Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warrening. So
Speaker 1: we're continuing with this series called Daring Faith The Key
Speaker 1: to Miracles. And in this series you're learning how to
Speaker 1: have a bold, unshakable faith. And so far this series
Speaker 1: is giving all of us powerful tools to share our faith,
Speaker 1: a faith that gives you courage to impact the world
Speaker 1: around you. And right now, here's Pastor Rick with part
Speaker 1: one of a message called Daring to Wait on God.
Speaker 2: A few things make us more irritated than having to wait.
Speaker 2: Would you agree with that we don't like to wait?
Speaker 2: Waiting in traffic? Does anybody actually like traffic? Yeah, Waiting
Speaker 2: in a waiting room, waiting in a line at Disneyland, waiting,
Speaker 2: We don't like wait. And technology, which has speeded up
Speaker 2: everything in our world, has made us much more accustomed
Speaker 2: to things fast, and so technology has actually made us
Speaker 2: more impatient, far more impatient than say a farmer of
Speaker 2: one hundred years ago. And yet waiting is an important
Speaker 2: part of life. It's an important part of character development.
Speaker 2: There are some things that we only learn in waiting
Speaker 2: that we learn no other way. Would you agree that
Speaker 2: every child has to learn the difference between know and
Speaker 2: not yet.
Speaker 3: They're not the same thing, are they.
Speaker 2: But an immature child doesn't know the difference.
Speaker 3: We know and not yet.
Speaker 2: Our inability to wait is the cause of so many
Speaker 2: problems in our lives. We get in a hurry, our
Speaker 2: inability to delay gratification.
Speaker 3: It is the cause of all debt.
Speaker 2: It's the cause of all debt, the inability to wait
Speaker 2: until you can afford it, you buy it on credit,
Speaker 2: you get in debt. It's why America is in debt.
Speaker 2: So many social problems, even diseases, come from our inability
Speaker 2: to delay sexual gratification until marriage. And so many other
Speaker 2: problems really come from this issue. I want it, I
Speaker 2: want it, and I want it now causes broken hearts.
Speaker 2: Have you ever been in a hurry when God wasn't.
Speaker 2: That's the most frustrating of all. When you're in God's
Speaker 2: waiting room. You can rush your kids, but you can't
Speaker 2: rush God, and that's frustrating. Some of you right now
Speaker 2: are waiting on God. You're in God's waiting You're waiting
Speaker 2: for God to open a door. You're waiting for God
Speaker 2: to give you a job opportunity. You're waiting on God
Speaker 2: for an answer to prayer. You're waiting for clarification, you're
Speaker 2: waiting for new direction, You're waiting for God to remove
Speaker 2: a pain or heal a relationship. And you go, I
Speaker 2: don't get this. I've prayed and nothing happening, and there
Speaker 2: is a delay. Remember no is not not yet. Why
Speaker 2: does God delay things when clearly he could answer every
Speaker 2: prayer instantly? Well, if you had every prayer answered, you'd
Speaker 2: be a selfish little brat because you'd treat God like
Speaker 2: a vending machine. God, I need this pollic trigger boom.
Speaker 3: I got it instantly.
Speaker 2: And God sometimes has to work on you before he
Speaker 2: works on the solution. The Bible says to Ecclesiastes three eleven,
Speaker 2: they're at the top of your outline. God does everything
Speaker 2: just right and on time, but people can never completely
Speaker 2: understand what he's doing.
Speaker 3: Well, duh.
Speaker 2: If you did understand everything God was doing, you'd be God.
Speaker 2: God is God, and I'm not. And so I don't
Speaker 2: understand what is just right, and I don't always understand
Speaker 2: what's on time. So today I want us to look
Speaker 2: at what do you do.
Speaker 3: When you have to wait on God? Daring to wait
Speaker 3: on God?
Speaker 2: And I want to ask two questions, what do I
Speaker 2: need to remember when I'm in the waiting room of life,
Speaker 2: and what do I need to do when I'm in
Speaker 2: the waiting room of life? Because this is an element
Speaker 2: of daring faith. Waiting is as much faith as taking
Speaker 2: the initiative. Waiting can be as much of a matter
Speaker 2: of trust as it is taking a risk or any
Speaker 2: of the other things we've looked at over the last
Speaker 2: ten weeks. What do you need to remember while you're
Speaker 2: waiting on God and what he need to do. Let's
Speaker 2: look at these first. Let me give you five things
Speaker 2: you need to remember, and you're going to need these
Speaker 2: or write them down. When you have asked God for
Speaker 2: something and it hasn't come yet, and you're in that
Speaker 2: delay period where you haven't seen the answer to your prayer,
Speaker 2: what do you do you remember five things? Number one,
Speaker 2: Remember there's a natural delay between planting and harvesting. And
Speaker 2: we talked about this in the message on the Laws
Speaker 2: of Sowing and reaping. There's a natural delay between planting
Speaker 2: and harvesting. I have a garden, and when I plant seeds, I.
Speaker 3: Plant a seed.
Speaker 2: I don't go out the next date to expect to
Speaker 2: see full grown tomatoes. When I plant carrot seeds. I
Speaker 2: don't expect to go out next day to see carrots.
Speaker 2: There's always a delay between planting and harvesting. There's always
Speaker 2: a delay between sowing and reaping. The Bible says in
Speaker 2: Ecclesiastes three you there is a time for everything, and
Speaker 2: there is a season for every activity under heaven. There
Speaker 2: is a time to plant, and there is a time
Speaker 2: to harvest. There is a time to scatter, and there
Speaker 2: is a time to gather. This is simply talking about seasons.
Speaker 2: You always get the results of what you plant in
Speaker 2: life in another season, not in the same season. You
Speaker 2: don't plant and harvest in the same season. Many of
Speaker 2: you have planted seeds in daring, faith, financial seed, seeds
Speaker 2: of service, seeds of sacrifice. You're not gonna have the
Speaker 2: harvest immediately. You just need to understand that it comes,
Speaker 2: but it comes in another season. Write this down. I
Speaker 2: reap in a different season than I sow, and during
Speaker 2: that season of waiting, you wait quietly, you wait expectantly,
Speaker 2: you wait patiently.
Speaker 3: In faith.
Speaker 2: I remember that there's a natural delay between planting and harvest.
Speaker 2: So when I put in a request, it's not going
Speaker 2: to be instantly fulfilled.
Speaker 3: There is always a delay. Number two.
Speaker 2: Second thing I need to remember is that there is
Speaker 2: an unseen battle going on. There is an unseen battle
Speaker 2: going on. There is a spiritual warfare going on in
Speaker 2: a realm that we don't even understand. We don't see it,
Speaker 2: we don't feel it. But in the cosmic heavenly is
Speaker 2: there is a spiritual war in other dimensions, between good
Speaker 2: and evil, between God and Satan, between angels and demons.
Speaker 2: And the fact is you're caught right in the middle.
Speaker 2: And if you're a child of God, Satan hates you
Speaker 2: and he wants to mess you up. The Bible tells
Speaker 2: us in Ephesians six, verse twelve, we're not struggling and
Speaker 2: fighting against human beings, but against evil spiritual forces in
Speaker 2: the heavenly realm, the rulers and the authorities and the
Speaker 2: powers of darkness. Now what happens. What I'm saying, what
Speaker 2: this versus say, is that when you send up a prayer,
Speaker 2: there's often a battle on how that's going to be answered.
Speaker 2: And Satan starts throwing while you're waiting. While you're in
Speaker 2: the waiting, he starts throwing dart statue, the dart of doubt,
Speaker 2: the dart of discouragement, the dart of disappointment, the dart
Speaker 2: of delay, the dart of depression. And he starts throwing
Speaker 2: these darts at you, and he says, we shouldn't we
Speaker 2: should be aware that he's going to try to get
Speaker 2: you down.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The truth is, we don't really know this much, and
Speaker 2: the Bible doesn't even tell us that much about the
Speaker 2: spiritual warfare that's going on behind your prayers. But we
Speaker 2: do get a glimpse of it in one book of
Speaker 2: the Bible. It's in the Book of Daniel. You may
Speaker 2: have never even seen this passage in Daniel, but it's
Speaker 2: the one time in the Bible it shows the spiritual
Speaker 2: warfare going on behind the answer to the prayers that
Speaker 2: you have prayed and the things that you're trusting God
Speaker 2: for in your life. Let me read it to you.
Speaker 2: It's here on the screen Daniel. Chapter ten says this
Speaker 2: Daniel had a vision and he had a vision of
Speaker 2: an angel come to him. And the angel says to Daniel.
Speaker 2: In this vision, Daniel, God loves you deeply, and He
Speaker 2: loves you deeply too, and God has heard your prayers
Speaker 2: since the very first day you humbled yourself and let
Speaker 2: me just say this. When you pray a prayer, God
Speaker 2: heard the very first one. It's not like he wasn't
Speaker 2: listening until number ninety five. God has heard every prayer.
Speaker 2: He heard your prayer from the very first moment. The
Speaker 2: Angel said, God loves you deeply, and he heard your
Speaker 2: prayer since the very first day you humbled yourself. And
Speaker 2: he says, I, the Angel have come in answer to
Speaker 2: your prayer.
Speaker 3: But now here's the interesting part.
Speaker 2: The evil angel, prince of this kingdom opposed and blocked
Speaker 2: me for twenty one days. He said your prayer hadn't
Speaker 2: been answered for twenty one days. Said I was opposed
Speaker 2: in this spiritual battle. Bok So Michael, one of the
Speaker 2: archangels intervened to fight for me because I had been
Speaker 2: blocked from coming to you with the answer. Is that
Speaker 2: the wildest verse you've ever seen. There is a dimension
Speaker 2: beyond your prayers that we don't need, and we don't
Speaker 2: even have any more than that in scripture about it.
Speaker 2: But the Bible tells us that Daniel had a prayer,
Speaker 2: it wasn't answered.
Speaker 3: It wasn't answered once I answered.
Speaker 2: He's starting to get discouraged, and the Angel shows up,
Speaker 2: says I'm here to get the answer. We heard it
Speaker 2: from day one, but we've been in a battle over this,
Speaker 2: and it was such an intense battle that Michael Angel
Speaker 2: had to come down and help me with this battle.
Speaker 2: So I can come and tell you the answer is
Speaker 2: on its way. I don't know any more about it
Speaker 2: than that. I just know that this is not as
Speaker 2: simple as you think it is. So I want you
Speaker 2: to write this on your outline. A delay is not
Speaker 2: a denial. A delay is not a denial. When an
Speaker 2: answer to prayer is delayed, it doesn't mean it's not
Speaker 2: going to be answered. There may be some kind of
Speaker 2: spiritual warfare going on behind it, and you got to
Speaker 2: keep praying. A delay is not a denial. Number three,
Speaker 2: the third thing we remember the first that there's a
Speaker 2: natural delay between planning and harvesting, that there's a spiritual
Speaker 2: delay because of the spiritual warfare that's going on. Number three,
Speaker 2: there's another reason for delay, and it's this. Remember, God
Speaker 2: is preparing me for a blessing. God is preparing me
Speaker 2: for his blessing. When you have an idea and you
Speaker 2: ask God to do something in your life, God usually
Speaker 2: has a bigger idea and usually has a better idea,
Speaker 2: and he's going to have to prepare you to get
Speaker 2: you ready for a bigger and better answer to your prayer.
Speaker 2: And he usually has to take some time getting you ready.
Speaker 3: Preparing you.
Speaker 2: And the first thing God wants to do before he
Speaker 2: answers your prayer for a job, for a mate, for
Speaker 2: a child, to get married, whatever your prayer request is,
Speaker 2: he first he wants to get you ready because God's
Speaker 2: more interested in changing your character than he is in
Speaker 2: answering your prayer, because your character is what you're going to.
Speaker 3: Take to heaven.
Speaker 2: And here's what the Bible says in First Peter, chapter one.
Speaker 2: There's wonderful joy ahead. That's the inevitable answers to our prayers,
Speaker 2: even though it is necessary for you to endure many
Speaker 2: trials for a while. And this includes the delays, these
Speaker 2: troubles circle. This test your faith. The troubles you're going
Speaker 2: through right now, this is a test. They test your
Speaker 2: faith so that it is strong and pure, just as
Speaker 2: fire tests and purifies gold. And your faith is far
Speaker 2: more precious to God than mere gold. Some of you
Speaker 2: are going through the fire right now. Keep going. What
Speaker 2: do you do when you're going through hell? You keep going.
Speaker 2: You don't want to stay there. You keep walking. When
Speaker 2: you're going through the fire, you keep going. He says,
Speaker 2: these troubles are there to test your faith. You might
Speaker 2: write this down. Waiting is always a test. When you're
Speaker 2: praying for something in your life and it hasn't happened,
Speaker 2: and you're in that delay, you're in that time zone,
Speaker 2: you're in that season between harvest and sewing.
Speaker 3: Waiting is always a test.
Speaker 2: It tests your character, It tests your trust, It tests
Speaker 2: your faith, It tests your endurance, It tests all kinds of.
Speaker 3: Things in your life. Waiting is a test.
Speaker 2: In fact, Paul compares waiting in life waiting on God.
Speaker 2: When you really want something it hasn't happened yet. Paul
Speaker 2: compares it to being pregnant in Romans chapter eight.
Speaker 3: He's got a great analogy here. I love it.
Speaker 2: In the message paraphrase Romans eight twenty four to twenty eight,
Speaker 2: Paul says, this waiting does not diminish us. It doesn't
Speaker 2: diminish us anymore than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We
Speaker 2: are enlarged in the waiting. What we don't see is
Speaker 2: what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait the
Speaker 2: larger we become, just like a pregnant woman. The longer
Speaker 2: we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful
Speaker 2: our expectancy. Meanwhile, when we get tired in the waiting,
Speaker 2: God's Spirit is right alongside helping us. And if we
Speaker 2: don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 2: because He, the Holy Spirit, prays in us and for us,
Speaker 2: and he knows far better than we know our He
Speaker 2: knows us far better than we know ourselves, and he
Speaker 2: knows our pregnant condition.
Speaker 3: And that's why we can be so.
Speaker 2: Sure that every d tail in our lives of love
Speaker 2: for God is working into something good. That's a powerful passage.
Speaker 2: Now he's saying here that it's just like being pregnant.
Speaker 2: It's just like being expectant. Now in an expectancyat they
Speaker 2: don't call it expecting for nothing, do they, Because when
Speaker 2: a woman has a baby, she's expecting that baby. And
Speaker 2: he says, this is what it's like to wait on God.
Speaker 2: You know it's coming, you know it's going to happen,
Speaker 2: but this is what you gotta do.
Speaker 3: You gotta wait. Number four.
Speaker 2: The fourth thing to remember, I need to remember when
Speaker 2: I'm in the waiting zone. That I'm in good company.
Speaker 2: I'm in good company while I'm waiting. Millions of saints
Speaker 2: before you have sat in God's waiting room. You're not alone.
Speaker 2: In fact, if you're in the waiting room right now,
Speaker 2: you're waiting on a job, you're waiting on an answer,
Speaker 2: you're waiting.
Speaker 3: On a prayer.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of other people sitting around you
Speaker 2: right now who are in that same situation. Millions of
Speaker 2: saints have sat in God's waiting room. You're in good company.
Speaker 2: Hebrews eleven, verse two says this, people who lived in
Speaker 2: the past became famous because of their faith, and every
Speaker 2: one of those people had to wait. Think about Hannah
Speaker 2: who had to wait years to have the baby that
Speaker 2: she was praying that God would give her. Think about Joseph,
Speaker 2: who God gave him a dream of being a ruler,
Speaker 2: and he had that vision from a very young childhood age.
Speaker 2: And he ends up being put in prison for fourteen
Speaker 2: years for a crime he did not commit, falsely accrused
Speaker 2: of rape, and he spends fourteen years in a prison
Speaker 2: and dungeon in Egypt, waiting. God knew exactly where he was.
Speaker 2: He is preparing Moses waits forty years in the wilderness
Speaker 2: to know his purpose in life, to know his next assignment,
Speaker 2: to know what he's supposed to do with his life.
Speaker 2: Abraham waits one hundred years before he has Isaac, his
Speaker 2: first child through Sarah, the promised child God had promised
Speaker 2: him years before.
Speaker 3: He waits. He's one hundred years old.
Speaker 2: Noah had to wait one hundred and twenty years before
Speaker 2: it rained. You think you're in a waiting period. How'd
Speaker 2: you like to wait one hundred and twenty years? And
Speaker 2: the whole time you're building an ark and everybody's coming
Speaker 2: and say, what's an arc?
Speaker 3: Said, it's a big boat. Why because it's going to rain?
Speaker 3: What's rain? I said? It never rained up to that point.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine building an arc in your front yard
Speaker 2: and how your kids, your teenage kids, are all embarrassed.
Speaker 3: My dad's a nut.
Speaker 2: You know how long has he been working on the
Speaker 2: bout one hundred and twenty years? Why because it's gonna flood?
Speaker 2: What's a flood? God waited thousands of years before sending
Speaker 2: the Messiah. We get in a hurry. God is not
Speaker 2: in a hurry. Look at this verse on the screen.
Speaker 2: Hebrews six says, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised,
Speaker 2: but the waiting is essential to faith. Number five the
Speaker 2: fifth thing to remember. I remember there's a time to
Speaker 2: lay between planning and harvesting. I remember that there's a
Speaker 2: spiritual battle going on. I remember that God is preparing
Speaker 2: me for the answer. I remember that I'm in good
Speaker 2: company while I'm waiting. At number five, I remember that
Speaker 2: God always keeps his promises. That's what you need to
Speaker 2: remember when you're waiting on God, because unlike other people,
Speaker 2: you can count on God to come through. You can
Speaker 2: count on God to come through because over these seven
Speaker 2: thousand promises in the Bible that He has made, he's
Speaker 2: staked his reputation. So what you do in the waiting
Speaker 2: room is you don't focus on what you can't do.
Speaker 2: I don't have the money, I don't have the talent,
Speaker 2: don't have the connections, I don't have the opportunity. You
Speaker 2: don't focus on what you don't have. You focus on
Speaker 2: what God does have, what God can do. And one
Speaker 2: of the ways you focus on what God can do
Speaker 2: is do the promises of God. Promises can help you
Speaker 2: focus on God and his unlimited abilities instead of you
Speaker 2: and your limited abilities. The Bible says anything is possible
Speaker 2: if you have faith.
Speaker 3: A back at two. Verse three says this on the screen.
Speaker 2: God says, at the time I have decided, my words
Speaker 2: will come true. You can trust what I say about
Speaker 2: the future. It may take a long time, but keep
Speaker 2: on waiting. It will happen. Some of you need to
Speaker 2: write that verse down on a card and put it
Speaker 2: up on your refrigerator. God says, my word will come true.
Speaker 2: You can trust that if I say it, it's going
Speaker 2: to happen. It may take a long time, but keep
Speaker 2: on waiting. It will happen.
Speaker 1: What a life giving message from Pastor Rick. And now
Speaker 1: here's Rick with a special message.
Speaker 2: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives
Speaker 2: according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to
Speaker 2: love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love
Speaker 2: your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.
Speaker 2: And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize
Speaker 2: them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign
Speaker 2: of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything
Speaker 2: I've taught you. That's discipleship, and we call that the
Speaker 2: Great Commission. We believe it Daily Hope that a great
Speaker 2: commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will
Speaker 2: produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,
Speaker 2: a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so
Speaker 2: I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just
Speaker 2: across America, but all around the world. And we want
Speaker 2: people to know that God's word is filled with hope
Speaker 2: and truth and the power that we need to follow
Speaker 2: him every day is available to every single one. You
Speaker 2: know as well as I do, that the Word of
Speaker 2: God changes lives. It's a live it's active, and it
Speaker 2: bringes new life and new love into all of our lives.
Speaker 2: So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on
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Speaker 3: So much for your support.
Speaker 1: We hope you'll join us next time when we look
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