Most of this material was done by Rick Warren in the 50 Days Of Transformation Series. I reworked some of the material and eliminated a lot because of the length of the sermon. We used the material to kick off a church campaign for growth.
Welcome to 50 Days of Transformation as we continue The 500 Campaign. Think for a moment, when was the last time you saw something new taking place in your life. It changed you somewhat didn’t it. Transformation is about change from one thing to something new. Give us the next 50 days and you can become somebody you never imagined being.
Our theme verse for the next fifty days is going to be Romans 12:2. 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.”
How many of you have ever joined a group? One of the first thing they want to do is to make you like one of them. They want you to conform to their way of thinking, dressing, and behaving. Sometimes that might be good, but sometimes its not so good. You have to use the power of your mind to know the difference. Somebody else has a plan for your mind so that they can use you for their own gain.
God knows that you will either conform or 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. 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 how God wants to transform your thinking in order to bring the power of God into your life. God wants to work in us, but our thought patterns keep God out. Our minds need to be renewed.
God is concerned about all areas of our lives and not just what takes place on Sunday mornings. We’re going to look at our spiritual health, physical health, mental health, emotional health, financial health, relational health, and vocational health. We will be doing this on Sunday mornings, in our devotionals, and in our small group meetings. We need to be ready to be transformed because God is going to be doing something new in us, in each area.
The first thing we are going to do is to recognize in order to get to point of transformation, we have to have some goals. If you lose your goal, you lose your purpose. Any of you ever went to get something out of a room only to get to the room and not have the slightest idea why you came into the room. Sometimes that’s how we are in life when we forget our goal of getting to know Jesus Christ.
Did you know that God expects you to set goals for your life. Goals keep us focused and set us on a particular course of action. Jesus had goals on the earth, and those goals kept him from getting sidetracked. Most of us would stop and allow people to make us a celebrity or king or queen, but not Jesus. His goal was to get to the cross within a certain time frame.
So this series is about you recognizing the potential God has placed inside of you to experience the life God wants you to have. Remember, Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” As your pastors we want to see you make the best of the rest of your life.
Let’s look at six reasons why we should set goals in our lives. Remember, Goals are going to determine how our lives turn out.
The Bible says six things about goal setting.
WHY ARE GOALS IMPORTANT TO CHANGING MY LIFE?
1. GOAL-SETTING IS A SPIRITUAL RESPONSIBILITY
Goal setting is a spiritual responsibility. Did you know that God sets goals? Whatever God does, is something we should want to also do if we are being conformed to the image of Jesus. God has goals for human kind. If you read the book of Revelations, you see that God has goals for the believers, the unbelievers, the Anti-Christ, the devil and for history. And God certainly has goals for your life.
When we read the Scriptures, we discover that Jesus set goals. Jesus made sure that he got to Jerusalem because that was his goal. When the disciples tried to keep him from getting to a dead Lazarus, Jesus had a goal of raising Lazarus from the dead.
Every person who walked with God in the Bible you can find examples of being goal directed.
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.”
Paul used the words that goal, my goal, and the goal. He hadn’t reach it, but the goal was out there. Its tragic when we stop going after the goal of knowing Jesus.
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. When you go off to college, your goal should be to graduate and leave better prepared than when you came. But someone else is going to set a different goal for your life that does not include you graduating. If you don’t set 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. They will conform you to their way of thinking. A believer is going to ask the question, is this course of action pointing me toward my goal in life of getting to know God.
2. GOALS ARE STATEMENTS OF FAITH
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
Here is a goal stretching verse. Ephesians 3:20 “God can do anything. Far more than you could ever imagine. . Far more than you could ever imagine] or guess, or dare to request in your wildest dreams.” In the church and in our lives, we often don’t dream too big, we dream too little. At some point, we should Let the size of our God determine the size of our goal. Let’s let the size of God determine the size of our goal.
The question is not, Who does New Life At Calvary think it is? The question is, Who do we think God is? Big God big goal… tiny God tiny goal… no God no goal. Let the size of God determine the size of our goal.
As pastors we want to see the best for your life and to see you succeed in life. In the next 50 days be bold enough to believe God for a great dream in the next 50 days. Have your mind transformed and quit thinking. “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.
There are two common mistakes we make in goal setting. We set them too low and we try to accomplish them too quickly. During the next 50 days, we will set one goal in each of the seven areas. Allow God the chance to grow your faith. Start to think bigger of how God can use you. God puts dreams in us for a reason. The difference between a dream and goal is that a goal has a date and a deadline on it. We need a dream and a goal.
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…”
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.
We hurt ourselves when we try to do too many things well. 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.
Think about cleaning your house. If you do one thing in one room, go do one thing, in another room and then another and come back to the first. It seems like nothing is being accomplished. Its better to clean one room at a time.
Think about an unfocused basketball team. Basketball team showing off its dribbling skills and passing skills. But does not shoot at the basket.
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
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 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.
4. GOALS KEEP ME GOING
They give me hope to keep moving. They give me hope to endure. They give me hope to persist.
When I was doing two a day football practice, by goal was to get to 4:30. That was when practice was over. I didn’t think about what was happening now, but what was going to happen then. Eventually we would stop practicing and have a game.
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 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. So many people quit, when they are so close to their goal being realized.
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.
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 to where God wants you to be.
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, you get a vision of what could be– 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 to make it happen.
Remember this. The greatest benefit to your life over the goals you’re going to set in the next fifty days, 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.
That’s why Paul says in Philippians 3:12 “I keep striving toward the goal.” “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 broken relationships, a failed marriage, a drug addiction, financial ruin, or a prison sentence. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 love?
Remove the goals motivated by greed, by envy, by fear, by worry, by materials, 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.
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
Look at this verse, Proverbs 16:9 “We plan the way we want to live but only God makes us able to live it 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.
• 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 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.”
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.
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. 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.”
By coming together with others, you will be transformed. 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 receive from God, things that you had not thought possible. Jesus died to give you a goal in life. That goal was to come into a relationship with the very one that God raised from the dead do that you might have life.
