Skip to content Why God Made You! — pt 1 (Purpose, Identity, Creation, Creator, The Word) Jan 20 · 26 min ...more
Why God Made You! — pt 1 (Purpose, Identity, Creation, Creator, The Word)
January 20, 2026 · 26 min
The only way you’re ever going to know the purpose for your life is to talk to your Creator, God, and to read his Word, the Bible. Discover that your purpose starts with God.
Series Live Your Calling January 20, 2026 · 26 min · Live Your Calling
The only way you’re ever going to know the purpose for your life is to talk to your Creator, God, and to read his Word, the Bible. Discover that your purpose starts with God. ...more Show the full description Show less The only way you’re ever going to know the purpose for your life is to talk to your Creator, God, and to read his Word, the Bible. Discover that your purpose starts with God.
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Pastor Rick Warren shares the hope and encouragement you need to hear everyday. Listen in as he shares biblical truths to help you live the purpose driven life
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In this video 0:00 Discovering Life's Purpose Through God5:46 Planned for God's Pleasure: Loving Him Back14:32 Formed for God's Family: Belonging and Support
Discovering Life's Purpose Through God 0:02 Hello, everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Now today, we're continuing into the new year, and we're digging deeper into 10:14 of life's biggest questions. Does my life really matter? In today's message, Rick's gonna continue his powerful series, live your calling, what on earth am I here0:25 for? In it, you'll discover how living out God's purpose for your life brings real meaning, direction, and joy no matter where you're starting from. So sit back, relax, and0:37 here's part 1 of a message called why God made0:42 you. Mark Twain once said the 2 most important days in your life are number 1 the day you're born and number 2 the day you figure out why.0:55 Why you were born. God has never created anything without a purpose. Every plant has a purpose, every star has a purpose, every animal has a purpose. God does not create things without a1:07 reason, without a purpose. And if your heart is beating and you are breathing, there is a purpose for your life because God never makes anything without a purpose. And the very fact that you are1:19 alive makes your life meaningful that God had a reason for creating you. That is what we are going to look at this weekend, why God made you. Now if you want to know the purpose of your1:31 life, you got to start with God. You can't find it on TV, you can't find it in the movies, you can't find it, in a reading a book, you can't find it. A lot of people say, well the way you1:43 need to find your purpose is look within, like trust the force Luke. Look within, that doesn't work. I tried that a lot of times, look within, all this was a bunch of confusion.
1:55 You can't tell you what your purpose is because you didn't make you. Does that make sense? Only your creator can tell you what your purpose is. You
2:07 can't tell yourself because you weren't alive when whoever thought you up, thought you up. If I were to hold up just in any kind of invention that you had
2:19 never seen and I held up and I said, Tell me what this is, what's the purpose of this invention? You wouldn't have the slightest idea. And the only way you would know the purpose of an invention you have never seen is
2:31 either A, talk to the inventor, the creator who made it and they can tell you what it does or B, read the owner's manual. The same is true for your life. The only way you are ever
2:43 going to know your purpose for your life, why you are here on this planet, what on earth you are here for is A, talk to your creator God who made you and B, read the owner's manual. Now the Bible says this,
2:55 look there on your outline. Ephesians chapter 1 from the Bible says, It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for. So you say, I really gotta find myself. You're gonna find
3:07 yourself in Christ. It is in Christ we find out who we are, what we are living for, part of the overall purpose that He, God, is working out in everything and everyone.
3:19 The next verse, Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 says this, Everything, absolutely everything, got started in Christ and finds its purpose in him.
3:32 You were made by God, you were made for God. Until you understand that, your life is never going to make sense. You are going to go through life wondering what on earth am I here
3:43 for? You have got to start with God. Now the Bible says that you were made to last forever. 1 day your heart is going to stop. That is going to be the end
3:55 of your body but it is not going to be the end of you. That is going to be the end of your time on earth but it is not going to be the end of you. God has long range plans for your life and I am not exaggerating cause he
4:06 wants you to live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. So you are going to actually spend more time on the other side of death than you do on this side. On this
4:17 side, you get 80 years at the most maybe 100 that's it. That's not really a whole lot of time. After you die you move into eternity and you're going to spend trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions
4:29 and trillions and trillions onto infinity and beyond for the rest of your life. So this is like a little tiny millimeter of your life, the few measly
4:41 years you are here on earth. Most of your life is going to be on the other side. Now have you ever thought about this? If God wants to take me to heaven, why doesn't he just take me there instantly? Why doesn't he just
4:52 make me and start with me in heaven? Why does God put you on this planet for 80 years? Really? Why does he do that? Well the Bible says you are not ready
5:04 for heaven, there are some things you need to learn. And God says this life, follow me, this life is preparation for the next. If you want to know why you are on this planet it is to
5:16 get ready for the next life. This life is preparation for the next. This is the preschool, this is the warm up act, this is the get ready stage, this is the kindergarten, this is the dress
5:28 rehearsal before the real show begins, this is the first lap around track before the real race begins. This is the warm up act, getting ready
5:40 for eternity because that's the real show that's going to go on forever and ever and ever. Now in heaven, you are going to do a number of things and the Bible tells us what's going to happen in heaven. And
Planned for God's Pleasure: Loving Him Back
5:51 what God wants you to do here on earth is practice what you are going to do in heaven forever so when you get to heaven you know what to do. Now I am going to explain to you
6:04 this evening exactly what God wants you to practice while you are here on Earth. This may be the most important message you have ever heard in your life because I can't think of anything more fundamental
6:16 than why am I here on Earth and what am I supposed to do with my life. If I only had 1 sermon to preach it would be this message to teach you why God made
6:27 you and what you are supposed to do with your life. God wants you to practice 5 things on this planet. We call them our purposes, the reasons for living.
6:40 We often use the word callings. There are 5 callings but there are 5 things God wants you to do with your life here on earth for 5 reasons. He made you for 5 reasons and I want you to write these down.
6:51 Number 1, the first purpose of your life is this, God planned me for his pleasure. God planned me for his pleasure.
7:03 God created you just to love you. That's the whole idea. The Bible says that God is love. I've told you this many times. It doesn't say God has love, It
7:15 says God is love. It is the essence of his nature. It is his character. It is who God is. God is love. And if God wasn't a God of love, you would not be able to love anybody else because you're made in God's image. The
7:26 only reason you're able to love is because God said, I'm going to make men and women in my own image. And if God was not a God of love, there would be no love in the universe, there would be no love between human beings.
7:37 Now the Bible says that God made you simply to love you. God made you to love you. He didn't need you. God is totally satisfied in himself, Father,
7:49 Son, Holy Spirit, but he wanted you. That shows how valuable you are. Now let me show you some verses about how God planned you for his pleasure. He planned you, he created you just so
8:01 he could love you. Revelation 4 11, You God created everything and it is for your pleasure, circle that, for your pleasure that they exist
8:13 and they were created. Everything was created because God gets enjoyment out of it. He wanted to love it. God loves every rock, every plant, every animal, every star, and every human being. Psalm
8:25 140 nine:four, The Lord takes pleasure in his people. Anybody here have kids? Those of you who are parents,
8:38 do you get pleasure? How many of you get pleasure in your kids? You say most of the time. Yeah, yeah, well you know what God takes pleasure in you all of the time. Why? Because he made you,
8:50 he created you, he is your heavenly father. Did you know that God gives pleasure in just watching you be you? Some people think that God is only smiling at
9:02 them when they are doing something religious that if you are feeding the poor, you are helping the sick, you are confessing your sins, you are going to church, you are giving a tithe, you
9:14 are being generous that when you do these kind of spiritual things reading your Bible and praying then God smiles but the rest of the time God is kind of bored with you. Nothing could be further from the truth. God gets
9:25 pleasure in watching you be you because he made you you. And when you do something that is so typical of you, he goes, that's my girl, that's my boy, that's what I made them to do.
9:37 You know when my children were little, I used to sneak into their rooms at night and sit by their bedside and watch them sleep. And I got so much
9:49 pleasure out of just watching them breathe. You know, I would watch their little chest rise and lower and rise and lower and
10:01 rise and lower. And I got so much pleasure just watching my kids breathe. Why? Because I am their creator. I'm their father.
10:13 I made them. They wouldn't exist without me. Now they didn't have to do anything special. They didn't have to be reading the bible or memorizing scripture or witnessing to other 2 year olds.
10:25 They just had to be themselves. And I got pleasure out of watching them sleep. Did you know that God gets pleasure out of watching you sleep? In fact the way you act sometimes He is more pleased with that.
10:39 But the fact is if my kids had acted like the devil all day at night, they are angels. And God gives pleasure out of watching his children just be his
10:51 children. Here's what the Bible says, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, Long before he, God, laid down the earth's foundation, in other words that means long before God created the universe,
11:04 God had us in mind. Woah, God had us in mind and he settled on us as the focus of his love. Circle the word focus. The focus of God's
11:16 love is not animals. He loves animals but that's not the focus of his love. The focus of God's love is not the environment. He loves the environment but that is not his focus. His focus of his love is us.
11:28 And the reason why is because he has given us the capacity to love him back. This is what makes you different from animals. Animals can't pray, animals can't talk to God, animals
11:40 can't worship because they are not made in God's image. God gave you the freedom of choice, the freedom to respond. You can learn to love and love him back. God knows everything about you. You know almost nothing
11:52 about God. God loves you in spite of everything he knows about you. God wants you to learn to know him and love him back and the bible calls this worship. And it's the first purpose of your life that God
12:04 planned me for His pleasure and He wants me to learn to love Him back. 1 day a guy was walking down the street in Jerusalem and he comes up to Jesus and he says, Lord, what's the most important commandment in the
12:16 whole Bible? And Jesus says I will summarize the whole Bible in 2 sentences. This is it, cliff notes on the Bible. Love God with all your heart. Love him with all your
12:27 soul, all your mind, all your strength. Oh and by the way, second law, love your neighbor as yourself. Life is all about love. If you don't get that you miss the first purpose of
12:39 your life. And the first purpose is to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength to get to know him. God wants you to know him and love him back. Here is what he says in the book of Hosea in
12:51 the Bible, chapter 6 verse 6. God says, I don't want your sacrifices, I want your love. This is God talking to you. I don't want your offerings, I
13:03 want you to know me. Now circle the word love and circle the word know because that is the first purpose of your life, to know God and to love God. The most important
13:15 thing you can know in life is that God loves you and the most important thing you can do in life is love him back. So as I have said to you many times, you ought to get up in the morning and say, God, I want
13:27 to know you and love you more. I have done this every single morning of my life for decades. I don't get out of bed in the morning before I do this. I sit on the edge of
13:39 my bed before my feet touch the ground and I just say this, Dear God, it is another day and if I don't get anything else done today I want to know you a little bit better and I want to love
13:51 you a little bit more because that is the first purpose of life. I was planned for God's pleasure. And if at the end of the day that day sucked, everything went wrong, it was terrible, I sinned,
14:03 there were mistakes, there were all kinds of grief and problems and difficulties, If at the end of the day I know God a little bit better and love him a little bit more, I didn't waste that day. On the other hand, it
14:13 doesn't matter how many things you accomplish, how many things you achieve, how famous you become, how much money you make, If at the end of each day you don't know God a little bit better and love him a little bit more,
14:23 you just wasted that day because God did not create you and put you on earth just to mark things off your to do list. He put you here for the very first purpose and
Formed for God's Family: Belonging and Support
14:35 there are 5 purposes of your life to know Him and love Him. Write this down, the first purpose of my life is to know and love God. Bam, that's it. It's pretty simple. Love God with all your heart. You got to get to know
14:46 Him before you can love Him to know and love God. Now the tragedy is a lot of people have gone through life missing the number 1 purpose of life. They know everything else, they know sports
14:58 scores, they know music songs, they know who is on the cover of People Magazine, they know who is the winner of The Voice, they know all kinds of things in pop culture but they don't know
15:10 God. That's the most important thing in life, it's what you were put here to do, to know God. 1 Timothy 6, the bible says this, Some people have missed the most important
15:21 thing in life. They don't know God. They don't know God. Now, how do you know when you don't know God? How do you know when you are disconnected from
15:33 God? How do you know when in that moment you are not knowing and loving God? God has given us a warning sign and it goes off like a bright yellow light in your life every time you get disconnected from God. And that
15:45 warning sign is this, Worry. Are any of you familiar with this term Worry? Yeah,
15:57 yeah. When you worry you are acting like God doesn't exist. You are acting like if it is to be it is up to me. No, it is not up to you, it is up to God. And when you worry
16:09 you are acting like it is all your responsibility that you don't have a Heavenly Father who loves you, that there aren't 7000 promises in the Bible that God hasn't already agreed to take care of all your needs. You are
16:19 acting like an orphan, like you don't have Heavenly Father, God doesn't exist. Worry is practical atheism. It's acting like an atheist and
16:31 worry the bible says in Matthew 6 32 people who don't know God are always worrying. Now God planned me for his pleasure so the first
16:43 purpose of my life is to know and love God. Not only did God plan me for his pleasure, number 2, God formed me for his family.
16:55 God formed me for his family. God wanted a family and you were created to be a part of it. The whole reason the universe exists,
17:08 you want to know why the universe exists? God wanted a family. He wanted children. Now he didn't need us, but he wanted us. He wanted to show
17:20 his love to something. So he created us as objects of his love. And he created the entire universe to create this galaxy, to create this planet so it is on an axis. Do you know that 1
17:32 degree this way we burn up and 1 degree this way we freeze up? It's just the perfect angle that would sustain life at this point from the sun just so he could
17:44 create the human race, just so he could create you, just so he could love you. That's how valuable you are to God. God thought you up before he thought up the
17:55 universe. The Bible says this very clearly that you were the focus of his love. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5, God's unchanging plan, never has changed,
18:07 has always been to adopt us into his own family. Woah, woah, woah, by bringing this to himself through Jesus Christ.
18:19 This gave him God great pleasure. God wanted a family and wanted you to be a part of it. God never meant for you to go through life alone. Whether you marry or not is irrelevant, whether
18:31 are your family stays together, splits up is irrelevant at this point. God wanted you in his family. And the first thing he told Adam was it is not good for man to be alone you are made to be
18:43 in a spiritual family that he created to take care of you so you are not lonely in life. And by the way, I have said this before, your spiritual family is going to outlast your physical
18:54 family. No physical family lasts. People grow up, they move off, they get married, they start their own family, people divorce, people die, people
19:06 separate, no physical family lasts forever. But your spiritual family is going to last forever and ever and ever. In fact, it is the only thing on planet earth that is going to last forever and ever and ever.
19:18 Your spiritual family. 1 Peter chapter 1 says this, verse 3, God has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members
19:31 of God's family, God's own family. Circle that word members. Now I said this last week or a couple of weeks ago that when you were born physically you automatically became a part of
19:43 the human race. You didn't have a choice, you automatically became a part of the human race, but you didn't become a part of spiritual family or physical family until somebody chose to take you
19:55 home. Being a part of God's family is not automatic, it is a choice. Now listen to me very closely on this, Are you telling me that everybody is
20:07 not a child of God? That's exactly what I'm telling you. You got to choose to be in God's family. You got to let him adopt you. Everybody is created by God. Everybody is
20:19 loved by God. God has never made a person he didn't love. God has never made a person he did not want in his family, but he gives you the choice and he is not going to force you in. A lot
20:31 of people choose to opt out. They are not children of God because they choose to opt out. And God is not going to force you into an adoption, you've got to want to be adopted
20:43 into his family. Now what is God's family? First Timothy chapter 3 says that family is the church. The family is the church of the living
20:55 God, the support and foundation of the truth. Now notice that the church is not an organization, the church is not an institution, the church is not a political
21:06 entity, it's not a business, it's not a society, it's not an organization. God says the church is a family. It is
21:18 God's family and we are children of God which makes us brothers and sisters in the family of God. And God's purpose for your life is not just to know him and love him but to
21:30 belong to his family. He doesn't want you just to believe, he wants you to belong, to be connected. A Christian without a church family is an orphan. Now it says that
21:42 that family is a church, a support and foundation of the truth. Circle support and foundation. What happens when a building has no support and foundation? It collapses and
21:54 we see that all around us. We see collapsed marriages. Many of you grew up in a family where the marriage collapsed. We see it in collapsed businesses,
22:06 we see it in collapsed dreams, we see it in collapsed economies, we see it in the collapsed weather, we see it in collapsed health. When you don't have the support and
22:18 foundation of God's family, you are not going to make it through the tough times of life. You need support and you need a foundation. And the Bible says that is the church,
22:30 God's family. You cannot fulfill God's purposes for your life by yourself. Sorry, you can't. You can try but you will fail. You cannot fulfill the purpose God made
22:42 you for by yourself. We're better together, we're made to be in community, we're made to be in harmony, we're made to be in family, we're made to be in relationship. That's why you need the spiritual support of a
22:52 spiritual family. And the bible says in first Peter 2 17, love your spiritual family.
23:05 What a great message from pastor Rick today. There's something I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to tell you how you can help support this ministry.
23:16 Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives according to 5 specific purposes. He said, you've gotta love God with all your heart, that's worship, and love your neighbor as yourself, that's
23:27 ministry, that's called the great commandment. And then Jesus said, go make disciples, that's evangelism, baptize them into the family of God, that's fellowship, a sign of fellowship, and then he said, teach them, obey
23:38 everything I've taught you. That's discipleship, and we call that the great commission. We believe at Daily Hope that a great commitment to the great commandment and the great commission
23:51 will produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company, a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just across America,
24:03 but all around the world. And we want people to know that God's word is filled with hope and truth. And the power that we need to follow him every day is available to every single 1.
24:15 You know as well as I do that the word of God changes lives. It's alive, it's active, and it breathes new life and new love into all of our lives. So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on the
24:27 website, whether you listen on a radio station, or whether you listen to a podcast, you're a part of the Daily Hope family, and I need your help. We could not do this without your support. We're
24:38 100 percent listener funded. Would you continue to pray for this broadcast, and would you continue to support us? And let write to me. Let let me hear from you. I absolutely love reading the
24:50 stories that are sent to me. So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry. And God will bless it, and God will bless you, and and we'll get to heaven, and we'll thank God for all the people gonna be in
25:02 heaven because you cared.
25:04 Hey. If you'd like to support pastor Rick's Daily Hope, just go to pastor rick dot com. That's pastor rick dot com, or you can text the word hope to 7 0 3 0 9. That's the
25:15 word hope to 7 0 3 0 9. And really, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere.
25:27 Hey, be sure to join us next time when we look into God's word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.
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