance, before you were even born.
Speaker 3: God knew you. He thought you up. You were his idea.
Speaker 3: You're not an accident. For God knew his people in advance,
Speaker 3: and he chose them to become like his son. That's
Speaker 3: talking about Jesus. Why don't you circle that phrase, become
Speaker 3: like his son. That's your third calling in life. Once
Speaker 3: you get into God's family, God wants you to grow
Speaker 3: up and become like your older brother, Jesus Christ. He
Speaker 3: chose them to become like his son so that his
Speaker 3: son Jesus would be the first born with many brothers
Speaker 3: and sisters. All right, I want you to write this down.
Speaker 3: My third calling in life is to become like Christ.
Speaker 3: Now what does that mean? Well, you're not going to
Speaker 3: be a God. You're never going to be a God.
Speaker 3: You're not even going to be a little mini me God.
Speaker 3: God is God and you're not. That's an antidote distress
Speaker 3: when you realize that. But God wants you to become God.
Speaker 3: In other words, he wants you to take on the
Speaker 3: characteristics of his family, like father, like son. And the
Speaker 3: Bible says that God is loving, and God is joyful,
Speaker 3: and God is peaceful, and God is patient, and God
Speaker 3: is kind. The Bible tells us that God is self control,
Speaker 3: God is merciful. These are called the fruit of the Spirit.
Speaker 3: They're perfect picture of Jesus. If you're going to become
Speaker 3: like Jesus, it means to be filled with love, to
Speaker 3: be filled with joy, to be filled with peace, to
Speaker 3: be filled with patience, and all of those other qualities. Now,
Speaker 3: five times in the Bible it compares becoming like Jesus
Speaker 3: to running a race. It is the race of life.
Speaker 3: Life is not a fifty yard dash. It's a marathon.
Speaker 3: And you're running this race right now. And the goal
Speaker 3: is to become the man God wants you to be.
Speaker 3: The goal is to become the woman God wants you
Speaker 3: to be. Is your third calling in life, to become
Speaker 3: what God made you to become. And as I said,
Speaker 3: the Bible calls this a race. And the Bible talks
Speaker 3: about walking the Christian walk. It talks about running the race,
Speaker 3: it talks about finishing the course. And so what I
Speaker 3: want to do this weekend is take the five different
Speaker 3: passages of the Bible that compare life to a race
Speaker 3: and compare becoming who God wants you to be to
Speaker 3: a race, and draw out from them eight principles. I
Speaker 3: call this the marathon to maturity. This is how you
Speaker 3: get to where God wants you to be in life.
Speaker 3: God doesn't want you to stay the same. He doesn't
Speaker 3: want you to be in spiritual diapers your entire life.
Speaker 3: He wants you to grow up and what is full maturity?
Speaker 3: Look at Jesus and you know that's what God wants
Speaker 3: you to become.
Speaker 2: Like, now, how do I do this? How do I
Speaker 2: run the marathon to maturity?
Speaker 3: Well, as I look at these five passages, I can
Speaker 3: summarize them in eight statements.
Speaker 2: You might write these down.
Speaker 3: The first step in making it to the end of
Speaker 3: life and finishing the course God asks for you is first,
Speaker 3: I must simplify my life.
Speaker 2: I must simplify my life.
Speaker 3: I have to cut out and clean out and discard
Speaker 3: all the junk that's holding me back from becoming the
Speaker 3: person God wants me to become. You got to clean
Speaker 3: out the clutter, You got to clean out your mind.
Speaker 3: You got to clean out your schedule, You got to
Speaker 3: clean up your relationships. You got to get rid of
Speaker 3: unnecessary baggage. In other words, you don't run a marathon
Speaker 3: in a parka. You don't wear nine layers of clothes.
Speaker 3: If you've ever seen somebody running a marathon, they strip
Speaker 3: down to the bear essentials, a pair of shorts, a
Speaker 3: T shirt, and the lightest pair of.
Speaker 2: Shoes you can find.
Speaker 3: You don't want to be carrying extra baggage through your life. So, really,
Speaker 3: if you're going to become the man God wants you
Speaker 3: to be or the woman God wants you to be,
Speaker 3: first thing you gotta.
Speaker 2: Do is you gotta let go of some stuff.
Speaker 3: You let you gotta eliminate the diversions, the distractions, the detours,
Speaker 3: the dead ends, the time wasters. Hebrews chapter twelve is
Speaker 3: one of the books of the Bible chapters that deals
Speaker 3: with this metaphor of life is a race, so we're
Speaker 3: gonna spend a.
Speaker 2: Lot of time.
Speaker 3: In Hebrews twelve, verse one says this let us strip
Speaker 3: off anything that slows us down or holds us back.
Speaker 3: Circle that word anything. That word in Greek is the
Speaker 3: word ogkoss in. It actually means a weight means something bulky,
Speaker 3: something a burden, something heavy that holds you back. Let
Speaker 3: us strip off anything that slows us down or holds
Speaker 3: us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so
Speaker 3: tightly around our feet and trip us up.
Speaker 2: We've all had that.
Speaker 3: Let us run with patience the particular race that God
Speaker 3: has set before us. Now circle the phrase the particular race.
Speaker 3: God has a particular race for your life, and only
Speaker 3: you can run it. Your mom can't run it, your
Speaker 3: dad can't run it, your boyfriend can't run it. Somebody
Speaker 3: else can't run your race, and by the way, you
Speaker 3: can't run anybody else's. You have a particular race that
Speaker 3: God wants you to run in life, and everybody else
Speaker 3: has a race that God wants them to run. Here's
Speaker 3: the problem. Everybody wants you to run their race. Everybody
Speaker 3: has a plan for your life. Your parents wanted you
Speaker 3: to run the race they wanted you to run. You
Speaker 3: may be married to a husband or wife who want
Speaker 3: you to run the race they want you to run.
Speaker 3: You may have a boss who wants you to run
Speaker 3: a race he or she wants you to run. But
Speaker 3: you got to decide this Whose race? Am I going
Speaker 3: to run in life. I can run my own race,
Speaker 3: I can run a race that somebody else wants me
Speaker 3: to run, or I can run the race that God
Speaker 3: created me to run. You can't run all three. I
Speaker 3: can't do god plan for my life and my plan
Speaker 3: at the same time, and I can't do your plan
Speaker 3: for my life and God's plan at the same time.
Speaker 3: So the starting point, if you're gonna win in the
Speaker 3: race of life, you got to decide which race you're
Speaker 3: gonna run. The particular race that God has designed for you,
Speaker 3: then that's the one you want to run. They say, God,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna strip off everything, the sins that mess me up.
Speaker 3: I do a moral inventory, and I get the junk
Speaker 3: out of my life and the weights, the things that
Speaker 3: hold me back, the habits and the hurts and the
Speaker 3: hang ups that hold me back. I let go of
Speaker 3: those things and I run the particular race, which means
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to let go of some expectations too,
Speaker 3: because you can't please everybody else and please God. You
Speaker 3: got to decide did God put me on this earth
Speaker 3: to please my parents, to please my girlfriend, to please
Speaker 3: my teacher, to please my clique, my club, my fans,
Speaker 3: my peers, my parents, my partners, or did God put
Speaker 3: me on this earth to live for the plan that
Speaker 3: he made me for? And so you have to kind
Speaker 3: of say, I'm willing to not just let go of sins,
Speaker 3: and I'm not just willing to let go of waits.
Speaker 3: I'm willing to let go of what everybody else expects
Speaker 3: me to do with my life. And when you're when
Speaker 3: you're doing that, then you're saying God, I'm ready to
Speaker 3: become the woman you made me to be. I'm ready
Speaker 3: to become the man you made me to be. That's
Speaker 3: the first step simplify my life. Step two is in
Speaker 3: the next verse or the next part of that verse,
Speaker 3: and it's this, don't get impatient or in a hurry.
Speaker 3: This race is going to take your entire life. You're
Speaker 3: not going to finish it in a week, a month,
Speaker 3: or even next year. God's plan to make you the
Speaker 3: person he wants you to be is a lifetime plan.
Speaker 3: It's going to take your entire life, and you can't
Speaker 3: run the race quickly. It's not a short fifty yard dash.
Speaker 3: It's a marathon. So you don't get impatient. You know,
Speaker 3: when I was grown up as a kid, I actually
Speaker 3: was a long distance runner, and pretty quickly you learn.
Speaker 3: Your coaches teach you that if you're gonna run ten
Speaker 3: miles or fifteen miles, or if you're gonna run a marathon,
Speaker 3: you have to pace yourself. You can't start out really
Speaker 3: really fast, because if you do, you'll get winded, you
Speaker 3: run out of steam, you run out of energy, you
Speaker 3: get fatigued, you give up, and you don't finish. You
Speaker 3: got to pace yourself. Now, when you become a Christian,
Speaker 3: you start growing really fast. Just like babies in the
Speaker 3: early months. They grow enormously fast. They'll double in size,
Speaker 3: you know, their first year and they learn. But thank god,
Speaker 3: you're not growing as fast as you did your first year,
Speaker 3: aren't you glad? You'd look pretty funny. In fact, you'd
Speaker 3: probably take up the whole row if you grew as
Speaker 3: fast every year as you did your first year. Growth
Speaker 3: slows down, but it's stable and it's secure, and over
Speaker 3: a period of time, God says, I'm not in a
Speaker 3: hurry to growing you to where I want you to grow.
Speaker 2: God is in a hurry. Not in a hurry.
Speaker 3: You are, but he's not. When God wants to make
Speaker 3: a mushroom, he takes six hours. When God wants to
Speaker 3: make an oak tree, he takes sixty years. Where do
Speaker 3: you want to be a mushroom or an oak tree?
Speaker 3: I want to be solid like an oak tree. I
Speaker 3: want my life to be deeply rooted. I want it
Speaker 3: to be strong, stable, secure, so that when the rogue
Speaker 3: winds of life and the storms of life buffet me,
Speaker 3: and when I get blown over by problems and pressures
Speaker 3: and suffering and sorrow and scandal and loss and all
Speaker 3: of the financial problems that you have in life, whatever
Speaker 3: it is, it doesn't blow you over because you're as
Speaker 3: solid as an oak tree. I can show you how
Speaker 3: to become a man of God. I can teach you
Speaker 3: how to become a woman of God. I cannot teach
Speaker 3: you how to do it quickly. It's going to take
Speaker 3: your entire life. You spell maturity, TI m e. Now
Speaker 3: we get in a hurry, but God's not in a hurry.
Speaker 3: So you need to just relax and realize that He's
Speaker 3: not impatient with you. Champions know how to pace themselves.
Speaker 3: Here's the second verse in Hebrews chapter twelve, verse one.
Speaker 3: Notice that part it says, let us run like the
Speaker 3: race of life. Let us run with patience. The peculiar
Speaker 3: or particular race that God has set out before us
Speaker 3: circle with patience. That's why you know each week, at
Speaker 3: the end of every service, I always give you like
Speaker 3: one or two baby steps to take, because if every
Speaker 3: week you take one or two baby steps, at the
Speaker 3: end of the year, you're much further down the road
Speaker 3: than you thought you were going to be. And life
Speaker 3: is not one big leap across the grand canyon. It's
Speaker 3: a baby step, one step at a time. To quote
Speaker 3: that great theologian from what about Bob, you know, take
Speaker 3: baby steps. Take baby steps, okay, and when you take
Speaker 3: a baby step every week, you're making progress. Don't get
Speaker 3: impatient or in a hurry. Number three, the third key
Speaker 3: to running the race of life God as for you
Speaker 3: is I must spend time focusing on Jesus every day.
Speaker 3: I must spend a little bit of time. I'm not
Speaker 3: talking about an hour, two hours, three hours, ten hours.
Speaker 3: I'm going to start with five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes.
Speaker 3: Spend some time focusing on Jesus every day. And that's
Speaker 3: what the next verse said about this race in life. Now,
Speaker 3: why do I need to spend some time focusing my
Speaker 3: thoughts my mind on Jesus, because whatever you want to become,
Speaker 3: you need to think about it. If you want to
Speaker 3: become like Jesus, you need to think about it. And
Speaker 3: if you want to be like somebody, you become like
Speaker 3: whoever you spend the most time with. If you hang
Speaker 3: out with people who have no ambition, you're going to
Speaker 3: have no ambition. If you hang out with people who
Speaker 3: are critical, you're going to become critical. Whoever you spend
Speaker 3: the most time with is who you're going to become like.
Speaker 2: It's like that old cliche.
Speaker 3: You can't soar with the eagles if you're running with
Speaker 3: the turkeys.
Speaker 2: So maybe there's.
Speaker 3: Some relationships you need to kind of, you know, not
Speaker 3: spend so much time with those people because they're tearing
Speaker 3: you down.
Speaker 2: They're taking you down.
Speaker 3: But if you spend time with Jesus five, ten, fifteen
Speaker 3: minutes a day, then you become more and more like him.
Speaker 3: Now we call this a quiet time. A quiet time
Speaker 3: is I don't care when you do it. You just
Speaker 3: the best time I think it is in the morning.
Speaker 3: Get up and you go find your favorite chair and
Speaker 3: you sit down in it and you spend some time
Speaker 3: and you read the Bible for five minutes, and then
Speaker 3: you talk to God about the stuff that's on your heart. God,
Speaker 3: here's the stuff I'm worried about. Lord, here's the stuff
Speaker 3: I'm concerned about. Here's my schedule today. I'm really stressed.
Speaker 3: I need your help. And then you be quiet and
Speaker 3: you let God talk to you, and you say, God,
Speaker 3: is there anything you want to say to me?
Speaker 2: And you be quiet.
Speaker 3: The reason why God's never talked to you is you've
Speaker 3: never been quiet long enough. You always got the radio on,
Speaker 3: and you gotta just sit there and be quiet and God.
Speaker 3: Sometimes God will put a thought in my mind, and
Speaker 3: sometimes like everything's say okay, go along with your life
Speaker 3: and you move on. God doesn't have to speak aloud
Speaker 3: to me. He's the one who created radio ways and
Speaker 3: television ways. He can put a thought immediately in my mind.
Speaker 3: We call it inspiration. The devil gives your thought, that's temptation.
Speaker 3: God gives your thought, that's inspiration. You get a thought
Speaker 3: that's stupidity, just kidding. You got to spend some time
Speaker 3: focusing on Jesus every day. Here's what the Bible says
Speaker 3: Hebrews twelve, verse two. We do this, In other words,
Speaker 3: run the race of life by keeping our eyes on Jesus.
Speaker 3: That's focusing on Him every day, on whom our faith
Speaker 3: depends from start. That's the beginning of your race and
Speaker 3: life to finish the end of your race in life.
Speaker 3: You cannot become like Jesus unless you spend time with Jesus. Now,
Speaker 3: let me give you a little tip, because some of
Speaker 3: you have had this habit in your life where you
Speaker 3: would have what's called a quiet time and every day
Speaker 3: you'd sit down for five minutes or ten minutes and
Speaker 3: just kind of center yourself and you get quiet, You
Speaker 3: read the Bible, you pray, and then you go on
Speaker 3: with your life, maybe review your schedule for that day
Speaker 3: and say, Lord, is there anything you need to change
Speaker 3: in this? But you've stopped it, and then you started it,
Speaker 3: and then you stopped it, and you started and said,
Speaker 3: let me give you a little tip. Find a special
Speaker 3: place that that's where you meet with God every day,
Speaker 3: and make that your special place that when you go there,
Speaker 3: I'm going to go spend fifteen minutes with God, just
Speaker 3: being quiet, thinking, meditating, looking at God's word, praying.
Speaker 2: I don't care.
Speaker 3: Again, it might be a lazy boy chair in your
Speaker 3: living room and you get a cup of coffee and
Speaker 3: sit down and sit back and get comfortable. Or you
Speaker 3: go out in your backyard if you're an outdoor person
Speaker 3: and you look outside and hear the birds and sit
Speaker 3: under a tree, or you know you might you might go.
Speaker 3: You just need to go where you can be alone,
Speaker 3: where you can pray aloud. I highly recommend you pray aloud,
Speaker 3: because when I pray, when I close my eyes, I
Speaker 3: go to sleep. So when I talk to God, I
Speaker 3: don't close my eyes, and I don't just think close
Speaker 3: my eyes and talk like this, I'd fall asleep. I
Speaker 3: talk aloud to God. I like to have a conversation.
Speaker 3: You should do that too. So you don't want to
Speaker 3: be sitting in Starbucks now, God, let me tell you
Speaker 3: about it. I wouldn't recommend Starbucks to being the place.
Speaker 3: I talked to guy after last service. He said, my
Speaker 3: favorite place for my quiet time is sitting on the toilet.
Speaker 3: The excuse me, he said, the bathroom is the only
Speaker 3: place that's quiet in my house. I got a lot
Speaker 3: of little kids. Fine, okay, whatever floats your boat, you
Speaker 3: find the spot that becomes special and sacred.
Speaker 2: Did you know that this was Jesus' habit.
Speaker 3: Jesus liked to go to a standard place where he
Speaker 3: could talk to the Father, for God the Father. Notice
Speaker 3: this verse up here on the screen. Luke twenty two
Speaker 3: says this, Jesus went out as usual to the mount
Speaker 3: of Olives to pray. And now notice as he went
Speaker 3: out as usual, that means it was his abbot, it
Speaker 3: was his custom he liked to go.
Speaker 2: I've been to this garden on.
Speaker 3: The Mount of Olizus, whereas there's a grove of olive trees.
Speaker 3: He liked to go there, and that's where he would
Speaker 3: have his quiet time. You need to choose a special
Speaker 3: place where you meet God every day. Now here's the thing.
Speaker 3: The more time you spend with God, the more you're
Speaker 3: going to become like him. The more time you spend
Speaker 3: reading the Bible and studying about Jesus, the more you're
Speaker 3: going to learn his love, his patience, his peace, his
Speaker 3: character in your life. The Bible tells us that Moses
Speaker 3: spent so much time with God that one time he
Speaker 3: was up on Mount Sinai when he's getting the Ten Commandments,
Speaker 3: and he has spent months alone with God up on
Speaker 3: this mountain, and when he came down. He spent so
Speaker 3: much time with God. He literally, the Bible says, the
Speaker 3: people said he glowed. He had a presence about him
Speaker 3: that actually glowed. He'd been so much, spent so much
Speaker 3: time with God, and for a while he wore a
Speaker 3: veil to kind of high this glow. Now, the next
Speaker 3: verse says this, we don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 3: Tewod Corinthians III says, all of us have had that
Speaker 3: veil removed.
Speaker 2: You know, we don't have to wear a veil.
Speaker 3: So that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the
Speaker 3: glory of the Lord. And as the spirit of the
Speaker 3: Lord works within us, as God's spirit works within you,
Speaker 3: day after day, we become there's that word third calling
Speaker 3: we become more and more like Him and reflect His
Speaker 3: glory even more. Now, once you circle a couple of things,
Speaker 3: first circle the phrase.
Speaker 2: More and more.
Speaker 3: That means that in this race to maturity, to become
Speaker 3: a woman of God, to become a man of God,
Speaker 3: to become the person that God made you to be,
Speaker 3: not what your parents wanted you to be, but what
Speaker 3: God wants you be. It takes time. It's more and more.
Speaker 3: In other words, it's sequential. It is systematic, it is daily,
Speaker 3: it's one step at a time.
Speaker 2: It's a process.
Speaker 3: Becoming implies that it doesn't happen instantly. You see, all
Speaker 3: of us, what we want is a quick fix in
Speaker 3: our life. We want one thing that'll take away all
Speaker 3: of our problems and all of our hang ups and
Speaker 3: all of our fears instantly.
Speaker 2: So we go around looking for.
Speaker 3: That one book to read that'll change my life, that
Speaker 3: one message to listen to on a CD that'll change
Speaker 3: my life.
Speaker 2: We want to take a pill.
Speaker 3: Find the magic bullet, have an experience in boom. It's
Speaker 3: just gonna instantly transfer me and all of a sudden.
Speaker 2: I love everybody.
Speaker 3: Nobody makes me impatient anymore. I'm just cool, copasetic and
Speaker 3: I get. I'm just I'm like Jesus. It ain't gonna happen.
Speaker 3: It doesn't happen that way. There is no there's instant
Speaker 3: mashed potatoes. Okay, there's instant coffee. There is no instant
Speaker 3: spiritual maturity. It just doesn't happen. It takes time, one
Speaker 3: step at a time, and God, as I said, is
Speaker 3: never in a hurry. So as I spend time focusing
Speaker 3: on Jesus every day, it says we become more and
Speaker 3: more like Him, and then it says we reflect his
Speaker 3: glory circle. That word reflect. If you spend time with God,
Speaker 3: you're going to start reflecting the qualities of God, his love,
Speaker 3: his joy, his peace, his patience. This reflection is actually
Speaker 3: has a biological basis in your brain. Scientists have discovered
Speaker 3: that inside your brain you have what are called mirror neurons.
Speaker 3: A lot of study being done on this right now,
Speaker 3: mirror neurons. And what the mirror neurons do is they
Speaker 3: allow you to feel what other people feel when you
Speaker 3: look at them. It's why you're able to empathize and
Speaker 3: sympathize with people. And so for instance, if I were
Speaker 3: to yawn right now, half the church would start yawning.
Speaker 3: In fact, me just saying the word yawn make some
Speaker 3: of you want to yawn, and your mirror neurons are firing.
Speaker 3: It's why when you go to a movie and you
Speaker 3: see somebody in a scary situation, your body gets scared.
Speaker 3: The mirror neurons are firing in your body. And when
Speaker 3: you see somebody win a game and they're celebrating, you
Speaker 3: feel that same joy. You didn't even play the game,
Speaker 3: but you felt that because your mirror neurons are enjoying
Speaker 3: the win that that guy just had. It allows you
Speaker 3: identify and when somebody's sad, you feel sad. And if
Speaker 3: you're watching a movie and somebody gets kissed, you feel that.
Speaker 3: You feel good. You feel what it's like to feel loved,
Speaker 3: to feel cherished, to feel embraced. Those are your mirror
Speaker 3: neurons at work. When you spend time with God and
Speaker 3: you focus on him, your mirror neurons begin to reflect
Speaker 3: God's love, God's quality in your life. You tend to
Speaker 3: see things the way He sees it, and you become
Speaker 3: more and more like him.
Speaker 1: That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick, And
Speaker 1: now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter
Speaker 1: from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: Hello everybody, today, I want to share with you the
Speaker 3: story of Christine who wrote to me. She says she
Speaker 3: lost everything, but I want you to listen how God
Speaker 3: is working in her life now. Christine wrote this to me,
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick, daily hope has brought me out of some
Speaker 3: truly dark times. Three and a half years ago, my
Speaker 3: marriage of thirteen years ended. My husband was an atheist,
Speaker 3: and I decided early on in our relationship that he
Speaker 3: would be my number one priority, not God. And for
Speaker 3: thirteen years I tolerated being lied to and cheated on
Speaker 3: and told of, believing that God was stupid and foolish.
Speaker 3: And then he ended it all and I was left
Speaker 3: alone with nothing, no friends, no home, no family. And
Speaker 3: as I was facing a new life on my own,
Speaker 3: a coworker recommended that I listened to the Daily Hope podcast,
Speaker 3: and after a few weeks of listening, I got up
Speaker 3: the nerve to return to church for the first time
Speaker 3: in over thirteen years. It's been challenging starting my life
Speaker 3: all over again, and I still encounter obstacles almost daily,
Speaker 3: but I have also grown and I've healed a lot
Speaker 3: over the last three years. Now, I continue to listen
Speaker 3: to the Daily Hope podcast, and I just purchased your book,
Speaker 3: A Purpose Driven Life. I've been going to church deadily,
Speaker 3: and I even sing now on our worship team. Had
Speaker 3: it not been for Daily Hope, I don't know if
Speaker 3: I would have ever returned to church or to God,
Speaker 3: but I'm so glad that I did. Thank you Daily Hope. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, thanks for writing Christine. Your story is a
Speaker 3: great reminder that God can use any pain in our
Speaker 3: lives to draw us closer to Him if we'll give
Speaker 3: it to him, and then He can bring good even
Speaker 3: out of all the bad, if we will just trust him. Now,
Speaker 3: notice that Christine found out about Daily Hope and the
Speaker 3: podcast because a coworker shared it when she was facing
Speaker 3: dark days. It was just a simple act by a friend,
Speaker 3: simply forwarding a podcast that helped Christine start her journey
Speaker 3: back to God, and it helped her reconnect with a
Speaker 3: church family. What a simple step to make such a
Speaker 3: major change in someone's life. Can you think of somebody
Speaker 3: in pain right now that you could forward on the
Speaker 3: Daily Hope podcast too? Can you think of somebody who's suffering,
Speaker 3: somebody who is questioning, somebody who's in despair. Would you
Speaker 3: do that for a friend? Would you share Daily Hope
Speaker 3: with someone in your family or someone at work. I'd
Speaker 3: like you to just pray and ask God, say, God,
Speaker 3: show me the people around me that you want to know.
Speaker 3: You show me the people that I should share Daily
Speaker 3: Hope with. If you do that, I am certain God
Speaker 3: will show you. He'll bring names and faces to mind.
Speaker 3: Just try it. God bless you. You know, if God
Speaker 3: is blessing you through Daily Hope. Would you share your
Speaker 3: story with me? Write me rickat pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's word for our daily hope. This program is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial
Speaker 1: support