Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible
Speaker 1: teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Well, we hope you've had
Speaker 1: a meaningful Thanksgiving surrounded by the people that you love.
Speaker 1: And today we are picking up right where we left
Speaker 1: off in our powerful series radicalis developing spiritual roots. So
Speaker 1: let's join Rick right now for the first part of
Speaker 1: a message called Radical Faith.
Speaker 2: Last week, as we began a new series, I said,
Speaker 2: what the world needs is more radical Christians, not fanatical.
Speaker 2: We got plenty of fanatics. We don't need any more fanatics,
Speaker 2: but we need radical believers, not casual, but radical in
Speaker 2: the true sense of the meaning of the word radical.
Speaker 2: And I explained to you last week that that word
Speaker 2: radical is misused by most people today. Most people think
Speaker 2: it means extreme, over the top, on the edge, excessive, fringe, fanatical.
Speaker 2: But the word radical actually means from the roots. That's
Speaker 2: what it means, from the roots. It's from the Latin
Speaker 2: word radicalous, and that's what we're calling the series Radicalius,
Speaker 2: a fourteenth century English word that literally means from the roots.
Speaker 2: It's from the word radics that we get the word radish.
Speaker 2: And what is a ratish? It is a big root.
Speaker 2: And when we talk about eradicating something that means to
Speaker 2: eliminate it, you pull it up by its roots. You
Speaker 2: eradicate it. When we talk about radical surgery, you cut
Speaker 2: it out at the root. You cut out the disease.
Speaker 2: You don't leave, you don't put a bandied over. You
Speaker 2: cut it out at the source, so there's no root left.
Speaker 2: And I explained to you last week that in every
Speaker 2: field the word radical means rooted or from the roots.
Speaker 2: In botany, the word radical means the leaves closest to
Speaker 2: the root are the radical leaves. In math, the radical
Speaker 2: in math is always the root of the equation, and
Speaker 2: the radical sign in math is the square root sign
Speaker 2: or the cube roots sign. It's always about the root number.
Speaker 2: In chemistry, a free radical to a radical is two
Speaker 2: atoms together, and free radical is one with an unpaired electron.
Speaker 2: It's the smallest thing you can get to. In linguistics,
Speaker 2: the radical are the consonants usually three, that create the
Speaker 2: sound of a word. And in grammar, the radical is
Speaker 2: the root of the word without the prefixes of the suffixes.
Speaker 2: It always means from the root. And when I say
Speaker 2: what we need today, are radical believers. We need people
Speaker 2: who have spiritual roots. Most people have no depth in
Speaker 2: their lives. They have no roots in their lives, and
Speaker 2: so they're blown away like tumbleweeds whenever the rogue winds come,
Speaker 2: and they dry up when the heat's on, and they
Speaker 2: wither when they go through the times of drought. Now,
Speaker 2: I want to go back to theme verse. It's on
Speaker 2: the screen Colossians two seven. Let's read it aloud together.
Speaker 2: Keep your roots deep in Him, build your lives on Him,
Speaker 2: and become stronger in your faith as you were taught.
Speaker 2: He says, I want you to have spiritual roots. This week,
Speaker 2: I want us to talk about the root of radical faith. Now,
Speaker 2: what is faith? Faith is kind of like a diamond,
Speaker 2: and it has many facets to it, many faces to it.
Speaker 2: If you want to understand what it really means to
Speaker 2: have faith, you go to a chapter in the Bible
Speaker 2: called Hebrews eleven. Hebrews eleven is the faith chapter in
Speaker 2: the Bible, just like One Corinthians thirteen is the love
Speaker 2: chapter in the Bible. Hebrews eleven is the faith chapter.
Speaker 2: And in that chapter we have God's Hall of Fame,
Speaker 2: we have God's top ten guys, we have the guys
Speaker 2: that God says, these are the people to model if
Speaker 2: you want to live a life of faith. And he
Speaker 2: talks about Joe, talks about Abraham, and he talks about Moses,
Speaker 2: when he talks about Noah, and he lists all of
Speaker 2: the people that you've heard about through the Bible that
Speaker 2: are the heroes of the faith. It's God's Hall of
Speaker 2: fame list. And we're gonna look at seven of those
Speaker 2: people today because they model seven facets of radical faith.
Speaker 2: Let's get right into it now. The Bible says in
Speaker 2: Hebrews eleven, verse six, without faith, it is impossible to
Speaker 2: please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe
Speaker 2: he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Speaker 2: I cannot overemphasize the importance of faith in your life.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, whatever is not a faith is sin.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, according to your faith, that will be
Speaker 2: done unto you. The Bible says the just shall live
Speaker 2: by faith. God wants you to learn to trust him,
Speaker 2: that's the reas, and he puts you on this planet
Speaker 2: to learn to love him. And to learn to trust him.
Speaker 2: And so living by faith is not some little side issue.
Speaker 2: You can't please God. Let me say that again. You
Speaker 2: cannot please God except through faith. Not by working hard,
Speaker 2: not by trying hard, not by being your best, not
Speaker 2: by being perfect. None of those ways work anyway. The
Speaker 2: only way you bring pleasure to God is by loving
Speaker 2: him and trusting him. So what does it mean to
Speaker 2: have radical faith? I hope you're taking notes this week?
Speaker 2: Number one? Faith, the Bible says in verse one of
Speaker 2: Hebrews eleven, Faith is believing when I don't see it.
Speaker 2: Faith is believing. Radical faith is believing when I don't
Speaker 2: see it. What I mean by that, well, the Bible
Speaker 2: says in verse one Hebrews eleven. Faith is being sure
Speaker 2: of what we hope for and certain of what we
Speaker 2: do not see. Faith is visualized the future in the present.
Speaker 2: Faith is seeing in advance. Now. This principle is found
Speaker 2: all through the world, regardless of whether a person is
Speaker 2: a Christian believer or not. Before we say, well, I'll
Speaker 2: believe it when I see it. You've heard that people
Speaker 2: say that I'll believe it when I see it. But
Speaker 2: God says, there's some things you have to believe in
Speaker 2: order to see it. Now, anybody who is a professional
Speaker 2: understands this. Architects know that they have to believe it
Speaker 2: that the building can exist before it's built, and they've
Speaker 2: got to see it in their mind and believe it
Speaker 2: in their mind's eye before it gets on paper, before
Speaker 2: it becomes a building. Nothing just happens. It starts by
Speaker 2: believing that it could look like this before you see
Speaker 2: it happen. Any athlete knows that in order to win
Speaker 2: the race, you've got to see it in your mind.
Speaker 2: You've got to believe it's possible before it happens. Nobody
Speaker 2: goes to the Olympics thinking I'm not going to win.
Speaker 2: They go with the attitude of I believe I could
Speaker 2: win this. You have to believe it in order to
Speaker 2: see it. And they see themselves mentally crossing the finish
Speaker 2: line before they ever run the race, and they go
Speaker 2: over and over and over in their minds, rehearsing and
Speaker 2: rehearsing that vision, that image. Any artist has to see
Speaker 2: the painting in their mind and believe it's possible before
Speaker 2: they put the paint to the canvas, or before they
Speaker 2: do the sculpture, they've seen it in their mind, and
Speaker 2: they've believed it in their mind before they saw it
Speaker 2: as a reality. A scientist has to think it's possible
Speaker 2: to do this, like go to the moon, and they
Speaker 2: have to believe it before it becomes reality. Some things
Speaker 2: you have to believe before you see it. Or In
Speaker 2: von Braun, who is the father of the American Space program, said,
Speaker 2: no great achievement has ever been achieved in history without faith.
Speaker 2: It's believing before you see it. You have to believe
Speaker 2: it's impossible long before it happens, and faith trust God
Speaker 2: to make the vision the dream become reality. That's radical
Speaker 2: faith believing before I see it. Number two, faith is
Speaker 2: obeying when I don't understand it. Faith is obeying when
Speaker 2: I don't understand it. And God gives us two examples
Speaker 2: of this in his Hall of Fame, Noah and Abraham.
Speaker 2: Noah in Hebrews eleven seven, it says this it was
Speaker 2: by faith that Noah built an ark to save his
Speaker 2: family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him
Speaker 2: about something that had never happened before. Now can you
Speaker 2: imagine this circumstance. What if God came to you one
Speaker 2: day and said, by the way I think I'm going
Speaker 2: to destroy the whole world, and I'm going to do
Speaker 2: it with the flood, But i want you to build
Speaker 2: a big ship and I'm going to save your family.
Speaker 2: Would you believe that? Highly unlikely? He said, I want
Speaker 2: you to build an ark. Now, it says there he
Speaker 2: did this to warn him about something that never happened before.
Speaker 2: Why there had never been a flood? Why? The Bible says,
Speaker 2: up to this time it had never rained. That's why,
Speaker 2: by the way, when they saw the rainbow, they'd never
Speaker 2: seen a rain before. Why it had never rained before.
Speaker 2: It says that there was a condensation that came up
Speaker 2: from the ground before the flood, something like dew on
Speaker 2: the on the ground where it can the condensation. We
Speaker 2: don't even know how it actually happens, but we do
Speaker 2: know that people lived much longer before the flood than
Speaker 2: after that. Before the flood, people lived two hundred, three hundred,
Speaker 2: four hundred years a long time. And after the flood
Speaker 2: something changed in the climate in the atmosphere, and people
Speaker 2: didn't live as long. They lived about as long as
Speaker 2: we do. So something changed. So God comes to Noah
Speaker 2: and says, Noah, I want you to build an arc
Speaker 2: what's an arc? It's a big ship. Now Noah lives
Speaker 2: in a rack at this time, he's nowhere near an ocean.
Speaker 2: And so how he says, I want you to build
Speaker 2: an arc in the middle of the desert, right, And
Speaker 2: what's gonna happen. It's gonna flood. What's a flood? Well,
Speaker 2: lots of rain? What's rain? So would you believe this?
Speaker 2: How would you like to be? Noah's three sons, ham,
Speaker 2: Shem and Jacob, And they're always having explained their weirdo dad,
Speaker 2: what's your dad doing in the front yard there? He's
Speaker 2: been working on that thing for a long time. He's
Speaker 2: building an arc to save the world. And he's only
Speaker 2: going to save our family and not you. Right. It
Speaker 2: was probably very, very embarrassing, But Noah did it. It
Speaker 2: said he obeyed God even when he didn't understand it.
Speaker 2: I'm glad he did. We're all here as a result.
Speaker 2: And then there was a guy named Abraham who obeyed
Speaker 2: when he didn't understand it. The Bible says in verse
Speaker 2: eight it was faith that made Abraham obey when God
Speaker 2: called him to go out to a country that God
Speaker 2: had promised to him, and he left his own country
Speaker 2: without knowing where he was going. Abraham was another guy
Speaker 2: who lived in what's now modern day Iraq. He lived
Speaker 2: in a city called Er. Now, how'd you like to be?
Speaker 2: Where are you're from? I'm from Er, And God said Abraham,
Speaker 2: I'm going to make you the father of a great nation.
Speaker 2: It's going to be the nation of Israel. And I'm
Speaker 2: going to give you your own country. But you're seventy
Speaker 2: five years old. And what I want you to do
Speaker 2: is I want you to go on the greatest adventure
Speaker 2: of your life, follow me to a new country. Now,
Speaker 2: Abraham doesn't get any of the details. God says, I
Speaker 2: want you to pack up everything at seventy five years
Speaker 2: of age and leave. Just when you're ready to settle down,
Speaker 2: I want you to get it in gear, just when
Speaker 2: you're ready for social security, get ready for social insecurity.
Speaker 2: Just when you're ready to hang it up on the wall,
Speaker 2: you take it down and dust it off, because now
Speaker 2: you're going for the biggest ride of your life at
Speaker 2: age seventy five. And no, and Moses starts, I mean,
Speaker 2: Abraham starts asking where are we going? Lord? Well, you've
Speaker 2: never heard of this place, and how long is it
Speaker 2: going to take? To get there. Well, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: How will I know when I'm there? I'll tell you
Speaker 2: would if God told you right at retirement, you're getting
Speaker 2: ready for the biggest journey of your life. And I
Speaker 2: want you to move to someplace you've never been before,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to start over and build a great
Speaker 2: nation through you. Would you believe that Abraham became the
Speaker 2: father of faith because and the father of a nation
Speaker 2: because he obeyed when he didn't understand it. Now, obedience
Speaker 2: always involves taking risks. See, some people want to obey
Speaker 2: God when there's a guarantee. God, I'll do this if
Speaker 2: you'll guarantee it'll work out. God says, no, no, no, this
Speaker 2: is a risk here, you know God, I'll start this
Speaker 2: new business. I'll move to this new location, all in
Speaker 2: roll in school. I'll go after my dream. If you'll
Speaker 2: guarantee it. God's I'm going to guarantee it. He wants
Speaker 2: you to live by faith. Nineteen seventy five, when I'm
Speaker 2: twenty five years old, living in Fort Worth, Texas, and
Speaker 2: I get an idea in my mind, and God says,
Speaker 2: I want you to move to southern California, to a
Speaker 2: place called the saddle Back Valley and start church. Now,
Speaker 2: there were plenty of reasons for me to doubt that.
Speaker 2: First place, I had never been a pastor. Second, I
Speaker 2: had never been to the Saddleback Valley. I didn't what
Speaker 2: to look like. Third, I had no money, fourth, no members, fifth,
Speaker 2: no building, no support, and a lots of reasons to
Speaker 2: doubt what God had told me to do. I'm glad
Speaker 2: I opaid him. Sometimes God asks us to do the
Speaker 2: impossible just to stretch our faith, and sometimes God asked
Speaker 2: you to do something that doesn't make sense at all
Speaker 2: for the same reason to stretch your faith. You see
Speaker 2: in the Bible, in just the New Testament alone, there
Speaker 2: are one thousand and fifty commands where God says, I
Speaker 2: want you to do this, and I don't want you
Speaker 2: to do this, and I want you to do this,
Speaker 2: and I don't want you to do this. And these
Speaker 2: one thousand and fifty commands. Many of them are inconvenient,
Speaker 2: Any of those commands are unreasonable. Many of those commands
Speaker 2: actually seem impossible. But they are all there for your benefit.
Speaker 2: Because God only acts in your life for good. He
Speaker 2: only acts in your life because he loves you. He
Speaker 2: knows what will make you happy more than you will.
Speaker 2: And when you follow his commands, you get all these
Speaker 2: blessings in your life. And when you ignore them, you
Speaker 2: do it to your own detriment. You just hurt yourself.
Speaker 2: You get broken hearts, you get broken minds, you get
Speaker 2: broken bodies, you get regrets, you get shame, you get guilt,
Speaker 2: you get resentment, all these other things worry because you
Speaker 2: don't do it God's way. God says, the plans I
Speaker 2: have for you, they're good plans, plans for future, plans
Speaker 2: for hope. So every time God tells you in the
Speaker 2: Bible to do something, even when it's inconvenient or irrational
Speaker 2: from your point of view, or illogical or impossible, and
Speaker 2: you say, Okay, I'm gonna do it, because because you
Speaker 2: say so, Lord, because you say so, I'm going to
Speaker 2: do it, you always always get blessed. And whenever God
Speaker 2: asks you to do something, it's a test. It's a
Speaker 2: test of your faith. What am I gonna trust God
Speaker 2: or my gut? That's the test? Am I gonna trust
Speaker 2: God or my gut? Am I going to test what
Speaker 2: I feel is the right thing to do? Or am
Speaker 2: I gonna do what God says is the right thing
Speaker 2: to do. It's always a test of your faith. Faith
Speaker 2: is believing when I don't see it, and faith is
Speaker 2: obeying when I don't understand it when it doesn't make
Speaker 2: sense to me. You see, the Bible says, there's a
Speaker 2: way that seems right to man, but the ends there
Speaker 2: are the ways of death. In other words, a lot
Speaker 2: of things that look like the right thing to do,
Speaker 2: seem like the right thing to do, would be easier
Speaker 2: to do, would be more convenient to do, might even
Speaker 2: be more popular to do. But God says it seems right,
Speaker 2: but it's gonna end in a dead end. It's a
Speaker 2: dead end, and you're just gonna hit the wall and
Speaker 2: you're gonna hurt yourself. Don't do it. In fact, I
Speaker 2: usually figure out what would I naturally do in the
Speaker 2: circumstance and do the opposite, because my natural inclination is
Speaker 2: to do what's best for me to do. It's selfish
Speaker 2: to do what self centered, to do, what's easy, to do,
Speaker 2: what's convenient. So God comes along and says things like,
Speaker 2: whenever anybody hurts you, you forgive them what I don't
Speaker 2: want to forgive him. I want to hurt him back.
Speaker 2: In fact, I want to hurt them more than they
Speaker 2: hurt me. My natural inclination is to not forgive people
Speaker 2: who hurt me. My natural inclination is to slug him back,
Speaker 2: get it right back. But God says, no, No, that's
Speaker 2: the way that seems right. But it ends in a
Speaker 2: dead end. It ends in death. You're gonna only hurt yourself.
Speaker 2: You don't understand how much resentment's going to hurt you
Speaker 2: more than it hurts them. So when God tells you
Speaker 2: to do something like forgive your enemies, that rarely feels right,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't just you know, go with your system.
Speaker 2: But it is right. It's the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: And God says, if you do it, you'll be blessed,
Speaker 2: and he blesses you for obeying. Now, as a kid,
Speaker 2: how many of you had parents who asked you or
Speaker 2: told you to do something that when they told you
Speaker 2: to do it, you thought that is sheer nonsense. Can
Speaker 2: I see your hands? The rest of you were raised
Speaker 2: by wolves. I say, okay, because every parent has done that.
Speaker 2: And they're like, do it why? Because I say so?
Speaker 2: Oh great, that's not a reason. Because I say so.
Speaker 2: What they're saying is trust me. I know better. Than you,
Speaker 2: And how many of you, looking back, can actually admit
Speaker 2: now that some of the things your parents told you
Speaker 2: to do, which seemed like nonsense, were actually in that
Speaker 2: moment quite wise? Can I see your hands? Yeah? Now,
Speaker 2: if our parents, who were imperfect and were sinful and
Speaker 2: we make mistakes, can often know the right thing that
Speaker 2: we don't know to do, how much more does a
Speaker 2: perfect loving God know what you need? And he says
Speaker 2: do it? And he said, why Lord, why should I
Speaker 2: do it? Because I say so? This is a test.
Speaker 2: Will you trust me? You see, if you learn to
Speaker 2: do whatever God tells you to do, even when it
Speaker 2: seems absurd I can't do that, you will grow a
Speaker 2: great faith and you will build a great life. You'll
Speaker 2: have a radical faith that believes when you don't see
Speaker 2: it and obeys when you don't understand it. On the
Speaker 2: other hand, if you don't do that, if you say, God,
Speaker 2: I don't understand it, so I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 2: I only do what I understand. You know what, You're
Speaker 2: gonna miss most of the blessings that God plan for
Speaker 2: your life. Your life will be so limited, so stunted,
Speaker 2: so shortened, so inferior, so limited, compared to the kind
Speaker 2: of life that God wants to do in your life.
Speaker 2: God wants to bless you far more than you realize,
Speaker 2: but you've got to get blessable and how do you
Speaker 2: do that by trusting Him? Wow?
Speaker 1: What a great message from Pastor Rick today, and I
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