Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren. 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. All right here it comes Pastor Rick with
Speaker 1: part two of a message called Daring to Imagine.
Speaker 2: So my imagination shapes my life, and imagination is essential
Speaker 2: to living by faith.
Speaker 3: Number three. Third thing I've learned.
Speaker 2: Great lives are built on great dreams. Great lives are
Speaker 2: built around great dreams.
Speaker 3: In my lifetime, I've.
Speaker 2: Had the opportunity to meet a lot of very great people.
Speaker 2: Some of them are famous, some of them are not famous.
Speaker 2: Because fame and greatness have nothing to do with each other.
Speaker 2: You can be famous and not be great, and you
Speaker 2: can be great and not be famous. But in great lives,
Speaker 2: they're built around great dreams. What I've discovered is that
Speaker 2: nobody is naturally a great person. You don't just pop
Speaker 2: out of your mommy being a great person. No, you
Speaker 2: become great by attaching your life to a great cause.
Speaker 2: A great purpose or a great dream. You need something
Speaker 2: bigger than yourself to draw you out of yourself, to
Speaker 2: make you grow better than yourself. And that's what makes
Speaker 2: you a great person. Until you have a great dream,
Speaker 2: you will never be a great woman. Until you have
Speaker 2: a great dream for your life, you will never be
Speaker 2: a great man if you don't have a great vision.
Speaker 2: If you don't have a great dream, it is impossible
Speaker 2: for you to be great. Greatness comes from what you
Speaker 2: attach yourself to. You need something bigger than yourself that
Speaker 2: pulls you out of your self centeredness that makes you great.
Speaker 2: Now during during faith, I want to help you unlock
Speaker 2: your imagination and I want to help you become a
Speaker 2: mo or great person. And I want you to dream
Speaker 2: and to visualize them, to think about how God wants
Speaker 2: to use your career, how God wants to use your future,
Speaker 2: your finances, your family, your giving, your ministry, your career.
Speaker 2: And my prayer for you is actually this next verse
Speaker 2: on your outlines Pesians chapter one. As your pastor, I'm
Speaker 2: praying this, may God enlighten the eyes of your mind
Speaker 2: so that you can see the hope that His calling
Speaker 2: holds for you. I notice this, may God enlighten the
Speaker 2: eyes of your mind. What's he talking about there, the
Speaker 2: eyes of your mind. He's not talking about your physical eyes.
Speaker 2: He's talking about your imagination. He's saying, I pray that
Speaker 2: your imagination will come alive and in faith, you will
Speaker 2: be able to see God's dream for your life. God's
Speaker 2: vision for your life, God's purpose and plan for your life,
Speaker 2: God's calling on your life. God has a calling for you.
Speaker 2: Most people miss their calling in life. Why because they're
Speaker 2: following their dream instead of God's dream. I'm not interested
Speaker 2: in you following your dream. I'm interested in you in
Speaker 2: following God's dream. I could make up a dream for
Speaker 2: my life. I could say, you know, I dream of
Speaker 2: being a rock star, and it would be a waste
Speaker 2: of my life because God didn't wire me to be
Speaker 2: a rock star. God said, I want you to give you.
Speaker 2: I want to give you my dream for your life,
Speaker 2: and that's your calling. And he says, when you understand
Speaker 2: what I've made you for, what I've built you for,
Speaker 2: what I have a vision for your life, then you're
Speaker 2: going to have hope.
Speaker 3: You will know the hope that is calling holds for you.
Speaker 2: If you want significance in your life, if you want
Speaker 2: satisfaction in your life, if you want fulfillment in your life,
Speaker 2: here's what you gotta do. You got to stop following
Speaker 2: your dream for your life, and you've got to start
Speaker 2: following God's dream for your life. Because God's dream, when
Speaker 2: you fulfill it, you go, this is it. This is
Speaker 2: what I was made to be.
Speaker 3: It fits. I know my niche, I know why I'm alive. Now.
Speaker 2: If you can't imagine, you're calling. If you can't dream
Speaker 2: God's dream, you're not really living. You're just existing, and
Speaker 2: you're just going through life. And without a dream, you're dying.
Speaker 2: The Bible says in Proverbs twenty eight eighteen, where there
Speaker 2: is no vision, what does it say the people perish?
Speaker 2: Circle that the people perish? I tell pastors when a
Speaker 2: church has no dream, where there's no vision in a church,
Speaker 2: the people go to another parish. Now, as I said,
Speaker 2: I want you to discover God's dream. And one of
Speaker 2: the things that I told you that during daring faith.
Speaker 3: I'm going to push you. I'm going to stretch you.
Speaker 2: I'm going to challenge you to discover God's dream for
Speaker 2: your life.
Speaker 3: And that leads me to number four. The fourth thing
Speaker 3: I've learned, and it's this.
Speaker 2: God's dream for my life is bigger than my dream.
Speaker 2: It's exponentially bigger. It's far larger. It's eternally significant.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of dreams.
Speaker 2: You could have big dreams and they wouldn't be significant.
Speaker 2: You could dream of being a millionaire by a certain age.
Speaker 2: Your dream of being a billionaire.
Speaker 3: For what purpose?
Speaker 2: Just do you think God puts you on this planet
Speaker 2: to live for yourself? Of course not, of course not.
Speaker 2: God's dream is for your life is bigger than your dream.
Speaker 2: Let me show you what the Bible says the Phesians three.
Speaker 2: God can do anything, you know, far more than you
Speaker 2: could ever imagine, or guess or request in your wildest dream. Notice,
Speaker 2: far more than you could ever imagine. God can do
Speaker 2: that in your life, or guess or request in your
Speaker 2: wildest dream.
Speaker 3: Now let me stop there.
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but I'm a pretty big dreamer.
Speaker 2: I've never been accused of small dreaming. I've never been
Speaker 2: accused of being a tiny thinker. I have big visions
Speaker 2: in life, and yet God says, rick, think of the
Speaker 2: greatest thing I could do in your life. Think of
Speaker 2: the greatest way I could bless your life. Dream the
Speaker 2: biggest dream, the greatest vision, and I can top that.
Speaker 2: You have no idea what God wants to do in
Speaker 2: your life. You are living such a small fraction of
Speaker 2: what you're capable of. You were doing with your life,
Speaker 2: such a small portion of what God wants to do
Speaker 2: in your life. God's dream for your life is enormous.
Speaker 2: It's big. He says, I can do more than you
Speaker 2: can imagine or guests or requestion your wildest dream. The
Speaker 2: Bible says He does it not by pushing us around,
Speaker 2: but by working within us his spirit deeply and gently
Speaker 2: within us. And by the way, the next verse after
Speaker 2: that says, so glory to God in the Church, glory
Speaker 2: to God in Jesus, Glory to God in all generations,
Speaker 2: and glory to God.
Speaker 3: Forever and ever.
Speaker 2: We just sang that. That's this verse. We just sang
Speaker 2: this glory to God forever. Now, I want you to
Speaker 2: write this down in your outline. God wants me to
Speaker 2: dream big.
Speaker 3: Write that down.
Speaker 2: God wants me to dream big. He wants me to
Speaker 2: use the imagination that He gave me. Because dreaming big
Speaker 2: honors God. It shows faith, It shows trust. Now you
Speaker 2: should base your dream not on what you think you
Speaker 2: could do, but you should base your dream on what
Speaker 2: you think God could do. I remember many years ago
Speaker 2: when we bought the Lake Forest property and the word
Speaker 2: got out in Orange County that a church was going
Speaker 2: to go buy one hundred and twenty acres. Let's put
Speaker 2: this a perspective, that's bigger than Disneyland. His property is
Speaker 2: bigger than Disneyland. And people said, what kind of church
Speaker 2: is this going to go buy one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: acres of Orange County property? Who do those people think
Speaker 2: they are? And when I heard that, I said, that's
Speaker 2: the wrong question. The question is not who do we
Speaker 2: think we are?
Speaker 3: It's who do we.
Speaker 2: Think God is. That's the real issue. I write this down.
Speaker 2: Let the size of my God determine the size of
Speaker 2: my goal. I must let the size of my God,
Speaker 2: not the size of my gifts, but the size of
Speaker 2: my God determine the size of my goal. God's dream
Speaker 2: for my life is bigger than my dream. Number five,
Speaker 2: The fifth thing I've learned about dreaming and vision and
Speaker 2: imagination is this, Doubt is the enemy of imagination. Doubt
Speaker 2: is the enemy of imagination. Now, doubt and fear neutralize
Speaker 2: what God wants to do in your life.
Speaker 3: You see, it takes courage to imagine. Why.
Speaker 2: You know why most people don't imagine because they're afraid
Speaker 2: of failure. When you were a kid, you had a
Speaker 2: great imagination. Children have a massive amount of imagination. But
Speaker 2: the older you get, the more your imagination grows rusty.
Speaker 2: You stop imagining what things could be, and you just
Speaker 2: start living the way they are, and you get stuck
Speaker 2: in the status quo, which is Latin for the mess
Speaker 2: we're in, and you don't imagine what they could be.
Speaker 2: You just imagine or you just think about what it is,
Speaker 2: and you stop using that imagination muscle in your life.
Speaker 2: Doubt is the enemy of imagination, and that's why it
Speaker 2: takes courage. And by the way, what is courage. Courage
Speaker 2: is doing the thing you fear the most. If you're
Speaker 2: not afraid, you don't need courage. You don't need courage.
Speaker 2: Courage only happens when you're scared to death. Courage is
Speaker 2: when you're scared to death. He said, I'm going to
Speaker 2: do it anyway. In the history of Saddleback Church, every
Speaker 2: great thing that we did, I was scared to death
Speaker 2: to do scared to death? Dude, I just said, we're
Speaker 2: going to do it anyway. Why because I'm not going
Speaker 2: to about to let fear dominate my life. So I
Speaker 2: do it, moving ahead, trembling, moving ahead in fear, and
Speaker 2: I just do it anyway and God shows up. God
Speaker 2: will show up in your life. Courage is when you
Speaker 2: do the thing while you're afraid. You do the right thing.
Speaker 2: He said, should I wait till all the fear is gone.
Speaker 2: It's never gonna go away. You just do it while
Speaker 2: you're afraid, and then it goes away. Doubt is the
Speaker 2: enemy of imagination. You have to move against your fears,
Speaker 2: and sometimes you have to ignore all the insecures you're feeling.
Speaker 3: You say, I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna go
Speaker 3: for it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it even though I'm scared to death
Speaker 2: and I'm insecure and i might fail, and blah blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. James, Chapter one. If you need wisdom,
Speaker 2: you want to know God's dream vision for your life.
Speaker 2: If you need wisdom, just ask God for it because
Speaker 2: he's generous and he enjoys giving it to everyone. But
Speaker 2: when you ask You must believe and not doubt. For
Speaker 2: a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of
Speaker 2: the sea that's driven back and forth and tossed about
Speaker 2: by the wind. Such doubters cannot decide anything that they do.
Speaker 2: So they should not imagine there's that word. They should
Speaker 2: not imagine receiving anything from the Lord. You gotta believe,
Speaker 2: and you've gotta banish doubt. You know what you need
Speaker 2: to do. You need to doubt your doubts and believe
Speaker 2: your beliefs. The problem we have today is we do
Speaker 2: the exact opposite. We believe our doubts and we doubt
Speaker 2: our beliefs. No doubts are meant to be doubted. Beliefs
Speaker 2: are meant to be believed. So you believe your beliefs
Speaker 2: and your doubt your doubts. Your imagination in your life
Speaker 2: is either gonna be governed by fear or it's gonna
Speaker 2: be governed by faith.
Speaker 3: And that's your choice. Now.
Speaker 2: If you let your imagination be governed by fear, you're
Speaker 2: gonna go around freaked out, stressed out, worried all the time,
Speaker 2: and you're gonna worry about what other people think, and
Speaker 2: you're gonna worry about are you gonna have enough?
Speaker 3: And you're gonna worry about this and this and that.
Speaker 2: And when you allow fear to control your imagination, you
Speaker 2: live a miserable life. And instead, if you say, I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna allow fear to dominate me, I'm gonna allow
Speaker 2: faith to dominate me, and I'm gonna trust in God.
Speaker 2: All things are possible with God. Then your imagination talks
Speaker 2: about what could happen, the good things that might happen,
Speaker 2: and your imagination moves you ahead.
Speaker 3: Doubt will destroy you.
Speaker 2: Now, there's a great story in the Bible about a
Speaker 2: man who had a son who was sick, and he
Speaker 2: comes to Jesus, and we pick up the story in
Speaker 2: Mark chapter nine, and the man says to Jesus, please
Speaker 2: heal my son if you can. And Jesus replied, what
Speaker 2: do you mean if I can? Anything is possible if
Speaker 2: a person believes. The father replied, I do believe, but
Speaker 2: help me not to doubt.
Speaker 3: I love this.
Speaker 2: Passage because I love the authenticity. I love the honesty
Speaker 2: of this guy. He goes, I believe. I just got
Speaker 2: some doubts. And one of the passages in translations, he says, Lord,
Speaker 2: I do believe, help me with my unbelief. And you
Speaker 2: know what Jesus's response was to this guy when he said,
Speaker 2: I mean, if all things are possible if you believe,
Speaker 2: and the guy says, well, I do believe, help me
Speaker 2: with my doubts.
Speaker 3: You know what Jesus said.
Speaker 2: He does good enough, and he heals the guy right
Speaker 2: there on the spot. On the spot. You know, I
Speaker 2: wish I had learned a long time ago. Wish somebody
Speaker 2: told me that I don't have to have all my
Speaker 2: doubts resolved and all my questions answered in order to
Speaker 2: follow Jesus Christ and enjoy all the benefits of it.
Speaker 2: I've been walking with Jesus Christ now for almost well
Speaker 2: over fifty years. I still have questions. I got a
Speaker 2: list of them. I still have doubts.
Speaker 3: When I get to have it, I'm going to be
Speaker 3: You can get in line behind me. I've got all my.
Speaker 2: Questions to ask Jesus. Jesus, why did you do this?
Speaker 2: Why did you do that? I doubted this, I doubted this.
Speaker 2: I didn't think this was a good thing. He did
Speaker 2: here and on and on, and I'm just going to
Speaker 2: go through my laundry list of questions and doubts. Why
Speaker 2: because I believe I just have some doubts. Now, if
Speaker 2: I had thought that I had to answer all my
Speaker 2: doubts and all my questions, I still wouldn't even be
Speaker 2: a Christian. What I learned listen very closely is I
Speaker 2: don't have to understand something for me to benefit from it.
Speaker 3: I don't have to have it all figured out for
Speaker 3: me to benefit from it.
Speaker 2: For instance, I don't understand how internal combustion works. It
Speaker 2: doesn't stop me from driving a car. I don't understand
Speaker 2: the chemistry of digestion. It doesn't stop me from eating steak.
Speaker 2: I don't understand how there are literally colored pictures flying
Speaker 2: through the air right now and going through my body
Speaker 2: and yours, but it doesn't stop me from turning on
Speaker 2: a TV and watching them.
Speaker 3: How in the world does that happen? I don't know.
Speaker 2: How can I pick out my phone and talk to
Speaker 2: somebody on the.
Speaker 3: Other side of the world. I don't know all of it.
Speaker 2: I can't explain that to you, But I don't have
Speaker 2: to explain it to enjoy it.
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: And I don't have to have all my doubts answered,
Speaker 2: all my questions resolve in order to live by faith. Lord,
Speaker 2: I believe, help me with my doubts. God says, that's
Speaker 2: good enough. And so doubt will destroy you if you
Speaker 2: let it keep you from imagining and being all that
Speaker 2: God wants you to be. So this guy comes to
Speaker 2: Jesus and he says, Lord, I want to believe, help
Speaker 2: me with my doubts. Have you ever cried out to
Speaker 2: God that way? Have you ever cried out to God
Speaker 2: and said, Lord, I.
Speaker 3: Want to believe, help me with my doubts. You need
Speaker 3: to do that this morning if you haven't now.
Speaker 2: One of the things that happens because of doubt and
Speaker 2: because of fear and because of worry is vision begins
Speaker 2: to dissipate in your life. You get a dream, but
Speaker 2: you leak and your dream dissipates. A lot of people
Speaker 2: start off in life with a great dream, a great goal,
Speaker 2: a great vision, a great objective, a great cause and
Speaker 2: a purpose to live the life for. But over time
Speaker 2: it begins to dissipate and drain out and.
Speaker 3: Leak out of their life. Just much like you buy a.
Speaker 2: Balloon with healing minute, you put it up in your house,
Speaker 2: and three days later nobody's actually poked it.
Speaker 3: It didn't all leak out at once.
Speaker 2: It just started to leak out a little bit at
Speaker 2: a time, and pretty soon it's droopy. And some of
Speaker 2: you have a flat tire emotionally, and you got a
Speaker 2: flat tire mentally because you don't. You're not dreaming anymore,
Speaker 2: You're not believing anymore. And so what you have to
Speaker 2: do is you have to re energize the dream periodically.
Speaker 2: You have to refuel the dream or you run out
Speaker 2: of gas.
Speaker 1: What a great message today from Pastor Rick. There's something
Speaker 1: I always can use in my own life after listening
Speaker 1: to this show. All right, would you like to step
Speaker 1: out of a life of ordinary existence and into a
Speaker 1: life of extraordinary faith? Then please order the Daring Faith
Speaker 1: DVD study kit by Pastor Rick Warren. Here's Rick to
Speaker 1: tell you more.
Speaker 2: How would you like to have a bold, unshakable faith
Speaker 2: that gives you the courage to make the changes you've
Speaker 2: always wanted to see in your life, your work, your family,
Speaker 2: and in the world. That's not a dream. That's exactly
Speaker 2: what God wants to do in your life. He wants
Speaker 2: you to learn to live by daring faith. The Bible says,
Speaker 2: according to your faith, it will be done under you.
Speaker 2: Now to help you develop that kind of faith, I
Speaker 2: put together a Daring Faith Study Kit, and it includes
Speaker 2: a DVD and it includes a workbook. Now there's six
Speaker 2: sessions in the Daring Faith Study Kit, and it'll teach
Speaker 2: you these six things. How to build a life of faith,
Speaker 2: how to expect the best from God, how to stretch
Speaker 2: your imagination in order to see what God wants to
Speaker 2: do in your life to expand your vision. How to
Speaker 2: have the courage to take the initiative with your faith,
Speaker 2: how to face your fears with bold faith, and how
Speaker 2: to believe and what to do while you're waiting on God.
Speaker 2: You cannot afford to miss this series. It was one
Speaker 2: of the most important series I've ever done at Saddleback Church.
Speaker 2: And the Bible tells us in Ephesians three twelve, because
Speaker 2: of our faith in Him, we dare to have boldness
Speaker 2: and courage and confidence in coming to God with freedom
Speaker 2: and without fear. I want you to have that boldness,
Speaker 2: that courage, and that confidence when you come to God
Speaker 2: in prayer. I want you to come to Him without
Speaker 2: fear and come to Him in freedom. God will use
Speaker 2: this Daring Faith Study Kit just like He used it
Speaker 2: in the lives of tens of thousands of other people.
Speaker 2: He'll use it in your life if you'll trust him
Speaker 2: in all things.
Speaker 3: So get this kit today.
Speaker 1: You know, today, when you give a gift to help
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Speaker 1: We hope you'll join us next time when we look
Speaker 1: into God's word for our daily hope. This program is
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