Rick Warren - What On Earth Am I Here For And Why It Matters

One of the most beloved verses in the Bible is

Romans eight twenty eight. So verse you've probably heard many, many,

maybe hundreds of times. It's one of the great promises

of the Bible, and it says this at the top

of your outline, we know that in all things God

works for the good of those who love him. And

usually we stop right there, we leave off the second

half of the verse, and we say, what a great promise.

We know that in all things.

Not just the good things in life, but even in

the bad things, the ugly things, the terrible, the tragic

things of life. In all things, God works for the

good of those who love Him. Doesn't say they're good.

There's a lot of bad in life. There's a lot

of bad things happening in your life, not all things

that happen to your good. But God says all things,

God works them together for good.

He can bring good out of even bad for those

who love God.

And usually we stop the verse right there. But the

rest of the verse says this, We know that in

all things God works for the good of those who

love Him, who have been called circle the word called,

who have been called according to His purpose and circle

the word purpose, circle called and circle purpose, and draw

a line between them because calling and purpose go together. Now,

if I were to say to you, what do you

think of first when I say the word call, make

a call, get a call, be called, you think of

a telephone and maybe they calling out for pizza, you know,

something like that. When I have to be honest with you,

a little true confession, as your pastor, I don't like telephones.

I never have because telephones to me represent two things.

Number One, they represent an interruption. And maybe they don't

seem like an interruption to you, but if you were

a pastor, you would be on call twenty four hours

a day.

Like doctors are.

I get calls twenty four hours a day, often in

the middle of the night, and so when the phone rings,

it usually means it rings when I'm busy or I'm relaxing,

or I'm studying, or I'm sleeping, or I'm talking with

somebody else or whatever. But it represents the interruption. The

second thing reason I don't like it is because in

my case, it often.

Or normally means bad news.

Somebody's calling and tell me about somebody's just died, somebody's

just lost a loved one, somebody's gone been rushed to

the hospital, somebody's just found.

Out a cancer test.

And as a pastor, of course, I deal with people

in pain literally every day of my life. And so

when the phone rings, I'm not thinking I wonder if

I just won the lottery. First place, I don't use

the lottery, which you shouldn't either. By the way, if

you want to do the lotter, here's what you do.

Come outside and just give me the money, okay, because

you're not going to get anything out of it. I

might as well put it to use and use it

for the peace plan. But but you know, let's say

the phone rang one day and you thought this is

an interruption or it's going to be bad news. But

somebody who was calling to tell you you had just

inherited fifty million dollars. You would not want to miss

that call. What if God called you? Let me give

you a little tip. When God calls, you do not

use call waiting. When God calls, you do not put

it on the answer voicemail. When God calls, you do

not let it ring and ring and ring and ring.

Pick it up on the first call. When God calls you.

Now the Bible says you have already been called. You

have been called according to His purpose. A couple verses

down from that, Romans eight thirty, it says this, look

here on the screen. Those that God predestined he also called,

and those he called he also justified, and those he

justified he also glorified. Now that's a lot of big

theological words, and we're going to cover some of those

in the weeks ahead. But the word I wants to

focus on as we begin live your calling is that

word called. The Bible says you have been called by God.

What does that mean? The word in the Greek is

the word callao k a l e o calaioh. It's

almost like calleaioh call, and the word calaoh means God

is calling you. And it's used about one hundred times

in the New Testament, over one hundred times, and most

of the time it's talking about your assignment in life,

your purpose in life, your mission in life, the reason

God created it is called your calling. Now in purpose

driven Life forty Days of Purpose, we looked at the

word purpose, but actually the word calling, which refers to

the same thing, is used ten times more than the

word purpose in the Bible ten times more to refer

to your assignment, your purpose, the reason you exist, why

God made you, What on earth am I here for?

And in the next six weeks we're going to look

at why am I alive? And what am I supposed

to do with my life? And if forty days of

purpose was kindergarten, now we're moving a step up and

we're going into the advanced class on God's calling on

your life. Now, the Greek word is the word caleao

for calling. The Latin word is another word you've heard

of for calling, and it is the word vocation.

You've heard of that a vocation.

Vocation comes from the Latin word vos vosera.

It means to speak at me, to call.

We get the word voice, we get the word vocal,

vocalized comes from the word vocation. It is your calling.

So your vocation and your calling are the same thing. Now,

here's the problem today, the word vocation has been so

reduced and so minimized to just mean my job, my career.

Your calling is not your career. I'm going to explain

that in detail in the weeks ahead. But your calling

is not your career. Your calling is far far far

far far far far more significant, far larger, far more

all encompassing than your career. So your vocation is misused

when you say my vocation is my job.

No, you have a job.

But your vocation is your calling in life. And we

are going to study that. The Bible, this book is

the story of God calling people, and the whole Bible

is about God calling Noah, God calling Abraham, and Abraham responding,

God calling Moses for a purpose in life, and Moses responding.

God calling Nehemiah, who was a builder. God calling Isaiah

and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Hoseiah and Joel,

and God calling David, and God calling Solomon. In the

New Testament, God calling Peter and Paul and Mary. And

if you laughed at that, you are incredibly old. Okay,

some twenty something Peter, Paul, Mary.

I don't get it. I don't get it.

Okay, God calling Paul, and God has a call on

every person's life. Now, as your pastor, my prayer for

you is going to be this verse there on your

outline Ephesians chapter one. My prayer is that light will

flood your hearts. You know when we sing that song

open the eyes of my heart. Lord, you know that

song that's from this verse, that's from this verse. My

prayer is that light will flood your hearts and that

you will understand the hope, the hope that was given

to you when God called you. Now understand the calling

on your life. When you understand you, when you understand

your call in life, is going to give you incredible hope.

And he says, I want you to understand that. He says,

when you do, when you understand God's calling on your life,

then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be

yours together with all of God's people. He said, when

you know your calling, you understand, then you discover the

incredible blessings that you've been missing out on. The reason

I'm so excited about the next six weeks together.

To take you to a whole another level.

To understand the glorious blessings that God wants to do

in your life. Now, what we're going to do today

is I'm just going to introduce this subject and give

you an overview of eight things you need to know.

I'm going to summarize one hundred different verses on calling

in the Bible, and give you the eight things you

need to know about your calling in life and why

we're going to do this together.

Do you ever wonder if your life really matters or

what on earth you're here for. Pastor Rick wants to

let you know that God has a good plan and

purpose for your life. In his best selling book, The

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created you for. Request your copy today. When you give

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So let's look at eight things I need to know

about my calling in life?

Why God put me here on earth? Write these down.

Number one.

The first thing we learned from God's word is this,

my calling is a gift from God. My calling is

a gift from God. I don't earn it. I don't

deserve it. I don't work for it. I don't bargain

for it. I don't barter for it. It's just a

flat out gift of God's grace. It is His present

to me. When He created me, he called me, and

it's all by grace. Galatians Chapter one says this, God,

by his grace through Christ, has called you to become

his people. Now circle the phrase by his grace. What

is grace? Grace is undeserved kindness. Undeserved kindness. It's when

God gives you what you need, now what you deserve.

If we all got what we deserved, we wouldn't be here.

The fact is, God says, I give you what you need,

not what you deserve. Grace is the fact that God

knows every dumb mistake you're going to make in life,

and he still chose to create you. He knew all

the times you were going to disobey him. And he

still chose to create you. That is the grace of God.

The fact is grace is that God knows all the

things I've done. And even when I was thumbing my

nose to him and rejecting him, God was saying.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Now your calling is actually a part of your salvation.

The calling to Christ is also the calling to your purpose.

Two Timothy one nine says He has saved us and

called us. Notice they go together. Saved us and called

us to a holy life, not because of anything we've done,

but because of his own purpose and grace, his purpose

and his grace. So God gives gives me a calling

in life simply because He wants to give me a

calling life. I don't deserve it, He just gives it

to me. Now circle the word purpose on that verse,

because that leads us to the second thing we learn,

and is this, I am called for God's purpose, not mine,

but God's. I'm not called for God's God's I'm not

called for my plan in life. I'm called for God's plan.

God did not make you for you. You think God

created you just to live a selfish little life of

self centeredness.

It's all about me, me, me, me, me. Are you

kidding me?

No?

God didn't make you for you. You were made by

God and you were made for God. And until you

understand that, life's never gonna make sense, and you're gonna

get bored, and you're gonna get frustrated, you're gonna have

all kinds of difficulty because you don't understand you were

made for God. I am called for God's purpose. God's

calling is about his plan for my life, not my plan.

His dream for my life, not my dream. His purpose

for my life, not my purpose, or my parents' purpose,

or my boyfriend's purpose, or my husband or wife's purpose,

is for God's purpose for my life. Now, a good

example of this is the story of Jacob and Esau.

In the Bible, they were twins. There was a guy

in the Bible named Abraham and he had a son

named Isaac, and Isaac had two sons who were twins,

Jacob and Esau. Now, in those days, the firstborn child,

particularly the firstborn son, got all of the credit, got

all of the glory, got all of the love. The

firstborn son was the one who he would inherit the

family inheritance and it's like you're special. Number one, you're great,

and number two, Oh, we're glad you're here too.

It was kind of like aside. And God didn't like that.

And in the case of Esau and Jacob, Esau was

the firstborn son, and God said, you know what, I

have a calling for Esau's life and I have a

calling for Jacob's life. But just because I want to

do this, we're going to reverse it. And I'm choosing

Jacob to get the blessing of the firstborn son, even

though he was born second. And he told this to

their mother, Rebecca, before she even delivered. In Romans chapter nine,

it says this before the two boys were born, God

told Rebecca, the older will serve the younger. Now, that's

exact opposite of culture. And this was before the boys

had done anything. In other words, they didn't deserve it,

they hadn't merited anything good or bad. God said this

so that the one chosen would be chosen because of

God's own plan as his purpose. He was chosen because

he was the one God wanted to call, not because

of anything he did. I'm fortunate that I learned my

call in life at a pretty pretty young age. I

hadn't done anything, I hadn't deserved anything. I certainly wasn't

worthy of any kind of call. But I learned what

I'm going to be teaching you in the next six weeks.

When I was sixteen years old old, I was actually

working at a camp in northern California, up in the

mountains and the Redwoods.

And one night I went.

Back to my cabin and I got down on my

knees and I said, God, I don't understand it all,

and if you're there, don't I just I want to

trust you, and so God, I need to know what

you want to do with my life. And I prayed

a prayer that night and said, God, I'm signing my

name on the check. I don't even know what the

amount is, but I'm saying to you, I'm yours, and

I'm going to serve you the rest of your life,

and I'm going to fulfill the calling you have for me.

And I prayed that prayer, and as soon as I

finished praying that praier, do you want to know what's happened?

Nothing?

No angels came down and flapped their wings. There's no

blinding light, no thunder, no lightning. My hair didn't turn

white like Charleston Heston. You know, it's like nothing happened.

But that was the turning point in my life when

I recognized God's write and call on my life.

And from that moment on.

I became by vocational, which means I would have a

job in which I would put food on the table,

and I would have a job in which I would

pay all my bills, but I would also have a calling,

and my career and my calling might match sometimes but

might not match other times, because my calling was from

God and the career was just how I was making

a living at that point. Career makes a living, calling

makes a life. And so from that point on, I

was by vocational the rest of my life, and I

did a number of different jobs even though I had

this call on my life. At one point, I was

a dishwasher. At one point, I was a cook. At

one point, I was a lifeguard for three years. At

one point I worked in a butcher shop that was.

A whole lot of fun.

At one point, I picked fruit, I picked the grapes,

and I picked pairs. At one point, I was an

editor of a magazine. Another point, I taught college. I

actually taught college. One point, I was a youth pastor,

and then for the last thirty years I've been a pastor.

My job has changed many, many, many times, but my

calling has never changed. Regardless of what my job was,

you have a calling that is unique to your life.

The Bible says in Ephesians two ten, for we are

God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.

In other words, were made for a purpose to do

good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Now,

this verse is filled with some important truth, so let's

look at it. Versus says, we're God's workmanship.

Circle.

That word, the word there in the Bible, in the

Greek is the word poem. It's the word we get

poem from. You are God's poem. You are God's work

of art. You are God's craftsmanship, workmanship. Many translations of

the Bible translate this. You are God's masterpiece. He said, well,

I don't think I'm much of a masterpiece. Well, then

you don't realize how much value God has put in

your life. He said, well, I'm not a masterpiece. I'm

pretty beat up piece of junk. You're not junk. Jesus

didn't die for junk. If you look at Jesus on

the cross, arms outstretched and his nail pierced hands, and

he's saying, this is how valuable you are. This is

how valuable I'm You're valuable enough to die for. You're

not junk because God doesn't create junk. Jesus doesn't die

for junk, and the Holy Spirit doesn't live in junk.

You are a masterpiece. You're God's masterpiece. But it only

shows when you fulfill your calling. If you try to

be what somebody else wants you to be, you're going

to miss it and your your true greatness won't come out.

You are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do

good works. Those good works are your contribution to the world.

You were not put on this planet just to breathe

and take up space and die. You weren't put here

to simply be a consumer. Oh there's a new kind

of makeup, I think I'll get that. Oh there's a

new clothing, I'll get that. No, you were put here

to be a contributor, to make a contribution with your life,

and the Bible calls your life contribution, your good works.

It's part of your calling. And here's the cool thing.

We all have different good works. Your contribution, your good

works are going to be different than my contribution. My

good works and my contribution good works are going to

be different than the person sitting next to you.

And God makes us.

All different, gives us all different callings so that everything

in the world gets done.

It's all a part of it.

God workmanship created to make a contribution, which God prepared

in advance. Circle That prepared in advance for us to do.

That means a long time before you thought of it.

God had thought of your calling. In fact, here's the

third principle, Number three. God chose my calling before I

was born. You need to know that as we get

ready to go in to live your calling the next

six weeks. My calling is a gift from God. I'm

called for God's purpose, not mine, and my calling was

before I was born. God chose it. Let me show

you some verses on this. Galatians chapter one, verse fifteen.

Paul says, it pleased God in his kindness to choose

me and call me even before I was born. What

undeserved mercy. Here's another example, Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter one, verse

five before I shaped you in the womb.

I knew all.

About you, before you saw the light of day. I

had holy plans for you. God called you before you

were even born, and the Bible says God uniquely shaped you.

You are a custom made baby, Isaiah forty four, Verse two.

I am your creator. You were in my care even

before you were born. Now, this is going to be

our memory verse this week, so I want you to

look at it in detail. It says three things. First,

it says I am your creator.

What does that mean?

It means you're not an accident. You were uniquely chosen,

created and called by God. He said, why is it

important for me to not think I'm an accident? Because

if you think you're an accident, you're going to live

like it, and you're going to accidentally just kind of

go through life without any purpose, without any direction. You're

not an accident. I am your creator. You're not an accident.

You in my care. That means you're deeply loved. You

were in God's care when you were in the womb,

he says, even while you were growing inside your mother.

You realize this is why abortion is wrong, because that's

not a fetus in that mother. That's a baby that

God has already numbered that baby's days. Chose that baby

to be born. Accidental parents, yes, accidental babies. No. God

chose to create and call you before you're even born.

So you weren't a fetus before you were born. You

were a baby already chosen, already called, and already created

by God for a purpose and a calling. And then

it says you were in my care before I was

even born. God plans you before you're born. Now, I

want you to memorize this verse because it will encourage

you on days you feel discouraged, when you feel like

your life's an accident. It's not when you feel nobody cares.

God does when you feel like your life doesn't have

a purpose. God plans you before you were born. Hi, everybody,

this is pastor Rick. I would like to thank you.

Thank you for being a part of our daily hope family.

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You know.

I recently heard from a woman named Eunice in Cameroon.

Cameroon is a country in Central Africa, and she wrote

to me. She said, Pastor Rick, I lost both my

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But then she says, through the daily hope devotionals, I

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And peace in God's word.

So thank you for helping me hold on to hope.

Wow.

That's powerful.

That's powerful, and that happened because your giving is helping

Eunus find the strength to carry on, to raise her

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