Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hey friends, thanks for spending some time here at Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. And today, we're continuing our series with Rick Warren called Time to Dream, trusting God to open doors. Maybe you've been waiting for a breakthrough, an opportunity, or just some clarity about what's next. If so, you're in the right place. Rick will turn to the Bible, and you'll see how God opens doors when we trust him with our future. And now, here's part one of a message called The Struggle Behind Every Dream.

Pastor Rick Warren: You know, a lot of people dream, but they never do anything about it. Lots of people dream, but they don't ever go after their dreams. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons. People are afraid, uh their insecurities keep us from going after our dreams. Last week, we talked about how our past can keep us stuck in the past, and we can't get into the future. Uh criticism, the fear of critics can keep us from going after our dream. Uh maybe you have a dream that would cause conflict with somebody. Uh if achieving our dreams was easy, everybody would do it.

But there's always a price to pay, and there's always work, and there's always effort to see a dream realized. Ask Martin Luther King if there was a struggle behind his dream. He'll tell you yes. Ask Christopher Columbus if there was a struggle behind his dream. He'll tell you yes. Ask the pilgrims if there was a struggle in starting over in a brand new country, if that was tough. Yes, there's a struggle behind the dream. Now, God intentionally allows these struggles to happen in your life and in my life. Why? Well, because God is far more interested in what you become on earth than what you do on earth.

Let me say it again. God is far more interested in what you become on earth. That's your character than what you do on earth. That's your contribution. God is more interested in the person you are becoming than your accomplishments. Why? Because you're not taking your accomplishments to heaven. The deeper purpose of a God-given dream that he gives you is what you end up becoming in the process of going after that dream, and you're not taking the the end goal to heaven, but you are taking you. Now, a clear example of this in the Bible of the fact that there's a struggle behind every great dream.

And in this series we're doing on Time to Dream, we're looking at what's God's dream for your life, what's his dream for the next stage of your life. We're going to look at the life of Jacob today. Jacob's an interesting fellow. He's a mixture of combination of of good and bad, of highs and lows, of strengths and weaknesses. Jacob ran from God his entire life, and he actually ran from his brother his entire life. But one day, God made him stop running just long enough to give him a dream of a great blessing. But after God gave him that dream came a very severe struggle with four phases.

And these are the exact same four phases that you're going to struggle with in getting ready for the dream that God has for your life. So, first we learned of God 's dream for Jacob's life in Genesis chapter 28. If you look there on your message notes, verses 11 to 22 of Genesis 28 say this. When Jacob reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. He found a smooth stone for a pillow, and he laid down to sleep. Then God gave him a dream in which he saw a stairway going from earth to heaven.

Now, you always thought stairway to heaven was a Led Zeppelin song. No, no. It actually came from from this guy, from Jacob. He saw a stairway going from earth to heaven, and the angels of God were going up and down the stairs. At the top of the stairway was God who said, I am the same Lord of Abraham, your grandfather and of Isaac, your father. And I'm going to give you Here's the dream. I'm going to give you and your descendants all the land on which you're sleeping. That's the nation of Israel. And your descendants will spread all around the world.

That's the Jewish nation. And all the peoples on earth are going to be blessed by your future generations, by God's chosen people. Now, God promises in this dream, I'm going to be with you and I'm going to watch over you wherever you go. But one day, I will bring your people back to this land. That actually became true. That prophecy was fulfilled in 1948 when the nation of Israel was established, and Jews came back to the land in 1948. Now, when Jacob woke up, he thought, surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it.

And let me just pause here. How many times has the Lord been in a place and you weren't aware of it? How many times? It says then he was afraid, and he said, this place is awesome. It's the house of God, the gateway to heaven. So, early the next morning, Jacob got up and took the stone that he'd used for a pillow, and he stood it upright as a memorial marker, like a like a pillar. And then he anointed the storm stone with oil. This is a symbol of anointing. And he named the place Bethel, which means house of God.

Anytime you've heard the word Bethel, it's it's a combination of the Americanization of Bethel, which means house of God, just like Bethlehem means house of bread. Now, then Jacob made this vow to God. If you'll be with me, Jacob says, I will honor you with my life and I will give back to you a tenth of all that you give to me. That's the principle of tithing. It's taught many, many places in scripture, but Jacob is one of the early ones to say, I am going to give you 10% back of everything you've given to me as an act of worship, as an act of gratitude, as an act of faith, that I realize it all comes from you in the first place.

Now, that's the exciting part of the story. God gives Jacob this dream. I am going to build a great nation from your descendants. I am going to give you this land. I am going to be with you. I am going to bless you. And Jacob says, you're going to be my God, and I am going to serve you, and I will give you 10% back of everything that you bless me with. But Jacob was not ready for God's blessing at this point. This is not the end of the story. Jacob was not prepared. Jacob was not ready.

Jacob was not mature enough to handle the great blessing and the great dream that God had in store for him. So, God has to prepare Jacob to receive the dream he has for Jacob. He has to prepare him. He has to get him ready to receive the God-given dream, which by the way, so do you. God has to prepare you. You have to get ready to receive the dream that God has for your life in the next decade and in the years ahead. God will take you through the same four phases, the same four phases of the struggle that he took Jacob through in order to get you ready to be blessed and to be fulfilled in your God-given dream.

So, the four phases of the struggle we go through for God's dream is in Genesis 32, a couple of chapters later after Jacob's been given the dream. So, I want you to write this down. Now, the first phase in God's process of preparing us for the dream he asked for us is what I call the crisis phase. You go, oh great, we begin with the crisis. Yeah, sorry. Write this down. In the crisis phase, here's the first phase of struggle. I struggle with God and others. I struggle with God and others. Are are you in a crisis right now?

Congratulations. God's getting ready to give you a new dream for your life. Now, I don't know what that struggle may be be. I I don't know what that struggle or crisis may be. You may be facing a health crisis or you may be facing a financial crisis or maybe you're going through a relational crisis. There's conflict with someone you love. Maybe you're going through a personal crisis, uh mentally or emotionally. Maybe you're wrestling with all kinds of different issues right now. Well, congratulations. You're in phase one of God getting you ready for the dream he asked for your life.

If you're going through a crisis, it's God's way of getting your attention. If you're being if you're wrestling with difficult issues in your life right now God is getting ready to give you a new big dream. Now, the background on Jacob is that all his life he had fought with his twin brother. Uh in fact, the Bible says they even fought in the womb. And And And Jacob was hanging on to to Esau's uh uh leg. Esau was born born first. Jacob was born second, but Esau is trying to pull him back into the womb.

And And then later Jacob stole the family blessing from his brother. His brother was the firstborn. His brother was the one to get the birthright of the family. But Jacob tricked his father, who was blind and hard of hearing, and cheated him out of the uh the the blessing and cheated Esau. And he has been running from his brother ever since. This struggle that we're going to look at uh in today happens the day before he confronts his brother for the first time since he manipulated the family blessing and stole what was rightfully his brother's.

He's going to have a face-to-face encounter the next day, and he's scared to death. He's got this conflict with his brother. Maybe you've got some conflicts in your life and your family. But his bigger conflict Jacob's bigger conflict was with God. And God brought it all to a crisis stage. Now, we start the story of the struggle in Genesis chapter two Excuse me, 32 chapter 32 verses 22 to 25. And here's what it says. That night, Jacob sent his family across the Jabbok River. Then Jacob was left all alone in the camp. And a man It's Notice that's a capital M.

A man, the man came and wrestled with him all night. Now, this is a story of a very unusual all night wrestling match. It's not nine rounds. It's all night. Now, it's a supernatural wrestling match because as we're going to find out later in the story, the opponent is God. This is not WWF wrestling. Jacob is wrestling with God. Your biggest wrestling match in your life is with God. Now, let me tell you a little fun thing about this passage. You know, the Old Testament's written in Hebrew. In this passage, there's a pun in the verse I just read because the Hebrew word for Jacob is Yabbok.

That's the word for Jacob in Hebrew, Yabbok. The word for wrestling in in Hebrew is Yabbek. Okay? And the river he had just crossed over with his family is the Jabbok River, which is actually called Yabbok. So, in this sentence we have Yabbok Yabbok Yabbek God at Yabbok. It's just a little play on words. Now, this was true of all of Jacob's life. It was a struggle. The Bible tells us in Hosea chapter 12 verse three, before Jacob was born, he struggled with his brother. And when he became a man, he even fought with God.

Now, let me just pause here for a minute and make an application to your life. I want you to think of the biggest conflict or the biggest problem that you're facing right now. Okay? I want you to think of the biggest conflict or the biggest problem you're facing right now. Now, without even knowing what that is I I I can boil boil it down to two basic issues. And the issue is this. Number one, will I obey God and do the right thing in this situation? That's the first issue. And number two, will I trust God to take care of this situation?

Will I obey God and do the right thing in the situation, or will I trust God to take care of the situation? The root of all your problems is really your struggle with God. You want to be in control. You want to be God. You want to be the master of your fate. You want to be in charge. You want to call all the shots. So, God forces the issue with a crisis. And you're wrestling with some problems in your life right now. What is the objective of wrestling? I actually wrestled in high school, and the the objective objective of wrestling is to pin the opponent down.

You pin them down on the mat until finally they say, I give up. Uncle, I surrender. You're in control. And that's what God is doing here in this wrestling match with Jacob. He's saying, I'm going to pin you down until you say, I give up. I surrender. You're in control. No- Note in that verse it says, he couldn't win. Did you notice the phrase, he couldn't win. Have you ever been in a no-win situation? Who do you think's behind that? When you're in a no-win situation God's behind it. Now, listen very closely. God often uses a crisis to get our attention.

God whispers to us in our pleasure, but he shouts to us in our pain. There's a verse in Psalms that says, sometimes God It takes a difficult situation to make us change our ways. We don't change when we see the light. We change when we feel the heat. You say, well, I thought God loves me. Of course he loves you. God loves you just the way you are. But he loves you too much to let you stay that way. And so he's going to force you through a crisis, through a wrestling match, having to wrestle with different kinds of problems.

He's going to force you to deal with the issue and pin you down. Why is this? Because we rarely change until our pain becomes greater than our fear of change. Uh Uh And it And it often takes a crisis to get that that change. So, when the struggle comes, and it will come in your dream there there will be pain And And there will be a crisis that comes into your life. But then here's the second phase. And the second phase in God's promise and process to get you ready for his big dream he asked for your life is not the crisis phase.

This is what I call the commitment phase. I want you to write this down. Here's the second phase of the struggle. God tests my faith in his promise. God tests my faith in his promise to bless me. He He He He has made this promise. He's told Jacob, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to give you this land. I'm going to multiply your generations. You're going to be a mighty nation. Your people will bless the whole world. You're the chosen people. He's given all these promises. Now, God's going to test Jacob's faith, and God's going to test your faith in his promises, too.

He gives you a promise of a great dream, and then he tests it. In Genesis chapter 32 verses 24 to 26, notice it said, Jacob wrestled with this man until dawn until dawn. That's a long time. It's an all-night situation. This conflict is not a quick over uh done. It God is testing his patience, testing his faith, testing his trust. Now, it says, when the man saw that he could not win the match he struck Jacob's hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket. Ooh, that's got to be painful. That's got to be painful.

Then the man said, let me go for it's dawn. Now, he's setting all this up for Jacob. And Jacob panted. Jacob's worn out. He's tired. Jacob panted. I won't let you go unless you bless me. Now, isn't that an interesting thing to say to somebody you're wrestling with? I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. What happened here? Well, somehow somehow, sometime during the night, during this all-night wrestling match, during this struggle, evidently Jacob became aware that the one he is wrestling with is no ordinary individual. It's God. And if he's wrestling with God then God can bless him.

So, now he's going, I'm not going to let go. I'm worn out. I'm just as tired as you are. But I'm not going to let go. Have you realized yet that the very God that you wrestle with when you go, God, I don't want to do that. I don't want to I don't want to tithe. I don't want to trust you. I don't want to do your rules for sex. I don't want Whatever. God, I don't want to do I don't want to be kind to my enemies. I don't want to love uh people who uh persecute me.

Have you realized yet that the very God you wrestle with is the one who gives you your great dream and he's the one who will make it happen. You just got to come to a point of commitment. God is it here to thwart the dream that he gave you. But he is here to get you ready for it. He is here to prepare you. And the way he prepares you is to strengthen your character, to build your stamina, to deepen your patience, to increase your resilience. Now, obviously, God could have If this is God wrestling Jacob, and we find out it is he could have easily overpowered him.

So, when he goes, I can't I can't overpower you. Of course God could have overpowered him. And he could have ended the match instantly. Your arms are too short to box with God. If you get in a real match with God, he's going to win unless he lets you win. But God lets the struggle go on. When Jacob started wrestling this guy, God could have pinned him in the first 30 seconds or 1 second. What's the lesson here? When God uses a crisis to get your attention he often doesn't resolve it immediately. Now, this always bugs us, but he waits a while.

He He He He He He lets us wrestle till dawn. Why? Because he wants to see if you really mean business. Do you really want his blessing? Do you really want his dream for your life? Do you really want God's plan and purpose for you more than you want anything else? When you say, God, I've got to have it. I've got to have it. I'm not going to let go until you bless me. I've got to know the purpose of my life. I've got to know your dream for my life. And that's when God says, okay, now we're talking.

This is phase two, commitment. God tests my faith, my trust, and my sincerity. What if God answered every prayer in your life immediately? Then you would treat God like a vending machine. You would be a spoiled brat. Put in the prayer, pull the button, get whatever you want. God is not your genie. And so it doesn't happen When When the things that God wants to give you, he doesn't just your wish is my command and snap and everything you've got it. You'd be a spoiled brat. Also, the problems that you have in your life you didn't get them instantly.

You took time getting them. The The place you're in right now uh took a lot of steps to get there. You didn't get into debt supernaturally like all of a sudden, boom, I'm in debt. No. You You made a lot of decisions that got you deep into debt. Did you notice I said read there where it said, he dislocated his hip. As I said, that had to be pretty painful. Listen, the pain in your life is preparing you for God's dream. God wants to build your character. God wants to teach you persistence. Many people miss God's best because they give up too soon.

They give up too soon. They're not willing to wrestle till dawn. They're not willing to say, I'm not letting go until you bless me. They pray one time and well, God didn't answer my prayer, and I stop. Or they pray twice, and they go, God didn't answer my prayer. Or they pray for a month, and they go, God didn't answer my prayer. They miss God's best because they give up too soon. You don't know how long God is going to test your faith. But you do know this promise from Galatians chapter six verse nine there on your outline.

Let us not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time In other words, God knows the right time. He's never late. He knows the proper time. We will reap a harvest if if if we do not give up. So, what I want to say to you is your pastor who loves you, your spiritual coach, don't give up. Don't give up. Hang in there. This is a test. Going through a crisis where you're having to wrestle some hard issues, okay, phase one. Having to wrestle till dawn and you get your hip dislocated, there's a little pain going on.

Okay, don't give up. Hang on. This is a test. It took years for you to get in the mess you're in. You You didn't develop all your hang-ups overnight. They're ingrained patterns. They're deeply uh built in fears. And God often has to remove the the junk in our lives layer by layer. It's kind of like peeling an onion. Peel it one time one layer at a time. That by the way is the value of a good godly biblical counselor because sometimes it takes a long time before we wise up and then we give up to God.

Guest (Male): What a special message from Pastor Rick. And now let's hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

Pastor Rick Warren: I love receiving notes and emails from Daily Hope listeners like you. Here's one that I got from Vio, a listener from Canada. She shared, Pastor Rick I'm eternally grateful for all the wonderful work you're doing. Your messages are touching my heart and changing my life, and I'm sharing Daily Hope broadcast with other people. Last month, I was baptized at my local church, and God is truly working in my life. Thank you, Pastor Rick. Well, Vio, it's so encouraging to hear these kind of messages. Thanks for writing me. And it's exciting to hear that you're sharing this Daily Hope program with other people.

And I'm also glad to hear that you were baptized. Every Christian should be baptized. It's an important step of faith that says, I'm not ashamed of saying that I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. I'm also happy that you found a local church family. You cannot be all God wants you to be without being connected to some kind of local church family where you live out all of God's purposes for your life. Thanks for listening today, and join me next time as we continue to look into God's word for our Daily Hope.

Guest (Male): You know, I share Pastor Rick's Daily Hope all the time. And whether it's a friend or someone you meet in a restaurant, everyone needs hope and encouragement from the Bible every day. So, tell the people you know and love about Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.