Month: August 2024

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor.”  Psalm 112:9 (NLT)

Generosity expands your influence. The more generous you become, the more influential you will become.

Influence comes not from what you get in life. Influence comes from what you give away in life, and the more you give away, the more influential you’ll be—and the more opportunities you’ll have to use your influence for God’s purposes.

The Bible says in Proverbs 11:24, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller” (MSG).

The Bible also says, “They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor” (Psalm 112:9 NLT).

When Kay and I got married nearly 50 years ago, we were tithing 10 percent. At the end of our first year of marriage, we raised our giving to 11 percent. At the end of our second year, we raised it to 12 percent. At the end of the third year, we raised it to 13 percent. Every year for 40 years, even in tough times, we have raised our giving a little bit.

Why? Because I wanted my heart to grow bigger every year. I wanted to be more like Jesus. I wanted to be godly. I wanted to be holy.

We weren’t doing this to show off. In fact, I didn’t tell anybody about it for more than 25 years. We just quietly did it every year until 20 years ago when we started giving away 91 percent of our income and living on 9 percent.

We do it because we cannot out-give God. And while my giving went up, so did my influence. God has used that influence to make Jesus’ name known in many places in the world. I’ve tried to use every ounce of influence that he’s given me to help more people hear the gospel.

God wants to use you to do great things for him. As you grown in generosity, he will grow your influence so you can use it for good.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others. Be good servants of God’s various gifts of grace.” 1 Peter 4:10 (NCV)

Whenever we pursue something in life, we do it hoping that it will give us significance. But the only way to really experience significance is to serve with others in ministry. Ministry just means doing good to other people.

Significance does not come from status or a hood ornament on your car or a logo on your shirt. Significance does not come from a bigger salary. Significance does not come from sex.

Significance comes from service. Significance comes when you start thinking about other people more than you think about yourself and you give your life away. You cannot be selfish and significant at the same time.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others” (NCV).

What are your talents? What are the unique skills and abilities God has given you? They were not given for your benefit. God gave them to you for the benefit of the people around you. You are shaped for significance, and you find that significance by using your gifts and talents and abilities to serve other people.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, “Two people are better than one, because they get more done by working together. If one falls down, the other can help him up. But it is bad for the person who is alone and falls, because no one is there to help. If two lie down together, they will be warm, but a person alone will not be warm. An enemy might defeat one person, but two people together can defend themselves; a rope that is woven of three strings is hard to break” (NCV).

You may think it’s easier to do things on your own. You may prefer solitude. You may need your alone time. But you will always get more done when you serve with other people.

You’re not meant to serve God by yourself. You’re meant to serve God on a team. You’re meant to serve God in a family, in a small group, in a church. You’re meant to serve God in relationship.

Do you want to find significance and give your best to God? Then serve him with your community.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow.”  Ephesians 4:16 (NLT)

There are some things you will never learn on your own. You only learn them in community. To grow and develop your potential, you must learn from other people.

For example, you can only learn forgiveness in relationships. You can’t learn that on your own. You can only learn loyalty in relationships. You can only learn love in relationships. You can’t learn kindness or faithfulness or graciousness or unselfishness without others.

In fact, the most important things you need to learn in life require that you be in relationship to other people. You can’t do it on your own. If you want to build your potential, you must learn from others.

Where is the best place to do that? In God’s family. You learn it by being connected to the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:16 says, “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow” (NLT).

This is why I’ve talked so much about small groups over the years—because I’ve seen it work: I’ve seen people join a small group who felt unconnected, who were unsure of their purpose, who needed direction in serving others, who just needed to be known. And being in community with others in God’s family made all the difference. Sharing their lives and being open about their struggles and cheering each other on in life made all the difference.

Why does sharing your life with others make a difference? Because you weren’t made for success. You were made for significance. And the best way to live a life of significance is in relationship with others, serving and sharing and growing and worshiping with them.

You need the people God has placed in your life. And they need you! God wired us to depend on each other and to learn from each other. When you’re connected to other people, it’s not just you who grows and benefits. You also use your gifts and experiences to help others fulfill their purpose.

We need each other!

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of [Christ’s] body.” Romans 12:5 (MSG)

We only learn who we are in relationship. We only learn our true identity in community.

You’ll never learn who you really are by yourself. You only learn it in relationships. That means you must connect with other people for fellowship.

If you had been born and lived your entire life to adulthood with no human contact, you wouldn’t have the slightest idea who or what you were. You wouldn’t even know you were a human being. You only know that because you’re in relationship to other human beings. You learn your identity by being in relationships.

The Bible says we need to be connected to God’s family, the body of Christ: “We are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around . . . Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of [Christ’s] body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we?” (Romans 12:4-5 MSG).

My ear only functions and fulfills its purpose by being connected to my body. If my ear was cut off and was lying on the ground, what’s the value of it? Nothing, because it can’t hear anything.

Same goes with my nose and eyes: If they’re not connected to my body, what’s their purpose? They don’t have a purpose, because they can’t smell or see anything by themselves.

In the same way, if you’re not connected to the church, then you’re not going to know the purpose of your life. You’re not going to know your role. You’re not going to know your function. You’re not going to know your value and your meaning.

As a part of God’s family, you have a special role that only you can play. You have a job that won’t get done if you don’t do it. You have contributions to make that other people won’t benefit from if you’re not connected to God’s family.

You’re an important part of the body of Christ! And you’ll only find your value, your purpose, and your identity when you are connected to the church and form relationships that help shape you into who God made you to be.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” Psalm 126:5-6 (NLT)

You need to plant by faith, not by your feelings.

Do you think that every day a farmer wakes up excited to go to work on their farm? No. It’s hard work! But if a farmer only worked their crops when they felt like it, not much would get done. They may not want to get up early. They may not want to go plant and weed and cultivate and harvest. But they do it anyway.

Let me make a little confession: I don’t always feel like being nice to people. I hate to admit it! Sometimes I want to be cranky. Sometimes I just want to say, “Leave me alone!” I don’t always feel like being kind. I don’t always feel like being generous. I don’t always feel like giving people hope.

But I don’t live by my feelings. I choose to live by faith. Sometimes I plant when I’m tired. Sometimes I plant when I’m distracted. Sometimes I plant when I’m stressed out. Sometimes I plant when I’m in deep, deep grief. And I move ahead in faith in spite of my feelings, expecting God to act.

One year at Saddleback Church, we were approaching the anniversary of my son’s death, and I really didn’t want to be at church. It was close to Easter, and I would have rather just celebrated the resurrection at home with my family and my Lord and just get through the day.

I was in tears most of that week, and I claimed Psalm 126:5-6 as a promise: “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest” (NLT).         

And you know what? As I was planting seeds in 14 Easter services, God gave a harvest of 2,604 people who came to Christ. Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. All those people are going to be in heaven because I didn’t do what I felt like doing. I did what I did by faith.

Sometimes God will call you to make a sacrifice—through your money, yes, but also through your time, talent, and maybe even your life. You may feel like saying, “I don’t feel like it.” But if you do, you will miss the blessing that God wants to give by using you.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”  John 4:38 (NLT)

Years ago PBS did a series of family histories of famous Americans. They wanted to include a pastor, so they asked me if I would participate. They took a swab of DNA from my mouth, and they used it to trace my family tree back a thousand years. They didn’t discover that I’m the descendent of kings, but they found all kinds of interesting things and compiled it for a TV special.

One of the things they discovered is the amount of godly ancestors I have. I am reaping the benefit and blessings from grandparents and great-grandparents and others who were praying for their children’s children and making disciples in our family. I can see the blessings in my life because I had people in my family who loved God and were praying for future generations.

I know many would say, “I didn’t have a family like that. But I’d like to have a legacy like that.”

You start it! Start that kind of legacy—the kind with eternal effects—with your family. You determine that the future generations of your family name are going to be blessed because you planted seeds of godliness, because you prayed and did not give up, even when you didn’t get to see the harvest. If you do, the people who come out of your family tree will have a blessing in heritage.

You are harvesting both good and bad from your past. Why? Because you’re not the only person sowing. You need to take your choices very seriously, because your life is going to affect future generations. You can’t control the past, but you can break the chain of hurt and abuse and ungodliness now. You can change the course for your family. You can establish a godly legacy by sowing seeds of prayer and love and generosity and faith.

Jesus said in John 4:38, “I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest” (NLT).

You may never see the harvest here on earth. But you can be sure your faithfulness will have an impact for generations to come and for eternity.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands—more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.”  Luke 6:38 (ICB)

To reap a great harvest, you must plant generously in faith.

My wife Kay and I have done this hundreds and hundreds of times. We’ve raised our giving from 10 percent 40 years ago to giving away more than 90 percent of our income today. I’m an example of the fact that you cannot out-give God. I’ve tried for more than 40 years and lost every time.

To plant generously in faith, you need to remember two promises of Jesus. First, Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands—more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you” (ICB).

You need to start being generous in planting seeds in this life to harvest in the next. “The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.”

Then, in Mark 10:29-30, Jesus gives a guarantee about anything you give up for his sake. He says, “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time . . . and in the age to come eternal life” (ESV).

God says that anything you give up for his sake and sacrifice for his kingdom will be returned a hundredfold. You know how much a hundredfold is? That’s 10,000 percent interest. Do you know any stockbroker that will guarantee that? Only God and his Son can do that. They’ve been doing business with people like you for 2,000 years.

These are the promises of God. You can believe them or not. But if you don’t believe God’s promises, I have to ask you this: Why do you believe Jesus will save you and take you to heaven? That’s the same Jesus. Why do some people trust God with their eternal salvation, but they don’t trust God with their finances?

It only makes sense to trust God for both and to plant generously in faith so that you can reap a harvest.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Do your best to improve your faith.”  2 Peter 1:5 (CEV)

Admiral Hyman Rickover was the father of the U.S. nuclear Navy. He once interviewed a Naval Academy graduate and asked him a very direct question: “When you were in school and in all your life, did you always do your best?” The young man started to say “yes” but then realized it wasn’t truthful. “No,” he said, “I didn’t do my best all the time.” Admiral Rickover looked at him with piercing eyes and said, “Why not?”

Why not? The question burned in the young man’s heart, and it was a turning point in his life. That young cadet, Jimmy Carter, became the 39th president of the U.S. and wrote a book called Why Not the Best?

If you want to give your best to God, there are three things you must do that every soldier understands.

1. You must define what you would die for.

Soldiers know there are some things more valuable than their own lives. Even Jesus talked about it: “The greatest love is shown when a person lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 TLB). You measure love not by what people tell you but by their willingness to sacrifice everything they have for something.

2. You must sacrifice your own comfort.

Soldiers do this all the time. They serve in extreme circumstances and don’t make much money. They give up a lot of things.

You don’t become a great man or woman of God by doing what’s easy or comfortable. You do it by committing to something greater than yourself and then being willing to sacrifice for it. The greater your sacrifice in life, the greater your character will be. “Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3 NLT).          

3. You must eliminate distractions.

“No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Timothy 2:4 NIV). Soldiers know they can’t be distracted if they want to be ready to respond to a leader’s command.

If you want to be great, if you want to be the best you can be, you must start spending more of your time, money, and energy on things that are going to last forever and less time, money, and energy on things that don’t really matter.

If you want to give your best to God, why not start with these three steps?

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Faith is visualizing the future. It’s believing before you see it. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (NIV).

How will you see what’s happening in your life through eyes of faith?

A lot of people say, “I’ll believe it when I see it!” God says the exact opposite is true: “You will see it when you first believe it.” There are many things in life that have to be believed before they can be seen.

In 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first cosmonaut into space. When the cosmonaut returned to earth, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev declared they’d been to space and didn’t see any god there.

About 10 months later, the U.S. sent John Glenn into space. He circled the earth three times on his Mercury mission, came back down, and told the world, “I saw God everywhere! I saw his glory in the galaxy. I saw his splendor in the universe. I saw his majesty in the stars.”

Which one was right? They both were. Jesus said, “Unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NLT). Before there is spiritual transformation in your life, you’re too narrow-minded to see the possibility of what God wants to do in your life.

Wernher von Braun, the leading scientist in the early stages of the U.S. space program, said, “There has never been any great accomplishment in history without faith.”

It is faith that causes the scientist to believe that we can put a man on the moon. It is faith that causes an architect to design a building because, first, they believe it can be done. It is faith that causes an Olympic athlete to practice and go to the Olympic trials because they believe they can achieve it. It is faith that causes a sculptor or an artist to believe that they can paint a picture or attempt the sculpture. Someone has to believe it before we see it.

You can trust God’s promises and his work in your life. Believe in God’s love and care and guidance as you face whatever he has given you today. Believe it, and you will see it.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”  Mark 8:35 (NLT)

How do you know if you are living for your dream or God’s dream?

You may think you were created to get up, go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed, to make a little money, retire, and die. Really? You think that’s all God put you here for?

If your dream is truly from God, it will somehow be connected to his church and his plan for the world. Why would God give you a self-centered dream, unconnected to what he wants to do in the world? He wants to use you for his dream. He wants to use you for his plan.

God is building a family, and he’s collecting family members from every nation, tribe, language, and people group. When everybody’s in the family that he knows will be in the family, it’s over. We’re going into phase two, which is eternity. That’s God’s big plan.

Right before Jesus went back to heaven after the resurrection, he gave the disciples a great dream. It’s called the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT).

The Great Commission is your commission. We’ve had 2,000 years of God building his family so that now there are 2.5 billion people in it. The church is almost as big as China and India combined. It’s bigger than anything else on this planet—because God created it. It’s the whole purpose of history.

And when God gives you a dream for your life, it is somehow going to be connected to his overarching plan. It’s connected to the growth of his kingdom and his family until the day it’s completed and we all go to heaven.

Mark 8:35 says, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it” (NLT).

You weren’t put here on earth to live for yourself. Ask God to give you his dream for your life so that you can be part of the biggest, best, and most important story.