Hello everyone and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren.

Now as we wrap up this powerful New Year series, we're coming back to one of life's most important truths that you matter to God, and he created you for a purpose.

And today is the final message in Rick's series.

Live your calling. What on earth am I here for? If you've ever longed for direction, clarity,

or a deeper sense of meaning, this message will remind you that God's plan for your life is bigger

and better than you think.

So let's join Rick for his final teaching in the series called Why God Made You.

Now, God says, I've shaped you to serve me.

And then the last thing he says, I give you experiences, S-H-A-P-E, every experience in your life shapes you.

The good ones and the bad ones.

And God uses family experiences you had growing up, even bad ones and painful ones.

He uses them for good.

He uses family experiences, he uses vocational experiences, the job you've had, educational

experiences, the stuff you learn in school and outside of school, spiritual experiences, personal

experiences, emotional experiences, but the number one thing God uses in your life to shape

you for serving him is painful experiences.

God whispers to us in our pleasure, but he shouts to us on our pain.

Pain is God's megaphone. Pain is how God gets your attention. We don't change when we see the

light. We change when we feel the heat. And God says, yes, I even use the painful experiences.

I don't plan them.

We're living a broken planet.

You're going to have plenty of painful experiences caused by other people and by yourself.

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