Rick Warren - Choosing Your Future

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 we begin a series called God's Vision for the Rest

of your Life. In it, Rick is going to help you to discover

the unique purpose and vision that the Lord has for your life. In just

a few moments, we're going to tell you how to get a hardcover copy

of Pastor Rick's wonderful book, The Purpose of Christmas, just in time for

the season. Go to Pastorrick dot com to find out more, or text

the word daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's Pastorick

dot com, or the word daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and

four. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part one of a message

called Choosing your Future. One of the greatest gifts that God has given you

is the freedom to choose. It's what makes us different from animals. You

have a free moral choice. Now, the problem is, what is our

greatest gift is also our greatest curse. Because we make stupid choices a lot

of time. We make dumb choices every choice I make is not a good

one, and neither is yours, and so we often waste that power that

God has given us. Now, every year, in January, people make

new choices, which they call New Year's resolutions. The problem with New Year's

resolutions is we usually make them about trivial issues, not the most important things

in life, and then we try to accomplish them by willpower. And if

you set some New Year's resolutions, you try to accomplish them. Why willpower

I give you to about the end of February, Because willpower doesn't last.

It's good to get you started, but it doesn't last, and pretty soon

you get tired and you give up and you stop that habit, that commitment,

that new thing you're trying to do. You need more than simply willpower.

We're going to talk about that today. Now there in your outline,

you know, it's the word to resolve. The verb resolve means to decide,

It means to settle, to determine, to purpose. You have a

purpose for your life, And the word resolution, like a New Year's resolution,

means a firm determination to do something. What I want us to do

this weekend is look at the four most important resolutions you can make in your

life. These are life shaping resolutions. Well, I'm going to share with

you today. If you will make these four resolutions and depend on God to

help you, your life will radically improve, not just this next year,

but the rest of your life. The rest of your life will become the

best of your life. These four resolutions will transform you. They will make

your life so much better if you'll focus on these and they come to us

from the life of Moses. Now, Moses is the greatest man in the

Bible, or at least the greatest man in the Old Testament. Moses is

the guy who led the Jews after four hundred years of slavery to freedom.

He challenged the greatest nation in the world at that time, Egypt and Pharaoh,

and set a million people free. Moses is the guy that God gave

the Ten Commandments to. Moses is the guy who wrote the first five books

of the Bible Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Why did

God use this guy in such an amazing way Because Moses made four resolutions.

He made four choices that altered his destiny. You see, these are the

things that change your life. What happens to you in life is not nearly

as important as the choices you make. We make our choices, and then

our choices make us. Your character is the sum total of your choices.

So while you don't control all the circumstances in your life, you do control

your choices, and these are far more important than circumstances. Now in Hebrews

chapter eleven, if you have a Bible, you might want to open there.

All of the verses are on your outline. We have about five verses

on the life of Moses that explains the choices he made. The first verse

is about the choices parents made when he was a baby, and then the

next four verses are about the choices that Moses made. And if you will

make these same choices, you will benefit dramatically for the rest of your life.

Now you know the story of Moses. Pharaoh had decided that the Jews

were getting too large in number in population in each so he made a decree

that all the baby boys were to be murdered. Moses' parents decided, we're

not going to do that. We believe this is a special child. We

believe God has a plan and purpose for his life, and so rather than

murdering their baby boy, they made a basket, put him in the Nile

River as a baby, and shoved him out in the nile nearby where Pharaoh's

daughter was bathing. Pharaoh's daughter sees the baby in the basket, falls in

love with this little baby. It decides to take him home and adopt him

as her son. So now this baby slave becomes the grandson of Pharaoh.

But nobody doesn't. Nobody knows except Pharaoh's daughter that he's actually a Jewish kid.

Now the Bible says this here on the screen Hebrews chapter eleven. By

faith, Moses' parents hit him for three months after he was born because they

saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's

edict. That's Pharaoh's command to kill all the baby boys. By faith,

Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son

of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose instead to be known to He chose instead to

be mistreated along with the people of God it's the slaves, rather than to

enjoy the pleasures of sin. For a short time, he regarded disgrace,

in other words, being a slave for the sake of Christ as of greater

value than all the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his

reward in Heaven. By faith, he left Egypt, leading the Jews out

to freedom. Not fearing the king's anger. Pharaoh's anger, he persevered because

he saw Him who is invisible. In this passage, there are four verbs.

It says Moses by faith, Moses refused, Moses chose, Moses regarded,

and Moses persevered. When you understand the meaning of these four verbs and

their implication for your life today thousands of years later, it'll change your life.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be back in just

a moment with the rest of today's lesson. If you've missed any part of

today's teaching, you can listen online anytime at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick

dot com. What the True Reason for the Season? Fill your heart with

hope this year when you discover Pastor Rick's inspirational book The Purpose of Christmas.

In it, Rick shows you how Christmas is designed to meet your three deepest

needs and out receiving the three Christmas gifts God has for you will transform your

life forever. This book is sure to become a loved family favorite, to

be read at every Christmas, and to be shared with your friends who may

not know how much God loves them. We'll send you the inspiring and beautifully

illustrated book The Purpose of Christmas as our way of saying thanks when you give

a gift to help Daily Hope take the Certain Hope of Jesus to people around

the world. To get your copy of this great resource, just call eight

hundred six hundred five zero zero four or go to pastorick dot com to get

yours. That's eight hundred and six hundred five zero zero four or pastorick dot

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

Warren. Now let's look at these four life shaping choices, resolutions that will

flat out improve your life more than anything else if you'll do what Moses did.

Here's the first resolution, Number one. I refuse to be defined by

others. I refuse to be defined by others. God did not make you

to be what somebody else wants you to be. God didn't make you to

be what your parents want you to be. What's your girlfriend or boyfriend wants

you to be what's your wife wants you to be. God didn't make you

to be what your boss wants you to be, what your peers want you

to be. God made you to be you. And if you're going to

become all that you're going to be and what we're going to talk about the

next six weeks, you're gonna have to deal with this one. I refuse

to be defined by others. Now, this is the first issue Moses had

to deal with Verse twenty four Hebrews eleven. By faith Moses, when he

had grown up, and this is a market maturity, refuse to be known

as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now Moses has an identity crisis. As

I just explained to you earlier. He's born Hebrew slave, but he's raised

Egyptian royalty, the grandson of Pharaoh. And as he grows up, he's

got to decide who am I? I mean, really, who am I?

It's going to affect the rest of his life. He's got two choices.

One he can pretend to be Pharaoh's grandson for the rest of his life,

and he can live a life of luxury. He'll have fame, he'll

have fortune, he'll have all the pleasures he could possibly want in the world.

He'll be a celebrity, he'll have power, he'll have prestige, he'll

have status, and one day he'll be the most powerful man on the planet

as Pharaoh of Egypt in its heyday. Or he can admit who he really

is he's Jewish. At that point, they're going to kick him out.

He's going to go live with the slaves the rest of his life. He's

going to be disgraced, He's going to be humiliated. He's going to live

a life of pain and sorrow and drudgery the rest of his life. Now,

which one would you do? I mean, when you think about that,

Moses refused to live a lie. He's a man of integrity. Most

people are living lies today. They're trying to be people they're not. You're

trying to impress people about things that really just aren't true in your life,

and that causes enormous tension in your life. He insisted on being who God

made him to be against all kinds of peer pressure. Now here's my first

question for you. Who are you letting determine your identity? Your friends,

your parents, your family. Some of you have parents, they died years

ago. You still hear their voices in your mind. You're trying to live

up to their vision for your life. Some of you're trying to live out

what some ex husband or wife said to you, and you're trying to prove

them wrong. You're letting them control your life. Some of you're trying to

impress people. You're living a life of culture. Keep up with the joneses,

impress people social media, the what culture says, your spouse says,

what the competition says. Let me show you some verses from the Bible,

Romans, chapter twelve. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its

own mold, but let God remold your mind from within, so that you

may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good. You

might circle that the plan of God for you is good, but you don't

know the plan of God. We can't cover it in the next six weeks

if you don't deal with this where you say, I'm going to refuse to

let the world squeeze me in it. I'm not going to let other people

define me. Look up here on the screen, the Bible says in Exodus

twenty three to two don't follow the crowd in doing wrong. In other words,

don't let peer pressure push you into things you don't want to do,

because they don't really like you anyway. Those people you're trying and impress,

they don't really care about you anyway. The Bible says this, Our purpose

is to please God, not people. He is the one who examines the

motives of our hearts. And Jesus said this about his disciples John seventeen.

They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world.

Can you say that about you? No, you can't, because you've

been defined by the people in your life. You see, this is so

important that we can't deal with anything else. Do you deal with this one?

Because when you know who you are, it sets you free from the

fear of disapproval, and most people are scared to death of criticism and rejection

and disapproval. It's so important I wrote a new chapter on it in The

New Purpose Driven Life, because it's one of the two things. Envy says

I must be like you to be happy, and people pleasing says I must

be liked by you to be happy. Both of them are wrong, and

both of them will keep you from fulfilling the life God intended for you to

live. You have to say, I'm going to resolve that I will refuse

to be defined by other people, and I'm not going to let other people's

approval or disapproval shape my life. I'm going to live for an audience of

one. This is what Moses did, and your first life shaping resolution is

to say this. I resolved that no more will I let other people press

me into their mold. I'm going to be what God wants me to be.

I'm going to do what God wants me to do, and I'm going

to fulfill the plan that God has for my life, not somebody else's plan

for my life. Why, because you can trust God. The Bible says

this Jeremiah twenty nine on the screen. I know the plans I have for

you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster.

Plans to give you a future and a hope. Now, friends,

that is real success, real success, not phony, fake artificial success.

Real success in life is being exactly what you were created to be and nothing

more than that. I want you as your pastor. I want you to

succeed in the rest of your life. But the only way you're going to

do that is to be who God made you to be, not what other

people are pressuring you to be, not what they want you to be,

being who God wants you to be. I refuse to be defined by others.

Second, the second resolution that you need to make in life to be

all that God wants you to be. A life shaping choice is this,

I choose short term pain for long term gain. I choose short term pain

for long term gain. Now, anybody who's ever played a sports knows this

one. You've got to put out the effort. You've got to practice,

you've got to work hard, you've got to put out some sweat in order

to play in the championship game. You just don't walk out and win the

championship. No pain, no gain. You got to put out to get

back. If you're going to be good at anything, you've got to put

out short term pain for long term gain. That's not just true in sports,

it's true in finances. It's true in relationships. I have a good

marriage, but I worked at it can and I have worked at it hard

for years. It didn't come easy. Nobody just has an easy relationship.

You got to work at it to make your marriage work. It takes work

to make it work. We put out short term pain for a long term

gain. Am I grateful for the marriage I've got? That? Are you

kidding me? I'd pay a million bucks. It's incalculable what my marriage is

worth to me. But it wasn't always that way. We had to put

out short term pain for long term gain. Why is this resolution important in

your life? Because most of the problems in your life come from your inability

to delay gratification. Everything in society teaches us I want everything and I want

it now, and I want it free and I want it easy. Well,

life isn't that way. So every problem in your life comes from your

inability to put off the pleasure in order to get it a longer amount of

it later on. I want it now, I want it free, and

I want it easy. The reason you're in debt is because of your inability

to delay gratifications. That's why you're in debt, because you say, I

see it and I want it now. Do I have the money for it?

No? Can I afford it No? So I'm going to charge it

and I'm going to put it on a credit card. Every time you use

a credit card to buy something you can't afford, you are refusing to delay

gratification, and you get deeper and deeper in debt. And the reason America

is falling off a fiscal cliff is because our government doesn't know how to delay

gratification. We want it all, and we want it all now, even

though we can't pay for it. This is true physically in your health.

I don't want to pay for a good health with exercise and proper diet and

getting the right amount of sleep. I just want to do whatever I want

to do and feel good. It isn't going to happen. You're going to

feel bad if you don't do the pain to get the gain. It's true

in relationships when people go and say, you know, I don't want to

follow what God says about sex. I want to have sex now. I'm

not married, but I want to have sex now. It causes problems in

relationships because when you have sex with somebody, you give part of your heart

to them. There's an emotional attachment and you give keep giving part of yourself

away. It causes spiritual problems. Would you agree with me that usually the

right thing to do? Is not the easy thing to do. Everybody agree

with that the easy thing to do is typically the wrong thing to do.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so thankful that you've chosen to spend

some time with us today. If you've missed any part of this broadcast,

including portions we didn't have time for, just go to pastorick dot com and

listen online. Anytime. Rick will be right back to close out our time

today. But first, let the true reason for the season fill your heart

with hope this year when you discover Pastor Rick's inspirational book, The Purpose of

Christmas. In it, Rick shows you how Christmas is designed to meet you

your three deepest needs and how receiving the three Christmas gifts God has for you

will transform your life forever. This book is sure to become a beloved family

favorite, to be read every Christmas and to be shared with your friends who

may not know how much God loves them. We'll send you a hardcover copy

of the inspiring and beautifully illustrated book The Purpose of Christmas as our way of

saying thanks. When you give a gift to help daily Hope, take the

certain hope of Jesus to people around the world. To get your copy of

this great resource, just call eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four or

go to Pastorick dot com to get yours. That's eight hundred six hundred five

thousand and four or Pastorick dot com. Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from

one of our listeners today. I want to share with you a note that

I recently received from Mariam, a former Muslim who came to faith in Jesus

after listening to Daily Hope. Now we're not musing Miriam's real name on the

air, because she lives in a country that's actually closed to Christianity, but

here's what she wrote. Good morning, Pastor Rick. I was born and

raised in a Muslim family, and I've been brought up believing and practicing in

the Islamic faith. I want to tell you my journey to accepting Christ and

how listening to Daily Hope has affected my life. Last September, I met

a new friend. Our friendship grew quickly and surprisingly, and I would always

feel safe and secure and peaceful around him, and he would always challenge me

with some questions about my faith that I couldn't answer. I was going through

some rough times in life, and for the very first time in my life,

my new friend prayed for me. After he prayed, tears streamed into

my eyes, causing me to see a very bright light even though my eyes

were closed. I started having doubts about my Islamic faith and doing my own

research. With his help, he asked me to listen to Daily Hope and

it was so meaningful to me that I decided to describe on my own.

Ever since then, I have not missed a single broadcast of Daily Hope,

Pastor Rick. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to know

Christ better on a daily basis through your broadcast. I now know what love

is, that it brings people closer and connects us to Jesus. And I'm

truly honored and thankful to my new friend for bringing the light into my life

and the Holy Spirit. And I'm proud to say that I devote my life

now to Jesus Christ in his Holy Name and in His Spirit. And I'm

going to continue to enjoy and be moved by your daily inspiration through the Daily

Hope broadcast, Pastor Rick. My family doesn't know about any of this which

truly scares me at times. But one day I hope Christ will give me

the strength and the courage to confess my faith to them and encourage them to

accept the truth too. Thank you for your time, Pastor Rick, and

for helping me become a better Christian every single day. Regards Mariam, you

know, wow, Mariam, I'm so encouraged to know that you have become

a follower of Jesus Christ. That makes you my sister and the Lord,

and I want to thank you so much for writing to me and sharing your

story. I'm so encouraged by your note, and thank you for letting me

share it with literally millions of other people around the world. Helping people find

a relationship with Jesus is what keeps me going. It's why we do this

broadcast Daily Hope. And let me say to those of you who are listening

right now, did you notice that a new friend of Miriam's listened to her

and prayed for her and then shared the Daily Hope broadcast with her? Have

you done that with anybody? Have you shared this broadcast with anybody who's not

a believer. I want to encourage each of you to notice the people that

God places in your life and take some time to learn their story, and

then don't be afraid to pray with them, and then share this Daily Hope

broadcast with them and encourage them to listen to it. You could end up

making a friend for eternity. And if this broadcast has helped you grow closer

to the Lord, would you let me know about it? Write to me

Rick at Pastorick dot com and tell me your story so that I could share

some of these stories online with other people who are partners with us in taking

the good news of hope to everybody. If you'd like to let Rick know

how this broadcast has blessed you, you can write him at Rick at Pastorrick

dot com. That's Rick at pastor rick dot com. Be sure to join

us again next time as we look into God's word for our daily hope.

This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support