Rick Warren - Why God Created You: You Are Not Here by Accident (Part 2)

Truth. You're listening to it right now. He uses trouble,

he uses trials. God uses temptations to make you like Jesus.

Why Jesus was tempted? Temptation is just a choice, he said, Well,

it's a choice to do bad. Well, it's also a

choice to do good. It's just a choice. And every

time you have a tempted temptation, when you choose to

do bad, you know you're defeated. When you choose to

do good, you grow so temptation. Every time you have

a temptation and you respond correctly, you actually grow. You

grow more like Jesus. And he uses people. What am

I saying? You know, those problems you don't like in

your life, every problem has a purpose, and that purpose

is to make you like Jesus. There is no situation

in your life you cannot grow from if you'll just

trust Jesus and if you'll just learn to respond in

the right way. So I want you to write this down.

The third purpose of my life is to grow up spiritually.

First I'm born again, then I grow up. And God

wants you to grow up, and he wants you to

develop spiritual depth. One of the biggest problems in America

today is shallow living. One of the most biggest problems

in America today is immature people who refuse to grow up.

We are a nation of spiritual babies. What is the

hallmark of a spiritual baby? Babies are one percent self centered.

A baby can't think of anybody else. All can think

about is me, me, me, me, me, me, I, I

I I my my my needs. I want it, I

want it now. Babies don't know the difference we know

and not yet. Babies don't know how to delay gratification.

Babies have to have instant fulfillment. Babies have to have

focused on their feelings, short term thinking, manipulated by their moods.

I've got to have it now, God says, I want

you to grow up. Mark Chapter four, verse seventeen talks

about shallow people. It says some people have such a

shallow soil of character that when their emotions wear off,

oh he praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, and difficulty arrives.

There's nothing to show for it. They're fair weather believers.

And here's the fourth thing. God shaped me to serve him.

God shaped me to serve him, and He uniquely shaped

you in a way like no one else. There are

no two people on the planet the same. You are

unique in every single way. You have a unique voice print,

you have a unique EyePrint, you have a unique thumb

print fingerprints, you have a unique footprint, You have a

unique chemistry. You have a unique heartbeat. No heart beats

the exactly the same as any others. God creates every

snowflake different. God overdoes it in diversity and variety. God

does not clone anything humans do. But God never copies

and never clones. So nobody in history before you will

ever be like you, and nobody after you in eternity

in the future will ever be like you. And God

uniquely shaped you to fulfill a unique purpose here on

the planet Earth. And this is the contribution He wants

you to make. Now, remember that in heaven, one of

the things you're gonna do is you're going to serve God,

and so God wants you to learn to practice here.

Now here's what the Bible says, Psalm one thirty nine,

verse thirteen. You shaped me God, first inside and then out,

and you formed me in my mother's womb. Now Here

at saddleback, we use a little crosty to say the

unique shape that God has given you shape, spiritual gifts,

heart ability, personnel, and experiences. These are five categories where

you're different in every area there from everybody else. For instance,

God has given you unique spiritual gifts. You're gifted in

some areas and you don't even realize it. And one

of the things about giftedness is you're good at some

stuff and you think everybody is good at it, but

they're not. You're good at it. And then God gives

you a unique heart. What is your heart? That's your passion.

Your passion is what you love to do. Gifts is

what you're good at. Passion is what you love to do.

Have you ever realized that the reason you like some

things and don't like some things is God gave you

that shape. Why are some things really interesting to you?

And other things bore you to tears? Because of your heart,

your emotional your passion. Why are somethings some hobbies you're

interested in others you couldn't care less about. Some things

wind your crank and turn you on. Some things bore

you to tears. God made us all with different hearts,

emotional hearts. We all like to do different things. Why

that way? Everything gets done. If everybody like to do

the same thing in life, there'll be a lot left undone.

So God gives us all different interests in different hearts.

That comes from God. We're given different abilities. Some of

you are really good at maths. Some of you stink

at math. You should never look at a number. You're

just not good at. Some of you are good with words,

and others you're not good with words. You may be

good with plants. You may be good with animals. You

may be good with people. Some of you are good

at drawing, and some of us are just stick figure

kind of people. You may be good at music, you

may be good at mechanics. There are literally thousands of

different kinds of abilities, and that's what makes shapes you.

And then there's your personality. We all have different personalities.

Some people like routine. Some people like they want to

do the same thing every day. Some people like variety.

They want to do something different every day. Some people

like to work in a group, and some people like

to work on their own. That's personality. Some of you

are are you know, morning songbirds, and some of you

are are night owls. Okay, how many of you are

mourning people? You liked. It's like up up into the pool.

Let's get going. Man. You're mourning people, right, how many

of you are night owls? He said, I don't believe

in God at four eleven am. Yeah. Yeah, Now, let

me let you in a little secret. Mourning people always

marry night people. It's God's sense of humor. Opposites a tract.

Then opposites attack, and God puts you together and he goes,

this will be fun. Watch the sparks of fly. This

will be really cool. And the reason why is we

need each other's differences. If you married somebody identically like you,

you're going to be bored with them and you can't grow.

The greater your difference is, the greater the potential for growth,

the greater you can become, like Jesus Christ. Now God

says I've shaped you to serve me. And then the

last thing he says, I give you experiences shape. Every

experience in your life shapes you, the good ones and

the bad. And God uses family experiences you had growing up,

even bad ones and painful ones, He uses them for good.

He uses family experiences. He uses vocational experiences, the job

you had, educational experiences, the stuff you learned in school

and outside of school. He spiritual experiences, personal experiences, emotional experiences.

But the number one thing God uses in your life

to shape you for serving him is painful experiences. God

whispers to us in our pleasure, but he shouts to

us on our pain. Pain is God's megaphone. Pain is

how God gets your attention. We don't change when we

see the light. We change when we feel the heat.

And God says, yes, I even use the painful experiences.

I don't plan them, I don't need. We're living a

broken planet. You're gonna have plenty of painful experiences caused

by other people and by yourself. But God says, I

can even use that to shape you to serve me.

Ephesians chapter two, verse two says this God made us

what we are. He shaped us and in Christ Jesus,

God made us to watch TV all day. Well, that's

not what it says, play video games. No, it doesn't

say that God made us to what what. I can't

hear you would you circle that phrase? God made us

to do good works. This is the fourth purpose of

your life. God made you to do good works. Now

the word for do good works in the Bible is

called ministry. You have a ministry on earth. Not everybody's

a pastor, but everybody has a ministry. Your ministry is

anytime you use your shape, that's your talent, your abilities,

all your personality to help other people in God's name.

That's called ministry. God wants you to practice on earth

what you're gonna do in heaven. In heaven, you're gonna

serve God what he wants you to do here. Practice

so again when you get there, you already know how

to serve God. See a lot of people have this

false idea about heaven. They think that you're gonna sit

around and do nothing in heaven. You're just gonna sit

around and do nothing boring. No, you're gonna do steff

in heaven. You're gonna serve God in heaven, but you're

gonna love to do it. In fact, let me just

say this, everything you've learned about heaven in movies is

one hundred percent wrong. There has never been a movie

ever made that God heaven right. None, zero, not a zip.

Every movie that has ever been made about heaven is wrong.

Not one is right. How do I know that? Because

the Bible says nobody understands how cool heaven is. The

Bible says it's so cool you can't even imagine it.

The Bible says it like this eye has not seen,

no eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has

entered into the heart of man, the wonderful things that

God has prepared for those who love him. You can't

even imagine how cool heaven's going to be, because it's

like an ant trying to understand the Internet. You don't

have the brain capacity here on Earth. We're limited to

three dimensions, and we understand three dimensional thinking. What if

there's four dimensions five, six, seven, eight nine. What if

there're dimensions you don't even know about because your brain

isn't big enough in a human body to understand that,

How do you explain that. That's why in the Bible

when they try to explain in heaven they use this

metaphors like streets paved with gold. They're not going to

be paved with gold. They were just thinking of the biggest,

most expensive way, the coolest thing they could think of.

When you go when you see a movie about heaven, first,

heaven is always white. Everything in heaven is white. Are

you kidding me? The God has created rainbows, sunrises, sunsets,

the colors of all the clothes we're wearing, and the

ability to see color. He's gonna make heaven total white.

Not a chance, not a chance. And then it's on clouds.

Where did that one come from? That's not in the Bible.

And you walk around like in fog up to your feet,

so you know what I'm talking about. So you can't

even see your feet. How do you tie your shoes

in heaven? You know, if the FOG's up to your knees,

that's stupid. And then then you wear a white robe,

you have white wings, and you play a harp. That

would be hell. I can't if that's heaven. No thanks,

I don't want to go really, no thanks, I'm not interested.

I like to beach a whole lot better. Now. This

world is broken, it's full of sin, and it's still cool.

There are some waterfalls, and I mean unbelievable sights. I've

seen him around the world and the God who made

this and this is broken and imagine the perfection. We

can't imagine what heaven is going to be like. But

you're not going to sit around and do nothing in heaven.

You're going to serve. So, as I said, God wants

you to practice serving God, so you're not a dufus.

When you get there, you know how to do it.

Pastor Rick has put together a special resource called Daily

Inspiration for the Purpose Driven Life to help you reflect

on the key Bible verses found in his best selling book,

The Purpose Driven Life.

As you dive.

Deeper into these verses, you'll experience the transforming power of

God's word. This beautiful hardcover gift book features gold detailing

on the cover and has three hundred eleven pages filled

with scripture and also includes reflection pages so you can

record the life changing truth God.

Reveals to you.

This book is a wonderful spiritual growth tool and it

makes a perfect gift for your friends and family. When

you give a gift to help Daily Hope share the

Gospel with people around the world, will send you a

copy of Daily Inspiration for the Purpose Driven Life to

say thanks.

So, how in the world do I serve an invisible God?

How do I do that? Well? The Bible says we

serve God by serving others here on earth. The way

you practice serving God is by serving other people and

Jesus that if you've done it to the least of these,

You've done it to me. Now notice this next verse

one Peter four to ten. It is talking about using

your talents to make a difference in the world, to

make a contribution, to make an impact. This is your

ministry or your service in life. God has given each

of you, the Bible says, some special abilities. Be sure

to use them to make a lot of money. No,

to help each other, passing on to others. God's many

kinds of blessing. God has given you your shape best

hape to use to benefit the world, to make it

a better place, and to practice serving God by serving others.

So write this down. The fourth purpose of my life

is to serve God by serving others. And when you

do what you're good at, mechanically, musically, preparing a meal,

whatever you're good at, whatever you love to do, and

you do it in Jesus name, to help others. God says,

you're practicing serving me. There's one other thing God wants

you to do on earth. God made me for a mission.

God made me for a mission. God puts you on

earth first to know Him, then to learn some things,

then to become some things, then to do some things,

and the doing part is called your mission. Jesus says

in John seventeen, verse eighteen. In the same way that

the Father gave me a mission in the world, I

give them a mission in the world. God puts you

on this planet to make a unique contribution. It is

my job as your pastor to help you get prepared

for your ministry and your mission in the world, because

one day you're going to stand before God and he's

going to say, what did you do with what I

gave you? Acts twenty verse twenty four. Paul says this,

I consider my life to be wasted unless I use

it to complete my mission and finish the assignment that

the Lord Jesus has given to me to tell me

the good news about God's grace. Now I don't have

time to get into this, but the bottom line is

that God has a mission and a message that he

wants to explain through you to the world. You have

a unique life message and a unique life mission. Proverbs

nineteen twenty one says this, we can make all kinds

of plans, but only God's purposes will last forever. Question

what are you following right now? Your plan for your

life or God's plan for your life. Huh, you follow

on God's plan or you following your plan? You fall

on your plan. How's that working for you? You feel

pretty fulfilled, pretty satisfied, feel like, man, I'm really My

life is exactly what was supposed to be. The Bible

says only God's purposes will last forever. You know what

the problem with most people is today. Their dreams are

too small. Their dreams are too small. The biggest dream

that most people have is I just want to be happy.

I just want to live the good life. Really, and

we define the good life in Southern California as looking good,

feeling good, and having the goods. There's only one problem

with the good life. It isn't good enough. It doesn't satisfy.

There are thousands of people in Southern California who look good,

feel good, and have the goods and are miserable. I

talk to them all the time, because you were made

for more. And at some point you put your head

down on a pillow at night and you go, there's

got to be more than this. There's got to be

more than the good life. And the reason you think

that is because there is there is. You were made

for so much more. Than you're living right now, so

much more than you're living right now. You were made

for more than the good life. You were made for

the better life. The Bible says this, Second Corinthians five.

Jesus included everyone in his death so everyone could be

included in this life, a far better life. There's that word,

better life, not the good life, the better life, a

far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Good life isn't good enough. You were made for more.

You're made for the better life, the step up of

fulfilling God's purposes for your life. You say, how do

I get that? How do I get to the better life?

The Bible says this in Psal I'm thirty four to eight.

Open your eyes, Open your eyes and see how good

God is, how much he loves you. Blessed are you

who run to him. I like that word run, because

here's the point. If all of a sudden somebody told

me that there's a better life than I'm living right now,

I'm in. I'm in. I'm not gonna wait. I don't

think about it. I don't procrastinate, I don't delay. I

don't say one day I'll check it out, that there

might possibly a better be, a better life than I'm

a right now. No, I'm gonna run. If somebody tells

me there's a better way to live than I'm living

right now, I'm gonna run to it because I decided

a long time ago I'm not gonna waste my life.

You may waste your life, but I'm not gonna waste mine.

And if there's a better way to live, then I'm

going to run to it. And how do you run

to it? Open your eyes and see how good God is.

If I could only teach you one thing, if I

only had one message to preach in my entire life,

it would be this. Open your eyes. Open your eyes,

Open your eyes to the goodness of God. Receive the

love of God. No man will ever love you, no

woman will ever love you like your creator does, well

Jesus Christ does. And to go entirely through your entire

life disconnected from your Creator, who loves you that much,

makes no sense at all. If somebody was willing to

die for you, wouldn't you want to know about it?

If somebody loved you so much they died for you,

wouldn't you want to know them? Somebody did die for you.

His name is Jesus Christ, and he died for you

to pay for all the things you've done wrong, so

you could live a life a purpose formed for God's family, plan,

for God's pleasure, created to become like Christ's shape, to

serve God made for a mission, and might plead to

you as your pastors, do not waste your life. Decide

right now that for the rest of your life you're

going to give the best of your life, not to

your girlfriend, not to your boyfriend, not to your job,

not to something else, but to God and his kingdom.

Because you weren't put here for all those other things.

You were put here for these purposes, and to ignore

them is an enormous waste of your life. There's no

accident that you were here this weekend, and for those

who are watching online, it's no accident that you're watching

this online. God knows that you've been frustrated with your life.

He knows your hurts, he knows your sadnesses, he knows

your fears, He knows the turmoil that goes inside of you.

He knows the loneliness you feel when you put your

head down on the pillow at night. He knows the

insecurities that you feel that you don't want to admit

to anybody else. He knows all of that. And you

may have thought that there's got to be a better

way to live. There is. I just taught it to you.

There is. I call it a purpose driven life. I

don't care what you call it. Just do it. Become

what God made you to be, the man God bade

you to be, the woman God made you to be.

Jesus Christ invites you to experience this this way there

on your outline. The last couple verses, Matthew, Jesus says,

are you tired? Are you worn out? Are you burned

out on religion? Then come to me for a real rest.

He's not talk about religion. He says a relationship. Come

to me for a real rest, and you'll recover your

life and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And

who is this invitation available to? Next verse Acts ten

thirty five. It makes no difference who you are or

where you're from. If you want God and you're ready

to do as he says, the door is open. Doesn't

matter who you are, where you are from, what's your background,

doesn't matter what you've done, who you've done it with,

or how long you've done it, and says this offering

is available to you. And it says do not even

matter if you have doubts, bring your doubts with you.

Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs. At the bottom

of your message notes, I have written a prayer to

start living the life that God created you to live

the life of purpose. And here's what I want us

to do. I want us to read this aloud together.

So here's what I'd like to ask you to do.

Bow your head right now, but keep your eyes open,

and I want you to look at your notes and

read it now. If you don't have the notes in

front of you, look up here on the screen and

read it. We're going to pray this prayer allowed together,

so you can bow your head and read it on

the notes so you can look up here on the screen.

Let's say it together. Dear God, everything you created has

a purpose, including me. I don't want to miss my

purpose or waste my life or live it disconnected from

you anymore. Instead, I want to become what you design

me to be. Starting today. I want to follow your

plan for my life, not my plan you made me

for a relationship with you. So I want to get

to know you and love you and trust you. Thank

you for sending Jesus to pay for my sin. Help

me to understand that I humbly ask that you accept

me into your family forever. I want to grow more

like Jesus every day, and I want to use my

life on earth to serve You by serving others. Help

me to share this good news with others and to

fulfill my mission. I invite you into every area of

my life. Amen, Today, I want to invite you to

join me in something that's very close to my heart,

fulfilling the great commission of Jesus Christ. Sharing the good

news is the most important thing we do. When we

work together, there's nothing that God cannot do us, and

we're unified through daily hope. The message of Jesus Christ

is now reaching nearly every country in the world. That's

one hundred and ninety seven nations. We're going to even

places where it's difficult or dangerous or illegal to talk

about Christ openly. We're sharing the certain hope of Jesus

and it's changing life every single day. Right now, we

have an incredible opportunity. That's why I'm saying this to

you personally. There's some very generous friends that have offered

to match every single gift given to Daily Hope dollar

for dollar. That means whatever you give today is going

to be doubled in impact. So I'm asking you. I

want to encourage you to give as God leads you today,

and I want you to pray this prayer, God, what

do you want to give through me? Not say God?

What should I give? Say God? What do you want

to give through me? That's called giving by faith, giving

by revelation, And your gift will go twice as far

to share the certain hope of Jesus Christ and make

disciples all around the world. God bless you.

Please consider giving a financial gift. Really generous friends of

the Daily Hope Ministry. They're going to match your gift

up to ten thousand dollars. Thank you so much for

your support.