Rick Warren - Daring To Imagine Part Three

Hello, everybody, Welcome to Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren.

So we're continuing with this series called Daring Faith the

Key to Miracles. And in this series you're learning how

to have a bold, unshakable faith that gives you courage

to impact the.

World around you.

And now here's Rick with the final part of a

message called daring to Imagine.

How do you refuel God's dream for your life? Number six,

God's Spirit and God's Word fuel my imagination. God's Spirit

and God's Word fuel my imagination. These are the two

sources that God provides to energize your dream so you

don't run out of gas. First, he gives you his

own spirit, the Holy Spirit, and second he gives you

his word and the promises of the Bible. Let me

show you a couple verses John chapter fourteen. Jesus says,

I will ask the Father, and he will give you

another helper who will be with you forever. And that

helper is the Spirit of Truth. That's God's Holy Spirit.

And you'll know him because he lives with you and

he will be in you.

And that's where the power comes from.

It's not self help psychology, it's not build yourself up

with positive and latitude. This is the Holy Spirit working

in you. Gives you power you don't have. And the

other source for a refueling is God's word. Someone nineteen says, this,

open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law.

Help me to understand the meaning of your commandments. And

I will meditate. That's imagine, think about consider. I will

meditate on your wonderful miracles.

Now, how do you do this?

You need to do it on a daily basis, where

you listen to God as you read his word, and

you talk to God in prayer. And this is the

key to maintaining a vision and dream for your entire life.

Write this down. The key to stronger, healthier imagination is

a daily quiet time. A daily quiet time when the

Holy Spirit and you and the Bible get alone and

you listen to God and you talk to God and

you pray and you think and you consider, and that

energizes your vision. If you're not having a daily quiet time,

it's no wonder your dream leaks. You got to be

in the Word and you've got to be in the spirit.

And when you do that, you get alone with God.

That will energize you. You need to develop that habit

to maintain.

Your dream for life every day.

By the way, let me give you a couple tips

on getting God's dream while we're talking about this. One

of them is, it's actually easier to hear from God

when you're relaxed than when you're stressed out.

When I'm stressed out and.

My mind is going with all these fears and worries

and stress and it's buzzing, I can't hear God because

my mind is talking too loud to me. I've got

to get relax That's why we call it a quiet time.

You get quiet, you get calm. You can't hear God

with the radio on. You can't hear God when you're

talking to yourself with all your worries. You get quiet,

you get relaxed. And, by the way, one of the

things you can do. I do this all the time.

I don't do it every night, but almost every night.

As I'm going to sleep, the last thing I do

and I put my head down is I ask God

a question, and I ask him for guidance, and I say, Lord,

I'm going to be relaxed, and you'll be able to

talk to me a whole lot better than any other way.

So sometimes I say what's next?

What do you want me to do next? And I

put my head down on the pillow.

Or I'll give him a problem, say what do you

want me to say to these people? And I'll put

my head down and go to sleep. I'll ask God

a question while I'm sleeping. The Holy Spirit has an

opportunity to influence my subconscious and many times, not every time,

but many times I'll wake up with the solution to

a problem I've been working on for weeks and consciously

couldn't figure it out. But when I ask God to

illuminate my imagination while I'm sleeping, then I'm more relaxed

than are receptive. The Bible talks about this. Look at

this verse on the screen Job thirty three.

God speaks.

God speaks again and again, though people often don't recognize it.

He speaks in dreams, and he speaks in visions of

the night when deep sleep falls upon people as they

lie in bed, Because then you don't have all your

pretensions up, you don't have all your guard up. When

you're relaxed, God can communicate to you a whole lot better,

and you wake up in the morning and you got

the answer. Let me show you another verse. The Bible

says this Isaiah fifty. The Sovereign Lord has given me

his words of wisdom, so I know what to say

to all these weary ones. God has given me this

verse many times. Morning by morning he wakens me and

opens my understanding to his will. Because I've started the evening,

I want to sleep talking to the Lord. And the

first thing I do when I wake up o the

morning is I talk to the Lord again. And then

I have a quiet time, and he wakens me and

opens me to understanding his will. That's how he refuels

your imagination.

Number seven.

Seventh thing I've learned is that growing my character will

clarify my vision. Growing my character will clarify clarify my vision.

What I mean by that is, if you're having a

hard time getting God's dream for your life, you just

can't see it. I don't get it. I don't get

the vision. I don't get the dream. I just don't see.

It's pretty muddy, it's it's pretty unclear. Then what you

need to do is you need to focus on growing

up spiritually, because the more mature you become, the clearer

the vision will be and as you add character qualities

in your life, you're going to be able to see

things more and more clearly.

That's what the Bible talks about. In second Peter Chuck.

One verses five to nine, it says this to your faith,

add goodness. Now we're in this series on daring faith,

and the foundation of your life is faith, and it's

impossible to please God without faith.

But he says, in addition to your faith, I want

you to add.

Some other virtues. I want you to add some other

character qualities. In addition to your faith, he said, add goodness,

and you know doing good things. And to your goodness,

I want you to add knowledge. I want you to learn.

And to your knowledge, I want you to add self control.

And to your self control, add patience. He's talking about

virtues or character qualities.

He said.

If you'll build these things into your life, you're going

to grow up spiritually. If you add knowledge and patience

and self control and goodness in your life, these are

fruit and the spirit. He said, you're going to become

more mature. And he said, and add to your patience,

add service to God. Get involved in service. Figure out

a place to God by serving others get involved in

the ministry. So he says, add service for God. And

that's you can't grow without doing that. And he said,

and to your service for God, add kindness to your

brothers and sisters in Christ. He said, practice loving other

people in the church and the family. Show kindness to

other Christians. And he said, and to this kindness add

love for everyone. Now all these qualities, he says, if

all these things are in you and are growing, they

will help you to be useful and productive. Circle the

phrase useful and productive. That is my goal for you,

as your pastor, as somebody who's responsible for your spiritual growth.

My goal for you is that you will be more

productive and you will be more useful in life this

next year and for the rest of your life. That's

why we're doing this series. I want you to be

more productive, and I want you to be more useful

in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he says,

anyone who does not have these qualities, these things, these characteristics,

cannot see clearly. The reason you can't see God's vision

is you just need to grow up. Finally, Number eight,

the eight thing I've learned about vision and dreams and imagination.

If a dream is from God, if a dream is

truly from God, it will be connected somehow to his

church and his plan for the world. If a dream

is truly from God, it will somehow be connected to

his church and his plan for the world. Why would

God give you a self centered dream unconnected to what

he wants to do in the world. He wants to

use you for his dream. He wants to use you

for his plan. And what is God's big overallch plan.

God is building a family, and He's collecting family members

from all every nation, every tribe, every language, every people group.

And when everybody's in the family that he knows is

going to be in the family, boom, it's over. We're

going into phase two, which is eternity. That's God's big plan.

God did not create you to live on earth and

to live a self centered life where you get up,

go to work, come home and watch TV and go

to bed, make a little money, retire and die. Really

you think that's all God puts you here for. No,

He puts you here to be a part of his plan.

And if he gives you a dream, you get a

dream from God, it's going to somehow impact his church

and his plan for the whole world, because that's what

he's doing right before.

Jesus went back to heaven.

After he rose again, he stayed around Jerusalem for another

forty days, walking around talking to people, having dinner with people,

meeting with people. One time he spoke to five hundred

people at one.

Time, and so he was there for forty days.

And then after forty days, he takes the well and

he says, I told you that I was going to

come back to life. And he said, I'm telling you this.

If I came back to life, I'm going to come

back again. And before he leaves, which is called the Ascension,

he gives his great dream. He gives them a great vision,

a great dream. It's called the Great Commission, and it

goes like this, go ye, therefore, and make disciples in

every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them

to do everything I've commanded you, and lo, I will

be with you always, even to the end of the age.

That's called the Great Commission. It's the last words of

Jesus before he goes.

Back to heaven.

Saddleback Church was started because of the Great Commission because

there are people who did not know Jesus Christ. So

we keep starting churches. The whole reason this church started,

Every church started because of the Great Commission. And the

Great Commission is your commission.

And we've had two.

Thousand years of God building his family so that now

there are two point three billion people in it.

It was not soon over.

It is the largest thing on the planet. The Church

is bigger than anything else on this planet. Let's put

this in perspective. There are two point three billion Christians.

That means the church is bigger than China. The church

is bigger than India. The Church is bigger than China

and India together. It is the biggest thing on the planet.

Why it's because God created it. And it's the whole

purpose of history. And if God is going to have

a dream for your life, a specific dream, it is

somehow going to play a role and be connected to

his overarching plan, the growth of his Church, the growth

of his kingdom, the building of his family, until one

day it's completed and we're all going to heaven. Because

that's what it's all about. History is His story. You

weren't put here on the earth to live for yourself.

Look at this last verse. Jesus says this. If you try,

this is Jesus talking. If you try to keep your

life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you

give up your life for my sake and for the

sake of the good News, that's the great commission.

You will find true life. You know.

This is what God wants to do in your life.

Let me give you some questions to get started. I

want you to write these down. I want to start

you on a journey of finding God's dream for your life.

You may have missed it for years and years and years.

Don't worry about that. God's not in a hurry. He's

got you exactly where he wants you to be. He

brought you here today. You're listening this message right now

because God wanted you at.

This point to hear this.

Here are three questions you can ask yourself to begin

what is God's dream for my life? The three questions

are what if, why not?

And why not me? What if? Why not? And why

not me?

First, you ask the question what if, and you be

open to new possibilities.

What if I did this? What if I did that?

Open the new possibilities and then why not why What

do you see in the world that needs to be done?

Why is this not being done or not being done

well or not being done enough? Of you see a

problem in the world that maybe you could make a

difference with?

Why not? Why not? Why isn't this being done? And

then the third question, why not me? Why not? Now?

I use these three questions to create the Peace Plan.

What if? Why not? And why not me? You see

the reason? You know, people say, why do we.

Have all these problems in the world, like poverty, disease, illiteracy,

you know, corruption, things like that in the world, these

big problems. I'll tell you why is because God is

waiting for his children at you and me, to imagine

the solutions. God is waiting for his children to imagine

the solutions to the problems in the world. And maybe

God wants to use you in a way you've never

ever even thought, to use you to make a significant

difference in the world in some part of the world.

And the most important thing to remember is this Jesus said,

with men, this is impossible, but with God all things

are possible. So you pray and you ask God for direction.

Say God, I'm not doing this on my ability. I'm

doing it on your ability. I'm not looking at what

I can do, I'm looking at what you can do.

I'm letting the size of my God determine the size

of my goal.

And I'm going to go for it. And I'm going

to move against my fears, and I'm going to move against.

My doubt, and I'm going to go ahead because all

things are possible with God. God is looking for people

who are tired of small thinking, petty living, weak willed goals,

self centered.

Dreams.

I told you I was going to push you during

this daring faith series because you were made for far

more than just a suburban life. You were made for

more than just to be a soccer mom or a

soccer dad.

You were made for far more than that.

God's dream, God's vision, God's goal for your life is.

So big you cannot even imagine it.

God is looking for people who will step up, move out,

and go Okay.

I'm all in.

I don't even know what that means. It scares me spitless,

but I'm all in and I'm going to be a

part of God's plan and God's goal for my life.

You can be better. You were made for more than

you're living right now.

I know you were made for more than you're living

right now, and I'm not going to let you just

do that because I love you too much to not

challenge you and tell you that God's dream for your

life is so massive. I am exhibit a of this.

I grew up in a town of less than five

hundred people. I would have never told you that I

would pastor church one hundred times bigger than the town

I grew up in. But God will use you if

you will just say yes, and He'll use that imagination.

And great lives are built on great dreams. That's bower Heads.

I'm going to pray a prayer that could change your life.

You can pray this in your mind, in your heart

to say, Dear God, I haven't been using my imagination correctly.

I've imagined things that I shouldn't have, worry and fear,

and some ugly things that just aren't good. But I

want to use my imagination to dream the dream that

you put in my heart. I want my life to

be shaped by you, not by other people, not by

what my parents told me, not by what society has

told me. I want my life to be shaped by

your dream. I want to live by faith. I want

a great life built on a great dream. And I

thank you Lord that your dream for my life is bigger.

Than my dream.

And like that man who came to you with the

six Son, I'm saying to you today, God, I believe

help me with my doubts. I believe help me with

my doubts. I want to begin a daily time with

you of reading some of the Bible and praying, talking,

a quiet time where your spirit and your word refuel.

My imagine nation.

I want to grow my character. I want to add

to my faith so the vision gets clearer and clearer

and clearer. And I want to be a part of

what you're doing in the world. I want to attach

my life to the greatest cause, the great commission, your

goal of gathering a family.

That will be with you for eternity.

And I want what I do in some way to

play a role in building your family, your church, your kingdom,

and your plan for the world. So as much as

I know how, I'm saying yes to you today. If

you've never invited Jesus Christ in your life, to say,

Jesus Christ, come into my life, make yourself real, to me.

I want to learn to trust you and love you. Father.

I pray that you will raise up a generation of

people who.

Dream great dreams. You said in your word that in

the last days, old men will dream dreams and young

men will have visions. That God, you will use people

of every age, at every stage, and every race and

every language. Forgive us for petty thinking, self centered, living

small goals. Help us to trust you, Help us to

remember that when we call on Jesus, nothing is impossible.

And I pray you would start a movement in our

church that all the forces of Hell couldn't stop. And

I pray it in Jesus' name, And everybody said amen.

Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept

Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.

Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. We'll send you

free tools to help start your relationship with Jesus. And now,

this really is one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.

Letters from our listeners.

Here's Rick.

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