The Transformation Choice – Part 1

SPEAKER 01 : 0:02

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. Hey, let’s join Rick right now as he shares part one of a message called The Transformation Choice.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:40

Now, we’ve been in this series for five weeks where we’re looking at life’s healing choices, which are the eight Beatitudes. And they’re actually in order, in the order of finding freedom. And I’ve been hearing about all the kinds of things going on in our 45, 4,600 small groups that we now have here at Saddleback. And today we’re going to look at the fifth beatitude, which is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness sake. And there’s two kinds of hungers that people have. There’s a spiritual hunger and there’s a physical hunger. But we’re going to look tonight and this weekend at the physical, excuse me, the spiritual hunger that we have to have in our hearts in order for God to change us. Now before we actually look at that verse, which I’m going to actually end the message with, I want to take you through the story of Jacob. Because the story of Jacob actually illustrates all of the first five steps we’ve just been through. One, two, three, four, and the one we’re going to look at this weekend. These steps, these healing choices of life are not just something we made up. They’re all through scripture. They’re not just in the Beatitudes, but you can actually find them as the road to healing, the road to growth, the road to wholeness, the road to recovery, the path to becoming all God wants you to be. And we’re going to look at them today in the life of the life of Jacob. So if you have a Bible, you can turn to Genesis chapter 31 and 32. And we’re going to look at the five phases that God uses to change us, which parallel to the five steps we’re looking at. And this is really kind of a review of where we’ve been so far. Now if you’re taking notes, if God’s going to change you, make the changes in your life that you want to see and that God wants to see in your life. Here’s the first phase. The first phase is conflict. You go, oh, thanks a lot. It always starts with a struggle with other people. Did you know that God uses your struggles with other people to get your attention on him? If you’re going through any kind of relational conflict right now, it is because God is trying to get your attention. If you’re experiencing any kind of relational conflict in your life right now, congratulations. Because you were experiencing stage one in God trying to get your attention to change you for the better. And when God wants to change you, it always starts with conflict. Now let me give a little background on the text we’re going to look at today. Jacob’s entire life can be summed up in one word, conflict. This guy came out of the womb fighting with his twin brother Esau. In fact, he was holding on. He was second born. The twin brothers were born. Esau was born first. And when Esau came out of the womb, Jacob was holding on to his ankle. And they named him supplanter or Jacob, deceiver, cheater, which means you’re hanging on. You’re trying to get out first and it’s not your role to get out first. And from that point on, Jacob and Esau fought together. In an unusual way. In fact, Jacob cheated his brother out of his inheritance. And so Jacob and his brother were estranged from each other their entire lives. And as you study the life of Jacob, Jacob is always running from conflict. Conflict with his brother, conflict with his wife, conflict with his father-in-law, conflict with his brothers-in-law, conflict with God. He’s having conflict everywhere. And God is trying to get his attention. Now, where we pick up the story here in Genesis 31 and 32, Jacob is between a rock and a hard place. Because what’s happened is he’s got two conflicts going on. First, he’s got a conflict going on with his father-in-law. His father-in-law was named Laban. And Laban actually cheated Jacob and cheated him. And Jacob ended up serving his father-in-law 14 years to marry his wife. And he actually married two daughters, Leah and Rachel. And there was bad blood between Laban and Jacob. So he’s fighting with this guy. And then he’s also fighting with his brother, who’s never forgiven him for stealing his inheritance. Now let’s look at what the scripture says. There on your outline, the Bible says in Genesis 30, 1, 1, and 2, Jacob heard that Laban’s sons, that’s his brother-in-laws, were saying… Jacob has taken everything our father owned and he’s gained all the wealth. See, they’re jealous. All the wealth from what belonged to our father has got a conflict with his brother-in-laws. And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been. So he’s figuring out this isn’t working out real good. So he decides he’s going to take all his family, and he’s got 11 sons by now. He’s got two wives who are both Laban’s daughters. He’s become very rich. He’s got a lot of crops, a lot of flocks, sheep, goats, things like this. And he goes, we’re splitting. So he gets his whole family and his entire group, and he says, we’re quietly leaving. Now, you can’t quietly leave when you’ve got 11 kids. Two wives and a bunch of sheep and goats. And he takes off. And when Laban, the father-in-law, hears about it, he gets ticked. Why? You’re taking the grandkids. Some of you understand what I’m talking about here. You’re taking the grandkids. You aren’t doing that. And so Laban starts after Jacob to get him back. Now that’s part of the battle. On the other hand, Jacob goes, well, I don’t have any place to go except go back home. But I’ve been estranged from my brother my entire life. So I tell you what I’ll do. I’m going to send some gifts on ahead to my brother named Esau. And I’m going to say, hey, Esau, your old brother is coming home. And maybe if I send him enough gifts, he’ll just forget about the fact that I stole his inheritance. And so he sends the gifts on ahead to Esau, and the messengers come back to Jacob, and Jacob goes, how’d it go? They said, well, not so good. He took the gifts, but he’s coming after you with an army of 400 men. Look at the next verse. The messengers returned to Jacob and said, we went to your brother Esau and now he’s coming to meet you with an army of 400 men. Jacob was terrified at the news. You might want to circle the word terrified because the chickens have come home to roost here. Jacob his entire life has run from conflict in his family. And now he can’t run anymore. His father-in-law is coming after him one way and his brother is coming after him another way. And he’s reaping a lifetime of choices and it’s out of his hands now. This is stage one, conflict. And notice the next verse in your outline. Here’s what Jacob prays. He’s at the end of his rope, he’s caught between a rock and a hard place, and he prays this. Dear Jacob says, Oh God. In fact, I don’t think he said it like that. I think he said, Oh God. Oh Lord, I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you’ve shown me. Save me, I pray, for I am afraid. He’s scared to death of the conflict. Now what’s happened here is he is forced into the very first choice we looked at. We call this the reality choice. And we looked at it in the first week, which is realize I’m not God. I admit that I’m powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong things. And my life is unmanageable. And this is where Jacob is in the first phase. Until you get to this phase in your life, nothing’s going to change. Until you realize… This conflict that I’m in right now, I am powerless to change it. It isn’t going to get any better. In fact, it’s probably going to get worse. And I’m in a mess. And when you come to God, like Jacob says, and says, God, Lord, I don’t deserve this. I’m a cheat. Yeah, no doubt. And I’ve run from conflict all my life. But God, I got to have your help because I’m going under for the last time. And that’s called the reality choice. We call that the reality choice because the first beatitude that we looked at was Matthew 5.3. God blesses those who realize their need for him. That’s the starting point. Nothing happens in your life until you get out of denial and you realize, I cannot solve this on my own. I cannot solve the conflict on my own. I cannot make it right. I can’t make this marriage right. I can’t make this friendship right. I can’t make this estranged relationship right. I can’t make it right with my kids or my parents or my brother or the boss or whoever. It is a mess. And God, I need your help. That’s the conflict stage. And so… You know, Jacob goes, I’m going to stop denying. I’m going to stop running. I’m going to admit I have a need. God blesses those who realize their need for him. Now, here’s what Jacob does. He goes, I got 400 people coming after me this way and I got a family behind me mad at me because I took the grandkids. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to separate my party into two parts. And half of my family will go with this group and half of my family will go with this group. And I’ll send them across the river because if my brother comes and attacks us, he might kill half of my family. But the other half will live. And he might kill half of my flocks, but the other half will live. So it’s kind of a divide and conquer. And you can go home and read this whole story in Genesis 31 and 32. But he divides them all up into two groups, and he sends them over the brook Jabbok. It’s called Jabbok, a river. And he sends them over, but he stays on this side by himself to spend the night. Now we’re going to come to the next phase that happens in growth. And this is stage two in life’s healing choices. And he stays behind, and he spends the night alone. And that night, while Jacob is alone, knowing that his father-in-law and the brother-in-laws are coming after him on one hand, and his brother and 400 enemies are coming after him on this hand, and he’s to send his family on ahead, and he’s all alone in this camp by the Brook Jabbok, and he gets in a fight that night. He gets in a wrestling fight. It’s an unusual wrestling match because it’s actually a wrestling match with God. This is really WWF wrestling. And phase two, if you want to write this down, the second phase in growth, you move from conflict to crisis. And in crisis, a crisis is I struggle with God. Now I’m not just in a conflict with other people. Now I’m in a wrestling match with God. Now, if any of you relate to these phases, congratulations, you’re moving forward. He says, I struggled with God. And let me read it to you. Genesis 32. Here’s what it says. Jacob got them, that’s his family, got them safely across the brook Jabbok. along with all of his possessions but jacob stayed behind and he’s left alone in the camp and a man comes or came and wrestled with him until dawn now this is a long wrestling match he’s wrestling all night you ever wrestled with god all night he couldn’t sleep your mind just going a mile a minute he wrestled with a man all night until dawn when the man saw that he couldn’t win the match, he struck Jacob’s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket. Now we’re going to come back and talk about the significance because there’s an important lesson in that. But by the way, in the Hebrew, you know, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. This is actually a pun in Hebrew. The word Jacob in Hebrew is the word Yebok. That’s the word Jacob. The word for wrestling in Hebrew is Yebek. And the place that they’re at is the Jabbok River, which is called Yabok. So what we’ve got here is Yebok, Yebek God at Yabok. And no yabba-dabba-doo there, okay? Okay? Now, what’s going on here? His biggest conflict is not really with his brothers. His biggest conflict is not really with his father-in-law or his wife or anybody else. His biggest struggle is really with God, which, by the way, is yours too. And he’d been running all his life, and so God says, okay, buddy, you’re caught between a rock and a hard place. We’re going to have it out. We’re going to wrestle right here. So God shows up in human form and has a wrestling match with Jacob. God doesn’t mind having a wrestling match with you. When you wrestle with God, it doesn’t bother God at all. Why? Because wrestling is a contact sport. It means you’re up close. And God would rather have you up close wrestling with him. God, I don’t like this in my life. Than have you distant and apathetic. He’d rather have you going, God, I don’t like the situation I’m going through right now. I am ticked off, God. I’m mad. Let’s have it out. Let’s wrestle. God says, fine. Let’s do it. Bring it on. Come on. How much of a man, how much of a woman are you? And God doesn’t mind wrestling with you because it’s a contact sport. It’s personal. It’s up close. And much rather have you up close and angry than far away and apathetic. Now, you say, well, Rick, how do we know this man that Jacob wrestled with was really actually God? How do we know it wasn’t just some vagrant, some hobo who showed up and he wrestled with him? Well, I’ll tell you why we know it. Because the Bible tells us. Look at the next verse. The Bible tells us in the book of Hosea, chapter 12, before Jacob was born, he struggled with his brother. And when he became a man, he even fought with God. Now let me just make a little parallel here. You know the problems you’re having in your life right now? The crisis, the conflict, the difficulty you’re going through? It ain’t the real problem. That problem you’re having with your kids, with your husband, with your wife, with your friends, with your finances, with your health, that’s the symptom. Your real struggle is with God. That’s really it. It’s who’s going to be God in your life. And does God have a right to tell you what to do? And does God have a right to call the shots in your life? And all your life, your war, your battle has caused struggle and strife in your life. And that causes stress. And your biggest problem is not your dad. or your mom, or your brother or sister, or your wife, or anybody else, your real struggle is your wrestling with God. And that’s why you have to move from phase one, conflict with others, to crisis, struggle with God, and you gotta realize and admit it. Now, what is my struggle with God? And what is your struggle with God? Well, your biggest struggle is this. When things don’t act the way you want them to, and they don’t go as fast as you want them to, you take matters into your own hands. And you don’t wait. And you don’t trust God. And you don’t pray. And you don’t sit back. And you don’t think God will provide for your need. And you get in a hurry. And you get out there into a struggle. I’ve got to get married. I’ve got to get married. I wonder how many people have had to get married and married the wrong person. I’ve got to get a job. I’ve got to make more money. And they take the wrong job. I’ve got to. And we get in a hurry and we take matters into our own hands. That’s what Jacob had done all of his life. God had said, I’m going to bless Jacob. But he didn’t believe it. So what’s he do? He cheats his brother out of his blessing. God said, I’ll take care of you. I’m afraid my father-in-law is going to deceitfully scam me, so I’m going to leave him. And on and on. I want you to think right now, think of the problem that you’re facing right now. And regardless of whatever that problem is in your life, it boils down to two things. Will I trust God to take care of this situation? Will I obey God to do the right thing even if it doesn’t make sense? Will I trust him and will I obey him? And if I don’t, there’s a word for that, I’m struggling with God. I don’t really think God will take care of me. I got to take this into my own hands and I’m not going to wait and I’m not going to trust and I’m not going to believe. You see the root of all your conflicts in life is you want to be in charge. You want to be God. You want to call the shots. You want to run it. You want to make your life your way. And the root of all your problems is you want to be in control. So God says, okay, come on, let’s have it out. Let’s go to the mat. Let’s wrestle. You and me, one-on-one, mano a mano. Come on, let’s have it out. Let’s see who’s really in charge here. I love the analogy of wrestling because the whole purpose of wrestling… And I actually wrestled when I was in high school. The whole purpose of wrestling is to pin the guy. To pin him down on the mat. And then they say, uncle. And how do you know when you’ve won? I give up. God is waiting for you to say that. And he’ll wrestle with you as long as it takes. And this is the second step. The second choice where we have to give up. Now notice there on the outline, it says, he came and wrestled with him until dawn and the man saw that he couldn’t win the match. Circle the phrase, he couldn’t win the match. Now I know this is kind of obvious, but if you wrestle with God, you’re not going to win. Okay, you’re already, the fight is fixed. You’re not going to win. And if you ever get in a no-win situation, God’s behind it. He said, let’s see who’s really in charge here. You think you’re the master of your fate? Let’s just see how brilliant, how smart, how arrogant you think you are. Who do you think is behind that? God is. You see, God loves you just the way you are. 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 take you to the mat. And he’s going to wrestle with you. And he’s going to move you from conflict, struggle with others, to crisis, struggle with God. And the fact is we rarely change until our pain is exceeded or exceeds the fear of change. What keeps you from changing is you’re afraid of what will happen if you do change, if you give everything to God. What will happen if I become some nutcase, some fanatic, some religious kook? Will I walk around wearing polyester and have a beehive hairdo and say, baby? You know, if I really am totally sold out to God, will I become a kook, a religious nutcase? And God says, no, I love you, but I love you not to leave you that way. And I’m going to wrestle with you. And, you know, when the pain exceeds your fear, you’re finally going to give up. And that prepares you for the second step. And we looked at this in week two. And week two is the hope choice. There it is in your outline. Earnestly believe that God exists and that I matter to him and that he has the power to help me.

SPEAKER 01 : 22:49

Hey everyone, thanks for listening to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. We’re so glad you’re here. I really hope that you were as touched and blessed by this broadcast as I was. And now here’s Rick to tell you about today’s offer.

SPEAKER 02 : 23:02

We’ve all made poor choices in life and we’ve all been infected by the poor choices we’ve made and others have made. It means every one of us has developed unhealthy patterns in our lives, and as a result, we all get hurt, we all have habits, and we all have hang-ups that mess up our lives, and we need to deal with these. You know, it’s easy to assume that you’ll never be able to change or heal from the past patterns in our lives, but Jesus offers us the hope that we need to change. He offers us hope for a second chance and hope to renew our lives. That’s why I created Life’s Healing Choices Study Kit. You can use it either by yourself or even better, get a couple friends and study it together in a small group. This study kit is based on the Beatitudes, where Jesus teaches you how to make choices every day that will help you build a healthy foundation for real change in your life.

SPEAKER 01 : 23:56

Now this video and workbook Bible study shows you how to make each choice, guiding you on God’s pathway to wholeness, spiritual growth, happiness, and healing. Now today, when you give a gift to support Daily Hope’s mission of sharing the good news of Jesus worldwide, you can simply request this life-changing Bible study. It comes with a workbook and access to the teaching videos. It’s available through streaming or DVD. And it’s our way of saying thank you so much for partnering with us in this ministry. Just go to PastorRick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That’s PastorRick.com or you can just text the word HOPE to 70309. Again, that’s the word HOPE to 70309. Be sure to join us next time. as we look into God’s Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support.