Rick Warren - Correcting Misplaced Priorities
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Summary
In this message, Rick Warren warns that misplaced priorities are a major cause of discouragement and fatigue among pastors and believers alike, often because we focus on urgent but secondary issues instead of what truly matters eternally. Drawing from Matthew 24:14 and Jesus' emphasis on the Kingdom of God, he stresses that God’s primary agenda is building His worldwide family by redeeming people from every nation. The conclusion is clear: to live a purposeful life with God’s power and blessing, we must adopt His Kingdom agenda, abandon all distractions, and rely on His strength to finish the task of reaching the lost.
Transition at Saddleback
All of you heard the big news last week that after founding this church 43 years ago, Kaye and I are stepping aside for the next generation of leadership. I announced it last weekend. Kaye and I spoke together and shared that our church had called Pastor Andy Wood to become Saddleback’s new Senior Pastor in September. Next weekend, June 18-19, Andy and Stacey Wood are going to be here at all of our services, and Kaye and I are going to sit on stage and interview them, the next generation of senior pastors. It’s going to be a great time, so I hope you’ll come back for that.
Then the following weekend, I’m going to explain in detail what I’m going to be doing post-Saddleback, leading the global campaign called Finishing the Task. It’s a campaign that I’ve been asked to lead for the next decade by the Finishing the Task Coalition, which is already composed of about 1,600 mission agencies and denominations, and it’s going to grow exponentially from that. So I’m going to be busy for the next decade. Don’t miss that weekend when I tell you all we’re going to be doing in Finishing the Task in the next 10 years.
Misplaced Priorities: The Root of Discouragement
Now, in preparation for that message on Finishing the Task in a couple of weeks, what I want to do this weekend is give a preliminary message on Misplaced Priorities. Most of you know that Saddleback Church was the first church on the internet way back in 1992, long before there was Internet Explorer or Google or any of that kind of stuff. We were using FTP and Gopher and Mosaic. I started the first website for pastors, pastors.com, almost 30 years ago now. Added to the fact that about 1.2 million pastors have been trained by Purpose Driven in 165 countries, that means that every day I get hundreds of calls, letters, and emails from pastors literally every day.
And I’ll tell you this right now: the number one problem I’ve discovered among church leaders today is discouragement. During the past two years, during the pandemic, I’ve spent a lot of time talking to discouraged pastors and talking them out of resigning for a lot of reasons. They say, «Rick, I feel tired. I feel discouraged. I feel ready to quit. I feel like I’m just going through the motions.» A lot of people have felt that way. But you know what? As I listen to all their stories, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the most common causes of this discouragement is misplaced priorities.
Why Priorities Matter to You
They end up majoring on minor issues; they waste energy on secondary issues. They get caught up in doing what everybody else wants them to do instead of what God has called them to do, and they end up trying to do too much. You know, it’s no wonder they’re tired because the ultimate gets crowded out by the urgent.
Now, the reason I feel called to talk to you today about this issue of misplaced priorities is that I have the sneaking suspicion that you have misplaced priorities too, and that’s dragging you down. It’s causing fatigue and frustration in your life. Now, the fact is, you guys, so much of what we spend our time on isn’t going to matter in five years. Today, Christians are giving first-class allegiance to second-class causes. Those causes, whether they’re personal, cultural, social, or political, are bound to ultimately disappoint you. So what I want to do is talk about that today and look at God’s word. What does God have to say about our priorities and our purposes?
Three Facts of Life
Now let me remind you of three facts of life. First, you can’t do it all. Okay, you figured that out, I hope, by now. You can’t do it all. But the second thing is: God doesn’t expect you to do it all. That’s good news. And number three: there are only a few things worth doing in the first place. One of my mentors, besides Billy Graham, who was my mentor since I was 18, was John Stott. In fact, Billy was the guy who introduced me to John Stott, a famous pastor in London, England.
One of the things John Stott said to me as a young man was this: «Rick, selection is the name of the game.» He said, «If you don’t get control of your time and priorities, you’re not going to get control of anything else. You’re not going to have time in your ministry to care about and get involved in every little cause that people want you to join. So focus on the Great Commandment. Focus on the Great Commission.»
Mentors Focused Till the End
You know, right before both John Stott and Billy Graham died, I made personal trips back to see them. I flew to London and flew to Charlotte, and I just wanted to see them before they passed away. I made those trips while they were bedfast, but they were both still focused in the end of their lives, still focused on what really mattered most in life and in ministry.
You know, years ago I spoke at an SBC convention, and I think the theme was «The Highest Power for the Greatest Task.» That was the theme that year: «The Highest Power, the Greatest Task.» As I thought about speaking on that theme, I realized we only get the highest power when we’re doing the greatest task. God is not obligated to empower or energize us to do our own thing. God has no obligation to equip us or empower us to do our to-do list of priorities. He empowers His task, not ours.
Jesus: A Purpose-Driven Life
Now, I’ve talked to you about this many times: Jesus lived a purpose-driven life. Jesus' very first recorded words, spoken when He was only 12 years old, were at the temple when He said, «I must be about my Father’s business.» Even at that early age, as a pre-teen, He already knew His priorities and His purpose. I don’t know many 12-year-olds who would say, «I’ve got to be about my Father’s business, ” but Jesus knew His purpose that early in life.
Then, at the end of His life, when He prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, in His last words before He goes to the cross, Jesus said this in His prayer to the Father: „Father, I have finished the work that you gave me to do.“ Now, that’s what I call a purpose-driven life. The bookends on either side of His life are being able to say, early in life, at 12 years of age, „I’ve got to be about my Father’s business, ” and being able to say at the end, „I’ve finished the work you gave me to do.“ I want you to be able to say that with the rest of your life, and that’s why I want to talk to you about priorities today.
Paul’s Focused Life
You know, the Apostle Paul is another example of being purpose-driven. In Acts 20:24, Paul says this: „I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me.“ What was that task? He was called to finish the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace, spreading the good news as far and as wide as possible. So Paul says, „My life isn’t worth anything unless I use it to finish the task I was given.“
Then, at the end of his life, Paul says this in 2 Timothy 4:7: „I fought the good fight, I finished the race, and I’ve kept the faith.“ Both Jesus and Paul refused to be distracted from what mattered most. Both kept their purpose and their priorities crystal clear throughout their entire lives.
Clarifying What Matters Most
So if you want your life to count, if you want your career to have an impact, if you want your ministry to make a difference, if you want our church to keep seeing lives changed by the thousands, as we’ve seen over all these years, the starting point is to clarify what matters most in your life and then reorder your priorities accordingly. So how do we do that? Well, as I’ve studied Scripture, I think it includes three different things, and we see these three things in the words of Christ.
Number one: first, we have to lay aside our agendas and focus on God’s agenda in the world. We must adopt God’s agenda. That’s the first thing we have to do to live a life of purpose and priority. We have to adopt God’s agenda for our lives, not our own agenda.
God’s True Agenda
So what is God’s agenda in the world? Well, it’s not what you think it is. God’s agenda is not an economic agenda. God’s agenda is not an entertainment agenda. It’s not a political agenda. God is not trying to save any particular group, or even any particular nation. God is not a national God. God’s agenda, listen, is what the Bible calls the Kingdom of God. He’s building a family of redeemed individuals from every nation, from every ethnic background. He’s building a redeemed Kingdom of God.
Matthew 24:14 is an incredible verse you need to understand if you want to get in with God’s agenda. Matthew 24:14, these are the words of Jesus: „The good news about the Kingdom—God’s agenda—will be preached throughout the world, so that all nations, ” circle the word „all, ” A-L-L, „so that all nations will hear it, and then the end will come.“
The Climax of History
History is moving toward a climax, and He says the end is not going to come until everybody God wants to hear has had a chance to hear. Until all nations have heard, it’s not going to happen. History is moving towards a climax. You can debate prophecy; you can get out your charts and maps, but Jesus said this: „I’m not coming back until everybody I want to hear the gospel has heard the gospel.“
Now, the Kingdom of God is the major theme of Jesus' ministry. The word „kingdom“ is used 157 times in the New Testament. Did you know that? The Kingdom was Jesus' favorite description of what God is doing in the world. In fact, go and read all of Jesus' 38 parables, and most of them, or the majority of them, start off with „The Kingdom of Heaven“ or „The Kingdom of God is like.“ It’s what Jesus cared about more than anything else—that’s His agenda: building the Kingdom of God, not my reputation, not building my career, not building my city, not building my business, but building the Kingdom of God.
What Is the Kingdom of God?
So what is the Kingdom of God? It is God’s plan for history. It is God’s people fulfilling God’s purposes on God’s planet. That’s the Kingdom of God. God’s agenda is the redemption of the whole world. Now listen very closely: if you want God’s blessing on your life, if you want God’s power in your life, if you want God’s anointing through your life, you must care about what God cares about most. And what does God care about most, more than anything else? He wants His lost children found. That’s the greatest task—the whole reason God created the universe is He wanted a family, and that is His number one goal in life: creating His family, His Kingdom. That’s what we’ve been doing here at Saddleback for decades.
Addicted to Changed Lives
You know, the last 43 years of growing this Saddleback family from just Kaye and me to as many as there are today—it hasn’t been easy. I remember we went 15 years without a building. In fact, we grew to over 10,000 people in attendance every week without a building. We used 79 different locations; that meant setting up and taking down everything every week for 13 years. Friends, there’s no glory in that. It was just a lot of hard work. And you know what? Here’s a little secret: the bigger you get, the more problems you have.
I’ve often been asked by the media, „Rick, what keeps you going? What keeps you motivated? What kept you going for 43 years?“ The answer is really simple: I’m addicted to changed lives. I am addicted to changed lives. Every one of those 56,000 new believers we’ve baptized over 43 years matters to God. Every one of them matters.
People Count Because They Matter to God
You know, people have often said to me, „Rick, you’re just in the numbers.“ I will reply, „Every number represents a person, and every number has a name, and every name has a story behind it—a story of transformation. Every number represents a person that Jesus shed His blood for. Yes, we count people because people count.“ I had a guy tell me one time, „I don’t believe in counting attendance.“ I said, „Sir, do you count the offering?“ He goes, „Yeah.“ I go, „Oh.“ I said, „Then what you’re saying is that money’s more important than people, because we count what counts to us.“
Why did we take an entire decade here at Saddleback Church to send out 26,869 of our members on mission? Our own members went to every nation in the world, 197 nations, and in our PEACE plan, they planted churches, they equipped leaders, they assisted the poor, and they cared for the sick, and they educated the next generation. Why did we invest all that time? Why did we invest all that energy? Why did we invest all that money? Why has this church given over $1 billion to Kingdom causes since it started? The answer is real simple: because we kept our priorities and our purposes clear. We didn’t get caught up in controversies and cultural issues.
God’s Heart for the Lost
You see, the bottom line is this: People matter to God. They will always matter to God. They always have mattered to God. They matter more than anything else. God has never made a person He didn’t love. God has never made a person He didn’t have a purpose for. God has never made a person He didn’t want in heaven. The Bible says, „God is not willing that any should perish.“ How many is „any?“ He wants everybody in His Kingdom. „That any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.“ That, my friends, is God’s agenda, and anything less is an inferior man-made agenda.
Think about this: how much does God care about lost people? If you want to know, look at the cross—with arms outstretched and nail-pierced hands and blood flowing down, He’s saying, „I love people this much, this much.“ And every drop of blood was saying, „I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you so much it hurts.“ On the cross, Christ is saying, „I’d rather die than live without you.“ That’s how much people matter to God. That’s God’s agenda—not anything else, not building this or that or making America great. God’s agenda is people coming into His Kingdom.
A Multinational Kingdom
The book of Revelation says that one day we’re going to worship Christ with a song. Did you know that? Let me read you the words of that song; they’re there on your outline. Revelation 5:9: „With your blood, you purchased men for God.“ You purchased men, obviously, including women. That’s humanity for God „from every tribe and every language and every people and every nation.“ That’s God’s agenda. If you don’t have that as your agenda, you don’t have God’s agenda for your life.
Now leave that verse up there on the screen for just a minute. I want you to notice that that verse tells us that God’s Kingdom is multinational: every language, every people, every nation, every tribe. God’s Kingdom is worldwide. God’s Kingdom is multi-ethnic. God loves diversity; it was His idea. In fact, the ultimate argument against racism is God. The person who says, „I don’t like people who don’t look like me, ” is basically saying, „God, you made a mistake; you should have made everybody like me.“ That’s the ultimate insult to God.
Diversity and Global Vision
It was God’s idea. If you don’t like diversity, you’re going to hate heaven because most people aren’t going to look like you in heaven. Did you know that? God’s agenda is the redemption of the whole world—everybody, everywhere. If you just have a community vision, if you just have a state vision, if you just have a national vision, your vision is too small.
You know, one of the problems I think that we have is this: the longer you’re a Christian, the less you think like an unbeliever. The longer you’re a Christian, the more we forget how good the good news really is. We forget how hopeless we felt before we were saved. So how do you get over that? When I get discouraged, when I get tired, when I feel like giving up, you know what I do? I go watch a baptism because it reminds me of the changes that God made in my life, and it reminds me of the changes that I’ve seen in literally tens of thousands of other lives.
So the first step in having the correct priorities and the correct purposes for our life is we have to adopt God’s agenda for our life, and His agenda is the Kingdom of God—nothing less.
Abandon All Distractions
Number two: the second thing we have to do, and we find this in the words of Christ, is we have to abandon all distractions. Adopt His agenda and abandon all distractions. The secret of an effective life, as I told you, is one word: focus. Focus. Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 7:35, „Do whatever will help you serve the Lord best.“ Circle that: „Do whatever will help you serve the Lord best with as few distractions as possible.“ In other words, you just can’t tack on God’s agenda to everything else you want to do in life. You have to decide: am I going to focus on my plans, or am I going to focus on God’s plans?
See, Jesus commanded this: „Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.“ What are you seeking first in your life right now? Well, you say, „How do I know what I’m seeking first?“ Real simple: look at how you spend your money, how you spend your time. What do you spend the most time on? What do you spend the most money on? Show me your calendar and show me your credit card statement, and I’ll tell you what you’re seeking first in life, because the way you spend your time and the way you spend your money reveals your priorities.
Thy Kingdom Come
As I said, Jesus told us to pray, „Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.“ Now, why did Jesus tell us to pray that? Well, He wouldn’t tell us to pray it if it was already being done. Okay, let me explain this: in heaven, God’s will is done perfectly; it’s done completely; it’s done instantly; it’s done all the time, and it’s done with a good attitude. None of that’s true on earth. Here on earth, God’s will is done incompletely; it’s done often with mixed motivations; sometimes it’s not done at all; and sometimes it’s done with a grudge. It’s done seldom.
Every day, God has a will for my life, Satan has a will for my life, and my will is choosing God’s will or Satan’s will. God says, „Pray, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.“ What is that? It says, „God, I want your will to be done completely, instantly, joyfully, continuously, completely here on earth.“ That’s what God wants.
Staying Focused at Saddleback
We adopt God’s agenda; we avoid and get rid of all these distractions. You know, I’m constantly asking how has Saddleback continued to keep growing consistently year after year after year after year? You know, leading in baptisms, leading in evangelism, leading in discipleship, leading in church planting—how do we do this year after year after year after year, with all of the cultural and political changes we’ve been through? I mean, just look around!
While denominations and other churches are often declining in evangelistic effectiveness and reaching fewer people, how does Saddleback keep leading and increasing in the number of people coming to Christ and being baptized year after year after year? The answer is real simple: we refuse to be distracted. Personally, I refuse to let anything else become more important than the salvation of other people and the discipling of other people and the equipping for ministry of other people and the sending out of other people on mission.
Our Five Eternal Purposes
That’s all we do. We bring them in, we build them up, we train them for ministry, and we send them out on mission. We bring them in, we build them up, we train them for ministry, and we send them out on mission. We bring them in, we build them up, we train them for ministry, and we send them out on mission. We just keep doing what we’ve been doing year after year after year. We just try to do it better every year. We stay focused on God’s five eternal purposes. What are God’s five eternal purposes? They are the five verbs in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission: two verbs in the Great Commandment, and three verbs in the Great Commission. We’ve built our church on these things.
But it’s not enough, friends, just to care about the people in your pathway, in your life, in your community. We have to think globally because that’s God’s agenda.
Acts 1:8 — Simultaneous, Not Sequential
Acts 1:8 may be the most misquoted verse in the Bible. I hear people pray it all the time. Where Jesus says, „But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and then the uttermost parts of the world.“ That’s not what it says. That’s a misquoting of that verse. It doesn’t say you’re going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, then Judea. Jerusalem is your own city; Judea is like the county around you; Samaria is like the people of different cultures who live in your area; and then the rest of the world is the rest of the world.
It’s not „then, then, then“; it’s „and, and, and.“ „In Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.“ It is not sequential; it is simultaneous. In other words, we have to do it all at once. It’s no sin in being a small church; it is a sin in having a small vision. And you have to have global and local vision at the same time. You have to have global vision: „In Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.“
A lot of churches say, „Well, let’s just reach our community. Once we reach our community, we’ll go after our county. Once we reach our county, we’ll go after our state. Once we reach our state, we’ll go after the rest of the world.“ That’s not what the Bible says. Jesus said you’ll do it all at the same time. You have to be global and local at the same time.
Common Distractions
So let me ask you: what is distracting you personally from fulfilling the Kingdom of God? You think this is just for missionaries? You think this is just for pastors? God, if you are claiming to be a follower of Christ, God is calling you to build the Kingdom of God. What’s distracting you from seeking first the Kingdom of God?
You know, I sat down this afternoon and I made a list of common distractions from the Kingdom of God because Satan loves for you to do good things as long as you’re distracted from God’s agenda. He doesn’t care. You can do all kinds of good things as long as you don’t care about what God cares about most.
So here are some common distractions from the Kingdom of God: number one—politics. Does this sound familiar? It could be either national politics, or it could be denominational politics. God has not called us to save America; He’s called us to save Americans. But He’s also called us to save Mexicans and Canadians and everybody else in the world. So you just have to settle that issue: are you called to be a politician, or are you called to be a follower of Christ?
You know, the disciples repeatedly tried to get Jesus to be involved in politics, but Jesus said this: „My kingdom is not of this world.“ Well, if it’s not, if His kingdom is not of this world, then that’s not my priority either.
More Distractions to Avoid
Another thing that causes us distractions is common current controversies. Of course, there’s a controversy of the week in the newspaper and on social media, but a lot of issues, honestly, folks, are like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I remember reading in history reports that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. You know what my fear is? That we’ll fiddle around while the world goes to hell, worried about current controversies that aren’t even going to matter in 50 years.
Here’s another one that distracts us from the Kingdom of God: comparing or criticizing other believers. Oh my goodness, we’ve made this an indoor sport in the church today. With the advent of social media, it is a platform for anybody to criticize anybody. That’s not going to help our church grow; it’s not going to help anybody else’s church grow. In fact, 2 Corinthians 10:12 says comparing is foolish; it’s stupid.
You should never compare yourself to anybody else for two reasons: one, you’ll always find people doing a better job than you and you get discouraged; and two, you’ll always find people you’re doing a better job than, and you get full of pride. Either way, you’re dead in the water; you’re benched; you’re set on the sideline. God says don’t compare; don’t compare.
Here’s another one—a common distraction from the Kingdom of God: expecting non-Christians to act like Christians before they are. That’s impossible. But we all get upset by people out in culture who don’t act like God wants us to act. Well, the book of Romans says they can’t act that way because they don’t have the power of the Spirit in them; they don’t have the power to change. So when you ask people or expect people to have Christian values before they become Christians, it isn’t going to happen. When you ask them to act like Christians before they’re Christians, it isn’t going to happen.
The Mission Field, Not the Enemy
Let me just say it clearly: the non-believers who are out there in society and culture are not the enemy; they’re the mission field. And if you see them as the enemy, you’re not going to see them as a mission field; you’re going to see them as your cultural enemy. That is a distraction.
Here’s another one—living in fear of criticism. Especially now, today, on social media, it’ll paralyze you; it’ll keep you from launching out; it’ll keep you from trying something new with your family, your business, in your church, you know, wherever. We would have never gotten anything done at Saddleback if we worried about what other people think. What other people think is none of your business. You just live for an audience of one.
Okay, now, if there happens to be any of you who are church leaders right now in our church or other churches, let me just say this: three things: number one, people are going to dismiss you when you’re small; number two, people are going to criticize you when you grow; and number three, people are going to resent you when you succeed. In every situation, you have to live for an audience of one. Don’t worry about what other people think. As I said, what other people think of you is none of your business. Those are distractions.
Remove Anything in the Way
Hebrews 12:1 says this: „We should remove from our lives anything”—circle that—“anything that would get in the way.“ That’s a distraction—and the sin that so easily holds us back. There are sins and there are distractions.
So let me ask you this very pointed question: what’s keeping you from God’s agenda? What is keeping you right now from God’s agenda of caring about the whole world and taking the good news to the whole world? What’s keeping you from God’s agenda?
Have you ever thought about why God keeps you alive after you’re saved? Why didn’t God just kill you and take you on to heaven the moment you’re saved? If ultimately we’re made for eternity, why does He let us stay around here in all the sadness, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and shootings? Why does God keep you here on earth?
Well, you know, God has five purposes for your life: to know Him, to love Him, to love His family, to grow in Him, to serve Him, and to share Him. Of the five purposes God has for your life, four of them you’re going to do in heaven. You can worship in heaven; okay? You can fellowship in heaven; okay? You can grow in heaven; you’re going to serve in heaven. There’s going to be serving in heaven. There’s only one thing you can’t do in heaven: tell non-believers about the gospel.
Why We’re Left on Earth
What’s the one reason you’re left here on earth? To tell others. There are only two things you can’t do in heaven. Did you know that? Only two: you can’t sin, and you can’t witness. So which of those two do you think God leaves you here on earth to do? Not sin.
So what’s keeping you from God’s agenda? What is it that’s keeping you from God’s agenda? Whatever it is, let it go. I’ve had people say over the years, „Rick, don’t you have enough people? Why do you keep growing?“ We don’t grow for our benefit; the bigger the church gets, the more problems there are. We don’t grow because people need the Lord. We grow because, as long as there’s one person lost within driving distance of any of our campuses, we are commanded to reach out.
The truth is, friends, the church that doesn’t want to grow is saying to the world, „You can go to hell; we’re all saved, we’re happy, we don’t care about you. We’ve got our own little problems, our own little politics, our own little controversies. The rest of you, you can just go to hell.“
My Father’s Dying Words
Now let me just repeat what I’ve said now twice: if you want God’s anointing on your life, you must care about what God cares about most: His agenda. He wants His lost children found.
Many of you remember the story of my dad’s dying words. My dad was a man with a mission. He was a pastor for 50 years who died of cancer. He never pastored a church of more than about 120 people, but he was a builder, a carpenter. In his lifetime, he built over 150 church buildings all around the world. He took volunteers all around the world, building churches where there had been disasters, like floods and fires and all kinds of things.
When Saddam kicked the Kurds into northern Iraq, my dad took 19 guys, went to northern Iraq, and built a dozen wells to give water to the Kurdish people. Right before he died, he was dying of cancer, and he said, „Son, I think I got one more church in me.“ I said, „Dad, you’ve always been a worker for the Lord. You’ve never been somebody to sit around laying in a lazy boy chair watching TV.“ I said, „If you want to die with your boots on, it’s okay with me. Where do you want to build your last church building?“ He said, „In Siberia.“ I said, „Okay.“
One of the last pictures I have of my dad, late in life, is of him on top of a small church building he built in Siberia in the middle of a snowstorm, with snow all over the roof, nailing down the roof. That’s my memory of my dad.
One More for Jesus
Last week of his life, we brought him home to my sister’s house, and he was there in the last week of his life. He went into a kind of dream-like state; the cancer was eating away at him. For the last week, he dreamed aloud, and I sat by his bed for several days listening to my dad dream. In those dreams, as interesting as it was, he talked about his life, but he didn’t review what I thought he might review. He never talked about being a hero in World War II, which he was in the South Pacific. He never talked about fishing, which he loved; a day without fishing was a day wasted. He never talked about the books he read or the movies he saw. He talked about what was most important to him: building churches for God’s Kingdom.
He would replay, „You guys take these videos; team, go over there. Take that lumber over there and make sure that joist is correct, and when you get the beams together, do that. And make sure the wiring here, and make sure everybody’s back for lunch.“ He just replayed building one church after another in his mind. I sat there listening to him, and I learned a lot about my dad listening to his dreams.
The night before he died, I remember I was sitting there in that room at my sister’s house with my wife, Kaye, and my niece, Alyssa. The three of us were in the room, and all of a sudden my dad got very agitated. He was in this dream-like state, and he started trying to get out of bed. At that time, he had lost a lot of weight; he was very thin. Kaye said, „Jimmy, whatever you need, just tell us; we’ll get it for you.“ But he kept trying to get out of bed, kept trying to get out of bed. Finally, Kaye got pretty stern with him—loving, but stern. She said, „Jimmy, you’re sick. Whatever you need, you don’t need to get out; we’ll get it for you. Just tell us whatever you need.“
And my dad said, „Gotta save one more for Jesus! Gotta save one more for Jesus! Gotta save one more for Jesus!“ He began to repeat this over and over: „One more for Jesus! One more for Jesus! Gotta save one more for Jesus!“ I’m not exaggerating. There were two other people in the room while my dad said that; maybe a hundred, I don’t know, maybe 150 times in the next hour. „Gotta save one more for Jesus! One more for Jesus! One more for Jesus!“
And as I’m sitting next to my dad, I bowed my head, and tears were flowing down my face as I was thanking God for a dad who, in his final moments, was thinking about the Kingdom of God. He was not thinking about himself; he was not thinking about fun. He was not thinking about politics; he was not thinking about money. He was not thinking about what everybody else thinks about. He wasn’t even thinking about his pain. He was thinking about the Kingdom of God.
I bowed my head with tears coming down, thanking God for the legacy of a dad like that. My dad reached up his very frail hand; it was shaking kind of like this, and he put it over on my head, like a blessing. He said, „Reach one more for Jesus! One more for Jesus! Save one more for Jesus! One more for Jesus!“ I intend for that theme to be the theme for the rest of my life. I’m stepping down after 43 years at Saddleback, but I don’t believe in retirement from the Kingdom of God. For the rest of my life, as God gives me breath, I will bring one more to Jesus. I invite you to make it the theme of your life because nothing matters more; nothing will leave a greater legacy.
The Urgency of the Task
If you know something more important than to bring people to Christ, the One who shed His blood for them, bring them to Christ, build them up to maturity, train them for their ministry, and send them out on their mission.
I invite you to stand up right now and tell us what it is because I decided a long time ago I’m not going to waste my life, and I haven’t. I have not wasted my life. I’ve lived it with purpose and with priority. In the next 365 days, 231,000 Californians—that’s my state—will die, and most of them will go into a Christless eternity without hope and without Christ. In the next 365 days, 2.3 million Americans will die. It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrat or Republican, red, yellow, black, or white; 2.3 million Americans will die, and most of them will go into eternity without Christ. In the next 365 days, 54 million people in the world will die, and most of them will go into eternity without Christ, without hope. Those statistics are almost unbearable to me.
We have to adopt God’s agenda. The Kingdom of God matters more than anything else. We must abandon all distractions because the Kingdom of God matters more than anything else.
Appropriate God’s Power
And number three, and this is from God’s word too: we must appropriate God’s power because we can’t do this on our own. We can’t finish the task on our own.
The Great Commission that was given almost 2,000 years ago, in that verse Matthew 6:33, Jesus attaches a great promise. I love it. In the New Living Translation, it says this: „God will give you all you need.“ Listen: „God will give you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.“ That is the greatest priority.
You know, for 20 years here at Saddleback Church, I personally taught every new membership class every month for almost 20 years. One of the things I would say in every membership class is this: I make no apology in saying to you that the greatest thing you may do with your life is join this church, grow to maturity, get involved in a ministry, and go out on mission because that is going to outlast everything else you do. It’s going to outlast your career; it’s going to outlast your hobbies. Building the Kingdom of God, growing a church, that’s going to outlast us.
An Eternal Perspective
And I say this: imagine 100 years from today—you’re in heaven. Imagine 100 years from today, somebody comes up to you and says, „I just want to thank you.“ When you say, „Thank me? I don’t even know you.“ He said, „No, you don’t know me, but you were the pioneers of Saddleback Church. You were one of those people who back in the 2020s, you joined that church and you got involved, and you grew to maturity, and you discovered your shape for ministry, and you took all those classes, and you got involved in serving, and you went on mission, and you took the gospel around the world. And 50 years after you died, that church reached me for Jesus Christ. I’m in heaven because of you. Thank you.“
You think that’ll be worth it? As I said just a second ago, if you know a greater task, a greater priority, a greater purpose than to do what we’ve just been talking about, I invite you to stand up and tell us. I’d like to know because I am not going to waste my life.
In fact, just friends, God is looking for people to use. In 2 Chronicles 16:9, a verse that God gave me when I was 16 years old and called me to serve Him full-time for the rest of my life, I started preaching on a 16-year-old license to preach by my church while I was still in high school. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says this: „The eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward Him so that He can show His great power in helping them.“
Will You Be That Person?
Will you be that person? Will you commit to God’s priorities, God’s agenda, and finishing the task so that God can show His power in you? Let me just close with a pretty personal question: how badly do you want to be a part of God’s agenda? Just something you’d like to do maybe in your spare time? Do you think God put you on earth to do something different? Are you willing to be criticized? Are you willing to be misunderstood because you don’t adopt other people’s agendas and you don’t get involved in the spats and the controversies out there? Are you willing to go against the flow? Are you willing to serve in obscurity and nobody knows what you’re doing? But God does.
You say, „Well, nobody knows what I’m doing.“ For the Kingdom of God, God does. He has every hair on your head numbered, and when He puts you in ministry, you stay put until He calls you to do something different.
Now, what we’ve talked about is God’s agenda and God’s priorities and God’s purposes. And there are four possible responses that you can make to this greatest task of taking the good news across the street, across the nation, across the ocean, around the world. Four possible responses to what I’ve just talked about, what God’s word has said. You can be like Moses, who, when God called him, said, „Who, me?“ Or you can be like Jonah, who said, „Not me!“ Or you can be like Habakkuk, who said, „Why me?“ Or you can be like Isaiah, who said, „Send me. Send me!“
The Only Thing That Lasts
God is looking for a band of people who will disregard all the cultural distractions and all of the divisions and all of the criticisms in our culture, and will focus on the one thing that has always mattered most: the salvation of the people Christ died for. I invite you to make the rest of your life the best of your life by adopting God’s agenda, abandoning all distractions, and appropriating God’s power. It’s the most important thing.
Let’s pray. Would you bow your heads with me? Father, I want to thank You for the privilege of being a part of the only thing that matters—the only thing that’s going to last for eternity. It’s not going to last five years or a hundred years; no, it’s going to last for eternity. Thank You for the privilege of being a part of Your Kingdom and building Your church.
Would you pray this in your heart? Say, „Lord, I realize that nothing is more important than what we’ve just talked about. I realize that nothing else is going to last for eternity. Forgive me for allowing other things to distract me from what’s most important in life while I’m still alive here on earth. I recommit my life to Your agenda today. I want to be a Kingdom builder. I want to help finish the task that You gave in A.D. 33 in the Great Commission. Expand my heart, Lord.“ Just say, „Expand my heart, Lord, ” and give me a world vision. Bring revival in my life, in my family, in my body, in our church, in our world. Start it in me like Isaiah: „Lord, I’m saying, Here am I! Send me! Use me to make a difference! Help me to reach one more for Jesus.“
If you’ve never opened your life to Jesus Christ, this is a great time to do that. Say, „Jesus Christ, come into my life right now and make Yourself real to me.“ Just say, „I don’t understand it all, but as much as I know how, Jesus Christ, I open my life. Replace the emptiness in my heart with Your love. Replace my pressure with Your peace. Replace my regrets with Your forgiveness. Replace my pressure with Your purpose. I open my life to You, and I humbly ask You to accept me into Your family. I’m putting my trust in You. I know I can’t save myself, and I ask this in Your name. Amen. Amen.