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.
Speaker 2: Right here.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for all of you to learn about
Speaker 1: your shape. It might not be the shape you're thinking
Speaker 1: of right now. Rick loves to use acrostics and this
Speaker 1: one is shape your shape, your spiritual gifts, heart abilities,
Speaker 1: personality and experiences. And one of the reasons I love
Speaker 1: this series and have shared it with so many friends
Speaker 1: is because Rick talks about the way God wired you
Speaker 1: and why you need not just know your shape, but
Speaker 1: how to use it to do the things that God
Speaker 1: designed you to do. And now here's Rick with the
Speaker 1: final part of a message called following your Heart.
Speaker 3: Would you like that have more energy in life, more enthusiasm,
Speaker 3: more get up and go. Let me tell you where
Speaker 3: to get it. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek
Speaker 3: words in theos in meaning within and theos meaning God.
Speaker 3: Theos is the Greek word for God. Theology is the
Speaker 3: study of God. Theodore and Dora the mean lover of
Speaker 3: God in Greek that's what the word Dorothian Theodore means.
Speaker 2: Lover of God.
Speaker 3: When you get in Theos, when you get in God,
Speaker 3: you're going to be enthusiastic.
Speaker 2: And the closer you get to God, the more energy.
Speaker 3: The more vitality, the more passion you have in life,
Speaker 3: and the further way you get Him, the more bored
Speaker 3: and apathetic you become with life. You got to open
Speaker 3: your heart to Jesus. Now, notice what he says here
Speaker 3: Revelation three. Jesus says, I am standing and knocking at
Speaker 3: your door. If you hear my voice and open the door,
Speaker 3: I will come in and we'll lead together. We'll party together,
Speaker 3: we'll have find together, we'll fellowship together, we'll build a relationship.
Speaker 3: I don't want a religion, God says, I want a
Speaker 3: relationship with you. Jesus Christ has been standing at the
Speaker 3: door of your life, knock and for a long time.
Speaker 3: But he's a gentleman. He's not gonna bust the door down.
Speaker 3: You've got to open it up. And if you want
Speaker 3: your heart healed, you must first open it to him.
Speaker 2: Open your heart to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: Now, after you've opened it, what's the second thing you do?
Speaker 2: Let him heal it.
Speaker 3: Let God heal your heart. Now, everybody here has had
Speaker 3: their heart broken in some way from some point, maybe
Speaker 3: by bit disappointment, maybe by fear, maybe by shame or guilt,
Speaker 3: maybe by hurt or rejection or ridicule. And I would
Speaker 3: say to you, as your friend, I'm sorry, I really am,
Speaker 3: And I care about the hurt that you have gone through.
Speaker 3: As your pastor, I care about it. I do because
Speaker 3: God cares about it, and he's hurt with you. And
Speaker 3: what was God doing when you were weeping? He was
Speaker 3: weeping too.
Speaker 2: In fact, it is in your pain that God is
Speaker 2: closest to you.
Speaker 3: Whether you realize it or not, notice what the Bible says.
Speaker 3: So I'm thirty four. The Lord is close, not distant.
Speaker 3: The Lord is close to the broken hearted, and he
Speaker 3: saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Speaker 2: How does he do that?
Speaker 3: How does he save us? He saves us by giving
Speaker 3: us a heart transplant. He says, you know this heart
Speaker 3: you've had, it's been beat up, it's been wounded.
Speaker 2: I'll give you a new one.
Speaker 3: He specializes in heart transplants, and he says, you know
Speaker 3: that heart that's been guilty, I'll give you a heart
Speaker 3: that's forgiven, that heart that's been resentful. I'll give your
Speaker 3: heart that's full of peace, that heart that's anxious, I'll
Speaker 3: give your heart that's confident, that heart that's lonely. I'll
Speaker 3: give you a heart full of love, that heart that
Speaker 3: has been bitter and angry. I'll give your heart that
Speaker 3: is forgiving and loving and generous and kind. And he says,
Speaker 3: let me do a little heart transplant in you. And
Speaker 3: he says, I will set you free. Why do we
Speaker 3: need freedom? Because we're all enslaves. We're slaves to the
Speaker 3: expectations of other people.
Speaker 2: What would they think?
Speaker 3: We're slaves to past memories, We're slaves to future fears.
Speaker 3: We're slaves the current pressure. We're slaves to the opinions of.
Speaker 2: Society, on and on and on.
Speaker 3: But when Jesus Christ you open your heart to him
Speaker 3: and say, I give you not ninety eight percent of
Speaker 3: my heart, one hundred percent of my heart.
Speaker 2: God, it's yours, and I ask.
Speaker 3: You to heal it, then you'll say, like David said
Speaker 3: in the Bible Psalm one nineteen, I run in the
Speaker 3: path of your commands. In other words, he's saying, I'm
Speaker 3: doing what you want.
Speaker 2: Me to do.
Speaker 3: God, I do what you say it, I do it.
Speaker 3: I run in the path of your commands, for you
Speaker 3: have set my heart free. Pastor Eric Riest a couple
Speaker 3: weeks ago, I had him come and share part of
Speaker 3: the message.
Speaker 2: He alluded a little bit to his past.
Speaker 3: I want you to understand where Eric came from and
Speaker 3: see how God shaped and changed his heart. Would you
Speaker 3: listen to him and give him a warm welcome, Pastor Eric.
Speaker 4: Good morning.
Speaker 5: I like to share with you how Jesus has healed
Speaker 5: the hurt of in my heart so I could start
Speaker 5: becoming who God made me to be. The scars of disappointment, fear, guilt, resentment,
Speaker 5: and rejection started forming very early in my life. From
Speaker 5: the outside looking in, my family seemed very ordinary, but
Speaker 5: behind closed doors there was a lot of anger, conflict, abuse,
Speaker 5: and hurt. When I was eight years old, my parents
Speaker 5: got divorced. I still remember the fear I felt the
Speaker 5: night my mom left my dad. My brother and I
Speaker 5: hid under a car and our driveway as we watched
Speaker 5: my father beating my mother to the point of tears.
Speaker 5: After mom left, my brother and I lived with my
Speaker 5: dad because my mom couldn't support us on her salary,
Speaker 5: but much of the time Dad ignored us. My brother
Speaker 5: and I took care of each other. We got each
Speaker 5: other up for school, made our lunches, and went.
Speaker 4: To school together.
Speaker 5: After school, we'd come home to a pretty empty, lonely home.
Speaker 5: We were latchkey kids before the term was even invented.
Speaker 5: Growing up in a home completely without love caused me
Speaker 5: to look for look for acceptance in all kinds of
Speaker 5: ways to ease my pain. By the time I was twelve,
Speaker 5: I had already experimented with lots of drugs, watched a
Speaker 5: lot of pornographic movies, and weighed over two hundred and
Speaker 5: fifty pounds. The kids at school made fun of me
Speaker 5: and called me umpa, lumpa and little porker. Since I
Speaker 5: never received comfort at home, I can remember eating doughnuts
Speaker 5: for breakfast, candy for lunch, TV dinners for dinner, and.
Speaker 4: A lot of ice cream for dessert.
Speaker 5: I had few friends growing up, so I was pretty lonely,
Speaker 5: and since I got since I never got any positive feedback,
Speaker 5: I conditioned myself to accept negative criticism from the kids
Speaker 5: at school as my primary source of attention. I guess
Speaker 5: being overweight at least got me noticed at home. Physical
Speaker 5: and mental abuse from my dad was normal part of
Speaker 5: growing up. I deeply wanted my dad's love and approval,
Speaker 5: but he seemed unable and unwilling to give it. Not
Speaker 5: once did I ever hear him express his love for me. Instead,
Speaker 5: almost every time my father came home from work, he
Speaker 5: would start drinking and start yelling. I was even the
Speaker 5: one that actually mixed his drinks for him every night. Afterwards,
Speaker 5: I was forced to sit in a certain chair and
Speaker 5: listen to him tell me that I would never succeed
Speaker 5: in life, never be able to read, write, or do arithmetic.
Speaker 5: In order to prove my worth to my dad, I
Speaker 5: learned to cheat in school so my grades would be
Speaker 5: acceptable to him. I learned to steal from my friends
Speaker 5: so they would accept me. And I also learned to
Speaker 5: lie so my father would not hit me for the
Speaker 5: things he disliked about me. One time, I lied about
Speaker 5: putting my fingers in some jello salad before dinner. My
Speaker 5: dad knew I was lying, so he decided to shock
Speaker 5: me into admitting it. He cut the ends off in
Speaker 5: an electrical extension cord.
Speaker 4: So the wires were bare.
Speaker 5: Then he plugged the other end of the cord into
Speaker 5: the wall outlet. When I saw that I was in
Speaker 5: sheer tear, I pleaded to my dad, but he had
Speaker 5: no sympathy. Right before the wires touched my skin, I
Speaker 5: admitted to putting my fingers in the jello salad. The
Speaker 5: physical pain of being whipped with belts and ropes caused
Speaker 5: welts and bruises, but those welts and bruises healed pretty quickly.
Speaker 5: It was the emotional rejection I felt that caused the
Speaker 5: most pain. At the age of sixteen, I decided to
Speaker 5: move out and get away from the abuse. Instead of
Speaker 5: being worried or upset. My dad even helped me pack
Speaker 5: my bags. I moved in with from friends from school.
Speaker 5: That was the day I was giving hope again. My
Speaker 5: friend's parents gave me encouragement.
Speaker 4: Trust, love and respect.
Speaker 5: They said that I was valuable and capable, and no
Speaker 5: matter what had happened in my life, I could keep
Speaker 5: my chin up and start following the heart that God
Speaker 5: had given me. Up to that point, I had never
Speaker 5: thought about dreaming into the future. I was only concerned
Speaker 5: about making it through the day proving my dad wrong.
Speaker 5: I graduated from both high school and college, and during
Speaker 5: my junior year in college, I started dating a beautiful
Speaker 5: young lady named Stacy, who is now my wife. Stacy
Speaker 5: grew up in a wonderful Christian home, and she was
Speaker 5: able to show God's healing grace and share God's message
Speaker 5: of unconditional love with me. She believed in me, my value,
Speaker 5: and my abilities. If it was not for her, I
Speaker 5: would not be standing in front of you today. Her
Speaker 5: loved helped me start believing in myself. We started attending
Speaker 5: church together with her wonderful parents. It was at that
Speaker 5: time God started healing my wounded and broken heart. Since
Speaker 5: my deepest hurd has been with my relationship with my father.
Speaker 5: I think it's kind of amazing that it was on
Speaker 5: Father's Day nineteen ninety three that I accepted Jesus Christ
Speaker 5: as my Lord and Savior and said, Father, I want.
Speaker 4: To come home.
Speaker 5: The following month, I was baptizing to publicly demonstrate my faith. Now,
Speaker 5: every Father's Day AM reminded that my loving, heavenly Father
Speaker 5: heals broken hearts and sets our hearts free to.
Speaker 4: Become who we were meant to be.
Speaker 5: God's word tells me that in Jesus I am accepted, valued, loved.
Speaker 4: And forgiven. He even calls me as masterpiece.
Speaker 5: Although there are days I don't feel like one, God
Speaker 5: says I am. This is such great news that I've
Speaker 5: dedicated the rest of my life to helping people accept
Speaker 5: Christ and discover their.
Speaker 4: Unique God given shape.
Speaker 5: Today I'm humbled by the privilege of helping foul dozens
Speaker 5: of people rediscover their heart and the dreams that God
Speaker 5: has put inside of them, so they too can make
Speaker 5: the difference they were designed to make and start living
Speaker 5: the life they were meant to live. I want everyone
Speaker 5: to experience the feeling of one of my favorite verses,
Speaker 5: which is Philippians four thirteen, which says, for I can
Speaker 5: do everything with the help of Christ, who gives me
Speaker 5: the strength I need. In closing, I want to say
Speaker 5: that God can change and heal even the most broken
Speaker 5: of hearts. For example, a few years ago, I received
Speaker 5: a check in the mail from my oldest daughter's college fund.
Speaker 5: The check was from my dad. I had prayed for
Speaker 5: my dad since I committed my life to Christ, but
Speaker 5: I had not talked to him very much, so the
Speaker 5: idea of receiving money from him was completely unexpected. When
Speaker 5: I called my dad to thank him for the gift.
Speaker 5: He entered the conversation by saying, son, my last thing
Speaker 5: I love you.
Speaker 4: That, folks, was a miracle.
Speaker 5: It was the first time I remember my dad ever
Speaker 5: told me he loved me with joy. I answered, I
Speaker 5: love you too, Dad. Only the healing grace of Jesus
Speaker 5: Christ can change hearts like that. Two months ago, my
Speaker 5: dad lost his battle to lung cancer. In some ways,
Speaker 5: his condition brought us closer together. I really think God
Speaker 5: used me to heal a part of my dad's heart
Speaker 5: before he died. He said, Son, I believe in you.
Speaker 5: I just wish you would have believed in Jesus. Finally,
Speaker 5: I like to say to those who have left who
Speaker 5: felt the pain of rejection from anyone, I urge you
Speaker 5: to open your heart to Jesus today. Then let him
Speaker 5: come in and heal your heart so you can become
Speaker 5: who you were meant to be and do what you
Speaker 5: were meant to do. Please stop listening to those old
Speaker 5: voices from your past and start listening to the truth
Speaker 5: of what God says about you, because the truth will
Speaker 5: set you free. And the truth is God loves you
Speaker 5: and has a plan and purpose for your life.
Speaker 4: God bless you. Thank you.
Speaker 3: When Eric was that little boy being abused and being ignored.
Speaker 3: I'm sure he had no idea that one day he'd
Speaker 3: stand in front of twenty.
Speaker 2: Thousand people.
Speaker 3: Talking about how God had used brought good out of bad,
Speaker 3: had written a book to help people discover what God
Speaker 3: made them to be. And you have no idea what
Speaker 3: God wants to do with your life. Stop limiting God.
Speaker 2: Just stop it.
Speaker 3: Stop limiting God in your life. You have no idea
Speaker 3: what he wants to do in your life. If you're
Speaker 3: going to follow your heart, which God wants you to
Speaker 3: do because he put it in you, first you open
Speaker 3: it to him, second you let him heal it, and
Speaker 3: third you listen to it. You need to listen to
Speaker 3: your heart. Now, you know what the problem is on this.
Speaker 3: You're going so fast you don't have time to listen
Speaker 3: to your heart anymore. You're in so much of a hurry,
Speaker 3: you're so busy, you're so on the move, you can't
Speaker 3: hear your heart anymore, and you need to slow down.
Speaker 3: The Bible says that God wants you to listen to
Speaker 3: your heart, and he wants you to look at what
Speaker 3: you're made to do, and then you'll know what he
Speaker 3: wants you to do, but you gotta slow down. Alabama
Speaker 3: used to sing this song, I'm in a hurry to
Speaker 3: get things done. I rush and rush and till life's
Speaker 3: no fun. All I really gotta do is live and die.
Speaker 3: But I'm in a hurry, and I don't know why.
Speaker 3: Don't know why I have to drive so fast. My
Speaker 3: cars have nothing to prove. It's not new, but it'll
Speaker 3: do zero to sixty and five point two.
Speaker 2: Can't be late. I'm leaven plenty of times, shaking hands
Speaker 2: with the clock. I can't stop. I'm on a roll
Speaker 2: and I'm ready to rock.
Speaker 3: I hear a voice that says I'm running behind. I
Speaker 3: better pick up my pace. It's a race, and there
Speaker 3: ain't no room for second place. I'm in a hurry
Speaker 3: to get things done. Oh, I rush and rush until
Speaker 3: life's no fun. All I really got to do is
Speaker 3: live and die. But I'm in a hurry, and I
Speaker 3: don't know why. That describes most people today in America.
Speaker 3: They're speedy with no direction. God says, I want you
Speaker 3: to listen to your heart. Romans twelve to two says
Speaker 3: this twelve three. Be honest in your estimate of yourselves.
Speaker 3: You ask these questions that I wrote there on your outline.
Speaker 2: What do I love to do? What I dream of doing?
Speaker 2: What fascinates me?
Speaker 3: In other words, I can talk about it, to think about.
Speaker 2: It, or study it.
Speaker 3: I don't get bored. It just doesn't bore me. I'm
Speaker 3: fascinated by this. Where have I been most effective in
Speaker 3: my life? These are the questions you want to ask
Speaker 3: yourself in listening to your heart. You know, last week
Speaker 3: we baptized an eighty year old woman out here. After
Speaker 3: the service, we baptized after every service, she wanted to
Speaker 3: be a small group host. That's pretty cool, an eighty
Speaker 3: year old small group post. And she said, you know,
Speaker 3: I just wish I'd learned years ago that we serve
Speaker 3: God out of our design, not out of duty. I
Speaker 3: wish everybody could learn that truth. That's what the Shape
Speaker 3: series all about. We serve God out of our design,
Speaker 3: the way He wired.
Speaker 2: Us, shaped us.
Speaker 3: Our gifts are harder abilities, personality experiences. We shave God
Speaker 3: out of our design. We serve him that way, not
Speaker 3: out of duty. I don't serve God out of duty,
Speaker 3: never have. I'm not forced to do this. I do
Speaker 3: it because I love God, because He designed me. Because
Speaker 3: when I do what He wired me to do.
Speaker 2: I'm good at it, and it feels good and it
Speaker 2: brings glory to him. That's the way to live.
Speaker 3: I don't serve God out of force or design or guilt.
Speaker 3: I serve him out of delight and out of gratitude.
Speaker 3: The Bible says this up on the screen, make a
Speaker 3: careful exploration of who you are and the work you've
Speaker 3: been given. In other words, what He puts you in
Speaker 3: the earth to do, on earth to do, then sink
Speaker 3: yourself into that. But don't compare yourself with others. Why
Speaker 3: because there's shape differently. Number four Open your heart. Let
Speaker 3: God heal your heart. Listen to your heart. Number four,
Speaker 3: look at my options. Find out all you can about what.
Speaker 2: Might interest you.
Speaker 3: And you don't just go out there and say, well,
Speaker 3: I think I love to do this and you just
Speaker 3: jump into the pool. No, you think about it, you
Speaker 3: study it, You do your due diligence. The Bible says
Speaker 3: in Proverbs nineteen verse two, desire, that's your heart, your ambitions,
Speaker 3: your goals, your love. Desire without knowledge is not good.
Speaker 3: In other words, educated enthusiasm, uneducated enthusiasm, desire without knowledge
Speaker 3: is not good. And to be over hasty is to
Speaker 3: sin and miss the mark. He said, don't bet the
Speaker 3: farm without checking it out first. Don't be reckless, don't
Speaker 3: be irresponsible, don't be careless. Do your due dilans before
Speaker 3: diving in. Just because you love to do it doesn't
Speaker 3: mean that you're gifted to do it. We talked about
Speaker 3: that before, or some of these other areas. You have
Speaker 3: the experience, you need to check it out first. In
Speaker 3: other words, let's say you say, well, I love Mexican food,
Speaker 3: so I'm going to go start a Mexican restaurant. Any
Speaker 3: former restaurant owners want to give a testimony.
Speaker 2: God's very tough work. It's like saying, well, I love donuts,
Speaker 2: I think I'll go start a donut shop. Ninety percent
Speaker 2: of all.
Speaker 3: Business startups faire within five years. That's a labor us
Speaker 3: labor statistic. Why because they have desire without knowledge.
Speaker 2: By the way, let me just give you a little advice.
Speaker 3: A lot of the things that you think you'd love
Speaker 3: to do for the rest of your life, if you
Speaker 3: did them, you'd be bored within a month.
Speaker 2: They sound good, they sound sexy, like, man, I'd like
Speaker 2: to go run at thea heati resort.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for about two weeks until you realize what's behind
Speaker 3: running a Tahati resort, and a lot of things sound like, Well,
Speaker 3: I'd really like to go ahead and jump out and
Speaker 3: do that. And you know, I think, you know, I
Speaker 3: like playing guitar. Therefore, I think I just go out
Speaker 3: and become a rock star. Little prunes, little good sense,
Speaker 3: little forethoughts, saves some pain.
Speaker 2: Okay. In other words, he's saying, here, check it out. No,
Speaker 2: I did all of.
Speaker 3: These things before, before I started Saddleback Church. I in
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy nine, had God had put in my heart
Speaker 3: a love and desire, a passion to start a church
Speaker 3: and to build a church that would be a model
Speaker 3: of what church is really meant to be, and to
Speaker 3: build a healthy, large model for our nation.
Speaker 2: Well, what did I do? I didn't just go out
Speaker 2: do it. A first, I read everything I could.
Speaker 3: I read every book in print on church, on the church,
Speaker 3: seventy two books that I could find, seventy two books.
Speaker 2: Read them.
Speaker 3: In seventy nine, I wrote to the personally to the
Speaker 3: one hundred largest churches in the United States, asked a
Speaker 3: series of questions. I actually wrote a letter to every
Speaker 3: pastor of the churches that were already existing in the
Speaker 3: Saddleback Valley asked them.
Speaker 2: A series of quesquestions. I went and studied other churches.
Speaker 3: I put myself under mentors, I listened, I learned.
Speaker 2: I studied the areas.
Speaker 3: Of Seattle and San Francisco and San Diego, Orange County,
Speaker 3: and all this so that when I came here to
Speaker 3: start it in January of nineteen eighty, I didn't just
Speaker 3: have a desire.
Speaker 2: I knew what I was doing.
Speaker 3: I didn't have any money, no members, no building, no support,
Speaker 3: but I knew what I was doing. And so you
Speaker 3: start by looking at all the options. So how do
Speaker 3: you start going after your heart? Well, I would say, first,
Speaker 3: talk to people who are already successful in what you'd
Speaker 3: like to do. Just go find some of these already
Speaker 3: successful in some of these.
Speaker 2: Think I've got a heart for this, and talk to them.
Speaker 3: By the way, when you meet people who have the
Speaker 3: same heart as you have, you noticed you liked them
Speaker 3: instantly because they got the same interest you too. And
Speaker 3: you sit down and you talk with them and you go, wow,
Speaker 3: you like that. Do and there's this heart to heart connection.
Speaker 3: Read widely, study, maybe take a trip, go find some
Speaker 3: take a call course. If you're young enough, maybe you
Speaker 3: can be an intern somewhere. I would bounce your ideas
Speaker 3: off your small group. That's one of the reasons we
Speaker 3: have small groups. The Bible says we need the wisdom
Speaker 3: of other people. And one of the problems today is
Speaker 3: people make decisions in a vacuum and don't even think
Speaker 3: about it inviting other people into their life.
Speaker 2: Go to your small group, and when we're talking about shave.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm thinking about this. I've always wanted to
Speaker 3: do this. I've always had a love for this. And
Speaker 3: what do you think about it? Do you have any advice?
Speaker 3: Would you pray for me? Do you know anybody to
Speaker 3: put me in contact? Do you know somebody who knows
Speaker 3: somebody who knows somebody that you could put me in
Speaker 3: contact with.
Speaker 2: Use your small group.
Speaker 3: The Bible says that as believers, we are to encourage
Speaker 3: each other in our lives. Look at the next verse.
Speaker 3: You should meet together and encourage each other. That's the
Speaker 3: value of a small group. And then experiment. That's the
Speaker 3: biggest thing of all. Just volunteer, get involved in something,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: One of the things.
Speaker 3: One of the reasons why I believe in all the
Speaker 3: ministries here at Saddleback Is they're often a launching ground
Speaker 3: for full time careers. People have started in ministry here
Speaker 3: volunteering in an area that then they found out, man,
Speaker 3: I really like doing this, and it gave him an
Speaker 3: idea on what to do as a career. Okay, number five.
Speaker 2: Last thing.
Speaker 3: If you're going to follow your heart, launch out in faith.
Speaker 3: Launch out in faith. You expect God to bless what
Speaker 3: you're doing. Why wouldn't God bless you if you're doing
Speaker 3: what He created you to do. If He put it
Speaker 3: in your heart to do it and you go do it,
Speaker 3: obviously he's gonna bless it. But I want to tell
Speaker 3: you this, look up here, there's going to be a
Speaker 3: fear factor if you start following your heart. I guarantee it,
Speaker 3: because there are people in your life who don't want
Speaker 3: you to follow your heart. They want you to it
Speaker 3: scares them, and there will be people who will not
Speaker 3: want you to follow your heart, and so you have to.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be a fear factor. It's like on a trapeze.
Speaker 2: You swing out on one.
Speaker 3: Bar and before you can grab the other, you gotta
Speaker 3: let go of this one and you swing out a
Speaker 3: little over air, and then you grab out. And from
Speaker 3: the time you let go of this bar and grab
Speaker 3: this one, there's a split second where you're hanging in
Speaker 3: the air, three hundred feet up in total faith, and
Speaker 3: nothing's holding you up except God.
Speaker 2: I have been doing this my.
Speaker 3: Entire life, swinging out, letting go one, and grabbing on
Speaker 3: to the other, and swinging out and letting go one,
Speaker 3: grabbing I've been doing my entire life.
Speaker 2: You don't know God's all you need. Till God's all
Speaker 2: you've got.
Speaker 3: There will be a test of your faith there. It
Speaker 3: will be a test if you're going to follow your heart.
Speaker 3: There will be some barrier opposition to test your faith.
Speaker 3: But let me say this, God has given you the
Speaker 3: most amazing promise next to the last verse. So I'm
Speaker 3: thirty seven. Delight yourself in the Lord. What does that mean?
Speaker 3: It means put God first, means saying God, you're number one.
Speaker 3: I want to do what you want me to do. Now,
Speaker 3: what I want to do, now, what my parents wanted
Speaker 3: me to do. I want to do what you wanted
Speaker 3: me to do with your life. Delight yourself in the Lord.
Speaker 3: You're number one, and he will give you.
Speaker 2: Here's the promise.
Speaker 3: Read it with me, the desires of your heart.
Speaker 2: Wow, what a promise.
Speaker 3: Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you
Speaker 3: the desires of your heart.
Speaker 2: Now, when you.
Speaker 3: Start living your heart, you start following your heart, let
Speaker 3: me tell you what's going to happen. You're going to
Speaker 3: stop worrying about status and you start going to start
Speaker 3: enjoying significance. Status will even be important anymore because you've
Speaker 3: got significance, which is far more important than status. And
Speaker 3: when you start living following your heart, you're going to
Speaker 3: stop competing for position and my climbing the ladder, and
Speaker 3: you're going to start enjoying more pleasure because you're being
Speaker 3: what God made you to be. And when you start
Speaker 3: living and following your heart, you're going to stop obsessing
Speaker 3: over money, which isn't really that important, and you're going
Speaker 3: to start a meaning meaning Trump's money every day of
Speaker 3: the week.
Speaker 2: And you'll come to the.
Speaker 3: Point in your life where you realize the purpose trumps
Speaker 3: prosperity every day of the week. It's always more fulfilling
Speaker 3: to have something to live for than to have.
Speaker 2: A whole lot to live on.
Speaker 3: And I could give you a million examples of that
Speaker 3: and when you be what God made you to be,
Speaker 3: stress goes down and satisfaction goes up, and you'll be
Speaker 3: able to say, like David said, you know, I don't
Speaker 3: really care about all those people whove got all those things,
Speaker 3: all those possessions and prosperity, is because I've got joy.
Speaker 3: Last verse, he says, you Lord have given me greater
Speaker 3: joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and wine.
Speaker 3: In other words, the fat cats, that's power heads. Which
Speaker 3: of these heart stoppers have been stopping you from following
Speaker 3: your heart? Appointment, fear or guilt, resentment, hurt, ridicule. Jesus
Speaker 3: Christ wants to unclog your heart today, and John ten
Speaker 3: ten he said, I came to give you real life,
Speaker 3: life in all its fullness, a life better than you
Speaker 3: ever dreamed of. Would you pray this prayer, Dear Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: I open up my heart one hundred percent to you today.
Speaker 3: You made it, you know what's in it, you know
Speaker 3: all about it, and I open it to you. You've
Speaker 3: been knocking at the door, and today I invite you
Speaker 3: to come into my heart. I ask you, Dear God,
Speaker 3: to heal my heart where it's been bruised.
Speaker 2: And broken, batted around.
Speaker 3: Would you heal the scars of disappointment and fear and
Speaker 3: guilt and rejection and bitterness. I'm asking you to give
Speaker 3: me a new heart today. Help me to listen to
Speaker 3: my heart, to discover what you made me to love
Speaker 3: and to be interested in and the dream that you
Speaker 3: gave me.
Speaker 2: In my heart.
Speaker 3: Help me to look at all the options, but once
Speaker 3: I know it helped me to launch out in faith.
Speaker 2: And to trust you. Today I say my heart is yours.
Speaker 3: I have been shaped to serve you, and I want
Speaker 3: to do that the rest of my life.
Speaker 2: In your name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I was sure inspired
Speaker 1: today by Pastor Rick and that message. And I want
Speaker 1: to say that Rick and I are so appreciative that
Speaker 1: you took time out of your day to listen to
Speaker 1: this show. We love you, guys, and we pray for
Speaker 1: you every day. And if you just prayed that prayer
Speaker 1: of salvation to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, congratulations.
Speaker 1: We sure hope you'll let us know about it by
Speaker 1: emailing Rick at Pastorick dot com. We want to pray
Speaker 1: for you and we want to send you some resources
Speaker 1: to help you with your new relationship with God. And
Speaker 1: now one of my favorite parts of Daily Hope. Today,
Speaker 1: we're going to end with the letter from one of
Speaker 1: our listeners.
Speaker 3: Today, I want to share a letter from John, who
Speaker 3: says he's been reading the Daily Hope devotionals for ten years.
Speaker 2: Wow, great John.
Speaker 3: John says he uses these written devotionals every morning to
Speaker 3: start his daily prayer and Bible reading, and he writes this,
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick, I started receiving your Daily Hope devotionals about
Speaker 3: ten years ago. Not only did they bless my life
Speaker 3: and help me with my daily walk, I would save
Speaker 3: him and send them to my friends when issues or
Speaker 3: questions would come up. So I look forward every morning
Speaker 3: to reading these devotionals, which typically start my daily prayer
Speaker 3: and Bible reading. You know, I recently got my boss
Speaker 3: signed up for Daily Hope devotionals and it hit me
Speaker 3: how powerful they really are. You know, my wife and
Speaker 3: I decided to support Daily Hope over and above our
Speaker 3: tithe to our church to help you bring one more
Speaker 3: to Jesus. Well, John, your message is so special to me.
Speaker 3: You have really blessed me with this letter because I'm
Speaker 3: glad for three reasons. First that you have grown as
Speaker 3: a Christian through Daily Hope. Second, I'm glad that you're
Speaker 3: using the Daily Hope to help you study God's Word
Speaker 3: in a personal basis. And third, I want to thank
Speaker 3: you for caring enough to help other people that you
Speaker 3: have given generously of your funds and gifts to help
Speaker 3: us stay on the air and to allow us to
Speaker 3: actually even expand into other stations to take the good
Speaker 3: news of hope to places where it is desperately needed.
Speaker 2: So John, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: We sure hope you've been encouraged by Pastor rick Daily
Speaker 1: Hope and if you have, would you consider supporting us.
Speaker 1: Just 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. And
Speaker 1: this program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
Speaker 1: your generous financial support.