Rick Warren - How to Get Ready to be Used by God

Pastor Rick Warren often says you were made by God

and for God, and until you understand that, life will

never make sense. Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Today.

In our series called God's Vision for the Rest of

your Life, Rick continues in his effort to help you

discover the unique purpose and vision that the Lord has

for your life. Now, before we get started, we want

to let you know that a very generous friend has

given one hundred thousand dollars matching grant to Daily Hope.

That means that all this month, every dollar you give

to help Daily Hope share the hope of Jesus around

the world will be matched up to one hundred thousand dollars.

You can find out more by going to Pastorick dot

com or by texting the word daily to eight hundred

six hundred five thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com,

or the word daily to a hundred six hundred five

thousand and four. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with

part one of a message called how to Get Ready

to be Used by God.

Now we've been talking about how God has a purpose

for your life, a plan for your life, a mission

for your life, and the greatest adventure of life is

to be used by God. Nothing else compares to that.

Nothing comes close to the feeling of being used by God.

And if you've never had that feeling of being used

by God, I really feel sad for you. Because God

wants to use you. And the Bible says God is

looking for people to use. But there is a qualification.

God says you must be usable. The Bible says this

in Romans six thirteen. Let's read it aloud together, give

yourselves completely to God so you can be tools in

the hands of God to be used for his good purposes.

God wants to use you for his good purposes. And

the big question now is now, what what do I do?

What are my next steps? Well, today we're going to

look at those next steps. What you do once you've

surrendered your life to say, God, whatever it takes, I

want you to use my life. Because God says there

are five things he looks for in your life. If

you're going to have the blessing and the power and

be usable by God, let's get right into him. Step one.

The first step if I want to be used by

God is to purify my heart. Purify my heart because

God uses people with a pure heart, not a perfect person,

but a pure person. And the Bible says on two

Timothy two twenty one, if you keep yourself pure, you'll

be a utensil. That's a tool that God can use

for his purpose. If you keep yourself pure, your life

will be clean, and you will be ready for the

Master to use you for every good work. Now, God

uses all kinds of people. He uses shy people, he

uses outgoing people, he uses really smart people, and he

uses people who aren't so smart. He uses all different races,

all different ages, all different stages of life, all different backgrounds.

He uses men and women. God wants to use you.

And God will use plane vessels, and he'll use ornate vessels,

and he'll use big vessels, and he'll use small vessels.

But there's one thing God will not use. He will

not use a dirty vessel. We have to be clean

on the inside. That's why Joshua when he was telling

the people to get ready to go into the Promised Land,

for forty years, they'd been waiting an entire nation, and

the next day they're going to cross over the Jordan

River and go into the Promised Land. They're going into

the next stage of their vision, and Joshua says this.

In the next verse, verse five Joshua three. Joshua told

the people, purify yourselves. Now this is something you do

to yourself, for tomorrow the Lord will do great one

among you. God is going to do great things to

this church. There's not a doubt in my mind. In

the years ahead, we're on a new level, wor on

a new plane. But the starting point is we must

purify ourselves. How do you do that, Well, you do

it through a real simple word, confession. Confession. Augustine said,

the confession of bad works is the beginning of good works.

And the Bible says this. Let's read first John one nine. Together.

If we confess our sins to God, he will keep

this promise and do right. He will forgive us our

sins and purify us from all our wrongdoings. God says,

here's your part, you confess, and my part is all purify.

Now what does it mean to confess, Well, the word

in Greek literally is the word homo. Oh, that's what

confessed means in Greek, and confess homo means same like

homogenized milk, the same and logeo means to speak, and

so homologo literally means to speak the same about my

sin that God does. Means I just agree with God.

You're right. It wasn't a faux pas. It wasn't a mistake.

It wasn't a peccadillo. It was a sin. Is call

it for what it is. It was wrong. Now, it

doesn't mean you're bargain with God. I'll never do it again.

It doesn't mean you you bribe God. I promise to

read my Bible every day if you'll forgive me. No,

you just admit it, he said. All I got to

do is admit it and God will forgive it. That's

what he says. That's called grace. And so I admit

it to God, and I say, God, what do you

want me to confess? Here? Here's what I would suggest

you do if you really want to be used by

God this next week, take a day off. Here's your

action step. Take an hour in a day or sometime

in the next couple of days, and sit down with

a yellow pad and say, God, just be quiet. God,

show me what's between me and you, what's piled up

in my life, what's wrong in my life? Just show me,

and I'm gonna write it down and I'm gonna admit it.

I'm just gonna confess to you. And you wait and

you just say, God tell me, and you write something down.

He gives you another idea. You write that down. First

time I did it, I thought I was gonna write

a book, The Purpose Driven Sinner. It was about nine

pages long the first time I ever did this. Now

I've done this many many times since. But the idea

is you make a list and then you can write

first John one nine all over it and say, God,

I admit it to you. These are wrong. I don't

want them in my life. And God says, I forgive,

and I forget. So you ask God to cleanse your life.

Who have I hurt? That's guilt. Who's hurt me? That's resentment?

What am I worrying about? That's a lack of faith?

Just things like that. Who have I been jealous of?

You?

Just cleanse your life. That's the starting point. I must

purify my heart. Now here's the second one. This one's

even a little bit more difficult. I need to sanctify

my body.

Thank you so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily

Hope We've got some incredible news to share with you.

A very generous friend has given a one hundred thousand

dollars matching grant to this ministry all this month. Every

dollar you give to help Daily Hope share the certain

hope of Jesus around the world will be matched up

to one hundred thousand dollars, So twenty five dollars becomes

fifty dollars, fifty becomes one hundred and five hundred becomes

a thousand. Whatever you give will be doubled by the

matching grant up to one hundred thousand dollars, but only

till midnight December thirty first, So please contact us today.

Go to Pastorick dot com or just call eight hundred

six hundred five thousand and four.

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You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again. Here's

Pastor Rick Warren.

So you ask God to cleanse your life. Who have

I hurt? That's guilt? Who's hurt me? That's resentment? What

am I worrying about. That's a lack of faith, just

things like that. Who have I been jealous of? You

need to cleanse your life. That's the starting point. I

must purify my heart. Now here's the second one. This

one's even a little bit more difficult. I need to

sanctify my body. Sanctify my body. Now, what in the

world does that mean. Well, sanctification is just a big,

fancy theological word that means to dedicate something for God's purpose.

You can sanctify anything. You could say, God, I sanctify

this car. I dedicate it to you for your purposes. God,

I sanctify this home. I dedicate it to you for

your purposes. You can sanctify anything. It's whatever you give

to God and say, God, you use it for your purposes.

That's what it means. Now, God says, there's something I

want you specifically to dedicate to me. It is your body.

It is your body. Notice what the Bible says. Don't

you know that your body is the temple of the

Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to

you by God. You do not belong to yourself, for

God bought you with a high price. So you must

read it with me. Honor God with your body. Now,

how do you do that? How do you honor God

with your body? Well, real simple, you take care of it.

But let me give you a paraphrase of the phrase

sanctify my body. Here you can write this one down.

Here's what it means. Get in shape, that's what it means.

And if you want God to use you, you got to

get in shape because the better in shape you are,

the more energy you'll have and the more God can

use you. See how practical this is. God says, I

want you to give your body to me. Why because

you can't do anything without your body. Saw one nineteen

verse seventy three says this, you made my body. Lord,

Now give me the sense to heed your laws. You know.

God set up the principles of good health, and he

says there's a balance between eating and sleeping and exercising,

and he says you need all three third John two,

God says, I'm concerned about your health. I want you

to be healthy. The Old Testament is full of rules

about health, and actually a major part, one third of

jesus ministry was helping people get healthy. So God says,

I don't want you to just have a pure heart.

I want you to have an in shape body so

I can use you more effectively. Now, I guess of

these three of a sleep and eat and exercise, that

everybody in this room probably needs to work on one

of them, at least some of you. You're not getting

enough sleep, and you're tired all the time, and really

having that extra hour sleep would probably help you be

more effective in your life, and you would have more energy,

and God could use you. God can't use somebody who's

tired all the time. You're just moping around, jumping around.

You need to get your proper rest. In fact, look

at this verse up here on scripture. Someone twenty seven

verse two on the video screen says this, it is

senseless for you to work so hard from early morning

until late at night. For God wants his loved ones

read it with me to get their proper rest. So

for some of you, the most spiritual thing you can

do is go to bed. Now, don't do it until

his sermon's over. But I mean, don't go to sleep

on me. But you need to get your rest. And

so some of you need to work on the rest

factor in dedicating your body. Some of you need to

work like me. On the food factor, I don't know

why God made food taste so good. I mean, you

could have made it all taste like oatmeal, but he didn't.

Look at this verse up here on the screen. First

Corinthians six thirteen says food is for the stomach, and

the stomach is for food. But God will put an

end to both. That means they're temporary. The body is

not to be used for sexual immorality, but to serve

the Lord. Now leave that scripturep there once you know

those couple things. First, food is for the stomach, the

stomach for food. What is he saying there? He's saying this,

You eat to live, you don't live to eat. You

see the difference. You eat to live, you don't live

to eat. And then notice he compares over eating down

here to sexual immorality. Now, I wouldn't put those in

the same category. You know, you wouldn't think of, you know,

cheating on your husband or your wife. But God says,

you know, these are sins against the body. And he

says this is serious. This is serious. God says, I

want you to be in shape. And then, of course

everybody needs exercise. Every one of us need exercise. Now

I want to personally recommend to you sleepwalking. Okay, I

highly recommend this. It's multitasking. Okay, you can get your

rest and your exercise at the same time. Works really good. Okay,

so you're doubling up your effort sleepwalking, be very, very good.

The point is this, you can have a wrong attitude

or a right attitude to your body. What's the wrong attitude?

The wrong attitude is neglected, the wrong attitude is rejected. God,

I'm on a different one. The wrong attitude is perfected.

That's the bodybuilders who are narcissistic, and you know they

worship their body and they build all these muscles as

if the body is the most important thing in life. Now,

you don't worship your body, You don't neglect it, you

don't reject it, you don't perfect it. What do you do?

You respect it and you protect it. That's what God

wants you to do with your body. Why because God

created it, Jesus paid for it, and the Holy Spirit

lives in it. So what's our motivation? Look at the

next verse one Corinthians nine. Read it with me. Athletes

practice discipline and self control. They do it to win

a prize that will fade away. But we do it

for an eternal prize. Our motivation is we want to

please God in an eternity. You will be rewarded because

you made the most of what you were given, he said.

Athletes get you know, they get in shape just to

win an award, he said, but this is going to

be an eternal award. If you get in shape so

that God could use you more effectively. Now here's the

third step. If you want to be used by God.

Simplify my life. I purify my heart, I sanctify my body,

and I simplify my life so I have more time

to be used by God. You know, the Bible compares

life to a marathon race, and in Hebrews Paul says

this Hebrews twelve. We should remove anything from our lives

that would get in the way and hold us back.

He says, just as you're running a race of life,

let go of anything that holds you back. Now I

know this one from personal experience. If the devil can't

make you bad, he'll make you busy. Okay, if he

can't make you bad, he'll make you busy, and he'll

get you so busy you don't have time for the

important stuff. It's good things, they're all really good things.

But you don't have time for God, for time alone

with God, for ministry, for mission, things like that. So

Paul says, simplify your life. Get rid of the excess baggage.

Don't try to do it all, do what matters most.

You have just enough time to do God's will. That

means if you don't, you can't get everything done. It

means there are things on that list God ever intended

for you to do in the first place. Serious runner's focus, now, friends,

I have met thousands of people who have told me

they want to be used by God. But they never will.

They'll never be used by God. Why they're too busy.

They're too busy. They've got their own agenda going, They've

got their own things going, they've got their own plans

and dreams and ambitions going, and they don't have any time.

And they try to carve out a little sliver in

the pie of life, say oh, I'll give this to God.

It doesn't work that way. If you're serious about being

used by God, you have to say, Lord, what do

I need to let go of? What I need to

cut out what are the barriers that are holding me back,

that are keeping me from running the race you out

for me? Now, there are lots of different barriers that

hold you back from God's plan for your life. Then

let me give you two real common ones. You can

write these down. The first one is distractions. Distractions. Jesus

said this in Luke six. Anybody who lets himself be

distracted from the work that I plan for him is

not fit for the Kingdom of heaven. He says. Don't

let yourself be distracted. Now, what could distract you from

your life mission? Oh, a lot of things. The expectations

of other people. You're trying to please everybody else's to

try to please God. You can't do that. You got

to decide am I going to please God with my life?

Or am I going to please my boyfriend or my girlfriend,

or my boss or whatever. You've got to decide who

you're going to please first. In life, you can only

have one number one, and the expectations of others, the

opinions of others. Trying to be like other people can

be a distraction. Television can be a distraction. Hobbies can

be distraction. There's nothing wrong with these things. They're good things,

but they can distract you. Addictions, the wrong kind of

friends can distract you. There may be some friends that

you say, you know what, you're just letting me. I'm

not talking about a good friendship, talking about you know,

negative one. To finish the race, you gotta let go.

Now.

Let me tell you what is the biggest distraction for

most people. Your past, your past. Some of you refuse

to let go of your past, and you keep holding

on to it, either guilt things that I've done to

others or resentment things that others have done to me.

And you won't let go of the guilt or the

grudges or the grief. And as a result, you are

stuck in the past and you cannot get on with

the present, and you can't certainly get on to God's

future vision for you. If you're stuck in the past,

you need to let it go. Let it go. Your

past is past, it's over. You got to let it

go so you can get on with the future. Stop

rehearsing the past, release it, release it, and let it go.

Distractions will keep you. Notice this next verse two Timothy

twenty four as Christ's soldiers, don't let yourself become tied

up in the affairs of this life circle that phrase

tied up. Some of you are all tied up in

nuts by the affairs of this life. For then you

cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you in his army,

if you are enlisted in the service. And by the way,

they don't call it the service for nothing, it's to serve.

If you've been listed in the service, you don't get

involved in civilian affairs because you've got to please your

commanding officer. And if you said to God, whatever it takes, God,

I want to be yours, then you can't get tied

up and a lot of other things. So what do

you need to let go of? Look at this verse

up here on the screen. The Bible says in First

Corinthians ten, everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.

What does that mean? Everything is permissible but not everything's beneficial.

It means this a lot of things aren't necessarily wrong,

just not necessary. They're not necessarily wrong, they're not evil,

they're just not necessary. Now let me give you the

greatest time management tip you'll ever get. This is the

greatest time management tip. It's a two letter word.

No thank you so much for listening to Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope. We've got some incredible news to share with you.

A very generous friend has given a one hundred thousand

dollars matching grant to this ministry. That means that all

this month, every dollar you give to help Daily Hope

share the certain Hope of Jesus around the world will

be matched up to one hundred thousand dollars. Here's Pastor

Rick to tell you more.

I know I tell you this all the time, but

again I want you to know how much I thank

God for you and appreciate your support of Daily Hope.

We couldn't do this without your prayers, and we can't

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As you consider your year in giving, I want to

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and they will match it up to one hundred thousand dollars.

That means that every dollar you give to Daily Hope

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Let me know that you prayed. It really blesses me

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It's not about me. It's about the Word of God,

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effective together, we're better together. Thanks for listening today, everybody,

and join me next time as we continue to look

into God's word for our daily hope. God bless you

and have a great Christmas season.

Remember, as Rick just shared, whatever you give today will

be doubled by the matching grant up to one hundred

thousand dollars, but only till midnight December thirty first. Anything

not matched will be lost, So please contact us today.

You can give right now by going to Pastorrick dot

com or by calling eight hundred six hundred five thousand

and four. We'll say thanks by sending you the brand

new Daily Hope Prayer Journal that's Pastorrick dot com or

call eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. This

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

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