Rick Warren - Why God Made You—Part Two

Hello everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This

is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Now today

we're continuing into the new year, and we're digging deeper

into one of life's biggest questions, does my life really matter?

In today's message, Rick's going to continue his powerful series

Live Your Calling. What on Earth Am I here for?

In it, you'll discover how living out God's purpose for

your life brings real meaning, direction, and joy no matter

where you're starting from. All right, Now, here's part two

of a message called Why God Made You.

God puts you on this planet for eighty years, a

hundred years the most to practice what you're going to

do in heaven. He wants you to practice here. This

life is preparation for the next and one of the

things you're going to do in heaven is love God.

So he wants you to practice here. He wants you

to learn how to love Him here. He wants you

to learn to worship here because we're going to worship

in heaven. And the other thing, we're gonna fellowship in heaven.

We're gonna love each other in the family of God.

That's called fellowship what's he wants you to do. He

wants you to practice here. He wants you to learn

how to love God and how to learn other people

love other people here on earth. So when you get

to heaven, you're not a dufus. You know exactly what

to do. So write this down. The second purpose of

my life. What on earth am I here for? Is

to learn to love others. Learn to love others. And

the place you learn to love others is in God's family.

The church is the laboratory for learning how to love.

You don't learn how to love in business. You don't

learn how to love in school. You don't learn how

to love competing with other people in sports. The God's

family is the laboratory for learning real love. Now I've

heard people say this, Well, I don't really need the church.

All I need to do is get alone in nature

and then I can love God. Well that's true. Actually

that is true. And God created that nature and that's

why we feel close to God nature. And it is true.

You can get alone in nature and love God, but

you can't get alone in nature and love other people.

And that's the second purpose of your life. And your

life has more than one purpose. It has five And

the only way you're going to learn to love people.

I hate to tell you this is by getting around

some unlovely people. Now, don't look at them. You got

to be around unloving people. I've told you this before.

If you can't think, who are the unlovely people in

my life? I hate to tell you this, it's you, Okay. Now,

God wants us to learn to love real people, with

all of their quirks and their false and their flaws

and their social you know, mess ups and things like that.

God wants you to learn real love, real people, not

ideal people. You know, all love people in heaven. Yeah,

in heaven. To dwell above with those we love, that

will be a glory. But to dwell below with those

we know, that's another story. God says, no, No, this

is why you're here, not in heaven. First, I want

you to learn real love where it's difficult, where you

have to learn that love is a choice. Romans twelve,

verse five says this, we belong to each other, and

each of us needs all the others. You will not

make it in your purposes in life without being a

part of a spiritual family. Number three, write this down.

God created me to become like Christ. That's the third

purpose in life. God created me to become like Christ.

And once you understand in this, life's going to make

a whole lot more sense because God wants you to

grow up spiritually and the model of perfection is Jesus.

Jesus is the only perfect human being whoever lived, because

he was God come to earth in human form. He

lived a perfect life. He showed us exactly what it

meant to be fully human. So God wants you to

learn to think like Jesus, to act like Jesus, to

respond like Jesus, to talk like Jesus, to value like Jesus.

This is the third purpose in your life. Once you're

born into the family, God wants you to grow up

in the family and the model for growth is Jesus Christ. Now,

God is far more interested, don't miss this. God is

far more interested in who you are than what you do.

We're always worried about what does God want me to do? God?

What job should I have? Where should I go to work,

where should I go to school? What should I do?

And we're always worried about what we should do. God

is much more interested, not in what you do, but

in what you become. And the reason why is you're

not taking your career to heaven. You're not taking your

car to heaven. You're not taking your cash to heaven.

How much money you're making. You're not taking your china

to heaven. You're taking your character. The only thing that's

going to heaven after your eighty years or so here

on Earth is you. You're not taking any of your accomplishments.

You're not taking any of your achievements. You're not taking

any of your acquisitions. You're not taking any of your things.

You've piled up stockpilbum, money, materialism, and stuff like that.

None of that's going to heaven. The only thing that's

going to heaven is the person you became, the man

you became, the woman you became. The only thing you're

taking to heaven is your character. And God puts you

on this planet to develop your character, to grow up spiritually,

and to become like Jesus Christ, because that's what he's

interested in. He's not interested in what you do. He's

interested in who you are. Now, let me show you

a couple verses Romans, Chapter eight, verse twenty nine. From

the very beginning, God decided that those who came to him,

and all along he knew who would. He knows who's

gonna come into his family. He knows who's gonna accept him,

who's gonna let him adopt him into family. All along

he knows who would. He decided that those who came

to him should become like his son. It's always been

the plan of God that you become like Jesus Colossians

one fifteen. We look at the sun Jesus and see

God's original purpose in everything created. Now, this is not

Plan B. It's been God's plan from the very beginning.

Even before Adam sinned, God created Adam and said, let's

make man in our image. From the very beginning, God

has been wanting to make us like himself. Now, God

doesn't want you to become a god. You're never going

to become a god. Never never never never never never

never never never never. You're never gonna be a god. Now,

there's a whole movement out there called the New Age movements. Us.

You're a god, You're a goddess. God is within you,

You're the God. You're the master of your union. You're

not a god. You're not even a mini me God.

If you're a god, why don't you solve all your problems?

You're not a god and you never will be. You

can't solve the problems of the world. You can't solve

your own problems. You're not a god. And that new

age is actually Satan told us to Eve in the

garden of Eden. It's the first lie. He said, eat

this fruit and you'll be God. It's not new age,

it's old lie. In fact, it's the oldest lie. That

you're a god. That is the oldest lie in the universe.

You're never going to be a god. But God says,

I don't want you to be a god. I want

you to become godly. That means tell the truth like

I tell the truth, Be faithful like I'm faithful, Love

like I love, Be patient and forgiving like I'm patient

and forgiving. God says, I want you to be godly.

I want you to become like me in character, in wisdom,

in your values, and in who you are. Now. When

things happen you, the normal question you ask is the

word why, why is this happening? Why is this happening

to me? Why is this happening now? And the answer

to all the why questions of life? Is this to

make you like Jesus? To make you like Jesus. If

God's going to make you like Jesus, He's going to

take you through everything Jesus went through, and Jesus wasn't

spared from difficulty. Was there are times when Jesus was lonely? Yes?

Time when he was misunderstood? Yes? Were the times when

Jesus was disappointed by people? Yes? Were the times when

who's tempted to be discouraged and give up? Yes? We

are there times when who's just tempted? Yes? And if

God let his own son go through all that, don't

you think he's gonna let you go through it too? Yes? Why?

Because He's more interested in your character than your comfort.

This is not the comfort side of life. The comfort's

gonna come in eternity. Comfort's gonna come in heaven. This

is the classroom side of life where you are to learn.

In some things you only learn through difficulty. The Bible

says in Philippians chapter two, verse five, in your lives

you must think and act like Christ Jesus. This is

the third purpose for your life. You must learn to

think and act like Christ Jesus. So if I'm supposed

to think and act like Christ Jesus, what is Jesus like? Well,

I've told you this before that the perfect picture of

Jesus in the Bible is Galatians five, twenty two and

twenty three. It's often called the Fruit of the Spirit

and its It says in Galatians the fruit of the

Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control,

nine qualities. What is that? That's a perfect picture of Jesus.

God wants you to love like Jesus, to be at

peace like Jesus, to be patient like Jesus. God wants

you to be faithful like Jesus. God wants you to

have self control like Jesus had self control. Now here's

the question, how does God teach us the fruit of

the spirit. How does God make us like Jesus like?

For instance, if God wants to make turn me into

a great loving person, a real lover, what am I doing.

I'm just gonna walking down the street one day and

all said, I'm zapped with love and I love everybody

and just call me buddy love. You know, No, No,

it doesn't happen that way. There's no pill you can

take that's gonna make you patient for the rest of

your life, or loving for the rest of your life.

Life are faithful for the rest of your life. There's

no seminar, there's no book, there's no experience that's gonna

zap you, and all of a sudden you're like Jesus

and you never have a problem and you're never tempted again.

It's a lifelong process becoming like Jesus. That process is

called discipleship. Worship. Fellowship, discipleship are the first three purposes

of life. Know and love God, learn to love others,

and grow up like Christ and that it takes time,

and it takes and God. Here's how does God do it.

He puts you in the exact opposite situation. And that's

easy to love people who are lovely. If God's gonna

teach you real love, He's gonna put you around unlovely

people so that you have to learn to love. Love

is a choice. It's easy to love people who are

cool like you. No, if God's gonna teach you real love,

he puts you around some people that are difficult to love,

hard to love. When they talk, they spit on you.

And you know that kind of stuff, and they irritate you,

and they get in your face, and they talk too much,

and on and on and on and on, and they

irritate you in there like heavenly sandpaper. God's teaching you love.

How about joy? How does God teach you joy? Joy

is different than happiness. Happiness depends on happenings. If things

are going good in your life, you're happy. Things are

going bad, you're unhappy. Happiness depends on circumstances. I go

to Disneyland and unhappy, the happiest place on earth. When

I come out, I realize how much I spent. I'm

not happy. I spent way too much money in the

happiest place on earth and it didn't last. But before

I get to the goofy parking lot, I'm already sad again.

Joy is different happiness. Joy is internal, and joy is eternal.

You learn joy in the middle of grief. I could

talk to you a lot about one. How to learn

joy in the middle of grief? Patience? How does God

teach you patience by testing it by irritations, by chaos.

It's easy to be patient and at peace when everything's

going your way. If you're on a backpacking thing up

in the Colorado Rockies and you're in a beautiful stream

fly fishing. You got it doesn't get any better than this,

And well, anybody can be peaceful and patient when things

are going your way. But real peace and real patience

has learned in the middle of chaos. Peace has learned

in the middle of difficulty. How does God teach you patience?

Department of Motor vehicles, all right, traffic jams, doctors, waiting rooms.

Have you ever been in a hurry and God's not?

When you're sitting in God's waiting room and you've asked

for God to answer prayer and God doesn't seem to

be in any hurry to answer it, and you say, God,

I need this right now. God just doesn't seem to

be in any hurry. You're in God's waiting room. What's

he doing? He's trying to teach you patience. One time,

I was going through some really bad trials, bad difficulties,

and I prayed, God, I need patience. Instead of the

problems getting better, they got worse. And then I prayed God,

I need patience, and they got more worse. God, I

really really need patience, and they got really bad. And

after about six months I realized I'm a lot more

patient than when I started out six months ago. And

so God wants to make character in your life. That's

why you have problems. If you had no problems, if

you got every prayer instantly answered like a you know,

venning machine, you put in the prayer and pull out

the cigarettes or whatever you got. A vending machine will

give you bad stuff. God won't. If you got everything

you want, everything went your way, you had no problems,

you would be a spoiled brat, self centered brat. And

the whole of life is learning unselfishness, learning it's not

about you. Some people never learn that it's not about you.

Most people end up at the end of their life

still think it's all about me. It's not about you.

It's about learning to love God and learning to love

other people. And that's where fulfillment and joy and purpose

comes from. We must become, I think and act like

Jesus Christ. Now this is a lifelong journey. Look at

the next verse Tewod Corinthians three eighteen. As the spirit

of the Lord works within us, we become more and

more and more, in other words, progressively, it's a transition

more and more like him. So what does God do

to make you like Jesus. He uses 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. 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. 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.

Is it possible to grow old without growing up? Yeah? Again,

don't look at them, But you know people who are

growing older every day and not growing up, and they're

stuck in perpetual adolescents. They're stuck in perpetual infancy. 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 self centered. A baby can't

think of anybody else. All can think about is me, me, me, me, me, me, 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. That sounds like American culture.

We have a very immature, spiritual baby culture where everybody

wants to talk about my rights. I got to do

what's best for me and not their responsibilities. God says,

I want you to grow up. Mark Chapter four, verse

seventeen talks about shallow people and says some people have

such a shallow soil of character that when their emotions

wear off, Oh I praise the Lord, Praise the Lord,

and difficulty arrives, there's nothing to show for it. They're

fair weather believers. So my first purpose is to know

him and love him back. Then God formed me for

his family. My second purpose is to get in his

family the church, and learn how to love other people.

Then God created me to become like Christ. And the

third purpose of life is he wants me to grow

up spiritually. He wants me to grow up spiritually. You

might write that down. Then number four, the fourth purpose

of life is once you begin to know God and

love God and you begin to grow in God, then

he wants you to learn to serve Him. 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 nique 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, personality, and experiences. These are five categories where

you're different in every area there from every other nobody 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

some things some hobbies you're interested in others you couldn't

care less about? Some things whine 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 liked to do the same thing in life,

there'll be a lot left unnone. So God gives us

all different interest in different hearts that comes from God.

We're given different abilities. Some of you are really good

at math. 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. It's like

up up into the pool. Let's get going, man, your

mourning people? Right? How many of you are night ols?

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 and opposites attack, and

God puts you together. 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.

That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick. And

now here's Rick to tell you about today's offer.

One of the things that I've discovered is that everybody

eventually asks the questions of significance. Why am I here?

And what is my purpose? What on earth am I

here for? So I've updated the purpose driven life because

I wanted to help people like you understand how God

created us for five eternal purposes. The Bible says that

long before we heard of Christ, he had his eye

on us, had his designs on us for glorious living

that it was part of his overall purpose that he's

working out in everything and everyone. God has never made

a person that he doesn't have a purpose for. You know,

that simple message needs to be shared with the whole

new generation. A young girl who was twelve years old

when I wrote Purpose Driven Life is now twenty two,

and she needs to hear this essential message that God

has a plan, has a purpose, and has a reason

for everything that happens in our lives. And what I

did is, after reading hundreds of thousands of comments that

have come into me over the past decade, I've added

two new chapters that'll help you handle the two the

most common problems and barriers to living a life of purpose.

Now I want you to have this newly revised expanded

copy of Purpose Driven Life. I think you'll find that

it's a fresh reminder of things that you may have

forgotten when you first read it. Or you might want

to give the book to somebody who has never read

it and is struggling to find their purpose. So this month,

I'm offering to you a hardback copy of the updated

expanded edition of Purpose Driven Life. What on earth am

I hear for? It's my gift to you for your

financial support of this ministry.

Just go to Pastorick dot com to get your copy

of this great resource. That's Pastororick dot com. Or you

can text the word hope to seven oh three oh nine. Again,

that's the word hope to seven oh three oh nine.

And we thank you so much for your support. It

helps us share the hope of Christ with people all

around the world. Be sure to join us next time

as we look into God's world for our daily hope.

This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and

your generous financial support.