"Correcting Misplaced Priorities" with Pastor Rick Warren

all of you heard the big news last week that after founding this church 43 years ago kaye and i are stepping aside for the next generation of leadership and i announced it last weekend kay and i spoke together and that our church had called pastor andy wood to become saddleback's new senior pastor in september next weekend june 1819 andy and stacey wood are going to be here at all of our services and kaye and i are going to sit on stage and interview them the next generation senior pastor it's going to be a great time so i hope you'll come back for that then the following weekend i told you i was going to do this june 25 and 26 i'm going to explain in detail what i'm going to be doing post saddleback leading the global campaign called finishing the task it's campaign that i've been asked to lead for the next decade by the finishing the task coalition which is already composed of about 1 600 mission agencies and denominations and it's going to grow exponentially from that so i'm going to be busy for the next decade don't miss that weekend when i tell you all we're going to be doing in finishing the task in the next uh 10 years now in preparation for that message on finishing the task in a couple weeks what i want to do this weekend is do a preliminary message on misplaced priorities misplaced priorities most of you know uh that saddleback church was the first church on the internet way back in 1992 uh long before there was internet explorer or google or any of that kind of stuff it was we were using uh ftp and gopher and mosaic and and and i started the first website for pastors pastors.com almost 30 years ago now added to the fact that about 1.2 million pastors have been trained by purpose driven in 165 countries that means that every day i get hundreds of calls and letters and emails from pastors literally every day and i'll tell you this right now the number one problem i've discovered among church leaders today is discouragement during the past two years during the pandemic i've spent a lot of time talking to discouraged pastors and talking them out of resigning for a lot of reasons they say rick i feel tired i feel discouraged i feel ready to quit i feel like i'm just going through the motions a lot of people have felt that way but you know what as i listen to all their stories of these pastors i've come to the conclusion that one of the most common causes of this discouragement is misplaced priorities they end up majoring on minor issues they waste energy on secondary issues they they get caught up in doing what everybody else wants them to do instead of what god has called them to do and they end up trying to do too much you know it's no wonder they're tired because the ultimate gets crowded out by the urgent now the reason i feel called to talk to you today about this issue of misplaced priorities is because i have the sneaking suspicion that you have misplaced priorities too and that's dragging you down and it's causing fatigue and frustration in your life now the fact is you guys so much of what we spend our time on isn't going to matter in five years today christians are given first-class allegiance to second-class causes and those causes whether they're personal or their cultural or or they're social or political they are bound to ultimately disappoint you so what i want to do uh is talk about that today and look at god's word what does god have to say about our priorities and our purposes now let me remind you of three facts of life first you can't do it all okay you figured that out i hope by now you can't do it all but the second thing is god doesn't expect you to do it all that's good news and number three there are only a few things worth doing in the first place one of my mentors besides billy graham you know he was my mentor since i was 18 was john stott in fact billy was the guy who introduced me to john stott a famous pastor in in london england and one of the things that john stott said to me as a young man was this rick he said selection is the name of the game selection is the name of the game he said if you don't get control of your time and priorities you're not going to get control of anything else you're not going to have time in your ministry to care about and get involved in every little cause that people want you to join so focus on the great commandment focus on the great commission you know right before both john stott died and billy graham died uh i made personal trips back to see them flew to london flew to to charlotte uh and uh i i just wanted to see them before they passed away and i made those trips while they were bedfast but they were both still focused in the end of their life still focused on what really mattered most in life and and in ministry you know years ago i spoke at an sbc convention and i i think the theme was the highest power for the greatest task that was the theme that year the highest power the greatest task and as i thought about speaking on that theme i realized we only get the highest power when we're doing the greatest task god is not obligated to empower or energize us to do our own thing god has no obligation to equip us or empower us to do our to-do list of priorities he empowers his task not ours now i've talked to you about this many times jesus lived a purpose-driven life jesus very first recorded words the first recorded word spoken was when he was only 12 years old he's at the temple and he said i must be about my father's business even at that early age as a pretend pre-teen he already knew his priorities and his purpose i don't know many 12 years old who would say i got to be about my father's business but jesus knew his purpose that early in life and then at the end of his life when he prays in the garden of gethsemane in his last words before he goes to the cross jesus said this in his prayer to the father father i have finished the work that you gave me to do now that's what i call a purpose-driven life the book ends on either side of his life being able to say early in life 12 years of age i've got to be about my father's business and being able to say at the end i finished the work you gave me to do i want you to be able to say that with the rest of your life and that's why i want to talk to you about priorities today you know the apostle paul is another example of being purpose-driven in acts chapter 20 verse 24 paul says this i consider my life worth nothing nothing to me if only i may finish the race and finish the task that the lord jesus has given me the what was that task he was called to finish the task of testifying to the gospel of god's grace spreading the good news as far and as wide as possible so paul says my life isn't worth anything unless i use it to finish the task i was given then at the end of his life paul says this in second timothy chapter 4 verse 7. i fought the good fight i've finished the race and i've kept the faith both jesus and paul refused to be distracted from what mattered most both kept their purpose and their priorities crystal clear throughout their entire lives so if you want your life to count if you want your career to have an impact if you want your ministry to make a difference if you want our church to keep seeing lives changed by the thousands as we've seen over all these years the starting point is to clarify what matters most in your life and then reorder your priorities accordingly so how do we do that well as i've studied scripture i think it includes three different things and we see these three things in things that jesus actually said three statements of christ number one first we have to lay aside our agendas and focus on god's agenda in the world we must adopt god's agenda that's the first thing we have to do to live a life of purpose and priority we have to adopt god's agenda for our lives not our own agenda so what is god's agenda in the world well it's not what you think it is god's agenda is not an economic agenda god's agenda is not an entertainment agenda it's not a political agenda god is not trying to save any particular group or even any particular nation god is not a national god god's agenda listen is what the bible calls the kingdom of god he's building a family of redeemed individuals from every nation from every ethnic background he's building a redeemed kingdom of god matthew chapter 24 verse 14 is an incredible verse you need to understand if you want to get in with god's agenda matthew 24 14 this is the words of jesus he says this the good news about the kingdom god's agenda will be preached throughout the world not just in america not just in some other country preached throughout the world so that all nations circle the word all a-l-l god cares about all nations he doesn't care any more about america than he cares about every other he died for the world not for one nation so that all nations will hear it and then the end will come history is moving toward a climax and he says the end's not going to come until everybody god wants to hear has had a chance to hear till all nations have heard it's not going to happen history is moving towards climates you can debate prophecy you can get out your charts and maps but jesus said this i'm not coming back until everybody i want to hear the gospel has heard the gospel now the kingdom of god is the major theme of jesus ministry the word kingdom is used 157 times in the new testament did you know that kingdom was jesus favorite description of what god is doing in the world in fact go and read all of jesus 38 parables and most of them or majority of them start off the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of god is like it's what jesus cared about more than anything else that's his agenda building the kingdom of god not my reputation not building my career not building my city not building my business but building the kingdom of god so what is the kingdom of god it is god's plan for history it is god's people fulfilling god's purposes on god's planet that's the kingdom of god god's agenda is the redemption of the whole world now listen very closely if you want god's blessing on your life if you want god's power in your life if you want god's anointing through your life you must care about what god cares about most and what does god care about most more than anything else he wants his lost children found that's the greatest task the whole reason god created the universe is he wanted a family and that is his number one goal in life creating his family his kingdom that's what we've been doing here at saddleback for decades you know the last 43 years of growing this saddleback family from just k and i to as many of there are today it hadn't been easy i remember we went 15 years without a building in fact we grew to over 10 000 people in attendance every week without a building we used 79 different locations that meant setting up and taking down everything every week for 13 years friends there's no glory in that it was just a lot of hard work and you know what here's a little secret the bigger you get the more problems you have i've often been asked by the media rick what keeps you going what keeps you motivated what kept you going for 43 years the answer is really simple i'm addicted to change lives i am addicted to change lives every one of those 56 000 new believers we baptized over 43 years they matter to god every one of them matters you know people have often said to me you know rick you're just in the numbers and i will reply every number represents person and every number has a name and every name has a story behind it a story of transformation every number represents a person that jesus said his blood for yes we count people because people count i had a guy tell me one time i don't believe in counting attendance i said sir do you count the offering he goes yeah i go oh i said then what you're saying is that money's more important than people because we count what counts to us why did we take an entire decade here at saddleback church to send out 26 869 of our members on mission our own members went to every nation in the world 197 nations and in our peace plan they planted churches and they e equipped leaders and they a assisted the poor and they see cared for the sick and the e educated the next generation through our peace plan why did we invest all that time why did we invest all that energy why did we invest all that money why has this church given over 1 billion dollars to kingdom causes since it started the answer is real simple because we kept our priorities and our purposes clear we didn't get caught up in controversies and cultural issues you see the bottom line is this people matter to god they will always matter to god they always have mattered to god they matter more than anything else god has never made a person he didn't love god has never made a person he didn't have a purpose for god has never made a person he didn't want in heaven the bible says god is not willing that any should perish how many is any he wants everybody in his kingdom that any should perish but that all should come to repentance that my friends is god's agenda and anything less is an inferior man-made agenda think about this how much does god care about lost people if you want to know look at the cross with arms outstretched and nail-pierced hands and blood flowing down he's saying i love people this much this much and every drop of blood was saying i love you i love you i love you i love you so much it hurts on the cross christ is saying i'd rather die than live without you that's how much people matter to god that's god's agenda not anything else not build this or that or make america greater god's agenda is people coming into his kingdom the book of revelation says that one day we're going to worship christ with a song did you know that and let me read you the words of that song they're there on your outline revelation chapter five verse nine we're going to sing this song in heaven one day we're gonna sing with your blood you purchased men for god you purchase men obviously in women that's you know it's humanity for god from every tribe and every language and every people and every nation that's god's agenda if you don't have that as your agenda you don't have god's agenda for your life now leave that verse up there on the screen for just a minute i want you to notice that that verse tells us that god's kingdom is multinational every language every people every nation every tribe god's kingdom is worldwide god's kingdom is multi-ethnic god loves diversity it was his idea in fact the ultimate argument uh against racism is god the person who says uh i don't like people who don't look like me is basically saying god you made a mistake you should have made everybody like me that's the ultimate insult to god it was god's idea if you don't like diversity you're going to hate heaven because most people aren't going to look like you in heaven did you know that god's agenda is the redemption of the whole world everybody everywhere if you just have a community vision if you just have a state vision if you just have a national vision your vision is too small you know one of the problems i think that we have is this the longer you're a christian the less you think like an unbeliever and the longer you're a christian the more we forget how good the good news really is we forget how hopeless we felt before we were saved so how do you get over that you know when i get discouraged when i get tired when i feel like giving up you know what i do i go watch a baptism because it reminds me of the changes that god made in my life and it reminds me of the changes that i've seen in literally tens of thousands of other lives so the first step in having the correct priorities and the correct purposes for our life is we have to adopt god's agenda for our life and his agenda is the kingdom of god nothing less number two the second thing we have to do when we find these in the words of christ we have to abandon all distractions adopt his agenda abandon all distractions the secret of an effective life as i told you is one word focus focus paul told the corinthians in first corinthians 7 35 do whatever will help you serve the lord best circle that do whatever the lord will help help you serve the lord best with as few distractions as possible in other words you just can't tack on god's agenda to everything else you want to do in life you have to decide am i going to focus on my plans or am i going to focus on god's plans see jesus commanded this seek ye first the kingdom of god seek ye first given and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you what are you seeking first in your life right now well you say how do i know what i'm seeking first real simple look at how you spend your money spend your time what do you spend the most of your time on what do you spend the most of your money on show me your calendar and show me your credit card statement and i'll tell you what you're seeking first in life because the way you spend your time and the way you spend your money reveals your priorities as i said jesus told us to pray thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven now why did jesus tell us to pray that well he wouldn't tell us to pray it if it was already being done okay let me explain this in heaven god's will is done perfectly it's done completely it's done instantly it's done all the time and it's done with a good attitude none of that's true on earth here on earth god's will is done incompletely it's done often with mixed motivations sometimes it's not done at all sometimes it's done with a grudge it's done seldom every day god has a will for my life satan has a will for my life and my will is choosing god's will or satan's will god says pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven what is that say god i want you to done your will to be done completely instantly joyfully continuously completely here on earth that's what god wants we adopt god's agenda we avoid and get rid of all these distractions you know i'm constantly asking how has saddleback continued to keep growing consistently year after year after year after year you know leading in baptisms leading in evangelism leading in discipleship leading in church planting how do we do this year after year after year after year with all of the cultural and political changes we've been through i mean just look around while denominations and other churches are often declining in evangelistic effectiveness reaching fewer people how does saddleback keep leading and increasing in the number of people coming to christ and being baptized year after year after year the answer is real simple we refuse to be distracted personally i refuse to let anything else become more important than the salvation of other people and the discipling of other people and the equipping for ministry of other people and the sending out of other people on mission that's all we do we bring them in we build them up we train them for ministry and we send them out on mission we bring them in build them up train them for send them out bring them in build them up train them for send them out bring them in build them up train them for send them out rawhide we just keep doing what we've been doing year after year after year we just try to do it better every year we stay focused on god's five eternal purposes what are god's five eternal purposes they are the five verbs in the great commandment in the great commission two verbs in the great commission in two words in the great commandment and three verbs in the great commission we've built our church on these things but it's not enough friends just to care about the people in your pathway in your life in your in your community we have to think globally because that's god's agenda acts chapter 1 verse 8 may be the most misquoted verse in the bible i hear people pray it all time where jesus says but you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem then judea then samaria and then the uttermost parts of the world that's not what it says that's a misquoting of that verse it doesn't say you're going to be my witnesses in jerusalem then judea jerusalem is your own city judea is like the county around you samaria is like the people of different cultures who live in your area and then the rest of the world's the rest of the world it's not then then then it's and and and in jerusalem and judea and samaria and the uttermost parts of the world it is not it is not sequential it is simultaneous in other words we have to do it all at once it's no sin and being a small church it is a sin and having a small vision and you have to have global and local vision at the same time you have to have global vision global and local in jerusalem and judea and samaria and out of most parts of the world a lot of churches say well let's just reach our community once we reach our community we'll go after our county once we reach our county we'll go after our state once we reach our state we'll go after the rest of the world that's what the bible says jesus said you'll do it all at the same time you have to be global and local at the same time so let me ask you what is distracting you personally from fulfilling the kingdom of god you think this is just for missionaries you think this is just for pastors god if you are claiming to be a follower of christ god is calling you to build the kingdom of god what's distracting you from seeking first the kingdom of god you know i i sat down this afternoon and i made a list of common distractions for the king for from the kingdom of god because satan loves for you to do good things as long as you're distracted from god's agenda he doesn't care you can do all kinds of good things as long as you don't care about what uh what god cares about most so here are some common distractions from the kingdom of god number one politics does this sound familiar could be either national politics or it could be denominational politics god has not called us to save america he's called us to save americans but he's also called us to save mexicans and canadians and everybody else in the world so you just have to settle that issue are you called to be a politician are you called to be a follower of christ you know the disciples repeatedly tried to get jesus to be involved in politics but jesus said this i want you to listen very closely my kingdom is not of this world well if it's not if his kingdom is part of this world that's not my priority either my kingdom the kingdom of god is not of this world another thing that causes us uh distractions common current controversy and of course there's a controversy of the week in the newspaper and social media but a lot of issues honestly folks are like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic i i remember reading in history reports that nero fiddled while rome burned you know what my fear is that we'll fiddle around while the world goes to hell worried about current controversies that aren't even going to matter in 50 years here's another one that distracts us from the kingdom of god comparing or criticizing other believers oh my goodness we've made this an indoor sport in the church today with the advent of social media it is a platform from anybody to criticize anybody that's not going to help our church grow it's not going to help anybody else's church grow in fact second corinthians 10 12 says comparing is foolish it's stupid you should never compare yourself to anybody else for two reasons one you'll always find people are doing a better job than you and you get discouraged and two you always find people you're doing a better job than you get full of pride either way you're dead in the water you're benched you set on the sideline god says don't compare don't compare here's another one common distraction from the kingdom of god expecting non-christians to act like christians before they are that's impossible but we all get get upset by people out in culture who don't act like god wants us to act well the book of romans says they can't act that way because they don't have the power of the spirit in them they don't have the power to change so when you ask people or expect people to have christian values before they become christians it isn't going to happen when you ask them to act like christians before they're christians it isn't going to happen let me just say it is clearly how to say it the non-believers who are out there in society and culture they're not the enemy they're the mission field and if you see them in the enemy you're not going to see them as a mission field you're going to see them as your cultural enemy that is a distraction here's another one living in fear of criticism especially now today on social media it'll paralyze you it'll keep you from launching out it'll keep you from trying something new with your family in your business uh in your church uh uh you know wherever you know we would have never gotten anything done at saddleback if we worried what other people think what other people think you use none of your business you just live for an audience of one okay now if there happens to be any of you who are church leaders right now in our church or other churches let me just say this three things number one people are going to dismiss you when you're small number two people are going to criticize you when you grow and number three people are going to resent you when you succeed in every situation you have to live for an audience of one don't worry about what other people think as i said what other people think of you is none of your business those are distractions hebrews 12 1 says this look at there on your outline we should remove from our lives anything circle that anything that would get in the way that's a distraction and the sin that so easily holds us back there are sins and they're distractions so let me ask you this very pointed question what's keeping you from god's agenda what is keeping you right now from god's agenda of caring about the whole world and taking the good news to the whole world what's keeping you from god's agenda have you ever thought about why god keeps you alive after you're saved why didn't god just kill you and take you on to heaven the moment you're saved if ultimately we're made for eternity why does he let us stay around here in all the sadness sorrow suffering sickness and shootings why does god keep you here on earth well you know god has five purposes for your life to know him to love him to love his family to grow in him to serve him and to share him of the five purposes god has for your life four of them you're going to do in heaven you can worship in heaven okay you can worship in heaven uh you can um you can fellowship in heaven okay you can fellowship in heaven uh you can um you can grow in heaven you're gonna you can grow in heaven okay um you can uh you can serve in heaven it's gonna be certain there's only one thing you can't do in heaven tell non-believers about the gospel what tell non-believers about the gospel witness share share your testimony evangelize now of those things which of those since forum you're going to do in heaven the only reason you're left here on earth is to tell others there are only two things you can't do in heaven did you know that only two you can pray in heaven you can sing in heaven you can relax in heaven you can eat in heaven you can have fun in heaven the two things you can't do you can't sin and he can't witness so um which of those two do you think god leaves here on earth to do not sin so what's keeping you from god's agenda what is it that's keeping you from god's agenda whatever it is let it go i've had people say over the years rick don't you have enough people why do you keep growing we don't grow for our benefit the bigger the church gets the more the more problems there are we don't we grow because people need the lord we grow because as long as there's one person lost within driving distance of any of our campuses we are commanded to reach out the truth is friends the church that doesn't want to grow is saying to the world you can go to hell we're all saved we're happy we don't care about you we've got our own little problems our own little politics our own little controversies the rest of you you can just go to hell now let me just repeat what i've said now twice if you want god's anointing on your life you must care about what god cares about most his agenda he wants his lost children found many of you remember the story of my dad's dying words my dad was a man with a mission he was a pastor for 50 years who died of cancer never pastored a church more than about 120 people but he was a builder it's a carpenter and in his lifetime he built over 150 church buildings all around the world take volunteers all around the world building churches where there'd been disasters like floods and fires and all kinds of things when saddam kicked the kurds into northern iraq my dad took 19 guys went to northern iraq and built a dozen wells to give water to the kurdish people right before he died he was dying of cancer he said son i think i got one more church in me they said dad you've always been uh you know a worker for the lord you've never been somebody sit around laying in a lazy boy chair watching tv i said if you want to die with your boots on it's okay with me where do you want to build your last church building he said in siberia i said okay the one of the last pictures of i have my dad late in life he's on the top of a small church building he had built in in uh uh in siberia in the middle of a snowstorm snow all over the roof nailing down the roof and that's my memory of my dad last week of his life we brought him home to uh to shondell's house my sister's house and and and he he he was there in the last week of his life he um he he went into kind of a dream-like state the cancer was eating away at him and and for the last week he dreamed aloud uh and and i sat by his bed for several days listening to my dad dream and in those dreams uh as interesting he he talked about his life but he didn't review what i thought he might review he never talked about uh you know being a hero in world war ii which he was in south pacific he never talked about uh uh fishing which he loved a day without fishing was a day wasted he never talked about the books he read and the movie saw he talked about what was most important to him building churches for the god's kingdom and he would replay you guys take the these videos uh i mean uh team go over there take that lumber over there and make sure that joist is correct and when you get the beams together do that and make sure the wiring here and make sure everybody's back for for lunch and he just replayed building one church after another in his mind and i sat there listening to him i learned a lot about my dad listening to his dreams a night before he he died i remember i was sitting there in that room at home with my wife kay and my niece alyssa the three of us were in the room and all of a sudden my dad got very agitated he was in this dream-like state and he started trying to get out of bed and this time he'd lost a lot of weight he's very thin and and uh kay said jimmy uh whatever you need just tell us we'll get it for you but he kept trying to get out of bed kept trying to get out of bed kept trying to get out of bed and and my wife k said jimmy um you're sick and and whatever you need you don't need to get out we'll get it for you just tell us whatever you need but my dad kept trying to get out of bed and finally kay got pretty stern with him loving but stern said jimmy you're dying you can't get out of bed whatever you need tell us and we'll get it for you and my dad said gotta save one more for jesus gotta safe one more for jesus gotta say one more for jesus he began to repeat this over and over one more for jesus one more for jesus i'll save one more for jesus one more reach one more for jesus i'm not exaggerating there were two other people in the room that my dad said that maybe a hundred i don't know maybe 150 times in the next hour got to save one more for jesus one more for jesus one more for jesus and as i'm sitting next to my dad i bowed my head and tears are flowing down my face as i was thanking god for a dad who in his final moments was thinking about the kingdom of god was not thinking about himself was not thinking about fun was not thinking about politics was not thinking about money he was not thinking about what everybody else thinks about he wasn't even thinking about his pain he's thinking about the kingdom of god and i bowed my head with tears coming down and i was praying thanking god for the legacy of a dad like that and my dad reached up his very frail hand and it was shaking kind of like this and he put it over on my head like like a like a blessing and he said reach one more for jesus one more for jesus save one more for jesus one more for jesus give give one bring one more to jesus i intend for that theme to be the theme for the rest of my life i'm stepping down after 43 years at saddleback but i don't believe in retirement from the kingdom of god and for the rest of my life as god gives me breath i will bring one more to jesus and i invite you to make it the theme of your life because nothing matters more nothing will leave a greater legacy if you know something more important than to bring people to christ that she shed his blood for bring them to christ build them up to maturity train them for their ministry and send them out on their mission i invite you to stand up right now and tell us what it is because i decided a long time ago i'm not going to waste my life and i haven't i have not wasted my life i've lived it with purpose and with priority in the next 365 days 231 000 californians that's my state will die and most of them will go into a christless eternity without hope and without christ in the next 365 days 2.3 million americans will die it doesn't matter if they're democrat or republican red yellow black or white 2.3 american a million americans will die and most of them will go into eternity without christ in the next 365 days 54 million people in the world will die and most of them will go into eternity without christ without hope those statistics are almost unbearable to me we have to adopt god's agenda the kingdom of god matters more than anything else we must abandon all distractions because the kingdom of god matters more than anything else and number three and this is from god's word too we must appropriate god's power because we can't do this on our own we can't finish the task on our own the great commission that was given almost 2 000 years ago in that verse matthew 6 33 jesus attaches a great promise i love it in the new living translation it says this god will give you all you need listen god will give you all you need from day to day if if you live for him and make the kingdom of god your primary concern that is the greatest priority you know for 20 years here at saddleback church i personally taught every new membership class every month for almost 20 years and one of the things i would say in every membership class is this i make no apology in saying to you that the greatest thing you may do with your life is join this church grow to maturity get involved in a ministry and go out on mission because that is going to outlast everything else you do it's going to outlast your career it's going to outlast your hobbies building the kingdom of god growing a church that's going to outlast us and i say this imagine a hundred years from today you're in heaven and imagine 100 years from today somebody comes up to you and says i just want to thank you when you say thank thank me you don't i don't even know you said no you don't know me but you were the pioneers of saddleback church you were one of those people who back in the 2020s the 2020s you joined that church and you got involved and you grew to maturity and you discovered your shape for ministry and you took all those classes and you got involved in serving and you went on mission and you took the gospel around the world and 50 years after you died that church reached me for jesus christ i'm in heaven because of you thank you you think that'll be worth it as i said just a second ago if you know a greater task a greater priority a greater purpose than to do what we've just been talking about i invite you to stand up and tell us i'd like to know because i am not going to waste my life in fact just friends god is looking for people to use and in second chronicles chapter 16 verse 9. a verse that god gave me when i was 16 years old and called me to serve him full time the rest of my life i started preaching on a 16 license to preach by my church while i was still in high school second chronicles 16 9 says this the eyes of the lord searched back and forth across the whole earth looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him so that he can show his great power in helping them will you be that person will you commit to god's priorities god's agenda and finishing the task so that god can show his power in you let me just close with a pretty personal question how badly do you want to be a part of god's agenda just something you'd like to do maybe in your spare time you think god put you on earth do something different are you willing to be criticized are you willing to be misunderstood because you don't adopt other people's agendas and you don't get involved in the spats and the controversies out there are you willing to go against the flow are you willing to serve in obscurity and nobody knows what you're doing but god does you say well nobody knows what i'm doing for the kingdom god does he has every hair on your head numbered and when he puts you in ministry you stay put until he calls you to do something different now what we've talked about is god's agenda and god's priorities and god's purposes and there are four possible responses that you can make to this greatest task of taking the good news across the street across the nation across the ocean around the world four possible responses to what i've just talked about what god's word has said you can be like moses who when god called him he said who me me or you can be like jonah who said not me not me or you can be like habakkuk who said why me why me or you can be like isaiah who said send me send me god is looking for a band of people who will disregard all the cultural distractions and all of the divisions and all of the criticisms in our culture and will focus on the one thing that has always mattered most the salvation of the people christ died for i invite you to make the rest of your life the best of your life by adopting god's agenda abandoning all distractions and appropriating god's power it's the most important thing let's pray would you bow your heads with me father i i want to thank you thank you for the privilege of being a part of the only thing that matters the only thing that's going to last for eternity it's not going to last five years or a hundred years now it's going to last for eternity thank you for the privilege of being a part of your kingdom and building your church would you pray this in your heart say lord i realize that nothing is more important than what we've just talked about i realize that and i realize that nothing else is going to last for eternity tell the lord forgive me for allowing other things to distract me from what's most important in life why i'm still alive here on earth i recommit my life to your agenda today i want to be a kingdom builder i want to help finish the task that you gave a.d 33 and the great commission expand my heart lord just say expand my heart lord and give me a world vision bring revival in my life in my family in my body in our church in our world started in me like isaiah lord i'm saying hear my lord send me use me to make a difference and help me to reach one more for jesus if you've never opened your life to jesus christ this is a great time to do that say jesus christ come into my life right now and make yourself real to me just say i don't understand it all but as much as i know how jesus christ i open my life replace the emptiness in my heart with your love replace my pressure with your peace replace my regrets with your forgiveness replace my uh pressure with your purpose i open my life to you and i humbly ask you to accept me into your family i'm putting my trust in you i know i can't save myself and i ask this in your name amen amen

Channel: Pastor Rick

Views: 175,989

Keywords: Pastor Rick Warren, Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, Pastor Rick, Rick Warren sermon, Rick Warren, Saddleback Church, Saddleback, christianity, church, church sermon

Id: 1-7IlXedhyU

Length: 51min 17sec (3077 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 15 2022