Rick Warren - The Call Is For You—Part One

Hey everybody, Happy New Year and welcome to Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. As

we begin a new year, it's the perfect time to ask,

does my life really matter?

Well?

Today, Rick Launch is a powerful news series called Live

Your Calling? What on Earth am I here?

For?

You'll discover that your deepest significance comes from understanding and

living out God's purpose for your life. Okay, well, here's

part one of a message called the Call is for You.

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 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. And that's what we're

going to look at for the next six weeks. 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 to tell me about somebody's just died, somebody's just

lost the 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 lottery,

here's what you do. Come outside and just give me

the money, okay, because you're not gonna get anything out

of it. You might I might as well put it

to use and use it for the peace plan. 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's calling to tell you

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 verse 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 kalao ka 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 you.

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

gonna 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 kalo 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 vossera.

It means to speak, it means 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

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, in God calling Solomon, and 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. What we're going to do together is

look at five specific dimensions, like the five facets of

a diamond, of God's call for your life, why you

are alive, and what you're supposed to be doing with

the rest of your life. How do you specifically fulfill

that calling now? As your pastor my prayer for you

in the next six weeks 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 is I'm going 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 gonna 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.

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 is

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 gonna 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.

No circle the word purpose on that verse, because that

leads us to the second.

Thing we learned, 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.

Of the firstborn son was the one who he would

inherit the family inheritance and is 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 an 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 merit it anything good or bad. God said

this so that the one chosen would be chosen because

of God's own plan, It's 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 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, I was actually working

at a camp in northern California, up in the mountains

in 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, I just I want to trust you, and

so God, I need to know what you want to

do with my life. And I pray to prayer that

night and said, God, I'm signing my name on the check.

I don't even know what the amount is 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 period, 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 rite.

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 live 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 grapes, and

I picked pears. 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, we're 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 MASTERI 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 out wretched in 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 gonna miss it,

and your true beauty, 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, I know there's a

new kind of makeup. I think I'll get that. Oh

there's a new clotheing. All get that. No, you were

put here to be a contributor, to make a contra

with your life, and the Bible calls your life contribution,

your good works. It's part of your calling. Now 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, your God's 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 and 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, your prescription baby said, well, I got all kinds

of flaws. 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 isn't 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 were 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. Do 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

like nobody cares. God does, when you feel like your

life doesn't have a purpose. God planns you before you

were born. So we're gonna learn this now. The important

part of a memory verse, remember, is always learning the address,

that is where it is in the Bible. That's the

hardest part to remember, the numbers, the chapter and the

verse Isaiah forty four to two. So the way you

learn a Bible verse is you say it aloud. You

learn through the ear, not through the eye. You can

read something over and over and over and he still

want memorize it. You only learn it by saying it

and when you say it, you learn through the ear.

You memorize with the.

Ear, So each week for six weeks, we're gonna memorize. Now,

that's pretty short verse. It's like ten words. You can

get this. So let's say it aloud together. We'll say

the verse reference at the beginning and at the end. Okay,

read it with me, Isaiah forty four to two. I

am your creator. You were in my care.

Even before you were born. And where's that verse?

Isaiah forty four to two?

Well, thank you so much for joining us today on

Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Hey, would you like to go

deeper with Pastor Rick to discover God's purpose in your life?

Well now you can with the video based study kit

called What on Earth Am I here for? This life

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and six video session. As you go through these lessons,

you'll embark on a journey of discovery to answer life's

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You'll learn that it's only in God that we discover

our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance,

and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.

This resource is packed with biblically centered principles and is

perfect for personal or small group study. So be sure

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