Daily Hope - Rick Warren

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey friends, thanks so much for joining us today on
Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching ministry of Pastor
Rick Warren. We're so glad to have you with us.
And today Rick continues in his series called Transformed. Together,
We'll dive into God's Word and discover powerful principles that
can truly change our lives from the inside out spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, financially,

(00:31):
and vocationally. You'll experience how God's truth brings real transformation
to every part of your life. And now here's Rick
with the final part of a message called setting personal
Goals by Faith.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
You know, they did a study once of the Holocaust survivors.
And in World War Two, you know, the Nazis killed
six million Jews and many others besides Jews, many Christians, Muslims,
others other than that. They just didn't lie. They put
them all in the death camp. And they studied those
who survived the Holocaust, survived those terrible tragedies, and they

(01:13):
discovered only one thing in common with all these people.
Every one of them had something to look forward to.
Every one of them had something waiting for them. Every
one of them had something that they wanted to live for,
they had a goal. Those who didn't have anything to
live for, those who didn't have anything to look forward to,

(01:34):
those who didn't have any goal out there, they lost
hope and they simply gave up the will to live,
and then they died. The second year of this church,
when I was twenty six years old and pastoring, it
was what I call my dark year. And I was
depressed the entire year, and I could barely put one

(01:57):
foot in front of the others. And I later went
to a doctor and some nutritional advice and I went out,
but it took a full year before I actually felt better.
I was just always tired, and it was always depressed,
and I was just always fearful. And you know, at
that time, I wasn't thinking God build a great church.
I was thinking, can I just get through today? And

(02:19):
I look back now and I'm grateful that I didn't
give up that year, But I'm also more grateful that
God didn't give up on me. And what kept me
going full of through a full one year of depression.
I had a goal. I had made a commitment to
pastor this church for forty years, and so I held

(02:40):
on to that, even though every bone in my body
wanted to give up. Do you want to know how
often I felt like giving up as pastor of Saddle
Backed Church? How often I felt like resigning? Just every
Monday morning I get PMS post message syndrome. And after

(03:01):
you've preached five or six or seven times and you're
all emotionally spent, you get up the next day and think, Man,
somebody could have done a better job than that. God,
I'm not that smart. You got to find somebody who can. Really,
this church is too big for me. Get somebody else.
Get somebody's brilliant to do this. But you just keep
on keeping on white because you have a goal. You see,

(03:23):
when you have a long term goal, long term goals
keep you from being discouraged with short term setbacks. Everybody
has setbacks, everybody blows it, everybody makes mistakes, everybody has failure.
In fact, failure is the only way you succeed. You
cannot succeed in life without failing. Why. That's why you

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learn what works and what doesn't work. So never called
a failure, call it an education. Some of us are
highly educated. We're good at failing. Now, if there's any
piece of vice as your friend, I could say this
to you. It says, learn to fail fast, okay, because

(04:07):
you're going to fail. You're going to fail. So everybody fails.
I fail all the time. You know what The key
to Sattleback's growth and our strength and our success is
we fail fast and then we learn from it. We
don't waste our failures. We try something that doesn't work,
we try something that doesn't work, We try something else
that didn't work, We try something else that don't work.
We do ninety nine things that don't work, and then

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number one hundred works, and then we teach a seminar
to other pastors and pretend like we knew what we
were doing. But we're not that smart. It's just trial
and error. Goals keep me going, and long term goals
keep me from being discouraged about short term setbacks. Now,
a goal doesn't have to be big to motivate you.

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For instance, if you had to go to the hospital
and have surgery for some reason, your first goal would
simply be after surgery, can I sit up in bed?
Not a very big goal, but an important one. And
the second goal, can I hang my feet over the
side of the bed and sit up and then the

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next goal would can I get enough strength to stand
up after surgery? And then a very important goal, can
I have enough strength to go to the bathroom by myself?
Big goal? Then next us do I have enough strength
to walk around this wing of the hospital. All of
those are very small goals, but they're all important goals

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because when to get from here to success isn't one
big leap, it's many small steps, many small steps. So
goal that have to be big for it to be important.
It's getting you on the way. Like my goal today
is to get out of bed and to eat healthy,
have a healthy breakfast. Fine, that's a good goal. As

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job said, I have to have a goal to encourage
me to carry on. Now, you may have come this
weekend and you're a little discovered, maybe you're feeling a
little down. Maybe you're feeling you got the blues. You're down, down, down,
do be doo down down, and everybody hates me, nobody

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loves me. I'm never gonna get married, I'm gonna go
eat worms. Don't play the song for you here. If
you're discouraged this weekend, you need to set some new goals,
and that's what we're gonna do in the next fifty days.
You need to set some new goals in these different areas.

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Goal setting is a spiritual responsibility. It's a statement of faith.
It focuses my energy. It keeps me going. Number five,
the Bible says, goals build my character. Goals build my character.
Drifting doesn't build your character, but goals build your character.
And if you if you set a goal and you

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get a vision. Without a vision, the Bible says, the
people perish. If you get a vision, you get a goal,
then God says I can work in you. Now, listen
very carefully what I'm about to say. The greatest benefit
to your life over the goals you're going to set
in the next fifty days. The biggest benefit to your

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life is not going to be the accomplishments and achievements
you acquire because of those goals, but what happens inside
you while you're moving toward the goal. See, God is
more interested in your character than he is in your accomplishments.
You're not taking your success to heaven, You're not taking

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your career to heaven, but you are taking your character.
So God is more interested in who you are and
what you become than he is. In what you do
and accomplish and what you succeed at. God's interested in you.
So here's the idea. While I'm working on the goal,
God is working on me. Does that make sense? And

(08:09):
that's what God wants to do in your life. Goals
help build your character and that's what's going to last eternity.
That's why Paul says in Philippians chapter three, verse twelve,
I keep striving toward the goal circle. The word striving,
that means it takes energy, it takes effort, it takes intention,
it takes purpose in order to reach your goal. And

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God says that while you're doing that, while you're working
on the goal, God is building character in you. You
will never become the man God intends you to be
unless you intend to become that man. You will never
be the woman God intends for you to be unless

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you intend to be that person. Ten years from today,
some of you you're not going to be in church,
You're going to be a long way away from God.
You're going to go through a failed marriage, You're gonna
have all kinds of problems in your life. Why because
you never intended to be a man of God. You

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never intended to be a woman of God. It was
just kind of a casual Christianity. Yeah maybe this, Yeah,
maybe that, And you never intended. You'll never become what
God intends without you being intentional. Goals build my character.
And then number six, good goals will be rewarded. Good

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goals will be rewarded. And if you have good goals,
then there's going to be two reasons that you're rewarded.
You're going to be rewarded on earth by people, and
you're going to be rewarded by God in heaven. When
you have a good goal, it brings respect. When you

(10:01):
have a good goal, it brings honor. When you give
your life to a good goal. It builds a legacy
on earth. The Bible says in Proverbs eleven twenty seven,
let's read this verse aloud together. Okay, read it with me.
If your goals are good, you will be respected. Circle

(10:21):
that you will be respected. You want to be respected,
then you need to set some goals that are good.
The entire nation will celebrate Martin Luther King Day. Why
why do we take a holiday for one guy? Because
he was a man who set good goals and he

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didn't live for himself. He didn't live for greed, he
didn't live for pleasure, he didn't live for popularity. He
lived to fight injustice, and to fight prejudice, and to
fight racism, and to fight for truth. He set good
goals for his life, and so he is on with
a holiday. One of the greatest honors I've ever been

(11:05):
given in my entire life was the honor of preaching
in Martin Luther King's home church on the fortieth anniversary
of his death. And so on the fortieth anniversary of
Martin Luther King's death, on that day, they invited me
to speak at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. I was

(11:27):
the first white preacher to preach in that church, and
that was an honor to me. Why because I respect
people who use their lives to make a difference. And
if you were to come to my study, you'd find
a picture Martin Luther King on the wall with a
typed letter, signed letter underneath it. And you'd see another
picture of Mother Teresa with a handwritten note underneath it,

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and you'd see a note from Billy Graham with a
handwritten note, and many others, and some of these people
on that wall are not Christians. They're not Christians, but
I honor them. Why because they gave their lives for
the good of others. They had a goal greater than themselves.
They didn't live a little selfish clot of a life

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living for I want to make a lot of money
and retire. Oh yeah, you think God puts you on
earth to do that. Make a lot of money and retire.
That's the whole purpose life. Wrong answer. God wants to
teach you how to love. If your goals are good,
you'll be respected. But the real reward in setting good
goals is going to come in eternity. Look at this

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next verse first Corinthians nine twenty five. All athletes practice
strict self control. You know, they eat right and they
sleep right, and they they they you know, they work out,
they exercise. They do it to win a prize that
will fade away. Nobody's going to remember yesterday's game in

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two weeks, much less two years. They do it to
win a prize that will fade away. But we do
it for an eternal price. So I run. Paul says,
straight to the goal with purpose in every step. He's
purpose driven goal setter. You need to be that too. Now,

(13:15):
not every goal that you can set is a good goal.
Not every goal is a goal that God's going to bless.
So you want to set goals in these seven areas
over the next seven weeks. You want to set these
in your life. But you want to set the kind
of goal that God is going to bless. God's going
to give you the power to do. So, how do
I know the kind of goal that God will bless?

(13:37):
Let me just close by giving you three questions. When
you get ready to set a goal, you want to
ask these three questions. Number one, the first question is
will this goal honor God? That's the first question asked.
Will this goal honor God? And what kind of goal

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will honor God? What kind of goal brings glory to God?
Any goal that causes you to trust him more, to
depend on him more, to love him more, to love
other people more, to serve God and serve others, to
be more unselfish, those are going to be good goals.
The Bible says in first print in six point twenty,

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God paid a great price for you. Look at the cross,
So use your body to honor God? Are you using
your body to honor God? Are you using your body
for pleasure for selfish reasons. Use your body to honor God.
You might circle that. First Crinthians ten thirty one. When

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you eat, or drink, or do anything, always do it
to honor God. Everything can be done to honor God.
You can take out the garbage to honor God. You
can wash dishes to honor God. You can clean out
your car to honor God. Or your closet. You can

(15:02):
study it for a test to honor God. How by
doing it with the right motive, out of gratitude and
for the right motivation. I want my life to bring
honor to God. So I'm going to be the best
I can be for God's sake? Will this goal honor God? Now?
The Bible says this, We make it our goal to

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please him? Second Corinthians five nine. Second question, is this
goal motivated by love? That's the second thing you want
to ask when you set a goal for your finances,
for your health, for your relationships. Will this goal? Is
this goal motivated by love? God is not going to
bless a goal motivated by greed. I don't want to

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make a whole lot of money. God is not going
to bless a goal motivated by competition. I want to
be better than that company. God is not going to
bless a goal motivated by envy. God is not going
to bless a goal motivated by greed or grief or
guilt or grudges. He's not going to be honor a

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goal that's built on worry or fear or anxiety. God
is not going to bless a goal that's motivated by materialism,
or by ego, or by pride. But when you set
a goal out of love, God, I want to do
this because I love you and I want to love
other people. God's going to honor that because it's all

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about love. Life is all about learning how to love.
First grinth in sixteen fourteen, everything you do must be
done with love. Everything first Grinthan is fourteen to one.
Love must be your highest goal. That should be the
number one goal in your life. I want to learn
to really love, and I want to learn to love
unlovely people. And I want to learn to love the

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loveless and the unloved, and I want to learn to
love people who are hard to love. That's being like God.
Why is it important for you to have goals that
are based on love? Because if you set loveless goals.
You're going to treat people's projects. You're going to run
all over them to get to your goal. You're going

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to run over your marriage, You're going to run over
your friends. You're going to run over the other people
climbing up the ladder success and God says, no, no,
you got it all wrong. It's not about accomplishments. It's
about relationships. It's about learning how to love. Third thing,
Third question? Will this goal require depending on God? Will
this goal require depending on God? Remember I said earlier

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Hebrews eleven six. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
If you don't have a goal that requires faith, then
it's not a pleasing to God goal. Romans fourteen twenty three.
Everything that doesn't come from faith is sin. If you
have a goal that's so small it doesn't require any
faith to do it, it's a sin. Whatever is not

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a faith, the Bible says, is sin. Now look at
this verse Proverbs sixteen, verse nine. Why don't we read
this one aloud? To you? Do it with me? Proverb
sixteen nine. We plan the way we want to live,
but only God makes us able to live it. I
love that In the message paraphrase, that's what we're going
to do during fifty days of Transformation. You get the

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plan the way you want to live, and this series
is to help you make the rest of your life
the best of your life. We get the plan the
way we want to live. But it says only God
gives us the power, gives us the energy, gives us
the ability to actually do it, to make the transformation.

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Why because God provides the three things you must have
to reach your goal. Write these down. Three things you
must have to meet your goal. Three things you must
have to change your life. Number one, I need God's
spirit to empower me. This is not something based on willpower.

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It's based on God power. It's not based on trying.
It's based on trusting. I need God's spirit to empower me.
Zachariah for six says you will succeed. You will not succeed.
It says you will not succeed by your own strength

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or your own power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.
I need God's spirit to empower me to make changes
I can't to make on my own. Number two, I
need God's word to guide me. I need God's spirit
to empower me. I need God's word to guide me.
This book here, the Bible is the owner's manual for life.

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The more you get this book into your mind, your heart,
and your life, the more you read it, study it,
memorize it, meditate on it, the more successful, the more fulfilled,
the more strong you're going to be in life. When
Joshua was given the great dream of taking over the
Promised Land, and it was a goal that was going

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to take him the rest of his life, God had
these words to say to Joshua, Chapter one, verse eight.
Keep this book that's the Bible. Keep this Book of
the Law on your lips. In other words, talk about
it all the time. Recite it by day and night.
That means memorize it so you can quote it. Recite

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it by day and night that you may carefully follow
all that is written in it. That's the premise. Now
here's the promise. Then you will successfully attain your goal.
You might underline that last phrase if you ever intend

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to be in business for yourself, you ought to memorize that.
Verse factive be a good verse for everybody. Memorize. Keep
this Book of the Law in your heart, read it,
memorize it, live it, practice it, study it that you're
careful to follow it and obey, then you will be successful.
You will attain your goal. That is one of the
greatest promises of success in the Bible. And that promise

(21:13):
doesn't come from some self help guru. That promise comes
from God. You will successfully attain your goal. How if
you become a man of the Word, you become a
woman of the Word. All you need to know about
life is in this book right here. I need God's
spirit to empower me, and I need God's word to

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guide me. And finally, the third thing I need is
I need God's people to support me. You will not
be able to reach your goals on your own. I
haven't been able to reach my goals on my own.
It takes a team to fulfill a dream. You need
other people in your life. This is why we insist
that everybody in our church family be in a small group.

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You're never going to feel like a part of our
church till you're in a small group. A crowd can't
support you, but a small group can. Three four, five,
six other people. They can know when you're sick, they
can know when you're having a tough time, when you've
had a bad day. A crowd can't support you, but
a community, a small group can. Ecclesiastes four to twelve

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says this, By yourself, you're unprotected. It means it's like
on a football game. You're unprotected. You're out there running
down the field by yourself. You don't have anybody to
block and tackle for you. There's nobody out there to
protect you. If you're not in a small group, you
don't have any blocking tacklers. You don't have anybody who's

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going to speak up for you, stand up for you.
By yourself, you're unprotected. But with a friend you can
face the worst. Boy did I learn that this last year?
And a group of three? A group of three is
even better because a rope raided with three strands is

(23:03):
not easily snapped. What do you call three people meeting together?
A small group? That's what it is. Jesus said, Where
two or three are gathered in my name, I'll be
in the midst of them. Hey, guys, this is gonna
be fun. But it's going to be more than fun.
It's going to change your life. If you will do it.

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If you will hear and read and watch and talk
and do, you will grow. If all you do is
come to church and here you're not gonna be transformed.
I guarantee you you're gonna be no different in seven weeks.
But if you will hear it and read it and
watch it and discuss it and do it, you will

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not be the same person. In fifty days, you will
be a better person. Let's power heads, Father. We already
know that you're gonna do some amazing things in our
midst when we begin this fifty days of transformation. I
know that lives are going to be changed. We know

(24:08):
that families are going to be strengthened, marriages will be saved,
friendships will be made. I know that some people are
going to get engaged. We know that miracles are going
to happen. It would be a waste of time for
us to not expect you to do a great thing.
So I already thank you for what's already happening in

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the hearts of people, and help them to realize they're
already a success. Most of all, I thank you for
the Cross, because we thank you and we do everything
we do for Jesus sake. Now you pray, Why don't
you pray this? God, I give you permission to change

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whatever needs to be changed in my life. Say, God,
use the next fifty days to permanently trans form my
life and to make the rest of my life the
best of my life. I pray this in Jesus' name.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Amen, such great words of wisdom from Pastor Rick today,
and I hope you were blessed like I was. And
now here's Rick to tell you about a resource that
he created to help you in your walk with Jesus.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Imagine the difference the world would be if lives were
really transformed by the grace of God. Now, it's always
been my goal here at Daily Hope, not just to
show you what God says to do and how to
do it, but to supply you with practical tools for
doing it on a daily basis. So I've created a
special Transformed Bible study kit. Now in this kit, there

(25:52):
are a number of resources that I want you to have. First,
seven lessons on DVD that help you go deeper and
explore what the Bible has to say about each of
these seven key areas of your life. And then there's
a two hundred and twenty five page leather bound workbook
filled with tools for personal evaluation, goal setting, daily devotions

(26:15):
versus to memorize, a place to take notes and journal
information about additional resources. This study kit can be used
not just in your personal life, but as a small
group study guide with your friends. I want to send
the Transformation Bible Study Kit to you as my gift

(26:35):
to tell you how much I love you and to
say thanks for your financial support of Daily Hope.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Now, in this seventh session video and workbook study, Rick's
going to guide you through all the key areas of
life spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial, and vocational, equipping
you with practical steps to experience real lasting change with
weekly lessons, daily devotions, and exercises that will help you

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dive deeper into God's Word. This study is perfect for
personal growth or sharing with your small group. Request the
Transformed Study Kit today when you give a gift to
Daily Hope and join us in bringing the Hope of
Jesus to people around the world. Your transformation starts here.
Just go to Pastorick dot com to get your copy

(27:29):
of this great resource. That's Pastororick dot com. Or you
can just text the word hope to seven oh three
oh nine. Again, that's the word hope to seven oh
three oh nine, and thank you so much for your support.
Your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope
of Christ with people everywhere.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
We hope you'll.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Join us next time as we continue to look into
God's Word for our daily hope. And this program is
sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial
supp