Join Pastor Rick in this inspiring episode as he explores the ‘Transformation Choice’ in the context of life’s healing journey. This session focuses on the importance of commitment and persistent prayer, drawing from Biblical stories such as Jacob’s fight for divine blessing. Listeners will learn to see beyond immediate struggles to embrace God’s plan for their lives, trusting that what begins in conflict can lead to a profound conversion. Alongside this narrative, Pastor Rick invites listeners to consider the roles of confession and new identity in their spiritual growth.
00:00:02 Introduction to Life’s Healing Choices Series
Hey everyone, it’s so great to have you with us today on Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. We are going to continue our very encouraging series today called Life’s Healing Choices. And in these lessons, Rick Warren will guide us through a deep biblical exploration of how to overcome the hurts, hang-ups, and habits that really hold us back. So get ready for some practical insights and powerful truths that can lead to lasting change and freedom in your life. I’m so excited to hear what Rick has to say in part two of a message called The Transformation Choice.
SPEAKER 02 :
Phase one, conflict with others. Phase two, struggle with God, crisis with God. Phase three is commitment. And in phase three, I finally cry uncle and I commit to God’s changes. I commit to God’s changes. And I hang on and I hold on and I don’t give up. But I say, I am going to go with God’s plan if he kills me. I’m going down. God, I’m going to go your way because I want you to help me change. I want you to bless my life. Notice the next verse. In this unusual wrestling match between God and a man, it says, Then the man, that’s God, said, Let me go, for it is dawn. They’d been wrestling all night. Instead of dancing with the stars, he’s wrestling with the God. But Jacob panted. I mean, he’s out of breath. I won’t let you go unless you bless me. This is phase three, commitment. I commit to God’s change. Okay, God, I’m serious about this change. You got to help me. I’m not going to go on in this marriage the way it’s going on. I can’t get out of it. I can’t get on with it. I’m not going to go on with this habit. I can’t get out of it. I can’t get on with it. I’m not going to go with this way in a relationship, with this career. I want your blessing in my life. And he says, God, I won’t let go until you bless me. Do you hear the passion in that? God loves passionate praying. He hates the kind of prayer. Oh, dear God. Would you kind of, sort of, please help me? If you get a spare moment, help me out. If it’s not too hard on you. No, what God loves is passion. God, I am not letting go until you help me. I have got to get help. I’m not letting go until you bless me. That’s commitment. Now, Jacob has moved to step three, the commitment choice. And we looked at that in week three. Consciously choose to commit all my life and my will to Christ’s care and control. And nothing’s going to happen in your life until you get to step three. Now, I want you to notice on the verse there before on your outline, it said, let me go for its dawn. Circle, it is dawn. They had been wrestling for hours. Now, why is that? Think about this. He’s wrestling God. God could have overpowered him, boom, just like that. Why is God letting this thing go on? You ever thought about this? Have you ever thought about, you know, God obviously has the answer to every one of your prayers. Why doesn’t he just give it to you the first time you ask for it? God, I need this. Boom, it’s there. Why does he let it go on until dawn? Why? Why is there always a delay to your prayers? Why is there always a struggle? Why does God let it go on? God could have ended it. He could have put a full Nelson on him right there and said, it’s over. But he wrestles with him. He limits himself and wrestles with Jacob until dawn. What’s he doing? He lets the struggle go on. Why doesn’t God answer your prayers immediately? Well, there’s a couple reasons. One, he wants to know if you’re really serious. There’s a difference between a desire and a whim. When you have a little preschool as you learn this, go into a grocery store, Daddy, can I have this? No. They forget it. Daddy, can I have this? No. Daddy, can I? No. But if they keep saying it over and over, it’s not a whim, it’s a desire. And God says, I don’t answer whims. If you don’t care about praying about it more than once, it’s a whim. It’s not a desire. It’s a whim. So God wants to see if you really mean business. The second reason God waits is God is not a vending machine. A vending machine will give you things that can harm you, that can kill you. Give you cigarettes. All kinds of stuff that will kill you. God is not a vending machine where you put in the prayer and you plug it. God doesn’t serve you. You serve him. God is not your genie. And prayer is not where you rub the bottle and whatever your wish is my command. You serve God, not God serve you. And if God answered every one of your prayers instantly, you would be the most self-centered person. Anybody remember the movie Bruce Almighty? When all of a sudden he was given the ability to get anything he prayed for instantly? He just gets it. And he’s ruining the world. But here’s the real reason why God lets the struggle go on. When you’re saying, God, I need help in this area. You know the mess you’re in right now? You didn’t get into it instantly. It took you years to get as screwed up as you are. You didn’t just make one bad choice. You made a lot of bad choices. A lot of them. And so God has to peel the onion one layer at a time. You don’t build a problem in your life for 20 years and then instant end it with a pill. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on the patio, somebody come up to me and say, you know, Pastor Rick, and they start sharing a problem they’ve got in their marriage or whatever. And I’m listening to them. I say, yeah, yeah, that’s tough. And they want me to give them an answer right then that will solve the problem. How long have you had this problem? Well, let’s see. We’ve been married 19 years. You want me to solve it on the patio in 30 seconds? That’s a little unrealistic. You got into the problem in a long time, and you’re not going to get out of it. And so we’re going to see how long. Now, let me give you advice in phase three, because if you’re serious about letting God change your life in the commitment phase, you’ve got to hang on. You’ve got to hold on. You don’t give up until God’s blessing you. You don’t just say, God, save my marriage, and you pray it one time, and then, well, I’m giving up. I’m getting a divorce. Many people, let me just rephrase that. Most people miss God’s best because they give up too soon. They don’t make it to dawn. They give up in the struggles and forget it. It isn’t worth it. I’m giving up on this dream. I’m giving up on this relationship. I’m giving up on this change. I will never be able to change. Don’t do it. Stay with phase three, commitment. I commit to God’s change in me. I’m not letting go until you bless me. Recovery is a process. Healing is a process. It’s not a one-time event. Growth is a process. It’s not a one-time event. And the Bible says this in the commitment stage. Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness to be used for sinning. Instead, here’s what you do. You give yourself completely to God. That’s the commitment phase. Since you have been given new life and use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. And that takes us to the next phase, phase four. Phase one, conflict with others. Phase two, crisis with God. Phase three, Commitment to change. Phase four, confession. I admit, I am the problem. Not my husband. Not me. I mean, not my friends. Not my mom. Not my dad. Not my kids. I am the problem in me. Other people have their problems, but I am my own biggest problem. And this is the breakthrough step. Phase four, confession. We talked about this last week. And in the confession phase, I admit, I openly examine and confess my faults to God. Now, this, as I said, is the breakthrough phrase. Notice how it happened in Jacob’s life. He’s wrestling with God and it says, then the man, that’s God, asked him, what is your name? Jacob, he answered. Now, what an unusual, strange request. They’re wrestling all night in the middle of the night. God obviously knows Jacob’s name. But he says, what is your name? Now we’ve dealt with this in other people’s lives like Moses and others that whenever God asks you a question, it’s never for his benefit. He already knows the answer. Like when he asked Moses, what’s in your hand? He already knew. He wanted Moses to know what’s in his hand. And so when he asked Jacob, what’s your name? God obviously already knew his name. The reason he asked this is he wanted Jacob to admit what he was. In ancient times, names were chosen on their meaning, not for how nice they sounded. So you could be named after a profession, like I’m a baker, or I’m a carpenter, or I’m a smith, or you could be named after a relative, Johnson, Jackson. You know, things like that. Or you could be named for the situation you were in. Like Jabez was named painful because he came in a painful birth. But most often parents named their kids based on their character. And it became your brand. It became your label. And when somebody told you their name, they were telling you what kind of person you were. And Jacob’s name means deceiver. And boy, did he live up to his name. His entire life, he lied out of this situation, lied in that situation, lied in that situation. And one conflict after another because he was a deceiver. He was a manipulator. And when God says, what’s your name? He’s saying, Jacob, I want you to own up to who you are. I’m broken. I’m broken. I am a manipulator. I am a liar. I am prideful. I am a gossip. I am a worrier. I am an addict. I am whatever. I can’t control my temper. And so all of his life he had lived up to his name. He deceived his dad. He deceived his father-in-law. He deceives his wife. You know, deceives his brother. By the way, I wonder if you were named after your biggest character flaw, what your name would be? Hi, my name’s Bitter. Hi, my name is It’s All About Me. My name is Gossip. Hi, my name is Angry Temper. My name is Lust. If you were named after your biggest character flaw, what would people say about it? Hey, there comes greedy. And look who’s with him, fearful. You probably better be glad that we named people for how they sound today rather than their character. But in those days, your name was your label. It was your brand. And when Jacob says, I am Jacob, He’s saying, I’m moving to step four, confession. The house cleaning step. Openly examine and confess my faults. To myself, I’ve got to be honest to me. To God, I’m honest to God. And to someone I trust, I’m honest with somebody else. It’s an act of confession. It’s a self-revelation. He’s owning up to all of this conniving ways. He says, I am a manipulator. Now, here’s the cool thing about it. When Jacob says, I am manipulator, God is not shocked. You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m fighting with a manipulator? How did I miss that? I didn’t see that one coming. God already knows everything bad about you, even the stuff you don’t know about yourself. And he still loves you. One of my favorite verses is in the book of Romans where God just says, Jacob have I loved. And I like that verse because it gives me hope. Well, if God loved Jacob, maybe he could love me. If God loved Jacob, who was so unlovable, who was such a manipulator, who was such a scoundrel, who was such a crook, who was such a liar, such a deceiver, then maybe God could love me. The point is, lasting change starts with this humbleness, this brokenness, this honesty, where I stop making excuses and I stop blaming and I stop rationalizing and I be honest to God and I be honest with myself and I be honest with one other person. That is the symptom of brokenness, where I just say, God, I admit it. I’m the problem. I am the problem. How does God respond to our brokenness? The Bible says that God is close to the brokenhearted and that he saves those who are crushed in spirit. And that’s why we get to phase five. And here’s the phase five in God’s changing you. Conversion. And in conversion, I get a new identity. As Leah is saying, God picks up the pieces and replaces the pieces with peace. I move from conflict with others to crisis with God. To commitment that I’m going to change and trust God with those changes. And then the confession that I am the problem. And God says, okay, now comes the conversion. You’re going to get a brand new identity. I love God’s response to Jacob’s brokenness and confession. The Bible says this in Genesis 32. And this is the fifth step that we’re in tonight and this weekend. Then the man said… Your name will no longer be Jacob. I’m changing it. We’re getting a conversion here. Your name will be Israel. Ever heard that one? Oh yeah. This is the guy the nation of Israel is named after. This is the guy. The scoundrel. The crook. The deceiver. He says, your name will no longer be Jacob. It’s going to be Israel. By this time, Jacob had another child then, and he had 12 sons, and they became the 12 tribes of Israel. Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, it is because I saw the face of God. I saw God face to face. Now, what happens in phase five in your life when you get to the conversion phase, the recovery stage, when you start following these Beatitudes step by step and the healing choices step by step as we’ve just seen them outlined in this man’s life? Well, first thing is Jacob gets a new identity. He says, you know, you’ve been called manipulator, schemer, cheater. Your name has been crook. But he says, you know what? Beneath all that, Jacob, I see in you a prince. And I’m going to rename you Israel. What does that mean, Israel? It means prince of God. Everybody else saw a defeated, mean-spirited, cheating, lying manipulator. And God says, you know what? I see deeper than that. I see in you a prince of God. And beneath all your sins and all your hang-ups, I see a prince. Listen very closely to me. When God does his deepest work in you, he does his deepest work in your identity. In who you are. That is the deepest work that God does in your life. He changes your identity. How you see yourself. Why? Because the way you see yourself affects everything else in your life. You act according to the way you see yourself. And for lasting change to happen, you must change your self perception. You need an identity change. God says, people say you’re that. I say you’re this. He did it all the time. He says to Peter, Peter, people think you’re impulsive. You’re a rock. Gideon, you’re a mighty man of valor. Sons of thunder, I call you beloved disciples. He changed the names of people all through scripture. He gave them new identities. Some of you were given an identity by your mom or your dad. You’re a loser. You’re a phony. You’re a fake. You’re worth zip. And on and on and on. And the world has given you labels. And they were lying. And God says, no, no, I see beneath all that a prince. I see beneath that a princess. I see what you can be. I see what I made you to be.
SPEAKER 01 :
What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There’s something I always take away from his message. Here’s Rick to tell you how you can help support this ministry.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives according to five specific purposes. He said you’ve got to love God with all your heart, That’s worship. And love your neighbor as yourself. That’s ministry. That’s called the great commandment. And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That’s evangelism. Baptize them into the family of God. That’s fellowship, a sign of fellowship. And then he said, teach them, obey everything I’ve taught you. That’s discipleship. And we call that the great commission. We believe at Daily Hope that a great commitment to the great commandment and the great commission will produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company, a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just across America, but all around the world. And we want people to know that God’s word is filled with hope and truth. And the power that we need to follow him every day is available to every single one. You know as well as I do that the Word of God changes lives. It’s alive, it’s active, and it breathes new life and new love into all of our lives. So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on the website, whether you listen on a radio station, or whether you listen through a podcast, you’re a part of the Daily Hope family. and I need your help. We could not do this without your support. Now, you know I don’t take any funds from this broadcast. We don’t have any giant million-dollar donor who’s giving big gifts to this. It comes from daily donations from listeners like you. We’re 100% listener-funded. Would you continue to pray for this broadcast, and would you continue to support us? And write to me. Let me hear from you. I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me. So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry. And God will bless it, and God will bless you, and we’ll get to heaven, and we’ll thank God for all the people going to be in heaven because you cared.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey, if you’d like to support Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope, just go to pastorrick.com. Again, that’s pastorrick.com. And really from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support.
