Rick Warren - Where Did We Come From — Part Two

You know, we really live in a world that's full

of competing beliefs and values and choices, and what you

believe shapes how you live and ultimately who you become.

But the good news is God hasn't left us to

figure it all out alone.

No.

In fact, today, on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, we're going

to continue our series Reframing Your Worldview, where Rick Warren

unpacks powerful truths from God's Word to help you see

life clearly and live it with confidence and purpose. And

now here's Rick with part two of a message called

Where Did We Come From?

Here's the second reason you have sanctity in your life

because God planned your life before you were born. Did

you know that on the back of your outline, God

says to Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb,

I knew you. Did you get that he said, before

even even conception? He says, I knew you before you

were formed in the womb. I knew you before you

were born. I set you apart for my holy purposes.

Did you know that God had a purpose for your

life before you took your first breath? Did you know

that God says he knew you before you were even conceived.

He thought of you.

He conceived you before your parents conceived you. God says,

I planned you in advance. I planned your birth. There

are examples of this author scripture. The Bible tells us

that John the Baptist was actually filled with God's spirit

while he was in his mother's womb. Why because God

had a plan and a purpose for his life. In fact,

here a couple of scriptures. Look up here on the screen.

Isaiah said, the Lord called me before my birth from

within the womb. He called me by name. God knew

Isaiah's name before or his parents gave him the name.

God called him before he was born. What does that mean?

God had a calling on his life. The reason Isaiah

was conceived is God had a purpose for his life.

God said, I'm putting this purpose on the planet, and

I'm going to use these parents. I'm going to use

them because i want to bless the world through this man.

The same is true with you.

God designed you in his image and he planned you

before your birth. Look here's what God said to Rebecca.

Look upon the screen. God said to Rebecca, the sons

in your womb. By the way, he didn't say fetuses.

He said the sons in your womb shall become two

rival nations. One will be stronger than the other, and

the older shall be the servant of the younger. God

already knew what was going to happen to these two boys.

He already knew why, because he had a plan for

their life. This is why we don't believe in abortion,

because abortion short circuits God's plan. God thought of you

long before your parents did. And what if you had

been aborted, then you could not fulfill the purpose God

put you on this planet. God put you here for

a reason, and God says, I don't want my plan.

I don't want my purpose short circuited by anybody else.

He bade you in this image. He planned you before birth.

There's a third reason you have sanctity in your life,

and that's because God made you for his pleasure. You

were planned for God's pleasure. The Bible says this in

Revelation four. You God created everything, and it is for

your pleasure that they exist, and they were created. You

look around the universe. Everything you see, God made it

for his own enjoyment. God made it to enjoy it.

You look at it and you find a tree eat

God says, I made that because I enjoyed it. I

enjoy it. You look at a waterfall or sunset, God

made it to enjoy it. You look at yourself in

a mirror. God made you to enjoy you. That's why

you were created. You're not here by accident. God puts

you on this planet because he wanted to love you.

He wanted to enjoy you, and he wants you to

learn to enjoy him back. And God just enjoys you,

Watching enjoys watching you be you. A lot of times

we think that God only gets excited or happy or

smiles at us when we're doing something.

Spiritual, like going to church.

But the fact is God enjoys you when you're just

doing the things that He created you to do. If

you're good at making sales or closing deals, God says,

that's my boy when you do it. If you're good

at painting or writing or crocheting or cooking, when you

do that, God says, that's my boy.

That's my girl.

When you're good at teaching, or you're good at planning,

or you're good at whatever you do, God looks down,

he goes, that's my girl. He enjoys watching you be

you now. I understand this as a parent. Kids were small.

They did all they didn't have to do. They didn't

have to be quoting the Bible for me to love them.

I just loved them when they were just squirreling around

being kids, you know, riding with crayons on the wall

and spelling milk, and jumping on the trampoline and tossing

off the bed and getting up a hundred times at night,

and you know, all of the things that kids do.

I just enjoyed them being kids. And sometimes I'd go

into the room at night and then I'd just sit

down and enjoy them sleeping. Sometimes I enjoyed that the most,

and I just watch them sleep, and i'd watch them breathe,

and I go I got so much pleasure out of that.

Did you know that God gets pleasure out of watching

you be you? Why He made you, and he loves

you like a heavenly father. Only he loves you in

a perfect way. I could only love my kids and

in an imperfect way. And so God says, no, I

enjoy you. That's why I made you. Now he enjoys it,

especially when you talk back to him. I can't imagine

if my three kids had grown up in my house

and had never said a single word to me that

would break my heart. But I know people who go

months and years, maybe even their entire life, and never

talk to God, and they never tell him that they

love him, and they never tell God that they're thankful

that they're alive, and they never get to know God,

never develop a relationship. Some of you are parents, know

what it's like to have the pain of a broken

relationship with a child and how much that hurts you

when that fellowship is broken between you and your child.

Imagine how God feels a zillion times over when.

People that he created won't.

Even acknowledge that He exists, won't even acknowledge that He

gave them everything that they have in life. It's all

because of him. Is See, you were made by God.

You were made for his pleasure. And God says, everything

you have in your life really comes from Me. You

would have nothing without God. Zero. I just wrote down

a few verses from the Bible on this look up

here on the screen. The Bible says, you, God are

the one who hears prayers. And the next verse says,

you God are the one who saves me. And the

next says you are the one who forgives my rebellious acts.

And the Bible says you, God are the one who

puts me together in my mother's who put me together

in my mother's body, And the Bible says you, God

are the one who determines my destiny. God is the

one we owe all of our gratitude too. Now, because

God needs you in his image, You are not an accident.

And that means, first of all, your life has sanctity.

Nobody's got a right to take it. Number two, you're in.

Your identity has dignity. Your identity has dignity now deep

inside you. What you want most of all in life

is you want dignity. You may not realize it, you

may not call it that, but that's what you want.

Everybody wants to feel that their life matters. You want

to feel like your life is worth something, that your

life is valuable, that there is significance.

To your life, that you're not just a zero, a.

Cipher, a zip, but not a nothing in the scheme

of things. You want to feel like your life matters,

that it counts, that it has value and worth and dignity,

and you crave it now what is it that gives dignity? Well,

we try all kinds of things. But you don't get

dignity from wealth. You don't get it from fame. You

don't get dignity from sex. You don't get dignity from

physical beauty. Oh. No, dignity is much much deeper than

all those things. Your significance will never come from any

of those things. And then you try to find significance

in those things, you will be deeply disappointed.

It's much deeper.

You know you can have it all by the world's

standard money, sex, power, fame, beauty, and still feel like

a fake inside. Why, because you were made for more.

Where does real dignity come from? Real significance? It comes

from three things, and they all come from God.

It's the next three verses.

First, real dignity comes from realizing that God sacrificed Jesus,

his son for you. When you realize that, you realize

that God considered you valuable enough to die for, you

were worth dying for. Have you ever realized that God

considered you valuable enough to die for? The Bible says

this God paid a ransom to save you from the

empty life. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood.

Of Christ, and he did this for you.

God says, you want to know how much you're valuable,

how much dignity I think you have? He says, look

at the cross, and Jesus says, this is how valuable

you are to me. This is how valuable you are

to God. You're worth dying for. You're worth going through

all the pain of the passion. You're worth going through

all that suffering. You're worth letting them nails in my hand.

That's how much you're worth. How much is something worth?

I'll tell you whatever a buyer is willing to pay

for it. If you've ever had a car and tried

to sell it and you think it's worth X amount,

it's not worth that. It's worth whatever somebody is willing

to pay. And if nobody's willing to pay what you

think it's worth, you're never going to get it.

Whether it's a house or I could hold up.

A comic book, and for some people that comic book

might be worth a quarter, but to somebody else it

might be worth a quarter of a million dollars because

they knew it had some significance to them. Value is

determined by what somebody is willing to pay for it.

God was willing to pay for you for your salvation

with his own son, with his own life. He came

to earth, he said, I'd rather die than live without you.

That shows dignity. And when you realize that God sends

his son to die for you, you should never again

worry about low self esteem. You're valuable to God. That's

why the Bible says this in One Peter two seventeen.

Up here on the.

Screen, treat everyone you meet with dignity. Why does he

say that? Because everyone you meet was loved by God.

Everyone you meet Jesus died for You will never meet

anybody that Jesus Christ didn't die for. Doesn't matter if

they believe it or not, accept it or not, doesn't

matter if they believe in God or not. The Bible says,

you treat them with dignity because I died.

For them, and I love them.

I create created them, I love them, and I died

for them, and you treat them with dignity. And he

says everybody. That means believers and non believers. It means

people you agree with and people you disagree with. It

means old people and young people. You treat him with dignity.

It means Republicans and Democrats and independence. I don't see

much treating with dignity today in the political scene. I

just see people demonizing each other and making them inhuman.

It means treating women with dignity, and it means treating

men with dignity. It means treating everybody, whether you agree

with them or not, whether they're an atheist or a

New Age person or whatever. Anybody, he says, you treat

with dignity because I died for them. I died for them,

and that gives them dignity. It's the second thing that

gives us dignity. It's when you realize that the Holy

Spirit lives in your life. When you invite Jesus Christ

into your heart. You say, Jesus Christ, come into my life.

What does that mean? You're saying, God, I want you

to put your spirit inside of me, Come and live

inside this body. And as you begin to get to

know him, you begin to learn when it's God talking

to you and when it's just your mind talking to you,

and you go, oh, I'm getting this lead in, I'm

getting this little prompting. It's nothing spooky. It's just God says,

this is what I want you to do. And he

doesn't have to say it aloud because his spirit is

put inside of you. He wants you to do the

loving thing and the kind thing and the important thing.

And God puts his spirit in you, inside of you.

Now it's not automatic. You have to invite him inside

your heart. You have to say, Jesus Christ, put your

spirit inside of me. He's not going to bully his

way in. God isn't going to force you to do anything.

He made you in his image, which means he gave

you the freedom to choose. Animals don't have the freedom

to choose. You do. You can choose to reject God,

you can choose to turn your back on him. But

when you say God, I'm choosing you, he like a gentleman,

comes into your heart and he says, to be the

manager of your life.

No this this next verse.

One Corinthian six says, haven't you yet learned that your

body is the home of the Holy Spirit? You know,

the King James version says your body is the temple

of the Holy Spirit. A lot of times you're here,

athletes say on TV or at the gym or some

of this saying, well, I believe my body is a temple,

and I want to say a temple of what? What

kind of God is inside that temple? Is it just you?

Yourself?

You see, when anybody says I believe my body is

a temple, they're actually quoting the Bible, but they're only

quoting part of the verse. The Bible says, your body

is the temple, the home, the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It's not to be the temple for just anything. God said,

I want it to be the temple for me. I

created you to want me in your heart. He says,

don't make it a temple for anything else. Make it

a temple for God's spirit, and you invite him in.

He says, He lives within you. And your own body

does not belie long to you what it belongs to God.

One day you're going to give up this body and

you're going to keep on going. The body belongs to God.

You got it on loan for about eighty years, but

one day you're going to turn it in at the

rental shop. Now, God says, I sacrifice Jesus for you.

That shows your dignity. I am willing to come and

live in your life in your body. And God doesn't

put his spirit in a junk can, So that shows

your dignity.

And there's a third reason.

Jesus gives you a new identity when you come to him.

He gives you a new identity. When you start trusting

Jesus Christ, he transforms your life. He makes things better,

he makes things new. The Bible says this, anyone who

has joined to Christ is a new being, new person inside.

The old is gone and the new has come. We've

talked about this before that when you come to Jesus Christ,

it's like he writes everything you've ever done wrong on

a big blackboard and he says, no, we're just gonna

race all that. Okay, we're gonna start over. You're gonna

get a.

Fresh new start from this day forward.

The day that you step across the line and you

invite Jesus into you, this is a new you. Okay.

We're gonna call it being born again. It's like starting

completely over. It's like a fresh new life, not just

a new leaf, but a total new life. And he says,

I'm gonna give you a new identity. And that's what happens.

It's a transforming thing. Now let me tell you why

this is important. I'm gonna be real blunt with you.

You have done some things in your life that you're

very ashamed of. You have done some things in your

life you're ashamed of. So have I. And there are

a lot of things in our lives that we wish men.

I wish I could do that over. I wish I

could put I wish I hadn't said that. I wish

I hadn't done that. I wish I hadn't messed up

that relationship. I oh, you know, I wish I could

replay the tape and back it up and do a

mull again, and do over and just get a fresh start.

I wish I could just take that off the slate.

Why because every time you and I sin, it damages

your dignity.

Sin doesn't just hurt God, it hurts you.

When you break God's principles. You don't just hurt other

people and God, you hurt yourself. It damages your dignity,

And every time you sin, it replaces a little bit

of self respect with a little bit of shame, and

it begins to pile up in your life and you

begin to try to push it out of the way

by staying busy or playing sports or getting drunk or

having parties or whatever. But it's there, and when you

put your head down.

At night, you're going, man, I sure messed up.

And every time you blow it, it robs you of dignity.

But Jesus Christ is in the dignity restoring business. He says,

when you come to me and you give your life

to me, he goes, We're just gonna wipe that out.

It's starting over. So it's like, if you came to

Christ tonight, go okay, Jesus, give me a fresh start.

And then you die tomorrow and you go to heaven

and he say, now, God, about that sin that I

did last week.

He's gonna go, what's.

Sind I's gonna say, I distinctly remember forgetting that.

He intentionally forgets it.

One of my favorite stories in the Bibles where these guys,

these religious leaders, they catch this prostitute and they pull

her out of this of bed and they.

Bring her to Jesus and they throw her in front

of Jesus on the ground.

They have no respect, they are not treating her with dignity,

and they throw on the ground and they say, okay,

they're trying to trap Jesus, and the religious leaders say, okay, Lord,

if you're so smart, the law requires that this immoral

woman be stone.

But we caught her in the act of adultery.

What do you say.

Jesus just looks at him, doesn't say.

A word, and he kneels down in the ground and

he starts the Bible says, writing in the sand. Now

doesn't tell us what he wrote. I think he was

just doodling. I think he's letting making him sweat it.

Here's kind of doodling around here. You know, now, what

he could have been doing. He could have been writing

in the sand the names of the sins of each

of those leaders, because he would have known it. He

was God.

He would have known what they had done wrong. He

could just write it in there.

But then he stands back up and he says, okay,

whichever of you has never sinned, you get to cast

the first stone. Well, of course they all know nobody's perfect.

They've all blown it, and one by one they walk away.

What was Jesus doing? He was protecting that woman's dignity.

Did he agree with what she was doing?

No? What's what is she doing wrong? Yes, but did

he protect her dignity in public? Absolutely? And so all

of the accusers leave, and then, in the privacy of

that one on one tender moment, Jesus said to this woman,

who undoubtedly was filled with shame, He says, where are

your accusers?

And she looks up and she says, Lord, they're all gone.

He says, I don't condemn you either, go and send

no more.

That's it. That's all he's gonna say. I mean, he

could have pulled out a ten point sermon on adult tree,

don't do this. Yeah you did that, but let me

tell you what else you did? Da da da da,

and really loaded it on her. See, a lot of

people think that's the way God is. A lot of

you are afraid to come and confess to God what

you've done wrong because you think you're gonna get a

scolding when you come and confess to him. And you

think that if you come and say, God, I blew it,

God's gonna go, oh, how did I miss that one?

You know, and he's going to be shocked, as if

he doesn't already know. And then that he's going to say,

and not only did you do that, you did these

ten other things too. No, he's not gonna do that.

He responds to you in love and in grace and

in mercy. And when she said, he said, where are

your accusers? She said, they're gone. He said, neither do

I condemn you. I don't accuse you. Go and send

no more what said? He just says, don't do it anymore.

She didn't need a sermon. She knew what was wrong.

Nobody needed to tell her why what.

She was doing was wrong. He just said, don't do

it anymore.

You're better than that. You got dignity. Don't do that anymore.

That's all he said. And she walks away. You see,

when you come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness, he forgives

you immediately, and then second he restores your dignity.

Now, listen very carefully.

I don't care what you've done. I don't care who

you've done it with. I don't care how long you've

done it or where you did it. To God, it

doesn't matter where you've been. What matters is what direction

your feet are headed. Now.

He says, your past is past, And.

He says, your life has sanctity and your identity has

dignity because I died for you, and I want to

put my spirit in your heart, and I will give

you a brand new identity. And I can make all

things new. Nobody else can, but Jesus in your life

can give.

You a fresh start.

What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something

I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to

tell you how you can help support this ministry.

Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

according to five specific purposes. He said, You've got to

love God with theod your heart. That's worship, and love

your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.

And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize

them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign

of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything

I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the

Great Commission. We believe it daily hope that a great

commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will

produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,

a great community. You know, I started daily hope so

I could spread the good news about Jesus not just

across America, but all around the world. And we want

people to know that God's word is filled with hope

and truth and the power that we need to follow

him every day is available to every single one. You

know as well as I do, that the Word of

God changes lives. It's alive, it's active, and it breathes

new life and new love into all of our life.

So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on

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