Rick Warren - Using Your Abilities—Part One

Episode Transcript

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Hello everybody, This is Pastor Rick'sDaily Hope. Thank you so much for
joining us today, and if you'rebrand new, welcome to the Daily Hope
family. We hope you'll enjoy theteachings of Pastor Rick Warren right here.
I'm so excited for all of youto learn about your shape. It might
not be the shape you're thinking ofright now. Rick loves to use acrostics

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and this one is shape your shape, your spiritual gifts, heart, abilities,
personality and experiences. And one ofthe reasons I love this series and
have shared it with so many friendsis because Rick talks about the way God
wired you and why you need notjust know your shape, but how to

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use it to do the things thatGod designed you to do. So let's
get right into it. Here's PastorRick with part one of a message called
Using your Abilities. God has nevermade copies of anything. He only makes
you originals. He's never made acopy of a tree, never made a
copy of a plant, never madea copy of an animal, never made

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a copy of a human being.You are unique. There's nobody else in
the world like you, never hasbeen, never will be. God uniquely
designed you as an original. Whybecause originals are always worth more than copies.
God said, before you were born, I planned you, I thought
you out. I have a purposeand a plan for your life, and

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I have uniquely shaped you for aspecific purpose that before you were born,
God showse who your parents would be, what DNA combination you would have,
and He made you you so youcould accomplish what he wants you to accomplish
in the world. And God doesn'twant you to be anybody else. He
wants you to be you, theBible says in job there on your outline,

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Chapter ten, verse eight, God'shands shaped me and made me.
And God planned you for a purposeand heed you. Now we use this
little crossteach shape shape to represent thefive things that make you you, five
things that make you different from everybodyelse. First, you have spiritual gifts,

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and we looked at that a coupleweeks ago. What am I gifted
to do? And then God hasput in you a unique heart beat a
heart which is what do I loveto do? And today we're going to
look at your abilities. What amI naturally able to do? What are
my natural abilities? Next week we'regoing to look at your personality, and
then the following week, we're goingto look at your experiences, good,

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bad, positive, negative, howGod uses them all to shape you for
his purpose. So what we're goingto do today is I'm going to give
you an overview of what the Biblesays, what God says about your natural
abilities, and how and why Hewants you to use them. Now,
what do you need to know aboutyour abilities? Well, first, there

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are two important verses. The firstone they're on your outline, Romans twelve,
verse six. Read it with me. God has given each of us
the ability to do certain things.Well, now that's obvious. What it
says there is that there are nono talent people. You may say,
well, I don't have any talents. Well, you're wrong, I don't

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have any abilities. You're wrong.The problem with you is that you know
what you're not good at better thanyou know what you're good at. If
I were to say to you,give me fifty things you're not good at,
you come up with a list prettyquickly. If I said give me
fifty things you're good at, you'dhave hard time doing it. The average
human being has between five hundred andeight hundred abilities. Study after study after

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study have shown this You have atleast five hundred different abilities in your body.
Most of them you don't even knowyou've got. They just come naturally
to you. You don't even thinkof them as abilities. But you have
that ability. And part of myjob as your pastor is to help you

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discover talent that you don't even knowyou've got, abilities that you don't even
know you've got, and help themput them into service for God and for
good in the world. So thereare no no talent people. Everybody has
abilities, hundreds and hundreds of them. But we all have different abilities.
We all have a different shape.Now you've noticed that physically, haven't you.

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We all just look around. We'reall shaped differently. Some of you
are shaped like basketball players, andsome of your shape like racehorse jockeys.
Some of us are shaped like bodybuilderslike me. Some of us are shaped
like ballerinas, like Doug Fields.But we all have different shapes. The

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problem is when you go to school, they treat us all the same way,
and we don't learn the same way. We don't look the same way,
we don't have the same abilities,interest heart, shape, all these
things. So we all take thesestandardized tests like the SAT or the act
or the psat and all these andthose things only judge one form of intelligence.

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We now know that there are atleast eight or nine different types of
intelligence. And as a result,they try to force us all to learn
the same way, And we don'tlearn the same way, and we don't
have the same abilities. We havedifferent abilities, and they're all important.
Once upon a time there were someanimals who decided to start a school for
animals, and they decided that thecourses would include running, climbing, swimming,

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and flying. And then they decidedthat all of the animals should take
all of the courses. Now that'swhere the problem started. Now, the
duck was better than his teacher inswimming, but he only made passing grades
in flying, and it was verypoor and running, So they made him

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drop swimming and stay after school topractice running. This caused his web feet
to be badly warrants. His gradedropped to average in swimming, but everybody
felt less threatened and more comfortable withthat, except the duck. Now,
the rabbit started at the top ofhis class in running, but because of
so much makeup work in swimming,he caught pneumonia had to drop out of

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school. The squirrel showed outstanding abilityin climbing, but he was extremely frustrated
in flying class because the teacher insistedthat he start from the ground up rather
than from the tree top down.He developed the Charlie horses from over extension,
so he only got a sea inclimbing in a d in running.

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Now the eagle was the problem student, which was disciplined for being a nonconformist.
For instance, in climbing classes,he could beat all the others to
the top of the tree, buthe insisted on using his own way to
get there. Finally, because herefused to participate in swimming class, he
was expelled. The point is thatGod designs specific animals to excel in specific

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areas, and he doesn't expect themall to do all the other things.
And when you expect everybody to fitinto the same mold, all you're going
to get is frustration, discouragement,mediocrity, and failure. A duck is
made to be a duck, notmade to be something else. And you

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were made to be you. AndGod has given you unique abilities, and
he wants you to use them theway he intended for you to use them.
Now, your abilities are the mapto God's will for your life.
Your abilities are the map. Itpoints the direction. When you know what
you're good at, then you canknow what God wants you to do with

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your life. Look at what thisnext Bible verse says. God will equip
you with all you need for doinghis will. Now notice it doesn't say
that God will give you all theabilities you want that other people have,
like I want to sing like herand look like him and think like her.
And God doesn't say, well,you can just have any ow ability.

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No, He pre planned the abilitiesyou were given, and he wants
you to be you. If hedidn't want you to be you, he
wouldn't have made you. So Hedoesn't want you comparing with anybody else and
trying to be somebody else. Yougive him pleasure, You give him glory.
You make God smile when you usethe gifts he gave you in the
way that He gave them to you. So the Bible says, I will

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give you all you need for doinghis will. God does not give you
abilities to do something he doesn't askyou to do. On the other hand,
if He asks you to do something, he always gives you the ability
to do it. So how doyou decide what you're supposed to do with
your life? What classes should Itake in school? Who should I marry?
What kind of career? Should you? Look at your shape? What

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has God wired me to be andto do? It? Points you in
the right direction, because, asI said, every abilities from God,
all of them are important. It'snot an accident, and they intentionally picked
them. I actually went through thescriptures one time, and I read through
the entire Bible, making a listof all of the abilities that God says
I use for my will and Ibless in the world. And I made

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a list. Here's just a verysmall list. It's probably ten times that
list. I'll just read a view. God says, want I get honor
through athletic ability. It's in theBible. Through artistic ability, through architectural
ability. God says I use inthe world administering ability, baking, boat

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building, candy making, I likethat one, debating, designing, embalming,
embroidering, engraving. God says,I use poetic ability people who write
poems. Farming, fishing, gardening, leading, managing is an ability I
give to people. Masonry, molding, musical These are all in the bob

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making weapons, needlework, painting,planning, philosophizing, playing Xbox machinist.
Just thought I'd slipped that one inthere. Inventing, ability, carpentry,
sailing, ability, selling, soldiering, tailoring, teaching, tent making,
writing, and on and on.All of these abilities came from God.

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All of these abilities can be usedby God. And all of these abilities
have a purpose on this planet.And God says, I gave you your
abilities, and that gives you agood direction. Now I want you to
write this down on your outline.My abilities match my call. My abilities
match my call. Now some peopleyou hear about them saying, well,

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I'm called of God in the ministry. Well, every believer, every person
is called by God into ministry.Some people think a calling is something that
you do if you're going to bea priest or a nun, or if
you're going to be a minister ormissionary, that God gives you a call.
Every person is called by God.First we're called to salvation and second

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we're called to service. So youhave a calling on your life, You
have a vocation, you have alife mission and a life message and a
life goal and a life purpose.That's your calling in life. And how
do you know what your calling is? Look at your shape, your spiritual
gifts, your heart, and thenyour abilities. In other words, what

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I'm able to do God wants meto do with my life. Now,
God expects you to use the Godgiven abilities He's given you in six ways.
I want you to write these down. These are what God wants you
to do with the abilities he gaveyou. He didn't give your abilities just
to use on yourself. There aresix reasons and six things He wants you

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to do with your abilities. Numberone, my abilities are to be used
to honor God. First. Yourabilities, whether it's embalming or embroidering,
they're to be used to honor God. And the Bible says this, whatever
you do, do it all forthe glory of God. Now that means

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any of those abilities I just listedand every other one can be used for
God's glory. Whatever you do,do it for the glory of God.
They're all important. Carpentry is asimportant as teaching, and masonry is as
important as preaching, and managing isas important as music. They're all important.

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There are no unimportant abilities. Godsays, I spread them all out,
and they're all important. To me. So that means you can honor
God by repairing cars. You canhonor God by balancing books. You can
honor God by helping people find ahome and sell it to them. You
can honor God by making music ormaking meals, or managing an office or

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a million other ways. Whatever youdo, he says, do it for
the Lord, as if you're doingit for God and not for men.
And he says, bring do itfor God's honor. Now he says,
not only did I give you abilitiesto honor me, but second to serve
others. That's the second reason.Your abilities were for the benefit of other
people. And God says they're notjust for your benefit. First Peter,

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chapter four, verse ten says,this God has given each of you some
special abilities. Look at this verse. Be sure to use them to make
a ton of money. Oh that'sthe reviled substandard perversion translation. Let me

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read it again. God has giveneach of you some special abilities. Be
sure to use them to what helpeach other, circle that help each other,
passing on to others. God's manykinds of blessing. So with your
abilities, you don't just honor God, you serve other people. Now,
nobody is good at everything. Everybodywant to agree on that one. Nobody

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is good at everything. What thatmeans is you need me, I need
you, You need the person sittingnext to you, they need you,
and other people. Nobody is thathas every talent. There are no superstar
perfection people who can say to theworld I don't need anybody else. The
person who says that doesn't realize howneedy they are. We need each other.

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And during forty days of community,we talked about this, how we're
better together. I need you inmy life, you need me in your
life. We need each other becauseI'm good at some things and you're good
at some things, and the peoplenext to you are good at somethings.
And that's why you need a smallgroup, and it's why you need a
church family, and why it worksgood in teams. We need each other.

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We're better together. Now, ifyou want to be successful in life,
and who doesn't, I want youto be successful in life. My
goal is to help you be asuccess. Here's the key to success.
Build on your strength so that yourweakness has become irrelevant. Every successful person
does this. You build on yourstrengths so that your weakness has become irrelevant.

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Now. That means you work onwhat you're good at and just make
it better. Nobody is good ateverything. And let me give you a
second rule of success. Team upwith people who are good at what you're
not good at. Team up withpeople who compliment you. One of the
reasons this church grew is because Ibuilt the staff of people who are better

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than me in things that I'm notgood at, and in all of our
pastors. I'm good at some things, but Tom's good at some things that
I'm not good at, and Glennis good at some things that Tom's not
good at, and Doug Fields isgood at some things that No, he's
not good at anything. Doug feelsis good at making jokes of his pastor.
That's what he's really good at.He's really good. Doug has to

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get to humor. Everybody want toagree with that, oh yeah, And
everybody has something to contribute, andnobody has it all together. So we
need each other now. This,by the way, friends, is one
of the purposes of marriage. Thatin marriage we are put together to compliment
each other's strengths and to compensate foreach other's weaknesses. What happens is.

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We don't compensate for each other's weaknesses. We criticize each other's weaknesses. That's
all what marriage is for. Youmarried a sinner, she married a bigger
one. When you put two sinnerstogether, how can you have a perfect
relationship? There are no perfect relationships. Everybody's got weaknesses, and in a

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marriage, you compliment each other's strengths, and you compensate for each other's weaknesses.
For instance, let's say, indoing the bills and in budgeting,
how many of you in your familythe guy does the bills in budget and
budgeting? Got I see your hands? All right? Some of you are
just scared to raise your hand.Okay. How many of you in your

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marriage the wife? The woman doesthe bills in budgeting? Okay, all
right? Question who should do it? Which one's right? The one who
does it better? Duh? Okay, that's not like in the Bible,
there's some role that says, here'swhat the guy's supposed to do, here's
what the girl's supposed to Now,who's ever better? You compensate for each

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other's weaknesses. That's why I alwayslet Kye drive. She's a much more
careful driver than I am. Youknow, I get distracted. I'm looking
over here. Hey, what aboutlet's change the world. How about turning
the corner honey, you know,the absent minded professor kind of thing.
This also works at work for maximumeffectiveness. You have a business, you

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want your you want your company tobe effective. Here's the key. Staff
by shape. Find out what people'sshape is and put them in the position
that they're good at. And whenyou do that, then you don't have
to manage them. You don't haveto supervise them, you don't have to
reward them, you don't have tomotivate why because they're doing what they love
to do and they're good at it, and it just moves ahead. And

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that's what we do in all ofour late ministries. We find people who
are good at certain things that gowith it. Go. Thank you so
much for joining us on Pastor Rick'sDaily Hope today. Hey, I'm wondering,
have you ever asked the question,what does God want me to do
with my life? If you're likeme, of course you have and you're

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not alone. God intentionally created youto fulfill a unique purpose. It's so
important that you discover how you canlive the full and abundant life that God
designed just for you in the Shapeto make a Difference Bible study. It
was created by Pastor Rick and taughtby Pastor Eric Reith. Now, in
this study, you're going to seehow the Acrostic shape, which stands for

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spearrtual gifts, heart, abilities,personality and experiences. And it will reveal
how God wired you and how youcan use your shape to do the things
that God made you to do.This is a six session video and workbook
study and it's going to help clarifyto you your future goals and it shows
you how you can have the mostfulfilling life possible, a life lived for

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God's purposes by God's design. Now, no matter what your age is,
it's never too soon or too lateto discover what God has shaped you to
do. And this life changing studykit is perfect for personal or small group
study. We so appreciate all yourprayers and support, and today when you
support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with agift to help share the hope of Jesus

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Christ with people all over the world, We're going to send you your very
own copy of the Shape to Makea Difference six session video and workbook,
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the middle. Or just text theword hope to seven oh three oh nine.
And we thank you so much foryour support. It means so much
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