Speaker 1: You know, we really live in a world that's full
Speaker 1: of competing beliefs and values and choices, and what you
Speaker 1: believe shapes how you live and ultimately who you become.
Speaker 1: But the good news is God hasn't left us to
Speaker 1: figure it all out alone.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: In fact, today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, we're going
Speaker 1: to continue our series Reframing Your Worldview, where Rick Warren
Speaker 1: unpacks powerful truths from God's Word to help you see
Speaker 1: life clearly and live it with confidence and purpose. And
Speaker 1: now to close out this message, here's Rick with the
Speaker 1: final part called where did We come from?
Speaker 2: Because there is a God, and because that God loved you,
Speaker 2: thought of you, created you, sent usen to die for you,
Speaker 2: puts His spirit in you, and all these things. Your
Speaker 2: life has sanctity. You're identity has dignity. Number three, Your
Speaker 2: days have destiny. Your days have a destiny That means
Speaker 2: God has a defined purpose for your days while you're
Speaker 2: here on earth. Now, they're not very long, but they're
Speaker 2: here for a certain time. And the Bible says this,
Speaker 2: All the days planned for me were written in your book,
Speaker 2: that's God's book, before I was one day old. Did
Speaker 2: you know that did you know that God already knows
Speaker 2: everything that's going to happen in your life. He's not
Speaker 2: surprised by anything. He knows it all. Hey didn't make
Speaker 2: you do those things. He gave you a free will
Speaker 2: to do it. But he knows it. And they were
Speaker 2: all in that book before you were one day old.
Speaker 2: Your days have a destiny. Now let's just review again.
Speaker 2: The Bible says you're going to get about eighty years
Speaker 2: on this planet, maybe ninety. Very few people make it
Speaker 2: to one hundred years old. Now that's pretty tiny, pretty
Speaker 2: insignificant compared to the billions of years you're going to
Speaker 2: spend on the other side of death in eternity. And
Speaker 2: so the Bible says, this life is preparation for the next.
Speaker 2: This is the get ready stage, the kindergarten, the preschool,
Speaker 2: the first lap, the warm up, the dress. Rehearsal for
Speaker 2: the real show begins. And God wants you to practice
Speaker 2: here on this planet what you're going to do forever
Speaker 2: the purposes in eternity. We've talked about this many times
Speaker 2: in detail, and God says, I put you here for
Speaker 2: a destiny. And the Bible says this in Ephesians two
Speaker 2: ten for We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
Speaker 2: to do good works, which notice God prepared in advance
Speaker 2: before you were even born, for us to do. God
Speaker 2: prepared it in advance before you were born. God decided
Speaker 2: how he was going to work whire you up. He
Speaker 2: gave you certain ambitions, certain desires, certain drives. He gave
Speaker 2: you certain interests. You know your hobby shore. Do you
Speaker 2: think you got those? You got them from God. God
Speaker 2: gave you those interests. And there's some things you couldn't
Speaker 2: care less about. God gave those interests to somebody else.
Speaker 2: And God uniquely shaped you to play a role in history.
Speaker 2: And only you can play your role. And if you
Speaker 2: don't be you, nobody else is gonna be you. We
Speaker 2: talked about a couple of weeks ago. God likes variety.
Speaker 2: There's nobody like you in the entire world, and He
Speaker 2: wired you up uniquely to play a certain role in
Speaker 2: this thing called history. Now, this is very important. God
Speaker 2: never compares you to anybody else. Never. One day, you're
Speaker 2: going to stand on a judgment day before God when
Speaker 2: we'll all be evaluated, And the Bible says there that
Speaker 2: God is going to look at your own life He's
Speaker 2: not going to compare you like, well, why weren't you
Speaker 2: more like that person over there? Why aren't you more
Speaker 2: like your brother or your sister, your mom or your
Speaker 2: dad or whatever. No, God does not look at what
Speaker 2: you do. He looks at what you do compared not
Speaker 2: to others, but compared to your potential. And he knows
Speaker 2: your potential better than anybody else. He knows your potential
Speaker 2: better than you do. And he wants to know what
Speaker 2: are you doing with what you've been given? The talents,
Speaker 2: the ability, the freedom, the parents, America, all of the
Speaker 2: things that you have, the health, the eyes, sight, whatever,
Speaker 2: what are you doing with what you've been given? He's
Speaker 2: comparing you to what you could be, to what He
Speaker 2: intended you to be when you started going on his
Speaker 2: plan or you start going on your own plan. And God,
Speaker 2: the Bible says, pays attention to every detail of your life.
Speaker 2: He has every hair on your head numbered. The Bible
Speaker 2: tells us that, in fact, he knows when one of
Speaker 2: them falls out. So how could God keep track of
Speaker 2: all those details? If human beings can create craze supercomputers
Speaker 2: that can handle gazillions of computations in a nanosecond we
Speaker 2: did that. God is bigger than all of us. He
Speaker 2: can certainly handle the details of the universe, and he
Speaker 2: cares about There is no detail of your life that
Speaker 2: God is not interested in, none, because he sees it
Speaker 2: all and cares about it all. Now can we miss
Speaker 2: God's purpose in our lives? Absolutely, people do it all
Speaker 2: the time. In fact, you can go all through life
Speaker 2: and miss God's purpose for your life by your own choices.
Speaker 2: And you choose say God, I'm going to go after
Speaker 2: money instead of your purpose, Well, you will miss it.
Speaker 2: Or God, I'm going to go after being popular at school,
Speaker 2: You'll miss it. Or God, I'm going to do what
Speaker 2: makes me happy with my boyfriend. Then you're going to
Speaker 2: miss it. When you say God, I want your purpose
Speaker 2: for my life, you won't miss it. He'll get you
Speaker 2: in line, believe me, because he wants it more than
Speaker 2: you do. But you can miss God's purpose in your life.
Speaker 2: In fact, the tragedy is most people go through life
Speaker 2: not knowing God's purpose. Well, is everything that happens to you?
Speaker 2: It does. Everything that happen to you is that God's will,
Speaker 2: God's perfect will for your life. Absolutely not. No, A
Speaker 2: lot of things happen to you. That aren't God's will,
Speaker 2: his perfect will for your life. What God gave you
Speaker 2: a will, and you can choose to go God's will,
Speaker 2: or your own will, or the devil's will. And we
Speaker 2: always often choose to do our own thing instead of God's.
Speaker 2: If I went out here tonight and I got drunk
Speaker 2: and fell in a pool and drowned, that wouldn't be
Speaker 2: God's will. That'd be a stupid decision I made. That
Speaker 2: would be my will. Don't blame God for your problems.
Speaker 2: We have our own problems. And God says I have
Speaker 2: a will for your life, but I'm not going to
Speaker 2: force it on you. You can choose to believe in
Speaker 2: me or not believe in me. You can choose to
Speaker 2: be a part of my family or not be a
Speaker 2: part of my family. You can choose to follow my
Speaker 2: purpose for your life or not. You were made in
Speaker 2: my image. I give you the choice. I want you
Speaker 2: to choose to love me. And that's why we're to pray.
Speaker 2: I will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God,
Speaker 2: do your will in my life. It's done perfectly in heaven.
Speaker 2: It's not done that way here. Now can God bring
Speaker 2: good even out of the mistakes that we make in life. Well,
Speaker 2: of course again he specializes in that, and that leads
Speaker 2: us to the fourth benefit, the fourth implication. Because God
Speaker 2: is God, my problems have intentionality. That means the problems
Speaker 2: that you have have a purpose. Every problem in your
Speaker 2: life has a purpose, every one of them. That means
Speaker 2: there is meaning in the mess you're in right now now.
Speaker 2: You can't see it. In fact, you rarely do. You
Speaker 2: don't rarely see the meaning of the mess until you
Speaker 2: get out of it and you look back and in hindsight,
Speaker 2: hindsight's twenty twenty and you can see a whole lot better.
Speaker 2: But there's meaning in the mess. God has a plan,
Speaker 2: and God's purpose for your life is bigger than the
Speaker 2: problems you're going through right now. Any of you remember
Speaker 2: the TV show Guiver? Does anybody remember that show mcgiver?
Speaker 2: Who is that guy? Richard Richard Dean Anderson. That was
Speaker 2: a fun show to watch because this guy could make
Speaker 2: something out of nothing. I mean, he could use anything
Speaker 2: for his purpose. I mean it was fun just to
Speaker 2: watch because you know, he'd take a lipstick canister and
Speaker 2: a little carriage juice and some duct tape and make
Speaker 2: a bomb. And whoa, that is cool. You know, he
Speaker 2: just had this ability to take you know, a little
Speaker 2: baling wire here and little you know, chewing gum and
Speaker 2: a little acetone over here, and all of a sudden
Speaker 2: he's got a rocket ship. And you know he could
Speaker 2: just use anything ordinary things around him, good or bad,
Speaker 2: for his own purposes. Let me tell you something. God
Speaker 2: is better than mcguiver. Okay. He can take everything in
Speaker 2: your life, the good stuff, the bad stuff, the nasty stuff,
Speaker 2: the screwy stuff, the bizarre stuff, the hurtful stuff. He
Speaker 2: can take any of it, and because he's God, he
Speaker 2: can use it for good in your life. Now, God
Speaker 2: doesn't cause the problems in your life, so stop blaming God.
Speaker 2: God doesn't cause your problems. He doesn't have to. You
Speaker 2: got plenty of problems on your own. Problems are cause
Speaker 2: you cause a lot of your problems. They're caused by
Speaker 2: other people. They're caused by the world. They're caused by
Speaker 2: the environment, they're caused by DNA and genetics. They're caused
Speaker 2: by the devil called God. Doesn't have to cause any
Speaker 2: problems in your life. There are lots of causes, but
Speaker 2: God allows them and God permits them for a good intention.
Speaker 2: He has a good intention even when other people have
Speaker 2: a bad intention. A great example of this is the
Speaker 2: story of Joseph in the Bible. Over in the Book
Speaker 2: of Genesis. Joseph was in a large family of He
Speaker 2: had twelve brothers, and these brothers they were very jealous
Speaker 2: of him. They were very, very jealous because he was
Speaker 2: the father's favorite and they didn't like this guy, and
Speaker 2: he was and so the brothers decided to throw him
Speaker 2: into a pit and get rid of him. And then
Speaker 2: some slave traders came by and they said, oh, let's
Speaker 2: just sell him into slavery. So they sell their brother
Speaker 2: into slavery, and the slave traders take Joseph to Egypt.
Speaker 2: He's a Jew, he's from Israel. For the next forty
Speaker 2: years of Joseph's life, everything goes wrong. Now he's doing
Speaker 2: it right. He loves God, he's praying, he's doing the
Speaker 2: right thing. He's trusting God. He has integrity. He gets
Speaker 2: a job as the head of a master's household and
Speaker 2: the wife of the master falls in love with him,
Speaker 2: tries to seduce him, and he says, no, I can't
Speaker 2: do that. I'm not gonna have sex with my master's wife,
Speaker 2: so she accuses of him right falsely throws him into prison.
Speaker 2: I mean everything, This is quite a story. You can
Speaker 2: make a movie about this one. Everything goes wrong in
Speaker 2: his life for forty years, and he's wondering, God, is
Speaker 2: this really worth serving you? But he just kept on
Speaker 2: having faith. Some of you are in that situation right now.
Speaker 2: Everything's going wrong, and he just keep doing the right thing.
Speaker 2: And God had him exactly where he wanted and at
Speaker 2: the right time. Through a series of circumstances, Joseph is
Speaker 2: raised up to power to become number two in the
Speaker 2: nation of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. And he's not
Speaker 2: even Egyptian, he's Jewish. But he sees that there are
Speaker 2: famines in the Middle East, and so he puts into
Speaker 2: it a government stories strategy where they start storing up grain.
Speaker 2: And then when a seven year famine comes in the
Speaker 2: Middle East, Egypt has enough food and he saves the day.
Speaker 2: And he's very famous, and all the other nations start
Speaker 2: coming down to Egypt to get grained because they didn't
Speaker 2: save anything. And lo and behold these brothers, many many
Speaker 2: years later are coming to Egypt to get grain from
Speaker 2: the man. They don't realize is their brother that they
Speaker 2: sold into slavery. When they finally meet, the brothers realize
Speaker 2: that their lives on the line, that Joseph could be
Speaker 2: in incredibly angry and upset and retaliatory. And we're chopped liver,
Speaker 2: we're dead meat. You know, we're goners. And Joseph said
Speaker 2: something very amazing. It's a mark of maturity. Here's what
Speaker 2: he said on the screen in Genesis fifty twenty, you
Speaker 2: talking to his brothers intended to harm me, but God
Speaker 2: intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done,
Speaker 2: the saving of many lives. He said, you meant to
Speaker 2: hurt me, and it hurt, but God intended it for good.
Speaker 2: There is an intentionality behind my problems. Now listen, there
Speaker 2: have been people in your life who intended to hurt you,
Speaker 2: and they did. They hurt you with words. They may
Speaker 2: have hurt you with physical you know, hurt. They may
Speaker 2: have hurt you by being drunk and doing things to you.
Speaker 2: They may have hurt you sexually. I'm sorry they intended
Speaker 2: to hurt you, but God intends to bring good out
Speaker 2: of it if you will give it to him and
Speaker 2: trust him. If you will say, here are the pieces
Speaker 2: of my life. God, the good and the bad. I
Speaker 2: give you the pieces. God can bring peace out of
Speaker 2: those pieces. God is bigger than the problems you've been through,
Speaker 2: and His purpose is greater than the problems you've been through.
Speaker 2: And he says, I have the problems are in heaven intentionality.
Speaker 2: I will bring good out of them if you'll trust me.
Speaker 2: God is more interested in your character than he is
Speaker 2: in your comfort. You're not taking comfort to heaven. When
Speaker 2: you get there, it's going to be comfortable. That's when
Speaker 2: you get all the comfort and eternity. Right now is
Speaker 2: the character building time? And how does God build character
Speaker 2: in your life? Well, first, he builds it through truth.
Speaker 2: That's why we're doing this series on World You so
Speaker 2: that you know the truth about life. And the more
Speaker 2: you know the truth that sets you free. So he
Speaker 2: builds character through truth. He builds it through time. It
Speaker 2: takes time to grow spirits, it can't happen overnight. He
Speaker 2: builds it through testing. And God will test your integrity,
Speaker 2: do you keep your promises? And he'll test your generosity,
Speaker 2: and he'll test your humility, and he'll test your faith
Speaker 2: all to make you stronger. And then he uses trouble
Speaker 2: to help you grow in your life. You know, people
Speaker 2: are like tea bags. You don't know what's inside of
Speaker 2: him till you drop them in hot water. The Bible
Speaker 2: says this in Romans chapter eight, Famous promise. We know
Speaker 2: that God causes everything to work together for the good
Speaker 2: of those who love God and are called according to
Speaker 2: His purpose for them. Not everything's good, a lot of
Speaker 2: bad in the world, but it works together for everybody.
Speaker 2: To know. This is a promise for those who love
Speaker 2: God and are trying to go in his purpose. Now,
Speaker 2: if you don't love God, you're not trying to follow
Speaker 2: his purpose in life. Everything does not work to good
Speaker 2: in your life. It works for bad. God owes you
Speaker 2: nothing if you're doing your own thing. But for those
Speaker 2: to say, I love you, I want to be with you,
Speaker 2: I want to know you, I want to follow your ways.
Speaker 2: God says, you know what, then I'll take all of
Speaker 2: the things that happen to you, even the stuff you
Speaker 2: cause yourself, and I'll use it for good in your life.
Speaker 2: And here's the problem. Because we aren't God, we can't
Speaker 2: see the whole picture, and we can't see when you're
Speaker 2: in that problem. You just can't see how any good
Speaker 2: could come out of that possibility. You just can't see it,
Speaker 2: and so you have to trust him. You have to
Speaker 2: trust God to know what he is, what he's doing.
Speaker 2: You see, most of the stress in your life comes
Speaker 2: when you forget that God is God and you're not.
Speaker 2: And whenever you forget that and you try to be God,
Speaker 2: it creates stress. That's why the Bible says, look up
Speaker 2: here on the screen, Psalm one hundred, verse three. Remember
Speaker 2: God is God. He may we didn't make him, So
Speaker 2: we have to trust him in our problems. Because God
Speaker 2: is God, your life has sanctity, your identity has dignity,
Speaker 2: your days have destiny, your problems have intentionality, and best
Speaker 2: of all, your future is eternity. It's not going to
Speaker 2: end here on earth because there is a God and
Speaker 2: you were made in his image. There's far more to
Speaker 2: life than just here and now. Oh, this is just
Speaker 2: a little sliver of what's to come. The Bible says
Speaker 2: God made you to last forever. Your heart's going to
Speaker 2: stop one day, your bodily functions are gonna shut down.
Speaker 2: That's going to be the end of your body. It
Speaker 2: will not be the end of you. You were made
Speaker 2: in God's image, you have a spirit, and one day
Speaker 2: that spirit will go on into eternity. And the Bible
Speaker 2: says this in Psalm twenty three, the most famous sam
Speaker 2: in the Bible. Surely goodness and love, Surely goodness and
Speaker 2: mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
Speaker 2: We can just stop right there. But then it adds this,
Speaker 2: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Speaker 2: forever forever. That's a long long time. And God wants
Speaker 2: you to be a part of his forever family. That's
Speaker 2: why you were created. That's why he created the universe
Speaker 2: so he could have a forever family. The Bible says
Speaker 2: this Phesians one. This is God's purpose. When the time
Speaker 2: is ripe, he will gather us all together from wherever
Speaker 2: we are in heaven and or on earth, to be
Speaker 2: with him in Christ forever. God wants to draw his
Speaker 2: family together. Now, He's not going to force you to
Speaker 2: be a part of his family. You have to choose
Speaker 2: to be a part of it. He's not going to
Speaker 2: force you to love him, to know him, to trust
Speaker 2: him to do his purpose, and to be a part
Speaker 2: of his family. You can say I don't believe in God,
Speaker 2: don't I want to trust Jesus, I don't want to
Speaker 2: follow the Lord. I don't want his purpose. I want
Speaker 2: to do what I want to. God says, fine, have
Speaker 2: it your way. He gives you the choice to reject him,
Speaker 2: but you must be willing to live with the consequences
Speaker 2: for eternity. You know, all of creation is preparing for
Speaker 2: the biggest event ever in history. It's going to be
Speaker 2: a time when the history on Earth ends and eternity begins,
Speaker 2: and God gathers all of his children together who have
Speaker 2: become his children, chosen to be his children, and He's
Speaker 2: going to have a giant party for them, and it's
Speaker 2: going to last for eternity. The Bible says this next verse,
Speaker 2: all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when
Speaker 2: God will reveal who his children really are. I'm going
Speaker 2: to ask you the most important question you will ever
Speaker 2: be asked in your life. Is your name going to
Speaker 2: be on that list? Is your name going to be
Speaker 2: on that invitation list? The party for God's children that's
Speaker 2: going to last for eternity. You don't want to miss
Speaker 2: that one. You want to make sure your name's on
Speaker 2: the a list, because that one has eternal repercussions. You say,
Speaker 2: how do I get on the list? It's your choice.
Speaker 2: God has extended and open invitation. It's your choice. Here's
Speaker 2: what he says, John one twelve up on the screen
Speaker 2: to all who received him. That's received Jesus Christ into
Speaker 2: your life. That gave them the right to become the
Speaker 2: children of God. All they needed to do was trust
Speaker 2: Him to save them. Friends, it's your choice. You can
Speaker 2: live a life with God, or you can live a
Speaker 2: life without God. It's your choice. God allows you to
Speaker 2: do that. You're made in his image. You can live
Speaker 2: a life with purpose, or you can live a life
Speaker 2: without God's purpose. It's your choice. I told you last
Speaker 2: week that I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
Speaker 2: I really don't. When I look at the world, when
Speaker 2: I see everything created and I look around it at all,
Speaker 2: I go, this is no accident. It takes far more
Speaker 2: faith to believe that had just happened random chance accident,
Speaker 2: like this watch just was a random chance accident. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it just over a thousand years it became a watch,
Speaker 2: or gazillion years it became. No, I don't believe that.
Speaker 2: I believe design is an indication of a designer, and
Speaker 2: you're blind to not see that I don't have enough
Speaker 2: faith to not believe in God to be an atheist.
Speaker 2: But not only that, I reject the logical implications of
Speaker 2: rejecting God, which is a life with no sanctity, a
Speaker 2: life with no dignity, a life with no destiny, a
Speaker 2: life with no intentionality, and a life with no eternity.
Speaker 2: That's not living, that's existing. What's bow our heads? Will
Speaker 2: you pray this prayer in your mind? Say, Dear God,
Speaker 2: thank you for creating the universe. Thank you for creating
Speaker 2: this world. Thank you for thinking of me before you
Speaker 2: created it all. I'm amazed that you would love me
Speaker 2: that much. Thank you for wanting me to be a
Speaker 2: part of your family forever. Jesus Christ, I thank you
Speaker 2: for dying for me. I don't understand it all, but
Speaker 2: I want to trust in you and invite you to
Speaker 2: fill my life with your life and your spirit. I
Speaker 2: ask you to make me a part of your family.
Speaker 2: Thank you for making me for a purpose. Please forgive
Speaker 2: all the things I've done wrong. Please restore my dignity,
Speaker 2: give me a new identity, secure my destiny for eternity,
Speaker 2: and help me to treat everybody with dignity and to
Speaker 2: share this good news with those who don't know it yet.
Speaker 2: I pray this in your name, 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. Now here's
Speaker 1: Rick with today's offer.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been a pastor for over three decades,
Speaker 2: and I've been teaching the Word of God for over
Speaker 2: four decades. And in all of that time, the number
Speaker 2: one question I've been asked by people is this, how
Speaker 2: can I change or why can't I change? I've talked
Speaker 2: to literally thousands and thousands of people who want to
Speaker 2: change but are just stuck and they can't figure out
Speaker 2: how to get unstuck. You know, the truth is you
Speaker 2: can't change on your own because willpower alone isn't enough
Speaker 2: to make permanent changes. Sure, you can force yourself to
Speaker 2: change for a month or two months, but pretty soon
Speaker 2: you're going to go back to your old ways. Pulling
Speaker 2: yourself up by your own bootstraps is not enough. Talking
Speaker 2: yourself into a change by positive thinking is not enough.
Speaker 2: The Bible says true transformational change only comes through the
Speaker 2: power of God inside you. So let me ask you
Speaker 2: a personal question. How do you want to be different
Speaker 2: at the end of this year? What changes would you
Speaker 2: like to make in your life? What goals would you
Speaker 2: like to see accomplished in your life? Well, it is
Speaker 2: going to happen on your own. You're going to need
Speaker 2: God's power and I want you to understand how to
Speaker 2: plug in to God's power. That's why I'm sending out
Speaker 2: God's Power to Change your Life, a book that I've written.
Speaker 2: When you give a financial gift to support Daily Hope
Speaker 2: broadcast and ministries, you know Daily Hope is one hundred
Speaker 2: percent supported by listeners. We have no other outside source
Speaker 2: of income. It's supported by your gifts. And when you
Speaker 2: give to support this ministry this month, I want to
Speaker 2: give back to you this book, God's Power to Change
Speaker 2: Your Life. Thanks a lot for listening today, and thanks
Speaker 2: thanks for helping support Daily Hope. We love you, We
Speaker 2: thank God for you, and we hope you'll continue to
Speaker 2: listen to this broadcast as we look into God's word
Speaker 2: for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: Go to Pastorick dot com to get your copy of
Speaker 1: this great resource that's pastorick dot com, or you could
Speaker 1: just text the word hope to seven oh three to
Speaker 1: oh nine. That's the word hope to seven oh three
Speaker 1: to oh nine. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope and your generous financial support,