Rick Warren - How to Be Certain You’re Going to Heaven—Part One

Are Heaven and Hell real places?

And what are they like? Today?

On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry of

Rick Warren, we continue his series called Eternal Realities, Heaven

and Hell. In these lessons, Rick shares what the Bible

says about heaven and Hell and how you can be

absolutely certain you'll go to Heaven. Coming up right now,

here's part one of a message called how to be

Certain You're going to Heaven.

You know, this week I was doing a little spring

cleaning and I was going through the stack of old

magazines that I found this Time magazine from nineteen ninety three,

and the cover says Los Angeles is the city of

Angels going to Hell.

Well, you know, I don't know if the city of Angels.

Is going to Hell or not, but I'm more interested

in knowing am I going to Heaven? If I were

to go over to a mall this afternoon, ask people,

you know, if you were to die tonight and and

you were to stand before God and to say God says,

why should I let you into Heaven?

What would you say?

Are you sure you're going to Heaven when you die?

Are you absolutely certain that.

You're going to heaven when you die.

You know, most people would say, well, I think, so.

I hope, so.

I guess I am. Obviously I want to go, you know,

I hope in.

Wish that I am. Well.

Friends, you know, hoping and wishing and guess it isn't

good enough.

I need to know this for sure. Only a fool.

Would go all through life totally unprepared for something you

know is inevitable. The mortality rate in the world is

now one hundred percent. I didn't know if you'd heard

that or not. Okay, we're all going to die at

some point, and the question is what's going to happen

after I die? Well, you know, today I want to

help you settle this basic issue. God doesn't Here's the

good news. God doesn't want you being in doubt. He

doesn't want you worried. He didn't want you fearful. He

doesn't want you wondering all of your life. Am I

gonna make it or not? Am I going to be

in or not?

No?

He says, you can settle it without a doubt in

your mind. You could have it absolutely confidently for sure,

know that you're going to heaven when you die. And

so today we're going to get back to the basics

and settle this issue so that nobody here when you leave,

you don't have any doubt in your mind that you're

going to heaven when you die. You know, all great

coaches begin with the basics. They never assume that people

know the basics. Coach John Wooden, the most famous basketball

coach in history, the winningest coach in basketball history, wouldn't

with such a success because he always began with the basics.

In fact, every year as he began basketball season, on

the first day of training, he would spend an entire

day training as players how to put their socks on correctly,

not another is an incorrect way to do it. Course,

I don't wear socks, but I didn't know that you.

Could put them on incorrectly. Now you know.

He said, if you take care of your feet, your

feet will take care of you. And he said, if

you put a sock on incorrectly and you're out there

screeching and scratching across the basketball court, he said, you're

going to get blisters and bunions and you know, all

kinds of bruises on your feet. He said, you need

to know how to put it on correctly. So he

never assumes that people know how to put on a

sock correctly. Vince Lombardi, the famous NFL coach he won

the first Super Bowls, was the same way every year.

He would start training by holding up a football and saying, gentlemen,

this is a football.

You know, don't ever assume nothing.

So today we're going to go back to the basics

and we're going to look at the most famous verse

in the Bible. It's one that everybody's probably heard of.

If you only got one verse in the entire bye,

well you got this one.

This is the one to know. This is the one

to kind of.

Memorize, because this is like Christianity one oh one. It's

basic summarized cliff notes on the Bible. It's John chapter

three verse Yeah, John three sixteen.

If you don't know that.

Verse, it's the verse that the weirdo guys with the

colored hair hold.

Up in the end zone.

Okay, you're seeing these guys with the sun on Monday

night football John three point sixteen. It's like, who's John

and what numbers he calling?

You know, It's like.

It is the most important or famous verse in the Bible.

I put it there at the top of your outline.

Let's read it aloud together. For God so loved the

world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever

believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Now, let me read it to you again.

God so loved the world that he gave his only

begotten son. That's that's Jesus, that whosoever believes in him

should not perish but have everlasting life. Now, there's a

couple things I want you to notice about this verse. First,

there's six words. You got a pencil, you might circle

these God only son, perish, eternal life. Circle those six words,

god only son, perish eternal life. Now, when you take

the first letters of each of those six words, what

does that spell? Gospel? Yeah, and you've heard this word gospel.

What does it mean Gospel? We talk about gospel music

or he's sharing the gospel. Gospel is just an old

English word and it means good news. That's all it means,

good news. This verse is often called the gospel. In

a single sentence, it's the best news you've ever heard,

are ever gonna hear? The second thing I want you

to notice about this is the middle word there's twenty

five letters in this twenty five words in this verse,

and the middle word, the thirteenth word is the word son.

It's talking about Jesus Son. Now, the first twelve words

are all about God. God so loved the world that

he gave is only begotten. And then Sun is in

the middle, and the last twelve words are all about

you and me. That whosoever believes in him should not

perish but have everlasting life, and that in itself is

a picture. The Bible says that God is on one

side and mankind's on the other, and Jesus Christ came

to earth to bring them together. That's what he came

to earth to do. He's the bridge over troubled waters.

He's the mediator between God and man. Jesus came to

bring God and us together. Now, what we're going to

do today is take this verse apart, phrase by phrase,

so that when we finish today, you don't have any

doubt in your mind that you know you're going to heaven.

And there are four keys. There are four phrases in

this verse. Now, if you're taking notes, you might write

this down. The first thing is you must recognize God's love.

If you want to go to heaven, the first thing

you got to do is recognize God's love, how much

he loves you. The Bible says, God so loved the world. Now,

God says, I don't want you to just recognize it intellectually.

I want you to recognize it emotionally. I want you

to feel it. The Bible tells us that God is love.

Doesn't say he has love. It says he is love.

God is love.

It is his nature, it's its character, it's what he

mads up of. And the Bible says that everything in

the universe was created simply so God could love it.

That's why it exists.

The Bible says God created all the planets just so

he can love it. God created all the animals just

so he can love them. God created all of the

trees and the plants and all of.

The vegetation so he could love it. And God created you.

So he could love you. That's why you're alive. The

only reason you're alive is God wanted you alive and

He made you to love you. You were created as

an object of God's love. And the reason your heart's

beating right now, and the reason you're taking your next

breath is because.

God wants to love you. It's the whole reason you're alive.

In fact, if God hadn't wanted to love you, you

wouldn't be alive right now now. God's love for you

is an amazing kind of love. We talk about love

all the time. You always say, you know, we throw

the word around, hey, I love you man. You know,

I love you man in that manly, macho kind of way.

And we say I love you. We don't go around

and say, oh, I so love you. If you did,

you'd get that interaction. But the Bible says God so

loved the world. That means his love is extravagant, it's lavish,

it's beyond comprehension. God loves you on your good days,

on your bad days. He loves you when it's rain,

and he loves you when it's shining him. He loves

you when you feel it. He loves you when you

don't feel it. He loves you when you do the

right thing. He loves you when you do the wrong thing.

Why Because God's love isn't based on who you are,

It's based on.

Who he is. God is love.

God's love in base on what you do your performance.

It's based on what Jesus has already done for you.

You can't make God stop loving you. You can try,

but you can't because God's love is not based on

your performance on what you do. It's based on the

fact that he chooses to love you unconditionally. Well, you

slowed on down long enough so I can say this

to you, God says, I love you. I've loved you

every moment of your life. I made you to love you.

I saw you formed in your mother's womb, and I

loved you. Then I saw you take your first breath,

and I loved you. Then I saw you take your

first step, and I loved you. Then I saw all

the good and the bad in your life, the highs

and lows, the right and the wrong. And I have

loved you no matter what, because I made you to

love you. God so loved the world. Now notice these

verses out of the Bible. In the Book of First John,

that's a book in the Bible. In chapter four it

says this God showed how much he loved us by

sending his only son into the world, that's Jesus, so

that we might have eternal life through him.

This is real love.

He sent his son as a sacrifice to take away

our sins. God didn't just say he loved you. He

showed it. A lot of people say it, they don't

do anything about it.

He showed it.

He showed it in the most expensive way. He sacrificed

his son. He proved it. And when Jesus Christ stretched

out his arms on the cross to die for us,

he was saying to you, I love you this much.

I love you so much it hurts. I love you

so much. I'd rather die than live without you. That's

what God says about you. He loves you that much.

And even if you were the only person who had

ever lived, Jesus Christ still would have come to earth

and died on the cross for you so that he

could show his love for you.

Look at the next verse.

The Bible says, this, what an incredible quality of love

the Father has shown us that we should be permitted

to be called and counted as the children of God.

You see, the reason you're alive is God wanted a family.

That's why he created the human race. God wanted children.

Human beings are different from animals. The Bible says, we're

created in God's image. That's why you have a conscience.

You know the difference between right and wrong. You can pray,

you can talk to God and never gonna see a

doggy given thanks before it eats its food. You know,

we're made differently the animals. We're made in God's image,

so we can have a relationship with God. And the

Bible says that God created the human race because he

wanted children.

God wanted a.

Family and he wants you in it. Now, that is

a mind blowing thing to me. The most amazing thing

in the world to me is that the creator of

the universe would want me, Rick Warren in his family.

And what's even more amazing to me is that he

would want you and his family.

And me.

I can understand you. I mean, nuds, I mean that

is grace. I tell you, that really is grace. God

says I created you to love you.

Now.

God wants you to know his love. Look up the

next verse out of the Bible. It says, may you

be able to feel and understand how long and how wide,

and how deep and how high God's love really is,

and to experience this love for yourself. Did you know,

God says I want you to don't not just know it.

Yeah, yeah, I know. God loves me. Not an intellectual trip. Yeah,

I know. God loves me.

He wants you to feel it, to experience it, to

understand it, to feel it in your soul. Most people

have never felt the unconditional love of God because when

you feel it, it transforms your life. You're never the

same again the day that you act actually feel totally

loved by God. After that day, you will never again

have to deal with inferiority or insecurity, or low self

esteem or the depression that comes from a feeling of

worthlessness because you realize, whoa wait a minute, The creator

of the universe made me simply to love me.

God made me to love.

Me, and that will change your life.

Now.

God says, I want you to feel all four dimensions.

It's not three dimensionals four dimensional first, it says, in fact,

you might circle the four dimensions, long and wide and

deep and high. He says, I want you to know

that first. How long is God's love long enough to

last forever? I don't know if you figured this out

or not, but human love doesn't last. That's why you've

had a lot of girlfriends or a lot of boyfriends.

That's why there's divorce in the world because human love

wears out. But God will never stop loving you. Let

me say this, you will never meet a man who

loves you.

As much as Jesus Christ.

You will never meet another woman who will love you

as much as Jesus Christ. Because God's love is long

enough to last forever. It is eternal. How long is

it long enough to last forever? How white is it?

Wide enough to be everywhere? There is no place you

can go where God's love is not now. You may

not feel his love, but it's there. You're just not

tuned in. There are times in your life when you

feel lonely, but you shouldn't be lonely because God is

never without you, or you're never without God. His love

is everywhere, And when you feel lonely, you're just not

tuned in spiritually, You're not plugged in. You're not realizing

it that He is never away from you. He is

always with you and always loving you. It's long enough

to last.

Forever, It's wide enough to be everywhere.

How deep is God's love deep enough to handle any problem?

You've got.

Deep enough to handle it. You say I'm in the pits,

I've hit bottom I'm in the pit of hell. God's

love is deeper still. I don't care what problem you're

going through. His love is deeper than that problem. A

few years ago there was a great movie it came

out called The Hiding Place, based on a true story

you may have seen. It is about in Holland when

people in Holland hid the Jews in order to keep

them from going to the Holocaust, and told the story

of this one family, the ten Boom family, a Christian

family who hid Jews in their attic to keep them

from being taken into the death camps by the Nazis.

It's true story. And one day these twins, these sisters,

Corey and Betsy, and their father and mother that they

were discovered and they had a hiding place where they

were hiding the Jews. And the stormtroopers discovered this and

they sent not only the Jews, but these Christians together

off to Auschwitz. And in that Auschwitz camp, in the

death camp, Betsy Tinboom speaks to a bunch of women

there who have lost everything they've ever owned and all

their family and their friends, and she said, there is

no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.

How high is God's love? Well, it's high enough to

overlook your mistakes. Aren't you glad for that one?

Y'all.

I don't care what you've done, or who you've done

it with, or how long you've done it or where

you did it. God says, I want you to come

back to me. I love you, I want to forgive you.

I want to give you a fresh start. A lot

of people think, you know, because all the stuff I've

done wrong, I've just got to blown it and gone

my own way, that if I came to God, he's

going to reject me.

He's going to scold me, He's going.

To tell me all the bad things I've ever done

make me feel bad. Listen, God isn't mad at you.

He's mad about you. He's not mad at you, He's

mad about you.

That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick, and

now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter

from one of our listeners.

I want to say thanks to all of you who

are supporting Daily Hope Ministry with your financial gifts and

with your prayers. I know you appreciate these notes that

I get from people around the world as much as

I do. Let me just share one with you from

a woman named Anna who is an elementary school principal,

and she just wrote this, your Pastor Rick. I became

a principal in an elementary school at the age of

twenty five. I'm now forty two.

Now. We've had Rick Warren.

Bible series and studies at our church during the summers,

and I always enjoyed them so much, and I've invited

many friends and relatives to visit our church. A couple

years ago, I began to share your devotion Daily Hope

with all of my staff members each morning. See she's

a principle, she's sharing this with her staff. She said,

I've seen their growth in God. I've seen the transformation

in their lives and characters over these past years, and

I'm amazed at the Lord's love and mercy. That doesn't

mean that we haven't struggled with issues such as death

and depression and disappointments and illness things like that. However,

we have had our eyes on God during all of

the things that have come against us, and this has

made a difference. I pray with them during our staff

meetings to give thanks. So Pastor Rick, I just want

to thank you for following God's calling. Even though you

go through struggles and life problems just like we all do.

God is with you.

May the Lord continue to bless you and your beautiful family.

May continue to bless you with wisdom and discernment so

that you're able to share your gift with all of us. Blessings, Anna, Well, Anna,

God bless you. Thanks for writing. I love getting these

letters and you actually encouraged me. And I love the

fact that as a principle, you're sharing the broadcast and

you're sharing the devotionals with your staff. This makes you

a partner in this ministry, and I thank you for

doing that. I want to encourage everybody else's listening. Find

somebody that you could share the good news with, tell

them about Daily Hope. God bless you.

Please 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.