well good morning everybody and i want to say hi to all of the people in our different venues uh praise venue and overdrive and el encuentro and the family venue and san clemente and those watching online we're glad you're here today welcome to 40 days of purpose if you'll take out your uh message notes inside if you have a bible you could turn to jeremiah chapter 20 if you don't all of the verses are written out here on the on the message notes today as we start 40 days of purpose we're going to look at life's three greatest questions the first is the question of existence why am i alive the second is the question of significance does my life matter and the third is the question of intention is there a purpose for my life first the question of existence why am i alive now for thousands of years people have asked this question why am i alive many people in the bible did in fact one of the guys there was a guy named jeremiah on your outline jeremiah asked this question why was i born was it only to have trouble and sorrow to end my life in disgrace this guy's having a bad hair day you guys he's not exactly in a good mood why was i born was it only to have trouble and sorrow and end my life in disgrace i heard the other day a guy said you know i hope life isn't a joke because i don't get it and maybe you felt like another person i heard who said i feel like my life has a great cast i just can't figure out the plot and that's true that a lot of people say i i don't really know why i'm here what i'm here for what i'm supposed to be doing with my life now if you don't look at it from god's point of view you've only got three options there are three other ways to look at the purpose of your life none of them work but they're very popular approaches the first approach to knowing the purpose of your life is what i call the mystical approach you find it in a lot of new age books you find it in a lot of seminars conferences it's talked about on tv talk shows all the time you find it in movies like the matrix and star wars and you can summarize the mystic mystical approach to knowing the purpose of life in two words look within look inside yourself it's a matter of introspection it's kind of trust the force luke you know look look within your side yourself now somebody just needs to stand up and and admit it this doesn't work it doesn't work all these people who say look within yourself and you'll know your purpose well it i did that in fact if if knowing your purpose could be found by looking with inside yourself we would all know our purpose in life because we've all done that i looked within myself and i didn't like what i saw in fact i couldn't even figure it out a lot of the times now follow me on the logic of this you didn't create you so you can't tell yourself what your purpose is does that make sense you hear that see the logic in that if you didn't create you then you don't know why you were created because you had nothing to do with your creation so looking within simply doesn't work now the second approach to discovering the purpose of life is what i call the self-help approach and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of self-help books and they can be helpful in certain areas but not in the area of knowing your purpose you know i i've looked at a lot of purpose books on purpose i probably have bought 60 different self-help books on knowing your purpose not one of them tells you what your purpose is on life instead they all say the same thing here's what they say you got to make up a purpose you got to create a purpose you've got to get a purpose in other words just it doesn't really matter what it is you just got to have a purpose to live for and all of the steps are very predictable in every self-help book they say things like this consider your dreams uh set some goals figure out what you're good at uh aim high go for it be disciplined break your bad habits achieve believe that you can achieve and never give up now actually that's quite good advice if you want to be successful but being successful and knowing the purpose of your life are not the same thing you can be a raving success in life and you will pretty much be a success at whatever you put your mind to and so those things really do work if you're setting goals but setting goals and knowing your purpose are not the same thing and being successful and knowing your purpose in life is not the same thing i know many many very successful people and they're wealthy they're famous they've achieved all kinds of prestige and accomplishments and won awards and yet in the quietness of the the moments with them often they'll say i don't have a clue what my purpose in life is so it's not the same thing as being successful now if that one doesn't work then you can try the third way which is uh what i call the philosophical approach and in the philosophical approach the idea is you you speculate about the purpose of life and what you're going to have to do on this one is you'll have to go enroll in a course in philosophy in usc or ucla or uci or some other school and then you go and you put on a cardigan and sweater and you sit by a fire with your pipe and your starbucks and you say questions and you've got to use a certain tone why am i here what am i here for where did i come from where am i going hmm and and you know the philosophy has its place it really does but the truth is when it comes the purpose of life they're just guessing and your guess is as good as mine you need more than speculation you need revelation let me say it like this if i were to hold up an invention right now and you had never seen it and i said tell me the purpose of this invention well you wouldn't be able to tell it to me because you had never seen it and the only way you would know the purpose of that invention was either a talk to the creator the guy who invented it or b read the owner's manual and then you'd know what it was to be used for the same is true with your purpose in life you want to know what you're on this planet for you got to talk to your creator the god who invented you and you got to read the owner's manual when in doubt check the directions now this is what we're going to look at in the next 40 days together but a lot of people try this philosophical approach there's a guy named dr hugh morehead i read a book that he wrote he's a professor of philosophy at northeastern illinois university and he had an interesting hobby of writing to famous people and asking them one question what is the purpose of life and he collected these over a period of i don't know 20 30 years and put them in a book and he wrote to very famous people architects intellectuals inventors poets musicians famous authors well-known world leaders psychiatrists he wrote to very famous intellectual people and he said what is the purpose of life printed them all up in a book that book is now out of print i'm kind of glad because i read it and it was a downer i mean by the time i finished the book i wanted to slit my wrist i it it was really down do be do down down depressing and um you know the the bottom line of this save you the book from reading the book is uh he asked people what is the purpose of life and some people offered their best guesses and some people said well you just got to make up one and some people said i haven't the slightest idea what is the meaning and purpose of life uh and if you can figure that out please let me know i mean some very famous people for instance like carl jung the the famous imminent psychiatrist wrote i don't know the meaning or the purpose of life but it looks as if something were meant by it hmm that's very helpful okay isaac asimov not my isaac asimov fan i read all of his science fiction growing up isaac asimov wrought as far as i can see there is no purpose in life joseph heller another famous author wrote i have no answers to the meaning of life and i no longer want to search for any you know that's a tragic statement when you think about it because actually a life without purpose has has no meaning it's trivial it's petty and pointless and if you take god out of the equation then you really don't have a whole lot to move on you got look within you got make up a purpose or you got guess about it those are the alternatives on the other hand if you put god in the equation you're way down the track and we're going to look at that today what are we here for why are we alive well now this one may shock you but here's the answer god says you were created to be loved by god the whole reason you are alive is god made you to love you god made you to express his love you were created as an object of god's love now we've talked about this before the bible teaches that god is love all love comes from god god is love it doesn't say god has love it says god is love it is his nature it is his character it is the essence of his being god is love and the bible says god made everything in the universe just so he could love it including you and the bible tells us this there on your outline first john chapter 4 love comes from god for god is love you might circle that god showed how much he loved us by sending his only son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him now the bible says that you were created to be loved by god now god didn't need you he wasn't lonely god has never been lonely but god wanted you and that's why you're alive the reason your heart is beating right now the reason you're taking your next breath is god made you simply to love you and if god hadn't wanted to love you you would not exist somebody else would exist god wanted you alive you can't make god stop loving you you can try but you'll fail because god's love is not based on who you are it's based on who he is it's not based on what you do whether you're good or bad or indifferent it's based on his character god will never love you any more than he does this very second god will never love you any less than he does this second because god is not moody god does not have bad hair days god made you to love you and it's not based on your response there is no man in this world who will ever love you as much as god does there is no woman in this world who will ever love you as much as god does he made you to love you notice what the bible says in the book of ephesians it says this long before god laid down the earth's foundations that means before he even created the world he had us in mind and he settled on us as the focus of his love to be made whole and holy by his love if you feel like your life's coming apart you feel like it's fragmented you feel like it's falling in different directions how do you get wholeness in your life experience the love of god feel it love it the bible says that god loves you unconditionally before you even born god thought you up and said i want to create this person so i can love them and that's what god did now no man as i said or no woman will ever love you like god does now human love wears out we know that look at the divorce rate look at how many times when you were dating you broke up with somebody human love can die it can run out but god's love never ends in fact the next verse says this i have loved you with an everlasting love now friends if you get what i just told you you get it emotionally it'll change your life i'm not talking about intellectual you got it okay i understand god made everything to love it and he made me to love me so what you don't get it the day that you actually feel that love and you realize that god says he created the entire universe just so he could create this galaxy just so he could create the planet earth just so it would bend at just the right rotation so we don't burn up or freeze up just so it would sustain human life just so we could create the human race just so he could create you just so he could love you when you ever fully understand that emotionally once you get it and you feel loved by god you will never again struggle with low self-esteem you will never again struggle with inferiority or insecurity when you remind yourself that's how much god loves me he created before he created the universe i was the focus of his love that's how much god loves you now that leads us to the second question the question of significance and that is does my life matter now maybe you've asked that maybe there's been times that night where you put your head down on the pillow and in that quietness before you go to sleep you go is what i'm doing matter does it count does it have any relevance does it have any meaning is all that i'm doing just a waste of time and energy or or is there some meaning and purpose and is my life significant a lot of people ask this question in the bible there's a guy named david and david asks in psalm 89 he says i remember how short my life is in other words it's not that long why did you create us for nothing in other words god why did you make us just put us here for no nothing that really matters at all job asks the question he says why should i work so hard for nothing if there's no meaning and purpose why am i even doing this solomon even talks about it with with pleasure he says you know laughing and having fun is crazy but what good does it do is there any significance to what i do now why is this important why is the matter of significance important it's what keeps you moving forward if there's no significance there's no meaning no purpose in your life why not just check in or check out for that matter why keep going as i said without meaning life is petty trivial and pointless do you know in world war ii when the nazis were trying to exterminate the jewish race and they they herded them into concentration camps and over 6 million killed in the holocaust and one of the things they tried to do in those death camps is remove all meaning and purpose from their lives because they knew if people have meaning and feel their life matters they will hang on through an amazing number of uh torturous events in one case in a in a hungarian death camp the death camp they were using the prisoners simply to process sewage what a low job and one day the allies came along and they bombed the sewage plant and there was no more work to do even in that and so the nazis decided that they would simply have the prisoners move the rubble from one side of the death camp to the other side of the death camp and they moved it the next day they had to move it all back to the other side no purpose in it just work the next day they had to move it back to the other side the next day they had to move the rubble back to the next and they were doing it day after day after day it was effort and energy expense without any meaning without any reason without any purpose and the prisoners began to go crazy and they began to do anything they could to die to take their life they would they would they would assass the the the officers they would try to climb over offenses they would intentionally try to get shot because they would rather be dead than live a life without meaning now everybody here today is living their life at one of three levels there's the survival level there's the success level and there is the significance level most of the world lives at the bottom level the survival level they're not thinking about mortgages and car payments they're thinking about will i have my next meal the only clothes they may have are on their back they have no home no shelter will there be a roof over my head if it rains tonight and much of the world lives in survival mode physical survival nobody in america lives at the survival level believe me i've been around the world the poorest of the poor in this nation are wealthy con compared to the rest of the world if you have any money in your pocket just a little change or if you have any change sitting in a dish at home you're already in the top 10 percent wealthy of the world so it's a whole different ballgame now we do have people in america living at emotional survival level and that is where they're just putting in their time and living for the weekend and when you're in survival mode you're always dreaming of escaping to tahiti or somewhere you're always thinking about how can i get out of this because you are controlled by your circumstances you're dominated by your problems you're not really living you're just existing and if you think well i get up in the morning go to work come home watch tv go to bed do the same thing seven days a week go to a party on the weekend retire and die that's not living that's existing you were made for so much more than just work make money retire die that's not what life's all about and a lot of people live at that emotional survival level just barely getting by now in america you live at the success level by the world standard every american even the poorest of the poor is successful compared to the rest of the world and success means you have options you may not have a lot of money but you can decide whether you're going to go to mcdonald's or carl's jr or in and out or burger king or whatever you can decide i want to go to a movie and you choose the movie you come from most people don't even have those kind of choices and in the success level you've moved up you've acquired a certain level and by the world standards you've got it made and of course here in southern california and in orange county a lot of people have achieved an amazing level of success in terms of prestige and possessions and position and uh status and salary and you know success and they think i've got it made and they even have a word for it i'm living the good life and you are you got it good looking good feeling good having the goods but there's something better than the good life there's the better life and that's what we're going to talk about during 40 days of purpose you see i've talked to a lot of successful people i know many many successful people who've achieved wealth and fame and things like that and in their quieter moments they'll tell me you know rick if i'm so successful why do i feel like a fake if i'm so successful why do i always want more if i'm so successful why am i not satisfied with what i've already got if i'm so successful why don't i feel more fulfilled and the answer is you were made for more than success you were made my friend for significance and what you need is not more money you need meaning what you need is not more possessions you need purpose what you need is not more success and status what you need is significance and this next 40 days we're going to talk about how do you move from success to significance the significant kind of life and significance comes when you a know your creator who made you b you know your purpose that he put you on earth for and three you began to live out god's five purposes for your life so is god playing games with us is god trying to intentionally confuse us so he makes it really hard so you don't know why you were put on this planet of course not god wants you to know the purpose he put you on this planet for more than you want to know it because he doesn't want you to waste your life he did not put you on this planet to take up space use up oxygen burn up resources and die he put you on this planet for a purpose and god says three things about your significance you need to write these down he wants you to know how much you matter to him and god says three things in the bible first he says that he cares about every detail of your life god cares about every detail of my life he cares when i am not feeling good when i've got an upset stomach when i'm running late for an appointment when i've had a bad conflict with somebody he cares about every little detail of your life and god has no problem handling all the details of every person who's alive now the bible says this jesus in matthew 10 said not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without your heavenly father knowing it you know yesterday i have a glass fence in my backyard and a bird came and hit that fence and died and and it fell god saw that bird fall he's that attentive to details not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without your heavenly father knowing it the very hairs on your head are all numbered it's not hard for some of you but that means that when hair number 1042 fell out into the drain this morning god saw it and it says so don't be afraid you are far more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows now if god pays attention to every hair on your head that falls out he certainly is paying attention to you in a way you have never even imagined he knows every single thing about you every thought every idea every motive every good and bad time and he still loves you you know he cares about the details of your life the second thing the bible says is that he planned my days before i was born god planned my days before my birth he thought him out in advance he knew already how many days you were going to live and the bible says this in psalm 138 for you god scheduled every day of my life before i began to breathe that means before you were born when you were in your mother's womb he says he scheduled every day of my life before i was born before i began to breathe every day was recorded in your book this friends by the way is why abortion is wrong because it short-circuits god's plan i'm glad you weren't aborted god planned every day of your life before you were born in his mind you were a person before you were born and he planned it out and an abortion short circuits god's plan now what does this teach us if god knows everything in my life in advance it means one thing it means god is never disappointed with you why is that because disappointment happens when something unexpected happens when you expect something to happen and it doesn't you get disappointed but god is never disappointed in your life because he already knows everything that's going to happen in your life in advance why because god is not limited by time you see time is something that we have because we live on a planet that turns around and goes around the sun and has a 24-hour increment but god isn't living on a planet earth he is outside of time and space he created time and space so god can be present and past and future all the same time now that'll blow your mind because our minds it's like us like an ant trying to understand the internet you trying to understand god you don't have the brain capacity and neither do i to understand god if we could we'd be god but god is not limited by space or time so he can be past present future all at the same time so nothing surprises him that means when you come home at night and you pray now god you're not going to believe what happened to me today god is not going to say oh you got to be kidding me didn't see that one coming or when you make a really stupid decision and then you start result getting the results of it in your life and you go god i need to tell you about something dumb i did he already knows he already knows so god is not disappointed he he cares about every detail of your life and he planned your days before you were born and the third thing and this one's the biggest one of all he made you to last forever god says he made me to last forever you're not just here for here and now on this planet the bible says that we were made in god's image now that means you're different from animals you're not a duck you're not a rabbit you're not a cow you're not a you were made humans are made in god's image and there are several things that means i don't have time to get in all the implications but one of them is you're made to last forever god is eternal and god has put an eternal soul inside you and you're going to last forever one day your heart is going to stop that's going to be the end of your body it's not going to be the end of you in fact the bible says you're going to get a new body and in that time that means you're going to spend more time on the other side of death than you do on this side on this side of death you're going to get 60 80 years maybe at the most 100 if you're fortunate on the other hand on the other side of death you're going to spend all of eternity trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions of years as i've said before if we were to take a tape measure and stretch it from orange county to tokyo and that represented all of eternity your life on this planet the 60 80 or 90 or 100 years you get here that's the little millimeter compared to all the time you're going to spend an eternity so the question then becomes what on earth am i here for and the bible says this life is preparation for the next that life on earth is preparation for eternity this is the get ready stage this is the warm up act before the real thing starts it's the dress rehearsal before the play and eternity begins this is the first lap around the track before the real race begins this is the kindergarten it's the preschool it's the learning stage and the bible says life is preparation for eternity this 80 or so years you get here is for getting you ready for eternity notice what the bible says in ecclesiastes 3 god has made everything beautiful for its own time do you remember the song everything is beautiful that song came from this verse in the bible god has made everything beautiful for his own time he has planted eternity in the human heart he has put an eternal soul inside of you he's planted eternity in the human heart but people can't see the whole scope of god's work from beginning to end and that's what frustrates us because god can see the whole thing from beginning to end and we can't so we get stressed out we get we get concerned we get worried we get nervous we get anxious because we can't see how it's all going to end god isn't stressed out he sees the whole picture but because we don't see it we have to learn to trust god now god has put eternity in our hearts that's why there's this longing in you for more that no matter what happens in your life no matter how good things are you keep saying there's got to be more there there's there's got to be more than this and the fact is there is there's way way way more you were made for not a lot more than just here and now there's eternity in your heart and that longing that you can't even explain of why you're unsatisfied is because god put it in you because he made you not for this side of death but for the trillions of years on that side of death where things are very different god says i want you with me the rest of your life for all of eternity the biggest mistake that people make today is thinking that this life is all there is oh you only go around once in life so you better go with gus gusta that's a stupid attitude you better go with the way god says to go it so you're prepared for what's coming now unlike the 24-hour fruit fly it is no small uh thing that god has well how do i say long-range plans for you god's plans for you are far more than just the 80 years here on this earth they go on forever and ever and ever god wanted a family to live with him forever the bible says this in first john chapter two the whole world and everything in it is passing away what does it mean is things are decaying we know this building will eventually decay everything decays it dies on earth this is we're not meant to live here forever and he says the whole world and everything in it is passing away but those who do the will of god will live forever now if you don't get anything else i say today whether you're here in the service saddleback or one of the venues or you're watching online get this you matter to god you matter to god more than you will ever understand you can't even understand how much you matter to god he made you he created you he fought you up before you were born he made you to love you you were created as an object of his love he knows everything about your life he cares about all of the details he plans you before your birth and he wants you to live with him forever in eternity that's how much you matter to god and as i said when you understand that and you really let it sink in it will change your life it'll transform you now that leads us to the third question and that is the question of intention and the question of intention is is there a purpose for my life now a lot of people have wondered about this in the bible a guy named isaiah said this my work all seems so useless i have spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all is there a purpose for your life well you got to go back to god you know probably the most famous atheist of the 20th century was bertrand russell and one thing i totally agree with him on even though he was an atheist is what he said about the purpose of life in fact i actually put it in the first chapter of purpose-driven life and bertrand russell says this he says unless you assume a god the question of the purpose of life is meaningless he says unless you assume there is a god the question of the purpose of life is meaningless and i happen to agree with that he's right what is he saying he's saying this if there is no god then there is no purpose to life if there is no god there is no grand scheme there is no significance to anything there is no meaning because the truth is if there is no god your birth was an accident you're just a freak accident of nature you are a random chance and it just so happened that you were born and if by random chance you had get killed by drive-by shooting too bad you're no different than a duck or an ant or a goat or anything else because there is no god there is no eternal soul if there is no god there's no right or wrong there's no heaven or hell there is no afterlife if there is no god there is no meaning and purpose in life and people who want to say i don't believe in god need to be intellectually honest enough to admit the logical conclusion of their belief if there is no god nothing matters it's just survival of the fittest and if i want to kill you to get ahead that's survival of the fittest it leaves a very bleak depressing world a lot of people want to be atheist because they really don't want a boss but they don't want to follow to its logical conclusion that if there is no god everything is freak random chance and nothing matters your life doesn't matter it isn't worth zip but there is good news there is a god and he has a plan for your life you might write this down the good news is god says he made me for his purposes god has never made anything without a purpose every rock has a purpose every plant has a purpose every animal has a purpose and the more we study the ecosystems of the world the more we realize how intimately related everything is and how when you get one thing out of balance it gets everything else out of balance and there's a ecological system that god set in place that it all has its purpose even the bacterias and the diseases and things all of these things they're behind the scenes now stuff gets perverted it gets polluted because when you don't understand something's purpose you misuse it when you don't understand the purpose of sex you must use it when you don't understand the purpose of money you misuse it when you don't understand the purpose of your life you misuse it and you also let people abuse it so that's why it's so important you know the purpose for your life and god says that he made me for his purposes the bible says in proverbs 16 the lord has made everything for his own purposes and during the next 40 days we're going to look at god's five purposes for your life he hasn't hidden it from us it's very clear in his word the bible starts with these words in the beginning god and that's where you have to start in the beginning god if you don't start with god you don't have any choice there's really nothing else other there is no meaning or purpose without that so what we're going to do in the next 40 days together is learn to discover what god says about your purpose in life let me write this down how do i discover my purpose in life by getting to know god when you get to know god you're going to understand yourself because he's the creator who made you he's the one who wired you and the bible tells us several things about this they're on your outline colossians chapter 1 says everything absolutely everything above and below visible and invisible everything got started in him that's god and finds its purpose in him if you don't get the in him part you're not going to find any purpose the next verse proverbs 9 10 knowing god results read it with me in every other kind of understanding you want to know why you're having difficulty in your relationships get to know god you want to know why you keep going into debt get to know god you want to know the purpose of your life get to know god you want to know why you're stressed out all the time get to know god you want to know the answers that you can't find yourself get to know god the bible says knowing god results in every other kind of understanding and then this verse out of the book of ephesians in the bible it says it is in christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for part of the overall purpose he god is working out in everything and every one there's nothing more important than knowing what on earth i'm here for and that's why we're going to spend 40 days together doing it now during the 40 days i'm gonna ask you to do five things i'll explain them in a minute i added up all the time it will take to do those five things it's going to take about 48 hours about an hour a day 48 hours to understand god's purposes for your life question is it worth 48 hours is it worth two days of your life to know what to do with all the other days of your life i would say so is it worth 48 hours of your life so that you know god's purpose for your life the rest of your life i would say so is it worth investing 48 hours of your time to make sure that you're headed for the right place in eternity and you are prepared as this life prepares you for the next i would think so if you know a better way to invest 48 hours of your life stand up right now and tell us because i don't know a better way to do it than to understand god's purpose for our lives when we first did 40 days of purpose we started it we invented it here at this church five years ago nobody else had heard of it today over thirty thousand churches in america alone have done forty days of purpose that's one out of every ten churches in america has done 40 days of purpose and then it began to spread and it first went to professional sports teams almost every team in the nba in the nfl and in pro baseball have done 40 days of purpose nascar has done it lpga has done it almost every professional sports team has done 40 days of purpose and then corporates corporate groups and businesses started doing it and employees at ford motor company did 40 days of purpose and employees at walmart did 40 days of purpose and at coca-cola and at disney and i could go on and on and on schools started picking it up cities start picking it up today around the world over 50 million people have done 40 days of purpose in the last five years 50 million people this next year uh this whole cities are doing it the city of orlando the city of chattanooga did citywide 40 days of purpose this next year in rwanda they're going to do a nationwide 40 days of purpose in april and in the city of kampala uganda they're going to do a city-wide 40 days of purpose and next fall new york city is doing a city-wide forty days of purpose now what i'm going to be teaching you in the next six weeks along with pastor tom and pastor doug is material that has now been taught literally all around the world and it will change your life if you let it but you've got to do it the way that will transform you if all i do is give you a sermon if all you do is come to hear the six messages then you're gonna have six days of purpose and that's not gonna change your life and when you hear me talk that's information but when you want it really inside to change you you gotta hear it you gotta read it you gotta talk about it with other people you gotta think about it and you gotta do it and so there are actually five parts to 40 days of purpose and if you're going to do it to be changed that does transformation then you need to first you're going to need to hear all the other six messages that we do here on the weekend either here at saddleback or online and by the way starting this weekend we have removed the password and the registration anybody in the world can go online to saddleback.com and watch this service so if you've got a friend or our or you've got you know relatives in some other country or you are out of town for a week you can go on to saddleback.com and watch this message for the next six weeks and you can have friends watch it who can't drive down to saddleback number two you need to read the daily reading that i wrote in purpose driven life which is now the most translated book in the world next to the bible and it has been translated in more languages than any other book and is the best-selling book in a hardback in american history now there are 40 days of this and you'll read one chapter a day in that the third thing you're going to need to do is get in a small group and in a small group and we have over 4 000 of them meeting from santa monica and malibu all the way down to carlsbad i think where every city in southern california is covered and we have a 40 days of purpose study guide where you will talk about the meaning in your own life and you need to get in a group that meets once a week and it meets at home or it meets at work or it meets uh wherever and then in that group you're going to watch some additional training additional teaching i don't have enough time on weekends to share it all with you so we put it on a dvd and actually those of you who are here five years ago this is new we just re-taped this about two years ago so it's a new version of 40 days of purpose that you'll be watching in your small group you can either go join a group by going out after the service going out on the patio over here and signing up to be in a group or if you're a regular tender saddleback and you want to start a group host a group we will give you you can sign up and we will give you a packet that has the books and the video and all the stuff and that if you uh register to be a host and tomorrow night at 7 00 p.m here at right here in this in the auditorium i'm going to ask every host to meet with me for about 45 minutes and i'll give you training and that's all you need to lead a group now because so many millions of people have gone through this program i could tell you a million stories of transformed lives really i have received hundreds of thousands of emails calls and letters over the last five years and i got to thinking which story would i like for people to to hear and i thought about the story of ashley smith it's the story she wrote in a book called unlikely angel and it'll be out on the patio after the service she can sign it for you you probably remember the news story about the escaped convict who shot up a a courtroom killed the judge and a police officer and multiple murders and there was a massive manhunt for this man going on all over uh the city of atlanta one night about 1 a.m in the morning he took 26 year old single ashley smith she's now married she's ashley robinson took her hostage in her own house tied her up with electrical cords and at gunpoint held her hostage ashley had the presence of mind to say can i read the purpose-driven life to you and as she began to read it it began to soften his heart and you know the story it's been told on oprah and larry king and practically every news media he she convinced him from that book to let her go and to calmly turn himself in to the police to the swat team now you that's the story you've heard but i asked ashley to come and share the rest of the story the part on the front end and the part on the back end that you hadn't heard about so i want you to give a warm saddleback welcome to ashley smith robinson i'm praying for you [Applause] good morning and i just want you guys to know that i'm so happy that i'm finally here it's been about two years trying to get here and get our schedules worked out so i'm excited to um to come share my testimony with you guys i accepted jesus as my savior when i was about seven years old i come from a very big christian loving athletic family and i was um very much into sports and spent a whole lot of time with my family and in the gym i made good grades i was i was a model adolescent um however at the age or at the year before my summer before my senior year i began doing drugs and i immediately liked the way that drugs made me feel and drugs slowly became the driving force of my life i got married at the age of 20 and my daughter was born a few months later i was at that time a dedicated wife a dedicated mother and a dedicated partier on the weekends however two and a half years after marriage my husband and i went out on a on a weekend to party and i watched him get stabbed to death and die in my arms obviously by telling you that god was not a priority in my life at the time i believed that god was calling me at that time to to work in my life however i was too busy partying and i told god that he would have to wait and use me later on um after watching my husband die i my party and went from a weekend partying to 24 hours a day seven days a week to deal with the pain and and everything else that was going on in my life the truth is i was a drug addict but but i wouldn't have told you that i would have just told you i was having fun and and that maybe when one day i'd stop that is what i convinced myself of but when my daughter was three and a half years old i could no longer take care of her because i couldn't even take care of myself my addiction had gotten that bad i at the request of my aunt i allowed my daughter to go stay with her until i could get my life together that process of getting my life together began in 2003 and i was in and out of many rehabs leaving and because i really wasn't ready to do it or whatever but i finally in 2004 i completed a program of a three and a half month program and and i left the program and i moved to atlanta i was originally from augusta and i moved to atlanta and i got a job two jobs actually i got enrolled in medical assisting school and and i began um you know doing okay in my life however two and a half months after um completing that rehab program i um i thought i had it all together and i actually began to do drugs again um and so i spent those ten months trying to hide my then active um drug addiction for my family actually in february of 2005 though i went home to augusta for a weekend visit with my daughter paige and i went to church for the first time in many many years and it was there that they were beginning what you guys are beginning again here at the 40 days of purpose and they were handing out books there just like pastor x that they would do at the small groups i picked up one of those books and i knew at that point in time that god was calling he was knocking at my door but i was really really scared to answer that call because my life was in such a mess and i really didn't think god wanted anything to do with me how god be knocking at my door is what i was saying but he was and i really had absolutely nothing left and so i answered the door and god really really began to work in my life at that at that point in time i took the book home and i began to read it and over the next 33 days in my life i am i read a chapter a day i read the verses in the bible i wish i could tell you that my drug use had completely stopped i really wanted it to however at that point in my life it had not and i still use during those 33 days but there was a difference this time when i used i got mad at myself and and i could feel god's arms around me saying you know what it's okay get up and keep going maybe we'll do better next time just keep going ashley i'm here and so i kept doing that um and on march 11th of 2005 like most of you guys know bryan nichols took me hostage um it was in my own home and and that um my story of being taken hostage is a story of two redemptions most people like pastor rick know like he just said you know that i read to him from the purpose-driven life and and he let me go and he turned himself in to the police what a lot of people do not know is that i was still struggling with drugs like i just told you and i couldn't break free of that on my own i was trying to to calm brian nichols down that night and do everything that he possibly said so i could make it out of there alive and i had drugs in my apartment that night and he asked me for drugs and i gave him those drugs and that is really when god changed me and set me free because he um i i had to make the decision of whether i was going to do those drugs with him or whether i was not going to do those drugs with him and and it was it was kind of a no-brainer for me because it was like i can do drugs and die and go home and meet my savior high or i can choose not to do it and see what he's going to do for the rest of my life and so that's what i chose and i haven't touched drugs since then and it's been a wonderful blessing in my life [Music] thank you really is the second part of um of the the redemption but really my life my life has really changed since that morning because i completely let go of the good the bad and the ugly everything i let god have all of it and and wanted to see what he could do with it because i had made a mess of my life um how did i do that i i immediately began to dig into god's word to find out more about him and who he was um who who is this guy who's who's literally reached down in the pits of hell or in the pits of my drug addiction and pulled me out of it and said i love you um so so i began to dig in the bible and and get that information i of course finished the purpose-driven life and i began to pray for christian friends christian mentors people in my life up until that point i i didn't have very good influences in my life they were lost just like i was um and and that's kind of what i do what i do now is so maybe that they will see that they too can be saved by god's grace but as a result of praying for for those types of people to come into my life i was flooded with those types of people and and they helped me um on my road to being close to god i began to learn how to be a christian mom and a christian woman and that was very important to me i got really involved in in a church in augusta georgia and the youth girls there were really my passion and i spent a whole lot of time with them and just poured my life into him and and and got some great results out of that for them and for me it was it was a blessing for both of us really um the biggest thing though is i began to realize what my purpose was from god i'm not there yet i haven't arrived i haven't arrived until god calls me home that's that's the truth of it all but i began to realize that god wanted to take some of the mistakes that i had made in my life and turn them around and use them for his purpose my drug addiction is kind of an embarrassing thing to talk about sometimes however it's me it's who i am it's who i well it's who i was and god uses it for his purpose now and i want people to know out there if there's anybody out there that's like me god loves you you're no different than me and he is waiting and he's just waiting on you to just completely surrender and say i love you let me take this and turn it around um so i choose to be honest about those things today and it doesn't make me any less it it makes me saved by god's grace and i think that's that's the best thing to be in the world um my daughter paige she's been with me since 2005 ever since this happened and our relationship has truly healed and it's been wonderful and it's grown pastor rick told you my new name is robinson i got married this summer to a man who yeah yeah i got married to a man too who has been in the same place that i was to and and god reached down and pulled him out too and loved him enough to bring him out of that too so he's experienced that same thing and and we're just on this journey of life together and the only difference um now than was before is we let god lead this journey and i can not tell you that or i can tell you that we we haven't been happier in our lives letting god be the leader has been the best experience ever the thing i look forward to most is to one day hear my savior say well done good and faithful servant going and speaking around the us and canada and all the places that i've been it's been a blessing to me but it's been a calling from god that i just chose to say okay i disobeyed for a long period of time but now now i owe the rest of my life to you and it's an honor to do that i used to be addicted to drugs but now i'm addicted to god's love and that's a good thing to be addicted but i want you guys to know that no matter what you do or no matter what you've got done god loves all of us the same and he loves us so much that he gave his son to die for us he hung up on a cross and he died and he rose again and he's waiting for us in heaven one day he's going to call us home and let me say this in closing my story is proof that you don't have to have it all together to be used by god i was struggling in atlanta and of all the millions of people in atlanta god chose a widowed drug addict mom and he reached down and he said you can do what i want you to do not only can you do it because i'll help you but you're willing to do it and that that really is why i think god chose me because he knew i was willing to do whatever it took to do what he wanted me to do so my prayer for you is that during the 40 days of purpose that that you guys discover god's purpose for you and allow him to start using you so so we can bring more people home to heaven one day so thanks a lot and god bless you george herbert once said it's never too late to become what you might have been it is never too late to become what you might have been i don't care how old you are you may have wasted a few decades but god's purpose has never changed for your life and that's why he brought you here today and so you could watch this now we're all at different parts in the journey that's okay we're going to go through it together some of you are seekers you i don't even know if i believe this or not i'm just checking it out fine welcome you're glad we welcome you here at saddleback this is a church for people who have doubts we're glad you're here you just check it out with us some of you are brand new believers and you're just getting started right i sure wish i'd had this material when i was a brand new believer it would have helped me get further down the line very fast some of you are what i call stumblers you've had a church background you went to catechism or temple or something as a kid but you just kind of strayed away from god it's time to come back home and this is your time to come back home and some of you are strong believers and you're going to grow deeper during these next 40 days because we forget things and we learn them and we learn them deeper and deeper and deeper and god will use you to help others regardless of where you are spiritually there's a verse in the bible it's the last verse on the outline that god has to say to all of us he says 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 let's bow our heads why don't you pray this prayer in your heart right now you say i don't know what to say well i'll give you some words and you can just follow it along and say me too god dear god i realized that if it weren't for you i wouldn't even be alive because you made me you must have a purpose for my life i admit i focused on my plans and purposes not yours but starting today i want to know and i want to fulfill your purposes for me and why you put me on this planet so i commit the next 40 days to learning about it thank you that you made me to love me thank you that you care for me even when i didn't know it thank you that you made me to last forever i want a life filled with meaning and i want to start getting to know you better so as best as i understand that i i ask you jesus christ to make yourself real to me come into my life as help me to understand your purposes today i'm taking the first simple step in your name amen you