Daring Faith: Learn What Happens When You Have Faith with Rick Warren

well hello Saddleback I'm glad you're here today you survived our rally on a Saturday and Angel Stadium and what a day that was and I want to welcome you to daring faith the key to miracles this is going to be a 10-week campaign the longest we've ever done because there's so much for me to teach you on how faith and miracles go together in your life you know I was sitting backstage right before I came out and I was having some Daniel plant approved almond snacks and I just thought well as eating them I'd read the you know the container and it says ingredients and there's one ingredient almonds okay okay and right underneath it allergen disclaimer this product contains almonds you just told me that but now we have a disclaimer saying it contains almonds so I want to be in full disclosure this is called daring faith the key to miracles and then this claimer is I am going to stretch your faith I am going to challenge your faith I'm going to poke it I'm going to prod it and in many times during this series you're not going to feel real comfortable because we don't grow in comfort growth is often uncomfortable but the result of Crow's growth is blessing maturity answered prayers and so many other wonderful wonderful things which I want you to get to and so in full disclaimer in this daring faith series I am going to challenge your faith now the Bible says this on your outline there romans chapter 1 verse 17 the gospel shows us how god makes people right with himself by the way the word gospel simply the only English word for good news that's all it means good news the gospel shows us how God makes people right with himself and that it begins and it ends with what ok circle that it begins and ends with faith that's how we get right with God the scripture says that those who are right with God will live by trusting him the just shall live I faith and then look at the next verse Hebrews 11:6 without faith it is impossible to please God now that's enough reason right there for us to spend 10 weeks on daring faith without faith that is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him did you know that God wants to reward you for earnestly seeking Him and if you believe that the Bible says the just live by faith now if the Bible says the way to live is by faith the way we connect with God is by faith and without faith it's impossible to please God what in the world is faith well we're going to take 10 weeks to talk about that and faith is like a diamond it's multifaceted but one of the evidences and one of the elements of faith that I want us to start off that's just an introduction this weekend I want you to write this down faith it write it on your outline faith is seeing from God's point of view faith is seeing from God's point of view I'm going to come back down a minute let me tell you first what faith is not okay faith is not desire you can wish for something you can hope for something you can pray for something you can sincerely desire and and crave something that doesn't mean it's faith faith is not desire desire may lead you to faith but desire isn't faith Francis I remember as a kid my desire as a teenager was to get a car and that was a great big desire huge desires to get a car but it wasn't faith and a desire is not the same thing another thing faith isn't is it's not pretending that something is true that isn't true you know I could have some butter sitting right here and I could say I believe that that's chocolate and I have faith that it's chocolate no it doesn't matter how much faith I say I've got it's not chocolate it's butter and it's not going to be chocolate no matter how much I say it's chocolate and so faith is not psyching yourself up and pretending something is that really isn't true you're not conning yourself into believing something faith is not a feeling now this is really important in fact you need to understand that feelings often get in the way of faith because you feel a certain way then you want to go that way whether you have the faith or not and feelings are what we tended to rely on instead of our faith and a lot of times faith says I'm going to move ahead in spite of my feelings I'm going to do the right thing in spite of my feelings that's faith and faith is not bargaining with God it's not saying God if you'll do this and I'll do this God is not a gambler Lord if you'll do this and I'll I'll I'll do this and you know make a briber or a bargain with God that's not faith we're going to look at what faith is and this weekend we're looking at the fact that faith is a way of seeing faith is a way of looking at the world from God's point of view it's having God's perspective let me show you a couple verses Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 says this what is faith faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen not might not not not hopefully but what we hope for is going to happen and to be certain of the things we do not see I want you to circle the phrase we do not see faith is being certain of things we do not see it has to do with your vision now yesterday at the angel stadium event we talked about vision and the vision of Saddleback Church we talked about the dream of Saddleback Church we talked about where are we going in the vision and dream and by the way if you missed that message you need to watch it online because it's kind of the introduction of this whole series but the Bible says that faith is a way of seeing now would you agree that there's always more than one way to look at something if you're married you really know that's true because and if you've got kids you know that's true there's always always more than one way of looking something sometimes there might be a dozen different ways of looking at something but what really matters is not how you see it and not even how I see it but how God sees it and faith is learning to see things from God's point of view having his vision Ephesians 1:18 is the master verse on this and it says there I pray that the eyes of your heart will be flooded with light so that you can see so that you can see so that you can see the wonderful future that God has promised to those he called and we just sang about this verse open the eyes of my heart Lord I want to see you now what does that mean we're seeing in this great song what does it mean I don't have eyes in my heart what in the world is he talking about what that verse is talking about is that there's an unseen realm in the world that's more real than the seen realm for instance you can see this chair right now because it's made out of wood and it's got paint on it but you can't see the Holy Spirit however the Holy Spirit is more real than this chair and the Holy Spirit is going to live for eternity because He is God this chair is going to break down and wear out the Bible says that everything you see is temporary your body your hair and a lot of other things anything you see is temporary it's not gonna last the things that last are actually unseen and this is where the faith realm comes in and the Bible has many many examples of what I call seeing with spiritual eyes are seeing with the eyes of the heart seeing from God's point of view the Bible tells us over in Genesis 21 about Hagar and her son Ishmael who had been cast out by Abraham and because of jealous Sarah she's sent out into the desert and she's there in the desert with no water and she's going to die and Sarah calls out to God in the middle of the desert and she has Lord don't let me watch my my child die and all of a sudden it says God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water in the middle of the desert and they lived the Bible tells us in second Kings chapter 6 about Elijah and gauzy and how an enemy nation was we're coming against the army was coming against Jerusalem and and the Jews and Ghazi who was Elijah servants gets very very frightened and very very upset he's had a panic attack and God I mean our Elijah says to gassi gassi I don't want you to be upset he and said he prays this Lord opened the eyes of my servant and all of a sudden gheh has II it says his spiritual vision is opened up and it says he could see a realm of angels circling the city of Jerusalem and all of a sudden he wasn't afraid anymore well you wouldn't be either if you saw a realm of angels God opened his spiritual eyes the Bible tells us that in genesis 13 God takes Abraham up on a hill and says look up at the stars and he says just imagine this this is going to be your ancestor ancestry these are going to be the number of people in your nation as many as you can count and even more and the Bible says God opened his eyes he had a moment of spiritual clarity after the resurrection the Bible tells us that two disciples are walking down the street and they're all upset and they're all the skirts because Jesus died on the cross their hopes have been crushed their their dreams have been dashed they are in despair and all sudden Jesus comes walking with them they have a conversation they invite him in for dinner they don't recognize who it is they sit down they have a meal together and it says then when he blessed the meal it says God opened their eyes and all sudden they realized Jesus is right here in my midst that's what God wants to do in faith in you he wants to open your eyes when you see oh Jesus is right here with me oh the angels are circling around me Oh God plan much bigger than my plan for my life and on and on and on and so I want us to do a couple things today I want us to look at what happens when we see with eyes of fear and look at what happens when we see with eyes of faith just kind of as an introduction because until you understand how important it is to see everything in life do eyes of faith you're not going to be looking for that now a good example of this is in the Old Testament in the Book of Numbers chapter 13 and 14 a book that isn't read much by people but it's got a lot of spiritual truth in it and here's the background of numbers 13 and 14 Moses has led the nation of Israel to freedom he's got him free from Pharaoh and the Egyptians they've crossed the Red Sea they've been traveling up for about two years not 40 years just about two years from Egypt taking a very slow pace because it would certainly wouldn't take that long to walk from Egypt to Israel across the Sinai but they got a lot of people and they're slow and they going along and they're coming up to a place called Kadesh and at Kadesh they're getting ready to cross the Jordan and go into the Promised Land this is the land that's been promised to them for 400 years they would have their own country they would have freedom it would be free from slavery when they get up to the edge of the water before they go in Moses says okay before we go in I want to send in a spy team I'm going to pick 12 guys to go in and spy out the land they're going to do reconnaissance they're going to do the due diligence they're going to check out what's going on and do a little fact-finding and so 12 spies are connected are chosen by by Moses and they are sent in to go visit the land when they come back they give a mixed report two of the two of the spies say it's incredible let's go take it it's ready for our taking God has given us truly the promised land and those two spies were named Joshua and Caleb Joshua and Caleb the other 12 other 10 spies come back with it yeah it's a great place but and they have a whole list of problems on why they can't go in they're not seeing with eyes of faith they're seeing with eyes of fear now let me read you the names of these guys it raise your hand if you've heard of any of these guys che fat nobody eat Gao Paul T Gaddy L Amy L scepter nabhi Gail you Shamu oh not the whale Shamu ah okay okay and then Caleb yeah and Joshua yeah here's the point nobody remembers the negative guys nobody remembers the critics who say it can't be done the only people who get remembered are the guys who said let's go do it in God's think they saw with eyes of faith the other saw with eyes of fear now because they failed to see with eyes of faith that entire generation missed God's purpose for their life and God's will and and God said okay you failed the test you can wander around the wilderness for the next 40 years until you all die I don't want that to happen in your life I don't want you to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and then die simply because you didn't learn to see with eyes of faith this is why daring faith key to miracles is such an important campaign because I want you in the promised land and I want you to get in it now now what happens when we see with eyes of fear and see with eyes of faith let's go these real quickly first five things happen when we see with eyes of fear and they're all hearing in numbers chapter 13 and 14 number one write these down first we exaggerate our difficulties we exaggerate our difficulties now here's an amazing thing God has just delivered them from Egypt the most powerful nation in the world and yet now they're worried about some local tribe they've just defeated vero and yet now they're worried about somebody else and how quickly we forget when you look at your problems with ISO fear they get bigger and the more you look at your problem the more that exaggerated it gets somebody criticized you you more you think about it pretty soon you think the whole world's criticizing you it grows by proportion numbers 13 verse 27 28 here was the negative report it's a magnificent land said the negative spies but there's always a big but it's a magnificent land but the people living there are powerful and their cities are fortified and large and what's more we saw Anakim giants there now the Anakim were of the tribe of skywalker and and the force was strong with them and that's another story sorry I got confused there the next verse 31 32 says other spies said they'd crush us so the majority report of the spies was negative I want to point out something here the majority report is almost always negative anybody is going to get something done in this world is going to have to go against the majority report because the number the majority of people are going to be looking with eyes of fear not eyes of faith and they said they said we say these people are they'd crush us that word they're actually in in Hebrew is alcohol which means to eat up it means to devours that man they eat us a lie they're like kanna cannibals they're bullies they're tyrants they're their NFL backers they're they're going to take us on and we'll be crushed only to the spies have faith Joshua and Caleb and and yet the people always trust the minority know they always trust the majority report because there's always more warriors and there's always more naysayers and there's always more critics and more fearful fretful negative people here's the problem negative attitudes are contagious when they walked up there to the edge everybody was excited about going into the Promised Land it was only when ten come back and said we can't do it that everybody changed their mind and they began to get infected with a negative attitude now here's what's ironic they said this place is filled with Giants and and we can't take them on and they're to have big for us and too powerful ironically 38 years later when the next generation did get to go into the Promised Land you know what the enemy said they said we have lived in panic for 40 years because we heard about the ten plagues of Egypt and we heard about what your God had done against the most powerful leader in the world Pharaoh and we were scared to death and we were ready to surrender we were ready we were ready to surrender so you needlessly walked around in the wilderness for forty years because we were scared to death of you we exaggerated our difficulties second thing we do when we see if I eyes of fear we underestimate our own abilities we exaggerate the problem but we underestimate our own abilities and in verse 33 of numbers 13 it says this we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them and you talk about low self esteem as saying we're insects we're just a bunch of bugs compared to those guys they're going to eat us for lunch we can't do that and notice they say we saw ourselves like grasshoppers in our own eyes that's their own self image and it says and we look the same to them how do they know how they looked to the enemy they did there's a word for this it's called projection you tend to project your fears on everybody else around you and that's what they're doing there they're projecting their fears they'd been slaves for 400 years they'd been freed for 40 but they're still mentally enslaved in a condition they still see themselves as helpless and they still see themselves in slave they're enslaved not by a favor now but by an idea by an image by self concept now let's just stop here for a minute because a lot of year many years ago people said things about you and to you and behind your back that you overheard that we're not true but you believed them they're not even in your life anymore some of them even dead and you're still believing their lives you're still enslaved to their image of you and you had somebody a parent or partner or a friend or brother sister who said you're uncoordinated and so you think you're uncoordinated or you're never going to amount to much you think you're never going to mount too much' you're not good at speaking or on and on they told you all those things you're not in Egypt anymore that's a self-imposed prison this is why celebrate recovery is so much better than any other recovery addiction program you go to AAA they keep you saying for the rest of your life you stand up say hi my name is Joe and I'm an alcoholic now the guy may have been sober for 35 or 40 years but he stands up in his first identity is hi I'm Joe and I'm an alcoholic he's still identifying with his weakness with his problem with his struggle with his sin or whatever the point that we say in celebrate recovery we don't say that celebrate recovery celebrate recovery we stand up say hi my name is Joe and I'm a follower of Jesus who struggles with alcohol see the difference your primary identity is not your sin your primary identity is not your fault is not your weakness is not your miscue is not your failure your primary identity is in Christ I am a believer who struggles with loneliness struggles with codependency struggles with worry struggles with panic attacks that's not your primary identity you're seeing with eyes a fear instead of eyes of faith and so we we overestimate the problem and we underestimate our abilities you know as funny that it said that some of the spies saw these guys and said these they were tall and they said these guys are Giants what's interesting is later when they went in they found out that the taller people were actually the most calm and the most peaceful and they had nothing to be afraid of the tall people were not even warriors it's just they all had it in their mind third thing that happens when you see with the eyes of faith fear we get discouraged first they overestimate the problem second they underestimate their own ability we're like insects we're just grasshoppers third they get discouraged and in numbers 14 1 it says that all the people began weeping aloud and they carried on all night at a giant pity party poor us and they're now crying and weeping because they don't get to go into the Promised Land what's keeping them out their fear they're not living by faith we get this courage and then quickly we move to number 4 and that is we move from from discouragement to griping we start to gripe about all of our lives and everything that's going to go wrong in our lives and in verse 2 after the all-night pity party it says then all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron they picked on the leaders we wish we had died in Egypt they wailed or even here in the wilderness and those first day they they mourn the now they murmur first they cry and now they can complain what it is is discontent by the way let me just say to you highly critical people are always highly insecure people it's it's dominated by fear when you find somebody who's critical of other people it's because they're incredibly insecure and if I don't feel good about me I certainly don't want you feeling good about you so I'm going to criticize and I'm going to complain and I'm going to you know be against any success that you might have but we underestimate our abilities we get discouraged we we gripe about our lives and eventually number five next verse we give up and we blame God we give up and we blame God verse 3 they said why is the Lord notice why is the Lord bringing us to this land to be killed with swords we'd be better off going back to Egypt you know what they're saying there we know better than God we know better guy notice they're blaming God for not letting him go in the Promised Land God isn't holding them back it's their fear that's holding them back so there's second-guessing and now all the sudden the remembering the good old days of Egypt good old days what was the good old days 400 years of slavery why would anybody want to go back to Egypt it was slavery but it was safety it was safe slavery and a lot of people get stuck in safe slavery and therein say slayed by a relationship or they're enslaved by a fear or they're enslaved by a habit or they're enslaved by a compulsion or they're enslaved by a thought that I have to do a certain thing and and to let go of that they really don't like it but it's least it's predictable it's comfortable and I know what's in Egypt and some of you are doing that some of you are confusing slavery and safety they're not the same thing you say I know it's a bad situation but at least it's predictable and I know this habit is self-defeating but it's it's comfortable it's just who I am it's what I do it's who Who I am there is no real freedom without taking risks safety and freedom are on opposite ends of the continuum and you're either moving more towards safety or and slavery are you moving more toward taking risks and freedom God made you to be a risk taker God made you to live by faith don't die in the desert now let me contrast that with what the Bible says happens when we start to live our lives seeing everything by faith learning to be a dreamer learning to see God's vision learning to look at things not as they are but as they could be how do you do that and what does what difference does it make in my life well let me explain these to you write these down what happens when we see with eyes of faith six things I could give you two dozen but let me just give you six number one faith shrinks my problems the first thing that I do when I begin to open the eyes of my heart Lord and I begin to see what God is doing around me and I begin to look at things from God's viewpoint it shrinks my problem new perspective see when you see your problem from God's point of view well then everything gets a whole lot more manageable if you have a big God problems get small if you've got a small put God problems get big now when you come to the Lord and you say Lord you're a big God and you can handle this problem and I'm going to I'm going to give it to you and I'm going to just let you work it out I'm trusting you I'm seeing with the eyes of it lets you work it out then you can relax and you say well how's it going to be solved you say well that's God's problem it's not my problem it's it's God's problem faith drinks my problem Genesis 18 14 says is anything too hard for the Lord and the answer is obviously no nothing's too hard for the Lord Luke 1:37 Jesus says for nothing is impossible with God you know if you were to come to my office and you were to go into my library and pull out my dictionary and look up the word impossible you would find that the word impossible is not in my dictionary because 35 years ago I cut it out I said if it's not in God's vocabulary it's not in mine the Bible says nothing is impossible with God faith shrinks my problems number two faith opens the door for a miracle faith opens the door for a miracle faith can move mountains you know if you study the Bible and if you study history you find that every time God moves out on on earth and does a miracle is because somebody believed faith opens the door to miracles mark 11 jesus said this have faith in God if you have faith in God and you don't doubt you could tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea and it would whatever you ask for in prayer will be yours if you only have the faith and what's he talking about here telling a mountain to jump in the seat God has set up the universe in a hierarchy of laws and the law of faith is see a higher law than the law are the laws of nature and that's where miracles come in because when faith is used the law of faith goes into practice and God set up the fact that the law of faith can actually do more than the laws of physics you know if you actually had the real faith you say go jump into an ocean and and the mountain would and does God still perform miracles today of course he does and during this one of the reasons I was excited about this campaign is during this series the daring faith series key to miracles we're going to see some miracles every time you stretch your faith God does miracles every single time so my question is we're getting ready to start this series what's the mountain in your life what's the mountain that needs to be moved what's the thing you look at that thing that thing it's never moved it hasn't moved it's not gonna move it never will move what is the mountain in your life that you were saying it's never gonna change well you've already decided it you that's a self-defeating and self-fulfilling prophecy how do you know maybe God wants to do a law of faith superseding the law of nature he has he has in the past he has in the present he's done it all around the world if faith opens the door for miracles God is in the mountain-moving business but you must not doubt look at this verse on the screen Matthew 13 58 says Jesus did not do many miracles you start him at that town there because of their lack of faith their lack of faith caused Jesus to not do many miracles you see I don't see any miracles in my life team I wonder why are you seeing the dies of fear are you seeing with the eyes of faith faith shrinks my problems that opens the door to miracles at number three faith moves God to act on my behalf faith moves God to act on my behalf now don't get me wrong when I say this got it moves God to act on my behalf I do not believe I do not subscribe to the health and wealth theology where God really ends up being a servant and that God serves you rather than you serving God and in many versions of this God becomes a genie where you rub the you know the bottle and you pray the prayer or you Dopp drop the you know 50 cent piece into the into the slot machine whatever and then you hit the jackpot no God is not your genie God is God and you're not and he's not there to cater to your every whim he's not he's just not but at the same time Matthew 9:29 Jesus said this according to your faith it will be done to you God says you get to choose how much I bless your life according to your faith it will be done to you do you want to know why God has blessed my life not because I deserve it because I don't not because I'm smarter than every else because I'm not maybe because I'm better looking but not just getting that not because of any human thing at all God has worked in my life because I humbly expect him to I expect him to use me and God does exactly what you expect him to do according to your faith it will be done unto you if you expect God to do a little in your life he'll do a little if you expect God to do a lot he'll do a lot if you don't expect God to doing that he won't do anything this is why I'm going to push you on your faith in this series this is why I'm going to stretch you and challenge you because I don't want you to be satisfied with playing in kiddie Beach in the shallows of life I want you to put put on your big-boy swimsuit and dive in the deep end and I want you to challenge yourself to believe God more than you've ever believed him for I have believed God for some really big things in my life but it didn't start there it started by developing the muscle of faith a little at a time and when I saw God did that well then God could do that and they just keep pressing and pushing and stretching and the Bible says according to your faith it will be done to you any of you as a parent knows that as a mom or dad father's love to bring pleasure to their kids and even more to their grandkids and when they do that it brings them pleasure it gives God pleasure providing for you it gives God pleasure watching you succeed because that's my girl she's being exactly who I made her to be that's my boy he's being exactly what I made him to be and the Bible says God takes pleasure in the success of his Saints and so according to your faith it will be done unto you see the problem with us is we think the wrong thing moves God God is not moved by my complaints God has never moved by my griping my complaining my grumbling my whining none of that moves God but God is moved when I said God I'm trusting you and I'm expecting you to keep your promise you put your name on that promise and I'm expecting you to do it that brings me to the fourth benefit of faith faith unlocks all the promises of God faith unlocks all the promises of God you know we've talked about this many times here at Saddleback Church there are over 7,000 promises in this book in the Bible from cover to cover over 7,000 promises and they're like blank checks waiting for you to claim them and if you want to be a person of faith a man of faith or a woman of faith you must learn to become a promised person memorize the promises of God so that you can claim them in your life when you need them and what does God have to say about all 7,000 of those promises 2nd Corinthians chapter one verse 24 no matter how many promises God has made they are all yes in Christ circle that yes in Christ all of the promises that God has made in his Bible and His Word in the scripture are yes in Christ and faith unlocks the promises of God now let me just try to put it this way what if you were to find you're going through an old attic that you'd bought a house and people had died nobody claimed to the the leftovers you're going through the attic and you you find a letter promising a million dollars to anybody who finds the letter would you be interested yes yes you would be interested but would it be useful if you didn't know who wrote it no it'd be worthless you could be holding onto a promises I will give whoever has this in this letter 1 million dollars no you'd have to you could only use it claim the promises if you knew the name and the address of the person making the promise the promises of the Bible only apply to those who know the author to those who know the name of Jesus all the promises are yes in Christ and when you know him personally now you know the guarantor of all the promises of Scripture and faith unlocks them number 5 faith terms dreams god-given dreams into reality faith turns god-given dreams into reality it is so important we're going to spend an entire session on it during this a campaign on daring to dream because nothing happens to somebody starts dreaming and I want to challenge you to dream about your relationships to dream about your your marriage a family your your career we're going to dream together about the future of this church we're going to go through a dreaming period time the Bible is full of people who had god-given dreams Abraham dreamed as being the father of a great nation Moses dreamed of setting the people free Joseph dreamed of saving the nation in his own family Daniel and Paul and David and over and over and over all through scripture all kinds of people that were inspiring dreamers but they didn't even have a verse that we have today and it's this first Ephesians 3:20 glory be to God who by his mighty power his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of infinitely beyond our highest prayers and desires and thoughts or hopes now if they're ever there was a blank check verse in the Bible that's it he says God is able to do far more than we would dare to ask what are you afraid to ask God for God is able to do far more than we could even dream of I don't know about you but I'm a pretty big dreamer I can think of some pretty big dreams I have in my lifetime and God says Warren you think of the greatest thing you could ever dream of the greatest thing you think I could do in your life and guess what I can top that we limit God by our unbelief I think one of the the biggest if there were if there were tears in heaven it would simply because we would get there and we realize all the things that could have done if we would just believe God for a little bit more to me that would be hell hell would be to be shown everything I could have accomplished and done and become and been as a husband as a father as a man as a pastor all that I could have been and all that I could have done good in the world if I had just believed God a little bit more I want to push you to believe God a bit more than you ever have before because God is able to do far more and we would dare to ask or even dream of number six let me just end with this one faith gives me power to hold on in tough times this is why we are doing during faith for 10 weeks because it unlocks the promises of God and and it shows us the power of God and it it gives us turns dreams with reality and it gives me the power to hold on in tough times why is this one important because faith doesn't always take you out of the problem you know that faith often takes you through the problem faith doesn't always take away the pain faith gives you the ability to handle the pain faith doesn't make life heaven on earth this world is never going to be heaven on earth things are never going to go perfectly on this planet you will always have pain and you will always have suffering in your life but faith gives you the ability to handle it it doesn't take you out of the storm it Calmes you in the storm I remember reading the stories of Corrie ten Boom who was in a young woman sent to the Nazi death camps to prison concentration death camps of Buchenwald and ostritz and and she said that the people who lasted in those camps were those who had the deepest faith why because faith gives me the power to hold on in tough times it produces persistence it gives you the ability to bounce back study after study after study after study has shown that probably the most important characteristic you could teach a child and probably the most important characteristic you need in your own life if you're going to make it in life is actually resilience resilience it's the ability to bounce back it's the ability to keep going why because nobody goes through life with an unbroken chain of successes everybody has failures flops duds mistakes we all embarrass ourselves nobody goes through life scot-free we all have pains we all have problems we all have pressures the people who make it in life have resiliency I've told this to pastors many times you don't want to know how many times I've wanted to resign as pastor Saddleback Church just every Monday morning they go god it's too big it's too many people too much responsibility I'm not smart enough what am I supposed to say to that many people get somebody else who can do a better job than this and yet God says keep on keeping on and where do you get that keeping on keeping on there's so many times over 35 years I wanted to just give up there are a lot of things I could have done you know easier and after Purpose Driven Life came out I effectively retired I don't take a salary so nobody pays me to stay here what what is it that keeps me going faith I want to see what God's going to do next I don't want to miss out on it so I don't like to miss really any week at church because I want to think is that going to be the week that could change my life I just never know if that's going to be the message that might just set the new direction for the next five or ten years I just want to be there and be there and listen the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 4 8 and 9 Paul's testimony we're pressed on every side but troubles but we're not crushed and we're not broken he said we're perplexed that means we're confused we don't know why why this happened we're perplexed but we don't give up and quit we're attacked but God never abandons us and we get knocked down but we're not knocked out he says we get up and we we keep going where do you get resilience like that faith now do you see why you need to work on strengthen your faith probably more than anything else and why we're going to spend 10 weeks on it because it is that does these six things shrinks my problems opens the door for miracles moves God to act on my behalf unlocks all the promises of God turns dreams into reality and gives me the power to hold on in tough times by the way faith is the way we get to know God John 3:16 says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in him that means has faith in Him should not perish but have everlasting life it's how we get to know God so what are we going to do the next 10 weeks there on your outline here here's what I want you to do in daring faith campaign first I want you to watch and discuss the six video studies that are in a small group and I've taken some of my best materials and I've taught it on on those lessons and I want you to get in a small group if you're not in one and here's how you do that just start one if your first step of faith if you're not in a small group is this start one go out and get one friend and say would you like the steady faith with me for six weeks watch these videos I need somebody to talk it over with you get one person and then the two of you find another person now you got three jesus said where two or three are gathered in my name I'm there in the midst of them you don't have to have ten people have a small group you'd have to have eight you had three four just if you will make the commitment that's your first step of faith the first step of faith is to make a commitment to get in a small group by starting one if you're not in one and then the second thing is to read the daily inspirations in your workbook as a daily devotional then number three listen to all 10 messages that are going to be on the weekend of the campaigns then carry the weekly Bible verse with you and then I'm going to ask you and we're going to talk about these in days ahead to set three faith goals for growing giving and going growing giving and going you're going to hear those phrase if you're going to be a woman of faith or man of faith you've got to grow in faith in your growing in your giving and in your going and we'll talk about what that means in each each of those now as I said earlier you can't claim the promises of God unless you know the man who made the promises in his name is Jesus Christ there might be somebody listening this weekend who has not stepped across the line and given their lives to Christ if you don't do that you're not going to get any of this it's going to be a total waste the next 10 weeks it starts with a relationship you know I remember when I was a little boy and America started the space race and we were racing the Communists or the Russians to see who was going to get to the moon first and the end for a while Russia was actually ahead and they were sending up cosmonauts before we were traveling or before our astronauts went out into space and I remember Yuri Gagarin who was a very famous Russian cosmonaut atheist and he was the first man to go up and circle the earth and when he came down he said this he said I was an eagle he said I searched the heavens and I found no God I didn't look I looked for God in the heavens when I was up there and I did not see him there is no God and all the atheist applauded and said yeah Yuri you just proved there is no God a few months later John Glenn who by there was a Christian and later served as a senator but was an astronaut in that Gemini program went out and circled the earth three times when John Glenn came down his first words in his interview where I saw God everywhere I said I felt his glory in the heavens I saw his presence in the stars I felt his power in the Sun I saw God everywhere which one was telling the truth the answer is they both were they both were because jesus said in John chapter 3 unless you're born again you cannot see the kingdom god you can't see what God is doing behind the scenes you can't see the miracles you can't see the mighty things he's doing you just can't see it because you're not tuned in you can't see the promises so you need to give your life to Christ today as we start this series let's bow our heads and I've got two prayers that I want you to pray first if you already know Jesus Christ and he's a part of your life and you're serving him as best you know how I want you to just say this simple prayer dear Jesus helped me to see with eyes of faith not fear help me to see with eyes of faith not fear you might even say open the eyes of my heart Lord I want to see you and say Lord use this series to challenge and to stretch my faith so that I might be more the person that you want me to be I want to bring pleasure to your life if you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ then your simple step is to say Jesus yes yes as much as I know how I open my life my heart to you just say that Jesus Christ as much as I know how I open my life to you I want to learn to love you and trust you and follow you I want to put my faith in you strengthen my faith in your name I pray amen

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 207,542

Rating: 4.8176794 out of 5

Keywords: Rick Warren (Musical Artist), Faith, Daring Faith, Saddleback Church, Fear, Life of Faith, Having Faith, Belief, Believing, God, Jesus, Peace

Id: lyI-o82g_hE

Length: 50min 27sec (3027 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 24 2015