Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
And whether today is your first time tuning in or
if you're a regular listener, we're really excited that you're here.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Today, Pastor Rick is continuing his series called Discover Your Destiny,
So get ready to explore the practical steps to grow
in all areas of your life, spirit, mind, body, relationships,
and even your career. So stick with us as we
uncovered God's incredible plan for your future. And now here's
(00:34):
Rick with part one of a message called getting to
where You want to Be.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The goal of Decade of Destiny is to help you
get a focus on your life so that the next
ten years of your life are the best ten years
of your life. There is nothing more powerful than a
focused life. It's kind of like like life that is unfocused.
Life that is diffused has no power. But if you
(01:00):
focus it, like with a little magnifying glass. Some of
you remember when we were kids, little boys, we used
to burn bugs and grass and light paper on fire
with a magnifying glass. That was a really cool thing
to do. You focus light even more becomes a laser,
and a laser can cut through steel, and a laser
can kill a cancer. And the more focused your life is,
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the more impact that we'll have now during decade of Destiny.
In the next six weeks ahead of us, we're going
to look at the very different important key areas of
your life, your health, your wealth, your career, your family,
your time, your dreams and vision, and all of the
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major areas, both in our small groups and here on
the weekends together. Now, the classic chapter on having a dream,
having a vision, having goals is Genesis chapter twenty four.
And I want us to be in this week looking
at an interesting story and how it applies to our lives.
(02:05):
It happened thousands of years ago, but it has a
lot of implication for you today because we're going to
help you in the weeks ahead set some goals and
some plans in your health, and in your work, and
in your family and in your finances, in all of
these different areas. As your pastor, I am committed to
(02:25):
you being successful in the next ten years of your life.
I want your life to be meaningful. I want your
life to be successful. I want your life to be significant. Now,
the chapter on success in the Bible is Genesis twenty four.
The word success is used five different times. It's the
story of Abraham, who obviously is the father of all
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Jews and also the father of all Arabs too, because
he had a son named Ishmael, and God promised that
Abraham would be the father of a great nation, but
he had Isaac, and as time went on, Isaac still
hadn't married. And so you know, Abraham's going on, I
(03:08):
don't have any grandkids. Where's my great nation going to
come from? So he gets serious that he sends his servant,
a guy named Eliezar, to Iraq, which is by the
way where Abraham came from, back to Iraq, and he says,
I want you to find a wife for my son Isaac.
And he said, what in the world does this have
to do with me today? It has enormous implications because
(03:31):
in this mission of Eliezar, he does the very nine
things you need to do to fulfill a goal, to
reach a dream, to see your vision become reality, to
make the next ten years the best ten years of
your life. So we're going to look at that. If
you have a Bible, you can open to Genesis twenty four.
(03:52):
If you don't have one, it's okay. All the verses
are there on the outline that we're going to look at.
To get where you need to go in the next decade,
you need to do all nine things that are in
this story. Now, let me just begin to say. And
if I were to call you up, and I called
you on a cell phone and I said, I want
to come over to your house, how do I get there?
(04:12):
What would be the first thing you asked? Yeah? Where
are you? Where are you? And that's the first step,
if you'll write this down. The first step is determine
your present position. You can't figure out where you want
to go until you know where you already are. You've
got to know your present position, your current condition. You
(04:33):
have to know where you are right now. And there
are two questions you need to ask yourself. Write these down.
Number one, you need to ask where am I now?
At Number two, what would I like to change? First?
Where am I now? Which is where am I now financially?
Where am I now emotionally? Where am I now in
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my career? Where am I now relationally? Where am I
now spiritually? What is my current position? How am I
doing right now? What is my current location? What's my
GPS right now? And then you want to ask yourself
the question what would I like to change? Now? This
is the first question Abraham asked, because he figures I'm
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getting old and my son doesn't have a son. What
would I like to change. I'd like to get my
son a wife. I'd like him to get married. So
God had promised Abraham he'd be the father of a
great nation. But as I said, he was very old.
And verse one of this chapter it says Abraham was
now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord
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had blessed him in every way. Time's running out for Abraham.
He says, I better get moving now. Let me just
I'm not going to harp on this point, but whatever
you intend to do with your life, you better get
on it. You better get on it for two reasons.
Number one, everything takes longer than you think. Have you
found that to be true? Everything takes longer than you think.
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And number two, you're not getting any younger. So whatever
you're gonna do with your life, the things that you've said,
one of these days, I'm gonna get around to it someday, Aisle,
You need to do it now. And that's why, during
decade of destiny, we're gonna help you get started on
where you're going in the next ten years. I don't
want the next decade to be your last. Like your
last decade. You can either drift through life or you
(06:25):
can be directed through life. And I'm going to help
you find some direction for these key areas of your life.
So everything's running out for Abraham. He's getting older and
Isaac doesn't have a wife, and he said, I better
set a goal and I better go after it. Now
you may think I'm too old to set a goal. Well,
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I want to remind you that when Abraham set this goal,
he's one hundred and fifteen. So once you reach one
hundred and sixteen, you can stop making goals. Actually, you
will always need a dream in your life. You will
always need a vision in your life, no matter how
old you are, whether you're retired or not, you need
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a goal, a dream, a vision, because if you don't
have a dream, you're not living, you're just existing, You're
just drifting. Without a dream, you drift. And so as
long as you're live, as long as you're breathing, as
long as your hump heart is pumping blood, you need
a dream. You got to determine first your present position
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step two. You describe exactly what you want, and I
suggest you actually write it down a paper. What do
I want to accomplish in the next ten years, And
don't be vague. Don't vague. Goals never are never accomplished.
The more specific you are, the better it is. And
when you are specific, you not only want to know
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what you want what you don't want in life, and
you need to be specific. Abraham paints a clear picture
for his servant Elia's. He tells him what he wants,
and he tells him what he doesn't want. Look at
this verse verse three and four. Don't get a wife
from my son from the Canaanite girls who live around here. Instead,
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go back to my country, to the land of my relatives,
and get a wife from my son Isaac. He's saying,
I want a wife for my son, same nationality, same hometown,
same faith. He's very specific, He's very precise. Now let
me let you in on a little secret. You will
never reach a vague goal. Nothing becomes dynamic until it
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becomes specific. And the more specific and the more precise
you have what you want to accomplish in the next
ten years, what you want to be different in the
next ten years, the more it's going to be compelling.
It needs to be clear, it needs to be concise,
It needs to be compelling. Now. To do that, you
have to ask four questions right these down. You need
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to ask yourself as you look at the next ten
years of your life. First, what do I want to be?
That's the most important thing. What do I want to be?
Then number two, what do I want to do? What
do I want to do? That's second most important in life?
What do I want to be? What do I want
to do? In number three is what do I want
to have? What do I not have that I would
(09:16):
like to have in ten years? And then the most
important question of all is this one. Why do I
want it? Why do I want it? You must know
not just the what in life, but you must know
the why I want a new job, well what kind
of new job? And why I want to lose weight,
Why I want to spend more time with my family,
(09:38):
why I want to grow spiritually. Why. Every goal has
to have a value to it. It has to have
a reward to it, It has to have a payoff
to it. If you don't have a reward or goal
or payoff, attach your goal, it won't hold you. That's
why Jesus in the New Testament talks about rewards often.
He says, if you do this, here will be a reward.
(09:59):
Jesus understood that there are benefits to living in the
right way. Now, what is it that's going to motivate
Eliezar to go find a wife for for Isaac in
another country. Well, he's got four motivations. Number one, Isaac
will get a wife. Number two, his master Abraham will
be pleased. Number three, God's purpose will be fulfilled. And
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number four, he'll get a reward. He knows not only
what he's going to do, but why he's going to
do it. Why is this important? Why is it important
to know why? Why? Clarify the why of your life.
You can set all kinds of goals, but if you
don't set the why, you're never going to achieve them.
(10:42):
For a couple of reasons. First, if you don't know
why you're going after what you're going after in life,
you're going to give up when times get tough because
the what is not enough. You have to know why
you do what you do. Times I've wanted to quit,
(11:02):
but the why I do what I do kept me going.
You want to know how many times I've wanted to
resign at Saddleback over the last thirty years. Just every
Monday morning, I get PMS post message syndrome, and I say,
oh God, surely somebody could have done a better job
than I did yesterday. There's a lot of people there.
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This church is too big for me. Can can somebody
who's smarter, brighter figure out what the how to help
these dear, dear people that I love. If you don't
know why, then when things get tough in your life,
you're gonna give up on your goal, give up on
your dream, give up on your vision. The other reason,
and this is just as important as this. When you
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figure out why, God will show you how. When you
figure out why you do what you do, God will
show you how. We're always so concerned about the how,
How am I gonna do it? How's it gonna how
am I gonna pay for it? How am I gonna
how I'm gonna have to find the time, How how
am I going to get the help? And we're always
asking the how question. God says you need to be
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asking why, because motivation is more important than method. You
figure out the motivation of why you do what you
do in life, and God will give you the methodology
to do it. Would you write this down? Never confuse
the decision making phase with the problem solving phase in
your life. Never confuse decision making with problem solving. Most
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people they try to solve all the problems before they
set their goal. Bad idea if you try to solve
all your problems before you go after that goal. Let's
say I want to be a registered nurse at the
end of this decade, or I want to be financially
free at the end of this decade out of debt,
or I want to be whatever your goals are, I
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want to be able to travel and serve the Lord. Whatever.
You have to set the goal, make the decision, and
then solve the problems. Back in the early sixties, John F.
Kennedy announced at Rerice University in Houston, Texas, and a
major goal for America. He said, We're going to put
a man on the moon by the end of this decade. Now,
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that was the decision that was made. The problems had
not been solved. In fact, when Kennedy said We're going
to the moon by the end of decade, it was
scientifically physically and mathematically impossible. The technology had not been invented,
the science had not been invented, the mathematic equations had
not been invented. Well, he said, but she made the decision,
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and then over the years they solved the problems. If
you don't, if you try to solve all your problem, Firth,
you'll never get ahead, you'll never move forward. So Abraham says,
I know where I am. I'm getting old. My son
doesn't have a wife. And he says, Eliazar, I want
you to go back to my home country, Iraq. I
want you to find these things. And here's what I want,
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here's what I don't want. He defines and describes in
specifics what he's looking for. His servant automatically gets nervous,
He gets worried, he starts wondering, He gets a little
anxious and a little afraid, and verse five here on
the screen. Then the servant asked Abraham, well, what if
the woman who he's going to find is unwilling to
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leave her home in Iraq and come back with me,
a stranger to this land to marry a guy she's
never met. Not a bad question? Now, want to I
want you to circle two words circle, the word what if,
the phrase what if. Listening to the what ifs of
your life will keep you from fulfilling your destiny. You
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cannot listen to the what ifs of your life because
there will be a laundry list of him so long
you'll never get around to starting. Worry and fear paralyze you.
Worry and fear postpone the vision. Worry and fear cause
you to procrastinate. Worry and vision of fear cause you
to put it off. If you what if yourself, you'll
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what if yourself to death. You cannot do that, And
that's why you need step three, which is the antidote
to the natural fears that happen when you start dreaming bigger.
Step three is you need to find a promise from God.
Find a promise from God where God says, I'm going
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to help you with this vision, this dream, this goal.
Did you know that this book the Bible has over
seven thousand promises in it from God to you. Did
you know that God promises over seven thousand dollars. He says,
if you do this, I'll do this. If you do this,
I'll do this. There are promises of security, promises, of safety,
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promises of provision, promises of prosperity. There are promises of success,
promises of stability, promises of strength when you don't have it,
promises of wisdom, and on and on and on, and
they're just like blank checks waiting for you to claim.
And most people go through life never claiming any of
(16:09):
the promises of God that he's made. Now, why does
God make all these promises? Well, I'll tell you why.
Because He wants you to learn to trust him. Any
dad understands this. I want my kids to learn to
trust me. Nothing brings me greater happiness, greater pleasure, greater joys.
When they say, well, if you say so, Dad, I
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trust you. Dad. I don't understand. It doesn't make sense
to me, But Dad, I trust you. I trust your wisdom.
And when you trust your heavenly Father's wisdom, and he says,
if you do this, then he always rewards you. He
rewards trust. And they're over seven thousand promises in the Bible.
And what you need to do is you need to
find one of those promises that you can hold on
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to for hope, to give you hope in the tough times.
For every single one of your goals or your dreams,
or your vision in this decade of destiny. Now at
this step, you don't focus on your problems. There will
be problems in reaching your goal. You focus on the promises,
not the problems. You focus on God's provision, not your problem.
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You focus on what God has promised to do, not
what you don't have in your life. You don't focus
on the problem, or you'll never ever get to the
next step. But you just look at what God has
promised to do, not the barriers, not the obstacles, not
the roadblocks to reaching your dream and your vision. Otherwise
you just fill with fear. Now, Abraham allays alias ours
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fear by set telling him that God had promised that
he was going to be the father of a great nation,
so obviously he was going to succeed because Isaac would
get a wife. Here's what Abraham says verse seven. Abraham said,
the Lord brought me from the land of my relatives
to this land, and he solemnly promised circle that on
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your outline. He solemnly promised me. It's based on a
promise that he would give this land to my descendants.
So he will send his angel before you, so that
you can get a wife there for me and for
my son. Now, do you think you would have a
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lot of confidence if God told you that an angel
was going to go before you in your project? Oh?
Yeah yeah. If God said, okay, I'm going to send
an angel before you, before this deal, before you close
this contract, before you I'm going to send an age,
you'd be confident. You don't need an angel. You don't
need an angel. Why because now, dozens of times the scripture,
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God says I'll be with you, I'll be with you.
I'm going to be with you everywhere you go. Now,
you may not feel God's presence, but there is never
a time in your life when God is no with you.
You need to plug into that power. You need to
realize what is a reality. And the reality is you
are never alone. God is already in the future. He
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already knows everything that's going to happen. He's already been there.
He's not surprised or shocked. God is with you every
moment of your day.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Wow, some powerful words from pastor Rick today and now
this is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.
This is letters from our listeners and now here's Rick.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Did you know that there are people listening to Daily
Hope broadcasts and following our message all over the world.
Here's an example of an email from a listener that
just came in from Brazil. He says, Hi, Rick, my
name is Marcello and I'm from South Paula, Brazil. Every
day I listened to Daily Hope on my way to work,
and God has used your life to speak his truth
(19:58):
into my life. And I'll be speaking to a group
of retail leaders from all over Brazil about living a
life of integrity. Hope. You won't mind, but I've translated
a lot from your message living a life of integrity
to share with this group. That message touched me so
much that I felt the need to share it with others. Well,
that's so great, Marcelo. I'm so proud of you. You're
being a light for Jesus Christ in his workplace. You're
(20:21):
sharing a message of hope with business people. That is
just fantastic. Now, I want to say everybody can do
the same thing. It doesn't matter where you work. You
can share the message of Daily Hope or any of
these Daily Hope messages with your coworkers and your friends.
And I want to encourage you to do that, and
when you do, let me know about it. Be sure
(20:43):
to write me tell me your story, just like Marcello did.
Email me today, Rick at pastorick dot com. Thanks for
listening to Daily Hope today.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Be sure to join us 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.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
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