Rick Warren - Sharing Your Hope with Others—Part Two

Hello everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the

Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. We're so excited that

you've joined us today. As we continue in this powerful

series how the Church meets your deepest needs. Together, we're

uncovering the joy and strength that comes from being a

part of God's family. All right, here we go with

part one of a message called Sharing your Hope with Others.

We're in part three of a forty eight day journey

on how God meets your five deepest needs through a

local church family. So if you get out your message notes,

one of your deepest needs is to leave a legacy

behind you. Now, some people try to do this through accomplishments,

or through achievements, or through writing a book or building

the building put their name on it. But you know what,

all of those things are going to leave a temporary

legacy because they're all going to fade away. The only

thing that's going to asked forever that's here, alive, right

now and planet Earth, is God's family, the Church and

the people that are in it. So if you really

want to leave a lasting legacy, if you really want

to make an eternal impact, the greatest thing you can

do is bring somebody else into God's family with you.

The greatest thing you can do for somebody is to

secure their eternal salvation, because when you do that, guess

what that person will thank you for the entire rest

of eternity. I'm in heaven because of you. There's no

greater legacy than bringing somebody into the family of God.

So today what we're gonna do is we're gonna look

at sharing your hope with others one of the five

purposes of God for his church and for your life.

And Jesus has a lot to say about this. In fact,

he talked about it over and over and over. So

let's begin with me pointing out just maybe four of

the many, many statements of Jesus about sharing your hope

with other people. That's talking about Christ to people who

do I don't know Jesus yet, who haven't began that friendship.

Let's look at a few verses there at the top

of your outline. In Matthew, excuse me, Mark, chapter sixteen,

Verse fifteen, Jesus said, wherever you go in the world,

tell everyone the good news. Now I want you to

notice he says, wherever you go in. In other words, as

you're going. It's not like you have to make a

special trip. He says. Wherever you go, just talk to me,

talk to other people about me. Anywhere. Could be at

the grocery store, could be at school, could be in

a workout, when you go to a soccer game, when

you go to a party, he says, everywhere you go,

share the good news about me. Then, Jesus says in

Acts chapter one, verse eight, he says, you will be

my witnesses. Now, I want you to circle that word witnesses.

God has called you to be a witness for him

in the world. If you're a child of God, if

you're in the family of God, then he says, I

want you to be my witness. Now, do you know

in a courtroom the difference in an attorney and a witness,

big difference. An attorney's job is to make the case.

An attorney's job is to present the evidence. An attorney's

job is to call for a decision. That's not your job.

He says. He didn't say you will be my attorneys.

He says you will be my witnesses. What does a

witness do? A witness just says, I saw this. That

guy walked from point A to point B. I saw

this happen. All you do is tell your story. God

doesn't expect you to be a defense attorney for him.

He doesn't need any attorneys. But he does expect you

to be a witness and say, this is what happened

in my life. Now. Another verse where Jesus talks about

sharing your hope is in Matthew twenty eight, verses eighteen

and nineteen and twenty, which as we know, is called

the Great Commission. And Jesus says, I have been given

all authority. Why because he created the universe, So he's

been given all authority over the universe. So he says,

I've been given all authority, So go make disciples. Now,

these were some of the very last words of Jesus

before he goes back to heaven. It's called the Great Commission.

It's what this saddlebacked church was built on. That verse,

the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. And we, he says,

have been authorized to do this by Jesus, who owns

all the authority in the universe. So really you are

an agent of God. He says, I've been given all

authority in the world. And so I'm authorizing you to

go make disciples. That means bring people into the family

of God, help them become followers of Jesus. Then one

other verse that Jesus says in Matthew chapter four, verse nineteen,

he actually said this verse at the very beginning of

his ministry, as opposed to at the end. And he

gathers a small group of of you know, fishermen and

carpenters and just normal ordinary people, none of them have

been to school and the higher education, and he says this,

follow me, and I'll show you how to fish for people. Now,

these are some of the very first words of Jesus

to his followers. And I want you to note the logic.

He says, follow me, and I'll teach you to fish

for men. So the logic is, if you're not fishing,

you're not really following. Hello, if you're not really fishing,

you're not following. He says, follow me, and I'll make

you a fisher of people. Teach you how to fish

for people. The proof that you are truly in God's

family is that you're bringing other people into God's family.

Is anybody going to be in heaven because of you

have you ever led anybody to faith in Christ. Now

those are four verses from Jesus. Let me give you

one more from Paul. In Second Corinthians, Chapter five, Verse twenty.

Paul tells us we are Christ ambassadors. God uses us

to speak as though Christ himself is making this appeal.

God wants you to connect with Him in a friendship.

The word for that in the theological term is the

word reconciliation. God wants you to connect with Him in

a friendship, to be reconciled to God. Now he says,

we're ambassadors. What's an ambassador. Well, an ambassador is somebody

who's a representative of a higher power. They don't actually

have the power, but they represent the Queen of England

or the president of the United States, or the government

of Germany, or the government of China or Argentina or

the Philippines, and these countries send out ambassadors all around

the world. The Bible says that God says you you

are an ambassador of Jesus Christ. That means everywhere you

go you represent Jesus. Now you're either a good ambassador

or a bad one. You are an ambassador, you are witness.

The only question is whether you're an effective one or

an ineffective one. Now, by the way, this is where

the term Christian comes from. You know, the word Christian

actually just means little Christ. And as the Church began

to grow after Jesus was resurrected, then these little christ

these ambassadors of Jesus went out all over the Middle

East and then all over Europe. And that's where we

get the term Christian or Christian. It means I'm just

a little Christ. I'm an ambassador. Now, from just these

four verses, we can conclude an important fact about your life.

I want you to write this down. The four verses

by Christ and the one versus quote from Paul. Write

this down. My job in God's family is to an

invite others to join us. My job in God's family

is to invite others to join us in God's family. Now,

I know what many of you are thinking. You're thinking,

you know, Rick, I'm just not qualified to do this.

And you think it requires some kind of special personality,

or you have to be a salesman and you have

to be good at closing the deal and persuading people.

And maybe it requires a personality trait that you don't

possess or maybe you're shy or you have no confidence

in doing this. Well, what I want to do today

in this message just two things. First, I want to

share with you five things that you need to remember

that are going to give you confidence. If you'll remember

these things, you'll have confidence in being an ambassador of

Jesus Christ and in sharing your hope in Christ. Five

things to remember. Then I want to give you six

things that you can actually do this week from God's word,

practical ways of how to be an ambassador for Jesus

Christ and how to share your hope with others. All right,

So first let's look at five things to remember that

are going to give you confidence. You ready, right, He's

down Number one. Everybody I meet has the same longings

that I do. Everybody you meet. Everybody I meet have

the same inner longings that I do that you do.

You see, you didn't stop becoming a human being when

you were born again into the family of God. You

still have the same basic human drives and desires and

longings that everybody else does. Why Because God created us all.

God put those longings in us. In the Bible and

Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse eleven. The first part of that

versus this God has planted eternity in the human heart.

Now what does that mean, Well, it means that we

all have dreams that there's mortal life than we're experiencing.

And the fact is it's true. There is a whole

lot more to life than we're experiencing. Because there's so

much more to life than just getting out of bed

and going to work and coming home to sleep and

repeating the process over and over and over. Every human

being was made for so much more than just get up,

go to work, sleep and go back to work. Instinctively,

inside ourselves, every human being knows that something is missing,

and we try to fill that heart. We try to

fill that hole in our heart with many different things,

but it's a God shape vacuum that only God can fill.

You can't fill it with sex or salary, or status

or money or passions or possession or position. We try

to fill it with so many different things. You know,

today many people have built their lives and trying to

achieve what is called the good life, in other words,

looking good, feeling good, having the goods. The only problem

with the good life is it's not good enough. It

leaves us unsatisfied. It doesn't quench our hunger for meaning

and significance, and that hunger can only be filled, only

be satisfied with what Bible calls the better life, the

better life. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse fifteen, and the

message paraphrase says this, Jesus included everyone in his death

so everyone could be included in his life, a resurrection life,

a far better life. You might circle that if you're

taking notes, a far better life than people ever lived

on their own. This is not the good life. There's

something better than the good life. It's the better life.

Jesus says it again in John chapter ten, verse ten,

again the message paraphrase. He says, I've come so that

you can have real life and eternal life, real and

eternal life, a better life than you ever dreamed of.

So what am I saying? That when we share our

hope with other people, what we have to offer people

is exactly what everyone is looking for, because we all

have the same deep longings in life. We all long

for security, doesn't matter what religious background you have. We

all long for a sense of self worth. We all

long for significance. We want our lives to matter. We

all have a longing for belonging, to feel that we're

connected to a family. We all have a yearning for learning,

to feel like we're growing and developing and becoming more

than we used to be. We all have a hunger

for meaning and for purpose and for direction in life.

And only our Creator can provide these things. Now, what

am I saying that what we're offering to people is

what everybody's looking for. We all have the same basic longings. Now,

not only does everybody you meet have the same longings

that you do. Number two, everybody has the same questions.

Everybody that you meet, whether they believer or non believer,

have the exact same questions that you do. In Ecclesiastes,

chapter three, verse eleven, the Bible in this part says this,

none of us can ever fully understand all God has done,

but He puts questions in our minds about the past

and about the future. You know, all those questions you

have in your mind, they're from God. What are those

questions that God puts in your mind? Questions like who

am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?

Does my life have any purpose? What happens after I die?

What is my significance? What is the meaning of everything

that happens to me? These are not small questions, but

are the questions that everybody asks. And so when you

talk to people, the answer to the fundamental questions of

life are found in Jesus Christ and in his word.

Let me give you a third thing that you need

to remember that'll give you confidence in sharing your hope.

Number three, most people don't really know what they believe.

In fact, they often contradict themselves. Often contradict themselves. You know,

people are often quick to label themselves. They'll say, you know,

I'm a Muslim, or I'm a Buddhist, like that's gonna

shut you down. Or I'm a Hindu, or I'm an Atheist,

or I'm some brand of Christianity or whatever. But you

know what I've discovered, having talked to thousands of people,

that when you scratch beneath the surface, you often find

the people who adopt a certain label don't even know

what that belief system believes. Last week, I was in Washington,

d C. And I started a conversation with my taxi

driver and he said, I'm a Muslim. But you know what,

as I engaged him, I discovered he knew almost nothing

about Islam. I probably knew what needed. In fact, at

one point even said, you know, I think we all

believe the same thing. Well, I guarantee it. Muhammad would

certainly have agreed with that. He would have disagreed with that.

We don't all believe the same thing. So if you

think we do, it means you don't even know what

you believe. So don't be turned off by titles and

labels that people use as defenses. By the way, a

lot of people claim to belie leave a certain way,

but they sure don't act that way. For instance, I've

had a lot of people tell me, well, you know, Rick,

there are no absolutes in life. Well, first place, that's nonsense.

That is an absolute statement. So you're contradicting yourself by

the statement itself. But they say there are no absolutes

in life. But I want to ask you stop at

every stop light. Well, yeah, they live by rules that

are based on absolutes every single second of their lives.

Most people are inconsistent, and they contradict themselves over and over,

and they're confused. But when you share your hope in Christ,

it helps bring clarity. Clarity to their lives. First Corinthians

chapter fourteen, verse thirty three says, this God is not

a god of confusion. Okay, God is not a god

of confusion, but is a god of peace. And in

John chapter eight, verse thirty two, Jesus said, when you

know the truth, the truth will set you free from confusion,

free from contradiction, free from all these other things that

bind up your life. Now here's a little secret that

you need to understand about human behavior. Are you ready

for this? People make almost all of their decisions, make

almost all of their choices in life based on emotions,

and then they go look for intellectual reasons to back

up their emotional decisions. We only use logic often to

back up an emotional decision that we want to make,

and we make it on our gut or on our feelings,

on our emotions. You know, I meet so many Christians

who are afraid of being a witness, of talking to

anybody about the Lord because they think they're going to

have to argue intellectual ideas. When the truth is, most

intellectuals are making their decisions based on emotions and feeling.

And anyone can deal with emotions and can deal with

feelings you don't have to be an intellectual to do that.

Let me give you fourth thing. Write this down. Anyone

can be saved if I listen for the key to

their heart. Anyone can be saved if I listen for

the key to their heart, and that key is their

unmet need or hidden hurt. They're unmet need or hidden hurt.

You know. In Romans chapter three, verse twenty three, it

says this everyone falls short of God's glorious ideal. What

does that mean? Well, what it means is that I

don't measure up to my own standards, much less God's

perfect standards. And it means that we all have habits,

and we all have hurts, and we all have hang ups,

and we all live in a broken world. We all

fall short of God's glorious ideals. So guess what. We

all have hurts and habits, and you know, things in

our lives that are secret that we don't want other

people to know about. You can discern these things by

listening to what is. It's the deepest hurt in a

person's heart. And if you discern that, guess what you've

just discovered? How to lead them to Jesus? Now listen

to this. There's only one way to God the Father,

and that is through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am

the way, the truth in life. No one comes with

the Father but by me. But there are many reasons,

in many ways that people come to Jesus. Did you

hear that there's only one way to God the Father,

that's through Jesus. But there are many reasons that people

come to Jesus. Some people came to Jesus for a miracle.

Some came to Jesus because of a question. Some came

out of loneliness and the same as you today. Some

people come with questions and loneliness. Some people come out

of guilt and shame. Other people come to Christ because

they're afraid. They're going through a fearful experience. Some people

are looking for purpose. Some people have a physical need

that draws them to God. Others have an emotional need

that draws them to God. Others have a relational crisis

or a finance central crisis. There are thousands of different

reasons people turn to God. Stress and pain and suffering

all have a way of getting our attention. Now, if

you really want to reach somebody for the Lord, you

find their felt need or they're hidden hurt their unmet need.

And you'll find that this is the key to opening

up the conversation. That means you're gonna have to listen.

Number five. Fifth thing you need to remember, and this

is going to give you confidence. Remember this. People have excuses,

but we have God's Holy Spirit and the truth. They

only have excuses, they only have You know their excuses.

But we have God's Holy Spirit in us and we

have the truth. And in that matchup, the Holy Spirit

and truth are always going to win. Eventually, you see

you're not alone. When you share your hope in Christ.

God is with you, and the Holy Spirit is working

in that other person's heart while you're talking. They've only

got themselves. You've got you and God's Holy Spirit. That

should give you a lot of confidence. Tewod Timothy one

seven and eight, and the Living Bible says this, the

Holy Spirit, God's gift to you does not want you

to be afraid of people. He doesn't want you to

be afraid of people, but he wants you to be

wise and strong and to love them and enjoy being

with them. And if you will stir up this inner power,

God's power inside you, his Holy Spirit. You will never

be afraid to tell others about our Lord. That's sick

of Timothy. You'll never be afraid to tell others about

the Lord if you realize the Holy Spirit's power and

God's truth is in you. You know. Another verse that

deals with this is in Luke chapter twenty one, in

verses thirteen to fifteen contemporary English version, Jesus says this

he's talking to his followers. This will be your chance

to tell others about your faith. But don't worry about

what you'll say in yourself. I will give you the

wisdom to know what to say. So many times we

get anticipatory fear. We think, I don't know what to

say to that person at the office. I don't know

what to say to that person, that soccer mom, or

that neighbor. Well, God says, I will tell you what

to say when you need it, and you'll find that

God does it in such an amazing way.

What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something

I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to

tell you how you can help support this ministry.

Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to

love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love

your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.

And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize

them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign

of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything

I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the

Great Commission. We believe it daily Hope that a great

commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will

produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,

a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so

I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just

across America, but all around the world. And we want

people to know that God's word is filled with hope

and truth, and the power that we need to follow

him every day is available to every single one. You

know as well as I do, that the Word of

God changes lives. It's a live it's active, and it

breathes new life and new love into all of our lives.

So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on

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