Rick Warren - The Purpose of Your Personality—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. So

let's jump in. Here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called the

Purpose of your Personality. There are five things that make you you shape,

your spiritual gifts, how God has gifted you. What are your gifted to

do? Your heart that's the age, what do you love to do?

Your abilities, the natural things that you're good at. P is your personality.

E are your experiences. Now today we're going to look at personality and

the Bible says in Mark chapter twelve, verse thirty. It's the song we

just say. It says you must love the Lord your God. Read this

with me with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind,

and all your strength. Now this is called the Great Commandment. One day

a guy asked Jesus Lord, summarize the whole Bible for me, and he

goes, Okay, this is it. If you don't get anything else,

get this one. The number one purpose of your life is this love God

with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Now there are other

purposes for your life, but he says that's number one. That's the most

important thing. God did not put you on this planet just to mark your

to do list. He put you here to learn to love Him with all

your heart and soul and mind and strength. Now, how do you do

that. What's the difference between your heart and your soul, and what's the

difference between your soul and your strength? How do you do that? Well,

we're going to look at it today. One of the ways you can

look at this is through the lens of personality. Now, this is the

Great Commandment, and noticed you are commanded to do all four you're to love

God with your heart, with your soul, with your mind and your strength.

But the reality is every one of us here focuses on one of those

ways more than the other. You tend to be a heart person, or

a soul person, or a mind person or a strength person. And that

is your God given personality. And God wants you to love Him, to

worship him, and to serve him with your personality. God doesn't want you

trying to worship like somebody else, and he doesn't want you to serve him

like somebody else. He wants you to do it with the personality He gave

you. And so you don't have to worship God the way somebody else does

it. You do it with your heart or your soul, or your mind

and your strength. And they're actually, as I said, heart people,

soule people, mind people, and strength people. What's the difference. Well,

that's what we're going to talk about today. Another way to say this

is love God with all your talk and all your feelings and all your thinking

and all of your acting, talking, feeling, thinking and acting. It's

another way of saying the exact same thing. We'll explain that to you today.

God shaped you primarily to be either a talker or a feeler, or

a thinker or a doer. Now, heart people are good at talking,

and we'll explain the connection between heart and words in just a minute. But

they're verbal. They tend to be very verbal. They're good at discussions.

They're good at talking, they're good at putting their words together. Soul people

are good at feeling. They tend to be not verbal, but emotional,

and they feel things very deeply, and they tend to be more in touch

with their emotions than the rest of us are. Mind people are good at

thinking. They tend to be more mental, not verbal or emotional, but

mental, and they think, analyze things. And strength people tend to be

good at doing. They're more physical, they're more practical. They do it.

They're not so much thinking or acting or feeling or even talking, but

more of a doer. Now, you're a blend of all these. There's

a little bit of each of these in you, and you are to be

that way. You're a combo, you're a mix, you're a stew but

you primarily act in one of these ways more than the other. And we're

going to look at how God wants you to worship and so and share and

know Him by the way He shaped you. And you don't have to be

somebody you're not. In fact, the Bible says this in Romans twelve.

It says, love from the center of who you are. Don't fake it.

If you're not a feeler, don't fake it. If you're not a

thinker, don't fake it. If you're not a talker, don't fake it.

If you're not a doer, don't fake it. Be who God made

you to be. Now, today we're going to look at each of these

four personalities, and we're going to look at the purpose of each of these

personalities because they're all needed in the world. We're going to look at the

weakness of each of these four personalities, and we're going to look at a

warning from God about each of these four personalities. But first, before we

do that, I want to take a little survey. Let's just see which

one you think you are. Am I a talker, a feeler, a

thinker, or a doer? And I want everybody to vote on this.

And if the person next to you doesn't vote, you get to vote for

them. You point to them and raise your hand when you think so this

is nobody gets out of this one. Okay, how many of you say,

I'm pretty verbal, I'm a talker. Can I see your hands?

I'm a talker, all right, I like to talk, all right.

How many of you say, I don't think I'm so much a talker.

But I'm a feeler and I'm more emotional. I feel things deeply. You

raise your hands. Okay, how many of you say, forget those two?

I'm a thinker. I think I'm more rational. I tend to think,

not to pay attention to my emotions. All right, And how many

you say, forget all those guys, I'm a doer. Let's get or

done. All right. Let's look at the four personalities now. The first

style, love God with all your heart, refers to talkers. Talkers are

people who love God with their hearts. They say, what's the connection here,

Well, the Bible over and over makes a direct connection between your heart

and your mouth. What you have in your heart and what you say.

For instance, if I have a problem with cussing, swearing profanity, that's

not a problem in my mouth, that's a problem in my heart. If

I tend to judge people and be critical and say sarcastic things. That's not

a problem in my mouth. That's a problem in my heart. If I

tend to exaggerate things and shade the truth, that's not a problem with my

mouth. That's a problem in my heart. If I tend to say things

that I think people want me to say rather than what I really need to

say, that's not a problem with my mouth. That's a problem in my

heart. Does that make sense? So what you say has a direct connection

to your heart. Now, Jesus said this, Look up here on the

screen. The words that come out of your mouth come from where your heart.

There is a direct heart connection and heart people can't help but speak.

In fact, look at this verse up here on the screen. Here's another

example. My mouth shouts his praises because my heart is filled with joy.

Now, whatever your heart is filled with is going to come out of your

mouth. If you're filled with anger, anger is going to come out of

your mouth. If you're filled with loneliness, it's going to come out of

your mouth. If your heart's filled with depression, it's going to come out

of your mouth. If your heart is filled with joy, that's going to

come out of your mouth. So there is a definite heart mouth connection and

talkers are people who worship God from their heart, and they tend to be

verbal people. Now, heart people have a real hard time being quiet.

It says, I spoke. I shouted the praise of God because my heart

was filled. And when your heart is filled and your heart person, you

gotta let it out. You got to tell other people. Heart people love

to tell stories. The talkers love to tell stories. They love to sit

and converse, especially in heart to heart conversation. And so if you're a

talker, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You get pleasure out of

conversation. You enjoy talking. Now, the downside of it is is that

talkers aren't very good at keeping secrets because if it's in their heart, it's

going to come out and they're going to talk. And sometimes that can actually

be a little gossip, but really it can be used in a positive way

too. Look at the next verse Psalm forty, David says, I have

not kept this good news hidden in my heart. Instead, I have talked

about it. See the connection heart and talk. I have talked about your

faithfulness and saving power. I have told everyone. That's a mark of a

talker. They tell everyone. I've told everyone of your unfailing love and faithfulness.

Now, what is the purpose of this first personality talkers? The purpose

of talkers is that the world needs communication. You might write that down the

world needs communication. We need people who are communicators. We need people who

can lead discussions. We need people who can verbalize what all the rest of

us feel. A lot of times I've been up here speaking and I say

something, you go, I felt that way. I just didn't know how

to say it. And we need people who can verbalize what a lot of

us are feeling. And we need teachers, and we need counselors, and

we need coaches who can teach us and direct us. We need comedians,

we need preachers, we need all these kind of people who built on verbal

skills are able to move the world forward. Now, if you are a

talker, and about one fourth of us are this personality talkers, then I

would encourage you to use your personality for good. Use it for good,

use the ability to talk in a positive way, because there are enormous benefits

that talkers have. Let me give you just a couple of them. They're

here in the Book of Proverbs, which by the way. If you're a

talker, you should read the Book of Proverbs over and over and over because

it's got to look at good advice for your personality. And in Proverbs twelve

it says this, the words of the wise bring healing. Do you know

the right kind of word at the right time can heal a broken heart?

It can restore, it can cure, it can encourage, it can develop,

it can build. And I want to challenge you, if you're a

talker, to use your words and say, every time I speak, it's

going to be to build somebody up, not tear them down, but build

them up. I'm a talker, I admit it. It's what God wired

me to be. And every time I talk, I'm going to build somebody

up, not tear them down. Look at the next verse, the words

of the wise keep people out of trouble. You should use your ability to

verbalize, to guide, to direct, to point the rest of us in

the right direction. In fact, look at this verse up here on the

screen. A person's words can be a source of wisdom, deep as the

ocean, fresh as a flowing stream. And if you're a person who's a

talker, God says, I want you to use your words that come out

of your heart to be as fresh as a stream. I want you to

benefit people, to bless people. Now, what are the weaknesses of this

personality? What are the weaknesses of talkers? Well, there's a couple of

major weaknesses of talkers. One of them is the odds increase. If the

more you talk, you're going to say the wrong thing eventually. That's just

the odds. If you don't say much, you don't have as many possibilities

to mess up. But the Bible says in Proverbs chapter ten, the more

you talk, the more likely you are to sin. In other words,

King James says, in the multitude of words, there is sin. In

other words, you're gonna eventually say the wrong thing, or you're gonna say

the right thing at the wrong time or to the wrong person. If you're

talking all the time, just be aware this is not only your greatest strength,

it is also your greatest weakness. That's true of all four personalities.

And the other thing is that God's war. God says, it reveals insecurity

when I have to talk all that all the time, it reveals insecurity a

lot of people get very, very uncomfortable with silence. And so when they're

out on a date, or they're sitting in a meeting, or somebody's over

for dinner or whatever, if the if the conversation stops, they get very

nervous with silence. Tell me, you go to what's he gonna say something?

And so the Bible says this, there are those those who are sure

of themselves, do not talk all the time. If you're a confident person,

you don't have to talk all the time. You don't have to fill

the gaps, you don't have to make sure because a lot of times you

get in one of those situations quiet, you just start elaborating while you're not

really saying anything, and you're just gonna make him a fool yourself. So

here's God's warning to talkers. God's warning is this, you also have to

act, And he says you can't just talk. You have to act on

what you say Proverbs fourteen twenty three. Get to work and you'll learn a

living. If you just sit around talking, you'll be poor. Well that's

pretty good advice, you know. He's saying here that you just got to

move ahead. Some people never get past the discussion stage. They say,

well, what are you doing with your life? Well on talking about doing

this? And how long I've been talking about three years? Well, when

are you going to stop and start doing well? I'm aiming to I'm aiming

how long you've been talking about it? A long time? You see some

of you. Let me ask you a question. What is it that you've

been talking about doing it? Maybe for weeks you've been talking about maybe for

months. Maybe you've been talking about doing this for years and you've never done

it. You need to move ahead, do it. Don't just talk about

it. Do it now. Every parent knows that sometimes it takes more than

words to make a point. Look at the next verse. Sometimes mere words

are not enough. Discipline is needed, and so sometimes you have to say

words are not enough. I have to act. Talk is just not enough.

Now. One of the quickest ways you can understand personality and is look

at music. We all like different kinds of music. If they're five people

in your family, they like five different kinds of music. Why because you've

got five different personalities. You see, God likes every kind of music in

the world. You don't, I don't, but he does. That's why

he allows it to be created. God was the creator of all of it,

and you don't like it because it doesn't connect to your personality. But

even in worship, when we all sing a song here, somebody go,

oh, that really spoke to me, and others didn't touch me at all.

Why it's a matter of personality. Now. I know some of you

you like to come late to church so you can skip the music. That

is a bad mistake for your heart. Your heart needs music. I actually

know a counselor a psychologist who when people come to him for counseling when they're

depressed and they've got depression. The first question he asked is do you sing

the songs in the church you go to? And he said all the time.

I finally say no, and he said, my first assignment to people

is depressed, is you sing every song in your church for the next four

weeks and let's see what happens. Why, because you need the emotional release

that comes from singing. You are more than just a mind, You are

also a heart, and you need to sing. Impression without expression leads to

depression. So you need to sing in worship. You were wired to worship

in music, he said, But I can't sing well. The Bible just

says, make a joyful noise. Now, anybody can do that. Some

of you. I've heard you your prison singers. You're always behind a few

bars and never have the right key. You couldn't carry a tune in a

baggie if you had to, And your voice really needs to be cultivated.

It's cloud under actually, but it says it doesn't it be beautiful. It

says, make a joyful noise. Even pigs do that when they're rooting around

for food. So you need for your own emotional health, for your heart,

you need to sing these songs. Now. The second kind is what

I call feelers. And feelers are those who love God with their soul.

Now what does that mean? The word soul in the Bible has used many

different ways, but most of the time it's used as a synonym for emotions.

In fact, in the Book of Psalms, it's almost always used as

a synonym for emotions. My soul are my emotions? Now? The reason

you have emotions is because God made you in his image. God is an

emotional God. God has feelings. Did you know that God gets angry,

God gets happy, God gets sad. The reason why you have emotions is

you were made in God's image, and he gave you the ability to have

emotions that animals don't have all of those different kinds, because humans have hundreds

of different kinds of emotions, and most of the time, soul means your

emotions. In the Book of Psalms, which, by the way, if

you are a soul type person, you're a feeler. Psalms is your favorite

book of the Bible because every emotion known to man is in that book.

And the Bible talks about a downcast soul, a disturbed soul, a satisfied

soul, a yearning soul, troubled and forlarned soul, a joyful soul.

It talks about a bitter soul, a thirsty soul, a hungry soul,

a rejoicing soul, delighted soul, longing soul. Can you hear the passion

in these words? Soul? People feel their emotions. They're very in touch

with their emotions. Now, some people they're not in touch with their emotions.

But people who are feelers talkers are in touch with their words. They're

very verbal. But feelers are in touch with their souls and they're very emotional.

In fact, they have a hard time hiding their emotions. Often they

think they're doing a good job of hiding it, but you can pretty much

tell a feeler because it shows in their body language. But they're very passionate

people when it comes to worship to loving God. They get passionate about that

once they understand the value of it. And the Bible says in So I'm

forty two, as the deer pants for streams of water. Imagine, here's

a deer who's been thirsty all day, dieing a thirst comes up to a

bubbling brook. It's panting for water. It's going I am so thirsty as

a deer pants for streams of water. So my soul pants for you.

Oh God, Now that verse was written by a feeler. Okay, listen,

I gotta if you like the song. This is the air I breathe.

I'm desperate for you. You're a feeler, okay, a thinker standing

while they're singing this is the air I breathing. I don't get it.

Of course we got air. Okay, it's a no brainer. Okay,

it's air. Okay, I don't get it. And a feelers got their

eyes. Look, this is the air I breathe. And they are so

into it. It's just different personalities. Okay. God doesn't expect everybody to

get into every single song. Well that's okay, But we need feelers in

the world. Why do we need feelers Because we need more than communication,

We need compassion. You may write that down. The purpose of God putting

feelers in the world is because God is a passionate, compassionate God, and

these people represent that part of God's personality. And we need people in the

world who deeply care and care deeply about issues and care deeply about knowing God

and helping others, and can empathize and sympathize with the pain and the problems

of others. A feeler is a people person. They are the best people

persons of all because everybody likes them. Feelers are often very popular because they

can understand what you're going through. You go up to you go up to

a talker and say, man, I'm having a bad day. They'll give

you an hour of counseling. Okay. You you go up to a thinker.

Okay, you go up to a thinker and say I'm having a bad

day. They'll analyze it for you. Okay. You go up to a

doer, say I'm having a bad day, They'll say, get over it,

okay. But you go up to a feeler and they'll go, I

understand where you're coming from. Been there know that feeling? You go,

oh yeah. And we like feelers because we feel understood by them. We

relate, They understand this, and we feel like somebody on this planet understands

how I'm feeling. And the Bible says that all of us are to love

God all four ways, and we're to manifest all four The Bible says to

the Ephesians four, this be kind and compassionate to each other, tender hearted,

forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. So

God says, oh, look, I've been tenderhearted you, I've been kind

to you, I've been loving forgiving you. I want you to do the

same with others. So we're all to do that. Now. Are there

weaknesses in this personality? Yes, Just like talkers can overtalk and never get

anything done, they can just talk about it. Feelers. Here's the weakness

of feelers. They will be more tempted by their feelings than the rest of

us. They're more tempted by emotions than the rest of us. And if

you're a feeler, you will have a tendency to be manipulated by your moods,

and you will tend to say, well, I want to do this

because I feel like it. I don't want to do it because they don't

feel like it, and you can be you can be controlled by an ocean

of emotion. Now, the problem with that is feelings sometimes lie, and

just because you feel it doesn't mean you can be discouraged to say that the

well, the world's going to hell when it's not really, or you can

say everything's bad in my life when it's not really. But if you feel

that way, you think it's true. And so sometimes what you feel like

doing is not always the right thing. Everybody want to agree with that,

okay, And sometimes what you don't feel like doing is the right thing.

And I found it The only time I do something right is when I feel

like doing it. The devil makes sure I never feel like it, okay,

in all of those areas, So you know you're going to be tempted.

If you're a feeler, you're going to be attempted in the areas of

emotions. It feels so good, how could it be wrong? If loving

you is wrong. I don't want to be right. That was written by

a feeler, Okay, and so you just have to be aware. Now

everybody's tempted. Thinkers have their temptation. Doers have their temptation. Talkers have

their temptation. Feelers have their temptations. But nothing tempts you until it hooks

your emotion. If it doesn't get you emotionally involved, you're not tempted.

You can look at something and go, I'm talking to tempt me. But

once it he's into an emotion, your hook. Thank you so much for

joining us on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope today. Hey, I'm wondering have you

ever asked the question what does God want me to do with my life?

If you're like me, of course you have and you're not alone. God

intentionally created you to fulfill a unique purpose. It's so important that you discover

how you can live the full and abundant life that God designed just for you.

In the Shape to Make a Difference Bible study, it was created by

Pastor Rick and taught by Pastor Eric Reithe. Now in this study you're going

to see how the acrostic shape, which stands for spiritual gifts, heart,

abilities, personality and experiences, and it will reveal how God wired you and

how you can use your shape to do the things that God made you to

do. This is a sixth session video and workbook study and it's going to

help clarify to you your future goals and it shows you how you can have

the most fulfilling life possible, a life lived for God's purposes by God's design.

Now, no matter what your age is, it's never too soon or

too late to discover what God has shaped you to do. And this life

changing study kit is perfect for personal or small group study. We so appreciate

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We hope you'll join us next time as we continue to look into God's Word

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