Rick Warren - Easter Means It's a New Day of Mercy—Part Three

Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher of the Daily

Hope Broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter, your

past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living,

and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news.

Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else?

And did you know that at Easter, studies have shown

people are more open to an invitation to go to

church than at any other time of the year. Don't

go to church by yourself, but bring somebody who doesn't

know Jesus Christ, a family member, a friend, a coworker,

a neighbor, a relative. And if you bring them to

that church service and they come to know Christ, You're

going to be making a friend for eternity. It'll be

the most important investment you can ever make in their lives.

And by the way, if they come to Christ, would

you let me know about it. I'd love to hear

that story that you brought somebody to Easter and they

found Jesus. You can write to me Rick at Pastorrick

dot com. That's rickat Pastorrick dot com. I would love

to hear from you. God bless you and Happy Easter.

Hello and thanks for joining us. Today on Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope.

This is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren, and

today we are continuing in a series called the.

Miracle of Mercy.

Rick will show us how God's mercy can lift your guilt,

heal your wounds, and transform the way you live. And

here's the final part of a message called Easter Means

It's a new day of mercy.

We know that on earth, not everybody gets healed, not

every prayer gets answered. That's on my list of questions

to ask Jesus when I get to heaven. I don't

know that. Sometimes what I've prayed for people, they got better.

And I've prayed for some people and they died.

I don't know.

I don't know why. All I do know is this.

This is Earth, not Heaven. In heaven, everything is perfect

on earth. Nothing is perfect in heaven. There's no sadness, sorrow, sickness,

sin suffering.

On earth.

We got all of that. And that's why we're to

pray that I will be done on earth as it

is in heaven. Because in Heaven God's will is always done,

and on earth it's almost never done. Somebody goes if

I go out here and I got drunk and I

had an accident and killed somebody.

And people say that must.

Be God's will. That's not God's will, that's my will.

I made a stupid choice. I mean, people all the

times say, how why doesn't God just get rid of

all the evil in the world? Fine, kill us, who

do you think does evil? It'd be very easy for

God to get rid of all the evil in the world,

take away our freedom of choice. Because the fact is

a lot of times I'm selfish a lot of times,

I'm mean a lot of times, I'm only thinking to me.

A lot of times I couldn't care less about you,

and you do the same thing too, and we hurt

each other intentionally and unintentionally. And God can easily get

rid of all the evil in the world by taking

away our freedom to choice and making us all puppets.

But he wants us to choose to love him, a

voluntary choice, not be a puppet. And so I know

that we live with imperfection. I know that many godly

people live with chronic pain, live with chronic pain. But

I do know this, and I want you to write

this down. And I've seen it in hundreds of thousands

of cases. I do know this that when I ask

for God's help, God's mercy makes the impossible possible. He

can do things that I cannot do. He has power

I don't have. He has resources I have never even

thought of, and he makes the impossible seem possible. He

makes it possible. What's the impossible problem.

In your life? You know, man, that one's never going

to happen.

I've been waiting by the pool for thirty eight years

and still don't have a husband double meaning in pool

right there. Well, hey, you know hadn't happened by now,

it ain't gonna happen. Anytime you use the word impossible,

listen for laughter from heaven, because it's not in God's book.

The Bible says this, Luke eighteen, what is impossible with men?

This is Jesus talking. What is impossible with men is

possible with God. Now that problem you think is impossible

in your life, sometimes God doesn't remove it, but he

gives you supernatural power to handle it. Some problems in

life you're going to have the rest of your life.

They're just not gonna go away, and you're just gonna

have to learn to manage them. But God will give

you the power to make the impossible possible and you'll

be able to handle it. Well, why didn't God just

take away all of our problems? Because God's more interested

in your character than he is in your comfort. The

comfort comes in heaven. But right now you're in school

and wants you to grow up. And some things you

only learn through tough times, like persistence, determination, diligence, patience,

things like that if you always got your way, you'd

never learned patience. God wants to grow character in your life.

But what's impossible with men is possible with God. Now,

I want to be clear. As a pastor, I love you,

I care about you. My job as a pastor's like

to be your spiritual coach, help you make smart decisions,

help you think through the decisions of your life.

And I want to be clear with you.

Some of you you haven't yet stepped across the line

and opened your life, committed your life to Christ.

You're thinking about it.

That's okay, you know, take the time to make the

smart decision.

But I will tell you this. If you open your.

Life to Jesus Christ, you give your life to God.

So God, I want to go with your plan from

now on instead of my plan, you're not going to

have a problem free life. And anybody who tells you

that is lying to you. A follower of Jesus has

the exact same problems as a non believer, the exact

same problem.

The difference is.

We have a power that comes from God to handle

it in ways that we can never handle on our own.

And you don't get that power until you accept.

The mercy of God in your life. So I have

the same problem.

I just have a power and an energy that allows

me to handle stuff in far greater ways, and that's

what He wants to do in your life.

But God does promise you this. Look at this next verse.

It's from the book of Second Peter, and here's a

promise from God to you.

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 circle

everything you need. Notice it says if you trust Jesus

Christ with your life, he will give you everything you

need for a good life. It doesn't say everything you greed,

It doesn't say everything you want.

I mean, you might want to go play it, Bentley.

God's not gonna give that to you, you're gonna have

to buy that one on your own. But he says,

I will give you everything you need for living a

truly good life.

And that is a promise of God.

And when I don't have what I need, when I

give myself for the mercy of God, he makes the

impossible possible. Now, let's look at a third way real quick.

And this is a problem that all of us have,

and it is the problem of fear. Everybody has secret fears.

You have secret fears, and you know anybody else to

know about them. Now, my fears are perfectly reasonable, logical

and rational.

Your fears are dumb. That's always what we feel.

And we always try to talk our spouse out of

their fears because we don't have them. But our fears

are perfectly normal, make a lot of sense. And you

ought to be fearful about this too. Now, there is

one fear that is universal among everybody, men and women,

in all ages, and it is the fear of death.

And so write this third thing down. I need God's

mercy when facing death. Now, only a fool would go

all the way through life unprepared for what you.

Know is inevitable. Death is universal.

Last time I checked, the mortality rate in the world

is still one hundred percent. We're all going to die

at some point. Death is inevitable, death is unpredictable. You

don't know what's going to happen, and without faith, it's fearful.

I'm not afraid to die, and I haven't been afraid

of dying for decades.

But if you.

Don't know God, and you don't have made peace with God,

and you don't have the mercy of God your own,

you're going to be fearful about death. You probably don't

even like to talk about it. In Luke, chapter twenty three,

we have the story of a dying man, and it's

actually the story of a thief dying on the cross.

Besides you, Jesus, you remember that when Jesus was nailed

to across, they nailed them between two criminals.

We don't know anything about.

Their lives, except that they were evident that lifelong criminals

had committed the capital offence and were given the death penalty.

So Jesus is dying between two criminals. One of these

criminals turns to Jesus and ridicules him and puts him

down and blasphems him and the other guy turns to

Jesus and asked for mercy.

Here's the story.

One of the criminals being executed on the cross besides Jesus,

ridiculed him, saying, if you're supposed to be the Messiah,

you know, the savior of the world, why don't you

save yourself and by the way, us two. Now, by

the way, Jesus is not going to save himself because

he didn't come to Earth to save himself. He came

to save us, and so he's not going to save himself.

He's going to hang there and pay and died for

my sins and for your sins. He didn't come to

save himself. Certainly, Jesus could have taken himself off the cross.

He created the universe, he could have done that. But

he's it was not nails that held him to cross.

It was love, love for you. And he said, if

you're supposing the Messiah, save yourself and us too. But

the second criminal, this is a guy on the other side,

rebuked the first guy and said, man, don't you even

fear God when you're dying. We deserve to die for

our evil deeds. But this man hadn't done anything wrong. Now,

he says buddy, don't you realize the series of your situation.

You are about to go face to face with God

in a matter of seconds. You're in your dying minutes,

and you're gonna Blasphema. You're gonna put down Jesus Christ. Buddy,

do you not realize what's about to happen? The reason

why a lot of people disc God, make fun of God,

reject God, or just live their life ignoring God is

because in their heart of hearts, they think death is

the end. That's it, it's over it, there's nothing to it,

and that's it. But they're wrong. There is life after death.

You say, how do you know that? Because Jesus proved it?

He said, Rick, how do you know? Why do you

believe in life after that? Because I'm betting my life

that Jesus Christ wasn't a liar? What are you betting

your life on? Well, I just think it just ends.

Oh you're just betting your life on a supposition. That's

a pretty big gamble, buddy, to be wrong for all

of eternity, to think it just ends at death and

then realize, uh, it was, it didn't end. Oh, can

I have a mulligan? Can we do a do over

here a little late now, Bud. Sorry, one day you're

going to stand face to face before God and you're

going to give an account of your life. You can

run from God the rest of your life, but you

can't run from him anymore. You can ignore him all

your life, but one day you're going to see him

face to face.

Death is the start of eternity.

You're not gonna spend more time on that side of

death than you do on this line. You get sixty years,

eighty years, maybe at the most one hundred years.

That's not very much.

On this side of eternity, you're gonna spend trillions and

trillions and trillions of years in eternity. Now, this guy

says we deserve to die for what we've done. There's

a word for that. It's called confession. You know, he's

not saying, hey, you got the wrong guy here, you're killed.

You know you're killing the wrong guy. I'm innocent. He's

saying he's saying we deserve to die. But he says,

this man between us, this Jesus Christ, he has never

done anything wrong. Now, I looked up that word anything.

It means we dace in Greek, not nothing zero's zip,

no way, never, ever, nothing. Have you ever met anybody

in your life that you could say that about She's

never done anything wrong in her life. No, you can't

say that, But your mom or dad, or your brother's

sister you can't say about yourself. Why Because there's only

one perfect person in the universe.

It's God.

He's the only perfect one, Which is why you need

Jesus Christ to get to heaven, because you need a

perfect savior to get into a perfect place. Heaven is perfect,

and I'm not. There's no way I can get to

Heaven on my own effort. I'm never going to be perfect.

And if God let him perfect people into a perfect heaven,

it wouldn't be perfect anymore. So somehow I got to

get in on somebody's perfect ticket. That's why Jesus came

to earth to be the savior. And so this guy turns,

this criminal turns to Jesus. He's dying on the cross

in his last few seconds, and in verse forty two,

then he said to Jesus, Jesus, remember me when you

come into your kingdom. That's all he says. And Jesus replied,

I guarantee you that today you will be with me

in paradise. Hello, friend, that's last minute mercy. That's getting

in by the skin of your teeth, in the last

few seconds of your life. He simply says, Jesus, remember me.

Two words mimnisako and Greek.

Remember me.

Now, what's implied in these words? I can't save myself.

I've made a mess of my life. I've wasted a

lot of time. It's getting pretty late. I'm not going

to blame anybody else. I can't say I'm better than

so and so because I'm not perfect. A lot of

things I've messed up in He's hanging there on the

cross with no hope, and he throws himself on the

mercy of God and he.

Says, Lord, remember me, remember me. That's it. That's all

he's going to say.

That's the shortest salvation prayer in history.

Two words remember me. Now.

Now, let me tell you something, you guys, there are

some churches you can go to and they're going to

tell you that you have to have a certain script

and say certain words and recite certain things in order

to get into heaven.

And they've got their.

Theological terms, and you've got to pray a certain prayer

a certain way. This guy just goes, Lord, remember me,

and Jesus goes.

That's good enough. See in heaven.

That's called mercy because it's not about what you say.

It's about humility.

There's only one thing that will keep you out of

heaven your pride. Your pride, Your pride will keep you

out of heaven. Your will unwillingness to accept the mercy

of God, because that's the only way you're going.

To get there.

You're never going to get there by being good enough.

It's only by the mercy of If you could get

to heaven without Jesus dying for you, God wasted a

lot of energy.

There was no other way.

There was no other way, and so he believes he's God.

He says, remember me, when you come to your kingdom.

He said this.

This guy's he's not a poser. This guy is not

a fake. This guy is not an impostor. He's the

real deal.

This is God.

This is the Son of God dying here between us.

That's interesting to me. Everybody in Jerusalem by this time

knows Jesus can do miracles.

He's been doing them for years, raising.

People from dead, healing the sick, blind, and here's the

guy on the cross. He doesn't ask Jesus to take

away his pain, which he could have. He doesn't ask

Jesus to keep him from dying, which you could have.

He just says, remember me when you get new your king.

He realized his greatest need was forgiveness for his sins,

not relief of his pain. Now I know some of

you here this goes. This is a great idea. You

can do it the last second. That's what I'm gonna do. Okay,

I'm gonna go out and live for myself, make a

ton of money, be a selfish and self centered and

sow my wild oats, and in the last second of

my life, I'm gonna go remember me. That's a really

dumb idea. I mean, in the first place, what if

you get Alzheimer's for ten years.

And you can't remember anything?

Okay, a little too late then buddy or or you

go out and you know, you get hit by a

semi mac truck on the train, and you go, oh,

I was gonna say it next Thursday, But really, it

doesn't even It's not even rational. When the God who

created you and loves you and has a plan for

your life offers you mercy. Now, why would you say,

I think next week? What's the logic in that one.

There's only one thing that's that's called pride. It's arrogance,

it's ego, and that's the thing that will keep you

out of heaven rejecting the mercy of God. What happens

when I accept God's mercy? When I say, God, I

admit it, I've messed up and I've missed out on

a lot of stuff. Well, God's mercy will save me

for eternity. You might write that down when I come

to God humbly and said God, I need your mercy.

God's mercy will save me for eternity. This is what

Jesus promised. Jesus replied, I guarantee you that today you're

going to be with me in paradise. He said, it's immediate.

Today you go straight to heaven. If you accepted the

mercy of God, he said, you will, it's certain be

with me. It's a relationship in paradise. It's a place forever.

Here's the good news. Let me wrap it up. You're

made by God to last forever, and he wants you

in his forever family. But you have to ask, look

at this verse. This is what Easter is all about.

This is why we're celebrating it. Jesus said, I am

the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even

though he dies, will live again. I'm betting my life

that Jesus Christ is not a liar. What are you

betting your life on?

Now?

If Jesus had not risen from the dead, I would

have no reason, no valid logical reason to believe that

I would be raising from the dead one day, that

there would be life after death. But because he did it,

if he raised himself, then I believe he can raise me.

What's the condition? What's the condition for receiving the mercy

of God?

You just ask? Look at the next verse, Acts two.

Anyone who asks for mercy from the Lord shall have

it and shall be saved. You want to be saved,

You ask for the mercy from the Lord. Now circle

the word anyone. Doesn't matter what your background is, what

your racist what your ethnic group is, doesn't matter what

you've done, who you've done it with, or.

How long you've done it.

Doesn't matter what your religious background is. You may be

Baptist or Buddhist, or Methodist or Mormon or Muslim, or

Hindu or Jewish or atheist or agnostic, or no religion

background at all.

It really doesn't matter, he says.

Anybody who asked for mercy from the Lord shall have

it and shall be saved. Do you realize, Do you

realize that for your entire life, God has been preparing

you for this very moment, this moment, right now. Before

you were born, he knew that on Easter you'd be

sitting in Saddleback Church, just long enough that he could

say this to you. I have loved you all your life.

I made you, I have a plan for your life.

I created you, and I want to show you mercy

and kindness, even the places where you've missed out and

you've messed up. And I've been waiting waiting to do

this in your life. God's message to you this Easter

is the last verse on your outline. The Lord is

waiting to show you some of you who's been waiting

a long time. The Lord is waiting to show you

how he is and to have mercy on you. The

Lord always does what's right, and he blesses those who

trust him. So I want us to close with a

prayer to receive God's mercy.

And if you have never.

Ever done this, I highly recommend you pray this prayer.

Let's power heads. Now.

It really doesn't matter what the words you say are.

As I said, it's more a matter of humility. But

as I say this word, you can just say me

to God, I agree with what Rick's saying, and make

this your prayer. You might just start off by saying

Dear God, and just say, Dear God, I need your mercy.

Just say it in your mind. I need your mercy.

I've messed up, I've missed out, and I know that

one day I'm going to die and face you.

And I admit that for much of my life I've

ignored you.

I have loved other things more than I have loved

you God, and I've lived my life by my plan,

not yours. I want that to change starting now. Jesus Christ,

thank you for being so merciful. I know that I

don't deserve your forgiveness. I don't understand it all, but

thank you for dying on the cross for me.

I know that only your mercy could save me.

I could never be good enough to get into a

perfect place like heaven. So just like that, thief on

the Cross, I humbly say to you, remember me, Remember me.

I ask you to save me. Save me, not just

from Hell, but save me from hell on earth. Save

me from the hurts and the habits and the hang

ups that mess up my life. Save me from the

mistakes and the sins and the attitudes that just keep

causing me to stumble over and over. In the same way,

I thank you for your mercy, and I humbly ask

you to accept me into your family. And I do

this because of what Jesus Christ did for me on

the Cross and at Eastern.

Amen.

You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the

very first time, or you just recommitted your life to

Jesus again today, would you let me know about it.

There's something real about sharing your commitment. So write me

Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick, I

prayed that prayer of commitment, I gave my life to Christ.

And I'll send you some material that will help you

on your journey with Jesus, and I'll also pray for you.

God bless you.

What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. You know, daily

hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick with

a letter from one of our listeners.

I want to thank all of you who've taken the

time to write me and to share your story. I

absolutely love these stories. Your letters and your notes really

encourage me. Here's a note from a listener that I

just want to share with you. It said, Pastor Rick,

I want to thank you for your ministry of the

Daily Hope podcast. They've been especially helpful as my wife

and I are working through a painful time in our

marriage and healing our relationship. It's a blessing to be

challenged to love the Jesus kind of love and to

build up trust once again where it's been broken. You know,

as I work through a very busy time of year,

I stream your podcasts and find myself praying and nodding

all day long. Now I hope you're nodding in agreement,

not nodding off in sleep. Your preaching speaks directly to

my heart, and I'm praying for the courage to rebuild

the trust and love to love her the way that

God built me to love her. Thanks again for your

work and the transformative change it brings out. I truly

don't know where I'd be without Daily Hope Podcast, Sincerely Nathan.

Thanks for writing, Nathan. I want you to know that

I'm going to be praying specifically for you and for

your wife and for your marriage. It means a lot

to me to know that these broadcasts are helping you

through a difficult time.

Thanks so much, Rick, And if you'd like to let

Rick know how much this broadcast has meant to you,

how it's blessed you, please send him an email at

Rick at pastorick dot com. That's Rick at pastor rick

dot com. Rick looks so forward to reading those emails.

Be sure to join us next time as we look

into God's word for our daily hope. This program is

sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries and your generous financial support