Rick Warren - Why Hope Is a Person, Not a Feeling

Hope is not a product. Hope is not a program.

Hope is not a pill. Hope is a person. And

there's only one person that you can put that hope in,

Jesus Christ. He is the hope of the world. Because

Jesus Christ came back to life on Easter Sunday about

twenty and seventeen years ago, it split history into AD

and BC. We know three things for certain. Number one,

you might write this down because he rose from the dead.

I know that Jesus has a great purpose for my life.

Jesus has a great purpose for my life. Now. One

of the most important things you have to know in

life is what's your purpose. If you don't ever figure

out why you're here, you're gonna waste your life. You

don't know why a lot of people confuse purpose with

other things. Purpose is not success. You can be incredibly

successful and not know your purpose. You make a whole

lot of money and not know your purpose. You me

incredibly famous and talented and very productive in your life

and still miss the purpose for which you were made.

I was talking to a guy one time and he said,

you know, Rick, my life has a great cast. I

just don't know the plot. And I said, I think

a lot of people feel that way. And another guy said,

you know, somebody said, I hope my life isn't a

joke because I don't get it. I don't get it. Now.

When it comes to knowing your purpose in life, you

really only have four choices. Only four choices. The first

way is to try to figure out your purpose in

life by speculation. What I mean of that is you

just guess at it. You could go to some university

and enroll in a philosophy course and ask all of

the great questions of life. Who am I? Why am

I here? What is my purpose? Does my life have meaning?

Is there any significance to my life? Where am I

headed in life? Why am I here? And you can

take lots of philosophy courses, but the bottom line is

you're just guessing, and your guess is as good as mine.

It's just speculation. You're never going to find your true

purpose in life by just guessing about it. It's much

more important than that. Another way is imagination, not speculation

of an imagination, which just basically says, make up your

own purpose. You don't know your purse, Just pick one anyone.

There are probably one hundred thousand self help books that

teach that. And as they said, they confuse success with purpose,

and they say, you know, you know, set your goals

and have your dream and clarify your values and know

your vision. That's all good stuff, but it's not about

your purpose. It's about success in life. And you never

need to confuse those two. Just make up a purpose.

That's imagination. And then there's the other way that people

often try to find a purpose, and I would call

it introspection. And what I mean by that is it's

look within. Hey, you hear this all the time in

Eastern philosophies. You hear it in movies, and particularly hear

it on talk shows, and they basically say, if you

want to know your purpose, trust the force. Luke. Yeah,

look look within, and if you look within long enough,

then you'll know your purpose. Now there's one problem with that.

It doesn't work. If it did, we'd all know our

purpose because you've looked inside you, and I've looked inside

of me. I looked inside of me. I just saw mess.

I didn't get any clarity at all. Now follow me

on the logic of this. You can't tell yourself what

your purpose is because you didn't create you. Because you

didn't make you, you don't know your purpose. If I

were to hold up a object of some kind of

air mechanical object, you've never seen it, I said, what

do you think the purpose of this is? Uh, we

could guess, we could speculate, we could look within you know,

we could pretend we know. But really, the only way

you wouldn't have any idea what the purpose of this

object was unless either A you talk to the inventor

who created it, or b you read the owner's manual.

And if you do those two things, then you can

find the purpose of what I was holding up. Now,

the same is true for your life. The only way

you're ever going to know your purpose in life is

talk to the creator and read the owner's manual. If

you don't do that, you're never going to know the

purpose for which you were created. You could make up

a purpose, but it's not the one you were created for. Now.

The truth is, you are not an accident. You've heard

me say this many times. There are accidental parents, accidental children,

they're illegitimate parents, but there are no illegitimate children. Your

parents may not planned you, but God did. And if

God had not wanted you to exist. You would not

be alive right now, he said, why did God give

me the parents? He gave me? God was not so

much interested in their parenting skills as he was interested

in their DNA, because God knew that they had just

the right DNA to create you. And whether your parents

were good or bad, or indifferent or maybe you even

never even knew them, he knew that they would create you.

And God was much more interested in creating you than

he was in their parenting skills. God's plan and purpose

is bigger than your parent's plan and purpose. He wanted

you alive. You are not an accident, and He has

a plan and purpose for your life. And so God says,

I want you to know this now. He said, Rick,

what does all this have to do with Easter? Well,

let me show you. Look at these verses on your outline.

The Bible says in the Two Corinthians, Chapter five, Jesus

included everyone in his death so that everyone could also

be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far

better life than people ever lived on their own. Now,

if you're taking notes, you might circle that phrase better life.

God says, I have a purpose for your life, and

it is a better life than you would ever live

on your own. Now, that's not a term we talk

about a lot better life. The term we talk about

a lot is the good life. And in California we're

supposed to be authorities on the good life. And in California,

the good life basically means looking good, feeling good, and

having the goods. If you look good and you feel

good and you have the goods, you got the good life.

There's only one problem with the good life. It's not

good enough. You were made for more than just the

good life. You were made for more than success. You

were made for more than survival. You were made for significance.

And the only way you will know your significance is

by discovering God's purpose for your life. You look good,

feel good, have the goods, but you need the better life.

And I've talked to people who had all of those

things and still felt frustrated or empty, or the nagging

feeling there's got to be more. Well, of course, there's more.

You weren't made just to get up in the morning,

go to work, come on and watch TV, go to bed,

go to party on weekend, retire and die that's not living,

that's existing. Jesus said, I came that you might have life,

and life to its fullest, the better life. Now where

do we get that purpose? We'll look at the next verse.

The Bible says, everything, absolutely, everything got started in Christ.

He's the creator of the universe and finds his purpose

its purpose in him. The only way you're going to

find your purpose is in Christ, and the way Christ

came back to life says I do have a purpose

for your life. Look at the next verse. The Bible

says this Ephesians chapter one. It is in Christ that

we find out who we are and what we are

living for. Who we are, what we're living for part

of the overall purpose He is working. God is working

out in everything and everyone. Until you get to know Christ,

you're not going to know your purpose because He is

the one who made you. He's the one who created you.

He's the one that when he rose again, split history

into AD and BC. Now you know here at saddleback,

of course, we're committed to helping everybody discover and develop

their purpose. We're a purpose driven church. I wrote a

book about it. It is a big best seller, and

I think that the reason it's sold. You know, it's

the best selling book in American history, sold thirty two

million copies in hardback and then we became the most

translated book in the world. It's in Guinness Book of Records.

Why not because I'm a good author. I'm not an author,

I'm a pastor. But because it happens to be the

number one need that people want to know about. Why

am I here? What's my purpose? Without that? Without purpose,

life is petty and pointless. And God says we find

it through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, let me

give you a second thing. Second bit, I'm only covering three.

The second benefit we get from Jesus Christ rising from

the dead is he not only says I've got a

great purpose for your life. He says I have a

great power for your problems. I have a great power

for your problems. And Easter demonstrated the power of God.

There's not much greater power than raising your yourself back

to life. It is the most powerful event in history.

And here's the cool thing about it, it's available to you.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead a

couple millennia ago, two thousand years ago is available to

you today. Let me show you some verses. This may

be a benefit you didn't know about. And if you

don't know about it, you can't depend on it. Fhesians

chapter one the Bible says, I pray that you will

begin to understand how incredibly great God's power really is,

how incredibly great God's power really is to help those

who believe him. It is the same mighty power that

raised Christ from the dead. Say wait a minute, time

out here, Rick, you're telling me that the same power

that brought Jesus back to life is available to me

in my daily life. That's exactly what I'm saying. That's

a benefit you may have not known about. The resurrection

of Jesus comes with a promise. Look at the next verse.

By his power, God's by his power, God raised the

Lord from the dead. And read this aloud on me,

he will also raise Oh, now we're talking. The only

reason you're going to be raised from the dead and

have life after death is because Jesus did it. That's

the reason. If Jesus doesn't raise you from the dead,

you're not getting raised from the dead. By his power,

God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will

also raise us so you can have resurrection power in

your life. Now, let me ask you a very personal question.

Where do you need a resurrection in your life? I'm

talking about right now. Let me phrase it another way.

What's dying in your life or is dead and you

know it and you need God's power to bring it

back to life. Where do you need a resurrection this year?

Where do you need God's resurrection power? See? The truth is,

and I'm sorry about this, but some of you are

in marriages that are dying. They're going south real fast,

or maybe they already have died and you're just still

living together. You need a resurrection in your marriage. The

key to a long marriage can I've been married forty

two years, is you have to learn how to fall

in love over and over again. You know, fall in

love just one time. You have to have resurrections in

your marriage, in your life. Some of you need a

resurrection in your marriage because it's dying. Some of you

need a resurrection in your career. And you think, Man,

I thought I'd be a whole lot further along the

line than I am right now at this stage of

the game. At this point in my life, I expect

to be further down the road, but I'm not, and

that's disappointing. And you need a resurrection in your career.

Some of you need some resurrection and your energy. You say,

you know, I'm just tired all the time. I dragged

through the day. I'm fatigued all of the time. I

don't have any energy because you're living it on your

power instead of God's power. God never intended for you

to go through life just on your power. You don't

have enough. Human power runs out, human love runs out,

which is why there's divorce. You need supernatural love and

you need supernatural power in your life to make it

to the finish line. Some of you need a resurrection

of your dream. You've had a dream in your past

about something you've always wanted to be. You're always wanted

to do, a talent, you wanted to develop, a goal

you wanted to go after, and the dreams died. And

this Eastern Resurrection Day, Jesus in the power that I

raised myself back to life with. It's available to you

if you plug into me. Some of you need a

resurrection in your health. You're not going in the right direction.

Some of you need a resurrection in your motivation. You know,

I just you know, I'm just I'm motivated anymore. I'm

just kind of putting in the time and waiting for

the payday, checking the clock. I'm not going to motivate.

Nothing motivates to me anymore. You need a resurrection of motivation.

Some of you have had a split in a friendship

with a dear friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, or just

a good friend, and there's been a rift, there's been

a break, a tear, conflict. You need a resurrection in

your friendship. So I'm just saying that in so many

different areas. Some of you have had your heart broken recently,

and as your pastor, I'm sorry, I really am, and

I pray for people in our family that have a

broken heart, and you need to have your heart repaired,

and you need a resurrection in that area of your life.

You see, this is the difference between human beings and God.

God is God and we're not. Human beings can resuscitate.

Only God can resurrect. If you know CPR, you know

how to resuscitate somebody their heart stops, you can resuscitate

them with CPR. If you're a paramedic, you've probably resuscitated

hundreds of people with mouth and mouth or CPR, whatever

you needed to do. Resuscitation happens when they've been dead

for a minute or two or three minutes. But when

you've been been dead for three days and buried in

the ground, you don't need resuscitation. You need resurrection. And

God says, I want to have that kind of power,

not resuscitation power, but resurrection power. In the areas youth

like of your life that are dying are already dead.

They're already dead. And God has not only a purpose

for your life because of the Cross and the resurrection,

but God has a power for your life which is

bigger than the problem you're going through out right now.

Let me show you a couple verses First Corinthians, chapter one.

Paul gives a testimony of how God helps us when

we think it is hopeless. You see, some of you

are on the edge of giving up right now, and

if we could put an X ray to your mind,

it would show you're pretty desperate. I'm glad you came

because God wanted you here a thousand years before you

were born. He knew you would be here at saddleback

on this day so he could say this to you,

don't don't give up you. Maybe you feel like giving

up on your dream, or giving up on your marriage,

or giving up on your health. Maybe you even feel

like giving up on your life. Don't. God brought you

here today so he could say this to you. You're

ready for it. Here's what he wants to say to you.

Don't give up. Look up, don't give up. Look up.

The answer is not to quit. The answer is to

get connected, find God's purpose, and get God's power in

your life, and you'll have a new resurrection in your

life now. Paul says it like this. He tells his

own story of when he was ready to kick the bucket.

This is probably the greatest Christian who ever lived, next

to Jesus Christ. And Paul says, there were times when

I was so depressed, I was readistered, throw in the

towel and he says this in Second Corinthians, we were

really crushed, and he says, we were overwhelmed, and we

feared we would never live through it. Ever felt like

that he crushed, overwhelmed, filled with fear. He says, we

didn't think we'd live through it. We saw how powerless

we were to help ourselves and you just go, Okay,

this is not working. I do not have the power

to get done what I need to get done in

my life. I just don't have it. I got an

energy shortage, I got energy crisis. I don't have the

power to do what I need to do. And then

Paul says, we realized we were powerless to help ourselves.

But that was good. Huh, How in the world could

you feel in crushed, overwhelmed, fearful and powerless to help yourself.

How in the world is that good? He says, Because

then we put everything into the hands of God, who

alone could save us. For he can even raise the dead.

That's what we're talking about at Easter. He can even

raise the dead, said and God did help us, and

he saved us, and we expect him to do it

again and again and again. If God can raise a

dead Jesus, he can raise a dead marriage. If God

can raise the dead Jesus, he can raise a dead friendship.

He can raise a dead career. He can raise a

dead dream. He can raise a part of your life

that's just dying on the vine. That's the kind of

God we serve. That is a benefit that was paid

for you by Jesus Christ. But you can go all

through life totally unplugged. If you are unplugged from God's power,

you will never know God's purpose. A toaster that is

never plugged in is worthless. It has no intrinsic value

unless it's plugged into the power. It cannot fulfill its

purpose unless it's plugged in the power. A vacuum cleaner

cannot fulfill its purpose as a vacuum cleaner unless it's

plugged into the power. A microwave cannot fulfill its purpose

as a microwave unless it's plugged into the power. You

cannot fulfill your purpose in life unless you're plugged into

the power, the power of the Resurrection. And he says,

you know, we got the point. We were ready to

just cash it all in and we were powerless. But

that was good because then we put it all in

the hands of God. And God goes, well, thank God,

you finally did it. I've been waiting for you to

get to the end of your rope so I could

take over. How about you let me have a try

and empowering and guiding your life now, Just be honest,

are you sick and tired of being sick? And tired.

Here's what the Bible says Isaiah forty. God gives power

to those who are tired and worn out, and he

offers strength to the weak. He said, Wait a minute,

I'm tired, I'm worn out, I'm weak. I don't feel

any power. Well, let me explain how you get that power.

You get it through faith. You get it through trust.

You get it through believing in the Son of God,

who died on the cross for you and rose again

to give you that power. You can complain to God

all you want. God is not moved by your complaints.

You can whine all you want. God is not moved

by your whining. You can gripe all you want. God

is not moved by griping. But the moment you put

trust in him, Bam, God moves according to your faith.

It will be done unto you. God honors faith, not griping,

not whining, not all these other things. He says, I'll

give you that power. He said, But Rick, you just

don't know what I'm facing right now. Yeah, you're right,

you're right. I don't. I don't know what you're facing,

but I do know Luke eighteen twenty seven, which says

this what is impossible with men is possible with God.

What looks like a dead end, what looks like a

death is prime time for a resurrection and a miracle.

What looks like you're never going to overcome, God can

overcome like that. And God can do more in five

seconds in your life than you can do in five years,

but you've got to trust him. A number of years ago,

I was in China. You know, we've been doing the

Peace plan in China for years and years now, and

one time I was in Beijing. Actually, they were doing

a state dinner in my honor in People's Hall in

Tieneman Square, and the government officials were there, and I

was very honored to be honored by the government in China.

And while I was there, the professors over at Peking

University heard that I was there, and they said, let's

invite Rick Warren and his team over to talk with us.

Peiking University is the only university in Beijing's still called Peiking.

It's the Harvard of China. Fifty thousand students. Every communist

leader in China is trained at the Harvard at China

Peking University. So we went and we had a wonderful

time with these professors, had a good discussion with him,

was very friendly. One of the men that I met

there was with a man named Professor Joe. Professor Joe

was an older man. He'd been a professor there for

fifty years and now was the provost of Peking University

highest level. When we finished our little discussion, I said, hey,

let's just go out to dinner. You find the best

Chinese food. I mean, what expect tacos. You know it's Beijing.

You find the best Chinese food and I'm paying, So

you pick your favorite place. So we go and we

sit down. We're having this wonderful dinner with some of

these Chinese officials, and all of a sudden, Professor Joe

opens up and he says, I'm dying. I have a

brain tumor and it's inoperable and I'm terminal. And he

was scared to death. This is a man facing an

impossible problem. He's at the end of his rope. We

don't know what to do. We see no way out

of this. He had no hope in Jesus Christ. He

had no hope in God's grace. He had no hope

even in an after life. The way it looked to him,

is I've got an incurable problem. There's no power to

help me, and when I die, that's it. It's over.

He was hopeless, and as he began to share that

with me, I looked at him and said, you know,

Professor Joe, my father's dying, because at that time, my

dad was dying of cancer. Same time, I said, but

you know, my dad's lived the full life. But more

important than that, he knows God. He's been a friend

of God's for many, many years. He knows Jesus Christ.

And my dad is not afraid to die. He's made

his peace with God, and he's not afraid to God

to die, and he knows where he's going when he

he dies. He has hope. And I explained to him

that that kind of hope that you get and the

kind of power that you get to go through those

kind of situations only comes from a relationship with God.

You don't earn it, you don't work for it, you

don't buy it, you don't deserve it. God's power in

your life is simply a gift of his grace. Because

God is good, and God loves you, and he made you,

and God's gift to you is free gift if you're

just a friend of his son's. And to explain this

to him a little bit better, I told him a

story of a friend of mine, this true story. I said,

I have a friend dad who he took his son

to the carnival for his son's birthday, and he allowed

his son to choose three friends that they would party with.

And this was going to be his birthday party. So

he bought a large roll of tickets, and at every

one of the carnival rides, he would give his son

a free ticket, and he would give his three guests,

his three friends a ticket. They'd ride that ride, they

go to next ride, everybody gets ticket, they ride that

next ride. Everby gets ticket. And this friend of mine said,

you know, Rick, on about the seventh ride. I looked

down and as I was handing out tickets, I saw

a fourth little hand. And I've never seen this kid

at all. I've done this little kid, who are you?

Little boy said, I'm your son's new friend. And your

son promised that if I was his friend, that his daddy,

his father, would give me a free ticket. He said, Rick,

you think I gave that kid a ticket? He said

he was with us the rest of the afternoon. And

I looked at Professor Joe, and I said, Professor Joe,

your heavenly father has a ticket for you to Heaven.

You can't earn it, you can't buy it, certainly never

deserve it. You'll never be good enough on your own

to get to heaven because heaven's perfect and you're not,

and neither am I. The only way you get this

ticket to heaven salvation is by being a friend of

the father's son. His name is Jesus Christ. And I

looked up and this gentleman about in his eighties had

tears coming down both sides of his cheek. And he

looked up and he said to me in the simple

I'll never forget this moment. I still get goosebumps from it.

He looked at me and said in simple English, Rick,

I would like one of those tickets. Now. I've been

in China many, many times, and Chinese people are among

the most polite people in the world. They are amazingly polite.

I didn't know if he meant it, he was just

kind of being nice to me. I never ever pressure

anybody to make the most important decision in their life.

You take the time you need to make it, because

if you take the time and you're intellectually honest, you'll

make the right decision. And I said, well, you know what,

why don't we do this, Why don't we just set

it aside for a second. Let's finish our meals, and

at the end of this meal, if you still want

to open your life to Jesus Christ, it would be

my honor to lead you in a simple prayer to

invite Christ. You know, the provost of the Harvard of China. Well,

we get to the end of the meal, we've talked

about a bunch of other stuff, and he brings it

up again. He said, Rick, I would like one of

those tickets. So there, with a table of Chinese officials,

we held hands together and I led him in a

simple prayer to open his life to receive all that

Jesus Christ did for him by dying on the cross

and rising again. It's a prayer similar to the one

I'm going to invite you to pray with me in

just a second. And when he finished praying that prayer,

he looked up and tears were coming down his cheeks again,

but this time he's smiling. Don't get I didn't know

if he meant it or not. I don't ever judge

anybody's motive. It's between them and God. But I gave

him a Bible and some spiritual material to grow. And

we've got a packet like this called fresh Start with God.

I'll give to you you want to start your journey.

And I gave him some material just get him started.

And as we left, I thought, I'll never see that

guy again. The next morning, I was preaching in the

most famous church in China, chong Winmen Church, very famous church,

about the size of the number of people here right now.

And as I stood up to speak, who should walk

in at the back door but the provost of the

Harvard of China, Professor Joe. He walked to the front,

to the front row, turned around, said I am publicly

proclaiming my faith in Christ. And the crowd went crazy

because they knew who he was. Fifty years of Communist indoctrination,

which the official policy is atheism. There is no God,

so official policy of Communism is none of that filled

the hole in his heart when the heat was on,

when he was facing his own mortality, and the folks,

the fact is the mortality rate in the world is

still one hundred percent. Everybody's going to die. Only fool

would go through life unprepared for what you know is inevitable.

That's called denial. But he gave his life to Christ,

and what was impossible became possible by the way, his

cancer witted to remission for about ten more years, and

he began to basically be a missionary to other professors.

And I wrote him many many letters over over the

next ten years. But here's the promise, and I want

you to have the same promise, the promise of purpose

and the promise of power. First Peter chapter one, tewod

Peter chapter one. As you get to know Jesus better,

he will give you, through his great power, everything you

need for living a truly good life. Now he said, well, Rick,

I don't have everything I need. Well, then you just

need to get to know Jesus better. As you get

to know Jesus better, he's the source of your purpose

and he's the source of your power. Now let me

quick give you the third one. The third thing that

I know for certain, not only does that God have

a great purpose for your life, and God has a

great power to solve your problems. But here's the third one.

God has a great place for me after I die.

We learn that from the resurrection of Jesus. We learn

that there is more to life than here. And now

we learn that death is not the end. One day

your heart is gonna stop. That's gonna be the end

of your body. But that's not gonna be the end

of you. Oh no, no, no, you were made to

last forever. And God says, I have proven that there's

life after death. I'm raising my own son. I think

Jesus knows more about the afterlife than you do or

I do, because he's been there. And this gives us hope.

Death is not the end. And in John chapter eleven,

here's what Jesus said, I am the one who raises

the dead and gives them life again. If you're gonna

come back to life after your death, it's gonna be

Jesus who does it. Nobody else gonna do it. It's

gonna be Jesus. He says, I am the one who

raises the dead and gives them life. How do I

know that he's telling you? Because he did it, nobody

else did. It's one of the most attested to miracle

in history. Jesus spent forty days in Jerusalem. After he

didn't just say by to your friends, go back to heaven.

After he raised himself. He walked around eight meals, talk

to people one time, train five hundred people, many many

white eyewitness accounts over forty days. And he says, I

am the one. Anyone who believes in me, even though

he dies, shall live again, and he gives he is

given eternal life for believing in me, and shall never perish.

How do you get eternal life? Not by doing good,

not by going to church, not by promising me perfect,

not by giving a whole lot of money to help

the poor. What he says one thing. You believe that

Jesus can raise you back from the dead too. You

trust him as your savior. He is the source of hope.

Now let me just summarize this. You're never going to

find ultimate hope in anything you can lose. If you

want to have a hope that gets you through the

toughest times of life, you must put your hope and

put your trust in something that cannot be taken from you.

If you put your hope in your bank account, you

can lose your bank account. If you put your hope

in your spouse, You can lose your spouse. If you

put your hope in your health, you can lose your health,

you can lose your mind. You must never put your

hope in something that you could lose. If you put

your hope in your good looks, you've already lost them,

So that that shifts sailed. Friend, I'm sorry. If you

put your hope in your job, it's gonna let you down.

If you put your hope in another person, they will

disappoint you. Why because they're not God. You know, when

I used to do marriage counseling, I discovered that one

of the biggest problems for marriage problems is we expect

our spouses to meet needs in our life, but only

God could meet Nobody could possibly meet all your emotional, physical,

spiritual needs. And you can't meet anybody else's total physical, spiritual,

emotional needs. Only God can do that. And if you

expect your spouse to meet all your needs, you're treating

them like God. It's not only unfair to them, it's

going to be frustrating and disappointed to you because it's

not going to happen. You have to put your hope

in something or someone that can never be taken away

from you. And there's only one thing because you can

lose everything else in life, and that is your relationship

to God, your relationship to God. What I'm saying this

Easter is that hope is not a principle. Hope is

not a product. Hope is not a program. Hope is

not a pill. I'll get this pilled and I'll have

all the hope I need. Hope is a person, and

there's only one person that you can put that hope in,

Jesus Christ. He is the hope of the world. That's

why it's split into AD and BC. That's why your

birthday is dated according to this event. You need to

get to know Jesus. And since Jesus raised himself from

the dead, we know that there's life after death. Here's

what we have. Look at the next verse one Peter one.

Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ

rose from the dead, so we know death not the end.

For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children.

That's you who've trusted in him. It is kept in

heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change.

In the clay the kay and God in his mighty

power will protect you until you receive this salvation because

you are trusting him. What does that verse say, Well,

let me summarize it all on this. Once you've trusted

God for salvation, it is not your job to keep

yourself saved. It's the Savior's job to keep you safe.

It says he will protect you. He will make sure

you get to heaven. He will guard what you've given

to him. When my kids were little, Kay and I

took him on vacation of the Grand Canyon, and my

two youngest, the boys, Josh and Matthew, immediately jumped out

of the car ran right up to the edge like this,

that ain't gonna happen. So I went out and I

grabbed their hands and they grabbed mine. They were fine.

They put their hand in my hands. We started walking

down the path and they started squirming and started trying

to say, you know, I don't want to hold on

to Daddy anymore, and they didn't want to hold onto

my hand. But I was not gonna let go of

theirs because I am a loving father. When you come

to Jesus and you go God, I'm giving him my

whole life, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's

not clean up your life and then come to Jesus,

like God, here's my greasy hands, my dirty hands, my

filthy hands. God, just all the mess in my life.

I put my hand in your hand, and God grabs

your hand. You put your hand in the hand of

the man who's still the water, and he grabs your hand.

And then as life goes on, there are going to

be some moments that you don't want to hold onto

God's hand. God. I'm going to a party tonight with

a bunch of unbelievers. I'd like to not be a

believer for about an hour, okay, and I like to pull.

And you may want to let go of God's hand,

but He's not letting go of yours. Once you have

been saved, he will keep you safe. That's the hope.

You have. A lot of people think I don't give

my life to God because what happens if I start

on it and then I kind of mess out and

screw up and fail, and now I'll feel really stupid

and then I lose my salvation. No, you won't. That's

not what the Bible says. It is safe, secure, it's

paid for, it's done, it's beyond the reach of change.

In the kay, God and his mighty power will keep

you saved. It's not your power. He does a saving.

He didn't. He saves you, He keeps you saved. You

don't save yourself. So what am I saying that the

Bible tells is because of the Resurrection, we have hope

because there's more to the story than just here and now.

And we have hope because God protects your salvation and

keeps it and you can't lose it. And that causes

you to face the most difficult times in life with

the whole new confidence. As a pastor, I have stood

at I couldn't count the number of grave sites that

I've stood at in forty years. I couldn't count the

number of funerals that I've done. And so I'm a

pretty good expert at knowing that differs between people who

have hope and people who don't, because you can see

it in their eyes. I have been at the funerals

of people when nobody in the family knows God, nobody

in the family has the hope of the resurrection. Nobody

in the family knows the hope of heaven and for them,

they're losing this person. They're never going to see him again,

and it's over. That's it. It's over. And the terror

in their eyes is something you don't want to see.

I've seen it over and over and over. And I

compare that to people who know the Lord, that when

they lose a loved one who knows the Lord, they grieve,

but they're not grieving for them because they know where

they're going. They're grieving for themselves because they're going to

miss them. And it's a whole different kind of grief.

It's a grieving with hope. You know. The older I get,

and the more of my family that's in heaven, and

the more of my friends that are in heaven, some great,

great saints who've been in this church for over thirty years,

they're going on, the more of my friends and family

on the other side, the more Heaven becomes attractive to me.

I have to be honest with you. When I was

a young man, heaven didn't seem very attractive to me

in the first place. No picture of it on earth

is correct. I mean, the picture of heaven on earth

right now that you hear there's heaven it's all white.

There's no color in heaven. There's fog up to your feet.

You walk around, everybody's in a white robe with wings

playing a harp. That would be hell. If that's heaven. No,

thanks God. I just soon have my sunrise, a sunsets

and a cool surf. That's not heaven. You can't even

understand what heaven's going to be like. It's so cool.

Even in a world that's broken, filled with suffering, sorrow, sadness, sickness,

it's still a pretty cool place. We're enjoying it right

now outside. Most of you know that four years ago,

the week after Easter, our family lost to youngest member,

my youngest son, Matthew, after a lifelong battle the mental illness,

died and it was the worst day of my life,

and his brother and sister's life, and his mom's life,

and everybody else in our family who loved him. Many

times over the last four years, I've been asked, how

did you handle that? How did you handle the death

of a son who struggled his entire life with mental illness.

I want you to listen very carefully, because you're going

to have loss in your life. I guarantee it there

is no life without loss, There is no loss without pain,

there is no pain without grief. You're going to go

through this in life. So somebody who loves you is

your pastor, as your spiritual coach. That's my job to

help you get ready for this kind of stuff. And

listen carefully. The way you live with hope in the

middle of pain is to enlarge your perspective, to change

your viewpoint, to get your eyes off of what's happening

right here and now, shift your perspective, change your focus,

and begin to live in light of eternity. As I said,

your life on earth short. You get maybe one hundred years.

That's not very long compared to the trillions of years

you'll spend in eternity. And so you get your eyes

off the here and now and you get it on eternity,

and you see the hope that's there. Here's what the

Bible says, look on the screen. So we don't focus

on the troubles we see right now. Instead we look

forward to what we don't see yet. For the troubles

that we see now are temporary, but the joys that

will come to last it will last, will last forever.

I mean even if you had a chronic problem your

entire life, it's only one hundred years or eighty or

seventy nothing compared to thousands, tens of thousands, millions, and

trillions of years in eternity. And the truth is what

comforts me when I think about the death of my

son is not thinking about the happy moments in his past,

but thinking about the holy moments he's having right now.

That comforts me because my hope is built on nothing

less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, And because I know

where he is and if he was able to talk

to me, and he can't, but if he was, he say, Dad,

what are you worried about? This place is so cool,

it's so great. It's far better than any of the

sermons you preached about it. And I can't wait for

you to get here. That is my hope. We live

in a society today, friends, that is filled with hopelessness.

We are an epidemic of hopliness hopelessness. I think it's

one of the reasons why, you know, Purpose Driven Life

was such a big seller, because there was no People

are lacking hope and they're looking for hope and they

want to know where it is. And where is it?

It's in God's word. It is in God's word. Look

at this next verse, people, I don't know about heaven.

No eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard,

no mind has ever imagined the wonderful things that God

has prepared for those who love him. He has a

purpose for your life right now. He has a power

to help you solve the problems tomorrow, and He has

a for you after you die. The reason why you

can't explain heaven is because your brain power isn't big

enough to handle it. It would be like an aunt

trying to understand the Internet. We live in a three

D world, but there are dimensions that we don't even

know about. And if God built this world and it's

all broken now from sin, how much cooler is Heaven

going to be? Say? How do I get this? How

do I get a new purpose in my life? God's purpose?

How do I get a greater power in my life?

And how do I get a greater place which becomes

my ultimate hope that even when I'm going through tough

now I'm going this is not the end of the story.

I have read the last chapter of the book. We win.

It doesn't always look good. But I've read the last chapter.

We win. Sometimes you're going through a tough time in

your life, and really what you're feeling is the world

is coming to an end. And that's the way you feel.

The world is coming to an end. No, a season

may be coming to an end, a moment in your

life may be coming to end, but it's not the

end of the world. Why because when the world ends,

Jesus is coming back. And that's our hope, that's bow

our heads. Because of the resurrection, we know for certain

that God has a great purpose for your life, has

a greater power for your problems, and has a wonderful

place for you after you die. How do you get

these benefits? If you confess with your mouth that Jesus

is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised

Him from the dead, you will be saved. That's what

the Bible says. So I want the honor and the

privilege of leading you in a very simple prayer, much

like Professor Joe in Beijing. It doesn't matter what your

background is. You may be Buddhist or Muslim, or Mormon,

or Methodist or Baptist or Buddhist or Atheist or Catholic,

or doesn't matter what background you are. Jesus isn't interested

in your religion. He's interested in you having a relationship

with God and you just confess it to God. So

why don't you pray these prayers? So I'll just say

a little prayer and you it doesn't even matter the

word you say. It's that you be humble. If you're

humble for God and say God, I need you, that's it.

So just say, Dear God, say that in your mind.

Dear God, I do not want to go through life

not knowing my purpose. Thank you that my life is

not an accident. Thank you that you planned me, whether

my parents did or not, and that You've loved me

every moment of my life. And so today, as much

as I know how, I want to open my life

to Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for me

and rose again so that I could have hope. Jesus Christ.

I want to know God's purpose for my life, and

I want to spend the rest of my life learning

it and fulfilling it. In Jesus Christ, I want to

put my trust in your power. I want to plug

in starting today. I'm want to stop living on my

own power. And start living by your power. I know

that you are greater than any problem I face. In

Jesus Christ, I ask you to reserve a place for

me in your heaven and your home. I want to

learn to love you and to know you, to follow you.

Thank you for loving me before I knew you. Thank

you for dying for me before I even was created,

but you knew I would be And so I humbly

ask you to accept me into your family. Then I

may experience all the benefits of what you did two

thousand years ago. And I pray this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen,