Rick Warren - Correcting Misplaced Priorities

All of you heard the big news last week that

after founding this church 43 years ago, Kay and I

are stepping aside for the next generation of leadership. And

I announced it last weekend, Kay and I spoke together

and that our church had called Pastor Andy Wood to

become Saddleback's new senior pastor in September. Next weekend, June 18, 19,

Andy and Stacey Wood are gonna be here at all

of our services, and Kay and I are gonna sit

on stage and interview them, the next generation senior pastor.

It's gonna be a great time. So I hope you'll

come back for that. Then the following weekend, I told

you I was gonna do this, June 25 and 26,

I'm going to explain in detail what I'm going to

be doing post-saddleback, leading the global campaign called Finishing the Task.

It's a campaign that I've been asked to lead for

the next decade, by the Finishing the Task Coalition, which

is already composed of about 1,600 mission agencies and denominations.

And it's gonna grow exponentially from that. So I'm gonna

be busy for the next decade. Don't miss that weekend

when I tell you all we're gonna be doing in

finishing the task in the next 10 years. Now, in

preparation for that message on finishing the task in a

couple weeks, what I wanna do this weekend is do

a preliminary message on misplaced priorities, misplaced priorities. Most of

you know that Saddleback Church was the first church on

the internet way back in 1992, long before there was

Internet Explorer or Google or any of that kind of stuff.

We were using FTP and Gopher and Mosaic, and I

started the first website for pastors, pastors.com, almost 30 years ago. Now,

added to the fact that about 1.2 million pastors have

been trained by Purpose Driven in 165 countries, that means

that every day I get hundreds of calls and letters

and emails from pastors, literally every day. And I'll tell

you this right now, the number one problem I've discovered

among church leaders today is discouragement. During the past two years,

during the pandemic, I've spent a lot of time talking

to discouraged pastors and talking them out of resigning for

a lot of reasons. They say, Rick, I feel tired.

I feel discouraged. I feel ready to quit. I feel

like I'm just going through the motions. A lot of

people have felt that way. But you know what? As

I listened to all their stories of these pastors, I've

come to the conclusion that one of the most common

causes of this discouragement is misplaced priorities. They end up

majoring on minor issues. They waste energy on secondary issues.

They get caught up in doing what everybody else wants

them to do instead of what God has called them

to do. And they end up trying to do too much.

It's no wonder they're tired because the ultimate gets crowded

out by the urgent. Now, The reason I feel called

to talk to you today about this issue of misplaced

priorities is because I have the sneaking suspicion that you

have misplaced priorities too. And that's dragging you down and

it's causing fatigue and frustration in your life. Now the

fact is you guys, so much of what we spend

our time on isn't gonna matter in five years. Today,

Christians are given first class allegiance to second class causes.

And those causes, whether they're personal or they're cultural or

they're social or political, they are bound to ultimately disappoint you.

So what I want to do is talk about that

today and look at God's word. What does God have

to say about our priorities and our purposes? And let

me remind you of three facts of life. First, you

can't do it all, okay? You figured that out, I hope,

by now. You can't do it all. But the second

thing is, God doesn't expect you to do it all.

That's good news. And number three, there are only a

few things worth doing in the first place. One of

my mentors, besides Billy Graham, you know, he was my

mentor since I was 18, was John Stott. In fact,

Billy was the guy who introduced me to John Stott,

a famous pastor in London, England. And one of the

things that John Stott said to me as a young

man was this, Rick, he said, selection is the name

of the game. Selection is the name of the game.

He said, if you don't get control of your time

and priorities, you're not gonna get control of anything else.

You're not gonna have time in your ministry to care

about and get involved in every little cause that people

want you to join. So focus on the great commandment,

focus on the great commissions. you know, right before both

John Stott died and Billy Graham died, I made personal

trips back to see them, flew to London, flew to Charlotte.

And I just wanted to see them before they passed away.

And I made those trips while they were bed fast,

but they were both still focused in the end of

their life, still focused on what really mattered most in

life and in ministry. You know, years ago, I spoke

at an SBC convention, and I think the theme was

the highest power for the greatest task. That was the

theme that year, the highest power for the greatest task.

And as I thought about speaking on that theme, I

realized we only get the highest power when we're doing

the greatest task. God is not obligated to empower or

energize us to do our own thing. God has no

obligation to equip us or empower us to do our

to-do list of priorities. He empowers his task, not ours.

Now I've talked to you about this many times. Jesus

lived a purpose-driven life. Jesus' very first recorded words, the

first recorded words spoken was when he was only 12

years old. He sat at the temple and he said,

I must be about my father's business. Even at that

early age, as a preteen, he already knew his priorities

and his purpose. I don't know many 12 years old

who would say, I gotta be about my father's business.

But Jesus knew his purpose that early in life. And

then at the end of his life, when he prays

in the Garden of Gethsemane, in his last words before

he goes to the cross, Jesus said this in his

prayer to the father. Father, I have finished the work

that you gave me to do. And that's what I

call a purpose-driven life. The bookends on either side of

his life, being able to say early in life, 12

years of age, I've got to be about my father's business.

And being able to say at the end, I finished

the work you gave me to do. I want you

to be able to say that with the rest of

your life. And that's why I want to talk to

you about priorities today. You know, the apostle Paul is

another example of being purpose-driven. In Acts chapter 20, verse 24,

Acts 20:24

Paul says this. I consider my life worth nothing, nothing

to me, if only I may finish the race and

finish the task that the Lord Jesus has given me.

And what was that task he was called to finish?

The task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace,

spreading the good news as far and as wide as possible.

So Paul says, my life isn't worth anything unless I

use it to finish the task I was given. Then

at the end of his life, Paul says this in

2 Timothy 4, verse seven. I fought the good fight,

I finished the race, and I've kept the faith. Both

Jesus and Paul refused to be distracted from what mattered most.

Both kept their purpose and their priorities crystal clear throughout

their entire lives. So if you want your life to count,

if you want your career to have an impact, if

you want your ministry to make a difference, if you

want our church to keep seeing lives changed by the

thousands as we've seen over all these years, the starting

point is to clarify what matters most in your life,

and then reorder your priorities accordingly. So how do we

do that? Well, as I've studied scripture, I think it

includes three different things. And we see these three things

in things that Jesus actually said, three statements of Christ.

Number one, first, we have to lay aside our agendas

and focus on God's agenda in the world. We must

adopt God's agenda. That's the first thing we have to do,

to live a life of purpose and priority. We have

to adopt God's agenda for our lives, not our own agenda.

So what is God's agenda in the world? Well, it's

not what you think it is. God's agenda is not

an economic agenda. God's agenda is not an international agenda. agenda.

It's not a political agenda. God is not trying to

save any particular group or even any particular nation. God

is not a national God. God's agenda, listen, is what

the Bible calls the kingdom of God. He's building a

family of redeemed individuals from every nation, from every ethnic background.

He's building a redeemed kingdom of God. Matthew 24, verse

Matthew 24:14

14 is an incredible verse you need to understand if

you wanna get in with God's agenda. Matthew 24, 14,

this is the words of Jesus. He says this, the

good news about the kingdom, God's agenda, will be preached

throughout the world. Not just in America, not just in

some other country, preached throughout the world so that all nations,

circle the word all, A-L-L. God cares about all nations.

He doesn't care any more about America than he cares

about every other. He died for the world, not for

one nation, so that all nations will hear it. And

then the end will come. History is moving toward a climax.

And he says the end's not gonna come until everybody

God wants to hear has had a chance to hear

till all nations have heard. It's not gonna happen. History

is moving toward a climax. You can debate prophecy. You

can get out your charts and maps. But Jesus said this,

I'm not coming back until everybody I want to hear

the gospel has heard the gospel. Now, The kingdom of

God is the major theme of Jesus' ministry. The word

kingdom is used 157 times in the New Testament. Did

you know that? Kingdom was Jesus' favorite description of what

God is doing in the world. In fact, go and

read all of Jesus' 38 parables and Most of them

or majority of them start off the kingdom of heaven

or the kingdom of God is like. It's what Jesus

cared about more than anything else. That's his agenda, building

the kingdom of God. Not my reputation, not building my career,

not building my city, not building my business but building

the kingdom of God. So what is the kingdom of God?

It is God's plan for history. It is God's people

fulfilling God's purposes on God's planet, that's the king of God.

God's agenda is the redemption of the whole world. Now

listen very closely. If you want God's blessing on your life,

if you want God's power in your life, if you

want God's anointing through your life, you must care about

what God cares about most. And what does God care

about most? More than anything else, he wants his lost

children found. That's the greatest task. The whole reason God

created a universe is he wanted a family. And that

is his number one goal in life, creating his family,

his kingdom. That's what we've been doing here at Saddleback

for decades. You know, the last 43 years of growing

this Saddleback family from just Kay and I to as

many of there are today, it hadn't been easy. I

remember we went 15 years without a building. In fact,

we grew to over 10,000 people in attendance every week

without a building. We used 79 different locations. That meant

setting up and taking down everything every week for 13 years.

There's no glory in that. It was just a lot

of hard work. And you know what? Here's a little secret.

The bigger you get, the more problems you have. I've

often been asked by the media, Rick, what keeps you going?

What keeps you motivated? What kept you going for 43 years?

And the answer is really simple. I'm addicted to change lives.

I am addicted to change lives. Every one of those 56,000

new believers we baptized over 43 years, they matter to God.

Every one of them matters. You know, people have often

said to me, you know, Rick, you're just into numbers.

And I will reply, every number represents a person. And

every number has a name. And every name has a

story behind it, a story of transformation. Every number represents

a person that Jesus said his blood for. Yes, we

count people because people count. I had a guy tell

me one time, I don't believe in counting attendance. I said, sir,

do you count the offering? He goes, yeah. I go, oh.

I said, then what you're saying is that money's more

important than people because we count what counts to us.

Why did we take an entire decade here at Saddleback

Church to send out 26,869 of our members on mission?

Our own members went to every nation in the world,

197 nations. And in our peace plan, they planted churches

and they E, equipped leaders and they A, assisted the

poor and they C, cared for the sick and they E,

educated the next generation through our peace plan. Why did

we invest all that time? Why did we invest all

that energy? Why did we invest all that money? Why

has this church given over $ 1 billion to kingdom causes

since it started? The answer is real simple. Because we

kept our priorities and our purposes clear. We didn't get

caught up in controversies and cultural issues. You see, the

bottom line is this. People matter to God. They will

always matter to God. They always have mattered to God.

They matter more than anything else. God has never made

a person he didn't love. God has never made a

person he didn't have a purpose for. God has never

made a person he didn't want in heaven. The Bible

says God is not willing that any should perish. How

many is any? He wants everybody in his kingdom. That

any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That,

my friends, is God's agenda. And anything less is an

inferior man-made agenda. Think about this. How much does God

care about lost people? If you want to know, look

at the cross. With arms outstretched and nail-pierced hands and

blood flowing down, he's saying, I love people this much.

This much, and every drop of blood was saying, I

love you, I love you, I love you. I love

you so much it hurts. On the cross, Christ is saying,

I'd rather die than live without you. That's how much

people matter to God. That's God's agenda. Not anything else.

Not build this or that or make America greater. God's

agenda is people coming into his kingdom. The book of

Revelation says that one day, We're gonna worship Christ with

a song. Did you know that? And let me read

you the words of that song. They're there on your outline.

Revelation chapter five, verse nine. We're gonna sing this song

in heaven one day. We're gonna sing, with your blood,

you purchased men for God. You purchased men, obviously, and women,

that's humanity, for God from every tribe and every language

and every people and every nation. That's God's agenda. If

you don't have that as your agenda, you don't have

God's agenda for your life. Now leave that verse up

there on the screen for just a minute. I want

you to notice that that verse tells us that God's

kingdom is multinational. Every language, every people, every nation, every tribe.

God's kingdom is worldwide. God's kingdom is multi-ethnic. God loves diversity.

It was his idea. In fact, the ultimate argument against

racism is God. The person who says, I don't like

people who don't look like me is basically saying, God,

you made a mistake. You should have made everybody like me.

That's the ultimate insult to God. It was God's idea.

If you don't like diversity, you're going to hate heaven

because most people aren't going to look like you in heaven.

Did you know that? God's agenda is the redemption of

the whole world, everybody, everywhere. If you just have a

community vision, if you just have a state vision, if

you just have a national vision, your vision is too small.

You know, one of the problems I think that we

have is this, the longer you're a Christian, the less

you think like an unbeliever. And the longer you're a Christian,

the more we forget how good the good news really is.

We forget how hopeless we felt before we were saved.

So how do you get over that? You know, when

I get discouraged, when I get tired, when I feel

like giving up, you know what I do? I go

watch a baptism because it reminds me of the changes

that God made in my life. And it reminds me

of the changes that I've seen in literally tens of

thousands of other lives. So the first step in having

the correct priorities and the correct purposes for our lives

is we have to adopt God's agenda for our lives.

And his agenda is the kingdom of God, nothing less.

Number two, the second thing we have to do, and

we find these in the words of Christ, we have

to abandon all distractions. Adopt his agenda, abandon all distractions.

The secret of an effective life, as I told you,

is one word, focus. Focus. Paul told the Corinthians in

1 Corinthians 7 35, do whatever will help you serve

the Lord best. Circle that. Do whatever the Lord will

help you serve the Lord best with as few distractions

as possible. In other words, you just can't tack on

God's agenda to everything else you wanna do in life.

You have to decide, Am I gonna focus on my

plans or am I gonna focus on God's plans? See,

Jesus commanded this. Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

Seek ye first and his righteousness and all these things

will be added unto you. What are you seeking first

in your life right now? Well, you say, how do

I know what I'm seeking first? Real simple. Look at

how you spend your money, spend your time. What do

you spend the most of your time on? What do

you spend the most of your money on? Show me

your calendar and show me your credit card statement and

I'll tell you what you're seeking first in life. Because

the way you spend your time and the way you

spend your money reveals your priorities. As I said, Jesus

told us to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be

done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, why

did Jesus tell us to pray that? Well, he wouldn't

tell us to pray it if it was already being done. Okay,

let me explain this. In heaven, God's will is done perfectly,

it's done completely, it's done instantly, it's done all the time,

and it's done with a good attitude. None of that's

true on earth. Here on earth, God's will is done incompletely.

It's done often with mixed motivations. Sometimes it's not done

at all. Sometimes it's done with a grudge. It's done seldom.

Every day, God has a will for my life. Satan

has a will for my life, and my will is

choosing God's will or Satan's will. God says, pray thy

will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What is that? Say, God, I want your will to

be done completely, instantly, joyfully, continuously, completely, here on earth.

That's what God wants. We adopt God's agenda, we avoid

and get rid of all distractions. You know, I'm constantly asked,

how has Saddleback continued to keep growing consistently year after

year after year after year, you know, leading in baptisms,

leading in evangelism, leading in discipleship, leading in church planting?

How do we do this year after year after year

after year? with all of the cultural and political changes

we've been through. I mean, just look around. While denominations

and other churches are often declining in evangelistic effectiveness, reaching

fewer people, how does Saddleback keep leading and increasing in

the number of people coming to Christ and being baptized

year after year after year? The answer is real simple.

We refuse to be distracted. Personally, I refuse to let

anything else become more important than the salvation of other

people and the discipling of other people and the equipping

for ministry of other people and the sending out of

other people on mission. That's all we do. We bring

them in, we build them up, we train them for

ministry and we send them out on mission. We bring

them in, build them up, train them for, send them out,

bring them in, build them up, train them for, send

them out, bring them in, build them up, train them for,

send them out, rawhide. We just keep doing what we've

been doing year after year after year. We just try

to do it better every year. We stay focused on

God's five eternal purposes. What are God's five eternal purposes?

They are the five verbs in the great commandment and

the great commission. Two verbs in the great commission, two

words in the great commandment, and three verbs in the

great commission. We've built our church on these things. But

it's not enough, friends, just to care about the people

in your pathway, in your life. in your community. We

have to think globally because that's God's agenda. Acts 1,

verse eight may be the most misquoted verse in the Bible.

I hear people pray it all the time where Jesus says,

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

then Judea, then Samaria, and then the uttermost parts of

the world. That's not what it says. That's a misquoting

of that verse. It doesn't say, you're gonna be my

witnesses in Jerusalem, then Judea. Jerusalem is your own city.

Judea is like the county around you. Samaria is like

the people of different cultures who live in your area,

and then the rest of the world's the rest of

the world. It's not then, then, then. It's and, and,

and in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost

parts of the world. It is not sequential. It is simultaneous.

In other words, we have to do it all at once.

It's no sin in being a small church. It is

a sin in having a small vision. And you have

to have global and local vision at the same time.

You have to have glocal vision, global and local, in

Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and out of most parts

of the world. A lot of churches say, well, let's

just reach our community. Once we reach our community, we'll

go after our county. Once we reach our county, we'll

go after our state. Once we reach our state, we'll

go after the rest of the world. That's not what

the Bible says. Jesus said you'll do it all at

the same time. You have to be global and local

at the same time. So let me ask you, what

is distracting you personally from fulfilling the kingdom of God?

You think this is just for missionaries? You think this

is just for pastors? God, if you are claiming to

be a follower of Christ, God is calling you to

build the kingdom of God. What's distracting you from seeking

first the kingdom of God? You know, I sat down,

this afternoon and I made a list of common distractions

from the kingdom of God. Because Satan loves for you

to do good things as long as you're distracted from

God's agenda. He doesn't care, you can do all kinds

of good things as long as you don't care about

what God cares about most. So here's some common distractions

from the kingdom of God. Number one, politics. Does this

sound familiar? Could be either national politics or it could

be denominational politics. God has not called us to save America.

He's called us to save Americans, but he's also called

us to save Mexicans and Canadians and everybody else in

the world. So you just have to settle that issue.

Are you called to be a politician? Are you called

to be a follower of Christ? You know, the disciples

repeatedly tried to get Jesus to be involved in politics.

But Jesus said this, I want you to listen very closely.

My kingdom is not of this world. Well, if his

kingdom is part of this world, that's not my priority either.

My kingdom, the kingdom of God, is not of this world.

Another thing that causes us distractions, common current controversy. And

of course, there's a controversy of the week in the

newspaper and social media. But a lot of issues, honestly, folks,

are like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I remember

reading in history reports that Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

And you know what my fear is? That we'll fiddle

around while the world goes to hell, worried about current

controversies that aren't even gonna matter in 50 years. Here's

another one that distracts us from the kingdom of God,

comparing or criticizing other believers. Oh my goodness, we've made

this an indoor sport in the church today. With the

advent of social media, it is a platform from anybody

to criticize anybody. That's not going to help our church grow.

It's not going to help anybody else's church grow. In fact,

2 Corinthians 10, 12 says comparing is foolish. It's stupid.

You should never compare yourself to anybody else for two reasons. One,

You'll always find people who are doing a better job

than you and you get discouraged. And two, you'll always

find people you're doing a better job than and you

get full of pride. Either way, you're dead in the water.

You're benched. You're set on the sideline. God says, don't compare.

Don't compare. Here's another one. Common distraction from the kingdom

of God. Expecting non-Christians to act like Christians before they are.

That's impossible. But we all get upset by people out

in culture who don't act like God wants us to act. Well,

the book of Romans says they can't act that way.

because they don't have the power of the Spirit in them.

They don't have the power to change. So when you

ask people or expect people to have Christian values before

they become Christians, it isn't going to happen. When you

ask them to act like Christians before they're Christians, it

isn't going to happen. Let me just say it as

clearly as I know how to say it. The non-believers

who are out there in society and culture, they're not

the enemy. They're the mission field. And if you see

them in the enemy, you're not gonna see them as

a mission field. You're gonna see them as your cultural enemy.

That is a distraction. Here's another one. Living in fear

of criticism, especially now today on social media. It'll paralyze you.

It'll keep you from launching out. It'll keep you from

trying something new with your family. in your business, in

your church, you know, wherever. You know, we would've never

gotten anything done at Saddleback if we worried what other

people think. What other people think of you is none

of your business. You just live for an audience of one, okay? Now,

if there happens to be any of you who are

church leaders right now, in our church or other churches,

let me just say this. Three things. Number one, people

are gonna dismiss you when you're small. Number two, people

are gonna criticize you when you grow. And number three,

people are gonna resent you when you succeed. In every situation,

you have to live for an audience of one. Don't

worry about what other people think. As I said, what

other people think of you is none of your business.

Those are distractions. Hebrews 12, one says this. Look up

there on your outline. We should remove from our lives anything,

circle that, anything that would get in the way, that's

a distraction, and the sin that so easily holds us back.

There are sins and there are distractions. So let me

ask you this very pointed question. What's keeping you from

God's agenda? What is keeping you right now from God's

agenda of caring about the whole world and taking the

good news to the whole world? What's keeping you from

God's agenda? Have you ever thought about why God keeps

you alive after you're saved? Why didn't God just kill

you and take you on to heaven? the moment you're saved.

If ultimately we're made for eternity, why does he let

us stay around here in all the sadness, sorrow, suffering, sickness,

and shootings? Why does God keep you here on earth? Well,

you know, God has five purposes for your life. To

know him, to love him, to love his family, to

grow in him, to serve him, and to share him.

Of the five purposes God has for your life, four

of them you're gonna do in heaven. You can worship

in heaven. You can worship in heaven. You can fellowship

in heaven. You can fellowship in heaven. You can grow

in heaven. You can grow in heaven. You can serve

in heaven. There's only one thing you can't do in heaven.

Tell non-believers about the gospel. Tell non-believers about the gospel. Witness, share,

share your testimony, evangelize. Now, of those things, which of those,

since four of them you're gonna do in heaven, the

only reason you're left here on earth is to tell others.

There are only two things you can't do in heaven.

Did you know that? Only two, you can pray in heaven,

you can sing in heaven, you can relax in heaven,

you can eat in heaven, you can have fun in heaven.

The two things you can't do. You can't sin and

you can't witness. So which of those two do you

think God leaves you here on earth to do? Not sin.

So what's keeping you from God's agenda? What is it

that's keeping you from God's agenda? Whatever it is, let

it go. I've had people say over the years, Rick,

don't you have enough people? Why do you keep growing?

We don't grow for our benefit. The bigger the church gets,

the more problems there are. We grow because people need

the Lord. We grow because as long as there's one

person lost within driving distance of any of our campuses,

we are commanded to reach out. The truth is, friends,

the church that doesn't want to grow is saying to

the world, you can go to hell. We're all saved.

We're happy. We don't care about you. We've got our

own little problems, our own little politics, our own little controversies.

The rest of you, you can just go to hell. Now,

let me just repeat what I've said now twice. If

you want God's anointing on your life, you must care

about what God cares about most, his agenda. He wants

his lost children found. Many of you remember the story

of my dad's dying words. My dad was a man

with a mission. He was a pastor for 50 years

who died of cancer, never pastored a church more than

about 120 people, but he was a builder, he's a carpenter.

And in his lifetime, he built over 150 church buildings

all around the world. Take volunteers all around the world,

building churches where there'd been disasters like floods and fires

and all kinds of things. When Saddam kicked the Kurds

into Northern Iraq, my dad took 19 guys, went to

Northern Iraq and built a dozen wells to give water

to the Kurdish people. Right before he died, he was

dying of cancer. He said, son, I think I got

one more church in me. They said, dad, you've always

been a worker for the Lord. You've never been somebody

to sit around laying in a lazy boy chair watching TV.

I said, if you want to die with your boots on,

it's okay with me. Where do you want to build

your last church building? He said, in Siberia. I said, okay.

One of the last pictures of I have of my dad,

late in life, He's on the top of a small

church building he had built in Siberia, in the middle

of a snowstorm, snow all over the roof, nailing down

the roof. And that's my memory of my dad. Last

week of his life, we brought him home to Shondell's house,

my sister's house. And he was there. And the last

week of his life, he... He went into kind of

a dreamlike state. The cancer was eating away at him.

And for the last week, he dreamed aloud. And I

sat by his bed for several days, listening to my

dad dream. And in those dreams, it's interesting, he talked

about his life. But he didn't review what I thought

he might review. He never talked about being a hero

in World War II, which he was in South Pacific.

He never talked about fishing, which he loved. A day

without fishing was a day wasted. He never talked about

the books you read or the movies you saw. He

talked about what was most important to him, building churches

for God's kingdom. And he would replay. You guys take

these videos, I mean, team, go over there, take that

lumber over there and Make sure that Joyce is correct.

And when you get the beams together, do that and

make sure the wiring here and make sure everybody's back

for lunch. And he just replayed building one church after

another in his mind. And I sat there listening to him.

I learned a lot about my dad listening to his dreams.

A night before he died, I remember I was sitting

there in that room at home with my wife, Kay,

and my niece, Alyssa. The three of us were in

the room And all of a sudden, my dad got

very agitated. He was in this dreamlike state and he

started trying to get out of bed. And this time

he'd lost a lot of weight. He was very thin.

And Kay said, Jimmy, whatever you need, just tell us,

we'll get it for you. But he kept trying to

get out of bed, kept trying to get out of bed,

kept trying to get out of bed. And my wife

Kay said, Jimmy, you're sick. And whatever you need, you

don't need to get out. We'll get it for you.

Just tell us whatever you need. But my dad kept

trying to get out of bed. And finally, Kay got

pretty stern with him, loving, but stern, said, Jimmy, you're dying.

You can't get out of bed. Whatever you need, tell

us and we'll get it for you. And my dad said,

gotta save one more for Jesus. Gotta save one more

for Jesus. Gotta save one more for Jesus. He began

to repeat this over and over. One more for Jesus.

One more for Jesus. Save one more for Jesus. One more.

Reach one more for Jesus. I'm not exaggerating. There were

two other people in the room that my dad said

that maybe 100, I don't know, maybe 150 times in

the next hour. Gotta save one more for Jesus. One

more for Jesus. One more for Jesus. And as I'm

sitting next to my dad, I bowed my head and

tears are flowing down my face as I was thanking

God for a dad who in his final moments was

thinking about the kingdom of God, was not thinking about himself,

was not thinking about fun, was not thinking about politics,

was not thinking about money, was not thinking about what

everybody else thinks about. He wasn't even thinking about his pain.

He's thinking about the kingdom of God. And I bowed

my head with tears coming down and I was praying,

thanking God for the legacy of a dad like that.

And my dad reached up his very frail hand and

it was shaking kind of like this. And he put

it over on my head. like a blessing. And he said,

reach one more for Jesus. One more for Jesus. Save

one more for Jesus. One more for Jesus. Bring one

more to Jesus. I intend for that theme to be

the theme for the rest of my life. I'm stepping

down after 43 years at Saddleback. But I don't believe

in retirement from the kingdom of God. And for the

rest of my life, as God gives me breath, I

will bring one more to Jesus. And I invite you

to make it the theme of your life because nothing

matters more. Nothing will leave a greater legacy. If you

know something more important than to bring people to Christ

that he shed his blood for, bring them to Christ,

build them up to maturity, train them for their ministry

and send them out on their mission. I invite you

to stand up right now and tell us what it

is because I decided a long time ago, I'm not

gonna waste my life. And I haven't. I have not

wasted my life. I've lived it with purpose and with priority.

In the next 365 days, 231,000 Californians, that's my state,

will die. And most of them will go into a

Christless eternity without hope and without Christ. In the next

365 days, 2.3 million Americans will die. Doesn't matter if

they're Democrat or Republican, red, yellow, black, or white, 2.3

million Americans will die. And most of them will go

into eternity without Christ. In the next 365 days, 54

million people in the world will die. And most of

them will go into eternity without Christ, without hope. Those

statistics are almost unbearable to me. We have to adopt

God's agenda. The kingdom of God matters more than anything else.

We must abandon all distractions because the kingdom of God

matters more than anything else. And number three, and this

is from God's word too, we must appropriate God's power

because we can't do this on our own. We can't

finish the task on our own. the great commission that

was given almost 2,000 years ago. In that verse, Matthew 6, 33,

Jesus attaches a great promise. I love it in the

New Living Translation. It says this, God will give you

all you need. Listen, God will give you all you

need from day to day if you live for him

and make the kingdom of God your primary concern. That

is the greatest priority. You know, for 20 years here

at Saddleback Church, I personally taught every new membership class

every month for almost 20 years. And one of the

things I would say in every membership class is this,

I make no apology in saying to you that the

greatest thing you may do with your life is join

this church, grow to maturity, Get involved in a ministry

and go out on mission because that is going to

outlast everything else you do. It's going to outlast your career.

It's going to outlast your hobbies. Building the kingdom of God,

growing a church, it's going to outlast us. And I

say this, imagine 100 years from today, you're in heaven.

And imagine 100 years from today, somebody comes up to

you and says, I just want to thank you. When

you say, thank me, I don't even know you. I said, no,

you don't know me. But you were the pioneers of

Saddleback Church. You were one of those people who back

in the 2020s, the 2020s, you joined that church. and

you got involved, and you grew to maturity, and you

discovered your shape for ministry, and you took all those classes,

and you got involved in serving, and you went on mission,

and you took the gospel around the world. And 50

years after you died, that church reached me for Jesus Christ.

I'm in heaven because of you. Thank you. You think

that'll be worth it? as I said just a second ago,

if you know a greater task, a greater priority, a

greater purpose than to do what we've just been talking about,

I invite you to stand up and tell us. I'd

like to know because I am not gonna waste my life.

In fact, just friends, God is looking for people to

use And in 2 Chronicles 16, verse nine, a verse

that God gave me when I was 16 years old

and called me to serve him full time the rest

of my life, I started preaching on a 16, licensed

to preach by my church while I was still in

high school. 2 Chronicles 16, nine says this, the eyes

of the Lord searched back and forth across the whole

earth looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him

so that he can show his great power in helping them.

Will you be that person? Will you commit to God's priorities,

God's agenda, and finishing the task so that God can

show his power in you? Let me just close with

the pretty personal question. How badly do you want to

be a part of God's agenda? Just something you'd like

to do maybe in your spare time? You think God

put you on earth to do something different? Are you

willing to be criticized? Are you willing to be misunderstood

because you don't adopt other people's agendas and you don't

get involved in the spats and the controversies out there?

Are you willing to go against the flow? Are you

willing to serve in obscurity? And nobody knows what you're doing,

but God does? You say, well, nobody knows what I'm

doing for the kingdom. God does, he has every hair

on your head numbered. And when he puts you in ministry,

you stay put until he calls you to do something different. Now,

what we've talked about is God's agenda. and God's priorities

and God's purposes. And there are four possible responses that

you can make to this greatest task of taking the

good news across the street, across the nation, across the ocean,

around the world. Four possible responses to what I've just

talked to you about, what God's word has said. You

can be like Moses, who when God called him, he said, who, me?

Or you can be like Jonah who said, not me,

not me. Or you can be like Habakkuk who said,

why me? Why me? Or you can be like Isaiah

who said, send me, send me. God is looking for

a band of people who will disregard all the cultural

distractions and and all of the divisions, and all of

the criticisms in our culture, and we'll focus on the

one thing that has always mattered most, the salvation of

the people Christ died for. I invite you to make

the rest of your life the best of your life

by adopting God's agenda, abandoning all distractions, and appropriating God's power.

It's the most important thing. Let's pray. Would you bow

your heads with me? Father, I wanna thank you. Thank

you for the privilege of being a part of the

only thing that matters. The only thing that's gonna last

for eternity. It's not gonna last five years or 100 years.

It's gonna last for eternity. Thank you for the privilege

of being a part of your kingdom and building your church.

Would you pray this in your heart? Say, Lord, I

realize that nothing is more important than what we've just

talked about. I realize that. And I realize that nothing

else is gonna last for eternity. Tell the Lord, forgive

me for allowing other things to distract me me from

what's most important in life. Why I'm still alive here

on earth. I recommit my life to your agenda today.

I want to be a kingdom builder. I want to

help finish the task. that you gave AD 33 in

the Great Commission. Expand my heart, Lord. Just say, expand

my heart, Lord, and give me a world vision. Bring

revival in my life, in my family, in my body,

in our church, in our world. Start it in me.

Like Isaiah, Lord, I'm saying, here am I, Lord, send me.

Use me to make a difference and help me to

reach one more for Jesus. If you've never opened your

life to Jesus Christ, this is a great time to

do that. Say, Jesus Christ, come into my life right now.

And make yourself real to me. Just say, I don't

understand it all, but as much as I know how,

Jesus Christ, I open my life. Replace the emptiness in

my heart with your love. Replace my pressure with your peace.

Replace my regrets with your forgiveness. Replace my pressure with

your purpose. I open my life to you. And I

humbly ask you to accept me into your family. I'm

putting my trust in you. I know I can't save myself.

And I ask this in your name. Amen. Amen.