Rick Warren - Daring to Commit Part Two

Hello, everybody, Welcome to Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren.

So we're continuing with this series called Daring Faith the

Key to Miracles. And in this series you're learning how

to have a bold, unshakable faith that gives you courage

to impact.

The world around you.

And I know we all want that. And now Pastor

Rick with the final part of a message called daring

to commit.

All right now, the third life commitment is about developing

your potential. You'll never develop your full potential as a

man or as a woman until you make this commitment.

And it is this I must learn from others to grow.

I must learn from others to grow. There are some

things you will never learn on your own. You only

learn them in community. You only learn them from others.

There's some things you can only learn in relationship. This

is why we emphasize small so strongly at Saddle Backed Church,

because there's some stuff you can learn from me in

a crowd. But there's some things you can't learn unless

you're in relationship in a small group of some kind.

For instance, you can only learn forgiveness in relationships. You

can learn that on your own. You can only learn

loyalty in relationships. You can learn that on your own.

You can only learn love in relationships. You can learn

that on your own. You can't learn it without people.

You can't learn kindness without others. You can't learn faithfulness

without unders. You can't learn graciousness without others in your life.

You can't learn unselfishness without us. In fact, the most

important things you need to learn in life require that

you be in relationship to other people. You can't do

it on your own. And if I want to build

my potential, I must learn from others to grow. And

where's the best place to do that In the family

of God, in the body of Christ in the church.

Ephesians four sixteen says this Christ's body is fitted together perfectly,

and as each part does its own special work, it

helps the other parts. What circle that word grow? You

help each other grow. I help you grow, You help

me grow. The people on the road you're sitting on

right now, they need you. You need them. You need

other people. There are many things in life you cannot

learn unless you're in relationship with people. God wired us

to need each other. I have heard so many stories

about this, about people who were got in a small

group and it all of a sudden got them growing.

There's a book that came out a while back called

If I'm So Successful, Why Do I Feel Like a Fake?

And the book is actually about a well known phenomena.

Psychologists know this. It's called the impostor phenomena. And the

impostor phenomena says this, a lot of very very successful

people in life. They got wealth, they got power, they

got good looks, they got they got fame, and all

these kind of things, and yet inside they feel empty,

they feel hollow, they feel unfulfilled. And the title of

the book is if I'm so successful, why do I

Feel like a Fake? And the reason why is success

was never meant to fully satisfy you. Success is not

enough in life. You're taught from a little kid, if

you get successful, you're going to be happy. No, not necessarily,

You're certainly not going to be fulfilled, because it's not

enough to fulfill you. You remember when we did forty

Days of Purpose many years ago, I talked about the

three levels of living. You can live at the survival level,

you can live at the success level, or you can

live at the significance level. Most of the world lives

at the survival level. Now in America, nobody actually lives

at that level because even the poorest of our poor,

we have a safety net here in America. The poorest

of the poor in America most of the world, would

love to have their problems, because that would be a

giant step up. Survival level means I don't know if

I'm going to have a meal this evening. Survival level

means I don't know if I'm ever gonna have any

more clothes than the ones on my back. Survival means

am I going to have a roof over my head tonight?

Americans don't worry about that generally, and so nobody is

really living at the physical survival level in America. We

have a lot of people living at the emotional survival level.

If you feel stressed out all the time, if you

hate your job, if you're just putting in your time,

waiting for the weekend and dream of going to Tahiti,

you're at survival level emotionally. Most of you are at

the second level. You're at what's called the success level.

Success means you've got enough money for options. So after

the service today, if you want to go eat something,

you can go buy it may just be McDonald's, but

you have options. If you have any money in your pocket,

any if you have any money and a cup sitting

at home, you're already in the top five percent wealthy

in the world. You just need to realize that according

to the world, you're rich. So you're not at the

success survival level. You're at a success level. Success means options.

I can go to the movies, I can do what

I want to watch. And the more you have, the

more successful you are. But that isn't fulfilled. And the

reason why I was you were made for more than success.

You were made for significance. And significance comes from giving

my life a way to something greater than myself. Now

here's the fourth commitment to experience significance in life. I'm

a serve. I m at serve with others in ministry.

Ministry is just the word for doing good to other people.

I must serve with others in ministry. Significance does not

come from status. A lot of people like you know,

if I just have a little hood ornament on my car,

then I'm significant, Or if I where certain kind of

logo on my shirt or my dress, then I'm significant.

Why do people wear things with brands on them. They're

trying to let those brands make them significant. They think

I'm better because I'm wearing this brand. No you're not. No,

you're not. And so significance does not come from status.

Significance does not come from your salary because a lot

of people make more than you do. Significance does not

come from sex. You could go from one sexual partner

to the next, thinking that makes you significance. It does not.

Significance comes from service. God wired the universe that we

only feel significant about our lives when we give it away.

You cannot be selfish and significant at the same time.

Significance comes when you stop thinking about you and you

start thinking about other people, and you give your life away. Now,

the Bible says it like this one Peter four ten.

Each of you has received a gift to use to

serve yourself. Oh that's not what it says. Each of

you has received a gift to serve what others. Okay,

look up here for a minute. The talents you've got,

they're not for your benefit. Your talents were given to

you to benefit the people sitting next to you, and

their talents were not given for their benefit. Their talents

were given for the benefit of you. My talents, the

talents that I've got, weren't given for my benefit. My

talents were given to me for the benefit of you.

And so we need each other. Your talents aren't meant

for your benefit. We are given these gifts. We are

shaped for significance. Ministry is the path the meaning, and

service is the path the significance. You're not going to

find it any other way. You're never going to feel

good about you until you start giving your life away.

Jesus said it like this, Mark eight. If you try

to keep your life for your you will lose it.

But if you give your life for My sake and

for the sake of the Good News, you will find

true life. Now, God has a lot to say about serving,

and he says, we're supposed to do it in a

special way, and here's the way with others. We're to

do it together. We're better together. You're not meant to

serve God on your own by yourself. You're meant to

serve God on a team. You're meant to serve God

in a family, in a small group, in a church.

You're meant to small serve God in relationship. Here's what

the Bible says Ecclesiastes four. Two people are always always

always better than one because working together, he says, but

they get more done, he says, we can accomplish more.

They get more done by working together. If one falls down,

the other can help him up. But it's bad for

the person who's alone and falls because there's nobody there

to help lie down. Together, they can share the same

blanket and stay warm, but a person all alone will

not be warm. An enemy might defeat one person, but

two together can defend themselves. And a rope that is

will of a three braids, and O there is three

is even better. Three breaks is hard to break. Now,

there's a lot of truth in that passage, but let

me just summarize it in three statements. Write these down.

When we work together. Number one, we maximize our impact.

When we work together, we maximize our impact. So as

we get more done. Let me just say it this way.

What you do with other people in this church will

far outlast anything you do on your own. I guarantee it.

You want to make an impact with your life, you

want to make a world impact, global impact, historical impact,

do it with other people in this church, because what

this church is doing is far going to outlast anything

else you do. What we do together will be far

more significant than what we do individually, far more significant

than what we do individually. One drop of rain doesn't

make any difference on a desert, but a million drops

of rain can turn a desert into a garden. What

you can do is not a lot. What I can

do is not a lot. But together we make an impact.

So we maximize our impact. Second thing, Verse ten says,

we minimize our failure. I like that when we work together,

when we serve together, when we minister together, we minimize

our failures. It says if one falls down, well the

next guy just picks him up. But he said, if

you're out there doing it on your own, who's going

to pick you up when you fall? So I like

the fact that when we serve together in the church,

it minimizes our failures. And the third thing, we mobilize

our resources. We pool them, we put them all together,

our funds go further. Says, you know, if you're sleeping

outside together, you can share the blanket you most stay warm.

He says, we can pool our resources and mobilize them

together now. Jesus said that there's no such thing as

insignificant service. There's no such thing as an insignificant ministry.

Jesus said, even if you say to a little kid, here,

have a drink of water in Jesus's name, you give

them a cup of cold water. In the Bible says

that is significant ministry. You will be rewarded for it

in eternity. Then have to be flashy. It just has

to be service. And so the person who is helping

park all the cars in traffic ministry, and the person

who's passing out bulletins, and the person who is watching

and training kids, and the person who is speaking right now.

It's all significant, and not any is more significant than

the other, because it all has to be done. And

the painters and the artists and the musicians and the

accountants and the servers and all of the hospitality people,

all of it matters. There is no insignificant ministry. I've

taught to you this before, but some of you may

have not remembered it. The difference between prominence and significance.

They're not the same. You be famous and not significant.

You can be significant and not famous. My nose is prominent.

It just sticks out there. It gets to the door

two days before my the rest of my body gets there.

There's nothing significant about my nose except that it's incredibly sexy.

But outside of that, it's just a nose. Okay, it's

just a nose. It's prominent, it's big, but it's not significant.

I could lose my nose and live happily ever after.

I don't need it to live. It's prominent, it's not significant.

Inside me, there's a spleen, a liver, kidney's, heart, lungs.

I've never seen them, so I just am assuming by

faith that I have them. Okay, somebody tell me they're

inside me. I've never seen them. They're not prominent, but

they are significant, because if I lost any of them,

I'd die. And what you want in life is not prominence.

What you want is significance, and we get that through service.

And Jesus said this, Matthew twenty five, verse forty. I

tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of

the least of these, you did for me. And you

know what that story is about. Jesus is saying there,

one day you're going to stand before him in heaven,

and God's going to say to you, you know what

good job, Because when I was hungry, you fed me.

And when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink.

And when I was sick, you visited me. And when

I was in prison, you visited me. And when I

was naked, you gave me clothes. And you're going to

say to God Lord, when did I do that? When

did I feed you, clothe you, help you, serve you

and all that. And Jesus will say, when you did

it to the least of these, you did it to me.

Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these,

my brethren, you did it unto me. Now the last,

the fifth life commitment, is the one that makes the

eternal difference. This is the one that you'll be rewarded

for over and over and over in eternity. And it

is this the fifth commitment. To make an eternal difference,

I must join with others on mission. I must join

with others on mission. God has a life mission for

your life, and you can only do it in the

context with others. A life message and a life mission.

God puts you here to have a message to the

world and a mission in the world, and you do

that in contact with others. Now, before Jesus goes back

to Heaven, he gives his last words. Last words of

people are very important, And the last words of Jesus

are called the Great Commission. I mentioned it earlier. It's

Matthew twenty eight. It's there on your outline. Go and

make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to do everything I have commanded you,

and surely I will be with you. Now follow me

on this. God has a purpose for all of history,

and God has a purpose for your life. Why would

God give you a purpose for your life totally unconnected

to his purpose for history. He wouldn't. That would be illogical.

So somehow the purpose for your life is connected to

his purpose for history. And what is God's purpose for history.

He's building a family. It's the whole reason there's a universe.

It's a whole reason there's an earth. God wanted a

family on earth. That family is called the Church. It's

also called the Kingdom of God. And when everybody has

come into that family, that God knows is going to

say yes, has made the choice to love him back.

Then this period of history will be over. We go

into phase two, which is eternity. And so somehow God says,

I want your purpose in life to be a part

of My big purpose, which is taking the good news

to everybody else. The whole reason we have saddle backed

Church is the Great Commission. I started this church because

of that verse. The whole reason we have the Peace

Plan is because of the Great Commission. It's all about

not just loving Christ, loving his family, growing in Christ,

serving Christ. It's also about sharing Christ, taking the good news,

and it's the best news in the world past forgiven purpose,

for living home in Heaven. Where else are you going

to get that? Nowhere? It's the best news in the world.

In the Bible, Paul talks about a group of Christians

in a part of Greece called Macedonia Macedonias, where Alexander

the Great came from and the church at Macedonia. Paul

was there and helped them start at church, and they

were going through a very strong famine drought, and the

place was incredibly poor, and they barely had enough food

to feed themselves. And it was a very very poor,

poverty stricken church in Macedonia. And yet then the people

in the Church of Macedonia heard about the tough times

that the Church of Jerusalem is going through, and they

were having a famine, and not on top of that,

they were having prosecution. And so the people who were

in abject poverty themselves in Macedonia took up a generous

offering and sent it to Jerusalem. And Paul in the

Bible brags on the Macedonian Christian. He goes, I don't

believe these guys. They're unbelievable. It goes out of their

deep poverty welled up great generosity. He goes that they

gave more than they were able, and said they were

able to give more than they could afford. They were

poor themselves, they were destitute, and yet they're taking up

an offering to help poor people in another place. And

he goes, let me explain to you why they were

able to do that. It's the next verse tewod Corinthians

eight five. They gave beyond their ability, far more than

they could afford, because they're not given by reason but

by revelation. And what explains this, what explains this generosity

in the middle of all their poverty, What explains, it

was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God.

That's the very first verse we read today. The other

giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working

in their lives. In other words, if you settle the

first issue, does my life really belong to God? The

second issue is really easy, Do I trust God? Southern

California is well known for its beaches. It's the part

of the country that popularized the music of the beach Boys,

beach party movies, and of course, surfing. Many of our

schools offer physical education courses in surfing, and if you

take a class on surfing, you'll be taught everything you

need to know about surfing. How to recognize the right equipment,

how to use it properly, how to recognize a surfable wave,

how to catch a wave and ride it as long

as possible, and most important of all, how to get

off a wave without wiping out. But in all of

the courses unsurfing, you will never find a class that

teaches how to build a wave. Surfing is the art

of riding waves that God builds. No surfer tries to

create waves. If the waves aren't there, you just don't

surf that day. On the other hand, when a surfer

sees a good wave, they make the most of it,

even if it means surfing in the middle of a storm.

Only God can create waves, waves of revival, waves of growth,

waves of receptivity in your own life, and our job,

like experienced surfers, is to recognize a wave of God's

spirit and rite it. It's not our responsibility to go

out into the world and make waves. It's our job

to recognize how God is working in the world and

join him in in the endeavor. At Saddleback Church, We've

never tried to build a wave. That's God's business, but

we have tried to recognize the waves that God is

sending our way, and we have learned how to catch them.

And the amazing thing is this, The more skilled we

become in writing waves of growth, the more God sins.

In my opinion, we live in the most exciting time

in history and the most exciting time for the church.

More people are coming to Christ now than at any

other point in history. I believe God is sending waves

of growth wherever his people are prepared to ride them.

So my prayer at the start of every day goes

like this Father, I know you're going to do some

incredible things in the world today. I would like to

ask you to just give me the privilege of being

in on some of them. In other words, stop praying Lord,

bless what I'm doing. Stop praying Lord, bless what I'm doing.

Start praying Lord, help me to do what you're blessing.

Big difference. Now, when a surfer wipes out because he

didn't ride a wave correctly, he doesn't give up surfing.

He just paddles back out in the ocean to wait

for the next big wave that God sends. One thing

I've observed about successful surfers is they are persistent. You

may have experienced a few wipeouts in your life, well

I certainly have. And you may have missed a few

certain a few waves in your life, and I have too.

That doesn't mean you should quit. The ocean hasn't dried up.

On the contrary, at this very moment, God is creating

in the world the best waves I've ever seen. Let's

go catch him. Would you pray this prayer? Dear God.

I want to strengthen my faith. I want to discover

my identity. I want to develop my potential. I want

to experience significance, and I want to make an eternal difference.

So today I want to settle these five life commitments. First,

I commit the rest of my life to uniting with

others in worship in order to strengthen my faith and

restore my joy. And then I commit to connecting with

others for fellowship, to being in a small group, to

being an agent of reconciliation in the world and treating

everyone with respect and dignity. And then I commit to

learning from others in order to grow and becoming what

you want me to be. And I commit to learning

to serve you by serving others in ministry, and to

use what I or talent you have given me not

for myself, but for the benefit of others. And I

want to make an eternal difference. And I want to

join with others on the mission of daring faith. And

I want my part, like the little boy who gave

his lunch to feed the five thousand, and to make

a difference and eternity. If you've never opened your life

to Christ, say Jesus Christ, come into my life right

now and save me and change me. I pray this

in your name. Amen.

If you just prayed to receive Jesus congratulations. We would

love to send you some free materials to help you

along on your spiritual journey. Just email Rick at Pastorick

dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com. You know,

Daily Hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick

with a letter from one of our listeners.

I started this Daily Hope ministry because I want to

help you fulfill the great commission and the great commandment

of Jesus Christ to love God with all your heart,

love your neighbors yourself, to make disciples, to teach them

to grow, and to baptize them and bring them into

the Family of God. And all of these things happen

when you do what God tells you to do. You

were part of the effort. We are a team here

at Daily Hope. Let me read your letter from Jeff,

who listens to Daily Hope in Alabama and he's using

all of the resources that we produce in addition to

these broadcasts to help disciple other people in the Word.

He wrote, Dear Pastor Rick, our adult classes at Green

Valley Baptist Church here in Hoover, Alabama. Just finish your

six week study kit for the series Daring Faith. I

just wanted to drop you a line tell you how

much we enjoyed that study and the video. Many of

our class members have been going through a lot of

personal tragedies, problems, and difficulties lately, and your video spoke

so strongly to how we need to depend on God

in our faith to help us get through both the

good and bad times of life. Well, thanks Jeff for

writing in first place. Second, I'm so excited to hear

that you're using these resources in addition to the broadcast

that we're preparing for groups and individuals and even churches

and my prayers that was we put together these resources

like the Daring Faith Kit, that they will be used

by thousands of small groups around the world to help

people grow in faith and in knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now,

for those of you who are listening today, there are

a lot of different resources that Daily Hope produces, Bible studies, kits, manuals, scripture,

memory cards, all kinds of things that you need to

be aware of. So to my website today, pastorick dot com.

If you've never been there, take a minute and go

to pastorick dot com and see all of the resources

that we've prepared to help you grow in your faith

and share your faith with others. We did it for you,

God bless you.

Please join us next time as we look into God's.

Word for our daily hope.

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