Daily Hope - Rick Warren

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so
glad you're here today. Rick continues in a series called
Preparing for Your Future, where he shares how God's destiny
for your life is good and how you get to
choose much of your destiny. And now here's Rick with
part one of a message called Don't Waste Tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
This week, as I went through eight different international airports,
I was reminded of the power of one man. Because
of one man, Osama bin Laden. I have to take
my shoes off, my belt off, and all things that
every time I go into an airport. That is the power

(00:46):
of one man, a single individual. And because of that
one man, it affected our security, It affected our liberty,
it affected the economy, It affected our destiny. So don't

(01:07):
ever lie to yourself again and say I'm just one person.
What could I do? Here was the guy living in
the desert on the back side of the world, and
he affects you every time you want to travel. One man.
That is the power of an individual, for either good

(01:28):
or for evil. Now, last week we looked at how
God gives us a choice in our destiny. A lot
of people think destiny is something that's just preset, pre planned.
It's kismet, it's fate. It's case arras a rah. It
can't be changed. It's inevitable. Friends, that's not Christianity, that's Buddhism,

(01:51):
that's Islam. Christianity says, No, I'm giving you a choice,
says God. I'm going to go back to the verse
that we started this series with last week. It's Deuteronomy,
chapter thirty. Up here on the screen. Look at this,
God says, I'm going to give you a choice for
your destiny, not only your destiny and eternity, but your
destiny here on earth. He says this, I set before

(02:15):
you today life and prosperity or death and destruction. You
get to choose. You can choose life and prosperity, or
you can choose death and destruction. Now, if you love
the Lord your God and you walk in his ways
and you keep his commands, then you will live and
you will increase. That means you're going to progress, You're

(02:36):
going to be successful, You're going to prosper You're going
to increase, and the Lord your God will bless you
in the land that you're entering to possess. But here's
the choice. But if your heart turns away from me,
you will not live long in the land. You're crossing
the Jordan to enter and to possess. God says, I've

(02:59):
set before you life or death, blessings or cursing. Now
choose life, he said, it's your choice. I want you
to choose life. Choose life so that you and your
children may live. Your destiny is your choice. Your choices
create your destiny. It's not simply a kismet fate inevitable.

(03:26):
And God says, not only will your choices affect you,
It says it will affect your children, it influences the
next generation. Your destiny is your choice. That's why this fall,
when we start our annual Fall Spiritual Growth campaign, which
we do every year, I'm calling this year's campaign Decade

(03:46):
of Destiny. And I've been working on it all year now.
To get ready for a decade of destiny. I'm doing
a four week series on preparing for your future. While
I was on one of these planes flying to Rwanda
and back, I read a Rasmussen poll, which is like
the gallop pole, about what Americans feel about the future,

(04:10):
and it said that today thirty eight percent of Americans,
only thirty eight percent believe that our best days are
ahead of us. Only thirty eight percent. In fact, sixteen
percent said they're not sure, and a full forty six
percent said they are certain that our best days are
behind us. Well, it's your choice. It's your choice. Look

(04:37):
at this verse on the screen. Jesus said, according to
your faith, it will be done to you. Jesus said,
you get to choose. You want your next ten years
to be better, you want them to be worse, decade
of destiny or decade of defeat. According to your faith,
it will be done into you. The person who says
I can and the person who says I can are
both right. The person who says I'm going to succeed,

(04:58):
the person who says I'm going to fail are both right.
The person who says it's going to be a better
future than the person who says it's going to be
a worse future are both right. According to your faith,
it will be done unto you. So let me ask
you the question, what are you expecting in your future?
What are you expecting in the next ten years? What

(05:18):
are you expecting happen? Do you expect to be any different?
Do you expect to be any better or do you
just think this is going to be a low, long
slide and you're going to be worse off in ten years. Now,
during Decade of Destiny, we're pulling out all the stops
and the goal is to help you in your personal life.
Decade of Destiny is to help you get recharged, renewed, refreshed, rejuvenated, retooled,

(05:45):
and get your life reorganized and simplified for maximum effectiveness.
We're going to look at every key area of your life.
We're going to look at your health. We're going to
look at your time. We're going to look at your money.
We're going to look at what God says about your relationships,
about your legacy, about your words, about your problems. Now today,

(06:07):
we're going to continue in preparing for your future. Many
people don't know that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Oh yeah,
he did. The Bible talks about In fact, there's times
when he talks to his brothers and sisters and talks
to his mother. Now Jesus, they were actually half brothers
because Jesus' father was not Joseph. Jesus' father was God.

(06:29):
Mary was a virgin when she bore Jesus. But the
Bible tells us very clearly that after Jesus was born,
Mary and Joseph had other kids, and he even talks about
him in scripture. Now, one of jesus half brothers was
a guy named James. James did not believe that his
brother was the son of God until after the resurrection,
and then he goes he really was. I mean, when

(06:51):
you see a guy who's been raised from the dead
after three days. He became a believer, and he wrote
a book in the Bible called the Book of James.
James chapter four. He teaches us about preparing for the future.
Look at your outlines James, chapter four, verse thirteen. Listen here,
you who say today or tomorrow we will go to

(07:12):
a certain city and we're going to stay there a year,
and we will do business there and we'll make a profit. Now,
how do you know what's going to happen tomorrow? For
your life is like a morning fogs. It's here a
little while and then it's gone. What you ought to
say is, if it is the Lord's will, we will

(07:32):
live and do this or that. Otherwise you just be
boasting and bragging. You know, all such boasting is evil.
Anyone who knows to do the right thing but doesn't
do it is sin. Now, this text is a very
powerful scripture, and it gives us the three mistakes people
make about their future. That's what I want us to

(07:53):
look at quickly today. How do we prepare for decade
of destiny? Well, James says, three things you want to
avoid when you start planning your life, when you start
planning your future. And he begins with a typical conversation
between a couple businessmen. Notice there in verse thirteen, he
says this, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will

(08:16):
go to a certain city and we will stay there
a year, and we will do business there and we
will make a profit. Now, what's wrong with that? Well,
at first glance, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong
with that. I mean, people make plans like this all
the time. I mean, actually, at least this guy's got
a plan. We talked last week that the Bible says

(08:37):
you should plan. It's foolish not to plan. The Bible
says you should plan. And this guy's an entrepreneur like
many of you, And I mean he's probably read thinking,
Grow Rich and the Miracle of thinking big and all
kinds of other you know, business books and you know
winning by Jack Welch and stuff like that. And he's
got a plan and it's a detailed plan. Notice, he

(09:00):
plans where, I mean when today or tomorrow. He plans
where we're going to go to this specific city. He
plans how long we're going to stay there a year,
He plans what we're going to have a business there,
and he plans why we're going to make a profit. Now,
there's actually nothing wrong with any of this. In fact,
it's all taught in the Book of Proverbs. The Bible
says that you should have a strategy for your life

(09:22):
and for your business. And this guy plans his his
purpose and his place and his progress and his profits.
And the Bible says making a prophet is smart, Making
an honest prophet is smart. God says that's a good
thing to do. So he's got all the bases covered.
So what's wrong. Here's the first common mistake that people make,

(09:44):
setting goals without God, Setting goals without God. There's not
a single mention of God in his business plan. There's
not a single mention of God in his planning. Now
he knows what he wants. He knows how to get there,
but he forgets to check it out with God first. Again,
don't misunderstand me. The Bible encourages planning, Jesus said in

(10:07):
Luke fourteen. No king goes to battle without planning. Jesus said,
no man builds a tower without figuring out how much
it's going to cost, otherwise he may not be able
to finish it. And Proverbs, as I said, teaches it's
foolish not to plan. So there's nothing wrong with what
this guy did. It's what he forgot to do that's wrong.

(10:28):
And what did he forget to do? He planned without praying,
He planned without praying. He was setting goals without God.
And the problem here is not what he did. The
problem is his attitude. It's an attitude of self sufficiency.
I will, I will, we will, we will, we will.
If I were to say to those of you who

(10:48):
are business people, businessmen and businessmen, do you believe in God?
You said, of course, I believe in God. And I said,
you believe in Jesus? Well, of course, Rick, you know
I believe in Jesus. Does he have any say in
your business plan? Well? I like to keep my faith
and my business separate fatal mistake, because then God's not

(11:08):
gonna bless your business. God only blesses what he's engaged in.
And you cannot compartmentalize Jesus. If Jesus is not Lord
of all, he's not lord at all in your life.
You can't say he's number one. But oh, by the way,
I've got this little slice of the pie over here
that's mine. And when you start compartmentalizing your life, you

(11:31):
actually lack integrity. Integrity means it's all blended together. It's integral,
it's integrated, it's a unit of one. And when you
say this is my business life, and this is my
family life, and this is my social life, and this
is my church life, and this is my sex life,
and this is my financial life, and you compartmentalize the pie,

(11:51):
you lack integrity. Integrity means it's all the same, it
all fits together. As I said, if Jesus isn't Lord
of all, he's not lord at all. You can't say, well,
you know, this is my sacred life and this is
my secular life. It's so such saying God owns it all.
And yet we try to do this A lot of

(12:11):
times we come to church on Sunday and sing onward
Christian soldiers then go awall on Monday. Do you know
what an atheist is? An atheist is someone who acts
as if God doesn't exist. And a lot of Christians
are practical atheists when it comes to their business, when

(12:31):
it comes to their finances, when it comes to their dating,
when it comes to their sex life, they act as
if God doesn't exist. They're practical atheist. You need to
set goals, the Bible says, to set goals, but you
need to include God in your goal setting. In fact,
here's what it says in verse fifteen. Instead, you ought

(12:51):
to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will
live and do this? Are that? Now? Notice the difference.
In the first verse he says we will, we will,
we will, we will, in this one says if it's
the Lord's will, we will. And what he's saying here
is you've got to be flexible. You got to be

(13:13):
circle the word if in that verse. If you got
to be flexible. Now, the basic attitude, if you're a believer,
if you're fall of Christ, the right kind of is
there kind of spiritual planning this it's called scenario planning.
That's the kind of planning God wants you to do.
You might write that down scenario planning that says, if

(13:35):
this happens, we'll do this, and if this happens, we'll
do this, and if this happens, we'll do this, and
if this happens, we'll do It's planning, but it's flexible planning.
It says, now, if this happens, we're going to do this,
and if this happens, we'll do this. That's the kind
of planning that has both planning and faith and trust
in God at the same time. Scenario planning is godly planning.

(13:57):
I don't know if you've noticed this, but your plans
go aw They don't always happen the way. Have you
noticed this? Even the best laid plans get messed up.
I mean, we all know Murphy's law. If something can
go wrong, it will. Murphy was an optimist, not if
it will count on it. When things do go wrong,

(14:19):
they will go wrong, because we live in a broken
planet and everything goes wrong all the time. And I
want you to write on your outline the word life. Okay,
just write it down life L I F E. Now
I want you to circle the two letters in the
middle of life. It's if. That's the big if of life,

(14:44):
and it's right in the middle of your life, not
in the beginning, not in the end. The big if
is in the middle. What if? And he says, if
it is the Lord's will, we'll do this or that.
Now he's during decade of destiny. I'm going to teach
you how to do life, life planning. We're going to
have some life planning tools, things like that. The starting
point of life planning is always surrender, Lord, whatever you want,

(15:08):
whatever your will is, I surrender to you. I want
your will over my will. Now write down on your outline. This.
Planning without prayer is presumption. Planning without prayer is presumption.
God says, I want to be included in your planning.

(15:29):
And at the beginning of planning, we say, what do
you want us to do? Lord? And at the end
of your planning you say, if it's the Lord's will,
He says, you should say, if it's God's will, I'll
do this. Now you say, well, Rick, couldn't that become
a cliche? Yes, it could become a cliche if it's
God's will, Lord willing, But it doesn't have to be
it's just a good reminder. People used to write at

(15:51):
the end of letters. When they were writing letters, they
would use the letters d V, and then they'd sign
their name. Do you know what DV is. It's short
for the Latin word deo valente. Now deo valente is
not a fashion designer. Deo valente means Lord willing. If

(16:12):
it's the Lord's will, God will. If it's the Lord's will,
my Muslim friends say in shallah inshalla in shalla means
if it's the Lord's will, if it's God's will, you
know what we'll do this now. Proverb sixteen says this.
We may make our plans, but God will have the

(16:34):
last word. Now you may think everything you do is right,
but the Lord judges your motive. He knows he's looking
at your heart, so he says, ask the Lord to
bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying
them out. You want to be successful in life, Ask
the Lord to bless your plans. You'll be successful in

(16:55):
carrying them out. Everything the Lord has made has it's
what circle that word destiny. That's why we're doing Decade
of Destiny. Everything the Lord has made has its destiny.
Proverbs sixteen nine says we can make our plans, but
the Lord determines our steps. Now, there's three possible attitudes

(17:19):
toward God's will. When you say God willing in my life.
If it's God's will, you can refer to it, you
can defer to it, or you can prefer it. Refer
to prefer to refer to God's will. Say you know,
Lord willing, it's just to throw away line. You don't
really mean it. It's just kind of lip service, Lord willing.
I'll do this. You're not really thinking about it. That's
referring to it. Deferring means I accept it, I acknowledge it.

(17:42):
I surrender to God's will. That's better. That's what you
want to do. Defer. The other, though, is the best,
and that's to prefer it. Say God, I don't really
want my plan because my plan sucks. My plan's a
dead end. My plan gets me in trouble. God, I
want your plan for my life. I don't just defer
to your will. I prefer your will. I want my

(18:05):
life to be what you created it to be. I
want to defer. No, I want to prefer. This is
what I want most in life. David says this and
Psalm thirty seven on the screen. He says, take delight
in the Lord, and he will give you the desires
of your heart. You want the desires of your heart,
throw simple, prefer the will of God. Take delight in

(18:29):
the Lord God more than anything else, more than money,
more than fame, more than satisfaction, more than you know, comfort,
more than security. I want you delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Thanks so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
You know your prayers and financial support have a huge
impact on millions of people here and around the world,
so we really appreciate that. Thank you. And now Rick's
going to share a letter from one of our listeners
who says Daily Hope is making a real difference in
their life.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Friends, you are so essential to this ministry of Daily Hope.
Your prayers, your support help us reach more and more
people around the world. I was really blessed today when
I read this note from Edward and he talks about
how he's learning from Daily Hope while he's working with
inner city kids right here in America. He wrote this,

(19:30):
Dear Pastor Rick, I'm a middle school teacher, and it's
a real challenge every morning waking up and coming to
my school to teach. I teach you a school where
one hundred percent of our students need financial help just
to eat lunch. In other words, it's in a very
poor section of a city. He says. I listened to
your daily hope message during my break and I usually
give my students bits and pieces of it. Today I

(19:53):
told them to think about what they can do for
others if they truly want to be happy. Pastor Rick,
thank you for making your daily messages free. I'm able
to keep listening to them until I really understand what
you're teaching well. Edward, you are making a real difference.
I am so proud of you for working with those
inner city students. You're giving them a message of hope

(20:14):
and healing and help, and you're helping him to understand
how that by giving their lives a way to help
other people, they bring new meaning and significance to their
own lives. And I'm praying Edward that today you'll be encouraged,
not just today, but every day as you go to school,
knowing that what you do is making a difference in students'

(20:35):
lives for eternity. God bless you.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Thanks so much, Rick, And if you'd like to let
Rick know how much this broadcast has meant to you,
how it's blessed you, please send him an email at
Rick at pastorick dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com.
Rick looks so forward to reading those emails. Be sure
to join us next time as we look into God's
word for Our Daily Hope program is sponsored by Pastor

(21:01):
Rex Daily Hope and your generous financial support