RIck Warren - The Awesome Power of Faith Part Three

Hello, and thanks for joining us here on Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope. Well today we bring our series called God's

Prescription for a Healthy Life to a close.

Today, Pastor Rick wraps up.

His look at how to improve our health physically, spiritually,

relationally and emotionally by applying the five essentials needed for.

A more vibrant life.

If you want to have what it takes to live

out your calling in life, stay with us for this

amazing series. Now, in just a few moments, we're going

to tell you about the Daniel Planned DVD study Kit,

a sixth session video based study by Rick Warren, doctor

Daniel Aman, and doctor Mark Hyman. This out of the

box approach to a healthy lifestyle is based on five

essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends. You can find

out more right now by going to Pastorick dot com

while you listen to today's message, or you can just

text the word daily to eight hundred six hundred five

thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com, or the word

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Right now, here's Pastor Rick with the final part of

a message called the Awesome Power of Faith.

How do you have a big dream without getting a

big head. How do you have big goals without getting

a big ego? How do big dreams and humility go together?

Because very important, God wants us to live with humility.

In fact, pride is the worst sin. Did you know

that it's the worst sin. Pride is what got Satan

kicked out of heaven. God hates pride, God says, He

says it over and over, structure. I hate pride. He

is against the proud, He opposes the pride prideful. Now,

the middle letter pride is what I The middle letter

sin is what it's when I want to be my

own God, and I want to do my own thing,

and I want to call the shots and I don't

need God. I'll do what I want to do in life.

That's called pride. That's the negative kind. We talked about

good time earlier. And so God says, how do I,

or you say, how do I have big dreams without

getting a big ego? Well, let me just tell you

from experience, it's not very hard for God to humble you.

Do you have children, are you married? Do you have friends?

You know? Listen, there are a thousand ways for God

to humble you. You don't have to worry about that.

God's problem in your life is not how I'll get

you to be humble. He can do that very easily.

His problem is getting you to dream bigger than you've

ever dreamed before. That's the harder of the two. He said, Well,

how will God keep you humble when you have a

big Oh? There are lots of ways. Let me just mention,

if you number one, you will be criticized unjustly. Count

on it. It is not by accident that the most

blessed people, the most blessed businesses, the most best ministries,

are also the most criticized. What's the most blessed retail

store in the world, Walmart? What's the most criticized Walmart?

What's the biggest and most blessed fast food chain? McDonald's.

What's the most criticized McDonald's. It just if you're gonna

call the shots, you take the shots. If you're gonna

be a pioneer, you're gonna get arrows in the back,

And the moment you hang out your shingle, somebody's gonna

start throwing stones at it. And the more God blesses you,

the bigger target you become. So you will be criticized,

you know, unjustly. Well what should your response be to that? Well,

look up here on the screen. Second Corinthian six '

eight says, we serve God, whether people honor us or

despise us, whether they slammed or they praise us. He says,

you know what, we don't really pay attention to either.

As you're running the race of life. Over in the stands,

there are people giving cheers, and they're people giving jeers.

As I said, they're giving criticism or they're giving compliments.

What do you do? You don't know listen really to either,

don't pay much attention. You keep your eye on the goal,

and you keep moving forward because God says, don't worry

about that. But you will be criticized. My dad used

to tell me, said, Rick, the hounds keep barking at

the moon, but it still keeps shining, And all of

barking in the world isn't going to stop the moon

from shining. So this year there's going to be some

dogs that bark at you, criticize you, tell you how

you're doing things wrong. And let me tell you something,

if you start going after your dream, there will be

people in your life who don't like it because it

upsets the apple cart. All of a sudden, you're doing

something with your life and they aren't, and it makes

them feel a little bad. Well, I'm sorry. You cannot

live your life for the opinions of other people, so

you'll be criticized. If you get a big dream from God,

it will be so big you're bound to fail unless

God bails you out. And you will have problems that

are so big they will be solvable only by prayer.

And you'll have to be on your knees independence because

it'll be saying if you can accomplish it on your own,

it's not a dream from God. And so you're going

to have big problems that you'll have to be in

prayer for and trust God for. And if you get

a big dream and you go after it and you

start taking risks and expect God to bless you, you're

still gonna make dumb mistakes. I mean, you may be

right in the center of God's will, but you're a

human being and you're still going to do foolish stuff.

Then that's, you know, humbling, I mean, humility is not

denying your strengths. It's being honest. About your weaknesses. I mean,

you have some great strengths, you also have some great weaknesses.

We're all a bundle of them. And humility is not

denying your strengths. It's not saying, oh no, no, I'm

not good at that. I'm no good that's actually false humility.

That's actually pride. I'm not good at that. Oh no, no, no,

that's pride. That's showing they're not humility. Pride is saying, yeah,

I'm really good at this, but you know what, I'm

also not so good at that. Because nobody's good at everything, right,

nobody's good at everything. I have some really great strengths,

I also have some really great weaknesses. Just ask my

family or most of you know them, do you know?

And he say, I mean like bad fashion sense and

stuff like that. And so you know, you just put

up with each other and you take the good and

the bad together. Another thing that will happen is other

people take credit for your work. If you get a

big dream, other people claim the credit for it. You know,

God can do great things to the person who doesn't

care who gets the credit, So you just keep moving on. So,

as I said, it's very easy for God to humble you.

It's much much harder for God to get you to

believe bigger than you've ever believed before. Hebrews eleven one

says God wants us to excit effect things from him.

He says faith assures us of things we expect and

convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see.

We just come to God and say, Okay, God, you

just take over. Here's the dream, here's my life, here's

my reputation. You call the shots, and I'm gonna trust

you from here on out. I don't know if you've

ever said that to Jesus Christ. You take the wheel, Lord,

you call the shots. You be the CEO of my life.

You become the chairman of the board. I'm putting on

the sign that says I'm under new management. You're in charge.

I'm not. I saw a sign the other day, a

bumperstick in a cart and said, God is my co pilot.

He's not your co pilot. He's either driving or he's

not in the car.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be

back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.

You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional

at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

The truth is most of us don't pay much attention

to our health until something goes wrong. We put on

a couple of pounds every year and think no big deal, right,

But a few pounds over five or ten years really

adds up and it can even lead to major illnesses

like diabetes and heart disease. That's why Pastor Rick work

together with medical and fitness experts to create the Daniel

Plan Study. The sixth session DVD and workbook study kit

from Rick Warren, doctor Daniel Aman, and doctor Mark Hyman

is an out of the box approach to a healthy

lifestyle based on five essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends.

The Daniel Plan Study gives individuals in small groups the

encouragement and accountability needed to succeed. If you've been watching

the scale go up lately, or your health is in

trouble because of your weight, it's not too lateoin the

thousands of people who've lost weight improve their health and

improved their relationships through the Daniel Plan. We'll send you

a copy of the Daniel Plan DVD Steady Kid to

say thanks when you give a gift to Daily Hope

to help share the hope of Jesus with people around

the world.

Just go to.

Pastorrick dot com to get your copy, or you can

call eight hundred six hundred five zero zero four. That's

Pastorrick dot com. Or call eight hundred six hundred five

zero zero four and thank you so much for your support.

Today is the last day to get this great resource,

so contact us today.

Once again. Here's Rick. Faith is never giving up. It's

never giving up. When Jesus is at the wheel of

your life. You don't have to worry about it. You

don't have to worry about rocking the boat when he's

in it. Faith is persistent, it's diligent, It keeps on

keeping on. The Bible says this, be brave, be strong,

don't give up. God brought some of you here just

to hear this one. Don't give up. Expect God to

get here soon. Do you know what our nation needs

men of character, women of character. Well, we need people

of compassion and consistency and character and competence. And God says,

I'm looking for people to use and they don't give

up when the slightest little problem comes along. But they

just keep on keeping on. You see, great people are

just ordinary people with an extraordinary amount of determination. Great

people are just ordinary people who don't quit. We have

become a nation of quitters, where at the first thing

we go. I don't want to do what's consistent. I

want to do what's convenient. I want to do what's comfortable.

I want to do what's popular. I don't want to

just keep on. I'm keeping on doing the right thing.

I don't want to do the easy thing. And as

I've said many times, when you're coast and you're always

heading downhill, great people never give up. You know. The

secret of success is just outlast your critics. They're all

gonna die anyway, so don't worry about it. Some one

eighteen one oh nine says this, my life hangs in

the balance. Some of you feel like that right now,

My life hangs in the balance. But I will not

give up obedience to your word. What's he's saying there,

never doubt in the dark what God has shown you

in the light. Some of you, right now you feel

like your life is in the balance. You go, you know,

my finances are in the toilet. My job, I'm hanging

on by a thin thread. My marriage is about to

come apart. My relationship with my boyfriend or my girlfriend,

it's just not working out. I'm having conflict with my parents,

with my kids, I'm dealing with illness after illness and

all these other things. And you go, I'm you know,

my life is hanging in the balance. Well, the person

of faith says, but I will not give up obedience

to your word. Most of you know that I had

my mid life crisis at age twenty six, and back

in nineteen eighty one. You know, if you're gonna have

a mid life crisis, if you're gonna have losses, it's

good to have them in preseason. You don't have them

in October during the World Series. You know, if you're

gonna lose some games, it's good to kind of lose

them early on. You can get some lessons out that.

It's much more strategic. So I decided to have my

mid life crisis at twenty six and get it over with.

And that entire year I went through a year of depression.

And my goal wasn't oh, God, go the great Church.

My goal is God, will you get me through Sunday?

And I was like, wherever I walk. There was this

dark cloud over my head for an entire year. I

really wanted to give up, but I didn't. Every hour

I would think, should I really be doing this? Shouldn't

somebody else be leading saddleback church? Am I really called

to be the pastor of this church? Does God really

even want this church? And I was so filled with

doubts and fears and questions, and those doubts and fears

were causing me to say, just stop, go do something else,

don't build this church. And it was an entire year

of depression. And I remember I went out to took

my family out to the desert to Phoenix, and I

took Ka to her parents and the kids to the parents,

and then I went on out in the desert and

just spend some time alone with God. And out there,

I said, God, there's a couple things that I've got

doubts in my mind. Number One, I don't think I'm

good enough for this job. Okay, I'm not the man

of God I ought to be. I don't deserve this.

I'm not good enough for this job. And I said

number two, I can't handle it. It's growing so fast.

The church had grown from just my wife and I

at the end of the first year to one hundred

and fifty people, and I thought, shoot, at that rate,

in a few years, we might have several thousand people.

Little did I know. So I was haunted by these stairs.

I'm not good enough and I can't handle it. And

when I was out in the desert, God said three

things to me. Said, you're right, Rick. Number one, you're

not good enough, but you never will be good enough.

And I don't do things in your life because of

your goodness. I'd do it because of my grace. And

you need to just accept the fact that all of

us are a trophy of God's grace. I don't deserve

to be saved and on my way to heaven, much

less lead you folks. I don't deserve any of the

blessings in my life. I never have. It's just a

free gift. It's a grace. So stop trying to be

a perfectionist, relax and just accept God's gift. And the

next thing he said, is whose churches? And I said, well,

it's your church. Lord. He said, then let me lead it.

And he said I'll tell you what, Rick, You focus

on building people, and I'll build the church. Jesus said

I will build my church, and I said, you got

to deal God. And that's where we came up with

the idea of the purpose driven strategy, the paradigm of

helping people grow the membership, maturity, ministry, mission, and magnification

to know God and to grow in God and to

serve God and to share God and to worship God.

And so for twenty six years now we have focused

not on building this church. We don't focus on that.

We focus on building people. And that's why we went

fifteen years without a building. We're more interested in building

people than build a building. And I look back and

I go okay. And now out of those two facts

that ultimately it's all by grace and ultimately it's God's responsibility.

Out of that came the solid conviction in my life

that I am God's man for this church at this

point in time, and nothing can shape that from my life.

That conviction is burning into my heart. I am God's

man for this church at this point in time, and

no criticism, no compliment, no illness, no distraction, no disturbance,

no problem, no difficulty, no delay can shake that conviction

in my heart. And you need to get that kind

of conviction about God's dream for your life. You need

to be able to say, I know that this is

what God wants me to do with my life, and

you move forward with conviction. How by starting on these steps.

The Bible says this even good people, even if good

people fall seven times, they will get back up. I

like this verse because it says even good people stumble,

not just bad people. Good people fall. We all make

mistakes on a daily basis. The difference between righteous and

unrighteous is the good people get back up. It's not

a sin to fall. It's a sin to be a

victim and wimp out about it and say, well, I'll

just stay down here. Something goes wrong in your life,

you give up. Say you know, I tried a small group,

and my small group, those people in that group they

were weirdos and we just didn't get along and I

had nothing in common with them. So I'm giving up

on small groups. Oh come on, that's like saying I

had a bad meal, so I'm going to give up

on food. No, you just make up for it. Find

another restaurant. You find a bad doctor, you get a

different one. You don't like a TV show, you turn

the channels. You don't like your small group, get in

a good one, but you still need it. You don't

just quit give up on it, so you keep on

keeping on, says, if they fall, they just get back up.

Failure is never final, and you are never a failure

till you quit, and it is always too soon to quit. See,

you don't determine a person's greatness by their talent or

their health to their education. You determine a person's greatness

by what it takes to discourage them. So what does

it take to discourage you from going after your dream?

One word of well, I don't think that's a good

idea from a friend or a relative or a family member.

The Bible says this in Glatians six ' nine. Let

us not get tired of doing good, doing what is

right for after a while, Notice there's a time to

lay there. We will reap a harvest of blessing if

we don't get discouraged and give up. You want to

know how many times I've wanted to resign at Sadleback Church.

Just every Monday morning, I'm going God, surely somebody could

have done a better job yesterday, somebody. This thing's too

big for any one person. God is on you know

all these complaints. God need to just keep on keeping on.

I may not be real bright sometimes, but I'll tell

you what. I don't know how to quit. I don't

know how to give up. You See what I'm saying

is this God works in your life according to your faith.

The Bible says, without faith, it's impossible to please God.

The Bible says, whatsoever is not a faith is sin.

The Bible says, according to your faith, it will be

done unto you. So what are you doing in faith?

You need to ask yourself every day when you get up, God,

what can I do today that will require faith? Because

that's what's going to please God. Now, there are a

lot of things in your life you don't have control over,

but the most important thing you have one hundred percent

control over how much you choose to believe God. God

uses people who expect him to act, who never give up,

who take risks in faith, who get his dream and

go after That's the kind of person God uses. That's

power heads and in your mind. I want you to

pray this prayer, Dear God, give me the dream you

have for my life, Burn it into my heart. What

you want me to do. Help me, Lord to be

willing to risk failure in going after that dream, and

help me to expect you to use me and to

bless me, and help me to never give up. Jesus

take the wheel of my life, and you be the

driver from here on out. I want to trust in

you and I want to grow in faith in your name. Amen.

Hi everybody, this is Rick and I hope you enjoyed

today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed that prayer

for the very first time, or you just recommitted your

life to Jesus again today, would you let me know

about it. There's something real about sharing your commitment. So

write me Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick,

I prayed that prayer of commitment, I gave my life

to Christ. And I'll send you some material that will

help you on your journey with Jesus. And I'll also

pray for you. God bless you.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We are so glad

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sign up right now. Rick will be back in just

a moment. To close out our time today. But first,

the truth is that most of us don't pay much

attention to our health until something goes wrong. We put

on a couple of pounds every year and think no

big deal, right, But a few pounds over five or

ten years can really add up. That's why Pastor Rick

Warren has put together the Daniel Plan DVD Study Kit.

This sixth session video based study by Rick Warren, doctor

Daniel Ahman and doctor Mark Hyman is an out of

the box approach to a healthy lifestyle based on five

essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends. The Daniel Planned

Study Kit gives individuals the couragement and accountability needed to succeed.

If you've been watching the scale go up lately, or

your health is in trouble because of your weight, it's

not too late to join join the more than fifteen

thousand people who've lost weight, improve their health and improve

their relationships by ordering the Daniel Plan DVD Study Kit.

Let us send you a copy of the Daniel Plan

DVD Studykit as our way of saying thanks for your

financial support of this ministry. Just go to pastorick dot

com right now to get your copy, or you can

call eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's

Pastorick dot com. Or call eight hundred six hundred five

thousand and four and thank you so much for your support.

Today is the last day to get this awesome study tool,

so please contact us today. Here's Pastor Rick with a

letter from one of our listeners.

Today, I want to share a letter from John who

says he's been reading the Daily Hope Devotionals for ten years. Wow,

great John. John says he uses these written devotionals every

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he writes this, Pastor Rick, I started receiving your Daily

Hope Devotionals about ten years ago. Not only did they

bless my life and help me with my daily walk,

I would save them and send them to my friends

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