Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Hey
Speaker 1: did you know that one decision can shape the entire
Speaker 1: direction of your life? Yeah? It can. And today Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick Warren is going to continue with the story of Mary,
Speaker 1: this young woman who humbly and courageously said yes to
Speaker 1: God's call becoming the mother of Jesus. So let's dive
Speaker 1: right in for the rest of this message. Here's Rick
Speaker 1: with will I accept God's destiny for me?
Speaker 2: Whatever worries you, God's concerned about, whatever makes you afraid.
Speaker 2: God's concerned about whatever gets you uptight. God is concerned about.
Speaker 2: There is nothing in your life that you're concerned about
Speaker 2: that God isn't concerned about because you are always on
Speaker 2: his mind. That's the second reason why you ought to
Speaker 2: go with his plan, not your plan for your life. First,
Speaker 2: he made you for his plan, and second, He's always
Speaker 2: thinking about you. Whatever concerns me concerns God. You know,
Speaker 2: if you ever watch the Fox News channel, there's that
Speaker 2: show on there, the O'Reilly Report or the O'Reilly Factor,
Speaker 2: And at the end, Bill O'Reilly has a sign off
Speaker 2: and he says the spin stops here, and then he
Speaker 2: has a final tagline, you remember what it is, he says,
Speaker 2: because we're looking out for you. I don't believe Bill
Speaker 2: O'Reilly's looking out for me. I don't believe that for
Speaker 2: a minute. He doesn't even know who I am. He's
Speaker 2: not looking out for me. Bill O'Reilly's looking out for himself.
Speaker 2: I don't believe that we're always looking out for you.
Speaker 2: He's not always looking out for me. But God is.
Speaker 2: God is always looking out for you. Mary accepted God's
Speaker 2: destiny because she knew God was always looking out for
Speaker 2: It was gonna be tough. It wasn't gonna be easy.
Speaker 2: God's destiny for your life will have problems. God's destiny
Speaker 2: for your life will have criticism. God's definite destiny for
Speaker 2: your life will have things that are really tough to do.
Speaker 2: But He's looking out for you, and you're always on
Speaker 2: his mind. Mary says this in Luke one eight, for
Speaker 2: he has been mindful of the humble state of his
Speaker 2: servant circle that word mindful. This is the second reason
Speaker 2: she says, I can trust God because he's mindful of
Speaker 2: the humble state of his servant. That's me, Mary says.
Speaker 2: He says, what is mindful mean? It means he's alert,
Speaker 2: he's attentive, he's aware, he's focused. He's paying attention when
Speaker 2: nobody else is paying attention to you. God's paying attention
Speaker 2: to you. He notices everything. In fact, Jesus said this
Speaker 2: about your life. Look here on the screen, Matthew ten.
Speaker 2: Not even a little sparrow can fall to the ground
Speaker 2: without your Father noticing it. The very hairs on your
Speaker 2: head are numbered. You don't even know how many hairs
Speaker 2: in the head your head you've got. But God says,
Speaker 2: I know. That's how much detail I pay attention to
Speaker 2: in your life. I know how many hairs are on
Speaker 2: your head. God knows how many hairs are in your ear,
Speaker 2: and knows he knows it all. There's nothing God doesn't
Speaker 2: know about your life. And Mary says, I can trust
Speaker 2: God with my destiny. I'm willing to go with his
Speaker 2: plan because first he made me for it, and second,
Speaker 2: he's paying attention to everything in my life. Number three,
Speaker 2: Mary says in her song The Magnificat that accepting God's
Speaker 2: destiny for my life is best because it is the
Speaker 2: key to blessing. God didn't want to bless your plan.
Speaker 2: If you ignore God's plan for your life. And you
Speaker 2: go out with your plan, well, good luck, because you're
Speaker 2: on your own. God owes you nothing. If you just
Speaker 2: say forget God, I'm gonna go with my plan for
Speaker 2: my life. God owes you nothing. God only blesses when
Speaker 2: we may do what we were created to do. Following
Speaker 2: God's destiny is the way I get God's blessing on
Speaker 2: my life. And Mary knew this. She knew that faith
Speaker 2: and obedience to God were the key to his blessings.
Speaker 2: She knew that that's what God would do in her life.
Speaker 2: Look at this verse Luke one forty eight. She says
Speaker 2: this from now on. From now on, she says, every
Speaker 2: generation will call me blessed, for He the Mighty One,
Speaker 2: is holy, and He's done great things for me. He
Speaker 2: chose me, and God will show his mercy. Notice, she says,
Speaker 2: not only will God bless me, said, God will show
Speaker 2: his mercy to every generation who will worship and serve him.
Speaker 2: She says, God doesn't just bless me, She'll bless He'll
Speaker 2: bless anybody who worships and serve Him, who follows God's
Speaker 2: plan for their lives. And what's Mary saying here? She's
Speaker 2: gone If I accept God's destiny for my life. I'm
Speaker 2: going to be the most blessed woman on the planet.
Speaker 2: What God is going to do through me and through
Speaker 2: my teenage body will never be forgotten. Now you think, well,
Speaker 2: maybe that's true of Mary, but that's certainly not true
Speaker 2: of me. You're dead wrong. You're dead wrong. Everything you do,
Speaker 2: you do will be remembered for eternity. It's not going
Speaker 2: to be remembered on earth, but everything you do will
Speaker 2: be remembered for eternity. It's not just Mary's destiny. She's
Speaker 2: at every whatever I do, it's gonna be remembered forever
Speaker 2: and ever and ever. And everything you do is gonna
Speaker 2: be remembered by God forever and ever and ever. That's
Speaker 2: why you better make your life count. You better not
Speaker 2: waste it. You better go with God's destiny for your life.
Speaker 2: Now here's the question. Could Mary have said no to
Speaker 2: God's destiny for her? Yes. God doesn't ever force his
Speaker 2: plan on us. He gives us a choice because he
Speaker 2: wants us to follow him because we love him, not
Speaker 2: because we're forced to love him. If God had wanted to,
Speaker 2: he could have given you no free will and you
Speaker 2: hadn't to do what he wanted you to do. He
Speaker 2: could have made you a puppet, a marionette on strings,
Speaker 2: and you would have no choice. But God says, it's
Speaker 2: only love if you choose to love. So you can
Speaker 2: choose not to love God. You can choose to not
Speaker 2: follow his destiny for your life. And the fact is
Speaker 2: most of the people in the world miss their destiny.
Speaker 2: Billions of people miss the destiny God created them for
Speaker 2: because they choose to go after their own plan instead
Speaker 2: of God's plan for their life. Could Mary missed it? Yes?
Speaker 2: Could yes? Deuteronomy thirty, verse nineteen. On the screen, God says,
Speaker 2: this this day, I have set before you life or death.
Speaker 2: Blessings are curses. Now choose life. He said, it's your choice.
Speaker 2: It's your decision. I'm not going to force it on you.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna let you choose. Choose life so that you
Speaker 2: and your children may live. Your choice does not only
Speaker 2: affect your life, they affect the next generation. They affect
Speaker 2: the next generation. Number four, Mary says, accepting God's destiny
Speaker 2: for my life is best. It's better than any plan
Speaker 2: I can come up with because Godd honors humility, and
Speaker 2: it takes humility to say God I'm gonna go with
Speaker 2: your plan, not my plan. It takes humility to say God,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go your way, not my way. That takes humility, pride,
Speaker 2: arrogance says forget you, God, I'm gonna do what I
Speaker 2: want to do. I got my plans, my dreams, my ambitions, God,
Speaker 2: God says. The Bible says, God resists the proud, but
Speaker 2: gives grace to the humble. The Bible says, before honor
Speaker 2: is humility. The Bible says, humble yourself before the Lord,
Speaker 2: and he will lift you up. I want God to
Speaker 2: honor you in the next ten years. I want him
Speaker 2: to honor your business. I want him to honor your family.
Speaker 2: I want him to honor your life. The Bible says,
Speaker 2: before honor is humility. I want God to lift you up.
Speaker 2: I wanted him to lift up your finances. I want
Speaker 2: him to lift up your health. The Bible says, humble
Speaker 2: yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Speaker 2: It starts with humility, and Mary talks about this in
Speaker 2: the next couple verses, verses fifty to fifty three. Now
Speaker 2: he has displayed his power God with many mighty deeds,
Speaker 2: but he has scattered the people who are proud and
Speaker 2: think they're the great ones, you know. In other words,
Speaker 2: I don't need God. He has brought down mighty rulers
Speaker 2: from their thrones, but he's raised up the humble. He
Speaker 2: has filled the hungry with good things, but he sent
Speaker 2: the rich away with nothing. Those people think, well, I
Speaker 2: don't need anything. I don't need God. Notice this is
Speaker 2: the great reversal. This is an amazing piece of poetry.
Speaker 2: I wish you could hear it in the original language,
Speaker 2: you know, I was. I'm watching this special on Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2: She's a pretty amazing songwriter. She wrote her first song
Speaker 2: at age ten, and by age fourteen, Taylor Swift was
Speaker 2: hired by Sony to write songs. How'd you like to
Speaker 2: be a fourteen year old being paid by Sony Corporation
Speaker 2: to write songs? That's talent. But I want to tell
Speaker 2: you the greatest teenage songwriter who ever lived was Mary
Speaker 2: Mary's thirteen or fourteen. She's writing this poetry and it's
Speaker 2: quite a song. In these ten verses, she mentions seventeen
Speaker 2: different attributes of God, and she strings together ten different
Speaker 2: verses from the Old Testament from memory. Could you do
Speaker 2: that at thirteen, you couldn't do it now. You couldn't
Speaker 2: do it now. And this is why God chooses Mary.
Speaker 2: Mary knew the word. She wasn't educated. You're far better
Speaker 2: educated than Mary ever was, but she knew the word.
Speaker 2: And if you want God's blessing, you need to know
Speaker 2: God's word. You need to study it and memorize it,
Speaker 2: to meditate on it and get to know it. If
Speaker 2: you want God's blessing, you need to know the word. Finally,
Speaker 2: number six, number five, accepting God's destiny for my life
Speaker 2: is best because God keeps his promises. This is the
Speaker 2: fifth thing Mary sings about God keeps his promises. It's
Speaker 2: a big theme of Mary's song that God is faithful.
Speaker 2: God can be counted on. God is good and he
Speaker 2: if he makes you a promise, you can count on it.
Speaker 2: It's gonna happen. It may take a while, but it's
Speaker 2: going to happen. And Luke one fifty four and fifty five.
Speaker 2: And he God has kept the promise he has made
Speaker 2: to our ancestors. What does that promise? That God would
Speaker 2: send a savior, a messiah. And he has come to
Speaker 2: the help of his servant Israel, and he has remembered.
Speaker 2: God doesn't forget a promise he makes. I forget promises
Speaker 2: I make. God remembers he has remembered to show mercy
Speaker 2: to Abraham and all his descendants forever. And what in
Speaker 2: what was she talking about? Two thousand years before Mary?
Speaker 2: Abraham lift? Now that's it was two thousand years ago.
Speaker 2: Mary lived, so four thousand years ago from today. Abraham
Speaker 2: lived four thousand years ago. God makes a promise to Abraham,
Speaker 2: I'm going to bless your family because through your line
Speaker 2: one day, I'm going to send the savior of the world.
Speaker 2: Through your family line. I'm going to send the promised
Speaker 2: Messiah who will save everybody from their sins. That was
Speaker 2: a promise made by God four thousand years ago to Abraham.
Speaker 2: And Mary knew the story had been promised thousands of
Speaker 2: years ago. And she's saying, he keeps his promise. He
Speaker 2: keeps his promise. In fact, Mary's story began hundreds and
Speaker 2: hundreds of years before Mary was even born. Look at
Speaker 2: this verse in Isaiah chapter seven. This is thousands of
Speaker 2: years ago for us. God tells Isaiah a prophecy. Therefore,
Speaker 2: the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a
Speaker 2: virgin shall conceive he predicted this is thousands of years ago,
Speaker 2: and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.
Speaker 2: The destiny of Mary's life began thousands of years before
Speaker 2: Mary was even born, and the same is true of you.
Speaker 2: God planned your destiny before he created the world. The
Speaker 2: Bible says that very clearly your destiny was planned, not
Speaker 2: the moment you took your first breath. He was planned
Speaker 2: thousands of years before you were even before. But the
Speaker 2: Bible says, before he, before he formed the earth, God
Speaker 2: had us in his mind. And he still gives you
Speaker 2: the choice to accept it or to miss what he
Speaker 2: planned before you were even born. Mary's destiny was planned,
Speaker 2: she accepted it. And the truth is the Savior did
Speaker 2: come to earth, and God did keep his promise, and
Speaker 2: Jesus did come at Christmas, and then he died on
Speaker 2: the cross for us. Now, it's interesting that in the scriptures,
Speaker 2: not one time in the Bible are we told to
Speaker 2: celebrate Jesus' birth. Now once never in the Bible are
Speaker 2: we told to celebrate Jesus' birth, But we are told
Speaker 2: over and over and over to celebrate his death and
Speaker 2: his resurrection. Because if Jesus hadn't died on the cross
Speaker 2: and been resurrected again, Christmas wouldn't even matter. Would you
Speaker 2: bow your heads with me as we pray together? And
Speaker 2: I want to pray a prayer surrender, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to invite you to pray this. Will you accept God's
Speaker 2: destiny for your life, just as Mary did, the one
Speaker 2: that was planned for your life before you even work?
Speaker 2: Or are you going to continue to go with your plan?
Speaker 2: Would you pray this? Father? Today? I surrender humbly to
Speaker 2: your plan for my life. I surrender humbly to your
Speaker 2: plan for my life. I realize that you made me
Speaker 2: for your purpose. I realize that no one cares more
Speaker 2: about my life than you do. I know that going
Speaker 2: with your plan and for my life is the key
Speaker 2: to blessing. So I humble myself before you, knowing that
Speaker 2: you honor humility. Thank you that you keep your promises.
Speaker 2: I want to fulfill my destiny. Today I make a
Speaker 2: faith commitment to you, just like Mary did. When I
Speaker 2: don't understand it, and I don't understand all that's going
Speaker 2: to be involved in it, but I'm saying yes to you,
Speaker 2: Jesus in advance, Jesus Christ, I trust you with my life,
Speaker 2: and I ask you to save me and change me
Speaker 2: and help me to follow your plan from this day forward.
Speaker 2: In your name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 1: If you just prayed to receive Jesus congratulations, We would
Speaker 1: love to send you some free materials to help you
Speaker 1: along on your spiritual journey. Just email Rick at pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com. Hey, have
Speaker 1: you ever wished that you could hear from God? I
Speaker 1: mean really hear his voice when you're facing a big decision,
Speaker 1: struggling with pain, or just feeling lost. Well, here's the
Speaker 1: amazing truth. The creator of the universe wants to be
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Speaker 1: The question is are you tuned in? In this powerful
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