Rick Warren - Why God Shaped You the Way He Did — Part One

Welcome back to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, And if you're

brand new with us, we're so glad that you found us.

You know, every day we dive into Pastor Rick Warren's teaching,

and today we're beginning a new series called Shape to

make a Difference. Rick likes to use acrostics, and this

one is called Shape Shape your spiritual gifts, your heart,

your abilities, personality, and experiences. Rick uses that to talk

about the way that God has wired you. And while

it's good to know your shape, it's more important to

use it to do the things that God has made

you to do. So let's jump right in. Here's Pastor

Rick with part one of a message called why God

shaped you the way He did.

Everything in this world God made, and nothing's a copy.

Every tree is different, every plant is different, every animal

is different. Certainly every human being is different. There's no

boy like you in the entire world. And you don't

have to realize that God has done almost creative overkill

in that he never makes copies of anything. Even twins

aren't exactly alike. That God makes everything an original. Now

did you know that, for instance, in one cubic foot

of snow, there are eighteen million snowflakes, and in those

eighteen million snowflakes, not one of them is like any

of the other eighteen million. That's creative overkill, Okay, God,

nobody will ever even know that except a scientist. Every

snowflake is different. Now, God could have made us all alike.

He could have just had a conveyor belt mass produced

human beings. Put us all on a belt, and we

all look the same, talk the same, speak the same

have the same color, have the same hair. And but

God didn't want to do that. Why Because an original

is always worth more than a copy. And you are

worth far more as an original than you are as

a copy of somebody else. And God says you are valuable.

God created you, Jesus died for you. God's spirit lives

in you. That's how much you matter to God. Now,

the Bible is very clear that God specifically shapes every

human being to his customized standards. And there's nobody like

you in the entire world. You are unique. You're not

one in a million, you're one in six billion. And

God does this, as I said, because he wants everything

to be an original. And he did this from the

very first with the very first man, Adam and his

wife Eve. They're on your outline if you'll pull it out.

We're starting a new series and we're talking the night

about why God shaped you the way he did. And

in Genesis too, it says this God shaped man from

the soil of the ground, and he blew the breath

of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being.

And I want you to circle the word shaped, because

this word is found all through the Bible. God says

that he customed shaped you, and there's nobody else shaped

exactly like you. In fact, let's read the next verse together.

You made my whole being. You formed me in my

mother's body. I praise you because you made me in

an amazing and wonderful way. You saw my bones being

formed as I took shape in my mother's body when

I was put together. There, you saw my body as

it was formed. All the day's planned for me were

written in your book before I was one day old.

Now there's some verbs there I've underlined, but I think

you ought to circle them because I want you to

see what God did for you before you were even born.

The Bible says you made me. Circle that word made

you formed me in my mother's body, circle formed. You

saw my bones being formed. In other words, inside your

mother's womb. As I took shape, you shaped me where

I was put together. God put you together. Circle that

all the days were planned for me. God planned you

every day of your life. He planned in advance before

I was one day old. Now notice this, It says

God made me, God formed me, God saw me, God

shaped me, God put me together, and God planned every

day of my life before I was even born. Now, friends,

that is why abortion is wrong, because abortion short circuits

a human being that God had planned for creation. And

the Bible says all these things. He says, I formed you,

I thought you up before you were even created or conceived.

Now you've heard me say this many times. There are

accidental parents, but there are no accidental children. You are

not an accident. There are illegitimate parents, but there are

no illegitimate children. Your parents may not have planned you,

but God did. And it doesn't really matter whether your

parents were good or bad or indifferent, or maybe you

never even knew them, or maybe you were orphaned, or

maybe your father mother your father died before you were born,

or you lost your mother somehow and you really got

to know them. It doesn't matter. Yes, it matters, but

it doesn't matter in the fact that God chose them

to be your parents. Why because God knew they had

exactly the right DNA to create you. And God was

more interested in creating you than he was in their

parenting skills. Does that make sense? God was more interested

in making you, and they had just the right DNA

that any other two people on the planet wouldn't have

had to create the way He wanted to create you.

And you are not an accident. Now these truths. Look

at the next verse. It says, your hands formed and

shaped me. Did you know that you were hand made

by God? Hand crafted? You're not an assembly line. God

was intricately, intimately involved in the specifics of creating you.

That What does it mean, Well, it means you're not

an accident. It means that God chose every detail of

your life, even the stuff you don't like, the stuff

you consider weaknesses, and He chose it for you. And

after God broke made you, he broke the mold and

nobody ever else would be like you. And when you

get to Heaven, God doesn't want you to be anybody else,

he will say, why weren't you more like you? He

broke the mold. And when when God made Adam, he

broke the mold. When God made Eve, he broke the both.

Adam looked at Eve and said, Honey, you're the only

woman in the world for me. Of course, he was

the only guy telling the truth. What the truth is.

Nobody else will ever be exactly like you. You could

go at him, you could go on around the world

tour just like I did, and search the entire world.

And you're never going to find anybody with your thumb print,

with your footprint, with your voice print, with your EyePrint.

You're never going to find anybody with the exact combination

of your personality, with the exact combination of your experiences

and all the things that God has given to make

you you. You're unique. Now, why did God go to

all that trouble? Well, as I said, because he wanted

you to be original. If he had wanted you to

be somebody else, he would have not made you. He

would have made somebody else, But he wanted you. Now,

the problem is this twofold. First, most people don't like

the way they are. I've found that Most people in

the world really don't accept themselves, and they're always going

I wish I was taller, I wish I was smaller,

I wish I was thinner. I wish I had red hair,

brown hair, black hair. I wish I had a different

skin color. I don't like my nose, I don't like

my teeth, I don't like I wish I had more talent.

Why couldn't I be like her? Why couldn't I be

like him? And they don't really accept themselves, And they're

always comparing and competing rather than accepting what God made

them to be. And when you do that, it causes

all kinds of problems in your life. Most people do

not accept themselves, and as a result of that, they

live frustrated lives. And the second thing to do is

they try to be like somebody else. I said, well,

I gotta wear shoes like her, and I gotta dress

like him, and I gotta make as much money as

he did, and I gotta do what she did, and

I got to please my parents and all these different things.

And most people start off as originals and end up

as carbon copies. Now, let me just be real honest

with you. If you're not gonna be you. We don't

need you here on earth because there's somebody else already

taking that spot. If you're here, it means God says

you have something to contribute that Rick Warren can't, or

you can't, or anybody else can't contribute. Only you can

be you. Only you can be you, And God says

I made you, I shaped you, I designed you. Now,

about twenty years ago, I came up with a little

acrosstick called shape shape to talk about the five things

that make you you. But your shape has so much

by the way, when I say shape in orangetin, I

have to remind this is not a fitness or weight

loss program. Okay, oh they're talking about shape. It's saddle back.

No.

My shape is the way God wired you for your life.

And every area of your life is influenced by the

way you're shaped. You don't even realize it, but all

of the things that God put in you to make

you you influences every single area of your life. I

just jotted down a few areas. For instance, the way

you are shaped determines what classes you should focus on

in school and which ones you should avoid. Some of you,

it would have been a big help to know your

shape before you went to college, because we wasted a

lot of time in college and classes that didn't really matter.

If I want to give a testimony on that, Yeah, okay,

all right. Your shape determines what kind of friends you

should have. We're going to talk about some of these

in this series in the next few weeks. Your shape

determines the type of person you should marry, and the

more you understand about you, the more likely you're going

to choose the right person for marriage. Your shape determines

the temptations you're most likely gonna be tempted by and

that you need to be prepared for. There's some things

that tempt me that won't tempt you. There's some things

that tempt you that won't tempt me. What Because the

way we're shaped, your shape determines why certain things frust

you straight you more than they do your wife or

your husband, because you're shaped differently. Your shape determines the

best career that's fit for you, your best career fit. Your

shape determines the best work environment for you, the best

ministry for you. Your shape determines where you are bound to

fail in life and where you are bound to succeed

in life, and in the week's say, we're going to

look at many of these. Now I'm telling you that

the series we're starting may be the most important series

I've done since we did Forty Days of Purpose, because

you have to know your shape in order for you

to be all God wants you to be. When you

know what God made you to do, it reduces your stress,

It increases your satisfaction, It raises your self esteem, it

increases the odds of your success. And when you are

working in the area of your shape, then you're going

to go, Wow, that's me. It's what I was made

to do. It's fulfilling, and it's fruitful. In other words,

you succeed at it and you're satisfied by it. Now,

I'll be real honest with you in the next six weeks.

This week, in the next week, some of you, as

we go through this series are going to realize I'm

in the wrong job, and I'm going to be honest.

As your passions say, then you need to change it.

I don't care how much money you're making. Life is

too short to waste it on a job you're not

shaped for. So there may be changes that have to

take place in your life. Now tonight, as we start

this series, we're gonna just ask three questions, what is

my shape? Many of you already know this, or what

is shape? Then we're gonna look at why does it matter?

And then we're going to look at what should I

what should I do about it? My first steps? Now,

I came up with this acrostic about as I said

about twenty years ago. But I thought, as we do

this first point, that we'd have Eric Reeve's pastor, Eric

come and talk to us about shape. Would you give

him a warm welcome?

All right? So what does this word shape mean? It's

really your design. You were designed by God to make

a difference for God, and the Bible teaches us in

Ephesians two ten that when God looks at you and I,

he says we are masterpieces. Now there's probably days in

your life like mine, you don't feel like a masterpiece.

But God says we are masterpieces, and we were made

to make a difference for him, a kingdom difference. So

how do you figure out the difference you were designed

to make? You start with your design, and that's what

we're going to do and over these next few weeks.

As we look at the word shape shape, the S

in shape stands for spiritual gifts. Now, the Bible teaches

us that many things happen to us when we accept

Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. And one of

the things that happens is we receive spiritual gifts. But

like any gift, you have to take the time to

unwrap it. And when you unwrap it, then you can

put it to use. And so as we journey through

these weeks together, we're going to help you unwrap your

spiritual gifts. There's over twenty listed in the New Testament,

and each and every one of us is gifted by

God for his glory, not for ourselves, but for his glory.

And we want to help you understand what are you

gifted to do? The H in shape stands for heart.

You might want to write the word next to that passion.

What are you excited about? As Rick likes to say,

what's the quiver in your liver? What is the thing

that gets you up in the morning, What turns your crank?

There are certain things you are so passionate about, and

there's certain things you're not. Reminds me of a time,

about thirteen years ago, my wife and I, who are

just members of the church at that time, decided that

I was going to serve one weekend in the nursery.

We didn't have children at that time, so I'm thinking, okay,

I can go do something in the nursery. And so

I show up and the lady as I'm getting taught

what to do that day, she says, Eric, your job

is to be the transporter. It's like, okay, she says,

when the babies come in, I'm going to hand the

baby to you, and You're going to take the baby

over to these wonderful people over here that are going

to pray for the baby and care for the baby

and feed the baby and change the baby, all those things.

I'm thinking, I can do this. So first baby comes

to the door, having like one of those half doors.

The mom hands the baby over. I'm so excited because

it's a boy and he's not crying. So I'm thinking, okay,

So I grab the baby from this lady and as

I turn, I'm looking at him out like this, and

his head starts to go into his shoulders and.

He's looking at me like, dude, you don't have a clue,

and I really didn't because I had never held a

baby before. And so as I turned and went to

hand him to this wonderful lady that was ready to accept.

This baby, he started to drip and I'm thinking, oh, no,

pampers did not come through. I'm getting rid of this baby.

So I hand the baby over to the lady, thinking

it's time to get the next baby. I turn around

and I'm meeted with the lady. Eric, maybe you should

just greet the people at the door. Okay, now I'm

a greeter, but you know what, friends, As I think

about that moment, there were people in that room that

loved being with the babies. They're probably steal over in

the nursery today, Amen, because they have a passion to

work with little children babies. Where did they get that

passion from God? So my question to you is what

are you passionate about? And we want to help you

unlock that passion for God's glory as we travel through

this series so spiritual gifts. The AH is for heart,

the A is for abilities. What natural abilities has God

given you? You have certain abilities five six, seven hundred

of them, and we want to help you kind of

raise the ones up to the top so you can

claim them and use them for God's glory in significant

ways as we help you define your specific purpose in life.

Now.

The P in the word shape stands for personality. This

is where we look to answer the question how has

God wired me? We all navigate life differently. Some of

us in this room are very competitive, and some of

us are very cooperative. Some of us are extroverts and

some of us are introverts. Some of us are self expressive,

while others of us would be self controlled. Some of

us in the room just love variety, while others in

this room would just love to be around routine. And

then God takes a man and a woman in a

marriage and sticks routine and variety together. It's like his

little joke or something. I'm just kidding. It only happens

in my marriage. I know that. So, but how has

God wired you? Don't try to be an extrovert. If

God made you an introvert, just be the best introvert

you can for the glory of God.

The E in the word shape.

Stands for experiences. Experiences. We have all kinds of experiences

in our lives, and you know what, it doesn't matter

if you were raised in the Beaver Cleaver household or

the monsters. God can use it all he can, and

he wants to the positive and the painful. You know,

for years I didn't want to let anybody know about

certain experiences in my life because I thought no way

could God use this. But I finally came to the

moment of letting people know and letting God just take

this pain from my past because I was raised by

a very abusive alcoholic father and for years I just

hid from it. But when I let it go God,

I had brought a flood of people into my life,

and you know what, they wanted to talk because they

too were abused by alcoholic parents. And as we sat

at Starbucks and looked eye to eye, we knew that

we'd been through something and we could pray for one another.

What's the experience in your past that maybe you just

keep wanting to hold back? But God is going to

challenge you in this series to let it come out.

For his glory.

For his glory, because friends, the bottom line is this,

you were made by God to make a difference for God.

So as we start this series, jump in with both

feet and do whatever it takes. And my challenge to

you is give yourselves permission to see yourselves as the

masterpiece you were created to be great. Ready.

So these five things that Eric just talked about, spiritual gifts,

heart abilities, personality experiences. These are the five things that

make you you. And in that combination of spiritual gifts

that you have heart passion interests. Why do you think

you have those interests? God gave them to you. You're

interested in golf or sports, or hunting, or sewing, or

art or music or a million other things. Where do

you think you got that interest? You got it from God.

God wired it into your system because he wanted us

all to do different things. If we all like to

do the same thing, there'd be a lot left undone

in the world. So God gives you these five things.

You're unique and you're special and nobody's going to be

like you. And if you don't be you, there's going

to be a whole missing in history.

What a great and timely message today. Let's end our

show with a closing thought from pastor Rick.

When you give your time and your energy and your

talent and finances to God, even when you don't have

a lot of these things. God takes notice, and it

is pleasing to him. That's because you're showing him that

you can be trusted with the things he gives you,

and that you're developing one of his most important characteristics, generosity.

God is infinitely generous, and he's pleased when you're generous too.

When God gives you something like a talent or an

ability or money that is to be considered a trust.

It means that God trusts you to use it for

good and for God. When we use what God has

given us to help others, we show our faith in God.

The Bible says, now it is required that those who've

been given a trust must prove faithful. That's First Corinthians,

chapter four, verse two. The size of what you have

to give isn't important. What God is watching is what

you do with what He's given to you. He doesn't

give you time or talent or money for your own benefit.

He gives them to us for the benefit of others. Now,

of course, it's easy to be generous when you have

a lot to give, but faithful people are generous even

when their resources are in short supply. Because being generous

even when you don't think you can be generous is

a step of faith giving even when I don't have.

It causes me to trust God helps me to become

more faithful, and that pleases God when he sees that

you're going to trust Him even when you don't understand

how it will all work out. Now, here's the thing

to remember. When I do all that God tells me

to do, he does what I can't do. If you

don't use the gifts that God has given you to

help others, then we're all missing out, and that includes

you because you were shaped to serve others. Now we

have a choice. We can live our lives for ourselves

where we can live our lives for something bigger than ourselves.

Generosity is one of the ways that God pulls us

out of our selfishness and into His bigger plan for

our lives. I guarantee you, because God guarantees it that

if you step forward in faith, in faithful generosity, God

will do amazing things in and through your life. I've

watched Him do it in my life for over forty years.

I'm rick be sure to join us next time as

we look to God's word for our daily hope.

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