Rick Warren - Following Your Heart—Part One

Hello, everybody, this is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Thank you

so much for joining us today, and if you're brand new,

welcome to the Daily Hope family. We hope you'll enjoy

the teachings of Pastor Rick Warren.

Right here.

I'm so excited for all of you to learn about

your shape. It might not be the shape you're thinking

of right now. Rick loves to use acrostics and this

one is shape your shape, your spiritual gifts, heart abilities,

personality and experiences. And one of the reasons I love

this series and have shared it with so many friends

is because Rick talks about the way God wired you

and why you need not just know your shape, but

how to use it to do the things that God

designed you to do. And now here's Rick with the

final part of a message called following your Heart.

Would you like that have more energy in life, more enthusiasm,

more get up and go. Let me tell you where

to get it. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek

words in theos in meaning within and theos meaning God.

Theos is the Greek word for God. Theology is the

study of God. Theodore and Dora the mean lover of

God in Greek that's what the word Dorothian Theodore means.

Lover of God.

When you get in Theos, when you get in God,

you're going to be enthusiastic.

And the closer you get to God, the more energy.

The more vitality, the more passion you have in life,

and the further way you get Him, the more bored

and apathetic you become with life. You got to open

your heart to Jesus. Now, notice what he says here

Revelation three. Jesus says, I am standing and knocking at

your door. If you hear my voice and open the door,

I will come in and we'll lead together. We'll party together,

we'll have find together, we'll fellowship together, we'll build a relationship.

I don't want a religion, God says, I want a

relationship with you. Jesus Christ has been standing at the

door of your life, knock and for a long time.

But he's a gentleman. He's not gonna bust the door down.

You've got to open it up. And if you want

your heart healed, you must first open it to him.

Open your heart to Jesus Christ.

Now, after you've opened it, what's the second thing you do?

Let him heal it.

Let God heal your heart. Now, everybody here has had

their heart broken in some way from some point, maybe

by bit disappointment, maybe by fear, maybe by shame or guilt,

maybe by hurt or rejection or ridicule. And I would

say to you, as your friend, I'm sorry, I really am,

And I care about the hurt that you have gone through.

As your pastor, I care about it. I do because

God cares about it, and he's hurt with you. And

what was God doing when you were weeping? He was

weeping too.

In fact, it is in your pain that God is

closest to you.

Whether you realize it or not, notice what the Bible says.

So I'm thirty four. The Lord is close, not distant.

The Lord is close to the broken hearted, and he

saves those who are crushed in spirit.

How does he do that?

How does he save us? He saves us by giving

us a heart transplant. He says, you know this heart

you've had, it's been beat up, it's been wounded.

I'll give you a new one.

He specializes in heart transplants, and he says, you know

that heart that's been guilty, I'll give you a heart

that's forgiven, that heart that's been resentful. I'll give your

heart that's full of peace, that heart that's anxious, I'll

give your heart that's confident, that heart that's lonely. I'll

give you a heart full of love, that heart that

has been bitter and angry. I'll give your heart that

is forgiving and loving and generous and kind. And he says,

let me do a little heart transplant in you. And

he says, I will set you free. Why do we

need freedom? Because we're all enslaves. We're slaves to the

expectations of other people.

What would they think?

We're slaves to past memories, We're slaves to future fears.

We're slaves the current pressure. We're slaves to the opinions of.

Society, on and on and on.

But when Jesus Christ you open your heart to him

and say, I give you not ninety eight percent of

my heart, one hundred percent of my heart.

God, it's yours, and I ask.

You to heal it, then you'll say, like David said

in the Bible Psalm one nineteen, I run in the

path of your commands. In other words, he's saying, I'm

doing what you want.

Me to do.

God, I do what you say it, I do it.

I run in the path of your commands, for you

have set my heart free. Pastor Eric Riest a couple

weeks ago, I had him come and share part of

the message.

He alluded a little bit to his past.

I want you to understand where Eric came from and

see how God shaped and changed his heart. Would you

listen to him and give him a warm welcome, Pastor Eric.

Good morning.

I like to share with you how Jesus has healed

the hurt of in my heart so I could start

becoming who God made me to be. The scars of disappointment, fear, guilt, resentment,

and rejection started forming very early in my life. From

the outside looking in, my family seemed very ordinary, but

behind closed doors there was a lot of anger, conflict, abuse,

and hurt. When I was eight years old, my parents

got divorced. I still remember the fear I felt the

night my mom left my dad. My brother and I

hid under a car and our driveway as we watched

my father beating my mother to the point of tears.

After mom left, my brother and I lived with my

dad because my mom couldn't support us on her salary,

but much of the time Dad ignored us. My brother

and I took care of each other. We got each

other up for school, made our lunches, and went.

To school together.

After school, we'd come home to a pretty empty, lonely home.

We were latchkey kids before the term was even invented.

Growing up in a home completely without love caused me

to look for look for acceptance in all kinds of

ways to ease my pain. By the time I was twelve,

I had already experimented with lots of drugs, watched a

lot of pornographic movies, and weighed over two hundred and

fifty pounds. The kids at school made fun of me

and called me umpa, lumpa and little porker. Since I

never received comfort at home, I can remember eating doughnuts

for breakfast, candy for lunch, TV dinners for dinner, and.

A lot of ice cream for dessert.

I had few friends growing up, so I was pretty lonely,

and since I got since I never got any positive feedback,

I conditioned myself to accept negative criticism from the kids

at school as my primary source of attention. I guess

being overweight at least got me noticed at home. Physical

and mental abuse from my dad was normal part of

growing up. I deeply wanted my dad's love and approval,

but he seemed unable and unwilling to give it. Not

once did I ever hear him express his love for me. Instead,

almost every time my father came home from work, he

would start drinking and start yelling. I was even the

one that actually mixed his drinks for him every night. Afterwards,

I was forced to sit in a certain chair and

listen to him tell me that I would never succeed

in life, never be able to read, write, or do arithmetic.

In order to prove my worth to my dad, I

learned to cheat in school so my grades would be

acceptable to him. I learned to steal from my friends

so they would accept me. And I also learned to

lie so my father would not hit me for the

things he disliked about me. One time, I lied about

putting my fingers in some jello salad before dinner. My

dad knew I was lying, so he decided to shock

me into admitting it. He cut the ends off in

an electrical extension cord.

So the wires were bare.

Then he plugged the other end of the cord into

the wall outlet. When I saw that I was in

sheer tear, I pleaded to my dad, but he had

no sympathy. Right before the wires touched my skin, I

admitted to putting my fingers in the jello salad. The

physical pain of being whipped with belts and ropes caused

welts and bruises, but those welts and bruises healed pretty quickly.

It was the emotional rejection I felt that caused the

most pain. At the age of sixteen, I decided to

move out and get away from the abuse. Instead of

being worried or upset. My dad even helped me pack

my bags. I moved in with from friends from school.

That was the day I was giving hope again. My

friend's parents gave me encouragement.

Trust, love and respect.

They said that I was valuable and capable, and no

matter what had happened in my life, I could keep

my chin up and start following the heart that God

had given me. Up to that point, I had never

thought about dreaming into the future. I was only concerned

about making it through the day proving my dad wrong.

I graduated from both high school and college, and during

my junior year in college, I started dating a beautiful

young lady named Stacy, who is now my wife. Stacy

grew up in a wonderful Christian home, and she was

able to show God's healing grace and share God's message

of unconditional love with me. She believed in me, my value,

and my abilities. If it was not for her, I

would not be standing in front of you today. Her

loved helped me start believing in myself. We started attending

church together with her wonderful parents. It was at that

time God started healing my wounded and broken heart. Since

my deepest hurd has been with my relationship with my father.

I think it's kind of amazing that it was on

Father's Day nineteen ninety three that I accepted Jesus Christ

as my Lord and Savior and said, Father, I want.

To come home.

The following month, I was baptizing to publicly demonstrate my faith. Now,

every Father's Day AM reminded that my loving, heavenly Father

heals broken hearts and sets our hearts free to.

Become who we were meant to be.

God's word tells me that in Jesus I am accepted, valued, loved.

And forgiven. He even calls me as masterpiece.

Although there are days I don't feel like one, God

says I am. This is such great news that I've

dedicated the rest of my life to helping people accept

Christ and discover their.

Unique God given shape.

Today I'm humbled by the privilege of helping foul dozens

of people rediscover their heart and the dreams that God

has put inside of them, so they too can make

the difference they were designed to make and start living

the life they were meant to live. I want everyone

to experience the feeling of one of my favorite verses,

which is Philippians four thirteen, which says, for I can

do everything with the help of Christ, who gives me

the strength I need. In closing, I want to say

that God can change and heal even the most broken

of hearts. For example, a few years ago, I received

a check in the mail from my oldest daughter's college fund.

The check was from my dad. I had prayed for

my dad since I committed my life to Christ, but

I had not talked to him very much, so the

idea of receiving money from him was completely unexpected. When

I called my dad to thank him for the gift.

He entered the conversation by saying, son, my last thing

I love you.

That, folks, was a miracle.

It was the first time I remember my dad ever

told me he loved me with joy. I answered, I

love you too, Dad. Only the healing grace of Jesus

Christ can change hearts like that. Two months ago, my

dad lost his battle to lung cancer. In some ways,

his condition brought us closer together. I really think God

used me to heal a part of my dad's heart

before he died. He said, Son, I believe in you.

I just wish you would have believed in Jesus. Finally,

I like to say to those who have left who

felt the pain of rejection from anyone, I urge you

to open your heart to Jesus today. Then let him

come in and heal your heart so you can become

who you were meant to be and do what you

were meant to do. Please stop listening to those old

voices from your past and start listening to the truth

of what God says about you, because the truth will

set you free. And the truth is God loves you

and has a plan and purpose for your life.

God bless you. Thank you.

When Eric was that little boy being abused and being ignored.

I'm sure he had no idea that one day he'd

stand in front of twenty.

Thousand people.

Talking about how God had used brought good out of bad,

had written a book to help people discover what God

made them to be. And you have no idea what

God wants to do with your life. Stop limiting God.

Just stop it.

Stop limiting God in your life. You have no idea

what he wants to do in your life. If you're

going to follow your heart, which God wants you to

do because he put it in you, first you open

it to him, second you let him heal it, and

third you listen to it. You need to listen to

your heart. Now, you know what the problem is on this.

You're going so fast you don't have time to listen

to your heart anymore. You're in so much of a hurry,

you're so busy, you're so on the move, you can't

hear your heart anymore, and you need to slow down.

The Bible says that God wants you to listen to

your heart, and he wants you to look at what

you're made to do, and then you'll know what he

wants you to do, but you gotta slow down. Alabama

used to sing this song, I'm in a hurry to

get things done. I rush and rush and till life's

no fun. All I really gotta do is live and die.

But I'm in a hurry, and I don't know why.

Don't know why I have to drive so fast. My

cars have nothing to prove. It's not new, but it'll

do zero to sixty and five point two.

Can't be late. I'm leaven plenty of times, shaking hands

with the clock. I can't stop. I'm on a roll

and I'm ready to rock.

I hear a voice that says I'm running behind. I

better pick up my pace. It's a race, and there

ain't no room for second place. I'm in a hurry

to get things done. Oh, I rush and rush until

life's no fun. All I really got to do is

live and die. But I'm in a hurry, and I

don't know why. That describes most people today in America.

They're speedy with no direction. God says, I want you

to listen to your heart. Romans twelve to two says

this twelve three. Be honest in your estimate of yourselves.

You ask these questions that I wrote there on your outline.

What do I love to do? What I dream of doing?

What fascinates me?

In other words, I can talk about it, to think about.

It, or study it.

I don't get bored. It just doesn't bore me. I'm

fascinated by this. Where have I been most effective in

my life? These are the questions you want to ask

yourself in listening to your heart. You know, last week

we baptized an eighty year old woman out here. After

the service, we baptized after every service, she wanted to

be a small group host. That's pretty cool, an eighty

year old small group post. And she said, you know,

I just wish I'd learned years ago that we serve

God out of our design, not out of duty. I

wish everybody could learn that truth. That's what the Shape

series all about. We serve God out of our design,

the way He wired.

Us, shaped us.

Our gifts are harder abilities, personality experiences. We shave God

out of our design. We serve him that way, not

out of duty. I don't serve God out of duty,

never have. I'm not forced to do this. I do

it because I love God, because He designed me. Because

when I do what He wired me to do.

I'm good at it, and it feels good and it

brings glory to him. That's the way to live.

I don't serve God out of force or design or guilt.

I serve him out of delight and out of gratitude.

The Bible says this up on the screen, make a

careful exploration of who you are and the work you've

been given. In other words, what He puts you in

the earth to do, on earth to do, then sink

yourself into that. But don't compare yourself with others. Why

because there's shape differently. Number four Open your heart. Let

God heal your heart. Listen to your heart. Number four,

look at my options. Find out all you can about what.

Might interest you.

And you don't just go out there and say, well,

I think I love to do this and you just

jump into the pool. No, you think about it, you

study it, You do your due diligence. The Bible says

in Proverbs nineteen verse two, desire, that's your heart, your ambitions,

your goals, your love. Desire without knowledge is not good.

In other words, educated enthusiasm, uneducated enthusiasm, desire without knowledge

is not good. And to be over hasty is to

sin and miss the mark. He said, don't bet the

farm without checking it out first. Don't be reckless, don't

be irresponsible, don't be careless. Do your due dilans before

diving in. Just because you love to do it doesn't

mean that you're gifted to do it. We talked about

that before, or some of these other areas. You have

the experience, you need to check it out first. In

other words, let's say you say, well, I love Mexican food,

so I'm going to go start a Mexican restaurant. Any

former restaurant owners want to give a testimony.

God's very tough work. It's like saying, well, I love donuts,

I think I'll go start a donut shop. Ninety percent

of all.

Business startups faire within five years. That's a labor us

labor statistic. Why because they have desire without knowledge.

By the way, let me just give you a little advice.

A lot of the things that you think you'd love

to do for the rest of your life, if you

did them, you'd be bored within a month.

They sound good, they sound sexy, like, man, I'd like

to go run at thea heati resort.

Yeah, for about two weeks until you realize what's behind

running a Tahati resort, and a lot of things sound like, Well,

I'd really like to go ahead and jump out and

do that. And you know, I think, you know, I

like playing guitar. Therefore, I think I just go out

and become a rock star. Little prunes, little good sense,

little forethoughts, saves some pain.

Okay. In other words, he's saying, here, check it out. No,

I did all of.

These things before, before I started Saddleback Church. I in

nineteen seventy nine, had God had put in my heart

a love and desire, a passion to start a church

and to build a church that would be a model

of what church is really meant to be, and to

build a healthy, large model for our nation.

Well, what did I do? I didn't just go out

do it. A first, I read everything I could.

I read every book in print on church, on the church,

seventy two books that I could find, seventy two books.

Read them.

In seventy nine, I wrote to the personally to the

one hundred largest churches in the United States, asked a

series of questions. I actually wrote a letter to every

pastor of the churches that were already existing in the

Saddleback Valley asked them.

A series of quesquestions. I went and studied other churches.

I put myself under mentors, I listened, I learned.

I studied the areas.

Of Seattle and San Francisco and San Diego, Orange County,

and all this so that when I came here to

start it in January of nineteen eighty, I didn't just

have a desire.

I knew what I was doing.

I didn't have any money, no members, no building, no support,

but I knew what I was doing. And so you

start by looking at all the options. So how do

you start going after your heart? Well, I would say, first,

talk to people who are already successful in what you'd

like to do. Just go find some of these already

successful in some of these.

Think I've got a heart for this, and talk to them.

By the way, when you meet people who have the

same heart as you have, you noticed you liked them

instantly because they got the same interest you too. And

you sit down and you talk with them and you go, wow,

you like that. Do and there's this heart to heart connection.

Read widely, study, maybe take a trip, go find some

take a call course. If you're young enough, maybe you

can be an intern somewhere. I would bounce your ideas

off your small group. That's one of the reasons we

have small groups. The Bible says we need the wisdom

of other people. And one of the problems today is

people make decisions in a vacuum and don't even think

about it inviting other people into their life.

Go to your small group, and when we're talking about shave.

You know, I'm thinking about this. I've always wanted to

do this. I've always had a love for this. And

what do you think about it? Do you have any advice?

Would you pray for me? Do you know anybody to

put me in contact? Do you know somebody who knows

somebody who knows somebody that you could put me in

contact with.

Use your small group.

The Bible says that as believers, we are to encourage

each other in our lives. Look at the next verse.

You should meet together and encourage each other. That's the

value of a small group. And then experiment. That's the

biggest thing of all. Just volunteer, get involved in something,

you know.

One of the things.

One of the reasons why I believe in all the

ministries here at Saddleback Is they're often a launching ground

for full time careers. People have started in ministry here

volunteering in an area that then they found out, man,

I really like doing this, and it gave him an

idea on what to do as a career. Okay, number five.

Last thing.

If you're going to follow your heart, launch out in faith.

Launch out in faith. You expect God to bless what

you're doing. Why wouldn't God bless you if you're doing

what He created you to do. If He put it

in your heart to do it and you go do it,

obviously he's gonna bless it. But I want to tell

you this, look up here, there's going to be a

fear factor if you start following your heart. I guarantee it,

because there are people in your life who don't want

you to follow your heart. They want you to it

scares them, and there will be people who will not

want you to follow your heart, and so you have to.

There's gonna be a fear factor. It's like on a trapeze.

You swing out on one.

Bar and before you can grab the other, you gotta

let go of this one and you swing out a

little over air, and then you grab out. And from

the time you let go of this bar and grab

this one, there's a split second where you're hanging in

the air, three hundred feet up in total faith, and

nothing's holding you up except God.

I have been doing this my.

Entire life, swinging out, letting go one, and grabbing on

to the other, and swinging out and letting go one,

grabbing I've been doing my entire life.

You don't know God's all you need. Till God's all

you've got.

There will be a test of your faith there. It

will be a test if you're going to follow your heart.

There will be some barrier opposition to test your faith.

But let me say this, God has given you the

most amazing promise next to the last verse. So I'm

thirty seven. Delight yourself in the Lord. What does that mean?

It means put God first, means saying God, you're number one.

I want to do what you want me to do. Now,

what I want to do, now, what my parents wanted

me to do. I want to do what you wanted

me to do with your life. Delight yourself in the Lord.

You're number one, and he will give you.

Here's the promise.

Read it with me, the desires of your heart.

Wow, what a promise.

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you

the desires of your heart.

Now, when you.

Start living your heart, you start following your heart, let

me tell you what's going to happen. You're going to

stop worrying about status and you start going to start

enjoying significance. Status will even be important anymore because you've

got significance, which is far more important than status. And

when you start living following your heart, you're going to

stop competing for position and my climbing the ladder, and

you're going to start enjoying more pleasure because you're being

what God made you to be. And when you start

living and following your heart, you're going to stop obsessing

over money, which isn't really that important, and you're going

to start a meaning meaning Trump's money every day of

the week.

And you'll come to the.

Point in your life where you realize the purpose trumps

prosperity every day of the week. It's always more fulfilling

to have something to live for than to have.

A whole lot to live on.

And I could give you a million examples of that

and when you be what God made you to be,

stress goes down and satisfaction goes up, and you'll be

able to say, like David said, you know, I don't

really care about all those people whove got all those things,

all those possessions and prosperity, is because I've got joy.

Last verse, he says, you Lord have given me greater

joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and wine.

In other words, the fat cats, that's power heads. Which

of these heart stoppers have been stopping you from following

your heart? Appointment, fear or guilt, resentment, hurt, ridicule. Jesus

Christ wants to unclog your heart today, and John ten

ten he said, I came to give you real life,

life in all its fullness, a life better than you

ever dreamed of. Would you pray this prayer, Dear Jesus Christ.

I open up my heart one hundred percent to you today.

You made it, you know what's in it, you know

all about it, and I open it to you. You've

been knocking at the door, and today I invite you

to come into my heart. I ask you, Dear God,

to heal my heart where it's been bruised.

And broken, batted around.

Would you heal the scars of disappointment and fear and

guilt and rejection and bitterness. I'm asking you to give

me a new heart today. Help me to listen to

my heart, to discover what you made me to love

and to be interested in and the dream that you

gave me.

In my heart.

Help me to look at all the options, but once

I know it helped me to launch out in faith.

And to trust you. Today I say my heart is yours.

I have been shaped to serve you, and I want

to do that the rest of my life.

In your name, I pray Amen.

I don't know about you, but I was sure inspired

today by Pastor Rick and that message. And I want

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