This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.
Today we continue in a series called Transformed. In these lessons, Rick
uncovers key principles found in God's Word that will completely transform our lives from the
inside out in every area including spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational,
financial, and vocational. Now, in just a few moments, we're
going to let you know how you can get your very own copy of Open
Doors, a Year of Daily Devotions book. It's a beautifully illustrated three hundred
sixty five day devotional from Pastor Rick that offers daily encouragement from the Bible.
You can take a sneak peek right now by going to Pastorick dot com while
you listen, and if you want, you can just text the word Daily
to eight hundred six hundred five to find out more. Right now, here's
Pastor Rick Warren with the final part of a message called Facing Giants in Life
and Work. I remember when I'm a Californian, but I went to seminary
in Texas. And when I went to seminary in Texas, while I was
there, God gave me a dream of moving to southern California to a city
I'd never been in, and to start a church with no money, no
members, no building, and no support. And I'd never been a senior
pastor. And so I called up an expert on starting churches in Texas.
His name was Jean and I called him up and I said, Hey,
I'm thinking about graduating, going to southern California's starting at church with no money,
no members, no building, no support, and I've never been a
senior pastor. What do you think? And this gene said expert said,
that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard, said Rick, If you do that,
you will never be heard from again. Hm. Twenty years later he
called me back. He said, that was the dumbest advice I ever gave
in my life. I was dead wrong, dead dead wrong on that.
Okay. Now, I remember when I wrote Purpose Driven Life, I got
a letter from the editor I framed it and said, this book will never
work. Nobody's going to read forty chapters. The experts are often very wrong,
very very wrong. So there's this doubt that comes. Now, how
do you defeat these giants that are keeping you from being the man God wants
you to? Be. How do you defeat these fears that are keeping you
from being the woman God wants you to be, to be a person of
great faith with a great dream and a great life work. How do you
overcome those giants? You do the very things that David did. Quickly.
Let me just give him to you. The four things that David did to
defeat these giants before he gets to Goliath. Number one, I remember how
God has helped me in the past. That's the first thing you do to
face the giants and to fulfill your dream. Remember how God has helped me
in the past. This is a confidence builder when I recall, when I
recollect, when I remember ways that God has helped me in the past,
it gives me confidence for the future. I say, remember those times I
thought I'm going to make it, but I did. And I remember that
time I thought it was the end, but it wasn't. And remember I
thought it was at the bottom and I was never going to climb out,
but I did. And remember when I thought it was all alone, but
I wasn't. And you remember how God has helped you in little times,
and realize He's going to help me in big times in the future. Because
God never changes. God doesn't love you one day and not another day.
And if He helped you in the past in little ways, he will willingly
help you in the future in big ways. You remember how God has helped
you in the past. This is what David did. Verse thirty six.
David says when everybody tells him it can't be done, he says, you
know, in protecting my sheep as a shepherd, I've killed both a lion
and a bear, And the Lord who delivered me from the teeth of that
lion and the claws of that bear will surely now deliver me from this philistine
too. That's confidence. I remember how God's helped me in the past.
Number two, I use the tools that God has given me now. I
use the tools that God has given me now. I don't wait for something
I don't have I don't have enough money, I don't have enough education,
I don't have enough connections, I don't have enough opportunities. I don't have
this or I don't have that. No, you use the tools you've got
right now now. Some people are just waiting for something to happen. You
don't wait for your ship to come in. You swim out to it,
because if you wait for it to come into the harbor, you're gonna wait
a long long time. You use the tools God has given me. Now,
now, David goes to see Saul, and Saul says, well,
if you're gonna fight this guy, you may as well use my armor.
How ridiculous is that David is a short, small boy. Saul is a
tall, big grown man. To take his armor and put it on David,
his hands probably didn't even show through it, it would be comical.
And David says this verse thirty eight to forty. Then Saul dressed David in
his own armor, but David said, if I can't go out in these,
He said, I can't go out in these because I'm not used to
them, so he took them off. Instead, he chose five smooth stones
for his sling. He goes, this is what I'm used to. I
know how to use a slingshot. I don't need your armor. I'm gonna
just do this. Now. Let me just say this, when you start
going after your dream that God has given you, some people are gonna pose
you on it. They're gonna be opposition. But other people say, oh
yeah, go ahead and go after your dream, but do it my way,
and they're gonna try to condense you to do it their way, but
you're not them, and it's gonna fail. I see this Saul's armor syndrome
in businesses everywhere. Well, they're doing it that way, so we should
do it that way. Well, not necessarily, because God doesn't create clones.
God made you to be you, and God's gonna use you to fulfill
the dream He asked for you your way, not the way somebody else did
it. And if you try to do it the way somebody else did it,
you are bound to fail. It's like trying to wear Saul's armor.
You can't wear it because you're not Saul. You just need to use the
tools you got. He had a sling shot, so he picks up some
stones and he's gonna go after it. Often people will try to load some
things on you that are just too heavy for you, and you're not gonna
fulfill your dream that way. I love this verse in Ecclesiastes eleven, look
up here on the screen. Verse four says if you wait for perfect conditions,
you'll never get anything done. How many of you agree with that verse?
Yeah, if you wait for perfect conditions, You're never gonna get started
on your dream. Someday I'll one of these. No, today's the day
we're ending fifty days of transformation. This is the day to start the new
dream. This is the day to go after it. And when everybody else
is saying you can't do it, discouragement, and when you're full of doubt,
you're gonna trust God. And when there's been a delay and people have
held you back, and when people disapprove you, just say sorry, I've
got to do what God's asking me to do. Number three, The third
thing he did is ignore the dream Busters. You must ignore the dream Busters
in your life. Now. It is interesting to me that as David's going
to take on a giant that everybody else is scared to death to take on,
he didn't get any encouragement from anybody, not a single word of encouragement
as he's gone out on this show. His dad didn't encourage him, His
mom didn't encourage him, his brothers didn't encourage him. The army, the
soldiers are scared to death, didn't encourage him. The king, whose reputation
is on the line, didn't encourage him. Nobody gave David any encouragement.
What did he do? He had to encourage himself in the Lord. Look
at the next verse, first Samuel thirty, verse six, when others were
speaking against him, David read it with me, encouraged himself in the Lord
circle in the Lord. Do you do that? You encourage yourself in the
Lord. Now, this is so important. If you're gonna go after your
dream, you're gonna have to learn how to encourage yourself because somebody, sometimes
nobody else is going to encourage you, and you're gonna have to encourage yourself
in the Lord. Now. This is very, very different from simply having
a positive mental attitude. No, no, this is far more deep.
When you encourage yourself in the Lord, there is a bedrock trust in God's
faith, God's grace, God's provision, God's security, God's kindness, God's
power. You're trusting in God. It's not just a positive mental latitude.
Now, I'm not against positive thinking. I mean considering the alternative. I
think you ought to be a positive thinker, because the alternative is negative thinking,
and that's worse. So between negative and positive thinking, you ought to
be a positive thinker. But friends, there's some problems in your life that
are so significant and some giants so big. All the positive think in the
world isn't going to make a difference at all. The sun will come out
tomorrow, have a nice day. It's just pretty shallow when you're facing the
deepest, darkest problems of life. You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Rick will be back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.
If you've missed any part of today's teaching, you can listen online anytime at
pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com. Do you want to live the
full and abundant life God desires for you? That only happens when you seek
God and spend time in His work. That's why Pastor Rick put together a
three hundred and sixty five day devotional book called Open Doors. Each day features
a Bible verse and a short devotional where Pastor Rick, in his engaging and
relevant way, makes the Bible easy to understand and apply as you die life
into this book, You'll open the door to greater intimacy with God and experience
the love, trust, and freedom that comes from a deeper relationship with Him.
You'll discover God's wisdom to resolve conflict, conquer fear, reduce stress,
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for your life. It's a great way to kick off the new year and
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hope of Jesus to people around the world, will send you your very own
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great resource, call eight hundred at six hundred five zero zero four or go
to Pastorick dot com. That's eight hundred at six hundred five zero zero four
or pastorick dot com. Today is the last day to get this great resource,
so don't wait. Once again, here's Rick number four. Fourth thing
David did expect. I expect God to help me for his glory. I
expect God to help me for his glory. This is what David did.
This is what you must do in going after your dream. It is the
faith factor. I love what David says to Goliath as he runs onto the
battlefield. David runs onto the battlefield shouting, and he says says this,
David shouted to Goliath. You come at me with sword and with fear and
with javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty.
And today the Lord will conquer you, not me. The Lord will
conquer you, and the whole world will know that there is a God,
and everyone will know that the Lord doesn't need weapons to rescue his people.
It is his battle, not ours. Are you fighting God's battle, and
that's why you're tired. It is his battle, not ours. And the
Lord will give you to us. What are you expecting God to do in
your life? Without even knowing you, I can tell you this God is
doing exactly what you expect him to do, no more and no less,
Because every time God moves out of heaven and moves on earth and does a
miracle, it's because somebody believed. The Bible says, according to your faith,
it will be done unto you. The Bible says that just shall live
by faith. The Bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please
God. The Bible says, whatever is not a faith is sin. According
to your faith, that will be done to you. You get to choose
how much God does in your life. It's based on how much you choose
to be trust him. I don't have to be the smartest person in life.
I don't have to be the best looking person in life. I don't
have to be the wealthiest purpose in life. I have a choice to trust
God, and you do too. Whatever is not a faith the sin,
he says, I expect God to help me for his glory. I made
this decision when I was a young man, and in the mountains of northern
California one night, I got down on my knees and as a young man,
I said, God, I'm not the smartest guy. I'm not the
most educated, and I'm not the best looking, and I'm not the most
talented. But God, by your grace, I'm going to trust you.
And I don't have to know or understand why you tell me to do what
you want me to do. But I will do anything, anytime, anywhere,
in faith, even when it doesn't make sense to me. And what
an adventure my life has been. I would have never imagined as a teenager
that one day I would stand and speak to a crowd like this, much
less to all of our campuses around the world, Because this group right here
is about five times bigger than the town I grew up in. I'm a
country boy with a slingshot, and God says, I will use anybody who
will trust me. And say, I expect God to use me, not
because of who I am, but for his glory. That God knows and
the world knows that there is a God. I'll never forget. I'm looking
into my wife's eyes many years ago as we were finishing up school in Texas,
and I said, Okay, I think God has given me a dream,
and it is to be a pastor. And I think we're supposed to
go to southern California, to a place we've never been, and started church
with no money, no members, no building, no support, and I've
never been a senior pastor. And I said, what do you think about
that dream? And she looked into my eyes and she says, it scares
me to death. But I believe in God and I believe in you,
so let's go. Let's go for it now. I've often thought, how
would history be different if my wife had said no, If she'd been afraid
and scared and said let's don't do it, there would be no saddleback church.
There would be no purpose driven life. There would be no movement of
churches in one hundred and sixty nations, there would be no peace plan.
Thousands of people that are going to heaven now would not be headed to heaven.
You have no idea how much your unbelief could be. Limiting somebody you
love is your unbelief. Limiting your wife is your unbelief. Limiting your husband
is your unbelief, Limiting your child. Don't be jesse, don't hold them
back when God has a great dream for their lives. It's not your dream
for them, it's God's dream for them. And you need to say,
I'm not going to let anybody else's unbelief hold me back, and I'm not
gonna let my unbelief hold anybody else back. Let's vow for prayer. There
are a lot of things in your life you don't have control over. You
didn't choose your natural talent. You didn't choose when you would be born,
where you would be born. You didn't choose your race, you didn't choose
your gender, you didn't choose your talent. But you do get to choose
how much you're going to trust God. And it is that faith factor that
will defeat the giants of delay and discouragement and disapproval and doubt. And if
you will say yes to God, he will take you on the adventure of
your life. It doesn't really matter what's happened in your life. If say
I want the rest of my life, no matter how many years I've got
to be God's I want you to pray this prayer. Dear God, you
have helped me many times in the past. You've helped me through things I
thought i'd never get out of, but you did help me. And if
you've helped me in the past, I know you're going to help me in
the future. Help me to remember that and draw my confidence from that,
even when people discourage me or disapprove of me, or even when people misunderstand
me. Help me to use the tools that you've given me now, to
not wait for a perfect time, in a perfect place and a perfect tool,
but to use the sling shot and the stones that I have right now.
Help me not to wear somebody else's armor, but to just go in
your strength. And Lord, help me to ignore the dream busters and help
me to start every day with a time alone with You, so that I
will encourage myself in the Lord, that I don't need the encouragement of other
people because I'm encouraging myself in the Lord and spending time with you. Help
me to expect you to help me, not for my glory but for yours.
That the whole world will know that there is a God, and that
everyone will know that the Lord doesn't need weapons to rescue his people. Lord,
I've been tired because I've been trying to fight battles as if they're mine.
It's your battle. I want to relax and trust you to give me
the victory. Jesus Christ, I invite you into every room in my life,
the living room, the bedroom, the bathroom, kitchen. I want
you to run every area of my life. I want you to be the
manager and the Lord from this day forward. And I thank you in advance
that the giants will fall and the dream will come true. And I pray
this 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're so thankful that you've chosen to spend
some time with us. If you've missed any part of this broadcast, including
portions we didn't have time for today, just go to Pastororick dot com and
listen online. Anytime. Rick will be back to close out our time today.
But first, if you enjoy Rick's free email devotional, then we are
excited to let you know that, for the very first time, these devotions
are available in a three hundred and sixty five day devotional hardcover book called Open
Doors a Year of Devotions. Here's Pastor Rick to tell us more. You
know, one of the ways I try to help reinforce the lessons that I
teach on this broadcast is to offer daily devotionals that are based on the same
lessons that I teach here. Did you know that over a million people subscribe
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asked that we provide these devotionals in a book format, so you know what.
I asked my team to pull together three hundred and sixty five of the
best daily devotionals and we printed them in a book, and you can use
this Daily Hope devotional book. It's an entire year's worth of devotions as part
of your quiet time, and it will allow you to meditate on a single
scripture every day and to reflect on what it means. Now, I know
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