If I Could Only Teach You One Thing: Why God Made You with Rick Warren

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If you'll take out your message notes, Mark Twain, wow, two, this must be a long sermon.
Wow, that's fancy.
Mark Twain once said, the two most important days in your life are number one, the day you're born, and number two, the day you figure out why, why you were born.
God has never created anything without a purpose.
Every plant has a purpose, every star has a purpose, every animal has a purpose.
God does not create things without a reason, without a purpose.
And if your heart is beating and you're breathing, there's a purpose for your life.
Because God never makes anything without a purpose.
And the very fact that you're alive makes your life meaningful, that God had a reason for creating you.
And that's what we're going to look at this week and why God made you.
Now if you want to know the purpose of your life, you've got to start with God.
You can't find it on TV, you can't find it in the movies, you can't find it, you know, reading a book.
You can't find it, a lot of people say, well the way you need to find your purpose is look within.
Like trust the force, Luke.
Look within, that doesn't work.
I tried that a lot of times, look within, all I saw was a bunch of confusion.
You can't tell you what your purpose is because you didn't make you.
Does that make sense?
Only your creator can tell you what your purpose is.
You can't tell yourself because you weren't alive when whoever thought you up, thought you up.
If I were to hold up just any kind of invention that you had never seen and I held up.
And I said, tell me what this is, what's the purpose of this invention?
You wouldn't have the slightest idea.
And the only way you would know the purpose of an invention you'd never seen is either A, talk to the inventor, the creator who made it and they can tell you what it does.
Or B, read the owner's manual.
The same is true for your life.
The only way you're ever going to know your purpose for your life, why you're here on this planet, what on earth you're here for is A, talk to your creator, God who made you.
And B, read the owner's manual.
Now the Bible says this, look there on your outline.
Ephesians chapter 1 from the Bible says, it is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for.
And so you say, I really got to find myself.
You're going to find yourself in Christ.
It is in Christ we find out who we are, what we're living for, part of the overall purpose that He, God, is working out in everything and everyone.
The next verse, Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 says this, everything, absolutely everything, got started in Christ and finds its purpose in Him.
You were made by God, you were made for God.
Until you understand that, your life is never going to make sense.
You're going to go through life wondering, what on earth am I here for?
You got to start with God.
Now the Bible says that you were made to last forever.
One day your heart is going to stop.
That's going to be the end of your body, but it's not going to be the end of you.
That's going to be the end of your time on earth, but it's not going to be the end of you.
God has long range plans for your life, and I'm not exaggerating, because He wants you to live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
So you're going to actually spend more time on the other side of death than you do on this side.
On this side you get 80 years, at the most maybe 100.
That's it.
That's not really a whole lot of time.
After you die, you move into eternity and you're going to spend trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions on to infinity and beyond for the rest of your life.
So this is like a little tiny millimeter of your life.
The few measly years you're here on earth.
Most of your life is going to be on the other side.
Now have you ever thought about this?
If God wants to take me to heaven, why doesn't He just take me there instantly?
Why doesn't He just make me and start with me in heaven?
Why does God put you on this planet for 80 years?
Really.
Why does He do that?
Well the Bible says you're not ready for heaven.
There are some things you need to learn.
And God says this life, follow me, this life is preparation for the next.
If you want to know why you're on this planet, it is to get ready for the next life.
This life is preparation for the next.
This is the preschool.
This is the warm up act.
This is the get ready stage.
This is the kindergarten.
This is the dress rehearsal before the real show begins.
This is the first lap around track before the real race begins.
This is the warm up act.
Getting ready for eternity because that's the real show that's going to go on forever and ever and ever.
Now in heaven you're going to do a number of things and the Bible tells us what's going to happen in heaven.
And what God wants you to do here on earth is practice what you're going to do in heaven forever.
So when you get to heaven you know what to do.
Now I'm going to explain to you this evening exactly what God wants you to practice while you're here on earth.
This may be the most important message you've ever heard in your life.
Because I can't think of anything more fundamental than why am I here on earth.
And what am I supposed to do with my life.
If I only had one sermon to preach it would be this message.
To teach you why God made you and what you're supposed to do with your life.
God wants you to practice five things on this planet.
We call them our purposes.
The reasons for living.
We often use the word callings.
There are five callings.
But there are five things God wants you to do with your life here on earth for five reasons.
He made you for five reasons.
Now I want you to write these down.
Number one.
The first purpose of your life is this.
God planned me.
God planned me for his pleasure.
God planned me for his pleasure.
God created you just to love you.
That's the whole idea.
The bible says that God is love.
I've told you this many times.
It doesn't say God has love.
It says God is love.
It is the essence of his nature.
It is his character.
It is who God is.
God is love.
And if God wasn't a God of love you would not be able to love anybody else.
Because you're made in God's image.
The only reason you're able to love is because God said I'm going to make men and women in my own image.
And if God was not a God of love there would be no love in the universe.
There would be no love between human beings.
Now the bible says that God made you simply to love you.
God made you to love you.
He didn't need you.
God is totally satisfied in himself.
Father it's unholy spirit.
But he wanted you.
That shows how valuable you are.
Now let me show you some verses about how God planned you for his pleasure.
He planned you.
He created you just so he could love you.
Revelation 4 verse 11.
You God created everything.
And it is for your pleasure.
Circle that.
For your pleasure that they exist and they were created.
Everything was created because God gets enjoyment out of it.
He wanted to love it.
God loves every rock, every plant, every animal, every star and every human being.
Psalm 149 verse 4.
The Lord takes pleasure in his people.
Anybody here a parent?
Anybody here have kids?
Alright.
Those of you who are parents.
Do you get pleasure?
How many of you get pleasure in your kids?
Most of the time.
Yeah.
Well you know what?
God takes pleasure in you all of the time.
Why?
Because he made you.
He created you.
He made you.
He is your heavenly father.
Did you know that God gets pleasure in just watching you be you?
Some people think that God is only smiling at them when they are doing something quote religious.
That if you are feeding the poor, you are helping the sick, you are confessing your sins, you are going to church, you are giving a tithe, you are being generous.
That when you do these kinds of spiritual things, reading your bible and praying, then
God smiles.
But the rest of the time, God is kind of bored with you.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
God gets pleasure in watching you be you because he made you you.
And when you do something that is so typical of you, he goes, that is my girl.
That is my boy.
That is what I made them to do.
You know when my children were little, I used to sneak into their rooms at night and sit by their bedside and watch them sleep.
And I got so much pleasure out of just watching them breathe.
You know, I would watch their little chest rise and lower and rise and lower and rise and lower.
And I got so much pleasure just watching my kids breathe.
Why?
Because I am their creator.
I am their father.
I made them.
They would not exist without me.
Now they did not have to do anything special.
They did not have to be reading the bible or memorizing scripture or witnessing to other two year olds.
They just had to be themselves.
And I got pleasure out of watching them sleep.
Did you know that God gets pleasure out of watching you sleep?
In fact, the way you act sometimes, he is more pleased with that.
But the fact is, if my kids had acted like the devil all day at night, they are angels.
And God gets pleasure out of watching his children just be his children.
Here is what the bible says, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4.
Long before he, God, laid down the earth's foundation.
In other words, that means long before God created the universe, God had us in mind.
Whoa.
God had us in mind.
And he settled on us as the focus of his love.
Circle the word focus.
The focus of God's love is not animals.
He loves animals, but that is not the focus of his love.
The focus of God's love is not the environment.
He loves the environment, but that is not his focus.
His focus of his love is us.
And the reason why is because he has given us the capacity to love him back.
This is what makes you different from animals.
Animals can't pray.
Animals can't talk to God.
Animals can't worship.
Because they're not made in God's image.
God gave you the freedom of choice, the freedom to respond.
You can learn to love and love him back.
God knows everything about you.
You know almost nothing about God.
God loves you in spite of everything he knows about you.
God wants you to learn to know him and love him back.
And the bible calls this worship.
And it's the first purpose of your life.
That God planned me for his pleasure.
And he wants me to learn to love him back.
One day, a guy was walking down the street in Jerusalem.
And he comes up to Jesus and he says,
Lord, what's the most important commandment in the whole bible?
And Jesus says, I'll summarize the whole bible in two sentences.
This is it.
Cliff notes on the bible.
Love God with all your heart.
Love him with all your soul.
All your mind.
All your strength.
Oh, and by the way, second law.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Life is all about love.
If you don't get that, you miss the first purpose of your life.
And the first purpose is to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
To get to know him.
God wants you to know him and love him back.
Here's what he says in the book of Hosea in the bible.
Chapter 6, verse 6.
God says, I don't want your sacrifices.
I want your love.
This is God talking to you.
I don't want your offerings.
I want you to know me.
Now circle the word love and circle the word know.
Because that is the first purpose of your life.
To know God and to love God.
The most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you.
And the most important thing you can do in life is love him back.
So as I've said to you many times, you ought to get up in the morning and say,
God, I want to know you and love you more.
I have done this every single morning of my life for decades.
I don't get out of bed in the morning before I do this.
I sit on the edge of my bed before my feet touch the ground and I just say this,
Dear God, it's another day.
And if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know you a little bit better and I want to love you a little bit more.
Because that's the first purpose of life.
I was planned for God's pleasure.
And if at the end of the day that life sucked, that day sucked, everything went wrong, it was terrible.
I sinned, there were mistakes, there were all kinds of grief and problems and difficulties.
If at the end of the day I know God a little bit better and love him a little bit more,
I didn't waste that day.
On the other hand, it doesn't matter how many things you accomplish, how many things you achieve, how famous you become, how much money you make.
If at the end of each day you don't know God a little bit better and love him a little bit more, you just wasted that day.
Because God did not create you and put you on earth just to mark things off your to-do list.
He put you here for the very first purpose, and there are five purposes of your life, to know him and love him.
Write this down.
The first purpose of my life is to know and love God.
Bam. That's it.
It's pretty simple.
Love God with all your heart.
You've got to get to know him before you can love him.
To know and love God.
Now the tragedy is, a lot of people have gone through life missing the number one purpose of life.
They know everything else.
They know sports scores.
They know music songs.
They know who's on the cover of People Magazine.
They know who is the winner of The Voice.
They know all kinds of things in pop culture.
But they don't know God.
And that's the most important thing in life.
It's what you were put here to do, to know God.
First Timothy chapter 6, the Bible says this.
Some people have missed the most important thing in life.
They don't know God.
They don't know God.
Now, how do you know when you don't know God?
How do you know when you're disconnected from God?
How do you know when, in that moment, you're not knowing and loving God?
God has given us a warning sign, and it goes off like a bright yellow light in your life every time you get disconnected from God.
And that warning sign is this.
Worry.
Are any of you familiar with this term, worry?
Yeah.
When you worry, you're acting like God doesn't exist.
You're acting like, if it's to be, it's up to me.
No, it's not up to you.
It's up to God.
And when you worry, you're acting like it's all your responsibility, that you don't have a Heavenly Father who loves you, that there aren't 7,000 promises in the Bible, that God hasn't already agreed to take care of all your needs.
You're acting like an orphan, like you don't have a Heavenly Father, like God doesn't exist.
Worry is practical atheism.
It's acting like an atheist.
And worry, the Bible says in Matthew 6, 32, people who don't know God are always worrying.
Now, I was planned for God's pleasure, so the first purpose of life is to get to know and love God.
I missed that. I just wasted my life.
Number two, write this down.
Not only did God plan me for His pleasure, number two, God formed me for His family.
God formed me for His family.
God wanted a family, and you were created to be a part of it.
The whole reason the universe exists, you want to know why the universe exists.
God wanted a family.
God wanted children.
Now, He didn't need us, but He wanted us.
He wanted to show His love to something, so He created us as objects of His love.
And He created the entire universe to create this galaxy, to create this planet, so it's on an axis.
Do you know that one degree this way, we'd burn up, and one degree this way, we'd freeze up?
It's just the perfect angle that would sustain life at this point from the sun, just so He could create the human race, just so He could create you, just so He could love you.
That's how valuable you are to God.
God thought you up before He thought up the universe.
The Bible says this very clearly, that you were the focus of His love.
Ephesians chapter one, verse five.
God's unchanging plan, it never has changed, has always been to adopt us into His own family, whoa, whoa, whoa, by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.
And this gave Him, God, great pleasure.
God wanted a family and wanted you to be a part of it.
God never meant for you to go through life alone.
Whether you marry or not is irrelevant, whether your family stays together, splits up, is irrelevant at this point.
God wanted you in His family.
And the first thing He told Adam was, it's not good for man to be alone, you're made to be in a spiritual family that He created to take care of you, so you're not lonely in life.
And by the way, I've said this before, your spiritual family is going to outlast your physical family.
No physical family lasts.
People grow up, they move off, they get married, they start their own family, people divorce, people die, people separate, no physical family lasts forever.
But your spiritual family is going to last forever and ever and ever.
In fact, it's the only thing on planet Earth that is going to last forever and ever and ever.
Your spiritual family.
1 Peter chapter 1 says this, verse 3,
God has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God's family,
God's own family.
Circle that word, members.
Now I said this last week, or a couple weeks ago, that when you were born physically, you automatically became a part of the human race.
You didn't have a choice.
You didn't have a choice.
You automatically became a part of the human race.
But you didn't become a part of a spiritual family, or a physical family, until somebody chose to take you home.
Being a part of God's family is not automatic.
It's a choice.
Now listen to me very closely on this.
Are you telling me that everybody is not a child of God?
That's exactly what I'm telling you.
You've got to choose to be in God's family.
You've got to let Him adopt you.
Everybody is created by God.
Everybody is loved by God.
God has never made a person He didn't love.
God has never made a person He did not want in His family.
But He gives you the choice, and He's not going to force you in.
A lot of people choose to opt out.
They are not children of God because they choose to opt out.
And God's not going to force you into an adoption.
You've got to want to be adopted into His family.
Now what is God's family?
1 Timothy chapter 3 says, that family is the church.
The family is the church of the living God.
The support and foundation of the truth.
Now notice that the church is not an organization.
The church is not an institution.
The church is not a political entity.
It's not a business.
It's not a society.
It's not an organization.
God says the church is a family.
It's God's family.
And we are children of God, which makes us brothers and sisters in the family of God.
And God's purpose for your life is not just to know Him and love Him, but to belong to His family.
He doesn't want you just to believe.
He wants you to belong.
To be connected.
A Christian without a church family is an orphan.
Now it says that that family is a church, the support and foundation of the truth.
Circle support and foundation.
What happens when a building has no support and foundation?
It collapses.
And we see that all around us.
We see collapsed marriages.
Many of you grew up in a family where the marriage collapsed.
We see it in collapsed businesses.
We see it in collapsed dreams.
We see it in collapsed economies.
We see it in the collapsed weather.
We see it in collapsed health.
When you don't have the support and foundation of God's family, you're not going to make it through the tough times of life.
You need support and you need a foundation.
And the Bible says that is the church, God's family.
You cannot fulfill God's purposes for your life by yourself.
Sorry, you can't.
You can try, but you will fail.
You cannot fulfill the purpose God made you for by yourself.
We're better together.
We're made to be in community.
We're made to be in harmony.
We're made to be in family.
We're made to be in relationship.
That's why you need the spiritual support of a spiritual family.
And that's why here, for instance, at Saddleback, we have over 7,000 small groups that give support and foundation to our spiritual lives.
If you're not in a small group, you need to get in one.
And the Bible says in 1 Peter 2, 17, love your spiritual family.
Now, let's review.
I said that God put you on this planet for 80 years, 100 years at most, to practice what you're going to do in heaven.
He wants you to practice here.
This life is preparation for the next.
And one of the things you're going to do in heaven is love God, so He wants you to practice here.
He wants you to learn how to love Him here.
He wants you to learn to worship here because we're going to worship in heaven.
And the other thing, we're going to fellowship in heaven.
We're going to love each other in the family of God.
That's called fellowship.
What's He want you to do?
He wants you to practice here.
He wants you to learn how to love God and how to love other people here on earth so when you get to heaven, you're not a doofus.
You know exactly what to do.
So, write this down.
The second purpose of my life, what on earth am I here for, is to learn to love others.
Learn to love others.
And the place you learn to love others is in God's family.
The church is the laboratory for learning how to love.
You don't learn how to love in business.
You don't learn how to love in school.
You don't learn how to love competing with other people in sports.
The church, God's family, is the laboratory for learning real love.
Now, I've heard people say this.
I don't really need the church.
All I need to do is get alone in nature and then I can love God.
Well, that's true.
Actually, that is true.
And God created that nature.
That's why we feel close to God in nature.
And it is true, you can get alone in nature and love God.
But you can't get alone in nature and love other people.
And that's the second purpose of your life.
And your life has more than one purpose.
It has five.
And the only way you're going to learn to love people,
I hate to tell you this, is by getting around some unlovely people.
Now, don't look at them.
You've got to be around unlovely people.
I've told you this before.
If you can't think who are the unlovely people in my life,
I hate to tell you this, it's you.
Now, God wants us to learn to love real people with all of their quirks and their faults and their flaws and their social mess-ups and things like that.
God wants you to learn to love real people, not ideal people.
We all love people in heaven.
Yeah, in heaven, to dwell above with those we love, that will be a glory.
But to dwell below with those we know, that's another story.
God says, no, no, this is why you're here, not in heaven first.
I want you to learn real love where it's difficult, where you have to learn that love is a choice.
Romans 12 verse 5 says this, we belong to each other and each of us needs all the others.
You will not make it in your purposes in life without being a part of a spiritual family.
I was planned for God's pleasure, so my first purpose in life is to know and love God.
I was formed for God's family,
God formed me for his family, so the second purpose in my life is fellowship, to learn to love other people in the family of God.
Because I'm going to do both those things in heaven, and he wants me to practice here.
Number three, write this down.
God created me to become like Christ.
That's the third purpose in life.
God created me to become like Christ.
Once you understand this, life's going to make a whole lot more sense.
Because God wants you to grow up spiritually, and the model of perfection is Jesus.
Jesus is the only perfect human being who ever lived, because he was God, come to earth in human form.
He lived a perfect life.
He showed us exactly what it meant to be fully human.
So God wants you to learn to think like Jesus, to act like Jesus, to respond like Jesus, to talk like Jesus, to value like Jesus.
This is the third purpose in your life.
Once you're born into the family,
God wants you to grow up in the family.
And the model for growth is Jesus Christ.
Now, God is far more interested, don't miss this,
God is far more interested in who you are than what you do.
We're always worried about, what does God want me to do?
God, what job should I have?
Where should I go to work?
Where should I go to school?
What should I do?
We're always worried about what we should do.
God is much more interested not in what you do, but in what you become.
And the reason why is, you're not takin' your career to heaven.
You're not taking your car to heaven.
You're not taking your cash to heaven, how much money you're making.
You're not taking your china to heaven.
You're taking your character.
The only thing that's going to heaven after your 80 years or so here on earth is you.
You're not takin' any of your accomplishments.
You're not taking any of your achievements.
You're not taking any of your acquisitions.
You're not taking any of your things you've piled up, stockpiled, money, materialism, stuff like that.
None of that's going to heaven.
The only thing that's going to heaven is the person you became, the man you became, the woman you became.
The only thing you're taking to heaven is your character.
And God puts you on this planet to develop your character, to grow up spiritually, and to become like Jesus Christ.
Because that's what he's interested in.
He's not interested in what you do.
He's interested in who you are.
Now let me show you a couple verses.
Romans chapter 8, verse 29.
From the very beginning,
God decided that those who came to him, and all along he knew who would.
He knows who's going to come into his family.
He knows who's going to accept him, who's going to let him adopt him into the family.
All along he knew who would.
He decided that those who came to him would become like his son.
It's always been the plan of God that you become like Jesus.
Colossians 1, verse 15.
We look at the son, Jesus, and see God's original purpose in everything created.
Now this is not plan B.
It's been God's plan from the very beginning, even before Adam sinned.
God created Adam and said, let's make man in our image.
From the very beginning,
God has been wanting to make us like himself.
Now, do not understand me.
God doesn't want you to become a god.
You're never going to become a god.
Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never.
You're never going to be a god.
Now, there's a whole movement out there called the New Age Movement that says, you're a god.
You're a goddess.
God is within you.
You're the god.
You're the master of your universe.
You're not a god.
You're not even a mini-me god.
If you're a god, why don't you solve all your problems?
You're not a god and you never will be.
You can't solve the problems of the world.
You can't solve your own problems.
You're not a god.
That new age is actually,
Satan told this to Eve in the Garden of Eden.
It's the first lie.
He said, eat this fruit and you'll be god.
It's not new age.
It's old lie.
In fact, it's the oldest lie that you're a god.
That is the oldest lie in the universe.
You're never going to be a god.
But God says, I don't want you to be a god.
I want you to become godly.
That means tell the truth like I tell the truth.
Be faithful like I'm faithful.
Love like I love.
Be patient and forgiving like I'm patient and forgiving.
God says, I want you to be godly.
I want you to become like me in character.
In wisdom.
In your values and in who you are.
Now, when things happen to you, the normal question you ask is the word, why?
Why is this happening?
Why is this happening to me?
Why is this happening now?
And the answer to all the why questions of life is this.
To make you like Jesus.
To make you like Jesus.
If God's going to make you like Jesus, he's going to take you through everything Jesus went through.
And Jesus wasn't spared from difficulty.
Were there times when Jesus was lonely?
Yes.
Time when he was misunderstood?
Yes.
Were there times when Jesus was disappointed by people?
Yes.
Were there times when he was tempted to be discouraged and give up?
Yes.
Were there times when he was just tempted?
Yes.
And if God let his own son go through all that, don't you think he's going to let you go through it too?
Yes.
Why?
Because he's more interested in your character than your comfort.
This is not the comfort side of life.
Comfort's going to come in eternity.
Comfort's going to come in heaven.
This is the classroom side of life where you are to learn.
And some things you only learn through difficulty.
The Bible says in Philippians chapter 2 verse 5, in your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.
This is the third purpose for your life.
You must learn to think and act like Christ Jesus.
So, if I'm supposed to think and act like Christ Jesus, what is Jesus like?
Well, I've told you this before, that the perfect picture of Jesus in the Bible is Galatians 5, 22, and 23.
It's often called the fruit of the spirit.
And it lists nine qualities.
It says in Galatians,
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.
Nine qualities.
What is that?
That's a perfect picture of Jesus.
God wants you to love like Jesus, to be at peace like Jesus, to be patient like Jesus.
God wants you to be faithful like Jesus.
God wants you to have self-control like Jesus had self-control.
Now, here's the question.
How does God teach us the fruit of the spirit?
How does God make us like Jesus?
Like, for instance, if God wants to turn me into a great loving person, a real lover, what am I doing?
I'm just kind of walking down the street one day, and all of a sudden, zap!
I'm zapped with love.
And I love everybody.
And just call me buddy love.
You know?
No, no.
It doesn't happen that way.
There's no pill you can take that's going to make you patient for the rest of your life, or loving for the rest of your life, or faithful for the rest of your life.
There's no seminar.
There's no book.
There's no experience that's going to zap you, and all of a sudden, you're like Jesus, and you never have a problem, and you're never tempted again.
It's a lifelong process, becoming like Jesus.
That process is called discipleship.
Worship, fellowship, discipleship are the first three purposes of life.
Know and love God.
Learn to love others.
Learn and grow up like Christ.
And it takes time.
And here's how God does it.
He puts you in the exact opposite situation.
It's easy to love people who are lovely.
If God's going to teach you real love,
He's going to put you around unlovely people.
So that you have to learn to love.
Love is a choice.
It's easy to love people who are cool, like you.
No, if God's going to teach you real love,
He puts you around some people that are difficult to love.
They're hard to love.
When they talk, they spit on you, and you know, that kind of stuff.
And they irritate you.
And they get in your face, and they talk too much, and on and on and on and on.
And they irritate you, and they're like heavenly sandpaper.
God's teaching you love.
How about joy?
How does God teach you joy?
Joy is different than happiness.
Happiness depends on happenings.
If things are going good in your life, you're happy.
If things are going bad, you're unhappy.
Happiness depends on circumstances.
I go to Disneyland, and I'm happy.
The happiest place on earth.
When I come out, I realize how much I spent.
I'm not happy.
I spent way too much money in the happiest place on earth.
And it didn't last.
But before I get to the goofy parking lot,
I'm already sad again.
Joy is different from happiness.
Joy is internal, and joy is eternal.
You learn joy in the middle of grief.
I could talk to you a lot about that one.
How to learn joy in the middle of grief.
Patience.
How does God teach you patience?
By testing it.
By irritation.
By chaos.
It's easy to be patient and at peace when everything's going your way.
If you're on a backpacking thing up in the Colorado Rockies, and you're in a beautiful stream fly fishing, and you go, it doesn't get any better than this.
Anybody can be peaceful and patient when things are going your way.
But real peace and real patience is learned in the middle of chaos.
Peace is learned in the middle of difficulty.
How does God teach you patience?
Department of motor vehicles.
Traffic jams.
Doctors' waiting rooms.
Have you ever been in a hurry, and God's not?
When you're sitting in God's waiting room, and you've asked for God to answer a prayer, and God doesn't seem to be in any hurry to answer it.
And you say, God, I need this right now, and God just doesn't seem to be in any hurry.
You're in God's waiting room.
What's he doing?
He's trying to teach you patience.
One time I was going through some really bad trials, bad difficulties, and I prayed, God, I need patience.
Instead of the problems getting better, they got worse.
And then I prayed, God, I need patience, and they got more worse.
I said, God, I really, really need patience, and they got really bad.
And after about six months I realized,
I'm a lot more patient than when I started out six months ago.
And so God wants to make character in your life.
That's why you have problems.
If you had no problems, if you got every prayer instantly answered, like a vending machine, you put in the prayer and pull out the cigarettes, or whatever, a vending machine will give you bad stuff.
God won't.
If you got everything you want, everything went your way, you had no problems, you would be a spoiled brat.
Self-centered brat.
And the whole goal of life is learning unselfishness.
Learning it's not about you.
Some people never learn that.
It's not about you.
Most people end up at the end of their life still thinking it's all about me.
It's not about you.
It's about learning to love God and learning to love other people.
And that's where fulfillment, and joy, and purpose comes from.
We must become, think, and act like Jesus Christ.
Now this is a lifelong journey.
Look at the next verse.
2 Corinthians 3.18
As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more and more, in other words progressively, it's a transition, more and more like Him.
So what does God do to make you like Jesus?
He uses truth.
You're listening to it right now.
He uses trouble.
He uses trials.
God uses temptations to make you like Jesus.
Why?
Jesus was tempted.
Temptation is just a choice.
You say well it's a choice to do bad.
Well it's also a choice to do good.
It's just a choice.
And every time you have a temptation, when you choose to do bad, you're defeated.
When you choose to do good, you grow.
So temptation, every time you have a temptation, and you respond correctly, you actually grow.
You grow more like Jesus.
He uses people.
What am I saying?
You know those problems you don't like in your life?
Every problem has a purpose.
And that purpose is to make you like Jesus.
There is no situation in your life you cannot grow from if you'll just trust Jesus, and if you'll just learn to respond in the right way.
So I want you to write this down.
The third purpose of my life is to grow up spiritually.
First I'm born again, then I grow up.
And God wants you to grow up, and he wants you to develop spiritual depth.
Is it possible to grow old without growing up?
Yeah, again, don't look at him.
But you know people who are growing older every day and not growing up.
And they're stuck in perpetual adolescence, they're stuck in perpetual infancy.
One of the biggest problems in America today is shallow living.
One of the most biggest problems in America today is immature people who refuse to grow up.
We are a nation of spiritual babies.
What is the hallmark of a spiritual baby?
Babies are 100% self-centered.
A baby can't think of anybody else.
All it can think about is me, me, me, me, me, me,
I, I, I, I, I, my, my, my, my, my, my needs.
I want it, I want it now.
Babies don't know the difference between no and not yet.
Babies don't know how to delay gratification.
Babies have to have instant fulfillment.
Babies have to have focused on their feelings, short-term thinking, manipulated by their moods.
I've got to have it now.
That sounds like American culture.
We have a very immature, spiritual baby culture where everybody wants to talk about my rights.
I've got to do what's best for me and not their responsibilities.
God says, I want you to grow up.
Mark chapter 4, verse 17 talks about shallow people.
It says, some people have such a shallow soil of character that when their emotions wear off, oh, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, and difficulty arrives, there's nothing to show for it.
They're fair-weather believers.
God planned me for his pleasure.
He planned me for his pleasure.
My first purpose is to know him and love him back.
Then God formed me for his family.
My second purpose is to get in his family and get in his family, the church, and learn how to love other people.
Then God created me to become like Christ.
The third purpose of life is he wants me to grow up spiritually.
He wants me to grow up spiritually.
You might write that down.
Then number four, the fourth purpose of life is once you begin to know God and love God and you begin to grow in God, then he wants you to learn to serve him.
Here's the fourth thing.
God shaped me to serve him.
God shaped me to serve him.
He uniquely shaped you in a way like no one else.
There are no two people on the planet the same.
You are unique in every single way.
You have a unique voice print.
You have a unique eye print.
You have a unique thumb print, fingerprints.
You have a unique footprint.
You have a unique chemistry.
You have a unique heartbeat.
No heart beats exactly the same as any others.
God creates every snowflake different.
God overdoes it in diversity and variety.
God does not clone anything.
Humans do, but God never copies and never clones.
Nobody in history before you will ever be like you, and nobody after you in eternity in the future will ever be like you.
God uniquely shaped you to fulfill a unique purpose here on the planet earth, and this is the contribution he wants you to make.
Now remember that in heaven, one of the things you're going to do is you're going to serve God, and so God wants you to learn to practice here.
Now here's what the Bible says,
Psalm 139 verse 13.
You shaped me, God, first inside and then out, and you formed me in my mother's womb.
Now here at Saddleback, we use a little acrostic to say the unique shape that God has given you.
S-H-A-P-E.
Spiritual gifts, heart, ability, personality, and experiences.
These are five categories where you're different in every area there from everybody else.
I wrote a class on this about 30 years ago.
It's called Class 301.
We teach it every month.
In fact, it was taught this afternoon.
Class 101, 201, and 301, and 401.
And 301 is discovering my spiritual shape.
If you haven't taken the basic classes of Saddleback, you really need to do that so you can fulfill your purpose in life.
And in that class, we teach you how to identify your particular shape.
For instance, God has given you unique spiritual gifts.
You're gifted in some areas, and you don't even realize it, and one of the things about giftedness is you're good at some stuff, and you think everybody's good at it, but they're not.
You're good at it.
And then God gives you a unique heart.
What is your heart? That's your passion.
Your passion is what you love to do.
Gifts is what you're good at.
Passion is what you love to do.
Have you ever realized that the reason you like some things and don't like some things is God gave you that shape?
Why are some things really interesting to you and other things bore you to tears because of your heart, your emotional, your passion?
Why are some hobbies you're interested in and others you couldn't care less about?
Some things wind your crank and turn you on.
Some things bore you to tears.
God made us all with different hearts, emotional hearts.
We all like to do different things. Why?
That way everything gets done.
If everybody liked to do the same thing in life, there'd be a lot left undone, so God gives us all different interests and different hearts.
It comes from God.
We're given different abilities.
Some of you are really good at math.
Some of you stink at math.
You should never look at a number.
You're just not good at it.
Some of you are good with words, and others, you're not good with words.
You may be good with plants.
You may be good with animals.
You may be good with people.
Some of you are good at drawing, and some of us are just stick figure kind of people.
You may be good at music.
You may be good at mechanics.
There are literally thousands of different kinds of abilities, and that's what makes, shapes you.
And then there's your personality.
We all have different personalities.
Some people like routine.
Some people like they want to do the same thing every day.
Some people like variety.
They want to do something different every day.
Some people like to work in a group, and some people like to work on their own.
That's personality.
Some of you are morning songbirds, and some of you are night owls.
How many of you are morning people?
It's like up, up, into the pool.
Let's get going, man.
You're morning people, all right?
How many of you are night owls?
You say, I don't believe in God before 11 a.m.
Yeah, yeah.
Now, let me let you in on a little secret.
Morning people always marry night people.
It's God's sense of humor.
Opposites attract, then opposites attack.
And God puts you together.
He goes, this will be fun.
Watch the sparks fly.
This will be really cool.
And the reason why is we need each other's differences.
If you married somebody identically like you, you're going to be bored with them, and you can't grow.
The greater your differences, the greater the potential for growth, the greater you can become like Jesus Christ.
Now, God says, I've shaped you to serve me.
And then the last thing he says, I give you experiences.
S-H-A-P-E.
Every experience in your life shapes you.
The good ones and the bad ones.
And God uses family experiences you had growing up, even bad ones and painful ones.
He uses them for good.
He uses family experiences.
He uses vocational experiences, the job you had, educational experiences, the stuff you learn in school and outside of school.
Spiritual experiences, personal experiences, emotional experiences.
But the number one thing God uses in your life to shape you for serving him is painful experiences.
God whispers to us in our pleasure, but he shouts to us in our pain.
Pain is God's megaphone.
Pain is how God gets your attention.
We don't change when we see the light.
We change when we feel the heat.
God says, yes, I even use the painful experiences.
I don't plan them.
We live on a broken planet.
You're going to have plenty of painful experiences caused by other people and by yourself.
But God says, I can even use that to shape you to serve me.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says this.
God made us what we are.
That's he shaped us.
And in Christ Jesus, God made us to watch TV all day.
That's not what it says.
Play video games.
No, it doesn't say that.
God made us to what?
What?
I can't hear you.
Would you circle that phrase?
God made us to do good works.
This is the fourth purpose of your life.
God made you to do good works.
Now the word for do good works in the Bible is called ministry.
You have a ministry on earth.
Not everybody's a pastor, but everybody has a ministry.
Your ministry is any time you use your shape, that's your talent, your abilities, all your personality, to help other people in God's name, that's called a ministry.
God wants you to practice on earth what you're going to do in heaven.
Now let's just review.
Remember, you're going to love God in heaven, you're going to worship in heaven, so God wants you to practice here.
You're going to love other people in heaven in fellowship with God's family, so God wants you to practice loving people in the family of God here, real people.
You're going to grow in heaven, so God wants you to grow, learn to grow like Jesus here.
In heaven, you're going to serve God.
What's he want you to do here?
Practice.
So again, when you get there, you already know how to serve God.
See, a lot of people have this false idea about heaven.
They think that you're going to sit around and do nothing in heaven.
You're just going to sit around and do nothing.
Boring.
No, you're going to do stuff in heaven.
You're going to serve God in heaven, but you're going to love to do it.
In fact, let me just say this.
Everything you've learned about heaven in movies is 100% wrong.
There has never been a movie ever made that got heaven right.
None, zero, nada, zip.
Every movie that has ever been made about heaven is wrong.
Not one is right.
How do I know that?
How do I know that?
Because the Bible says nobody understands how cool heaven is.
The Bible says it's so cool, you can't even imagine it.
The Bible says it like this.
Eye has not seen, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love him.
You can't even imagine how cool heaven's going to be because it's like an ant trying to understand the internet.
You don't have the brain capacity.
Here on earth, we're limited to three dimensions.
And we understand three dimensional thinking.
What if there's four dimensions?
Five, six, seven, eight, nine.
What if there are dimensions you don't even know about because your brain isn't big enough in a human body to understand that?
How do you explain that?
That's why in the Bible, when they try to explain heaven, they use metaphors like streets paved with gold.
They're not going to be paved with gold.
They were just thinking of the biggest, most expensive way, the coolest thing they could think of.
When you see a movie about heaven, first, heaven is always white.
Everything in heaven is white.
Are you kidding me?
The God who created rainbows, sunrises, sunsets, the colors of all the clothes we're wearing and the ability to see color, he's going to make heaven total white?
Not a chance.
Not a chance.
Then it's on clouds.
Where did that one come from?
That's not in the Bible.
You walk around in fog up to your feet.
You know what I'm talking about?
You can't even see your feet.
How do you tie your shoes in heaven if the fog's up to your knees?
That's stupid.
Then you wear a white robe, you have white wings, and you play a harp.
That would be hell.
If that's heaven, no thanks.
I don't want to go.
Really, no thanks.
I'm not interested.
I like the beach a whole lot better.
Now, this world is broken.
It's full of sin, and it's still cool.
There are some waterfalls and, I mean, unbelievable sights.
I've seen them around the world.
And the God who made this, and this is broken.
Imagine the perfection.
Imagine what heaven's going to be like.
But you're not going to sit around and do nothing in heaven.
You're going to serve.
So, as I said,
God wants you to practice serving God so you're not a doofus when you get there.
You know how to do it.
Now, you say, well, how in the world do I serve a God who's invisible?
I can't see him.
Good point.
You're going to see God in heaven, but we don't see him here.
So how in the world do I serve an invisible God?
How do I do that?
Well, the Bible says we serve God by serving others.
Here on earth, the way you practice serving God is by serving other people.
Jesus said, if you've done it to the least of these, you've done it to me.
And the Bible says, even if you give a cup of cold water to somebody in Jesus' name, he says, that's like you just did it to me.
We serve God by serving others.
Jesus said, you can't say you love God and hate your brother.
The Bible says, if you say, well, I don't want to serve other people, you aren't really serving God.
You cannot say,
I don't need these people,
I'm not going to help these people, and then say I love God at the same time.
It's just not true.
It's a lie, he says.
So God made us to serve God by serving other people.
Now, notice this next verse.
1 Peter 4.10.
It's talking about using your talents to make a difference in the world, to make a contribution, to make an impact.
This is your ministry, or your service in life.
God has given each of you, the Bible says, some special abilities.
Be sure to use them to make a lot of money.
No, to help each other.
Passing on to others
God's many kinds of blessing.
God has given you your shape,
S-H-A-P-E, to use to benefit the world, to make it a better place, and to practice serving God by serving others.
So write this down.
The fourth purpose of my life is to serve God by serving others.
And when you do what you're good at, mechanically, musically, preparing a meal, whatever you're good at, whatever you love to do, and you do it in Jesus' name to help others,
God says you're practicing serving me.
The purpose is to serve God by serving others.
One of the most dramatic examples of serving God by serving others, or serving what I call the undeserving, is the story of Ashley Smith.
Some of you don't even remember this because you were too young when it happened, but in 2005, on March 11th, 2005, there was a guy, a criminal in Atlanta named Brian Nichols, who was on trial.
He'd been arrested and was on trial for rape.
And he was in an Atlanta courthouse.
And somehow, in the courthouse, he grabbed the gun of the deputy, in the courthouse, shot the judge and killed him in front of everybody.
Shot a court reporter and killed him.
Shot the deputy, and then later shot a federal agent.
Killed four people and escaped.
And there was a massive manhunt all over Atlanta trying to find Brian.
Brian Nichols was his name.
And they were searching.
It was world news.
I was in Africa working in an AIDS hospice when I heard about Brian Nichols and how they were doing this massive manhunt trying to find this guy for days.
And one of the ways he avoided being found out was he took a young woman hostage.
He kidnapped her.
Took her to her house and tied her up and put her in the bathtub.
And her name was Ashley Smith.
I know her.
And Ashley Smith thought,
I'm going to be raped and I'm going to be killed.
And started this ordeal.
Now, it just so happened that Ashley had just started attending a church in Atlanta that was using Saddleback's
Celebrate Recovery program.
And she was a meth addict.
And she had started going to Celebrate Recovery in a church.
And somebody had given her a copy of Purpose Driven Life.
And so she was reading and it was laying around the house.
And over the hours and hours and hours that she was held captive by this Brian Nichols, she began to talk to him and he saw the book and she said, can I read it to you?
And he said, sure.
And so she opened to the chapter she was reading, which was chapter 34,
Thinking Like a Servant
You're Shaped to Serve God.
Thinking Like a Servant.
And she began to read it.
And he asked her to read it aloud to him.
And as she read it, she made a decision in her mind,
I may lose my life, but I'm going to serve this guy.
I'm going to serve the undeserving.
And as he began to talk about it, he began to soften in his approach.
He untied her.
He let her out of the bathtub.
And then she fixed him breakfast.
Made him pancakes.
And he commented on, you gave me real butter.
And then he kind of wanted to do something for her and so he hung her curtains.
And this whole time he's holding her captive.
And he kept saying, read me more, read me more of Purpose Driven Life.
And finally, in reading this book to her, she convinced him to let her go.
And she called the police.
They came outside the house and he came out and turned himself in without incident.
It was all over the news.
I was on Oprah and Larry King and all kinds of TV shows with Ashley when this happened.
They later made a book about this story.
And so Ashley has spoken at Saddleback at Celebrate Recovery.
And in September this year,
Paramount Pictures is releasing a whole movie on Ashley Bryan and the Purpose Driven Life called Captive.
It's going to be in theaters in September.
And it's starring, you'll see the stars in just a couple of minutes.
I'm going to show you a little clip from this.
You're going to notice that David Oyolo, who is right now starring as Martin Luther King in Selma.
And he plays Brian Nichols in this movie.
Watch this.
Real butter.
Okay.
How loud?
God deserves your best.
He shaped you for a purpose and he expects you to make the most of what you have been given.
I haven't been given anything.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
You have a son?
I'm never going to see him again, am I?
If you stop what you're doing and give yourself up, maybe you will.
Keep reading.
Fear is a self-imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be.
You must move against it with weapons of faith and love.
The Bible says, well-formed love banishes fear.
Job said, my life drives by day after hopeless day.
And I give up.
I'm tired of living.
Leave me alone.
My life makes no sense.
The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.
We were made to have meaning.
A young man in his 20s wrote,
I feel like a failure because I'm struggling to become something and I don't even know what it is.
All I know how to do is to get by.
Someday, if I discover my purpose,
I'll feel I'm beginning to live.
When life has meaning, you can bear almost anything.
Without it, nothing is bearable.
When I heard I had a son,
I had to break out.
I don't belong in that place.
When I saw what they were trying to do to me, how that judge was trying to enslave me,
I went into that courtroom and I shot him dead.
And you know what?
It felt good.
If I were the one who killed your husband, could you forgive me?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe God can.
Yeah.
The producer and the director of this movie heard that I was going to use this clip and they came down from Hollywood today to attend the Saddleback service.
So that was kind of neat.
Now think about this.
Imagine you're a young Christian woman,
Ashley's age.
You get kidnapped by a guy who's just murdered four people.
He ties you up in the bathtub.
You're more likely to be thinking about your fear rather than serving this guy, cooking him pancakes.
But it was in her servant-heartedness, serving the undeserving, that she was most like Jesus.
She gained your own freedom and protected her life.
There's one more purpose that God has you here on earth for.
You were planned for God's pleasure so you'd learn to love and know God.
You were formed for God's family so you'd learn to love other people in the family of God, in the church family.
You're created to become like Christ so you're to grow up spiritually.
You're shaped to serve God so you are to serve God by serving others.
There's one other thing
God wants you to do on earth.
God made me for a mission.
God made me for a mission.
God puts you on earth first to know him, then to learn some things, then to become some things, then to do some things, and the doing part is called your mission.
Jesus says in John 17 verse 18,
In the same way that the Father gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
God puts you on this planet to make a unique contribution.
It is my job as your pastor to help you get prepared for your ministry and your mission in the world because one day you're going to stand before God and he's going to say,
What did you do with what I gave you?
You're going to answer to God one day for what you did with your life.
What did you do with the talent, the ability, well I made a lot of money, retired and died.
Wrong answer.
Acts 20 verse 24,
Paul says this,
I consider my life to be wasted unless I use it to complete my mission and finish the assignment that the Lord Jesus has given to me to tell me the good news about God's grace.
Now I don't have time to get into this, but the bottom line is that God has a mission and a message that he wants to explain through you to the world.
You have a unique life message and a unique life mission.
Proverbs 19 verse 21 says this,
We can make all kinds of plans, but only God's purposes will last forever.
Question, what are you following right now?
Your plan for your life or God's plan for your life?
Huh?
You following God's plan or you following your plan?
You following your plan?
How's that working for you?
You feel pretty fulfilled?
Pretty satisfied?
Feel like,
Man I'm really, my life is exactly what it was supposed to be.
The Bible says only God's purposes will last forever.
You know what the problem with most people is today?
Their dreams are too small.
Their dreams are too small.
The biggest dream that most people have is,
I just want to be happy.
I just want to live the good life, really.
And we define the good life in Southern California as looking good, feeling good, and having the goods.
There's only one problem with the good life, it isn't good enough.
It doesn't satisfy.
There are thousands of people in Southern California who look good, feel good, and have the goods and are miserable.
I talk to them all the time.
Because you were made for more.
And at some point you put your head down on the pillow at night and you go, there's got to be more than this.
There's got to be more than the good life.
And the reason you think that is because there is.
There is.
You were made for so much more than you're living right now.
So much more than you're living right now.
You were made for more than the good life.
You were made for the better life.
The Bible says this, 2 Corinthians 5,
Jesus included everyone in his death so everyone could be included in his life.
A far better life.
There's that word, better life.
Not the good life, the better life.
A far better life than people ever lived on their own.
The good life isn't good enough.
You were made for more.
You were made for the better life.
The step up of fulfilling
God's purposes for your life.
You say, how do I get that?
How do I get to the better life?
The Bible says this in Psalm 34, 8.
Open your eyes.
Open your eyes and see how good God is.
How much he loves you.
Blessed are you who run to him.
Run to him.
I like that word run because here's the point.
If all of a sudden somebody told me that there's a better life than I'm living right now,
I'm in.
I'm in.
I'm not gonna wait.
I don't think about it.
I don't procrastinate.
I don't delay.
I don't say, one day I'll check it out that there might possibly be a better life than I'm living right now.
No, I'm gonna run.
If somebody tells me there's a better way to live than I'm living right now,
I'm gonna run to it because I decided a long time ago
I'm not gonna waste my life.
You may waste your life but I'm not gonna waste mine.
And if there's a better way to live then I'm gonna run to it.
And how do you run to it?
Open your eyes and see how good God is.
If I could only teach you one thing.
If I only had one message to preach in my entire life it would be this.
Open your eyes, open your eyes, open your eyes to the goodness of God.
Receive the love of God.
No man will ever love you.
No woman will ever love you like your creator does, like Jesus Christ does.
And to go entirely through your entire life disconnected from your creator who loves you that much makes no sense at all.
If somebody was willing to die for you wouldn't you wanna know about it?
If somebody loved you so much they died for you wouldn't you wanna know them?
Somebody did die for you.
His name is Jesus Christ.
And he died for you to pay for all the things you've done wrong so you could live a life of purpose.
Formed for God's family, planned for God's pleasure, created to become like Christ, shaped to serve God, made for a mission.
And my plea to you as your pastors do not waste your life.
Decide right now that for the rest of your life you're gonna give the best of your life not to your girlfriend, not to your boyfriend, not to your job, not to something else but to God and his kingdom.
Because you weren't put here for all those other things.
You were put here for these purposes and to ignore them is an enormous waste of your life.
It is no accident that you are here this weekend.
And for those of you who are watching online it's no accident that you're watching this online.
God knows that you've been frustrated with your life.
He knows your hurts.
He knows your sadnesses.
He knows your fears.
He knows the turmoil that goes inside of you.
He knows the loneliness you feel when you put your head down on the pillow at night.
He knows the insecurities that you feel that you don't want to admit to anybody else.
He knows all of that.
And you may have thought there's gotta be a better way to live.
There is.
I just taught it to you.
There is.
I call it a purpose driven life.
I don't care what you call it.
Just do it.
Become what God made you to be.
The man God made you to be.
The woman God made you to be.
Jesus Christ invites you to experience this.
This way.
There on your outline.
The last couple of verses.
Matthew 11.
Jesus says,
Are you tired?
Are you worn out?
Are you burned out on religion?
Then come to me for a real rest.
He's not talking about religion.
He says a relationship.
Come to me for a real rest.
And you'll recover your life.
And you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
And who is this invitation available to?
Next verse.
Acts 10, 35.
It makes no difference who you are or where you're from.
If you want God and you're ready to do as he says, the door is open.
Doesn't matter who you are, where you are from, what's your background.
Doesn't matter what you've done, who you've done it with, or how long you've done it.
Makes no difference what your religious background is.
You may be Buddhist or Baptist or Muslim or Mormon or Methodist or Catholic or Christian or Jewish or Hindu.
You may be an atheist, an agnostic.
I don't care what background.
No background at all.
It says this offer is available to you.
And it says it doesn't even matter if you have doubts.
Bring your doubts with you.
Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs.
At the bottom of your message notes,
I've written a prayer to start living the life that God created you to live.
The life of purpose.
And here's what I want us to do.
I want us to read this aloud together.
So here's what I'd like to ask you to do.
Bow your head right now, but keep your eyes open.
And I want you to look at your notes and read.
Now if you don't have the notes in front of you, look up here on the screen and read it.
We're going to pray this prayer aloud together.
So you can bow your head and read it on the notes or you can look up here on the screen.
Let's say it together.
Dear God, everything you created has a purpose, including me.
I don't want to miss my purpose or waste my life or live it disconnected from you anymore.
Instead, I want to become what you designed me to be.
Starting today,
I want to follow your plan for my life, not my plan.
You made me for a relationship with you, so I want to get to know you and love you and trust you.
Thank you for sending Jesus to pay for my sin.
Help me to understand that.
I humbly ask that you accept me into your family forever.
I want to grow more like Jesus every day and I want to use my life on earth to serve you by serving others.
Help me to share this good news with others and to fulfill my life mission.
I invite you into every area of my life.
Amen.