Speaker 1: Hello everybody, this is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us today, and if you're brand new,
Speaker 1: welcome to the Daily Hope family. We hope you'll enjoy
Speaker 1: the teachings of Pastor Rick Warren right here. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for all of you to learn about your shape.
Speaker 1: It might not be the shape you're thinking of right now.
Speaker 1: Rick loves to use acrostics and this one is shape
Speaker 1: your shape, your spiritual gifts, heart abilities, personality and experiences.
Speaker 1: And one of the reasons I love this series and
Speaker 1: have shared it with so many friends is because Rick
Speaker 1: talks about the way God wired you and why you
Speaker 1: need not just know your shape, but how to use
Speaker 1: it to do the things that God designed you to do.
Speaker 1: And now here's Pastor Rick with the final part of
Speaker 1: a message called why God shaped you the way he did.
Speaker 2: God says, I need you for my benefit, for the
Speaker 2: pinions of other people. Look at what the Bible says
Speaker 2: Isaiah forty three. Bring me all the people who are mine,
Speaker 2: whom I made for my glory. Circle that whom I
Speaker 2: made for my glory. Those I formed and created you
Speaker 2: were made for God's glory.
Speaker 3: That's why you're alive.
Speaker 2: If you didn't bring glory to God, you wouldn't be alive,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't be taking your next breath. God made you
Speaker 2: to enjoy you, to love you, to watch you, to
Speaker 2: bring glory, to bring pleasure to himself. Now, why am
Speaker 2: I belaboring this point, Because there are a whole group
Speaker 2: of people out there today who are basically saying, the
Speaker 2: only people that matter in life are those who are
Speaker 2: really smart, really beautiful, are really athletic, and those are
Speaker 2: the people that matter, and the rest of you tough luck,
Speaker 2: and only the superstars matter in life. And that's what
Speaker 2: our society says. They're more important than you. They're wrong,
Speaker 2: they're wrong, And they're even going to the point and say, well,
Speaker 2: what about these older folks who are in the rest homes.
Speaker 2: They're not making any contribution to society, they're not doing
Speaker 2: any good, they're not making you got vision, Why don't
Speaker 2: we just do euthanasia?
Speaker 3: That means, knock them off, kill them, get.
Speaker 2: Rid of them, because they've served that they're just taken
Speaker 2: up money on the tax rolls and they're not making
Speaker 2: any contribution. Have you ever thought that God wants them
Speaker 2: alive because he just wants to love them and they're alive,
Speaker 2: not to give anything back to society, but to teach
Speaker 2: us to learn to love, to love unconditionally.
Speaker 3: God says, I love.
Speaker 2: Them, and I determined the day they will die before
Speaker 2: they were even born. And I don't want you short
Speaker 2: circuiting that time, and they'll die when I want to
Speaker 2: bring them on to heaven. But I want them here,
Speaker 2: and I have a purpose. And maybe that's purpose is
Speaker 2: just for him to love them and for us to
Speaker 2: learn to be unselfish and love people who can't help
Speaker 2: us back. Or what about people that are laying in
Speaker 2: a hospital and they're in a quote vegetative state, and
Speaker 2: somebody says, oh, she's just a vegetable. Well, do you
Speaker 2: think God loves that person any less? No, do you
Speaker 2: think God has a plan for life? Yes, and said, well,
Speaker 2: let's just pull the plug on that person. Well, who said,
Speaker 2: Maybe God wants them alive just to love them and
Speaker 2: maybe to teach you unselfishness.
Speaker 3: All life is sacred, you see.
Speaker 2: It is this mentality that some lives matter than more
Speaker 2: that caused the Holocaust. That was the mentality of Hitler.
Speaker 2: Some people are more important than others. So we'll just
Speaker 2: wipe out the weak, the infirm, the agent or people
Speaker 2: we disagree with. And today we even see it in
Speaker 2: young couples who have a child and they're expecting and
Speaker 2: they say, well, now, we hate to tell you this,
Speaker 2: but they may have a birth defect, and the people
Speaker 2: start saying, oh, well, maybe we should abort them. Well,
Speaker 2: let me tell you something. If everybody who had a
Speaker 2: defect was aborted, you would have been aborted. Because you
Speaker 2: have defects. You want me to point them out to you.
Speaker 2: Everybody is handicapped, friends, you just don't admit it. You
Speaker 2: have some emotional handicaps, oh boy, do you have them?
Speaker 2: And you have some fears you won't even talk to
Speaker 2: your wife about scares you to death.
Speaker 3: And you have some.
Speaker 2: Emotional handicaps and some mental handicaps, and you known are
Speaker 2: not as smart as everybody else, and you have some
Speaker 2: physical handicaps. Have you learned that not everything in your
Speaker 2: body works? That's why you're not in the Olympics? And
Speaker 2: so yeah, not. We all have defects. We all have
Speaker 2: have problems. So you know, so who makes the decision, Oh, well,
Speaker 2: your defect isn't big enough to get rid of? Do
Speaker 2: you think you know when a family has those who've
Speaker 2: had special need children, an autistic child, a mentally undeveloped child,
Speaker 2: a physically handicapped child.
Speaker 3: Do they love that child less? No, they love that
Speaker 3: child more more. They love that child more.
Speaker 2: And the Bible says, God loves the weak, the infirm,
Speaker 2: the special need person, and we need them in our
Speaker 2: lives to learn unselfishness. We must always protect the sanctity
Speaker 2: of life. Why because it reveals God's purpose and equips
Speaker 2: me to serving wife as a test, and it shows
Speaker 2: God's glory.
Speaker 3: God doesn't love him any less.
Speaker 2: Maybe you've never considered that God loves that child, that
Speaker 2: special need old child, just because he wants to.
Speaker 3: Show his love for them. They are not contributing.
Speaker 2: Quote the way the superstar is the magna cum laude star.
Speaker 2: You are valuable no matter who are what you are,
Speaker 2: and so is every child, and so is every elderly person. Now,
Speaker 2: the Bible tells us that God is responsible.
Speaker 3: Did you know this?
Speaker 2: God accepts responsibility for all of our genetic defects. Did
Speaker 2: you know that not the problems in our lives we
Speaker 2: brought on ourselves by overeating, or smoke and or drinking
Speaker 2: too much stuff I got, but all the genetic weaknesses
Speaker 2: that you didn't have any choice in, You just inherited him.
Speaker 3: Did you know that?
Speaker 2: God says, I'm responsible. It's part of your shape. Look
Speaker 2: at this verse up on the screen Exodus four. The
Speaker 2: Lord said, who gave man his mouth? Who makes him
Speaker 2: death or mute? Who gives him sight? Or makes him blind?
Speaker 2: Is it not I the Lord? Does God love a
Speaker 2: blind person and he less than a seeing person?
Speaker 3: Of course not? And God says, you know what, I.
Speaker 2: Accept responsibility for this because I've got a bigger perspective than.
Speaker 3: Any little pea brain human.
Speaker 2: I can see what you can't see, and I love them,
Speaker 2: and I love them as much as the person who's
Speaker 2: the All Star prom queen, you know, super Bowl champion.
Speaker 3: That's good news.
Speaker 2: God made you unique, and he made your original because
Speaker 2: originals are more important than copies. Now, how should I
Speaker 2: respond to my shape? Well, you can't build your shape,
Speaker 2: develop your shape, use your shape until first you take
Speaker 2: these three steps.
Speaker 3: And let me just give them to you quickly. Number one.
Speaker 2: The first step is acceptance, and acceptance means to believe
Speaker 2: that God knows best. When he made me, he knew
Speaker 2: what he was doing. I believe that God knows best.
Speaker 2: You see, it all comes down to a matter of trust.
Speaker 2: Do I believe God made a mistake when he made me?
Speaker 2: Or do I trust.
Speaker 3: Him in knowing that he has a plan for my life?
Speaker 3: You see? Do I believe when?
Speaker 2: Actually, when you say, God, I don't like me, there
Speaker 2: are things I don't like. I wish I were different.
Speaker 2: I wish I had different color hair, different color skin.
Speaker 2: I wish I were taller, shorter, fatter, skinnier. I wish
Speaker 2: I had more talent. I wish I could do that.
Speaker 2: I wish I looked like him.
Speaker 3: I wish I had her marts or intelligence. And no, no, you're.
Speaker 2: Basically saying to God, God, you blew it. You goofed
Speaker 2: up big when you made me. Everybody else is okay,
Speaker 2: but you goofed up.
Speaker 3: When you made me.
Speaker 2: When you reject yourself, you are in essence rejecting God
Speaker 2: because he's your creator. And when you don't accept yourself,
Speaker 2: you know what it is. It's rebellion. It's rebellion against God.
Speaker 2: It's saying, God, I know better than you, and you
Speaker 2: should have made me different with a different set of
Speaker 2: drinks and a different set of weaknesses, and God says, no,
Speaker 2: I made you exactly to be you, because I want
Speaker 2: you to be you with both your strengths and your weaknesses,
Speaker 2: and both of them can give glory to me if
Speaker 2: you just start doing what I made you to do
Speaker 2: instead of trying to be like everybody else, to please
Speaker 2: your parents, to please your girlfriend, to please your boyfriend,
Speaker 2: or whatever. I made you to be you, and it
Speaker 2: comes acceptance. See, actually, it's quite arrogant to reject yourself.
Speaker 2: The Bible says this in Romans nine, My friend, I ask,
Speaker 2: who do you think you are to question God? Does
Speaker 2: the clay have the right to ask the potter why
Speaker 2: he shaped it the way he did? Answers, of course not.
Speaker 2: Whenever we doubt God's love, and whenever we doubt God's wisdom,
Speaker 2: we always get into trouble. And the root behind all
Speaker 2: of your problems is you don't trust God. You don't
Speaker 2: believe God really loves you. You don't believe that he
Speaker 2: really has your best interest at heart. You wish he
Speaker 2: had made you something different, And as a result of that,
Speaker 2: there's a spirit of bitterness in you that keeps you
Speaker 2: frustrated and keeps you from being all the man God
Speaker 2: meant for you to be or all the woman God
Speaker 2: meant for you to be.
Speaker 3: You were custom designed by God. Here's one more verse.
Speaker 2: You guided my conception and formed me in the womb.
Speaker 2: He let that conception happen because He wanted you and
Speaker 2: He loves you so first his acceptance.
Speaker 3: The second step is.
Speaker 2: Salvation, and salvation means that I receive God's love. I
Speaker 2: receive God's love. That's the second step to use in
Speaker 2: your shape. The Bible says this, let your love God
Speaker 2: shape my life with salvation.
Speaker 3: Exactly as you promise.
Speaker 2: Let your love God shape my life with salvation that
Speaker 2: can shape over a whole lot of mistakes. Exactly fifteen
Speaker 2: years ago today, I received this letter, Dear Rick.
Speaker 3: Over the years, the.
Speaker 2: Concept that you've taught me that has helped me the
Speaker 2: most and helped those I've shared it with the most
Speaker 2: is the concept of shape. I refer frequently to shape
Speaker 2: when talking with discouraged men and women along skid road.
Speaker 2: I point out that even the most desperate and tragic
Speaker 2: situations can form the basis for the good that God
Speaker 2: can bring out of our lives. God can always bring
Speaker 2: good out of bad In the language of the street.
Speaker 3: You can't deal God a bad hand.
Speaker 2: Yesterday I saw the power of these truths impact a
Speaker 2: man named Richard as a toddler, Richard was abandoned in
Speaker 2: a hotel room by his prostitute mother. He had two
Speaker 2: failed marriages and his children with whom he had no
Speaker 2: relationship or little relationship, And now in his forties, Richard
Speaker 2: was overcome by pain and frustration, and emotionally he was
Speaker 2: still an abandoned little boy. When I explained to Richard
Speaker 2: the details of his unique shape and the truth that
Speaker 2: you teach that God never wastes a hurt, you could
Speaker 2: see his despair begin to lift through weeping. There was
Speaker 2: a new sense of joy and celebration. It was though
Speaker 2: God was embracing and tenderly stroking someone who for many
Speaker 2: years was convinced that he was utterly unlovable. You are
Speaker 2: loved by God, and the Cross proves it. Jesus Christ
Speaker 2: died for you, and he loves you, and he says
Speaker 2: I have made you, and I saved you, and I
Speaker 2: have a plan for you, and I have a home
Speaker 2: in Heaven for you, and I want you to follow me.
Speaker 3: The third thing we need to do.
Speaker 2: Is refocus, and we need to refocus and develop what's
Speaker 2: inside you rather than focusing on what's outside of you.
Speaker 2: That's what we're going to do the next six weeks.
Speaker 2: We're going to focus on developing the inside of you.
Speaker 2: Nobody can disagree that in our society we are obsessed
Speaker 2: with outward appearance. It's in every television, every magazine, every newspaper,
Speaker 2: every movie, and people spend millions of dollars to work
Speaker 2: on the outside, and they go to spa treatments and
Speaker 2: they get all kinds of makeup, and they do all
Speaker 2: kinds of clothes and everything buff up in order to
Speaker 2: look good, and they don't spend any time on the
Speaker 2: inside of them. It's all external and nothing internal. And
Speaker 2: yet God says this and Onet Samuel sixteen, the Lord
Speaker 2: does not look at the things that man looks at.
Speaker 2: Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks
Speaker 2: at the heart, looks at the heart. And that's what
Speaker 2: we're going to do the next six weeks, focus on
Speaker 2: developing the.
Speaker 3: Inside of you.
Speaker 2: Now, my goal for you in this series is to
Speaker 2: help you become a confident person. I know a lot
Speaker 2: of people, I don't know very many confident people. I
Speaker 2: don't most people I know are honestly masking insecurity. I
Speaker 2: don't know many people who are that confident. But when
Speaker 2: you know your shape and you say this is what
Speaker 2: God made me to be, I like me and God
Speaker 2: likes me. If you don't like me, what's your problem.
Speaker 2: I want to help you become a confident man and
Speaker 2: a confident woman. And my goal is that at the
Speaker 2: end of this series, you'll be able to say, like
Speaker 2: Paul said the last verse in your outline, by the
Speaker 2: grace of God, I am what I am. That was
Speaker 2: later copied by Popeye, but it was Paul who first
Speaker 2: said it, I am what I am.
Speaker 3: And that's my goal for you. Let's bow our heads. Father.
Speaker 2: I know that there are many people here who've never
Speaker 2: really accepted themselves, and actually they're parts of their life,
Speaker 2: the way they look, the way they act, their talents
Speaker 2: or whatever, their background that they don't even like. They
Speaker 2: have rejected themselves, and we've seen that that's really a
Speaker 2: rejection of you. It's doubting that you know best, it's
Speaker 2: doubting that you love us. It's wishing that we were
Speaker 2: a copy of somebody else instead of an original helped
Speaker 2: them to take the steps of healing tonight and helped
Speaker 2: this series to be changing, life changing.
Speaker 3: In their lives. Now you pray say this in your heart.
Speaker 2: Dear God, I'm sorry, but I haven't accepted myself, and
Speaker 2: I realized tonight that that means I haven't accepted you,
Speaker 2: that I've rejected your creation.
Speaker 3: And I ask you to forgive me.
Speaker 2: I believe that you made me for a purpose. Thank
Speaker 2: you for loving me and for creating me and making
Speaker 2: me an original that is worthy and worthwhile and lovable.
Speaker 2: I accept how you made me, and I receive your love.
Speaker 2: If you've never accepted God's salvation, tonight, say Jesus Christ,
Speaker 2: I'm accepting you into my life. I'm accepting your love.
Speaker 2: I want to follow your purpose. I'm accepting your forgiveness,
Speaker 2: and I want to learn to know.
Speaker 3: And love you.
Speaker 2: Help me to develop what's on the inside of me,
Speaker 2: and help me in the weeks ahead to discover my
Speaker 2: shape so that I can know your purpose for me,
Speaker 2: so that I can serve you better, so that I
Speaker 2: can pass the test of life, that I can show
Speaker 2: your glory. I want my life to bring a smile
Speaker 2: to your face. God, Thank you for loving me. I
Speaker 2: want to learn to love you more. In your name,
Speaker 2: I pray Amen.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I was sure inspired
Speaker 1: today by Pastor Rick and that message. And I want
Speaker 1: to say that Rick and I are so appreciative that
Speaker 1: you took time out of your day to listen to
Speaker 1: this show. We love you, guys, and we pray for
Speaker 1: you every day. And if you just prayed that prayer
Speaker 1: of salvation to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, congratulations.
Speaker 1: We sure hope you'll let us know about it by
Speaker 1: emailing Rick at Pastorick dot com. We want to pray
Speaker 1: for you, and we want to send you some resources
Speaker 1: to help you with your new relationship with God. And
Speaker 1: now one of my favorite parts of Daily Hope Today,
Speaker 1: we're going to end with the letter from one of
Speaker 1: our listeners.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 2: I want to share a letter from John who says
Speaker 2: he's been reading the Daily Hope Devotionals for ten years.
Speaker 3: Wow. Great John.
Speaker 2: John says he uses these written devotionals every morning to
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Speaker 2: Pastor Rick, I started receiving your Daily Hope Devotionals about
Speaker 2: ten years ago. Not only did they bless my life
Speaker 2: and help me with my daily walk. I would save
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Speaker 2: to reading these devotionals, which typically start my daily prayer
Speaker 2: and Bible reading. You know, I recently got my boss
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Speaker 2: how powerful they really are. You know, my wife and
Speaker 2: I decided to support Daily Hope over and above our
Speaker 2: tithe to our church to help you bring one more
Speaker 2: to Jesus. Well, John, your message is so special to me.
Speaker 2: You have really blessed me with this letter because I'm
Speaker 2: glad for three reasons. First, that you have grown as
Speaker 2: a Christian through Daily Hope. Second, I'm glad that you're
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Speaker 2: So John, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: We sure hope you've been encouraged by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
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