SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction Pastor Ken Cramer September 21, 2014

WHY ARE GOALS IMPORTANT TO CHANGING MY LIFE? 1. ____________________________________________________________ Paul: “I know that I am not yet what God wants me to be. I haven’t reached that goal, but I keep moving toward it to make it mine because Christ made me and saved me for this. I know that I haven’t yet reached my goal, but there’s one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep my eyes focused on the goal so that I may one day win the prize that God has called me to receive through Christ in the life above. All of you who are spiritually mature should think this same way, too.” Philippians 3:12-15

2. ____________________________________________________________ “According to your faith will it be done to you.” Matthew 9:29

3. ____________________________________________________________ “I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something—not just the air.” 1 Corinthians 9:26 (NCV)

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____________________________________________________________ Job: “I do not have the strength to endure. I do not have a goal that encourages me to carry on.” Job 6:11 (NLT)

5. ____________________________________________________________ Paul: “...I keep striving toward the goal...” Philippians 3:12 (TEV)

6. ____________________________________________________________ “If your goals are good, you will be respected.” Proverbs 11:27 (TEV) “All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step.” 1 Corinthians 9:25-26a (NLT)

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction

WHAT KIND OF GOAL DOES GOD BLESS? 3 questions to ask: 1. __________________________________________________ “God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God.” 1 Corinthians 6:20 (CEV) “When you eat or drink or do anything, always do it to honor God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 (CEV) “We make it our goal to please him...” 2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV)

2. __________________________________________________ “Everything you do must be done with love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14 (NLT) “Let love be your highest goal.” 1 Corinthians 14:1 (NLT)

3. __________________________________________________ “We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.” Proverbs 16:9 (Mes) I NEED ________________________________________ “You will not succeed by your own strength or power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.” Zechariah 4:6 (NCV)

I NEED ________________________________________ “Keep this Book of the Law on your lips. Recite it by day and by night, that you may carefully follow all that is written in it; THEN you will successfully attain your goal.” Joshua 1:8 (NAB)

I NEED ________________________________________ “By yourself you’re unprotected. But with a friend you can face the worst. And a group of three is even better because a rope braided with three strands is not easily snapped!” Ecclesiastes 4:12 (Mes)

This week in your small group (Intro) How to set personal goals in faith & The 3 secrets of achieving any goal

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SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction Bring your journal to your group AND weekends!

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SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction Pastor Ken Cramer September 21, 2014

Welcome to 50 Days of Transformation! I have been excited about this. I have been working on this series for almost two years. I want you to know that I am more excited about where we’re going the next fifty days than anything since we did 40 Days of Purpose. Our theme verse for the next fifty days is going to be Romans 12:2. Romans 12:2 is going to be our memory verse for this week. Let’s read it aloud together, Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” God wants you to be a nonconformist. He wants you to be a nonconformist! Do not conform to the pattern of this world. But be transformed. You’ll either be conformed or you’ll be transformed. God created you to be unique. God created you to be special. God created you to be like nobody else. You have a unique voiceprint, thumbprint, handprint, heartbeat. God doesn’t make clones. Man does; but God doesn’t make clones. And God says I want you to be unique not conformed to anybody else’s idea of what you should be. But the problem is we all start off as originals but we end up as copies of other people. We get conformed and we get pressured and we get pushed into a mold. During the next seven weeks we’re going to look at seven key areas of your life and the changes you need to make, want to make and can make because of God’s power in your life. We’re going to look at your spiritual health. We’re going to look at your physical health, mental health, emotional health. We’re going to talk about transforming the way you think, transforming the way you feel. We’re going to talk about financial health, transforming the way you look at and use money. Relationships. Relational health. Vocational health – your career and where you’re going for the rest of your life. Let me explain to you where we’re going. We’re going to look at seven key areas of your life but we also have seven key features that are going to help you grow. What I want to do today is explain to you why you must set goals for your life. And God says it. It’s very clear in the Word of God. Why you must do that and the changes it will make in your life, the power it will do. So this is all about the future. A lot of times we talk about problems and pressures in your life. This series is about your potential. This series is about your possibilities. This series is about your future – making the best of the rest of your life. So I’m very excited about it. I want to begin by giving you the six reasons why you need to learn how to set goals in your life. The Bible says six things about goal setting.

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction WHY ARE GOALS IMPORTANT TO CHANGING MY LIFE? The Bible says that 1.

GOAL-SETTING IS A SPIRITUAL RESPONSIBILITY

Goal setting is a spiritual responsibility. Did you know that God sets goals? God has goals for the universe. God has goals for planet earth. God has goals for history. God has goals for eternity. And God certainly has goals for your life. The Bible tells us that Jesus set goals. In fact he often announced publicly what his next goal was. “I’m going to do this now… I’m going to do this now.” He publicly would announce in advance what his goal was for the next phase of his ministry. Every person who walked with God in the Bible you can find examples of being goal directed. But let me just give you one example. The Apostle Paul. Philippians 3 says this “I know that I am not yet what God wants me to be. [Anybody agree with that? I know that I’m not yet what God wants me to be…] I haven’t reached that goal, but I keep moving toward it to make it mine because Christ made me and saved me for this. I know that I haven’t yet reached my goal, but there’s one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep my eyes focused on the goal so that I may one day win the prize that God has called me to receive through Christ in the life above. All of you who are spiritually mature should think this same way, too.” I want you to circle three things: “that goal”… “my goal” … and “the goal”. Paul was goal oriented. He says I haven’t reached that goal. I haven’t yet reached my goal. And my eyes are focused on the goal. Why is it important for you to set a goal? Because it’s a spiritual responsibility. You’re going to go through life either by design or by default. You’re either going to set goals and you’re going to decide what’s important for your life or other people are going to decide it for you. If you don’t have goals for your life you are abdicating control of your life to somebody else and other things. If you don’t have goals for your life you’re not living; you’re just reacting. You’re just existing. If you don’t have clear goals for your life you’re just coasting through life. You are drifting through life. And whenever you’re coasting you’re always going downhill. If you don’t have goals for your life you have already decided to let other people run your life. Because you don’t know what’s important so you’re going to let them decide. And you react to circumstances and you go through your whole life wasting your life because you haven’t clarified what’s important. This is a very important spiritual discipline. You’re allowing others to wreck your life.

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SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction The Bible says to be spiritually mature, he says all of you who are spiritually mature should think the same way. I set my goal, I strive for my goal, I move toward my goal, I keep my eyes focused on the goal. That’s what Paul said – probably the greatest Christian who ever lived, next to Jesus himself. 2.

GOALS ARE STATEMENTS OF FAITH

Goals are statements of faith. A lot of people think, a goal? Isn’t that like a business thing? Isn’t that like a secular thing? Isn’t that like something athletes do? No. This is a spiritual habit that you need to develop. And goals are statements of faith. In other words, if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ and you set a goal, what you’re saying is, “I believe [that’s faith] that God wants me to accomplish such and such by such and such a time.” That’s a statement of faith. A goal is a statement of faith. This is what I believe God is going to do in my life. Goals aren’t just a statement of faith; they stretch your faith. And the bigger your goal, the more your faith will be stretched. And that pleases God. The Bible says “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” So if you don’t have any goals, you don’t need any faith. And if you don’t need any faith, the Bible says it’s impossible to please God. In fact in Romans 14 it says “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” So if I’m going through life without any goals I don’t need to take any risks. And if I don’t take any risks I don’t need any faith. And if I don’t have any faith I am being unfaithful. You see how important it is for you to have a goal in every area of your life? Here is a goal stretching verse. Ephesians 3:20 “God can do anything. Far more than you could ever imagine. [I don’t know...I can imagine some big things. Far more than you could ever imagine] or guess, or dare to request in your wildest dreams.” I don’t know about you but I can imagine some pretty big things. I’m a pretty big dreamer. Nobody has ever accused me of being a small thinker. I’ve always had big dreams and yet God says, “Rick, you think of the greatest thing, the greatest dream I could do in your life and guess what? I can top that! I can beat that! I can do anything. Far more than you would ever imagine or guess or dare to request in your wildest dream.” Let the size of your God determine the size of your goal. You let the size of God determine the size of my goal. Many years ago when Saddleback decided to buy this land – it’s a hundred twenty acres. Do you know how much that cost? Millions of dollars. To buy a hundred twenty acres in Orange County would seem like nonsense to most people. When we as a church decided to buy this one hundred twenty acres for millions of dollars – we were not a very big church at the time. I remember the word got out in the community that this little group of people called Saddleback was buying a hundred twenty acres. The question was going through the community, Who do they think they are? And I thought, That’s the wrong question. The question is not, Who do we think we are? The question is, Who do we think God is? 3

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction

Big God big goal… tiny God tiny goal… no God no goal. Let the size of God determine the size of your goal. I guess what I want to say to you as your pastor, as somebody who loves you and I want the best for your life and I want you to succeed in life is during the next fifty days I dare you to dream great dreams. I dare you. Stop your puny little thinking. Stop being in a little bitty box. “I’m too young or I’m too old or I’m not pretty enough or I’m not handsome enough or I’m a woman or I’m a guy,” or whatever. Stop all your arguments. And start dreaming what God could do in your life if you would just trust him. To me hell would be if God were to show me all I could have accomplished in my life if I just believed him a little bit more. That would be hell. We limit God by our unbelief. There are two common mistakes we make in goal setting. We set them too low and we try to accomplish them too quickly. As your pastor, I’m urging you in the next fifty days each week we’re going to set a goal in each of the seven areas. You’ll set one for your area. I challenge you to dream big dreams for God and I challenge you to think bigger than you ever thought before so that you have to trust God. I live my life in such a way that I’m bound to fail unless God bails me out. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve painted myself into a corner where everybody goes, Who does he think he is? Look what he’s trying to do. Like one time we said, Let’s be the first church in two thousand years to go to every nation. Nobody had ever done that. We did it. Why? Because we set a goal and God helped us. I have spent my life dreaming great dreams. It’s amazing what God can do in your life if you’ll do that. Here’s the cool thing: dreaming doesn’t cost anything. It doesn’t cost you any money. It doesn’t cost you a penny. You can dream great dreams. What do I dream about in my relationships? What do I dream about in my career? What do I dream about in my finances? What do I dream could happen in my relationship with God? How would I want to look? How healthy would I want to be? All these things. Dream great dreams. We over estimate what we can do in a year and we underestimate what you can do in ten. So instead of thinking puny little tiny goals and try to accomplish them instantly, my challenge is get a big goal for your life and then spend the rest of your life going after it. I did. When I was twenty five years old and I moved here and started this church with no members, no money, no building. I set a forty year goal for this church. When I was twenty five that seemed like an eternity. Goals are statements of faith. By the way the difference between a goal and a dream is you put a deadline on it. And you say, this is what I want to happen by 2020. That’s what I did. In 1980 I set a goal to be accomplished by 2020. 4

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction

If you don’t have a date, a deadline on your goal, it’s not a goal. It’s just a dream. Dreams are good but you need both. Here’s what the Bible says, Matthew 9:29 “According to your faith will it be done to you.” God says you get to choose how much I bless your life, how much I transform your life. Great faith will be great transformation. Nothing happens in your life until you start dreaming. God says you get to choose. “According to your faith will it be done…” So I’m going to encourage you when we start setting one goal a week for the next seven weeks, don’t miss any of these, that you ask the question, Will this require me to have faith? Is it such a big dream that I’m bound to fail unless God helps me? I’m really going out on a limb. Don’t ever be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. The fruit is not at the trunk. You don’t get the fruit by playing it safe. It’s out on the limb. Never be afraid to rock the boat if Jesus is your captain. I’m sharing life experience tonight because I’m looking out on the next generation of Saddleback right here and I’m going I want you to know God like I do. I want you to trust him like I do. And I want you to be used by God in ways that you’ve never ever imagined. I never imagined all of this but God did. Goals are statements of faith. 3.

GOALS FOCUS MY ENERGY

Another one of the reasons why you need to set goals in every area of your life is they focus your energy. They keep you from wasting time, money, reputation, energy. They keep you focused. Selection is the name of the game. Focus is the key to an effective life. It’s not these fifty things I dabble in. It’s this one thing I do. The more you focus your life the more powerful, the more effective your life is going to be. If you spread it out and diffuse your life over a whole bunch of different things you’ll make no impact at all. But if you focus your life it’s going to be powerful, it’s going to be strong and it will change the world. Light diffused has no power at all. But when you focus light it has enormous power. The sun doesn’t set things on fire because it’s diffused. But I remember when I was a kid you take a magnifying glass you can set grass on fire. Or you can burn little bugs. (I’m sure all you girls did that, right?) You focus the light and it can actually start a fire. If you focus light even more it becomes a laser. And a laser can cut through steel. And a laser can kill a cancer. I want you to live a laser life – a focused life. Goals focus my energy. The world is full of distractions. Everybody agree with that? There’s a lot of things to distract you. You can spend your life, you can waste your life, or you can invest your life. The greatest use of life is to invest it in that which is going to outlast it

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SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction You don’t have time to do everything. You’ve figured that out already. You don’t have time to do everything. Here’s the good news: God doesn’t expect you to do everything. Not everything is worth doing. There are only a few things that are really worth doing. The key to being effective in life as a woman of God, as a man of God, is to do what matters most and forget everything else. Goals focus my life. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 9:26 “I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something—not just the air.” He says I’m not playing around here. I’m not playing air guitar. I’m not just pretending I’m boxing. When I box, I fight to win. When I run a race, I run to win. I’m not just messing around here with my life. It’s too important. I’m going to do something with my life. I’m going to win. I want my life to bring honor and glory to God. I don’t run without a goal. Some of you are running without a goal. And as a result you’re just running in circles. You’re caught up in the rat race. You don’t want to run the rat race because even if you win the rat race you’re still a rat! Goals are statements of faith, goals focus my energy… 4.

GOALS KEEP ME GOING

They give me hope to keep moving. They give me hope to endure. They give me hope to persist. You’ve heard me say this many times, when you’re going through hell what do you do? You keep going. You don’t make a home in hell. You don’t stay there and camp out over night. When you’re going through hell you just keep on going. The way you do that is you have a goal beyond. The Bible says “Jesus endured the cross because he looked forward to the goal and the glory that was set before him.” He looked beyond the pain to the payoff. You need to do this too. The Bible says that God wants to make you have hope. If you don’t have a goal in your life, any goals in your life, you don’t really have any reason to get out of bed in the morning. Except maybe to eat. But really why even get out of bed? Why even live if you don’t have any goal for your life? Job says this in Job 6:11 “I do not have the strength to endure. [Ever felt like that? “I don’t know if I’m going to make it.” I do not have the strength to endure. Why? Next sentence…] I do not have a goal that encourages me to carry on.” You have to have a goal to keep you going. They did a study once of the Holocaust survivors. In World War II you know the Nazis killed six million Jews and many others besides Jews – many Christians, Muslims, gays, others that they just didn’t like. They put them all in the death camps. They studied those who survived the Holocaust, survived those terrible tragedies. They discovered only one thing in common with all those people: Every one of them had something to look forward to. Every one of them 6

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction had something waiting for them. Every one of them had something that they wanted to live for. They had a goal. Those who didn’t have anything to live for, those who didn’t have anything to look forward to, those who didn’t have any goal out there, they lost hope and they simply gave up the will to live. And then they died. The second year of this church when I was twenty six years old and pastoring is what I call my dark year. I was depressed the entire year. I could barely put one foot in front of the other. I went to the doctor and got some nutritional advice. But it took a full year before I actually felt better. I was just always tired and I was always depressed and always fearful. At that time I wasn’t thinking, God build a great church. I was thinking, Can I just get through today? I look back now and I’m grateful that I didn’t give up that year. But I’m also more grateful that God didn’t give up on me. What kept me going through a full one year of depression? I had a goal. I had made a commitment to pastor this church for forty years. So I held on to that even though every bone in my body wanted to give up. Do you want to know how often I felt like giving up as pastor of Saddleback Church? How often I felt like resigning? Just every Monday morning. I get PMS – Post Message Syndrome. And after you’ve preached five or six or seven times and you’re all emotionally spent, you get up the next day and, Somebody could have done a better job than that. God, I’m not that smart. You’ve got to find somebody else. This church is too big for me. Get somebody else. Get somebody brilliant to do this. But you keep on keeping on. Why? Because you have a goal. When you have a long term goal, long term goals keep you from being discouraged with short term setbacks. Everybody has setbacks. Everybody blows it. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has failures. In fact, failure is the only way you succeed. You cannot succeed in life without failing. Why? Because that’s how you learn what works and doesn’t work. So never call it a failure; call it an education. Some of us are highly educated. We’re good at failing. If there’s any piece of advice as your friend I could say this to you: Learn to fail fast. You’re going to fail. Everybody fails out there all the time. You know what the key to Saddleback’s growth and our strength and our success is we fail fast. And then we learn from it. We don’t waste our failures. We try something and that doesn’t work. We try something else and that doesn’t work. We try something else and that doesn’t work. We do ninety nine things that don’t work. Then number one hundred works. Then we teach a seminar to other pastors and we pretend like we knew what went wrong. But we’re not that smart. It’s just trial and error. 7

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction Goals keep me going and the long term goals keep me from being discouraged about short term setbacks. A goal doesn’t have to be big to motivate you. For instance, If you had to go to the hospital and have surgery for some reason, your first goal after surgery could be, Can I sit up in bed? Not a very big goal but an important one. And the second goal, Can I hang my feet over the side of the bed and sit up? Then the next goal can I get enough strength to stand up after surgery? Then a very important goal, Can I have enough strength to go to the bathroom by myself? Big goal. Then, Do I have enough strength to walk around this wing of the hospital? All of those are very small goals but they’re all important goals. Because to get from here to success isn’t one big leap. It’s many small steps. Many small steps. So a goal doesn’t have to be big for it to be important. It’s getting you on the way. Like, My goal today is to get out of bed and eat healthy, have a healthy breakfast. Fine that’s a good goal. As Job said, I have to have a goal to encourage me to carry on. You may have come this weekend and you’re a little discouraged. Maybe you’re feeling a little down. Maybe you’ve got the blues. You’re down, down, down dooby do-down-down. Everybody hates me, nobody loves me, I’m never going to get married, I’m going to go eat worms! If you’re discouraged this weekend you need to set some new goals. That’s what we’re going to do in the next fifty days. You need to set some new goals in these different areas. Goal setting is a spiritual responsibility, it’s a statement of faith, it focuses my energy, it keeps me going. 5. GOALS BUILD MY CHARACTER Goals build my character. Drifting doesn’t build your character; but goals build your character. If you set a goal and you get a vision – without a vision, the Bible says, the people perish. If you get a vision, you get a goal, then God says I can work in you. Listen very carefully to what I’m about to say. The greatest benefit to your life over the goals you’re going to set in the next fifty days, the biggest benefit to your life, is not going to be the accomplishments and achievements you acquire because of those goals. But what happens inside you while you’re moving toward the goal. God is more interested in your character than he is in your accomplishments. You’re not taking your success to heaven. You’re not taking your career to heaven. But you are taking your character. So God is more interested in who you are and what you become than he is in what you do and accomplish and what you succeed at. God’s interested in you. So here’s the idea: While I’m working on the goal, God is working on me. Does that make sense? That’s what God wants to do in your life. Goals help build your character. And that’s what’s going to last for eternity. 8

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction

That’s why Paul says in Philippians 3:12 “I keep striving toward the goal.” Circle the word “striving.” That means it takes energy, it takes effort, it takes intention. It takes purpose in order to reach your goal. God says while you’re doing that, while you’re working on the goal, God is building character in you. You will never become the man God intends you to be unless you intend to become that man. You will never be the woman God intends for you to be, unless you intend to be that person. Ten years from today some of you, you’re not going to be in church. You’re going to be a long way from God. You’re going to go through a failed marriage. You’re going to have all kinds of problems in your life. Why? Because you never intended to be a man of God. You never intended to be a woman of God. It was just kind of a casual Christianity. Maybe this, maybe that. You never intended. You’ll never become what God intends without you being intentional. Goals build my character. 6. GOOD GOALS WILL BE REWARDED If you have good goals there’s going to be two reasons that you’re rewarded. You’re going to be rewarded on earth by people and you’re going to be rewarded by God in heaven. When you have a good goal it brings respect. When you have a good goal it brings honor. When you give your life to a good goal it builds a legacy on earth. The Bible says in Proverbs 11:27 “If your goals are good, you will be respected.” Circle that – “you will be respected.” You want to be respected? Then you need to set some goals that are good. Tomorrow the entire nation will celebrate Martin Luther King Day. Why? Why do we take a holiday for one guy? Because he was a man who set good goals. And he didn’t live for himself. He didn’t live for greed. He didn’t live for pleasure. He didn’t live for popularity. He lived to fight injustice and to fight prejudice and to fight racism and to fight for truth. He set good goals for his life so he is honored with a holiday. One of the greatest honors I’ve ever been given in my entire life was the honor of preaching in Martin Luther King’s home church on the fortieth anniversary of his death. So on the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death on that day they invited me to speak at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. I was the first white preacher to preach in that church. That was an honor to me. Why? Because I respect people who use their lives to make a difference. If you were to come to my study you’d find a picture of Martin Luther King on the wall with a typed signed letter underneath it. And you’d see another picture – of Mother Teresa with a hand written note underneath it. And you’d see a note from Billy Graham with a hand written note. And many others.

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SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction Some of these people on that wall are not Christians. They’re not Christians but I honor them. Why? Because they gave their lives for the good of others. They had a goal greater than themselves. They didn’t live a little selfish clod of a life, living for, I want to make a lot of money and retire. You think God put you on earth to do that? Make a lot of money and retire? That’s the whole purpose of life? Wrong answer! God wants to teach you how to love. If your goals are good you’ll be respected. But the real reward in setting good goals is going to come in eternity. 1 Corinthians 9:25 “All athletes practice strict self-control. [They eat right and they sleep right and they work out, they exercise.] They do it to win a prize that will fade away, [Nobody’s going to remember yesterday’s game in two weeks much less two years.] but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run [Paul says] straight to the goal with purpose in every step.” He was a purpose driven goal setter. You need to be that too. WHAT KIND OF GOAL DOES GOD BLESS? Not every goal that you can set is a good goal. Not every goal is a goal that God’s going to bless. So you want to set goals in these seven areas over the next seven weeks, you want to set these in your life, but you want to set the kind of goal that God is going to bless, God’s going to give you the power to do. So how do I know the kind of goal that God will bless? Let me close by giving you three questions. When you get ready to set a goal you want to ask these three questions: 1.

WILL IT HONOR GOD?

That’s the first question you ask. Will this goal honor God? What kind of goal would honor God? What kind of goal brings glory to God? Any goal that causes you to trust him more, to depend on him more, to love him more, to love other people more, to serve God, to serve others, to be more unselfish. Those are going to be good goals. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:20 “God paid a great price for you. [Look at the cross] So use your body to honor God.” Are you using your body to honor God? Or are you using your body for pleasure, for selfish reasons? Use your body to honor God. Circle that. 1 Corinthians 10:31 “When you eat or drink or do anything, always do it to honor God.” Everything can be done to honor God. You can take out the garbage to honor God. You can wash dishes to honor God. You can clean out your car to honor God. Or your closet. You can study for a test to honor God. How? By doing it with the right motive – out of gratitude. And for the right motivation – I want my life to bring honor to God so I’m going to be the best I can be for God’s sake. Will this goal honor God? The Bible says this “We make it our goal to please him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9.

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SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction 2.

IS IT MOTIVATED BY LOVE?

That’s the second question you ask when you set a goal for your finances, your health, your relationships. Is this goal motivated by loved? God is not going to bless a goal motivated by greed – I want to make a lot of money. God is not going to bless a goal motivated by competition – I want to be better than that company. God is not going to bless a goal motivated by envy. God is not going to bless a goal motivated by greed or grief or guilt or grudges. He’s not going to honor a goal that’s built on worry or fear or anxiety. God is not going to bless a goal that’s motivated by materialism or by ego or by pride. But when you set a goal out of love – God, I want to do this because I love you and I want to love other people – God’s going to honor that because it’s all about love. Life is all about learning how to love. 1 Corinthians 16:14 “Everything you do must be done with love.” Everything. 1 Corinthians 14:1 “Love must be your highest goal.” That should be the number one goal in your life – I want to learn to really love. I want to learn to love unlovely people. I want to learn to love the loveless and the unloved. I want to learn to love people who are hard to love. That’s being like God. Why is it important for you to have goals that are based on love? Because if you set loveless goals, you’re going to treat people as projects. You’re going to run all over them to get to your goal. You’re going to run over your marriage, you’re going to run over your friends, you’re going to run over other people climbing up the ladder of success. God says, No. You’ve got it all wrong. It’s not about accomplishments. It’s about relationships. It’s about learning how to love. 3.

WILL IT REQUIRE DEPENDING ON GOD?

Will this goal require depending on God? Remember I said earlier, Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it’s impossible to please God.” If you don’t have a goal that requires faith then it’s not a pleasing-to-God goal. Romans 14:23 “Everything that doesn’t come from faith is sin.” If you have a goal that’s so small it doesn’t require any faith to do it, it’s a sin. Whatever is not of faith the Bible says, it is sin. Look at this verse, Proverbs 16:9 “We plan the way we want to live but only God makes us able to live it.” I love that in The Message paraphrase. That’s what we’re going to do during Fifty Days of Transformation. You get to plan the way you want to live. This series is to help you make the rest of your life the best of your life. We get to plan the way we want to live. But, it says, only God gives us the power, gives us the energy, gives us the ability to actually do it. To make the transformation. Why? Because God provides the three things you must have to reach your goal. Three things you must have to reach your goal, three things you must have to change your life. 11

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction

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I NEED GOD’S SPIRIT TO EMPOWER ME

This is not something based on willpower. It’s based on God power. It’s not based on trying; it’s based on trusting,. I need God’s Spirit to empower me. Zechariah 4:6 says “You will not succeed by your own strength or your own power but by my Spirit says the Lord.” I need God’s Spirit to empower me to make changes I can’t make on my own. •

I NEED GOD’S WORD TO GUIDE ME

I need God’s Spirit to empower me; I need God’s Word to guide me. This book, the Bible, is the owner’s manual for life. The more you get this book into your mind, your heart, your life. The more you read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, the more successful, the more fulfilled, the more strong you’re going to be in life. When Joshua was given the great dream of taking over the Promised Land and it was a goal that was going to take him the rest of his life, God had these words to say to Joshua. Joshua 1:8 “Keep this Book [That’s the Bible] of the Law on your lips. [In other words talk about it all the time.] Recite it by day and by night, [That means memorize it so you can quote it] that you may carefully follow all that is written in it; [That’s the premise; here’s the promise] THEN you will successfully attain your goal.” Underline that last phrase. If you ever intend to be in business for yourself you ought to memorize that verse. In fact, it’s a good verse for everybody to memorize. Keep this book of the law in your heart. Read it, memorize it, live it, practice it, study it. That you’re careful to follow it, obey it.] Then you will be successful. You will attain your goal. That is one of the greatest promises of success in the Bible. That promise didn’t come from Tony Robbins or some self help guru. That promise comes from God. You will successfully attain your goal. How? If you become a man of the Word or you become a woman of the Word, all you need to know about life is in this book right here. I need God’s Spirit to empower me and I need God’s Word to guide me. The third thing I need is •

I NEED GOD’S PEOPLE TO SUPPORT ME

You will not be able to reach your goals on your own. I haven’t been able to reach my goals on my own. It takes a team to fulfill a dream. You need other people in your life. This is why we insist that everybody in our church family be in a small group. You’re never going to feel like a part of our church until you’re in a small group. A crowd can’t support you. But a small group can. Three, four, five, six other people. They can know when you’re sick. They can know when you’re having a tough time, when you’ve had a bad day. A crowd can’t support you but a community – a small group can. 12

SETTING PERSONAL GOALS BY FAITH 50 Days of Transformation - Introduction

Ecclesiastes 4:12 says this “By yourself you’re unprotected. [That means like in a football game. You’re unprotected. You’re out there running down the field by yourself. You don’t have anybody to block and tackle for you. There’s nobody out there to protect you. If you’re not in a small group you don’t have any block and tacklers. You don’t have anybody that’s going to speak up for you, stand up for you. By yourself you’re unprotected…] But with a friend you can face the worst. [Boy! Did I learn that this last year!] And a group of three is even better because a rope braided with three strands is not easily snapped!”

What do you call three people meeting together? A small group. That’s what it is. Jesus said “Where two or three are gathered in my name I’ll be in the midst of them.” And guys, this is going to be fun. But it’s going to be more than fun. It’s going to change your life. If you will do it. If you will hear and read and watch and talk and do, you will grow. If all you do is come to church and hear, you’re not going to be transformed. I guarantee you. You’re going to be no different in seven weeks. But if you’ll hear it and read it and watch it and discuss it and do it, you will not be the same person in fifty days. You will be a better person. Prayer: Father, we already know that you’re going to do some amazing things in our midst when we begin this Fifty Days of Transformation. Lives are going to be changed. We know that families are going to be strengthened, marriages will be saved, friendships will be made, some people are going to get engaged. We know that miracles are going to happen. It would be a waste of time for us to not expect you to do a great thing. So I already thank you for what’s already happening in the hearts of people. I especially thank you for all of those people who’ve taken the step of faith, moved against their fear to become a host. To say “I’ll start a group of two, three, four, five, six people for the next fifty days.” I thank you for these hosts who are stepping out in faith. Help them to realize they’re already a success, that it doesn’t really matter who shows up and who doesn’t show up, because if you’re doing it in faith and love the Bible says, love never fails. So really, Lord, you’re more interested in their attitude than even in the results. Most of all I thank you for the cross because we thank you and we do everything we do for Jesus’ sake. Now you pray. Why don’t you pray this, God, I give you permission to change whatever needs to be changed in my life. Say, God use the next fifty days to permanently transform my life. And to make the rest of my life the best of my life. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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