Rick Warren - Liberating Grace—Part Two

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. Let's go to the final

part of a message called Liberating Grace.

Romans eight thirty one says this, If God is for us,

who can be against us? Now? Notice that God is

not just with us. The Bible says God is for us,

daies and gentlemen. That is the essence of the doctrine

of grace. Grace can be summed up in four words.

God is for us. God's on your side. God is

not sitting up there in the heavens looking down on you,

saying what can I punish next in their life? If

you have received God's grace and you've become in part

of God's family, then God is for you. Now if

you're thumbing your nose to God and he's saying, God,

I'm gonna be my own God. I'm going to work

my way into heaven. I don't need you. Well, of

course God is not for you. But when you come

in sincerity and honesty and humility and go God, I

admit it. I'm imperfect. I don't stand a chance of

getting into a perfect heaven except through you. Please show

me your grace. God is for us. Now. Again, that's

a hard thing to accept for some people because you

were trained, you were customized, you were pro to think

of conditional love, and all your life you just felt

like you could never measure up. The l and relax

stands for let God handle things. Let God handle things

in my life. Now. That's very important because at the

root of perfectionism is a desire to control. You See,

you think that if you can just control things, then

they'll be perfect. And so if I can just control

my spouse, we'll have a perfect marriage. If I control

my kids, they'll never get in trouble and always be safe.

If I can control my career, my path will be assured.

If I can control any other the people around me,

then the world will be a better place. But as

we've talked about many times, most of your life is

out of your control and you can't control it. You see,

that's attempt to play God. God is God and you aren't.

And God can do a whole lot better job than

you can. So what do you do when you can't

control the uncontrollable things in life? First Peter five seven,

It says, cast all your anxiety on him, because he

cares for you. Now circle the word cast. Those of

you who are fishermen know what it means to cast.

When you cast a line, or if you're a fly

fisherman and you're casting repeatedly, you're holding onto the line

or you're holding onto the rodden reel, and there comes

a point in the cast where you have to take

your finger off the button of the line and you

have to let it go. If you don't, there's no casting.

The essence of casting is letting go. And to overcome perfectionism,

you have to let go. You have to let go

and let God do his thing. Now, if you want

to live a long time, you need to memorize Proverbs

fourteen thirty. Look at the next verse, read it with me.

A relaxed attitude lengthens a man's life. Now I've already

had you write down I don't have to be perfect

for God to love me. I want you to write

this down too. Things don't have to be perfect for

me to be happy. Things don't have to be perfect

for me to be happy. Things don't have to be

perfect for me to enjoy them. There is no such

thing as a perfect vacation. If you're waiting for one,

you're never gonna enjoy one. There is no such thing

as a perfect marriage. You married a sinner and she

married a bigger one, so there's no perfect marriage because

you got imperfect people. Who thinks you can put two

imperfect people together and have a perfect relationship. There are

no such thing as perfect kids. There is no such

thing as a perfect body. There is no perfect church.

There is no perfect job. The Bible says nothing is

perfect except God's word. And if you're waiting for that

perfect environment for you to enjoy life, it's not going

to happen. You must learn to enjoy life in the

middle of imperfection, in less than perfect circumstances. Have you

learned to do that to love the moment in the

midst everything does not have to be perfect for you

to enjoy the moment. If you're walking down the beach,

you can still enjoy the moment, even if you can

hear the cars going by and you still have bills

to pay. Learning to enjoy the moment in spite of

the imperfections of life, Paul said it like this, I've

learned to be content in whatever situation I am, he said,

I've learned to be content no matter what state I'm in.

I notice, he says, I've learned. You see, I, by nature,

am not a contented person. I, by nature am discontented,

and so are you. It is not human nature to

be content. It's something you have to learn. And of course,

we live in a society called it's filled with consumerism

and an entire industry called the ad industry, which is

designed to create discontent in your life. So you'll buy

their product and you see things on TV and you think,

how in the world did I live without that? My

life is incomplete until I get that product, use that service,

have that experience, look like that model, et cetera. You

have to learn to be content. It's learned we know

Paul was a Southerner, the apostle Paul, because he says,

I thank God for you all. The A in relax

stands for act in faith, not fear. Act in faith

not fear. Now, remember how you got into God's family

in the first place. In Ephesians two eight, it says,

read it with me, for it is by grace. You

have been saved through faith. Now listen, that's the only

way you're gonna ever get saved by grace. If you

don't get saved by grace, you're not saved. There's no

other way to get into Heaven except by grace. You'll

never be good enough, you'll never be perfect enough, you'll

never earn enough. You can't buy you into it. If

you don't go in by grace, you're not going in.

But it's a free gift of God. It's by grace

through faith. I put my faith in God's grace. That's

how you get into the Christian life. Now listen, this

is very important. The way you got into the Christian

life is the way you continue the Christian life. The

way you became saved is the way you continue to

be saved. The way you became a believer is the

way you continue as a believer by grace through faith.

Notice the next verse. So, then just as you received

Christ Jesus the Lord as Lord, continue to live in

him the same way. You're not saved by grace and

then live by works. A lot of people think that,

you see, they think, well, I'm saved by God's free gift,

and now I have to really work hard as a

Christian to keep God's approval in my life. No, you don't.

How were you saved by promising to be perfect? No?

How do you live the Christian life by promising to

be perfect? No? How were you How did you come

into the Christian life by keeping the Ten Commandments and

promising to obey every rule? No? How do you live

the Christian life by keeping the ten Commandments and promising? No,

it's by grace through faith. Now, listen, you need to

understand that literally everything in your life is a gift

from God. Everything in your life, your own life. You

wouldn't be alive if it weren't for the grace of God.

The air you breathe is a gift of grace. The

mind that you have is a gift of grace. Your

ability to hear and see right now is a gift

of God's grace. You wouldn't have it. You certainly didn't

earn it. Everything that God does in your life he

does for one reason grace, grace. God teaches you by grace.

God forgives you by grace. God guides you by grace,

not because you deserve it. God uses you by grace.

God gives you gifts and talents by grace. God blesses

your life by grace. God gives you friends and family

and freedom by grace. Absolutely nothing in your life did

you earn. He said, Wait a minute, I earned my salary,

I earned my income, I earn my Where do you

think you got the ability to make that money? The

ability came from God. And if He hadn't given you

the ability in the hands, in the brain, you wouldn't

even do that. Everything in your life you owe to God.

It's all all all by grace. Now, understanding this truth

is one thing. It doesn't guarantee that you'll live by it.

Because if you were a perfectionist before you became a believer, then,

as I said, after you become a believer, the tendency

is to take all those perfectionistic tendencies and put them

on God and make God the unpleasable parent. And he's

the one who always nags at you, rather than your

conscience or culture or something else. Some of you have

been living in the prison of perfection perfectionism for a

long long time. But today you're going to get clemency.

Today is your day of pardon. Today is the day

you're gonna be set free. The jail door is going

to be unlocked, and you're going to be told from

God's word you can walk out a free person that

you don't have to live under. Are in the prison

of perfectionism anymore, because grace is available. But the only

way you'll be able to walk out that prison door

is to have faith, not fear, to trust in God's grace.

Have you been living in a prison of perfectionism, a

self imposed prison? Have you been robbed of your joy

and your freedom? Or you can walk out today. One

of the symptoms of perfectionism is constant fatigue because you're

always trying to control everything, and it's tiring trying to

be the general manager of the universe, holding all those

strings together, to keep all the balls in the air. Well,

one day you realize it's not up to me. I

can relax, I can let go, and I don't have

to try to make things perfect in order to prove

my worth. Now you can live in a self imposed

prison of perfectionism, or you can take step five and

find liberation and freedom today. Exchange my perfectionism. Exchange my

perfectionism for God's peace. You see, perfectionism destroys peace. You're

gonna live with one or the other, perfectionism or peace.

Now here's the offer. This is an offer that Jesus

Christ makes and it's still valid today. It's an offerer

you really can't afford to refuse. Matthew eleven, Jesus says,

are you tired, worn out, burnt out on religion? Come

to me, Get away with me, and you'll recover your life.

That's real recovery. Recover your life, and I will show

you how to take a real rest. Learn the unforced

rhythms of grace. I love that message paraphrase. Learn the

unforced rhythms of grace. What a deal. Now listen, let

me wrap it up with this. God is perfect, and

because God is perfect, he expects his children to be perfect.

Here that yes, God is perfect and he expects his

children to be perfect. Jesus even said it, Jesus said,

be he perfect even as I am perfect. But he

also knows there's no chance you're gonna be perfect. He

knows that's impossible, and so he came up with grace.

And that's why God sent Jesus, because Jesus was perfect,

and we get in on his perfection. You can either

try all you want to, or you can just accept

the perfection of Christ and say, let me in on

his ticket. Now, as you read the Bible, you read

God's perfect standard of perfection, and you read many things,

and then you go, there's no way I could measure

up to that. There's no way I can keep all

those principles, follow all those rules. There's no way I

could be the kind of person that God says a

perfect person is. But you don't have to worry, because

He's already taken care of that, and by grace, he

has been the perfection for you. So I invite you

to receive God's offer today through Christ. Christian living is

based on grace not guilt. You see, you're going to

fail a lot in life. You're going to fail many

responsibilities that you've been given. You're going to fail to

live up to the expectations that other people place on you.

You're gonna let them down. Huh. Shoot, you're going to

fail your own expectations. And of course you're going to

fail measuring up to God's standard of perfection. The Bible says,

all of sin and fallen short. But you don't have

to worry about that if you receive God's grace. In fact,

there's only one failure you ever need to worry about.

It's the failure of Hebrews twelve fifteen the last verse.

Be careful that no one fails to receive God's grace.

So I invite you to receive it right now. Let's

bower heads. Why don't you pray a prayer like this

in your mind? Dear God, I need your grace. I

realize I'm not imperfect. In fact, I'm far from it,

but I want to enjoy your unconditional love. Thank you

for your grace. I put my trust in your grace today,

and I ask you to make me a part of

your family, Make me your child, not because I deserve it,

but because of your unconditional love. Help me to be

believe that You're for me, not against me, and help

me to let you handle things in my life, to

relax and to cast my cares and anxiety on you. Lord.

I know from today that it's just putting my faith

in your grace that saves me, and so I do that.

But I also ask you to help me to put

my faith in your grace to live the life that

you meant for me to live. And I am tired

and I am worn out, but I come to you today.

Help me to learn the unforced rhythms of grace. In

Jesus' name, I pray Amen.

Hey, thanks so much for joining us here on Pastor

Rick's Daily Hope. I've got some exciting news to share

with you today. Some generous friends of Daily Hope have

offered a ten thousand dollars matching grant, and that means

whatever amount you give to help share the hope of

Jesus worldwide is going to be matched up to ten

thousand dollars. Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.

You know, I just want to take a quick second

to say thank you everybody. Because of your generosity, we're

able to take the Hope of Jesus Christ into places

where there are no Bibles, no believers, and nobody of Christ,

no churches at all. Now, as you pray about giving,

I want to ask you to ask God about sending

a gift that's the largest you're able to give, because

at this point of the year, we have a donor

who is offered to match your gift. That means what

you give will be doubled. We get twice the bang

for the buck, in other words, So please respond quickly

and a give in such a way that we can

maximize it through this matching gift. And I want to

ask you this, would you pray for us at daily

Hope pray as we reach out to people around the

globe with hope that people will find Christ by the

thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. So

thank you for being a partner with me to getting

the message out.

Just go to pastorrigg dot com to have your gift

matched up to ten thousand dollars. Please don't wait because

this special matching grant offer ends in just a few days.

Once again, it's pastor rigg dot com or you contects

the word hope to seven oh three to oho nine.

That's the word hope to seven oh three, oh nine

and again. All of us here at Daily Hope thank

you so much for your support. Your gift helps us

share the hope of Christ with people everywhere. Be sure

to join us next time as we look into God's

Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by

Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.