January 26, 2025 • 22 mins
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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 the Life
God Blesses.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
As your pastor, I am committed to helping you succeed spiritually, emotionally, financially, physically, relationally,
in your career, in your family, and in every area. Now,
last week we looked at a plan on the weekend
to get where you want to go. God wants you
(01:00):
to go your destiny for the next ten years, and
there were nine steps. If you missed that message, I
and encourage you to go back and listen to it
because each week builds on the next during decade of destiny.
This week, I want us to look at the four
pitfalls in your path.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
They're on your journey of the.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Next ten years, there are going to be four things
that can keep you from fulfilling your destiny, reaching your dream,
accomplishing your goal, fulfilling your vision. Now, so many people
in life begin well, they start off great, but they
end poorly because they don't know how to plan ahead.
(01:39):
The Bible says it's wise to plan ahead. I know
this is a stretch to get you to think about
ten years, much less just a year or even a month.
But the fact is, the Bible says it's smart, it's
wise to set goals and to plan ahead. But as
you go through this journey of the next ten years,
they're going to be traps, They're going to be problems.
(02:01):
There are going to be troubles that test your life.
Life is a marathon, it's not a fifty yard dash,
and there are things that will detour you if you
don't know that they're coming, and you don't know how to.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Avoid them or solve them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Now, these four pitfalls on your path will test you.
This week, in our small groups, we looked at the
fact that the Bible teaches life is a test, and
God is testing us for eternity, and life is a trust.
God is seeing how much he can trust us with responsibility.
And life is a temporary assignment, and all of this
life is preparation for the next. You're going to spend
(02:40):
far more time in the next life than in this life.
There's trillions and trillions of years there only maybe eighty
at the most, one hundred years here. Now, there are
four pitfalls on your path. You might write these down.
The first is cultural distractions. Cultural distractions will test you.
If you intend to do anything significant with your life,
(03:02):
it's going to be in spite of the culture around you,
not because of the culture around you. Everything in this
culture pulls you down, not pushes you ahead. Everything in
this culture gets you to think about here and now,
not ten years ahead. Would you agree that there are
many things to distract you from your destiny in our culture. Yeah,
(03:23):
of course, I could give you dozens and dozens of them.
Let me just mention four four distractions that are in
our culture that'll keep you from fulfilling your long term destiny.
Number one is pleasure. Am I just write that down somewhere.
If you live only for fun, only for comfort, only
for entertainment, you will never fulfill your destiny. Now, there's
(03:44):
nothing wrong with entertainment. There's nothing wrong with fun, but
if it's your sole goal, you will miss your destiny.
Number two possessions. Possessions can get you off track. And
our society says that you judge your success by how
many many things you acquire? How many things do you accumulate?
(04:04):
And yet Jesus said a man's life doesn't consist in
the abundance of things he possesses. It's not about things.
The greatest things in life aren't things. Number three, popularity
is a common goal in our culture. You want to
be loved, you want to be respected, you want to
be looked up to, you want to have status. If
you're always worrying about what other people think, you will
(04:26):
never reach your destiny. You will never worry about popularity
and worry about purpose or be concerned about purpose at
the same time. And number four is profit. Our society
teaches that the number one goal in life is to
get rich. Now, there's nothing wrong with profit. In fact,
the Bible says it's smart to make a profit. The
(04:49):
Bible commands and commends the people who are smart enough
to make a profit.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
There's nothing wrong with profit. But if your number one
goal is in life is to get rich.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
You will never fulfill your destiny because that's not why
you were put here. In fact, Jesus said you cannot
serve God and money at the same time. Money is
a tool to be used, it is not something to
be served. So you have to decide what's number one,
because whatever's number one in your life is your God. Now,
cultural distractions are going to test you.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Number two.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
The voices of doubt will test you. We'll come back
and talk about these, but the voices of doubt are
what I.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Call the dream busters.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Once you establish a dream for your life, they're going
to be all kinds of people who don't want you
to fulfill that dream. They can be critics, they can
be cynics. They can be culture. They can be the media.
They can be competition, it can be the devil. All
kinds of people will put doubts in your mind. But
it also can be friends. It can also be family.
(05:50):
Sometimes your family doesn't want you to succeed in your
dream for many different motivations. But the greatest dream buster
in your life is you. The way you talk to yourself,
the own voices of doubt inside you can keep you
from fulfilling your God given destiny, and we'll talk about that.
Number three, the third pitfall on the journey is tempting shortcuts.
(06:14):
Tempting shortcuts will will test you. These are moral shortcuts,
ethical shortcuts, financial shortcuts that you're tempted to make, relational
shortcuts when you start skimming on your relationships, and these
kind of temptations to do something faster rather than do
(06:34):
something right. Our society value speed, God values doing it right,
doing it right, and you'll be tempted to take shortcuts,
and you'll say, at some point in the journey in
the next ten years, Lord, I think my way could
help me reach my goal faster than your way. Shortcuts
are always shortsighted, and we'll look at those. And number four,
(06:56):
discouraging delays are another common pit fall that you're going
to have in the next ten years in trying to
reach your destiny. Now, last spring, remember as a church family,
we studied the six phases of faith, so you already
know that if you said a dream, you're going to
have delays, difficulties, detours, and dead ends. Those are going
(07:19):
to come into your life. And that's why this week
in our small groups, we're going to look at managing
your troubles and the five purposes of the problems on
the pathway to fulfilling your destiny. Now, the antidote to
these four traps, these four pitfalls, are all found in
Genesis chapter six to nine, in the story of Noah.
(07:42):
Now we all know who Noah was, Noah and the
flood and the arc, and everybody is always fascinated by
how did the flood happen?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And what is the miracle of the ark.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I'm much more fascinated by the man Noah than I
am the miracle of the flood, because the flood was
one time event. God said he would never flood the
earth again like he did then, and he promised that.
But what Noah did and what Noah became are the
same things you can do and the same things you
(08:13):
can become to have the blessing of God in your
life in the next ten years. Now, let's look at
these four things that Noah did, which are the antidote
to the four pitfalls on the pathway.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Number one, if I want to make.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It to my destiny, if I want to fulfill my dream,
my God given goal, my vision, my ambition that God
has given to me. Number one I must dare to
be different from my culture. I must dare to be
different from my culture. Until you settle this issue, you
will never reach your dream. You cannot try to fit
(08:52):
in and be different and make a difference at the
same time. You've got to decide I'm willing to be
than the culture because the culture's headed one way and
God's headed another way. Noah's day, the human race had
hit bottom. It was morally bankrupt. There was really nothing
good about it. The Bible says in Genesis chapter six,
(09:15):
look there in your outline, verse twelve. God observed all
the corruption in the world, and he saw the violence,
and he saw depravity everywhere, corruption, violence, and depravity.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Does that sound familiar? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Okay, Look of the next verse, Genesis six five and six.
When God saw the extent of human wickedness and that
the trend and direction circle, that the trend and direction
of men's lives was only toward evil, he was sorry
he had made them made men. It broke his heart.
This is only ten generations in and God says, it's
(09:53):
already a mess. The world was broken by all kinds
of sin and all kinds of evil. By the way,
what's the trend today is a trend toward God or
away from God. Yeah, it's away from God in our culture.
In fact, Jesus told us Us, he said to expect it.
Look here on the screen Luke seventeen. Jesus said, when
(10:14):
the Son of Man, that's Jesus comes again, it will
be like it was when Noah lived. Jesus said, it's
gonna get worse.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Count on it.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Culture is going to get worse. And he said, right
up to the time when I come back. But in
all of this darkness, the world is in a mess.
God looks down in the darkness and he sees one
bright spot and his name was Noah. Now, Genesis six,
verse eight says this, I love it in the message,
but Noah was different, and God liked what he saw
(10:52):
in Noah. Circled the phrase, but Noah, an entire culture
is headed one way and two words. Save the world,
but Noah. Would God save the whole world because of you?
If God looked down in the world today, said you know,
I'm tired of the world. It's messed up, it's sick,
it's broken. There sin, violence, evil, perversion, abuse, rape, corruption, everywhere.
(11:17):
Would God look at your life and say but and
say your name, there's a bright spot. Would God say
I'm going to save the world just because of you? See,
there are only two people who've ever saved the world.
Noah saved it physically, Jesus saved it spiritually. By the way,
one of the reasons you should be interested Noah is
because you're related to him. Let mean, think about that,
(11:38):
and we're all you trace your tree back far enough,
it's got Noah in it, so turned to the person
next year. You don't have to do this and say hey,
brother or distant relative or whatever, because really you are related. Okay,
you may be a brother from another mother, but you
are related.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Now here's the thing about Noah. Noah isn't worried about
what other people think. He isn't worried about the approval
of others. He isn't worried about being popular. He isn't
trying to keep up with all the latest trends because
the trends.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Are all evil. They're headed in the wrong direction.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
He's willing to be different to fulfill his destiny, and
you must be willing to be different to fulfill your destiny.
You just can't fit in with a crowd and fulfill
your dream at the same time, people who do great
things of their lives march to a different drummer. They're
not interesting. Their number one goal is not what do
other people think? Would you write this down? I can
(12:36):
only make a difference by being different. I can only
make a difference by being different. I can only make
a difference in my family by being different in my family.
I can only make a difference in my finances by
being different with my finances. I can only make a
difference in my career by being different.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
With my career.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I can only make a difference in my church, my community,
or the world by being different in unity, or the church,
or the world. Great people never follow the crowd. They
take what is the road less traveled. And that means
you can't stop. You can't be worried about what other
(13:14):
people think if you're going to go after your decade
of destiny in the next ten years. The Bible says
this Noah was a pleasure to the Lord. God looked
down and he goes That guy makes me smile. I
look at that guy's life. He makes me smile.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
This is what I want so badly for your life.
In the next ten years.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I want when God looks down at you to go,
that's my boy. He's doing what I told him to do.
That's my girl. That's my woman. She is doing exactly
what I made her to do. She's fulfilling her destiny.
I want God to smile when he thinks of you.
But in order for that to happen in the next
ten years, you got to be willing to be different
(13:58):
from the culture the Bible. He says in verse nine
Noah Genesis six ' nine, Noah was the only truly
righteous man living on earth at that time.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Can you imagine that the only person on earth?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
He lived with such integrity, But that integrity required that
he'd be different.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
From everybody else on the planet.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Number two, the antidote to the second pitfall is if
I'm going to reach my destiny and fulfill my dreams
and goals of God gives me, I must listen to
the voice of God, not the voices of doubt. And
there are plenty of voices of doubt who would try
to dissuade you, detour you, cause you to fall off
(14:42):
the road into the ditch. Listen to the voice of God,
not the voices of doubt. Now, imagine all of the
dream busters that had to be in Noah's life. Everybody
has gone the opposite direction in the world. He's the
only guy and he's building an arc in his front yard. Now,
the ark was about the size of a battleship. If
(15:04):
you understand you look at the dimension in the Bible,
it's about the size of a battleship. How'd you like
to be Noah's neighbor and people, what's going on with
the guy next door? Oh, he's a nut, he's a crackpot.
He's a kook.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
That guy, Oh, Noah, he thinks he hears from God.
You know, that guy's.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Building a Queen Mary in his front yard. I mean,
where's the homeowners Association when you need it? I mean,
the guy is lowering property values for the whole valley
by building this ark in the front yard. What in
the world is he doing? Imagine the pressure he got
from his own family. The Bible says Noah had three sons.
(15:47):
Imagine them coming on from school and saying, hey, Dad,
that ship on the front yard it's gotta go. I mean,
that's embarrassing, Dad. Why can't you just get a normal job?
Come on, Dad, I mean this news of doomsday. It's
all over the community. I mean yesterday our family was
in National Inquirer. Come on, Dad, you know they're they're
(16:11):
there and this is bad for our social life. Would
you be willing to endure that kind of misunderstanding?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Would you be willing to.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Endure the voices of doubt decade after decade, to go
year after year with no encouragement from not anybody.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
That's the kind of person. No us.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
He listened to the voice of God, not the voices
of doubt. Now why is this important? Because in the
next ten years, dream busters are going to try to
destroy your dream. It may be critics, it may be competition,
it may be cynics. Who do you think you are?
You got to be kidding me. You're going after that
in this economy, forget it, don't even think about it,
(16:53):
and they'll try to talk you out of it. Or
you may have family and friends who try to talk
you out of God's dream for your life. They're often wrong.
Friends tried to talk Jyrous out of going to Jesus
when his daughter was sick. Joseph's family tried to talk
to him, talk him out of a dream God gave
Joseph in the Bible, a great dream, and his brothers
(17:14):
tried to talk him out of it, and he said no,
So they sold him into slavery and went home told
Dad he was eaten by a bear. Jesus family, did
you know this? Tried to talk Jesus out of many things.
It's in the scripture. Jesus had younger brothers who were
half brothers and sisters, obviously because Joseph was a father
and Joseph was the father Jesus. But the Bible says
(17:35):
several times they came up to Jesus they said, hey, Jesus,
don't talk like that. Don't say that. You're disturbing the crowd.
And they certainly didn't let him go into the cross.
His family tried to talk him out of his purpose
in life. You need to understand there will be dream
busters in your life, but the biggest dream buster will
be you.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Be you.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
The most important words you say in life are the
words you say to God in prayer. Second most important
words you say in life the words you say to yourself.
And you talk to yourself all the time. Now, if
you talk to your friends the way you talk to you,
you wouldn't have any friends because you say I must,
I should, I have to, I've got to. Why can't
I do that better? I'm no good, I'm worthless. I
(18:17):
should have known. And you're constantly talking negative to yourself.
The truth is you can't be trusted to tell yourself
the truth. You see, what do you mean by that?
We talked about this a couple weeks ago. The Bible
says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. What does
that mean? It means we have the amazing ability to
(18:38):
lie to ourselves. You lie to yourself all the time,
so do I without even knowing it. You tell yourself
things are good when they're not good. You tell your
things so tell yourself things are bad when they really
aren't that bad. You tell yourself things are hopeless when
they're not. You lie to yourself all the time. You
can't be trusted to tell yourself the truth.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
All the time.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That's why you don't even and listen just to your
own voice. You listen to the voice of God, who
will only tell you the truth. God will never lie
to you. Look at this verse Hebrews eleven seven. It
was by faith that Noah heard God's warning about things
he could not yet see, circle the word heard. Noah
(19:20):
trusted what he heard because he could not see it
at that time. God said one day there's going to
be a flood. He heard it, he couldn't see it. Now,
why is this important? Because you can't see your future either.
You don't know what's going to happen to you in
the next ten years. I don't know if I'm going
to be alive.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Neither do you.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
You cannot see your future. So you must trust God.
You must trust what you hear from his word. It's
right here in this book. And when you hear from
his word, you don't sin. You have a repentant mind.
That means you turn and you go God's way, and
you trust God in the things that you cannot see.
(20:01):
So you can't see your destiny. But when you trust
what you hear from God, there's a word for that.
It's called faith.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Wow. Such a great message from Pastor Rick today, and
I hope you were just as encouraged as I was.
You know, the truth is that most of us don't
pay much attention to our health until something goes wrong.
We put on a couple of pounds every year and
think no big deal, right, But a few pounds over
five or ten years really adds up. Yeah, I know
(20:37):
about that, But on a more serious note, it can
lead to major illness like diabetes and heart disease. So
that's why Pastor Rick worked together with medical and fitness
experts to create the Daniel Plan Study. This is a
six session video and workbook study kit from Rick Warren,
(20:57):
doctor Daniel Aman, and doctor Mark Hyman. This is an
out of the box approach to a healthy lifestyle based
on five essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends. The
Daniel Plan Study gives individuals and small groups the encouragement
and accountability needed to succeed. So if you've been watching
(21:20):
the scale going up lately, or your health may be
in trouble because of your weight, it's really not too
late so join the thousands of people who've lost weight,
improve their health and improve their relationships through the Daniel Plan.
So be sure to request your copy when you partner
with Daily Hope to take the Word of God to
(21:40):
a hurting world. Just go to Pastorick dot com to
get your copy of this great resource. That's Pastorick dot com,
or you can just text the word hope to seven
oh three to oh nine. That's the word hope to
seven oh three to oh nine. And thank you so
much for your support.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Your gift to.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Daily Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ
with people all over the world. 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.
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 the Life
God Blesses.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
As your pastor, I am committed to helping you succeed spiritually, emotionally, financially, physically, relationally,
in your career, in your family, and in every area. Now,
last week we looked at a plan on the weekend
to get where you want to go. God wants you
(01:00):
to go your destiny for the next ten years, and
there were nine steps. If you missed that message, I
and encourage you to go back and listen to it
because each week builds on the next during decade of destiny.
This week, I want us to look at the four
pitfalls in your path.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
They're on your journey of the.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Next ten years, there are going to be four things
that can keep you from fulfilling your destiny, reaching your dream,
accomplishing your goal, fulfilling your vision. Now, so many people
in life begin well, they start off great, but they
end poorly because they don't know how to plan ahead.
(01:39):
The Bible says it's wise to plan ahead. I know
this is a stretch to get you to think about
ten years, much less just a year or even a month.
But the fact is, the Bible says it's smart, it's
wise to set goals and to plan ahead. But as
you go through this journey of the next ten years,
they're going to be traps, They're going to be problems.
(02:01):
There are going to be troubles that test your life.
Life is a marathon, it's not a fifty yard dash,
and there are things that will detour you if you
don't know that they're coming, and you don't know how to.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Avoid them or solve them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Now, these four pitfalls on your path will test you.
This week, in our small groups, we looked at the
fact that the Bible teaches life is a test, and
God is testing us for eternity, and life is a trust.
God is seeing how much he can trust us with responsibility.
And life is a temporary assignment, and all of this
life is preparation for the next. You're going to spend
(02:40):
far more time in the next life than in this life.
There's trillions and trillions of years there only maybe eighty
at the most, one hundred years here. Now, there are
four pitfalls on your path. You might write these down.
The first is cultural distractions. Cultural distractions will test you.
If you intend to do anything significant with your life,
(03:02):
it's going to be in spite of the culture around you,
not because of the culture around you. Everything in this
culture pulls you down, not pushes you ahead. Everything in
this culture gets you to think about here and now,
not ten years ahead. Would you agree that there are
many things to distract you from your destiny in our culture. Yeah,
(03:23):
of course, I could give you dozens and dozens of them.
Let me just mention four four distractions that are in
our culture that'll keep you from fulfilling your long term destiny.
Number one is pleasure. Am I just write that down somewhere.
If you live only for fun, only for comfort, only
for entertainment, you will never fulfill your destiny. Now, there's
(03:44):
nothing wrong with entertainment. There's nothing wrong with fun, but
if it's your sole goal, you will miss your destiny.
Number two possessions. Possessions can get you off track. And
our society says that you judge your success by how
many many things you acquire? How many things do you accumulate?
(04:04):
And yet Jesus said a man's life doesn't consist in
the abundance of things he possesses. It's not about things.
The greatest things in life aren't things. Number three, popularity
is a common goal in our culture. You want to
be loved, you want to be respected, you want to
be looked up to, you want to have status. If
you're always worrying about what other people think, you will
(04:26):
never reach your destiny. You will never worry about popularity
and worry about purpose or be concerned about purpose at
the same time. And number four is profit. Our society
teaches that the number one goal in life is to
get rich. Now, there's nothing wrong with profit. In fact,
the Bible says it's smart to make a profit. The
(04:49):
Bible commands and commends the people who are smart enough
to make a profit.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
There's nothing wrong with profit. But if your number one
goal is in life is to get rich.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
You will never fulfill your destiny because that's not why
you were put here. In fact, Jesus said you cannot
serve God and money at the same time. Money is
a tool to be used, it is not something to
be served. So you have to decide what's number one,
because whatever's number one in your life is your God. Now,
cultural distractions are going to test you.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Number two.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
The voices of doubt will test you. We'll come back
and talk about these, but the voices of doubt are
what I.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Call the dream busters.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Once you establish a dream for your life, they're going
to be all kinds of people who don't want you
to fulfill that dream. They can be critics, they can
be cynics. They can be culture. They can be the media.
They can be competition, it can be the devil. All
kinds of people will put doubts in your mind. But
it also can be friends. It can also be family.
(05:50):
Sometimes your family doesn't want you to succeed in your
dream for many different motivations. But the greatest dream buster
in your life is you. The way you talk to yourself,
the own voices of doubt inside you can keep you
from fulfilling your God given destiny, and we'll talk about that.
Number three, the third pitfall on the journey is tempting shortcuts.
(06:14):
Tempting shortcuts will will test you. These are moral shortcuts,
ethical shortcuts, financial shortcuts that you're tempted to make, relational
shortcuts when you start skimming on your relationships, and these
kind of temptations to do something faster rather than do
(06:34):
something right. Our society value speed, God values doing it right,
doing it right, and you'll be tempted to take shortcuts,
and you'll say, at some point in the journey in
the next ten years, Lord, I think my way could
help me reach my goal faster than your way. Shortcuts
are always shortsighted, and we'll look at those. And number four,
(06:56):
discouraging delays are another common pit fall that you're going
to have in the next ten years in trying to
reach your destiny. Now, last spring, remember as a church family,
we studied the six phases of faith, so you already
know that if you said a dream, you're going to
have delays, difficulties, detours, and dead ends. Those are going
(07:19):
to come into your life. And that's why this week
in our small groups, we're going to look at managing
your troubles and the five purposes of the problems on
the pathway to fulfilling your destiny. Now, the antidote to
these four traps, these four pitfalls, are all found in
Genesis chapter six to nine, in the story of Noah.
(07:42):
Now we all know who Noah was, Noah and the
flood and the arc, and everybody is always fascinated by
how did the flood happen?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And what is the miracle of the ark.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I'm much more fascinated by the man Noah than I
am the miracle of the flood, because the flood was
one time event. God said he would never flood the
earth again like he did then, and he promised that.
But what Noah did and what Noah became are the
same things you can do and the same things you
(08:13):
can become to have the blessing of God in your
life in the next ten years. Now, let's look at
these four things that Noah did, which are the antidote
to the four pitfalls on the pathway.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Number one, if I want to make.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It to my destiny, if I want to fulfill my dream,
my God given goal, my vision, my ambition that God
has given to me. Number one I must dare to
be different from my culture. I must dare to be
different from my culture. Until you settle this issue, you
will never reach your dream. You cannot try to fit
(08:52):
in and be different and make a difference at the
same time. You've got to decide I'm willing to be
than the culture because the culture's headed one way and
God's headed another way. Noah's day, the human race had
hit bottom. It was morally bankrupt. There was really nothing
good about it. The Bible says in Genesis chapter six,
(09:15):
look there in your outline, verse twelve. God observed all
the corruption in the world, and he saw the violence,
and he saw depravity everywhere, corruption, violence, and depravity.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Does that sound familiar? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Okay, Look of the next verse, Genesis six five and six.
When God saw the extent of human wickedness and that
the trend and direction circle, that the trend and direction
of men's lives was only toward evil, he was sorry
he had made them made men. It broke his heart.
This is only ten generations in and God says, it's
(09:53):
already a mess. The world was broken by all kinds
of sin and all kinds of evil. By the way,
what's the trend today is a trend toward God or
away from God. Yeah, it's away from God in our culture.
In fact, Jesus told us Us, he said to expect it.
Look here on the screen Luke seventeen. Jesus said, when
(10:14):
the Son of Man, that's Jesus comes again, it will
be like it was when Noah lived. Jesus said, it's
gonna get worse.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Count on it.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Culture is going to get worse. And he said, right
up to the time when I come back. But in
all of this darkness, the world is in a mess.
God looks down in the darkness and he sees one
bright spot and his name was Noah. Now, Genesis six,
verse eight says this, I love it in the message,
but Noah was different, and God liked what he saw
(10:52):
in Noah. Circled the phrase, but Noah, an entire culture
is headed one way and two words. Save the world,
but Noah. Would God save the whole world because of you?
If God looked down in the world today, said you know,
I'm tired of the world. It's messed up, it's sick,
it's broken. There sin, violence, evil, perversion, abuse, rape, corruption, everywhere.
(11:17):
Would God look at your life and say but and
say your name, there's a bright spot. Would God say
I'm going to save the world just because of you? See,
there are only two people who've ever saved the world.
Noah saved it physically, Jesus saved it spiritually. By the way,
one of the reasons you should be interested Noah is
because you're related to him. Let mean, think about that,
(11:38):
and we're all you trace your tree back far enough,
it's got Noah in it, so turned to the person
next year. You don't have to do this and say hey,
brother or distant relative or whatever, because really you are related. Okay,
you may be a brother from another mother, but you
are related.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Now here's the thing about Noah. Noah isn't worried about
what other people think. He isn't worried about the approval
of others. He isn't worried about being popular. He isn't
trying to keep up with all the latest trends because
the trends.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Are all evil. They're headed in the wrong direction.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
He's willing to be different to fulfill his destiny, and
you must be willing to be different to fulfill your destiny.
You just can't fit in with a crowd and fulfill
your dream at the same time, people who do great
things of their lives march to a different drummer. They're
not interesting. Their number one goal is not what do
other people think? Would you write this down? I can
(12:36):
only make a difference by being different. I can only
make a difference by being different. I can only make
a difference in my family by being different in my family.
I can only make a difference in my finances by
being different with my finances. I can only make a
difference in my career by being different.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
With my career.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I can only make a difference in my church, my community,
or the world by being different in unity, or the church,
or the world. Great people never follow the crowd. They
take what is the road less traveled. And that means
you can't stop. You can't be worried about what other
(13:14):
people think if you're going to go after your decade
of destiny in the next ten years. The Bible says
this Noah was a pleasure to the Lord. God looked
down and he goes That guy makes me smile. I
look at that guy's life. He makes me smile.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
This is what I want so badly for your life.
In the next ten years.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I want when God looks down at you to go,
that's my boy. He's doing what I told him to do.
That's my girl. That's my woman. She is doing exactly
what I made her to do. She's fulfilling her destiny.
I want God to smile when he thinks of you.
But in order for that to happen in the next
ten years, you got to be willing to be different
(13:58):
from the culture the Bible. He says in verse nine
Noah Genesis six ' nine, Noah was the only truly
righteous man living on earth at that time.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Can you imagine that the only person on earth?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
He lived with such integrity, But that integrity required that
he'd be different.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
From everybody else on the planet.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Number two, the antidote to the second pitfall is if
I'm going to reach my destiny and fulfill my dreams
and goals of God gives me, I must listen to
the voice of God, not the voices of doubt. And
there are plenty of voices of doubt who would try
to dissuade you, detour you, cause you to fall off
(14:42):
the road into the ditch. Listen to the voice of God,
not the voices of doubt. Now, imagine all of the
dream busters that had to be in Noah's life. Everybody
has gone the opposite direction in the world. He's the
only guy and he's building an arc in his front yard. Now,
the ark was about the size of a battleship. If
(15:04):
you understand you look at the dimension in the Bible,
it's about the size of a battleship. How'd you like
to be Noah's neighbor and people, what's going on with
the guy next door? Oh, he's a nut, he's a crackpot.
He's a kook.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
That guy, Oh, Noah, he thinks he hears from God.
You know, that guy's.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Building a Queen Mary in his front yard. I mean,
where's the homeowners Association when you need it? I mean,
the guy is lowering property values for the whole valley
by building this ark in the front yard. What in
the world is he doing? Imagine the pressure he got
from his own family. The Bible says Noah had three sons.
(15:47):
Imagine them coming on from school and saying, hey, Dad,
that ship on the front yard it's gotta go. I mean,
that's embarrassing, Dad. Why can't you just get a normal job?
Come on, Dad, I mean this news of doomsday. It's
all over the community. I mean yesterday our family was
in National Inquirer. Come on, Dad, you know they're they're
(16:11):
there and this is bad for our social life. Would
you be willing to endure that kind of misunderstanding?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Would you be willing to.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Endure the voices of doubt decade after decade, to go
year after year with no encouragement from not anybody.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
That's the kind of person. No us.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
He listened to the voice of God, not the voices
of doubt. Now why is this important? Because in the
next ten years, dream busters are going to try to
destroy your dream. It may be critics, it may be competition,
it may be cynics. Who do you think you are?
You got to be kidding me. You're going after that
in this economy, forget it, don't even think about it,
(16:53):
and they'll try to talk you out of it. Or
you may have family and friends who try to talk
you out of God's dream for your life. They're often wrong.
Friends tried to talk Jyrous out of going to Jesus
when his daughter was sick. Joseph's family tried to talk
to him, talk him out of a dream God gave
Joseph in the Bible, a great dream, and his brothers
(17:14):
tried to talk him out of it, and he said no,
So they sold him into slavery and went home told
Dad he was eaten by a bear. Jesus family, did
you know this? Tried to talk Jesus out of many things.
It's in the scripture. Jesus had younger brothers who were
half brothers and sisters, obviously because Joseph was a father
and Joseph was the father Jesus. But the Bible says
(17:35):
several times they came up to Jesus they said, hey, Jesus,
don't talk like that. Don't say that. You're disturbing the crowd.
And they certainly didn't let him go into the cross.
His family tried to talk him out of his purpose
in life. You need to understand there will be dream
busters in your life, but the biggest dream buster will
be you.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Be you.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
The most important words you say in life are the
words you say to God in prayer. Second most important
words you say in life the words you say to yourself.
And you talk to yourself all the time. Now, if
you talk to your friends the way you talk to you,
you wouldn't have any friends because you say I must,
I should, I have to, I've got to. Why can't
I do that better? I'm no good, I'm worthless. I
(18:17):
should have known. And you're constantly talking negative to yourself.
The truth is you can't be trusted to tell yourself
the truth. You see, what do you mean by that?
We talked about this a couple weeks ago. The Bible
says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. What does
that mean? It means we have the amazing ability to
(18:38):
lie to ourselves. You lie to yourself all the time,
so do I without even knowing it. You tell yourself
things are good when they're not good. You tell your
things so tell yourself things are bad when they really
aren't that bad. You tell yourself things are hopeless when
they're not. You lie to yourself all the time. You
can't be trusted to tell yourself the truth.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
All the time.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That's why you don't even and listen just to your
own voice. You listen to the voice of God, who
will only tell you the truth. God will never lie
to you. Look at this verse Hebrews eleven seven. It
was by faith that Noah heard God's warning about things
he could not yet see, circle the word heard. Noah
(19:20):
trusted what he heard because he could not see it
at that time. God said one day there's going to
be a flood. He heard it, he couldn't see it. Now,
why is this important? Because you can't see your future either.
You don't know what's going to happen to you in
the next ten years. I don't know if I'm going
to be alive.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Neither do you.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
You cannot see your future. So you must trust God.
You must trust what you hear from his word. It's
right here in this book. And when you hear from
his word, you don't sin. You have a repentant mind.
That means you turn and you go God's way, and
you trust God in the things that you cannot see.
(20:01):
So you can't see your destiny. But when you trust
what you hear from God, there's a word for that.
It's called faith.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Wow. Such a great message from Pastor Rick today, and
I hope you were just as encouraged as I was.
You know, the truth is that most of us don't
pay much attention to our health until something goes wrong.
We put on a couple of pounds every year and
think no big deal, right, But a few pounds over
five or ten years really adds up. Yeah, I know
(20:37):
about that, But on a more serious note, it can
lead to major illness like diabetes and heart disease. So
that's why Pastor Rick worked together with medical and fitness
experts to create the Daniel Plan Study. This is a
six session video and workbook study kit from Rick Warren,
(20:57):
doctor Daniel Aman, and doctor Mark Hyman. This is an
out of the box approach to a healthy lifestyle based
on five essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends. The
Daniel Plan Study gives individuals and small groups the encouragement
and accountability needed to succeed. So if you've been watching
(21:20):
the scale going up lately, or your health may be
in trouble because of your weight, it's really not too
late so join the thousands of people who've lost weight,
improve their health and improve their relationships through the Daniel Plan.
So be sure to request your copy when you partner
with Daily Hope to take the Word of God to
(21:40):
a hurting world. Just go to Pastorick dot com to
get your copy of this great resource. That's Pastorick dot com,
or you can just text the word hope to seven
oh three to oh nine. That's the word hope to
seven oh three to oh nine. And thank you so
much for your support.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Your gift to.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Daily Hope really helps us share the hope of Christ
with people all over the world. 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.
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