Rick Warren - Why Serving Others Is The Secret To Real Happiness

Good morning everybody. It's good to see if you'll take

out your message notes, welcome to live your calling. What

on earth am I here for? And we're looking at

the five callings of your life, the five purposes of

your life, the five reasons God created you, the five

assignments that He has for your life. The word calling

has used more than even the word purpose in the Bible.

And we've looked at these first four are three so far.

We looked at.

God's first calling on your life, is your call to

be loved.

God made you to love you.

The second calling as you're called to belong to belong

to His family, the body of Christ, the family of God.

Last week we looked at your third calling. You're called

to become. God wants you to grow up. He wants

you to mature. He wants you to become We want

you to be. This week we're going to look at

the fourth calling on your life, and it is you

are called to bless. You're called to bless other people.

Now how do you do that? You bless others people

when you serve them. It may be physical assistance, it

may be financial assistance, It may be emotional support. It

could be relational support, it could be practical support. There

are a thousand different ways that you can serve the

people around you, and when you serve others, the Bible

says you actually bless them. And I want you to write

this down on your outline. The fourth purpose of my

life is God shaped me to serve him.

God shaped me to serve him.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on

this because we've covered this many many times at Saddleback.

That God has uniquely shaped you with five elements, your

spiritual gifts, your heart, your abilities, your personality, your experiences.

We've covered this many times, and you'll be reading about

it of course in purpose driven life. That God wired

you to be you and He shaped you to serve him.

Phesians two ten explains this. By the way, this is

our memory verse. So let's read it aloud with great enthusiasm.

All right, let's say Ephesians two ten, we are God's workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God

prepared in advance for.

Us to do.

Ephesians to ten. I want you to work on that

this week. It says we are God's workmanship. We talked

about this a couple of weeks ago. You are God's masterpiece.

You're God's work of art. You are unique. There's nobody

like you in the world, and you are created in

Christ Jesus to do good works. That good works is

called your service. It's called your ministry. It's called your blessing.

It's the way you help other people. You weren't made

to just take up space, breathe, live a self centered

life and die. God put you here to make a

contribution with your life, and that is called your ministry.

Another word for blessing, another word for services ministry. The

word servant and the word minister are the same word

in the Bible, and the word service and ministry are

the same words. The fact is, we're all ministers. Now,

we're not all pastors. I'm a pastor. My job is

to administer the ministers. So if somebody ever asked you

how many ministers does our church have, you say thirty thousand,

because everybody is a minister. So I want you to

write this down. My life calling is to be a

bi vocational minister of Jesus.

I'm gonna have to explain this to you.

My life calling is to be a bi vocational minister

of Jesus. Now, what does bivocational mean. Well, it's like

the word bifocal, you know, when you get glasses that

are bifocals. It means you can see two things at

the same time. You can see far away and you

can see up close. You can see both with clarity.

And when you are a bi vocational minister Jesus, it

means that no matter what you do in life, you

do it for two reasons, not one. You are a

bi vocational minister. Whether you're a truck driver or an attorney,

or a janitor, or a hospice worker, or a homemaker

or a teacher, or a deal maker or a stockbroker

or an accountant or a farmer, doesn't matter what you are.

If you're a Christian, you were to do it for

two reasons, to help others and to honor God. To

help others and to honor God. To help others and

to honor God. Everything I do in life, if I'm

a follower of Jesus is bivocational. I have a job,

but in that job, I do it to help others

and to honor God.

To help others and honor go on.

I am a bivocational minister of Jesus Christ. Now, the

Bible says it like this, look up here on the screen,

goloss those three seventeen. Whatever you do, whatever you do,

whether in word or deed, do it all in the

name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father.

Through him.

I can take out the garbage as a ministry. I

can change a dirty diaper as a ministry, I can

clean the living room. I can make a deal. I

can help somebody across the street. Everything in your life

can become a ministry if you do it to help

others and honor God.

And he says, whatever you.

Do, it becomes part of your ministry if you have

the right motivation.

I want you to write this down.

Menial tasks become meaningful tasks when I do that, do

it out of love for God. Menial tasks become meaningful

tasks if I do it out of my love for

Jesus for God. So everything in your life becomes significant. Really,

Let's say you're at a meeting in your office at

where you work, and all of a sudden the meeting's

over and ever gets up to walk out, and they've

left coffee cups and trash and all kinds of thingf

and you just decide, I'm going to clean that up.

Everybody.

It's not my job, but I'm going to clean that

up to help people and honor God. And so while

they're all gone, you clean off the table and you

put it all in the trash.

When they just walked.

Out expecting somebody else to do it, you have just

done a ministry. And God will notice and God will

reward you for it. Now, the fact is, the calling

to salvation and the calling to service are the same.

So when you became a believer, when you stepped across

the line, you weren't just called to be saved. You

were called to serve. You're saved to serve to make

a difference with your life. And as I said, every

member is a minister, and everybody has a ministry. Galatians one, chapter,

chapter one, verse fifteen says, this God in his grace

chose me even before I was born and called me

to serve him. Circle that last phrase, call me to

serve him. This is the fourth purpose of your life.

This is the fourth calling on your life. You are

called to serve. Your shape to serve. You're made for ministry.

You're called to bless What happens if I begin to

use my life in this fourth calling, When I begin

to stop thinking about me all the time and begin

to start thinking about other people in my life, begin

to think about not how can I be served, but

how can I serve others well? It brings four amazing benefits.

The first thing that happens you write, write this down,

is that serving others unselfishly.

Will create joy in my life.

It creates enormous, massive amounts of joy in my life.

Most people are looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

You don't find happiness and pleasure. Power, possessions, position, prestige.

You know, all of these different things that we typically

look for popularity. Success doesn't bring satisfaction. Sex doesn't bring satisfaction.

Salary doesn't bring satisfaction. Status doesn't bring satisfaction. Those are

all temporary. For permanent, ongoing joy, it comes not through sex, status, salary.

It comes to service by giving my life away. God

wired is that when you give your life away, that's

when the joy flows into your heart. Why, because he

wants you to be like him. Most people don't know

the two secrets of joy, but I'm gonna give him

to you right now here.

They are one number one.

The first secret of joy is get the focus off myself.

The more you focus on you, the more miserable you're

gonna be. It is not by accident that the word

miser and miserable come from the same root word. You've

got to shift your focus from inward focus it's all

about me, to outward focus. It's all about God and

serving others. Now, when you do that, that is a

counterculture moved because everything in our society says it's all

about you. Every advertisement says it's all about you. We

do it all for you. Have it your way, you're

number one, you're the best. But when you begin to

give your life away, the more you give your life

away t help others guess what, the more joy flows

into your life. Good example of this is the apostle

Paul Philippians, Chapter two, verse seventeen. He says, my life

is being poured out as a part of the sacrifice

and service. There's those words, as a part of the

sacrifice and service I offer to God for your faith.

Yet he says, in spite of this sacrifice and service,

I am filled with joy and I share that joy

with all of you. It is a fact of life

that the most helpful people are the most happy people

in life. If you want to be happy, you got

to be helpful. The more helpful you are, the more

happy you are, the more self centered you are, the

more unhappy you're going to be in life. It's just

the way the universe works. So joy floods into my

soul when I begin to give it away. God wired

the universe that the more unselfish you are, the more

joy flows into your life. The Bible says this in

Philippians four. Always be full of joy in the Lord.

Say it again. Rejoice. Let everyone see that you are

unselfish and considerate in all you do. Now notice how

he pairs joy with being unselfish and considerate. If you

are inconsiderate and you are selfish, you're not going to

be joyful. But if you are unselfish and you are considerate,

you're going to be joyful. I'll be real blunt with you.

Look at this verse up on the screen. Forget about

yourself long enough to lend a helping hand. If you

lack joy in your life, you're not happy right now.

Let me tell you start serving, Start finding a place

where you can volunteer to give part of your time

away and you get nothing in return, You're not paid

for it.

You're just giving your life away.

If there's nothing in your life that you are doing,

say on a weekly basis, on which you're just doing

it for others benefit, not for your own. If there's

nothing in your life like that, you're living a pretty

selfish life. And God didn't put you on this planet

just to live for you. You got to give back,

You got to make a contribution. You got to be unselfish.

That's where the joy comes from. Number two. The other

way joy comes is when I use my gifts to

help others. Joy comes from getting the focus off myself.

And joy comes from using my gifts to help others.

And when you use the gifts that God gave you

to help other people, it feels good. I was reading

an article this week about the Oscar contenders for the

Academy Awards this year. One of the actors said, I

was created, I was made for this role. You know

that feeling. That's how you feel when you know I'm

doing what God made me to do, what God wired

me to do. One Peter four to ten says this,

God has given each of you some special abilities. Be

sure to use them to make a ton of money.

Oh sorry, I misread that.

That's in the reviled substandard perversion translation. God has given

each of you some special abilities, be sure to use them.

To read it with me, help each other, okay, passing

on to others. God's many kinds of blessing. We're blessed

to be a blessing. God blesses you so you can

bless other people. We're blessed to be a blessing. And

how do we bless others? We bless others by using

our skills, by using our time, our talents, whatever we've got.

When we use it to help other people. In service,

you bless other people. Number two. Surviving others unselfishly or

serving others unselfishly will create not only joy in my life,

it will improve my relationships.

Boy, do we need this one.

Your relationships will get better the more you learn how

to serve, and that's something you got to practice at

I will it will improve my relationships. Why because the

root of every single relational problem in your life is

self centeredness. Now there are other issues that come in,

but at the root, it's selfishness. I want what I

want when I want it, and you want what you

want when you want it, and neither of us are

willing to budge and give in and change. And I

want it my way and you want it your way,

and that causes conflict. The verse verse that K and

I memorized when we were actually on our honeymoon was

Farver's thirteen ten only by pride cometh contention. In other words,

when you have an ego, you're gonna have conflict. Anytime

you're having a conflict in your marriage, ego is showing

up and you're not being a servant, you're being selfish.

But the more you practice, the more you learn to

get yourself out of yourself, get a bigger perspective, you

begin to serve unselfishly. It's going to change and improve

every single one of your relationships. Because you change, it

changes your relationships.

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 in eleven pages filled with scripture, and

also includes reflection pages so you can record the life

changing truths 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 do I learn to be unselfish? Simple?

Copy Jesus because he lived the most unselfish life ever.

Matthew ten twenty eight says this your attitude. Your attitude

must be like my own, Jesus says, for I did

not come to be served, but to serve. Now when

you take on the attitude of Jesus and you begin

to live your life not for the benefit of yourself,

but you begin to live your life for the benefit

of others, to help others and honor God.

Help others and honor God.

You accept you're a biblecational minister of God. Two incredible

benefits happen. One, you become more like Jesus, and two

you're more loved, respected, you're more popular. If you want

to have more friends, learn to be a servant. Here's

what the Bible says Romans fourteen eighteen. If you serve

Christ in this way, unselfishly serving, you will please God

notice and be respected by people. You want to be

respected by people. Learn to have a servant's heart. Here's

the cool part of all this. The more I bless

other people, the more God blesses me. The more I

serve others, the more God honors me. The more I

bless other people, the more I minister to other people,

the more God ministers to me. Let me show you

some verses up here on the screen Proverbs eleven twenty.

The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed, and those

who help others are helped. In other words, it's the

principle of sowing and reping. Whatever seed I sew, I'm

going to get back, but I don't get back a seed.

If I plan a seed, I don't get back one seed.

I get a whole tree of seeds. And so if

you start blessing other people, you get tons of blessing back.

You start helping other people, you get tons of help back.

You get more than you bargained for. Blessing others gives

me blessing. You know when people tell me, you know,

I'd really like to be involved in service, but I'm

just too busy. I'm just I don't have any time

to really be involved in volunteering anywhere. I'm just too busy.

Then you just forfeited God's blessing on your business. I

really feel sad for you. You want God's blessing on

your business. God does not bless selfishness. You want God's

blessing on your business and on your work so badly.

God's saying, are you giving anything away?

Are you? Are you?

Are you thinking only about yourself? Is it all about you?

Are you you think I put you on earth just to.

Live for you?

Now, the more you give your life away, the more

God blesses you. Look at these verses Proverbs seventeen eleven,

you do yourself a favor when you're kind, that interesting.

You do yourself a favor when you're kind, The Bible

says in Proverbs twenty two nine, a generous man will

himself be blessed. So if I want God's blessing on

my life. I've got to be a blessing in other

people's life, and if I want better relationships, I need

to start serving. Number three, Serving others unselfishly will make

my life meaningful. That's the third big surprise that most

people won't know. The only way you find meaning in

life is to give your life away. God wired the

universe on this principle. Meaning does not come from money.

We think if I just get more more money, then

my life will have more meaning.

No, it will not.

I probably know a dozen billionaires, and I could invite

any of those friends of mine come on stage. Every

one of them will tell you. Money has many good uses.

It can make life easier. It can give you opportunities,

it can open doors, it can save you time. But

money cannot give you meaning. No amount of money will

ever give your life meaning. Meaning comes from ministry, from

giving your life away. Jesus said it like this Mark

eight thirty five. If you try to keep your life

for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give

up your life for my sake, for the sake of

the good News, you will find true life. Circle those

last two words, true life comes from giving my life away.

Now knowing this, what should be my attitude toward service?

One Corinthens fifteen fifty eight says this, always give yourself

fully to the work of the Lord, because you know

that your work in the Lord is never wasted. Everything

you do for Christ has a purpose, and it may

seem insignificant, and maybe nobody else seems to know about it,

but it's important.

The Bible says, even if you give a cup of cold.

Water in God's name, in Jesus name, that you get

rewarded for that in eternity. And that brings me to

the fourth reason. What will happen if I use my

life to serve and bless others? If I switch the

focus from it's all about me, to switch the focus

on how many people can I serve? How can I

honor God? By helping others? Creates joy in my life

and improves my relationships. It makes my life meaningful. And

the fourth thing is it will leave a legacy. It

will leave a legacy. You will leave a mark. Actually,

you'll leave two legacies, one on earth and one in eternity.

The one on earth isn't gonna last very long because

after about three generations, everybody forgets you. Given enough time,

all your trophies are going to be trashed. All the

things you think are so cool. Right now, two generations

don't be even gonna care. You may get your name

on a building. Nobody's even going to ask who was

that person?

So what?

But the rewards you get in eternity are going to

go on and on and on and on forever. But

when you begin to serve, what it does is it

gives you a reputation. The Bible says this Proverbs ten,

verse seven. Good people will be remembered as a blessing.

Let me ask you, what are you? What are you

going to be remembered for? If you were to die

tomorrow with people? Say, man, that person was a real blessing.

They really lived for other people. They served, They were sharing,

They were generous, they were kind, They were always of

other people or would they think only? They were pretty

self centered. They only had their goals. They only went

after what they wanted. They didn't really care about anybody else,

didn't take care of their wife or their kids or

any and they just lived their life, did what they

wanted to do. What do you want to be known for?

Good people will be remembered as a blessing. Now, the

truth is, everybody wants their life to count deep down

inside of you. You want your life to have significance.

You want your life to have meaning, You want your

life to have purpose. You want to do something great

with your life. Everybody wants that, and there's nothing wrong

with that. To do something great with your life, you

ought to want to do something great with your life.

Here's how Jesus said you become great, Matthew twenty twenty six.

If you want to be great, you must be the

servant of all the others. The more you serve, the

greater you're going to be. The more you serve, the

more influence you'll have. I call it the Mother to

Rease syndrome. Mother Teresa went to the poorest of the poor,

the most outcast of the outcast in Calcutta, India, to

people who are on the street and dying. Nobody has

less influence than them. And she began to take the

dying into her home, and she cared for them, and

she began to serve those that everybody was trampling over.

And as she went to the.

Least influential people of life, God gave her enormous influence

around the world, so that she could walk into the

Congress and everybody would listen. She could walk into the

United Nations and everybody would listen. If you want to

be great, you learn to be the servant of all.

You know, for thirty years, I've been training leaders around

the world, you know, lots of different countries, and I've

discovered that when I hold a leadership seminar, it's packed out.

If I call it a service seminar, nobody wants to come.

In fact, even when we.

Want to be servants, where we say, well we want

to be a servant leader, why not just lead the

leader part off, Just be a servant. If you want

to be a great, learn to be the servant of all.

If you go onto Amazon dot com, for every five

hundred books on leadership, you'll find one book on being

a servant. We got our values all upside down. The

way you become great is by giving your life away.

He said.

But nobody's going to see my secret acts of service.

God will like if you clean up that table when

everybody's left the room, God will see that.

And the Bible says this in Hebrew six'.

Ten god is, fear he will not forget the work

you did and the love you showed for him by

helping his, people and he will remember that you are

still helping. Them in, Fact jesus makes this promise In

john twelve twenty. Six My father will honor anyone who serves.

Me and if you want to leave a, legacy then

you need to start serving, unselfishly doing something with your

life that you don't get something back.

For you, know.

Monetarily you've heard me say before that the greatest use

of life is to invest it in that which.

Outlasted you got three choices with your.

Life you can spend your, life you can waste your,

life you can invest your. Life the best use of

your life is to invest it in that which will outlast.

It there are only two things going to last in the,

world only, two The word Of god and. People so

if you build your life on The word Of god

and the, people then you are building your life on

the things that are going to.

Last 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 Truths 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