Rick Warren - Restoring Grace Part 3

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.

You know, none of us can earn our way into heaven,

because eternal life is a free gift when you accept

Jesus as the Lord of your life. Hey, everybody, this

is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, and today Rick Warren continues

a series called Good News about Grace. You can't truly

understand the Christian life until you understand grace. It's at

the heart of your faith and your relationship with God.

And in this series you're going to discover how not

to only understand grace, but how to experience it and

the joy that it brings. So let's jump right in

for the final part of a message called Restoring Grace.

Many people do not understand the difference between fellowship and relationship.

Fellowship is your current status. Relationship is your permanent position.

Can I be out of fellowship with my wife and

still be married to her?

Well, of course I can. Can a child be.

Out of fellowship with his or her parent and yet

still be a child? Of course, when you sin, you

don't lose the relationship, you lose the fellowship. You see,

those of you who are parents, you have children, and

as much as you try to raise them in the

right way, when they get older, they're going to make

their own decisions, and I hope this doesn't happen. But

you might have a child who does the very thing

you despise the most. You might even have a child

who one day, in a fit of anger, publicly disowns

you and disavows you as a parent. And you might

even have a child who, when they get older, never

even talks to you. But nothing will ever change the

fact that they're your child. Nothing will ever change that

the fellowship is damaged, but the relationship will always be

there because they were born into your family.

And they cannot be unborn.

When you become a believer in Christ, you were born

again into God's.

Family and you cannot be unborn.

So although the fellowship with God has been broken, the

relationship is still there, and you're only one step away

from returning. What should I do when I sin as

a Christian? What should I do?

You do? One word? Are you ready for it? Here?

It is return, return, come back to Christ. It's that simple.

I blew it and I'm back. Listen to these beautiful

verses Jeremiah nineteen. God says, if you return to me,

I will restore you so you can continue to serve

me no matter what you've done. God says this in

Isaiah one eighteen. No matter how deep the stain of

your sins, I can take it out and make you

as clean as freshly fallen snow.

That ought to be the clorox verse of the Bible.

Hey that it doesn't matter, And no matter what you've done.

In Isaiah fifty four seven, he says, with great compassion,

I will take you back. You know, there's a happy

ending to the story of Peter's denial. If ever there

was a sin that you'd think was unforgivable, it's deny

Jesus three times and the night he's betrayed. But Jesus

knew Peter would deny him and even he would come

back to him. In fact, before it even happened, Jesus

said to Peter in the upper room, Satan has desired

to sift you, but I have prayed for you, and

when you have returned, strengthen the brothers. Do you get

that when you have returned he knew he would come back.

He says, I've prayed for you. Did you know that

the Bible says Jesus prays for you. It says that

he's in heaven right now, and he liveth to make

intercession for the saints. He is praying for you every day.

If you could lose your salvation, that means jesus prayers

don't work, that's impossible, because he prays for you every day.

To the Father, Jesus said, I know you're gonna follo away, Peter,

but when you come.

Back, strengthen the brothers.

Jesus knew that Peter's ministry would be more effective after

his denial than it was even before, and sure enough

it was. Peter wrote two of the books of the Bible.

It's called First and Second Peter. And then he shared

his memoirs with a relative called Mark, and that's called

the Gospel of Mark. And there are two poignant incidents

in Peter's life that happened after his denial. The Bible

tells us that in the Book of Mark, chapter sixteen,

verse seven, on Easter morning, when the three women went

to the tomb Mary Magdalene, Marry the Mother, James and Salome.

And they went there and the stone was rolled away,

and the angel sitting on an angel says, he is

not here.

He has risen.

And the angel said this, listen, catch this, go tell

his disciples, and Peter.

Cheer that, go tell his disciples and Peter.

Jesus knew that Peter was devastated by his denial. He

was humilie, he was ashamed, he was depressed. He thought

he could never face Jesus Christ again for what.

He had done.

And Jesus threw in a little special personal recognition, Go

tell his disciples.

And Peter.

It's as if he were saying, it's okay, Peter, it's okay.

All is forgiven. Come on home, all is forgiven. That

is the grace of Jesus Christ. Come on home. It's okay.

I haven't stopped loving you.

And later in John chapter twenty one, in one of

the many incidents where Jesus appeared to people after his

resurrect He's on this on the coast, on the on

the border and land of the of the the lake,

and Peter and the fishermen are out fishing, and they

see Jesus on the shore, and Peter goes on, let's

go in, and he goes I'm not waiting, and he

dives in and he swims to shore, and Jesus has

a little one on one conversation with Peter. This first

encounter really the talk personally privately, and Jesus says to Peter, Peter,

do you love me? And Jesus and Peter says, you know, Lord,

I love you, and Jesus is Peter, do you really

really love me? And Peter said a second time, Lord,

you know I I love you. And Jesus said a

third time, Peter, do you really love me? And Peter said,

you know, Lord, I love you.

I do.

What was going on there a healing Jesus was giving

Peter three times to affirm what he had denied three times.

That is the grace of God. And you may think

God's forgotten you, He hasn't. The good shepherd leaves the

ninety nine sheep to go after the one, and he

knows how you've fallen away. And if you have, and

you say, hey, you know, I don't know how it happened.

Either it was one giant step, some big, humongous sin,

or was a series of petty steps where you just

slipped away and you're not as close to Christ as

you used to be. You need to pray the prayer

that David prayed when he came back to God and

saw him fifty one, which David prayed by the way

after he had committed adultery. He said, restore to me

again the joy of your salvation. Notice, David did not

have to pray God restored to me my salvation because

he hadn't lost it. He had lost the joy. He'd

lost the joy and some of you have to so

come home to Christ today. That's Bowerheads. I'd like to

close with a time of personal evaluation, and I want

you to consider a few questions. Was there of a

time in your life when you were closer to Christ

than you are right now?

And so what happened? Have you allowed the slippach?

Why? What got in the way? A career, a relationship, bills,

a hobby, television? Has your relationship to Christ gone stale?

Are you just heartlessly glowing through the motions? Has duty

replaced the light?

Let me ask you this.

Have you stopped caring about the salvation of those people

around you? When was the last time you shared a

positive word about Christ with a seeker? Have you been

ashamed of your relationship to Christ? What is it that

you know God wants you to do? But you've been

putting off and procrastinating being baptized, joining the family here

at Saddleback Church. What is it that you used to

do but you've slacked off on reading your Bible, tithing giving.

It's just possible that that's why you've lost your joy, and.

Maybe you've committed something.

You think, I'm so ashamed and I'm so afraid to

come back to full commitment to Christ. Don't it's just

one step back and it's your pastor. I want to

pray for you, Father. I know that there are people

here this morning who have been fighting a civil war

in their minds, and they know the right thing to do,

but they've been fighting it and they've wanted to do

the convenient thing, or the popular thing, or the easy thing,

and now they've lost that spark and they're ashamed. And

there are others who are here who filled with a

deep regret for the things they've done, and they've been

afraid to return to You. Help them to experience the

freedom of restoring grace today.

Now you pray, say Jesus, you know.

I've wandered away and my heart has started growing cold,

and my level of love and commitment to you is

not like it used to be. But I want to

thank you for your unconditional love, and I thank you

that you've never stopped loving me. And I really want

to thank you that my salvation isn't based on my performance.

And Jesus, it's almost unbelievable, but I thank you for

taking all the punishment for my sin. And I thank you,

Jesus that you understand and sympathize with my human weaknesses.

And I want to thank you that you don't hold

on to grudges and that you're not angry with me.

So by grace, I ask you to take me back

today and I come home to your open, loving arms,

and I want to follow you. By grace, I come

back home today. If you've never invited Christ in your life,

you really need the grace of God. You need to

accept it today, say Jesus Christ. I don't understand it all,

but I accept what you did for me, your forgiveness,

your grace, and I want to be a part of

your family and I want to follow you too. In

your name, I pray 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'll help you on your journey with Jesus

and I'll also pray for you.

God bless you.

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