Awesome Message from Rick Warren


In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

 

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a

nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last

forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven..

 

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-

– but not the end of me.

 

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of

years in eternity. This is the warm-up act – the dress rehearsal. God

wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

 

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life

isn’t going to make sense.

 

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just

coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.

 

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character

than your comfort.

 

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making

 your life happy.

 

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of

life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

 

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the

toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

 

I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark

time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe

that anymore.

 

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like

two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good

 and something bad in your life.

 

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something

bad that needs to be worked on.

 

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always

something good you can thank God for.

 

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

 

If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-

centeredness,’which is my problem, my issues, my pain.’ But one of the

 easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto

 God and others.

 

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of

thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy

for her.

 

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her

character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a

testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

 

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

 

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For

instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million

 copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

 

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with

before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own

 ego or for you to live a life of ease.

 

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money,

notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped

 me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

 

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our

 lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary

from the church.

 

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace

Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick,

 and educate the next generation.

 

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years

since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be

 able to serve God for free.

 

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions?

Popularity?

 

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism?

 Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)?

 

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God,

 if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and

love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list.

He’s more interested in what I am than what I do.

That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.

 

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.

Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.

Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

Every moment, THANK GOD. 

 

 

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