Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope.
Speaker 2: This is the place.
Speaker 1: Where Rick Warren brings you uplifting messages from God's Word
Speaker 1: every day to help you grow deeper in faith and
Speaker 1: live a life with purpose. Today we're continuing in a
Speaker 1: powerful series called Toolbox for Life. In this series, Rick
Speaker 1: teaches us four essential skills that you need to succeed
Speaker 1: wherever God has placed you, whether it's at home, at work,
Speaker 1: at school, or in your community. These are tools that
Speaker 1: every follower of Jesus absolutely needs. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: get right into today's message. So here's Rick with the
Speaker 1: final part of a message called maximizing your Strengths.
Speaker 3: Now, how do I discover how God shaped me for
Speaker 3: my purpose in life? Two things? Write these down. Number
Speaker 3: one First, by examining my past. By examining my past,
Speaker 3: one of the ways to know God's will for your
Speaker 3: future is by looking at your past, not at the
Speaker 3: events that happened to you, but at the things that
Speaker 3: you work good at. Galatians three, verse four in the
Speaker 3: Bible says this, you have experience.
Speaker 2: That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 3: You've experienced many things where all those experiences wasted God says,
Speaker 3: I don't want you to waste your experiences.
Speaker 2: I want you to learn from them.
Speaker 3: The fact is God has been working in your life
Speaker 3: since your birth. Actually even before you were born. God
Speaker 3: started working in your life long before you knew there
Speaker 3: was a God. He started working in your life long
Speaker 3: before you accepted Christ into your heart. He's been working
Speaker 3: to shape you for the purpose He made you for
Speaker 3: your life mission from the very beginning. And so you
Speaker 3: need to go back. And here's what the Bible says
Speaker 3: Galatians six y four. Everyone should examine circle the word examine.
Speaker 3: Examine his own conduct, not somebody else's, not your parents.
Speaker 3: Examine your own conduct. In other words, what are you
Speaker 3: good at and what are you not good at? Then
Speaker 3: he will be able to take the measure of his
Speaker 3: own worth with no need to compare himself to others.
Speaker 3: God says, you don't compare yourself to o this. What
Speaker 3: did my sister do? What's my brother good at? What's
Speaker 3: my dad?
Speaker 2: My mom?
Speaker 3: Gonna forget that, You look at your own past, You
Speaker 3: examine your own conduct, and then you can take a
Speaker 3: full measure of your own worth. Here's my homework for you.
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick's homework assignment this week. I want you to
Speaker 3: take half an hour this week and sit down with
Speaker 3: a piece of paper, just a blank piece of paper,
Speaker 3: and make a rule it off by every ten years
Speaker 3: the first ten years you know, grade school, second ten
Speaker 3: years junior high and high school, third years, your twenties
Speaker 3: and then forties for how many you know, decades you've lived.
Speaker 3: And then I want to ask you to try to
Speaker 3: do a life inventory.
Speaker 2: Now what does that mean.
Speaker 3: It means you do exactly what that versus examine your
Speaker 3: own concept. And what you do is you look and
Speaker 3: you say, what was I good at at each stage
Speaker 3: in my life? And what did I enjoy doing at
Speaker 3: each stage in my life? Here are the two things.
Speaker 3: I'm good at it and I enjoy doing it. Now,
Speaker 3: there's some things that you're good at and you don't enjoy.
Speaker 2: Don't worry about that, okay.
Speaker 3: And there's some things, by the way, that you enjoy
Speaker 3: and you're not good at. I mean, many of you
Speaker 3: don't know that before I was a pastor, I was
Speaker 3: a worship leader. I've played guitar and drums all my life,
Speaker 3: had garage bands all the time growing up, junior high,
Speaker 3: high school, and college, and I actually started off leading
Speaker 3: worship because I have a passion and I love to sing.
Speaker 3: The only problem was nobody liked to listen to it.
Speaker 3: So I love to do it, but I wasn't good
Speaker 3: at it and I didn't have the skills for that.
Speaker 3: So the key thing is to say what am I
Speaker 3: good at and what do I love to do? And
Speaker 3: I want you to look for patterns in your life
Speaker 3: because if you were good at it at an early age, you're.
Speaker 2: Going to be good at it later on in life.
Speaker 3: A kid who's good as a soccer player at ten
Speaker 3: is going to be a good and even better soccer
Speaker 3: player at twenty because there's just natural ability that's coming
Speaker 3: out there even at an early age.
Speaker 2: Look for the patterns in your life.
Speaker 3: When I was a little boy and I was called Ricky,
Speaker 3: I was a collector and I loved to collect things.
Speaker 3: I collected coins, I collected stamps, I collected rocks, I
Speaker 3: collected shell seashells. I collected chicken bones.
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding.
Speaker 3: I made a necklace out of wishbones. It looked like
Speaker 3: some tribal chief or something. I collected different kinds of horseshoes.
Speaker 3: And you know when I look back on all. And
Speaker 3: I used to call it my mom and dad called
Speaker 3: Rick's valuable property. And my room was filled with all
Speaker 3: kinds of collections of stuff as a little boy. And
Speaker 3: what I liked the most about that was not the
Speaker 3: collecting part, but the categorizing that goes with that, and
Speaker 3: that goes with that. And I could see things or
Speaker 3: in line, those four things go together, and those five
Speaker 3: things go together.
Speaker 2: And I was in an early I didn't know the words.
Speaker 3: I was a synthesizer, a simplifier, and a categorizer, and.
Speaker 2: I was going that goes with that. As a little boy.
Speaker 3: I was doing this today many many decades later. I'm
Speaker 3: still doing the same thing, only I do it with ideas.
Speaker 3: And so what I do is I look at what's
Speaker 3: going on, and I read deeply in the world. I
Speaker 3: read the sciences. I read botany and zoology and physiology.
Speaker 3: I read psychology, I read history, I read the arts,
Speaker 3: I read behavioral sciences, I read politics. Of course, I'm
Speaker 3: in God's word, reading it constantly, over and over and over.
Speaker 3: And then what I do is I see all these ideas.
Speaker 3: I go, oh, that idea goes with that one, and
Speaker 3: that idea goes, I'm now a collector and a categorizer
Speaker 3: and a synthesizer and a simplifier of ideas. And so
Speaker 3: then I come to church and say, here for these.
Speaker 3: Now you know that looks pretty simple. You try that,
Speaker 3: You try and making that every week for thirty five years. Okay,
Speaker 3: because you may hit a home run this week, next week,
Speaker 3: you're at bat in six more days. And it's hard
Speaker 3: in making something simple. Einstein said, you don't really understand
Speaker 3: something until you can simplify it.
Speaker 2: But that's what I was wired to do.
Speaker 3: I was wired to take very complex things and make
Speaker 3: them sound very very simple, and it showed up in
Speaker 3: my life since as a little boy. So you look
Speaker 3: for the patterns in your life. Now look at this
Speaker 3: verse on the screen. The Bible says, try to have
Speaker 3: a sane estimate of your capabilities.
Speaker 2: Now, a sane estimate.
Speaker 3: Says, I don't think I'm the best in the world,
Speaker 3: but I'm not the worst in the world either. I'm
Speaker 3: just good at this. And the Bible says, you do
Speaker 3: it and say I'm good at this without comparing yourself
Speaker 3: to anybody else. So the first thing you have to
Speaker 3: do in discovering is to examine. The second thing Tommy's
Speaker 3: are alluded to.
Speaker 2: This is by.
Speaker 3: Experimenting, by experimenting with different tasks. If you're in your twenties,
Speaker 3: my biggest advice to you, more than college or anything else,
Speaker 3: is this, try as many different things as you can,
Speaker 3: as early as you can, to see what you're good at,
Speaker 3: because you're not going to know you're good at it
Speaker 3: until you try it and you go, oh, that didn't lie.
Speaker 2: I didn't like that. I didn't like that. That wasn't good.
Speaker 2: Oh that's good.
Speaker 3: But I really like this and I'm good at it,
Speaker 3: and I'm fruitful and I'm fulfilled. And so you just
Speaker 3: start trying stuff, and you just look for in church,
Speaker 3: you look for a place to volunteer God. Some people
Speaker 3: are sitting waiting for God to say, I'm waiting for
Speaker 3: God to tell me what to do with my life.
Speaker 3: It isn't gonna happen. It isn't gonna happen. You just
Speaker 3: got God does not steer a part car. You gotta
Speaker 3: be moving. You can't steer a part car. You can
Speaker 3: only move. So just start moving, do anything, volunteer for anything.
Speaker 3: And as you start volunteering, then God will go, hey,
Speaker 3: this is what I want you to do with your career.
Speaker 3: This is what I want you to do with your life,
Speaker 3: and you'll start understanding and by experiment and just try
Speaker 3: out a.
Speaker 2: Bunch of options.
Speaker 3: There is no test that you can take that will
Speaker 3: explain your sahape, how God wired you how there's no test.
Speaker 3: The reason why is because every test is standardized and
Speaker 3: every human being is unique. The whole idea of shape
Speaker 3: is there's nobody else like you in the world, so
Speaker 3: you couldn't take a standardized test and find out what
Speaker 3: is your unique shape? Now years ago, I remember back
Speaker 3: in the seventies they had these spiritual gift tests. I
Speaker 3: don't have anymore because they don't work. And I remember
Speaker 3: as a teenager, I took a spiritual gift test to
Speaker 3: find out what my spiritual gift was and the only
Speaker 3: thing that came up with was that I had the
Speaker 3: gift of martyrdom. Oh, great, martyrdom. You get to die
Speaker 3: for Jesus. That's great, that's the gift. You only get
Speaker 3: to use one time and it's over and you only
Speaker 3: get to use it on the last day of your life.
Speaker 2: What kind of gift is that? You know?
Speaker 3: I could have taken a thousand tests, and I would
Speaker 3: have never known that I was good at teaching.
Speaker 2: Why I'd never done it. I'd never even tried it.
Speaker 3: And one day somebody asked me to fill in for
Speaker 3: some youth Bible study and I go, okay, I'll try that.
Speaker 3: And my knees were knocking and I was scared to death.
Speaker 3: And I mean I planned that like five hour sermon
Speaker 3: and it was done in four minutes. And you know,
Speaker 3: and I go, well, what do you guys want to
Speaker 3: talk about? Anybody read Mad magazine this week or you know,
Speaker 3: just and watch me.
Speaker 2: Nay, nay, you know, here we go. So, you know,
Speaker 2: I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3: And so but but as I began to just try something,
Speaker 3: people would come up and go, hey, you know, Rick,
Speaker 3: when you talk it makes sense. I get it. I
Speaker 3: understand it. You make something complex simple, I get it.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Here's an important thing in discovering your shape. Other people
Speaker 3: will see it before you do. Other people will often
Speaker 3: see how God shaped you before you do. Because when
Speaker 3: you're naturally good at something, you think everybody's good at it,
Speaker 3: they're not.
Speaker 2: You think it's easy for everybody, it's not.
Speaker 3: And when you're good at something you just think it's
Speaker 3: a normal thing. Well, anybody should be able to do that.
Speaker 3: Well they don't, and so other people will actually have
Speaker 3: to point it out in you. Some of you, for instance,
Speaker 3: as Tommy pointing out, you're very, very organized.
Speaker 2: And if I were to go to.
Speaker 3: Your clothes closet, it's color coded and all of the
Speaker 3: blue shirts or blue dresses are all in the same area.
Speaker 3: And you think everybody's organized, are you kidding?
Speaker 2: Of course not.
Speaker 3: But because you're good at it, you think. Parents one
Speaker 3: of the most important thing you can say to a
Speaker 3: young person is you know what you'd be good at,
Speaker 3: Not telling them what you want them to be good at,
Speaker 3: but saying you know what you're good at, and it
Speaker 3: releases people. We have to experiment and oftentimes other people
Speaker 3: will see it before you do, which, by the way,
Speaker 3: the fastest way to discover your God given shape is
Speaker 3: getting a church, because other people will see it in
Speaker 3: a church, and particularly in a small group. And as
Speaker 3: you talk in a small group week after week, people
Speaker 3: go like, you know what you're God be good at,
Speaker 3: and it'll come out there. So I've got to discover
Speaker 3: my shape. Second thing you got to do to become
Speaker 3: who God wants you to be. I have to accept
Speaker 3: my shape, and this is a hard thing for many people. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: many people reject what God made them to be, and
Speaker 3: they spend their entire lives trying to be something they're not,
Speaker 3: and then they wonder why they're so unhappy and so unfulfilled.
Speaker 3: You were made to be you, not anybody else. And
Speaker 3: if you try to be somebody else that you're not
Speaker 3: shaped to be, you're gonna be miserable. Now, there are
Speaker 3: two barriers that keep you from fulfilling your unique shape
Speaker 3: in life, Comparing and conforming. Comparing with other people. I
Speaker 3: want the gifts he's God. I like what she's got,
Speaker 3: and I want to be like that person. There are
Speaker 3: two problems comparing and conforming. Comparing. Never never, never, never, never,
Speaker 3: never compare yourself to anybody else. Why because you're one
Speaker 3: in a billion. No, you're one in a zillion. God
Speaker 3: doesn't make clones. You have a unique thumb print, voiceprint
Speaker 3: I print. Nobody's ever gonna be like you. So never
Speaker 3: compare yourself. And when you get to having, God's not
Speaker 3: gonna say why weren't you more like Moses or your sister?
Speaker 3: He's gonna say, I made you to be you. I
Speaker 3: didn't make you to be your dad. I didn't make
Speaker 3: you to be your mom. I made you to be you.
Speaker 3: And so he says, don't compare, by the way, if
Speaker 3: you compare your entire life, you'll be miserable because you'll
Speaker 3: always find somebody that you're doing a better job. Then
Speaker 3: and you get full of pride, and you'll always find
Speaker 3: somebody who's doing a better job than you, and you
Speaker 3: get full of discouragement. Either way, you're dead in the water.
Speaker 3: Pride and discouragement puts you on the sidelines. And then
Speaker 3: conforming is when you feel like I've got to be
Speaker 3: like somebody else. And the two myths I actually wrote
Speaker 3: two more chapters, you know, and when we revised purpose
Speaker 3: of in life, I must be like you or I
Speaker 3: must be liked by you. These are envy and people
Speaker 3: pleasing are the two things that kill God's purpose in
Speaker 3: your life. And so you got to stop being preoccupied
Speaker 3: with I wish I was like that person. I wish
Speaker 3: I was like her, I wish I was like him. Now,
Speaker 3: anytime you reject the shape God has given you, you're
Speaker 3: really rebelling against God. You're rejecting your creator. When you
Speaker 3: reject the way He created you. Let me show your vers.
Speaker 3: It's here on the screen. The Bible says in Romans
Speaker 3: chapter nine, what right do you have as a human
Speaker 3: being to cross examine? In other words, to question how
Speaker 3: God made you? Cross examine God? He said, you're like
Speaker 3: in a pottery shop. You got the potter making the pot.
Speaker 3: The pot has no right to say to the potter,
Speaker 3: why did you make me this shape? A potter can
Speaker 3: do whatever he likes with the clay as your passion,
Speaker 3: who loves you and wants you, wants to coach you
Speaker 3: to succeed in every oar of your life. I would
Speaker 3: encourage you to spend more time asking what do I
Speaker 3: do well?
Speaker 2: And less time on what do I do wrong?
Speaker 3: Stop spending so much time in your life going what
Speaker 3: do I do wrong? And instead say what do I
Speaker 3: do well? That is the key to maximizing your strengths.
Speaker 3: And it's the key one of the keys to this.
Speaker 3: You know, skill will bring success. Now one of the
Speaker 3: areas you're gonna have to deal with. And I'm going
Speaker 3: to say this because we're saddlebacks United Nations. I've told
Speaker 3: you many times in our church we speak sixty seven
Speaker 3: different languages because we want our church to look like
Speaker 3: Heaven's going to look like.
Speaker 2: And in Heaven, it's not.
Speaker 3: Going to be all white people, black people, brown people,
Speaker 3: or any other color. It's going to be a God
Speaker 3: loves variety. If you don't believe that, look down your row.
Speaker 3: God loves variety. He does not want us to look alike,
Speaker 3: act like, talk alike, sound alike. And so we say
Speaker 3: we want we want to be an all nation congregation.
Speaker 3: We want every nation in our church. One of the
Speaker 3: areas that many people struggle with is their heredity. And
Speaker 3: God sovereignly selected your parents, when you would be born,
Speaker 3: where you would be born, how you're born, your ethnicity,
Speaker 3: your race, the color of your skin, all of these
Speaker 3: things are sovereignly decided by God, and accepting your heredity
Speaker 3: is a part of finding God's purpose for your life. Today,
Speaker 3: in our society, we have an epidemic of depression. People
Speaker 3: are depressed, and the reason why is because they have
Speaker 3: confused identity. They don't know who they are, and because
Speaker 3: when you don't know who you are, you're going to
Speaker 3: be depressed in life. And more than that, they don't
Speaker 3: not only don't know who they are. They're trying to
Speaker 3: be something they're not, and that doesn't work, and they're
Speaker 3: denying the truth of God's word. They're denying what God
Speaker 3: made them to be, listening to culture instead of the Bible.
Speaker 3: And the culture says this is what's beautiful. That's all
Speaker 3: what God says beautiful. But they say this is what's beautiful, Well,
Speaker 3: I better be like that. And we have people with
Speaker 3: curly hair want to have straight hair, and people with
Speaker 3: straight hair when I have curly hair, light skinned people
Speaker 3: want to get darker with a tan, and dark skinned
Speaker 3: people want to get lighter, and people want to be
Speaker 3: taller and shorter. And God said, wait a minute, Wait
Speaker 3: a minute, who set up that standard of beauty. You're
Speaker 3: listening to the world. We're trying to be something you're not,
Speaker 3: and that causes all kinds of confusion. Now the other
Speaker 3: trap is, I said, it's conformity. Have you noticed that
Speaker 3: many people have a plan for your life? And if
Speaker 3: you want to be what God wants you to be,
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to tune out what other people want
Speaker 3: you to be. You're gonna have to say, wait a minute,
Speaker 3: I got to be what God wants me to be,
Speaker 3: not what my parents or anybody else. Stop fulfilling roles
Speaker 3: that God didn't assign you. Some of you are still
Speaker 3: trying to He's parents who are dead, and you stop
Speaker 3: fulfilling roles. You got to go back to the first
Speaker 3: skill we talked about, ignoring the naysayers. Let me read
Speaker 3: you some famous quotes. You are hopeless as a composer.
Speaker 3: Beethoven's music teacher. You are so stupid you will never
Speaker 3: learn anything. Edison's teacher. You are never going to be
Speaker 3: good at math, and he flunked him. Einstein's teacher. Here's
Speaker 3: a guy who was fired by a newspaper editor because
Speaker 3: he said the guy had no creativity. Walt Disney. You
Speaker 3: got to quit listening to the wrong people. You got
Speaker 3: to start listening to what God says about you. The
Speaker 3: Bible says one Corinthians seven seventeen. On the screen, each
Speaker 3: one should retain the place in life that the Lord
Speaker 3: has a to him and to which God has called him.
Speaker 3: God's calling on your life. God has called everybody to
Speaker 3: a purpose. God has called you to a specific life mission.
Speaker 3: And the only way you're going to know that, remember,
Speaker 3: function falls form, is look at your shape.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Part of that as I said, is your experiences, and
Speaker 3: sometimes even those experiences will be painful. So let's give
Speaker 3: Tommy a warm welcome.
Speaker 4: God will never ever waste a hurt in your life.
Speaker 4: He wants to take all that makes you this shape,
Speaker 4: and he wants.
Speaker 5: To use it.
Speaker 4: He wants to use it for his good and his glory.
Speaker 4: So how do we continue on maximizing our God given shape? Well,
Speaker 4: number one, we have to discover it. Number two, we
Speaker 4: have to accept it. And then number three, God wants
Speaker 4: us to enjoy it. God wants us to enjoy the
Speaker 4: shape that He has given us and how He has
Speaker 4: made us. Ecclesiastes five tells us this, to enjoy your
Speaker 4: work and to accept your lot in life.
Speaker 5: This is a gift from God.
Speaker 4: People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past,
Speaker 4: for God has given them reasons for joy. God wants
Speaker 4: you to accept and to enjoy who He's made you
Speaker 4: to be. He's made you to be something wonderful and
Speaker 4: unique and beautiful and amazing. And because He's made you
Speaker 4: that way, and he is the creator and the maker,
Speaker 4: just like Pastor Rick was talking about, he wants you
Speaker 4: to enjoy and to accept that gift. He doesn't want
Speaker 4: you to be anybody else except for you. He's not
Speaker 4: going to compare you to anyone else. And when you
Speaker 4: do that, there are three benefits that happen in your life,
Speaker 4: and Philippians two thirteen talks about these three benefits.
Speaker 5: Let's take a look at this next verse.
Speaker 4: It is God who is at work within you, energizing
Speaker 4: and creating in you the power and desire to will
Speaker 4: and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
Speaker 4: When you are living in your shape, when you were
Speaker 4: doing what God made you to do, there's three things
Speaker 4: that happen in your life according to this First you
Speaker 4: might want to write these down. The first thing is
Speaker 4: that you will feel energized. You will have energy like
Speaker 4: you've never experienced before. And it's not just energy to
Speaker 4: get up and go in the morning, like physical energy.
Speaker 5: It's that you feel alive inside inside of you.
Speaker 4: You feel like this is what you were born to do,
Speaker 4: this is what you were made to do. It resonates
Speaker 4: in the deepest part of your heart and your desire,
Speaker 4: and deep down in your soul, you know this is
Speaker 4: what God has made me to do, and.
Speaker 5: So you feel alive.
Speaker 4: You'll be the first one to show up before anyone else.
Speaker 4: You'll be the last one to leave before anyone after
Speaker 4: everyone else is gone, because you know this is what
Speaker 4: God has made you to do.
Speaker 5: A second benefit is that you get more confidence.
Speaker 4: There's more confidence that comes with knowing that this is
Speaker 4: who God made you to be.
Speaker 5: Do you know where the word confidence comes from?
Speaker 4: Comes from two Latin words can and fee day con
Speaker 4: and fi day and Latin ming with faith. You don't
Speaker 4: get confidence from self help books or from listening to
Speaker 4: see three's or.
Speaker 5: The radio talking about how great you are.
Speaker 4: You get confidence with faith from God. It's with faith
Speaker 4: that you know that you are doing exactly what God
Speaker 4: has made you to do. And when you're in with
Speaker 4: faith in God in the process and He is showing
Speaker 4: and revealing who you are in Him, that becomes who
Speaker 4: your identity is. And you have confidence because you're doing
Speaker 4: what God has called you to do and He's made
Speaker 4: you to do. The third benefit is that you have
Speaker 4: significance and.
Speaker 5: Satisfaction in life.
Speaker 4: You feel fulfilled and fruitful with what's going on, with
Speaker 4: what God is allowing you to be able to do.
Speaker 4: A lot of us live at the survival stage of life.
Speaker 4: We're just trying to get by. We're trying to make
Speaker 4: it from one day to the next, one paycheck to
Speaker 4: the next, just trying to get done with our day.
Speaker 4: And then we get our to do list done, and
Speaker 4: then by the time we go to bed, we're so
Speaker 4: exhausted we collapse into bed and we think, oh, my goodness,
Speaker 4: dear Lord, we got to do it again tomorrow.
Speaker 5: How are we going to do that?
Speaker 4: And we just live with the survival stage of life,
Speaker 4: and God doesn't want us to live there. And a
Speaker 4: lot of us we try to move into the success
Speaker 4: stage and we define it by the world standards, not
Speaker 4: by God's standards.
Speaker 5: And God doesn't want us to live there either, because.
Speaker 4: Once you get to the success stage, whether it's by
Speaker 4: the world standards, you'll realize that it's still empty.
Speaker 2: That you might be not.
Speaker 4: Living by survival, but you still feel empty. And it's
Speaker 4: because God wants all of us to live at the
Speaker 4: significant stage of life. He doesn't want you to drift
Speaker 4: through life. He wants you to know that he can
Speaker 4: use you in ways that you've never possibly imagined, that
Speaker 4: He's got great plans for your life.
Speaker 5: And he wants you to feel significant and whole.
Speaker 4: And you do that by discovering who God made you
Speaker 4: to be, which comes to our fourth point, which is
Speaker 4: how do we maximize our God given shape?
Speaker 5: Number four? We need to develop it and use it.
Speaker 4: We need to develop and use the shape that God
Speaker 4: has given us. Shape is like a muscle. If you
Speaker 4: don't use it, you lose it. You know, if you
Speaker 4: don't work out your muscles, you don't exercise your muscles,
Speaker 4: the muscle becomes atrophied. And God doesn't want that to happen.
Speaker 5: In your life.
Speaker 4: You look at these amazing musicians in our vocal team,
Speaker 4: our worship we have up here on stage every single week,
Speaker 4: and you look at them, You're like, Wow, they're so amazing.
Speaker 5: They're so good. I didn't start out that way. They
Speaker 5: weren't any good when they first started, right. They had
Speaker 5: to learn years and years and years ago.
Speaker 4: They had to learn and practice and do this talent
Speaker 4: that God has put in them and work on these
Speaker 4: abilities and work on what God has made them to
Speaker 4: be and develop those muscles and to grow them to.
Speaker 5: Where they're at today.
Speaker 4: Oftentimes we look at people, we're like, man, I love
Speaker 4: where they're at. I wish they could be there because
Speaker 4: I can sing, I could play a musical instrument, or
Speaker 4: or whatever. It is that ability or gift that God's
Speaker 4: given you, and the way you get there is by
Speaker 4: developing it, by serving, by growing, by giving it to
Speaker 4: the Lord. Two Timothy one to six says this, keep
Speaker 4: using the gift God gave you. Let it grow as
Speaker 4: a small flame grows into a fire shape. Is just
Speaker 4: the beginning. It's the starting point. It's not the end game.
Speaker 4: It's getting you to understand where you are at today,
Speaker 4: where God made you. But you are going to be
Speaker 4: different and you are going to grow throughout the years.
Speaker 4: So I view this as something that's going to be
Speaker 4: a life long journey for you. Not you just you're
Speaker 4: right starting out today. Some of you have been on
Speaker 4: the journey for a while. Some of you this is
Speaker 4: brand new to you. But you are starting out looking
Speaker 4: at what God has done in your life and how
Speaker 4: He's made you. Now here's the beauty thing about. Let's
Speaker 4: say you've taken class three or one years ago, or
Speaker 4: whenever you took or maybe I haven't taken it.
Speaker 5: That's okay. The spiritual gifts that you have.
Speaker 4: There might be some you don't even give an unwrapped,
Speaker 4: yet you're still need to unwrap them. You have presence
Speaker 4: that God has given sitting you, sitting on the shelf
Speaker 4: that He's given you. You have different passions you're going
Speaker 4: to develop throughout the years. You have experiences happened ten
Speaker 4: years ago. Think of all the experiences you've had in
Speaker 4: the past ten years and all the experiences you're going
Speaker 4: to have in the future that God wants to use
Speaker 4: for his glory and he wants to use in your life.
Speaker 4: One Peter four to ten tells us this God has
Speaker 4: given each of us special abilities. Be sure to use
Speaker 4: them to help each other, passing on to others God's blessings.
Speaker 4: Will you circle that phrase at the end of this verse,
Speaker 4: passing on to others God's blessings, your spiritual gifts, your shape,
Speaker 4: your spiritual gifts, your heart, your abilities, your personality. Those
Speaker 4: experiences happen in your life, the good, the bad, the beautiful,
Speaker 4: the ugly, all of those things. God wants to use
Speaker 4: them for his glory. He wants to make you and
Speaker 4: me a visual aid to a lost world, a visual
Speaker 4: aid of Jesus power and love and compassion and forgiveness.
Speaker 5: To a world that is dying and lost.
Speaker 4: He wants you to be the light bearers for him
Speaker 4: as you go into your homes, as you go into
Speaker 4: your neighborhoods, you go into your businesses, as you meet
Speaker 4: with family and friends that you have. Now the greatest
Speaker 4: blessing you're ever gonna experience, ever an experience, is knowing
Speaker 4: Jesus as your personal savior. That's the starting point for
Speaker 4: all this. It's asking God to come into your life.
Speaker 4: It's saying to Jesus, Jesus, I want to get to
Speaker 4: know you. Help me to get to know you. I
Speaker 4: want to start a relationship with you. I don't want religion.
Speaker 4: I want a relationship with you, and I want to
Speaker 4: start that with you today. Pastor Rick's going to give
Speaker 4: you an opportunity later on in just a few minutes
Speaker 4: to do that.
Speaker 5: That's the starting point.
Speaker 4: And then the second greatest decision you can make is going.
Speaker 5: After and finding out who God has made you to be.
Speaker 5: As parents, these are the two greatest things we can
Speaker 5: do with our kids.
Speaker 4: Introduce them to Jesus and then help them discover who
Speaker 4: God has made them to be.
Speaker 5: God has got a place for you in this world.
Speaker 4: You are not an accident and you are needed and
Speaker 4: God wants to do amazing things in your life.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's wrap this up.
Speaker 3: What's the one thing that keeps you from becoming who
Speaker 3: God made you to be. What's the one thing that
Speaker 3: keeps you from using your shape?
Speaker 2: Write it down. Fear. That's the word. It's fear.
Speaker 3: It scares you to become somebody that other people may
Speaker 3: not understand.
Speaker 2: It is fear.
Speaker 3: There's a story in the Bible where Jesus calls it
Speaker 3: the Parable or the Story of the Talents. We actually
Speaker 3: get the word talent from this Bible story. In Bible times,
Speaker 3: a talent was actually an amount of money. It equaled
Speaker 3: like an entire year's salary. And Jesus tells the story
Speaker 3: of a businessman who gives his employee one. He gives
Speaker 3: several talents, another of ten, another he gives five, another
Speaker 3: he gives one. He says, invest this. I'll be back
Speaker 3: and I'm going on a trip. When he comes back,
Speaker 3: one guy and another guy have both doubled their money.
Speaker 3: The third guy says this here on the screen. He says,
Speaker 3: I was afraid, so I hid the talent you gave
Speaker 3: me in the ground.
Speaker 2: Have you done that?
Speaker 3: You were afraid, so you hid the talent that God
Speaker 3: gave you in the ground.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, we're made of ground, We're.
Speaker 3: Made of dust. Some of you are hiding it inside
Speaker 3: of you. It's time to stop hiding your shape. It
Speaker 3: is fear. Now. Why must I maximize my shape? I
Speaker 3: can give you lots of reasons. You'll be more fulfilled
Speaker 3: and old. He'll enjoy life more. You'll be more fruitful
Speaker 3: and successful in your life if you're doing what your
Speaker 3: shape to do, not what you're not shaped to do.
Speaker 3: But the bottom line is this, write it down because
Speaker 3: I'm accountable to my creator. I am accountable to my creator.
Speaker 2: God decided your shape. God created you.
Speaker 3: God made an investment in you, and he expects a
Speaker 3: return on the investment. The Bible says this in Psalm
Speaker 3: thirty three. From where he sits, God overlooks all of
Speaker 3: us on earth. He has shaped each person, and now
Speaker 3: he watches everything we do.
Speaker 2: Somebody has said, but nobody sees what I do. Well.
Speaker 3: God does never mistake anonymous with insignificance. And as Tommy
Speaker 3: mentioned earlier, one day you're going to stand before God.
Speaker 3: He's going to ask you two questions, and you're not
Speaker 3: going to miss this exam. First question, what did you
Speaker 3: do with my son Jesus? Hope you know the answer
Speaker 3: to that one. I invited him into my life. I
Speaker 3: trusted in him. And the second question is what did
Speaker 3: you do with what I gave you? Your spiritual gifts,
Speaker 3: your heart, your ability, your personality, your experiences. Oh, God,
Speaker 3: had a great time, made a lot of money, retired
Speaker 3: and die wrong answer, You better be ready for that
Speaker 3: final exam. It's why you're here on earth. God puts
Speaker 3: you here to fulfill your shape and fulfill your purpose.
Speaker 3: Every wonder you look around in the world. There's a
Speaker 3: lot of cool things in the world. Every wonderful achievement,
Speaker 3: everything of beauty and created in this world was done
Speaker 3: by somebody's God given shape. Everything that's cool was done
Speaker 3: because somebody God shaped somebody to do it in business, health, whatever, education.
Speaker 3: On the opposite thing and the other hand, all of
Speaker 3: the destructive things in the world are because so misused
Speaker 3: their shape and misused their talent. The difference is what
Speaker 3: God has given to you, you must give it back
Speaker 3: to God. God has given you your sahape. Now you've
Speaker 3: got to give it back to God and then he'll
Speaker 3: use it in a great way. Closing verse on the screen,
Speaker 3: offer every part of your body to God to be
Speaker 3: used in doing good. That verse right there, I made
Speaker 3: that one many many years ago in my life. I'll
Speaker 3: close with this in my heart of hearts, at the
Speaker 3: core of my being, I want to use my shape
Speaker 3: for God to serve God by serving other people. And
Speaker 3: to my best of my ability, I have tried to
Speaker 3: do that with my life, to use my spiritual gifts,
Speaker 3: my heart, my abilities, my personalt, and my experience to
Speaker 3: serve other people by serving God. And it is produced
Speaker 3: fruitful in my life and it has made my life
Speaker 3: very fulfilling. And as your pastor, I deeply want that
Speaker 3: for you. I want that for you, for every one
Speaker 3: of you. I want your life to be fruitful, successful,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 2: Want it to be fulfilling.
Speaker 3: But it's not going to happen if you're trying to
Speaker 3: be something you weren't meant to be.
Speaker 2: You gotta be wired for your shape. That's bow our heads.
Speaker 3: God, you gave us a mind that we might know you.
Speaker 3: You gave us emotions that we might feel your love
Speaker 3: and even express that love back to you. And you
Speaker 3: gave us a free will that we might choose to
Speaker 3: follow you. Now you pray, say God in your mind,
Speaker 3: say God today, I dedicate or rededicate my life to you.
Speaker 3: I want to be what you made me to be.
Speaker 3: I want to discover my shape. I want to accept
Speaker 3: my shape. I want to enjoy my shape. And I
Speaker 3: want to develop and use my shape to serve you
Speaker 3: by serving other people. I ask you to make my
Speaker 3: life fulfilling and fruitful as I become what you made
Speaker 3: me to become. Jesus Christ. I invite you into every
Speaker 3: area of my life. You know the good, the bad,
Speaker 3: and the ugly, and I turn it over to you
Speaker 3: as best I know how. And I ask you to
Speaker 3: make the rest of my life the greatest period of
Speaker 3: my life.
Speaker 2: And I humbly ask this in your name. Amen.
Speaker 1: Wow, some powerful words from Pastor Rick today. And now
Speaker 1: this is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.
Speaker 1: This is letters from our listeners and now here's Rick.
Speaker 2: Friends.
Speaker 3: If you're having trouble staying consistent in your Bible study
Speaker 3: and quiet time, one thing you can do is have
Speaker 3: the Daily Hope devotional and podcast emailed to you every
Speaker 3: single day. Did you know that now each devotional, each
Speaker 3: daily devotional gives you a Bible verse and both a
Speaker 3: written and an audio teaching about that verse. Now I
Speaker 3: mention this because that's exactly what one of my listeners
Speaker 3: has done. Marla wrote me, and she says that getting
Speaker 3: Daily Hope devotionals have helped deepen her relationship with the
Speaker 3: Lord and helped her be more consistent. Marla writes this, Hello,
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick, I've been a Christian all my life, but
Speaker 3: I felt lost for the past few years. But a
Speaker 3: friend of mine told me about your Daily Hope emails
Speaker 3: and I've been getting them for about a month now.
Speaker 3: I read them every morning, and my meditation and prayer
Speaker 3: practices have become more regular and definitely more meaningful. My
Speaker 3: relationship to God has grown because of you and the
Speaker 3: Daily Hope Ministry. I now listen to your podcast every
Speaker 3: day on my way to or from work, and.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: So I felt compelled to tell you that I've gotten
Speaker 3: so much from your Creating Life Shaping Conversations podcast. They
Speaker 3: have really helped me as a mother, as a wife,
Speaker 3: as a boss, and as a friend. So I'm going
Speaker 3: to share them with my oldest daughter, who's nineteen. She's
Speaker 3: trying to find friends and find her way in college.
Speaker 3: So thank you, thank you, thank you well, thank you, Marla,
Speaker 3: thank you for writing. I'm so encouraged to hear how
Speaker 3: God uses Daily Hope to change lives and help people
Speaker 3: just like you grow closer to Him. You know, I
Speaker 3: think it's great that you are sharing your Daily Hope
Speaker 3: podcast with your daughter, and I would invite all of
Speaker 3: our listeners to do this. I have no doubt that
Speaker 3: she is going to learn to lean on the Lord,
Speaker 3: and as she does that, she'll develop biblical discernment that
Speaker 3: means knowing which way to go and who to relate to,
Speaker 3: and it's going to help her find her way in college. Now,
Speaker 3: Marla mentioned the Creating Life Shaping Conversations podcasts. Some of
Speaker 3: you have heard that, some of you haven't heard it.
Speaker 3: They're part of a series called Talking about Stuff That Matters,
Speaker 3: and I think you'll find the whole series very helpful
Speaker 3: for starting conversations with your family and with your friends
Speaker 3: about the most important things in life. Now, you'll find
Speaker 3: the Daily Hope podcast on my website pastorick dot com.
Speaker 3: All of these podcasts are free, and the reason we're
Speaker 3: able to do that is because the generous gifts from
Speaker 3: listeners like you. So those of you who are supporting
Speaker 3: us financially a million.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 3: You're making a difference, You're changing lives. Your gifts are
Speaker 3: causing people to come into the Kingdom, grow in Christ,
Speaker 3: and become all God intended for them to be.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to let Rick know how this
Speaker 1: broadcast has blessed you, he would love it.
Speaker 2: Please feel free.
Speaker 1: To send him an email at Rick at pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: That's Rick at pastorick dot com. Be sure to join
Speaker 1: us next time as we look into God's word for
Speaker 1: our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope and your generous financial support.