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: So let's jump right in. Here's Rick with the final
Speaker 1: part of a message called Unwrapping your Spiritual Gifts.
Speaker 2: A couple weeks ago we started this series that God
Speaker 2: he never makes copies of anything. He only makes originals
Speaker 2: because the originals are far more valuable than any copy,
Speaker 2: and that God made you for a purpose and He
Speaker 2: has wired you or shaped you uniquely unlike anybody else
Speaker 2: in the world. We talked about how that in architecture,
Speaker 2: form follows function, In other words, tell me what you
Speaker 2: want the building to be used for, and then I'll
Speaker 2: tell you how to build it. But the opposite is
Speaker 2: true with human beings. Function follows form. In other words,
Speaker 2: look at the way God formed you, how he shaped you,
Speaker 2: and then you'll know what you're supposed to do with
Speaker 2: your life. And we said that there are five things
Speaker 2: that make you you. Your shape, shape, spiritual gifts.
Speaker 3: What am I gifted to do?
Speaker 2: Heart? What do I love to do? Abilities? What are
Speaker 2: my natural abilities? P personality and e experiences?
Speaker 3: What are my.
Speaker 2: Unique experiences that nobody else in the world has had.
Speaker 2: These five things make you. They make up your shape.
Speaker 3: Now today we're going to look at the h in shape.
Speaker 2: Which is your heart. And in Proverbs chapter twenty seven,
Speaker 2: they're on your outline. It says this as a face
Speaker 2: is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the person.
Speaker 2: Your heart is what makes you you. Now when we
Speaker 2: talk about heart, we're talking about your interest, your passions,
Speaker 2: your desires, the emotional component of you, not your intellect,
Speaker 2: but the emotional component of you, your hopes, your dreams,
Speaker 2: your ambitions, that which motivates you to get up in
Speaker 2: the morning, what drives you, what excites you, what interests you.
Speaker 3: As I said, these.
Speaker 2: Are all the components of your heart. And your heart,
Speaker 2: the Bible tells us, affects everything you say, It affects
Speaker 2: everything you do, It affects everything you feel. And your
Speaker 2: heart is different than everybody else's heart beat. Now this
Speaker 2: is true, not just emotionally, it's true physically. Did you
Speaker 2: know that your heart beat is slightly different than everybody
Speaker 2: else's heartbeat in the world. Just like you have a
Speaker 2: thumbprint and an EyePrint and a voice print and a
Speaker 2: footprint that's unique, you also have a unique heartbeat. It's
Speaker 2: just slightly different than everybody else's. That's not only true physically,
Speaker 2: it is true emotionally that there's some things that you're
Speaker 2: extremely interested in and other things you couldn't care less about.
Speaker 2: There are some things that are fascinating to you and
Speaker 2: you could think about them or talk about them for
Speaker 2: a long time, and other things you're bored to tears.
Speaker 2: There's some things that really get you excited, that wind
Speaker 2: your crank, that turn you on, that get you get
Speaker 2: your juices running. And there's some things that, frankly, they
Speaker 2: just leave you flat, you've got.
Speaker 3: No interest in them at all.
Speaker 2: And God gave each of us a different emotional heartbeat.
Speaker 2: We all like different things, so that way everything in
Speaker 2: the world gets done. If we all like to do
Speaker 2: the same thing, if we all had the same loves,
Speaker 2: the same interest, there would be a lot left undone
Speaker 2: in the world. But on the heartbeat, we're all different. Now,
Speaker 2: let me just show this. For instance, how many of
Speaker 2: you would say, I don't.
Speaker 3: Just like dogs, I am a dog lover.
Speaker 2: I really really love dogs. Gonna see your hands, all right?
Speaker 2: These are the dog lovers. You're probably sitting next to
Speaker 2: a cat lover.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: How many of you say, I'm not really into dogs, but.
Speaker 3: I really really love cats.
Speaker 2: I love cats now, I'm a fanatic about cats, cause
Speaker 2: see your hands all right. How many of you say
Speaker 2: I couldn't care less about either? All right, Okay, see,
Speaker 2: we're all just different. How many of you would say,
Speaker 2: you know, what like a fix? I have to have
Speaker 2: my football. I just love football. I gotta have my
Speaker 2: football fix, particularly in the fall, because of your hands. Yeah,
Speaker 2: how many of you'd say if football was never again
Speaker 2: on TV.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't miss it? Can I see your hands? We
Speaker 3: just started some family feuds. Just there. I'll be doing marriage.
Speaker 2: Counseling after the last service. Well, the truth is, we
Speaker 2: all have different interests. How many of you think it's
Speaker 2: rude when people on the bleachers leave early?
Speaker 3: Huh? I just thought i'd throw that in, you know,
Speaker 3: just you know, every once in a while, even I
Speaker 3: do a commercial. What can I say? Now?
Speaker 2: There are some things you care deeply about and some
Speaker 2: things you couldn't care less about. Where do you think
Speaker 2: that came from? It came from God. God hardwired it
Speaker 2: into your system, all your interests, the hobbies, the sports,
Speaker 2: the things that God put that in you. In fact,
Speaker 2: the Bible says this in Philippians chapter two.
Speaker 3: It is God.
Speaker 2: It is God who pred uses in you the desires.
Speaker 2: That's your interests, your passions, your desires, your hopes, your dreams,
Speaker 2: your ambitions.
Speaker 3: That which excites you.
Speaker 2: It is God who produces in you these desires and
Speaker 2: actions that please him.
Speaker 3: God made you to be you.
Speaker 2: He didn't want you being interested in stuff other people
Speaker 2: interested in. He wants you interested in the stuff you're
Speaker 2: interested in. And He takes pleasure and enjoying you watch
Speaker 2: He enjoys watching you enjoy his creation. God enjoys watching
Speaker 2: you receive enjoyment. Now, as I said, God placed this
Speaker 2: guidance system in you, your heart, this emotional component of
Speaker 2: your life that determines what you say out of the
Speaker 2: heart the man speaks, and what you do and what
Speaker 2: you feel and all these things. Now here's an important thing.
Speaker 2: I want you to write it down. When I do
Speaker 2: what God shaped me to do, two things. I enjoy
Speaker 2: it and I'm good at it. When I do what
Speaker 2: God shaped me to do, I enjoy it and I'm
Speaker 2: good at it.
Speaker 3: These are two things that help.
Speaker 2: You determine your heart. What kind of heart God gave you. Now,
Speaker 2: the first evidence of heart is that you enjoy it.
Speaker 2: You get pleasure in the things that God wired you
Speaker 2: to enjoy to do. You get enjoyment, You get satisfaction.
Speaker 2: The Bible says you delight in it. Now, I wonder
Speaker 2: how many of you really delight in your work? You
Speaker 2: feel I was wired for this. I always shape this.
Speaker 2: I delight in my work most of the time. You
Speaker 2: have two attitudes towards your work.
Speaker 3: One of them is.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Lord, and the other.
Speaker 3: Is good Lord, it's morning.
Speaker 2: Now, which of those you say tends to be dependent
Speaker 2: upon whether you are shaped for that work and you
Speaker 2: have a heart for it or not. You see, when
Speaker 2: you do what you love to do, nobody has to
Speaker 2: pay you, nobody has to reward you.
Speaker 3: You don't need a Superville to do it.
Speaker 2: When you do what you love to do, you don't
Speaker 2: need external motivations. You don't have to have contests and competitions.
Speaker 2: You just flat out love doing what you're doing. You
Speaker 2: don't need any external things.
Speaker 3: This is what I do.
Speaker 2: I pastor this church because I love to pastor this church.
Speaker 2: I was wired to pastor this church. I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 2: I love this church. I do it for free. I
Speaker 2: don't take a salary here. You know you're paid to
Speaker 2: be good, but I'm good for nothing, and I do
Speaker 2: it because I love to do it. And people say
Speaker 2: you're ever going to leave? Said back, of course not,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to leave saddle back. I love this church.
Speaker 2: It's what I was wired to do. On the other hand,
Speaker 2: if you've ever been in a job that you weren't
Speaker 2: wired to do, you weren't shaped to do. If you've
Speaker 2: ever been in a job you don't have the heart for,
Speaker 2: it's a drag. If you've been in a job that
Speaker 2: you don't have a heart for. It's just boring you
Speaker 2: to tears and you're going, Oh, I got to get
Speaker 2: out of here, and it's.
Speaker 3: Just a real drag.
Speaker 2: Today we're going to talk about how to follow your heart,
Speaker 2: because your heart says a lot of God's will for
Speaker 2: your life. But the problem is our hearts get beat up,
Speaker 2: they get bruised, they get bumped around, they get broken,
Speaker 2: and we're going to talk about that. But one of
Speaker 2: the things that you know is that when you're doing
Speaker 2: what God gave your heart to do, you flat out
Speaker 2: enjoy it. The other thing that you know you're doing
Speaker 2: what God made you do is you're good at it.
Speaker 2: If you're good at it, that's a pretty good indicator
Speaker 2: that God shaped.
Speaker 3: You for it.
Speaker 2: You're productive. When you do what you have a heart for,
Speaker 2: your creative you're productive.
Speaker 3: You're effective.
Speaker 2: In fact, the secret of an effective life is simply this.
Speaker 2: Do what you love to do. Do what you love
Speaker 2: to do, and you'll be effective at it. If you
Speaker 2: don't love doing it, you'll never be effective at it.
Speaker 3: People are rarely.
Speaker 2: Successful at things they hate doing, apparently because they don't
Speaker 2: have any passion for it. You know, the top athletes.
Speaker 2: Why are they so good because they love doing it.
Speaker 2: God gave them the heart to run or jump, or
Speaker 2: surf or play basketball or whatever. And the guys at
Speaker 2: their top of the field and when they're the top
Speaker 2: of field Olympic athletes, they don't do it for profit.
Speaker 2: They don't even do it for praise. They do it
Speaker 2: because of their passion. It is a passion with them.
Speaker 2: And that word passion is another word for heart. That
Speaker 2: when we talk about your heart and how God shaped you,
Speaker 2: it's your passion that you're passionate about some things.
Speaker 3: And why is this important?
Speaker 2: Because only passionate people get things done. You're not going
Speaker 2: to accomplish much in life unless you're passionate about it.
Speaker 2: Moses was passionate about setting his people free from Egyptian bondage.
Speaker 2: Paul and the Bible is passionate about sharing the good
Speaker 2: news with everybody in the world. A guy named Wilberford
Speaker 2: William Riverforce, a Christian, was passionate about abolishing slavery from
Speaker 2: the British Empire, and he did it, you know, all
Speaker 2: kinds of Gandhi was passionate about liberating his country from
Speaker 2: British rule and having an independent India. A guy named
Speaker 2: Martin Luther was passionate about reforming the church in Europe,
Speaker 2: and the Reformation and the Enlightenment all came as a
Speaker 2: result of one man having a passion. And then another
Speaker 2: guy named Martin Luther King had a passion for equality
Speaker 2: and for justice and influenced the world.
Speaker 3: You only influence.
Speaker 2: Things when you're passionate about it. And so today we've
Speaker 2: got to look at uncovering those covered up passions in
Speaker 2: your life, those covered up interests in your life. Why
Speaker 2: because when you have a heart for something, you give
Speaker 2: it your best. If you don't have a heart for something,
Speaker 2: you don't. And the Bible calls this being fruitful. Look
Speaker 2: up here on the screen, Jesus said in John fifteen,
Speaker 2: you give glory to my Father when you produce a
Speaker 2: lot of fruit. Now what does that mean? What does
Speaker 2: it mean to have a fruitful life? It means you're productive,
Speaker 2: you're effective, you're creative. And the only way you bring
Speaker 2: glory to God is when you do what you were
Speaker 2: made to do. And God looks down and says you're
Speaker 2: doing it, and you enjoy it and you're good at it,
Speaker 2: and it brings joy to you. And it brings joy
Speaker 2: to God. He says, you bring fruit, you bear fruit,
Speaker 2: you're productive, and he says that gives me glory.
Speaker 3: It gives me honor. God made you to shine like
Speaker 3: a light in the world.
Speaker 2: He doesn't want you to cover up your talents, and
Speaker 2: he doesn't want to cover up your passions, your hearts,
Speaker 2: your interests. It brings in pleasure. You were made to shine.
Speaker 2: Look at this verse on the screen, Matthew five. Jesus says,
Speaker 2: let your light shine before others, so that they may
Speaker 2: see your good deeds, what you were wired to do.
Speaker 2: Do the thing you were made to do. And he says,
Speaker 2: that's a witness that they may see your good deeds
Speaker 2: and praise your Father in heaven. Notice it doesn't say
Speaker 2: anything they are about speaking. It says, let your light shine,
Speaker 2: not speak your light. Let your light shine before others,
Speaker 2: so they may see not here, but see the good
Speaker 2: deeds and praise.
Speaker 3: Your Father in heaven.
Speaker 2: When people become what God made him to be, it
Speaker 2: brings glory to God and people go praise the Lord.
Speaker 2: You were made to shine. Now we were all made
Speaker 2: to shine. You were made to shine. That as life
Speaker 2: goes on, you tend to get a little dimmer, you
Speaker 2: don't stay as bright as God intended.
Speaker 3: For you to be.
Speaker 2: Now what I mean by that, every person, everybody in
Speaker 2: sound in my voice. God has put certain passions in
Speaker 2: your heart, certain desires, certain dreams, ambition, certain interest and
Speaker 2: we all are different in these ways. But the problem
Speaker 2: is this, most people have never ever really acted on
Speaker 2: or fulfilled or attempted or developed or utilized their God
Speaker 2: given passions, their interests, their dreams. In fact, we bury
Speaker 2: our dreams. God doesn't want that. What keeps you from
Speaker 2: following your heart? Well, before we can talk about how
Speaker 2: to follow your heart, we need to deal with five
Speaker 2: heart stoppers. These things are like spiritual cholesterol. They block
Speaker 2: your heart, They stop your passions. They cause you to
Speaker 2: conform to society rather than being the unique person God
Speaker 2: meant for you to be. What are they? Number one?
Speaker 2: The number one heart stopper is disappointment. Disappointment when you've
Speaker 2: been heard, you tend to pull back into a shell
Speaker 2: and say, I'm never going to let anybody else hurt me,
Speaker 2: and you give up on your dreams. You give up
Speaker 2: on your ambitions, you give up on your interest, on
Speaker 2: your passions, and you pull back into a protective mode.
Speaker 2: That says, don't get hurt is the number one goal
Speaker 2: of life. Bad idea. You're not living, You're just existing.
Speaker 2: When you live in a shell like that, it's a
Speaker 2: self imposed prison. And the Bible says, when I have
Speaker 2: an expectation and then it doesn't turn out the way
Speaker 2: that I intended, then I get disappointed. In fact, it
Speaker 2: says in Proverbs thirteen twelve, hope deferred. That means a
Speaker 2: dream and an ambition. A desire deferred makes the heart sick. Well,
Speaker 2: if first you don't succeed, welcome to the human race.
Speaker 2: You're normal. Almost nobody succeeds on the first try, but.
Speaker 3: We often give up.
Speaker 2: And when we allowed disappointment to come into our lives,
Speaker 2: it stops our heart. Number two is fear. Fear is
Speaker 2: the second heart stopper. It keeps you from being what
Speaker 2: God wants you to be. It's a self imposed prison.
Speaker 2: Jesus told a story about this. He called it the
Speaker 2: parable of the talents. We actually get the word talent
Speaker 2: in English from this story out of the Bible. In
Speaker 2: the Bible, a talent was an amount of silver, It
Speaker 2: was a weight, It was an amount of money in silver,
Speaker 2: and he tells the story of this wealthy man who
Speaker 2: gives three servants. One servant five talents and one three
Speaker 2: and one one talent. And he says, go out and
Speaker 2: invest it. Make the most of what you've been given.
Speaker 2: That's what God says to you. Make the most of
Speaker 2: what you've been given. I'm not going to judge you
Speaker 2: according to anybody else, but make the most of what
Speaker 2: you've been given. One guy comes back. He's doubled his investment,
Speaker 2: God says, The Master says, good job. Second guy comes back,
Speaker 2: He's doubled his investment. The Master says, good job. The
Speaker 2: third guy comes back. He says, well, I didn't do
Speaker 2: anything with it. He says what he said, No, I
Speaker 2: just bury it in the ground. He said, you buried
Speaker 2: your talent in the ground. Why, he said, I was afraid.
Speaker 2: It is fear that causes you to bury your talents.
Speaker 2: It is fear that keeps you from living your dream.
Speaker 2: It's fear that keeps you from attempting that goal. It's
Speaker 2: fear that corrous your passion and limits your vision and
Speaker 2: shrinks your heart. It's a heart stopper. There's a third thing,
Speaker 2: and it's guilt. Oh boy, this is a big one.
Speaker 2: You cannot be guilty and go after your dream at
Speaker 2: the same time. Why, because guilt dreams you have enormous
Speaker 2: amounts of energy. It's like carrying a big sack of
Speaker 2: garbage on your back all the time. You're gonna get
Speaker 2: tired because you're carrying around all the regrets of your past,
Speaker 2: all the shame of your past, all the guilt of
Speaker 2: your past.
Speaker 3: You cannot be confident.
Speaker 2: And guilty at the same time. That's why people lose
Speaker 2: their confidence. They lose their confidence because I think, what
Speaker 2: if somebody else falls finds out and who did I
Speaker 2: tell that to? And who did I tell it to?
Speaker 2: And I've always got to be protecting myself. And they
Speaker 2: lose their confidence because they're guilty. Now, friends, God never
Speaker 2: intended for you to walk around with a bunch of
Speaker 2: guilt and regrets. That's what Jesus Christ came to do,
Speaker 2: to forgive it all. And he came to earth and
Speaker 2: he was nailed to a cross, so you can stop
Speaker 2: nailing yourself to a cross. He was hung up for
Speaker 2: your hang ups. He died for all your sins so
Speaker 2: they could be completely forgiven. He's paid for him, so
Speaker 2: you don't have to pay for him. You can stop
Speaker 2: beating yourself up about everything you've ever done wrong has
Speaker 2: already been paid for by Jesus Christ. That's called the gospel.
Speaker 2: Gospel means good news. It's the best news in the world.
Speaker 2: What's the best news in the world. Everything you've ever
Speaker 2: done has already been forgiven. You just have to accept
Speaker 2: that forgiveness from Jesus Christ. Put your trust in him.
Speaker 2: That's called the good news. And when you do that
Speaker 2: and you realize everything I've ever done wrong or will
Speaker 2: do wrong, Jesus Christ has already paid for and forgiven,
Speaker 2: and I all have to do is accept it. What
Speaker 2: he did for me. Now that's gonna set my heart free,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to move ahead and become what I've
Speaker 2: always wanted to be because I'm not carrying this garbage
Speaker 2: bag of guilt and regret and shame around and beating
Speaker 2: myself up all the time.
Speaker 3: You can stop beating yourself up.
Speaker 2: Disappointment, fear, guilt, These are heartstoppers.
Speaker 3: The fourth one is another big one. Bitterness.
Speaker 2: Bitterness will eat you alive. It's worse than cancer. It
Speaker 2: is the worst heart disease you can have. Bitterness because
Speaker 2: when you become resentful, and you're always thinking about how
Speaker 2: to retaliate and get revenge, and you're always thinking about
Speaker 2: that person who.
Speaker 3: Hurts you in the past. It keeps you stuck in
Speaker 3: the past.
Speaker 2: You can't get on with the present or the future
Speaker 2: because you're so hung up about that.
Speaker 3: Person who hurt you. Let it go.
Speaker 2: They don't deserve it, but you don't deserve it either.
Speaker 2: You don't deserve to be forgiven. God forgave you. It's
Speaker 2: not because they deserve it. You let them go because
Speaker 2: you need to get on with your life. When you
Speaker 2: hold on to hurt from the past, it's like driving
Speaker 2: a car looking in the rear view mirror. You're gonna
Speaker 2: crack up. You're always looking in the past.
Speaker 3: Now listen, your past is past.
Speaker 2: There were people who hurt you in your past, and
Speaker 2: I'm sorry as your friend and as your pastor.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I really am.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry you've been hurt, and God is sorry too
Speaker 2: about your hurt. But the fact is your past is past,
Speaker 2: and the people in your past can't hurt you anymore
Speaker 2: unless you allow them to.
Speaker 3: And the way you allow them to.
Speaker 2: It was by rehearsing it in your mind and every
Speaker 2: time you go over he hurt me that way, she
Speaker 2: hurt me that way. You go over it and over,
Speaker 2: you're allowing them to hurt you again.
Speaker 3: Let it go.
Speaker 2: That is a heart stopper. It's a heart disease that
Speaker 2: keeps you from enjoying life.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The fifth heart stopper is rejection, and it may be
Speaker 2: the most painful one of all. Anyone who's ever experienced
Speaker 2: rejection from a friend or a parent, or a former's spouse,
Speaker 2: or a boyfriend or a girlfriend, you know how that
Speaker 2: hurts your heart.
Speaker 3: Rejection hurts. Now.
Speaker 2: Notice what the Bible says about all of these. In fear,
Speaker 2: it says, anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down.
Speaker 3: That's fear.
Speaker 2: In guilt, it says, my sins have caught up with me,
Speaker 2: so I can no longer see I've lost heart. In bitterness,
Speaker 2: it says, when my heart was bitter and I was angry,
Speaker 2: I was senseless. In other words, you don't think logically
Speaker 2: when you're either guilty or resentful. And in rejection, it says,
Speaker 2: they cut me down with sharpened tongues.
Speaker 3: Other words, they were attacking me verbally.
Speaker 2: They aim their bitter words like arrows straight at my heart.
Speaker 2: Some of you when you were growing up had people
Speaker 2: say things like this to you, either out on the
Speaker 2: playground or maybe even a parent or a relative. You're
Speaker 2: not worth anything. You're never going to mount too much,
Speaker 2: you'll never be a success. You're not good at filling
Speaker 2: the blank. You're uncoordinated, you're this, You're that, You're not worthless,
Speaker 2: You'll never and on and on and on. And you
Speaker 2: know what, you believe them because they were an adult
Speaker 2: and you were a kid, and you thought all adults
Speaker 2: are right.
Speaker 3: They were wrong. They lied to you.
Speaker 2: They were lying to you at that moment. You need
Speaker 2: to go back and erase that take. You need to
Speaker 2: stop building your life on what critics said to you
Speaker 2: and start building your life.
Speaker 3: On what God says about you.
Speaker 2: And God says this, I made you, I formed you,
Speaker 2: I shaped you, I planned you. I have a purpose
Speaker 2: for your life. I put certain abilities in you and
Speaker 2: a heart, and I love it when.
Speaker 3: You do what I made you to do. And I
Speaker 3: didn't make it to be.
Speaker 2: Anybody else, And you don't have to please anybody else
Speaker 2: if you please me the Lord. You're doing the right
Speaker 2: thing all the time, and you need to stop living
Speaker 2: for the approval of other people. Listen, some of you
Speaker 2: think that if I just can be perfect, then I
Speaker 2: will have everybody's approval and they'll all love me. No,
Speaker 2: they won't even if you were perfect. Jesus was perfect
Speaker 2: and they killed him, they put him on a cross.
Speaker 2: So even if you are perfect, they're gonna be people
Speaker 2: who don't like you. I hate to tell you this,
Speaker 2: but some of those people you've been trying to get
Speaker 2: their approval for years, You're not gonna get it. In
Speaker 2: all likelihood, you're never gonna get it. It's not your problem,
Speaker 2: it's their problem. But here's the even better news. You
Speaker 2: don't need it. You don't need it. You don't have
Speaker 2: to have their approval to be happy. But you do
Speaker 2: have to get rid of the heart stoppers of disappointment
Speaker 2: and fear and guilt and bitterness and rejection. We're going
Speaker 2: to talk about how to do that in a minute.
Speaker 2: You know, the Backstreet Boys used to sing a song
Speaker 2: that said, looking back on the things I've done, I
Speaker 2: was trying to be someone. In other words, I was
Speaker 2: just playing this part, acting in the dark. In other words,
Speaker 2: I was a phony. I was a fake. I was
Speaker 2: trying to be what other people expected me to be.
Speaker 2: I wasn't really living my heart, the heart that God
Speaker 2: put in me. I was living with other people, and
Speaker 2: my shape, my heart got all bent out of shape.
Speaker 2: You need to today stop listening to what other people
Speaker 2: are saying to you and listen to what God says
Speaker 2: to you. And if you feel like giving up, don't
Speaker 2: give up. Don't give up. If you feel like giving up.
Speaker 3: On that dream, on that passion, don't do it.
Speaker 2: Don't do it. God says, let me reshape your heart.
Speaker 2: My prayer for you is that God will show you
Speaker 2: the shape of your heart. That you'll get back to
Speaker 2: being what God intended for you to be and not
Speaker 2: waste a second more trying to be something that other
Speaker 2: people would want you to be, that the world would
Speaker 2: want you to be, that people try.
Speaker 3: To squeeze you in the mold. God made you to
Speaker 3: be you. That's what this whole series is about.
Speaker 2: And when you be you and you do it for
Speaker 2: God's glory, you enjoy it and you're good at it,
Speaker 2: and it brings glory to God too. On the back
Speaker 2: of your outline. The Bible says this. In Colossians chapter three,
Speaker 2: God says, whatever you do, whatever you do. I don't
Speaker 2: care if it's in the garbage or the garage or
Speaker 2: the garden, or it's in an office, or it's in
Speaker 2: a school or wherever. He says, whatever you do, work
Speaker 2: at it with all your heart. Whatever you do, he says,
Speaker 2: anything you do in life, you better do it with
Speaker 2: all your heart, with your passion, with your interest, with
Speaker 2: your vitality. Whatever you do, work at it with all
Speaker 2: your heart. As working for the Lord, not for men.
Speaker 2: You have a job right now that you go to
Speaker 2: and they're paying you, and you think you're working for men,
Speaker 2: but really life is a test.
Speaker 3: You're working for God.
Speaker 2: And God is saying, how can I trust them? What
Speaker 2: kind of worker are they? Because this life is preparation
Speaker 2: for the next, and God is watching now. How do
Speaker 2: I work at it with all my heart when my
Speaker 2: heart hurts? How do I work at it with all
Speaker 2: my heart when my heart's been beat up or bruised
Speaker 2: or broken or battered around? You do five things? Number one,
Speaker 2: open it. You need to open your heart to Jesus.
Speaker 2: Open it up as why as it needs to be
Speaker 2: to Jesus Christ, the one who gave you that heart. First,
Speaker 2: you open it up to him that's the start. This week,
Speaker 2: I got a letter from Darren and I asked him
Speaker 2: for permission to share it with him. He said, okay,
Speaker 2: Dear Pastor Rick. I was born into a family of churchgoers,
Speaker 2: Catholics from Italy on my mom's side and Baptists from
Speaker 2: Missouri on my dad's side.
Speaker 3: That's a great combination. After my wife.
Speaker 2: And I got married, we got involved in a small
Speaker 2: church that had some trouble and ended up splitting apart,
Speaker 2: and I was hurt. I lost my focus on God
Speaker 2: and I began to focus on making money instead. I
Speaker 2: built a giftware company to ten million in sales, and
Speaker 2: money became the number one goal in my life. About
Speaker 2: that time, we started attending here at Saddleback, but my
Speaker 2: heart was so messed up I just sat on the sidelines.
Speaker 2: Six months after our first child was born, my wife
Speaker 2: had an affair and she became pregnant with another man's baby.
Speaker 2: My marriage fell apart, and for the next ten years
Speaker 2: I raised my son as a single dad. Fortunately, a
Speaker 2: friend introduced me to Saddleback Separated Men's Ministry, and there
Speaker 2: I built a friendship with over one hundred guys. I
Speaker 2: could not have made it without those guys. More importantly,
Speaker 2: when I opened my heart to Jesus, it began to change.
Speaker 2: I then asked God to bring a christ like woman
Speaker 2: into my life to share my heart and my life.
Speaker 2: One day at my son's baseball game, I was talking
Speaker 2: with some people about building at centered marriage and a
Speaker 2: woman named Patty overheard and said, that's the husband for me. Well,
Speaker 2: we're now married with a blended family of six, and
Speaker 2: we are so happy being in a saddleback small group together,
Speaker 2: serving together in the youth ministry, and I'm still helping
Speaker 2: guys in the men's ministry. Rick, this is a place
Speaker 2: where hearts get changed. Mine was, and I thank God
Speaker 2: for it every day. Nobody can change your heart like
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. I don't care what heartache you've been through,
Speaker 2: what habit you're dealing with, what hang up you can't
Speaker 2: let go of. Nobody can deal with your heart the
Speaker 2: way Jesus can.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: God gave you a heart, and he emplaced in you
Speaker 2: some passions, some desires, Those came from God, some ambitions.
Speaker 2: God put those in your heart, hardwired it into you
Speaker 2: to make you you.
Speaker 3: But this is very important.
Speaker 2: Unless they are under His control, they will be misused.
Speaker 2: They will be abused, they will be misapplied, they will
Speaker 2: be misdirected, and they will be wasted in your life.
Speaker 2: God did not give you your heart and interest and
Speaker 2: passions for your own benefit just to go, well, I'm
Speaker 2: going to do whatever I want to do forget you, God.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: God gave them for a purpose, and unless you use
Speaker 2: them for His purpose, they will be misused, wasted, and applied, misapplied.
Speaker 2: You see, friends, all around the world, there are millions
Speaker 2: and millions of passionate people, talented people, people with interest
Speaker 2: and dreams, ambitions and passions that are being misused and abused.
Speaker 2: And it breaks God's heart. He's saying, I didn't mean
Speaker 2: it for that. I didn't mean it for that. And
Speaker 2: that's why, in spite of their talent and their ability
Speaker 2: and their heart and their passion and all these things,
Speaker 2: they are unhappy because if it's not used the way
Speaker 2: it was intended, it makes you miserable. When your passions
Speaker 2: are misused, it makes you miserable. And some of you said, well, Rick,
Speaker 2: to be honest with you, I don't think I'm really
Speaker 2: passionate about anything right now.
Speaker 3: Well you know what that means, don't you.
Speaker 2: It means you are disconnected from God at this moment.
Speaker 2: You cannot be connected to God and be dispassionate. When
Speaker 2: you are plugged into God, it's like plugging into two
Speaker 2: twenty voltage, you get passionate. In fact, the closer you
Speaker 2: get to God, the more passionate you become, and the
Speaker 2: further away from God you get, the more dispassionate you become.
Speaker 3: God is a passionate God.
Speaker 2: The only reason you have emotions is you're made in
Speaker 2: his image.
Speaker 3: God is emotional.
Speaker 2: God gets jealous when he sees you ignoring him for
Speaker 2: something else.
Speaker 3: God has love. God has feelings that can be hurt.
Speaker 2: Yes, the only reason you have emotions is God gave
Speaker 2: them to you because He is an emotional God. And
Speaker 2: God says, I have loved you with an everlasting love,
Speaker 2: and I will never stop loving you.
Speaker 3: And there's nothing that can make me stop loving you.
Speaker 3: That's passion.
Speaker 2: And no matter what you've done wrong, I will love you.
Speaker 2: And in the Book of Isaiah, he says, I've engraved
Speaker 2: you on the palms of my hands for telling Jesus
Speaker 2: the nails going through his palm for me.
Speaker 3: This is how much I love you.
Speaker 2: Look at this I'm willing to let him nail my
Speaker 2: hands across so you can be forgiven. That's how much
Speaker 2: I love you. No one's ever going to love you
Speaker 2: like God does. He's a passionate God. And when you
Speaker 2: spend time with God on a daily basis, and you
Speaker 2: get with him regularly, and you get plugged in, you
Speaker 2: can't help but being passionate, start to have the heart
Speaker 2: that God does for other people and the world, and
Speaker 2: you start to feel the things that God feels and
Speaker 2: feel the way He does. Listen, who you hang out
Speaker 2: with really does make a difference. I mean, I grew
Speaker 2: that with any teenager. Give me a teenage kid and
Speaker 2: I take him and I put him with a group
Speaker 2: of dispassionate kids who care about nothing, who are apathetic
Speaker 2: about everything, And what happens within a matter of weeks.
Speaker 3: That kid becomes apathetic. What do you want to do?
Speaker 3: I don't know what.
Speaker 2: Who you hang out with makes a difference. You hang
Speaker 2: out with God, You're going to be passionate.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us on Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope today. Hey, I'm wondering have you ever asked
Speaker 1: the question, what does God want me to do with
Speaker 1: my life. If you're like me, of course you have
Speaker 1: and you're not alone. God intentionally created you to fulfill
Speaker 1: a unique purpose. It's so important that you discover how
Speaker 1: you can live the full and abundant life that God
Speaker 1: designed just for you. In the Shape to Make a
Speaker 1: Difference Bible study. It was created by Pastor Rick and
Speaker 1: taught by Pastor Eric Reithe. Now, in this study, you're
Speaker 1: going to see how the acrostic shape which stands for
Speaker 1: spiritual gifts, heart abilities, personality and experiences. And it will
Speaker 1: reveal how God wired you and how you can use
Speaker 1: your shape to do the things that God made you
Speaker 1: to do. This is a sixth session video and workbook
Speaker 1: study and it's going to help clarify to you your
Speaker 1: future goals and it shows you how you can have
Speaker 1: the most fulfilling life possible, a life lived for God's
Speaker 1: purposes by God's design. Now, no matter what your age is,
Speaker 1: it's never too soon or too late to discover what
Speaker 1: God has shaped you to do. And this life changing
Speaker 1: study kit is perfect for personal or small group study.
Speaker 1: We so appreciate all your prayers and support, and today, hey,
Speaker 1: when you support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with a gift
Speaker 1: to help share the hope of Jesus Christ with people
Speaker 1: all over the world. We're going to send you your
Speaker 1: very own copy of The Shape to Make a Difference
Speaker 1: six session video and workbook Bible study. It can really
Speaker 1: make a difference in your life. Just go to Pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com or you can text the word hope to
Speaker 1: seven oh three oh nine. That's Pastor Rick dot com
Speaker 1: and that's got two rs in the middle. Or just
Speaker 1: text the word hope to seven oh three oh nine.
Speaker 1: And we thank you so much for your support. It
Speaker 1: means so much to us at Daily Hope. We hope
Speaker 1: you'll join us next time as we continue to look
Speaker 1: into God's.
Speaker 3: Word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: And this program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope
Speaker 1: and your generous financial support
Speaker 3: And