Speaker 1: Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. If you're brand new,
Speaker 1: We're so glad that you found us, and I know
Speaker 1: you want to listen every day as we dive into
Speaker 1: some of Pastor Rick's best series. This series is called
Speaker 1: Shaped to Make a Difference, and today we bring it
Speaker 1: to a close. But don't worry, there's another great series
Speaker 1: coming right after this one. Rick has been talking about
Speaker 1: the acrostic shape s for spiritual gifts, h your heart,
Speaker 1: a your abilities, p your personality, and E your experiences.
Speaker 1: This has been a great series to understand how God
Speaker 1: wired you and why it's important that you know your shape.
Speaker 1: But it's more important to use it to do the
Speaker 1: things that God made you to do. So let's get
Speaker 1: right to it with Pastor Rick and the final part
Speaker 1: of a message called employing your experience.
Speaker 2: The Bible tells us and first Essalonians five eleven incurry
Speaker 2: one another and help one another. That means we're to encourage,
Speaker 2: We're to build up, we're to motivate, where to inspire. Now,
Speaker 2: how do you do that? Well, you can do it
Speaker 2: three ways. You can help people give people hope, you
Speaker 2: can help people overcome their fears, and you can help
Speaker 2: people break down barriers. First, you need to give people hope.
Speaker 2: And when you give people hope, when you show it
Speaker 2: can be done, you show that you've been through it,
Speaker 2: and they'll be able to get through it too. In
Speaker 2: the same way that you just show it can be done.
Speaker 2: When you give people hope, when you help them take
Speaker 2: away their fears. It's kind of like riding a roller coaster.
Speaker 2: If you go up to Six Flags or Magic Mountain,
Speaker 2: you've never been on one of these big roller coaster rides,
Speaker 2: and you're kind of thinking, is this a smart decision?
Speaker 2: And the person in front of you turns around goes,
Speaker 2: this is a great ride. I just have been on
Speaker 2: it five times, and you're going, Okay, I'm gonna live. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna live. They're doing it five times, it's got
Speaker 2: to be okay. Having someone ally gone through it is
Speaker 2: an inspiration, it's motivational. How many of you mothers, when
Speaker 2: you were in your first pregnancy and then you gave
Speaker 2: birth to your first child, felt scared to death, incompetent, unprepared, inadequate,
Speaker 2: and I don't know what this baby is crying and
Speaker 2: I can't make it stop. And how grateful you were
Speaker 2: for somebody who comes along and says, look, babies cry,
Speaker 2: it's okay, and it's okay to let them cry, and
Speaker 2: you can't get them always to stop crying immediately, and
Speaker 2: this is normal. And all of the fears that you
Speaker 2: are having, they're normal. You know what's one of the
Speaker 2: most common fears that people have and they don't want
Speaker 2: to talk about it. I fear I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going crazy. I think I'm going and saying,
Speaker 2: let me tell you something. If you're thinking that, you're not.
Speaker 2: The very fact that you're worried about it. Rational people worry.
Speaker 2: Irrational don't. So the fact that you're worried about losing
Speaker 2: your mind means you ain't doing it. So everybody, take
Speaker 2: a deep breath right now. Okay, Okay, let that one out. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's all some of you needed to hear. You're not
Speaker 2: in crazy, You're not insane. The fact that you fear it.
Speaker 2: People who are insane don't fear going insane. Let me
Speaker 2: tell you that only sane people fear it. So the
Speaker 2: fact that you fear that fear means you're okay. See you,
Speaker 2: Golmes pastor Rixon, I'm sane. I have made my day.
Speaker 2: It's a fear that And you know what, the more
Speaker 2: you keep it to yourself, the more you get afraid.
Speaker 2: You're not going insane. You're under stress, but you're not
Speaker 2: going insane. Okay you're not. You're not. No, I'm having fun.
Speaker 2: You help people break through barriers when you motivate them
Speaker 2: with your own experience. When Roger Banister was the first
Speaker 2: guy to break the four minute mile running, and up
Speaker 2: to that time, everybody said, it's humanly impossible, no human
Speaker 2: being can run that fast or ever will run. It's
Speaker 2: an impossible barrier. It's like the soundbreaking the sound barrier
Speaker 2: and things like that. And yet within about twelve months
Speaker 2: after Roger Banister broke the four minute mile record, about
Speaker 2: a dozen other guys had done it. All of a sudden,
Speaker 2: it was like, Okay, it could be done, and then
Speaker 2: everybody thought, well, it could be done. I just want
Speaker 2: to be the next one to do it. It's like climbing
Speaker 2: Mount Everest. You have had experiences in your life that
Speaker 2: could be barrier busting, inspirational, motivating to other people if
Speaker 2: you're willing to share it. This is when you speak
Speaker 2: from personal experience. When you speak personal experience. It's always
Speaker 2: more important than it is just teaching. The most powerful
Speaker 2: way to say anything is the most personal way to
Speaker 2: say it. That's why in advertisement it's like I tried tied,
Speaker 2: you ought to try it too. Okay, that always has
Speaker 2: more power. And so you have experiences in your life
Speaker 2: that God wants to use not just to minister to
Speaker 2: others when they're down, but also to motivate others to
Speaker 2: get them up. Paul says this in First Corinthians. For
Speaker 2: your sake, my friends, I have applied all of this
Speaker 2: to Apollos and myself personal application, using the two of
Speaker 2: us as examples, so that you may learn. Whenever I
Speaker 2: teach a series on marriage or I always go back
Speaker 2: and talk about all the marriage problems that Ky and
Speaker 2: I have had. Why because it has the credibility of reality,
Speaker 2: and people go, oh, okay, well they don't have a
Speaker 2: perfect marriage. We don't either, but they've lasted thirty one years.
Speaker 2: Maybe we can too. Perfection never helps anybody, friends, except
Speaker 2: when it's Jesus. The rest of the time, it's normal
Speaker 2: role models that make mistakes. The third way that God
Speaker 2: wants you to use your experiences is to use them
Speaker 2: to model for others, not just minister, and not just motivate,
Speaker 2: but actually model for others. There's Philippians three seventeen. Dear brothers,
Speaker 2: pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who
Speaker 2: follow our example. Now notice Paul says follow my example.
Speaker 2: He says, I'm going to be a model. Now we
Speaker 2: know Jesus is the only perfect model, but you can
Speaker 2: learn from imperfect models too. In fact, I looked up
Speaker 2: the word model in the dictionary this week. A model
Speaker 2: is a smaller representation of the real thing. Model, car,
Speaker 2: model plane, a smaller representation of the real thing. This week,
Speaker 2: some company sent me a model of Ronald Reagan. It's
Speaker 2: a Ronald Reagan talking doll. And they make these these
Speaker 2: these uh presidential dolls that talk like, listen to this,
Speaker 2: I am only one thing to say to the text increases,
Speaker 2: go ahead, make my day. Now here's the funny thing.
Speaker 2: They sent this to me because this week they're making
Speaker 2: a Pastor Rick Dall. Now I'm going wait, I mean,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, there's no I'm just wondering what it's
Speaker 2: going to look like, because there's no way I'm giving
Speaker 2: them my body measurements. I'm gonna recommend Fabio as my
Speaker 2: body double. You know, I mean, imagine, what would a
Speaker 2: pastor Rick Dall say? You are not an accident. It's
Speaker 2: not about you. Hurt people, hurt people, get it, got
Speaker 2: it good? All leaders are learners, you know. Anyway, I
Speaker 2: will say this that if they do make a pastor
Speaker 2: Rick Dahl, when Barbie sees it, it's curtains for Ken.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it's over. It's just he's out at Poindexter
Speaker 2: take a hid man. Okay, Now I do think that actually,
Speaker 2: this Ronald Reagan Dahl, this prototype model is actually a
Speaker 2: prototype of me because I noticed he has no socks on.
Speaker 2: So anyway, a smaller representation of the real thing, that's
Speaker 2: a model. Now, God wants you to be a model.
Speaker 2: In fact, that's what the word Christian means, little christ
Speaker 2: a smaller representation of the real thing. There's no way
Speaker 2: you're Jesus. You're never going to be perfect. You are flawed, imperfect,
Speaker 2: smaller model. But God says, I want you to be
Speaker 2: a Christian, a Christian, a little christ. I want little
Speaker 2: models of Jesus all over the world. Are we imperfect? Yes?
Speaker 2: Do we blow it? Yes? Are we poor? Small, cheap,
Speaker 2: imitations of the real thing. Yes, but he says, I
Speaker 2: want you to be a model. I want you to
Speaker 2: be a little Christ at work. I want you to
Speaker 2: be a little Christ at school. I want you to
Speaker 2: be a little Christ in your neighborhood, with your boyfriend,
Speaker 2: with your girlfriend, with the guys, when you're going on
Speaker 2: on a trip. Be a little Christ. I want you
Speaker 2: to be a model. Now, Paul knew the apostle. Paul
Speaker 2: knew that we all need models and that we follow
Speaker 2: by example. If Philippians three, let me read it again,
Speaker 2: dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and
Speaker 2: learn from those who follow our example. That sounds pretty arrogant,
Speaker 2: pretty audacious when he says I want you to follow me,
Speaker 2: Paul just understands human nature. It is human nature to imitate,
Speaker 2: in fact, tactically. Everything you learned in the first five
Speaker 2: years of life, you learned by imitation. It's how you learn.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with imitation. That's how you learn. You go, oh,
Speaker 2: you say it like that, Oh you walk like that. Oh,
Speaker 2: And you learn by imitation. Now, frankly, I don't mind
Speaker 2: people imitating you or me for that matter. At least
Speaker 2: we're making an effort. You're not perfect. I'm not perfect,
Speaker 2: but at least you're trying. And I'd rather have you
Speaker 2: have people following you as a model, then following some
Speaker 2: Hollywood celebrity who's so obsessed with themselves that all they
Speaker 2: can think about is their own ego, where there's saying
Speaker 2: it's all about me. I don't want anybody following that person.
Speaker 2: I don't mind them following you or anybody else for
Speaker 2: that matter, who's at least making the effort. If you
Speaker 2: can only follow a perfect model, you're never going to
Speaker 2: follow anybody and you won't learn a lot. Paul says,
Speaker 2: follow the pattern of my life, pattern your lives. Ever
Speaker 2: used the pattern? If you've ever sown anything, or you've
Speaker 2: done any woodwork, or even in our a lot of
Speaker 2: times you use a pattern. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2: It's the quickest way to reduce mistakes, save time, learn
Speaker 2: better more example. In fact, you want to succeed in life,
Speaker 2: let me tell you the fastest way to succeed. Here's
Speaker 2: how you do it. Find somebody who's already where you
Speaker 2: want to be and follow after their model. That's the
Speaker 2: fastest way to succeed in life. Get a model, rather
Speaker 2: than trying to figure it out all on your own.
Speaker 2: You know, you don't have time to make all the
Speaker 2: mistakes yourself. Take a model and follow it. That's the
Speaker 2: secret of franchising. Take a successful model and reduplicate it,
Speaker 2: and you got Subways all around the world, Starbucks all
Speaker 2: around the world. The fastest way to succeed is find
Speaker 2: a model and then go after it. I'll tell you,
Speaker 2: whenever I see somebody succeeding in ministry doing something the fact,
Speaker 2: I go, amen, brother, Now teach me how to do
Speaker 2: it too. I'm not proud. You can learn from anybody
Speaker 2: if you're willing to learn. In fact, if you can't
Speaker 2: learn from other people, you can't learn from role models,
Speaker 2: you've got an ego problem. You got an arrogance issue.
Speaker 2: That's why the Bible says God resists the proud and
Speaker 2: gives grace to the humble, because it's humble people who
Speaker 2: are teachable. They're going, I'd rather be right than pretend
Speaker 2: I'm right, So teach me how to do it. And
Speaker 2: you learn by modeling. You know, see, successful people always
Speaker 2: leave clues, and if you look and you watch their lives,
Speaker 2: you'll see the clues. Then made them successful. Now, why
Speaker 2: was Jesus the greatest teacher ever in history? Because he
Speaker 2: modeled his message. He didn't just say it, he lived
Speaker 2: it out. He incarnated the truth, incarnational teaching. The word
Speaker 2: became flesh, and Jesus' life was his message. He said,
Speaker 2: this is how you do it, and then he did it.
Speaker 2: He didn't say do what I say, not what I do,
Speaker 2: which a lot of people do. He said, this is
Speaker 2: what you see is what you get. He modeled the
Speaker 2: message and he lived it. And in John thirteen he
Speaker 2: says this, I have given you a model to follow,
Speaker 2: so that as I have done for you, you should
Speaker 2: also do. God says. Jesus says, I want you to
Speaker 2: follow my model, and then I want you to be
Speaker 2: a model. I expect you to be a model. I
Speaker 2: want you to be a model for other people. And
Speaker 2: as a Christ follower, God expects you to do the same.
Speaker 2: The next verse, Titus says, always set a good example.
Speaker 2: That's a model for others. Here's the problem. The problem
Speaker 2: is that growing up you didn't get to choose your
Speaker 2: mind model. Your models as a kid were simply the
Speaker 2: adults who were closest to you, and that meant They
Speaker 2: could have been good, bad, or terrible. And if you
Speaker 2: were fortunate enough to have good models in your life,
Speaker 2: you grew up pretty healthy. On the other hand, if
Speaker 2: you had some bad models in your life, you grew
Speaker 2: up with some wounds and some hurts and maybe some
Speaker 2: little quirks that need to be worked out. Now, nobody's
Speaker 2: totally perfect, so we all have imperfections that we picked
Speaker 2: up from our models. But here's the good news. You
Speaker 2: get to choose your model. You don't have to stay
Speaker 2: with the ones you had as a kid. You can
Speaker 2: get a new model. You can choose a new model.
Speaker 2: You can go out and read books and listen to
Speaker 2: tapes and read biographies and get into contact with people.
Speaker 2: And you see somebody in the church, go ooh, I
Speaker 2: like the way they're doing that. I want to be
Speaker 2: a father like that person. I want to be a
Speaker 2: husband like that person, not like my dad. Or I
Speaker 2: want to be a mom like that woman, or I
Speaker 2: want to be a business person like that person. That's
Speaker 2: perfectly fine. You need to have models in your life
Speaker 2: and you need to be a model, and if you're not,
Speaker 2: you're wasting your experiences and you're just letting them be
Speaker 2: pain in your life rather than good. The good news,
Speaker 2: as I said, is you can change your model and repattern.
Speaker 2: So let me ask a couple questions, who do you
Speaker 2: respect enough to pattern your life after? Who do you
Speaker 2: respect enough to pattern your life after? We said, well,
Speaker 2: I can't think of anybody. Then you're not looking because
Speaker 2: there are thousands of people around. They don't have to
Speaker 2: be the pattern for every area of your life to go.
Speaker 2: I'm going to pattern that area of my life after
Speaker 2: that person, and I'm going to pattern in that area
Speaker 2: of my life after that other person because nobody. That's
Speaker 2: why we need each other. It's value small groups for
Speaker 2: one thing. And as I said, you can learn from
Speaker 2: anybody if you just know the right questions. Look for
Speaker 2: somebody who's going through stages or has already gone through
Speaker 2: stages you're going through. Now here's a more important question.
Speaker 2: Who do you need to be a model to? Who?
Speaker 2: In what areas could you be a model for somebody else?
Speaker 2: You see, you need to be a model, and you
Speaker 2: need to have models. Titus tells us this, Our people
Speaker 2: should also learn how to set an example. That's modeling
Speaker 2: by doing good things when urgent needs arise. That's like
Speaker 2: Katrina so that they can live productive lives. Last way
Speaker 2: that God wants you to use your experiences is by
Speaker 2: mentoring others. Now, Mentoring is far more intentional than simply
Speaker 2: ministering somebody when they're hurting, or motivating them when they're down,
Speaker 2: or modeling and giving them an example. Mentoring is when
Speaker 2: you actually say, I'm going to take an interest in
Speaker 2: this particular person's life and I'm going to help them
Speaker 2: all along. First John, Chapter one, John says this, we
Speaker 2: saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you
Speaker 2: so you can experience it along with us. He says,
Speaker 2: you know, I passed it on to you, and then
Speaker 2: you could pass it on to others. Now, what is
Speaker 2: a mentor. A mentor is simply an experienced, trusted counselor
Speaker 2: or guide. They have experience, they're trusted, and they're like
Speaker 2: a counselor guide. The actual word mentor comes from Homer's
Speaker 2: poem The Odyssey King of dyss When he goes off
Speaker 2: to fight the Trojan War, he leaves his kingdom in
Speaker 2: the hands of a trusted counselor named mentor, and mentor
Speaker 2: actually teaches and raises up King Odyssa's son and that's
Speaker 2: where we get the word mentor. Now mentor is like
Speaker 2: a personal coach, a personal coach. Everybody needs a personal
Speaker 2: coach and needs to be a personal coach. As I said,
Speaker 2: it's very intentional and personal coaches bring out the best
Speaker 2: in you and they see in you things that you
Speaker 2: don't see in yourself. And a mentor helps you with
Speaker 2: three areas. Write these down, role, goal, and sol. A
Speaker 2: mentor helps you with your role, what do I do
Speaker 2: in life? Your goal? What am I accomplishing in life?
Speaker 2: And your soul? What am I becoming in life? And
Speaker 2: they help you and make you become what you can become. Now,
Speaker 2: the fact is all education used to be done my mentors.
Speaker 2: There were no schools in the Middle Ages. You would
Speaker 2: be apprentice to a master craftsman and they would train
Speaker 2: disciple mentor you and they would teach you one on one,
Speaker 2: and that's how you'd learned to be a shoemaker or
Speaker 2: some other of the mini crafts. Today, mentors are used
Speaker 2: more than ever before. They use mentors in the military,
Speaker 2: they use mentors in management, they use mentors in sales,
Speaker 2: they use mentors in schools, in politics. No pro athlete
Speaker 2: would think of trying to be a pro without a coach.
Speaker 2: Tiger Woods would not think of playing golf without a mentor.
Speaker 2: Michael Jordan would not think of playing basketball without a mentor.
Speaker 2: Pavaroti would not think of singing without having a vocal coach.
Speaker 2: Even presidents have their mentors. They're elected by the population,
Speaker 2: but they still have a mentor. Why no matter how
Speaker 2: successful you are or how successful you think you are,
Speaker 2: you always need a mentor. You'll need one the rest
Speaker 2: of your life. It's how you get to the top.
Speaker 2: In fact, you're not going to get to the top
Speaker 2: without a mentor. You've got to have people who are
Speaker 2: speaking into your life. And now with phone, telephone and email,
Speaker 2: they don't even have to live in the same area anymore.
Speaker 2: In my lifetime, I've probably had about fifteen different mentors.
Speaker 2: I have four right now now. None of them live
Speaker 2: in California. They all live on the East Coast, and
Speaker 2: one lives in England. And I talk to them all
Speaker 2: the time. I email them, talked to Colson just yes
Speaker 2: not yesterday, the day before yesterday. And I just run
Speaker 2: ideas by them and problems. And now here's the thing
Speaker 2: about mentors. They can't be somebody in the organization you're in.
Speaker 2: They can't be either your boss or your employee because
Speaker 2: they have to have no They can't gain or lose
Speaker 2: anything by what they tell you. Does that makes sense?
Speaker 2: In other words, they're going to just tell you the
Speaker 2: truth because it doesn't help or he'll harm them one
Speaker 2: way or another. So you need to have a mentor
Speaker 2: who doesn't have a political motivation in telling you what
Speaker 2: they tell you. So there need to be somebody on
Speaker 2: the outside. You will always need a mentor in your life,
Speaker 2: at least one. The Bible says in Proverbs twenty five,
Speaker 2: verse twelve, a warning given by an experienced person to
Speaker 2: someone willing to listen is more valuable than gold rings
Speaker 2: or jewelry. He's saying, it's priceless. You're always going to
Speaker 2: need a mentor. Now, those of you who are over forty,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands.
Speaker 2: But the next verses for you Job thirty two. Age
Speaker 2: should speak and experience should teach wisdom. Are you doing
Speaker 2: that or are you wasting your experiences? Are you teaching anybody?
Speaker 2: Are you sharing what you've learned? Both do this and
Speaker 2: by the way, avoid this. Been there and been there,
Speaker 2: do this, and don't do that. Are you sharing any
Speaker 2: of your experiences? Are they just the only benefit in
Speaker 2: your life is pain? No, you need to be sharing them.
Speaker 2: Age should speak and experience should teach wisdom. Now, if
Speaker 2: you're under forty, the next verses for you job in
Speaker 2: chapter eight ask the former generation pay attention to the
Speaker 2: experiences of our ancestors. Walk out here onto the path.
Speaker 2: You after the service, somebody looks older, you can say, hey,
Speaker 2: ancestor no, just time. You know, you save yourself a
Speaker 2: whole lot of pain. You can either learn everything from
Speaker 2: experience or you can learn them from the experiences of others,
Speaker 2: which is smart. I don't have enough time to learn
Speaker 2: everything by personal experience, and on top of that, it's
Speaker 2: a lot more painful to learn it that way. It's
Speaker 2: wise to learn from experience. It's wiser to learn from
Speaker 2: the experiences of others. So we need to go out
Speaker 2: and we need to mentor, and we need to be
Speaker 2: mentored and avoid a lot of pain. What do you
Speaker 2: look for in a mentor? You look for experience, You
Speaker 2: look for perspective, and you look for somebody who can trust.
Speaker 2: If you're a believer, you definitely need a believer as
Speaker 2: a mentor. Now it may surprise you, but you can
Speaker 2: mentor at any age. A ten year old can mentor
Speaker 2: an eight year old. In fact, a ten year old
Speaker 2: can mentor a twelve year old if he or she
Speaker 2: knows more about a subject than somebody else does. It
Speaker 2: doesn't have to do with age. If somebody knows more
Speaker 2: than you in a particular area, some of you, for instance,
Speaker 2: could be mentored on computer by somebody much younger than you.
Speaker 2: Everybody want to agree with that, Yeah, you know, because
Speaker 2: that generation knows more about it than we do. Okay,
Speaker 2: so you can mentor at any age. You could mentor
Speaker 2: somebody at your own age. I started mentoring my first
Speaker 2: two people that I mentored, I was twenty years old.
Speaker 2: I was in college. One was a twenty year old guy,
Speaker 2: and that there was a nineteen year old guy. They
Speaker 2: were peers, but I knew more about them and know
Speaker 2: more about the spiritual life than they did, and I
Speaker 2: began to mentor them. Those of you who are young,
Speaker 2: you need to be mentors too. You need to be
Speaker 2: mentoring other people. The Bible says in one Timothy four,
Speaker 2: this is a good verse for young adults. Don't let
Speaker 2: anyone treat you as unimportant because you're young. Paul's talking
Speaker 2: to Timothy, who was a young man. Instead, be an
Speaker 2: example to the believers with your words and your actions
Speaker 2: and your love and your faith and your pure life.
Speaker 2: What if we today said we're going to combine our
Speaker 2: experiences and use them for good and for God. Imagine?
Speaker 2: Imagine the impact. Would that have any kind of impact
Speaker 2: on the County of Orange in southern California? Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: if everybody had saddleback said Okay, God, we're going to
Speaker 2: use the experiences we've got to mentor and model and
Speaker 2: motivate and minister to the people around us. We're not
Speaker 2: going to just waste these experiences. We're going to use
Speaker 2: them for good and for God. You know, I spray
Speaker 2: the same prayer every single morning when I get up,
Speaker 2: and there's a prayer I pray when I wake up,
Speaker 2: and there's a prayer when I get out of bed.
Speaker 2: I prayed it this morning. When I wake up, before
Speaker 2: I even get out of bed, my eyes open up
Speaker 2: and I say the words of a song, and I
Speaker 2: say it every morning. I've trained my mind to say this,
Speaker 2: and when I wake up, the first thing I think
Speaker 2: every morning. Is this, It's the words to a song. Lord.
Speaker 2: I offer my life to you everything I've been through,
Speaker 2: that's experiences, Use it for your glory. Lord, I offer
Speaker 2: my days to you. Lift up my praise to you
Speaker 2: as a living sacrifice. Lord, I offer you my life,
Speaker 2: and then I get out of bed. Lord, I offer
Speaker 2: my life to you everything I've been through. Have you
Speaker 2: done that? The good, the bad, and the ugly. You
Speaker 2: say we've had marriage problems, Well, who hasn't. If you
Speaker 2: haven't had marriage problems and you're married to the word
Speaker 2: for you, liar, you married a sinner. I've said this
Speaker 2: many times. You married a center and he married she
Speaker 2: married a bigger one. And two sinners don't make a
Speaker 2: perfect relationship. There's no perfect marriage. We need marriage mentors. Man.
Speaker 2: I wish i'd been a young couple or an older
Speaker 2: middle aged couple who came around K and me when
Speaker 2: we were young and having so many problems in our marriage,
Speaker 2: who could have just helped us. We need marriage mentors
Speaker 2: in this world to stop the divorce rate. We need
Speaker 2: marketplace mentors who say, you know what, I'm going to
Speaker 2: take this young girl, this young guy under my wing,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to show him the ropes of this
Speaker 2: business marketplace mentors. We need maturity member mentors who say,
Speaker 2: I'll take this new believer and help them grow, and
Speaker 2: I'll just take them under my wing for six months.
Speaker 2: I've only been a Christian for a year, but I'm
Speaker 2: at least further along than they are, and I'll help them.
Speaker 2: We need mission mentors who help people who are scared
Speaker 2: to death to go on a piece trip, work through
Speaker 2: their fears, and talk to them about it. In every
Speaker 2: area of life, God is saying to you today, don't
Speaker 2: waste your experiences. They are as important a part of
Speaker 2: your shape as your gifts and your heart and your
Speaker 2: ability and your personality. Let's bow our heads. Would you
Speaker 2: pray this prayer now? Lord, I offer my life to you,
Speaker 2: everything I've been through, Use it for your glory. Lord.
Speaker 2: I offer my days to you. I lift up my
Speaker 2: praise to you as a living sacrifice. Lord, I offer
Speaker 2: you my life, Jesus, I give you my all in
Speaker 2: your name. I pray Amen. Hi, everybody, This is Rick
Speaker 2: and I hope you enjoyed today's broadcast. You know if
Speaker 2: you just prayed that prayer for the very first time,
Speaker 2: or you just recommitted your life to Jesus again today,
Speaker 2: would you let me know about it. There's something real
Speaker 2: about sharing your commitment. So write me Rick at Pastorick
Speaker 2: dot com and say, Rick, I prayed that prayer of commitment.
Speaker 2: I gave my life to Christ. And I'll send you
Speaker 2: some material that will help you on your journey with Jesus.
Speaker 2: And I'll also pray for you. God bless you.
Speaker 1: Such inspiring words from Pastor Rick today. Now, I want
Speaker 1: to say that Rick and I so appreciate that you
Speaker 1: took the time out of your day to listen to
Speaker 1: this show. And now one of my favorite parts of
Speaker 1: Daily Hope Today, we're going to end with the letter
Speaker 1: from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: Today, I want to share a letter from John, who
Speaker 2: says he's been reading the Daily Hope devotionals for ten years. Wow.
Speaker 2: Great John. John says he uses these written devotionals every
Speaker 2: morning to start his daily prayer and Bible reading. And
Speaker 2: he writes this, Pastor Rick, I started receiving your Daily
Speaker 2: Hope devotionals about ten years ago. Not only did they
Speaker 2: bless my life and help me with my daily walk,
Speaker 2: I would save them and send them to my friends
Speaker 2: when issues or questions would come up. So I look
Speaker 2: forward every morning to reading these devotionals, which typically start
Speaker 2: my daily prayer and Bible reading. You know, I recently
Speaker 2: got my boss signed up for Daily Hope devotionals and
Speaker 2: it hit me how powerful they really are. You know,
Speaker 2: my wife and I decided to support Daily Hope over
Speaker 2: and above our tithe to our church to help you
Speaker 2: bring one more to Jesus. Well, John, your message is
Speaker 2: so special to me. You have really blessed me with
Speaker 2: this letter because I'm glad for three reasons. First, that
Speaker 2: you have grown as a Christian through Daily Hope. Second,
Speaker 2: I'm glad that you're using the Daily Hope to help
Speaker 2: you study God's Word in a personal basis. And third,
Speaker 2: I want to thank you for karen enough to help
Speaker 2: other people that you have given generously of your funds
Speaker 2: and gifts to help us stay on the air and
Speaker 2: to allow us to actually even expand into other stations
Speaker 2: to take the good news of hope to places where
Speaker 2: it is desperately needed. So John, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 1: We sure hope you've been encouraged by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
Speaker 1: and if you have, would you consider supporting us just
Speaker 1: go to pastorick dot com again. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: We hope you'll join us next time as we continue
Speaker 1: to look into God's word for our daily hope. This
Speaker 1: program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your
Speaker 1: generous financial support.