Rick Warren - Sharing Your Hope with Others—Part One

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. Well, let's get into it with

the final part of a message called sharing your hope

with others?

Now, how do I share my hope? Let me give

you some practical steps. I'll give you six practical steps. Okay,

how do you share your hope?

Number one?

Real simple, write it down, live it, live it, Live

your hope. Live a life of hope, long before you

ever talk about it.

Just live it.

Verse Peter, Chapter two, verse twelve says this, we have

such good lives among your unbelieving neighbors that they see

circle that that they see the good things in you,

the good things you do, and then they will honor.

God by believing.

Live in such a good way in front of your

unbelieving neighbors.

They see the good things you do, and.

They will honor God by believing. What does that verse

teach us that you need to be an audio visual believer.

You gotta both walk the walk and talk the talk.

You've got to be audio and you gotta be visual.

You've got to live it in front of others. I

told my staff the other day talking about our culture.

If they like what they see, they will listen to

what we say. If they like what they see, they

will listen to what we say. So we start by sharing, Oh,

by simply living hopeful lives. Now, this involves a lot

of times just being nice to people. Why because you

cannot win your enemies to Christ. You can only win

your friends. They've got to become your friends before they

can become christ friends. See, before people say is Jesus real?

They want to know are you real? Before they want

to know is the Bible legitimate? Can it be trusted?

They want to know are you legitimate? Can you be trusted?

Before they want to know is is everything that the

scripture teaches credible? They want to know are you credible?

So it just starts by being nice to people, building

bridges of friendship. Outreach, evangelism, witnessing is simply you build

a bridge of love between your heart and theirs, and

Jesus walks cross.

That's why.

Romans twelve, verse thirteen says this two words practice hospitality.

Romans twelve thirteen, practice hospitality. What is hospitality, Well, just

making people feel welcomed and wanted. It means living your

life in such a way. You invite them into your

home home, you share meals with them, you have a

barbecue with them, you go to a game with them,

You live your life with them. I could give you

so many illustrations. Do you know that in the first

year of first two years of sadle Back Church, every

Tuesday and every Thursday, we had people in our homes

for two years. Kate cooked the same meal every week,

so we didn't have to worry about what the buyer

or the planning. It was all about having people in

our home showing hospitality. And in the first two years

of this church, every single person who came this church

was invited to my home. And we did it for

two years. Every single person got invited to a meal.

This church was built on hospitality. The a in Saddleback's name,

which is now All Nation Congregation used to be atmosphere

of acceptance, which is the hospitality point of our values.

Why because we didn't have an agent the word saddleback.

So we called it atmosphere of acceptance. So you've got

to live a life of hospitality and love in front

of people, at a life of hope. Then number two,

after you live it, learn it. You need to learn

more about the hope that is within you. You know

you've got hope, but you may have our time expressing it.

One Peter, Chapter three, verse fifteen says this, always be

ready to answer anyone who asks you to explain the

reason for the hope that you have, but do it

with gentleness and respect. Did you know that never in

the Bible you told to share your faith. The Bible

says share your hope. Never in the Bible are we

commanded to share our faith. We are commanded to share

our hope, and it says do it with gentleness and respect.

Here's the third thing. You got to live it and

you got to learn it. Here's number three. Apologize for

not sharing sooner.

Now let me explain this. What do you mean by that?

Apologize for not explaining sooner?

Okay, this in your mind?

Do you have people in your life who are not

believers and you've known him for a long long time,

maybe five years, ten years, maybe even twenty years. You

may have lived next to a neighbor forever and you've

never talked to him about the Lord, and now you're

kind of embarrassed because you've been neighbors so long and

you've never talked to him about it, and now you

feel awkward about bringing it up. How do you break

the ice in talking to somebody about the Lord? Do

you've known for some time and have never talked to

him about it?

Just apologize? Now, here's how I would do it.

You go, let's say you've got a next door neighbor

you've never talked about the Lord, never invited him church,

and you go to him and you say, let's say

his name's Joe. You say, Joe, I need to apologize

to you. Now that's going to get their attention right

off the bat. Okay, what have you done wrong? I

need to apologize? And I said, well, what, sure?

Yeah, you know whatever. What do you need to apologize

for it? Well?

You know friends, I don't keep secrets from friends, and

I consider you to be a close friend.

You're a good friend.

You've been a good neighbor for many years, and I've

never talked to you about the most important thing in

my life, and I'm really sorry. I'm embarrassed about it

because honestly, I kind of thought that if I shared

it with you, you'd think I was a nut or

a kook or some goofy person. And I really thought

that maybe you'd think less of me. And I know

that's dumb, and I'm sorry. I should have thought more

of our friendship. It's stronger than that. I know that,

and so I ask you to forgive me. Now, the

guy's dying to hear what you're going to say, and

you say, you know what, I just need to tell

you that the most important thing in my life is

my friendship with God. I've learned how to have a

relationship with God, and i'd love some time to talk

to you about it and tell you about it. Well,

now you've just opened the door.

The apology.

Evangelism is the way you start with somebody haven't talked

to in a long time, you know. Proverbs chapter twelve,

verse twenty six. It's very difficult verse to translate treat

in different translations. It's all different ways, but I think

that today's English version gets the closest the original meaning

of the Hebrew and Proverbs twelve twenty six says this

and the TeV the righteous person is a guide to

his friends. The righteous person is a guide to his friends.

And what you want to do. If your friends is somebody,

you want to guide them in the right way. You

care enough about them, you want to spend an eternity

in heaven with you. You don't want to be separated

from for them from eternity. And a righteous person is

a guide to his friends. Another verse, Proverbs seventeen seventeen says,

friends always show their love. And the most loving thing

you can do is to show somebody how they can

have their past forgiven, get a purpose for living, and

get a home in heaven by opening their heart to

the grint of God. Friends always show their love. It's

unloving to not tell people the good news. All right,

let me give you a fourth thing you can do.

You can practice this week. You learn it, then you

live it, then you apologize for not talking about it.

Number four Listen first. Listen first, and by the way,

ask questions. Write that down to you. Listen first and

ask questions. You will always bring more people to Christ

by listening to them than by talking to them. Why

because everybody on this planet has a deep, deep hunger

to be listened to, to be understood, to have their

feelings validated, to not just blow it off, but to

really listen. And very few people in this world care

enough to actually listen to people, to their neighbors and friends.

That's why people pay big money to go to counselors,

because very few people car enough to actually listen to

their friends. Your ear is a great tool.

For showing love to someone. This is a huge tool.

Proverbs eighteen, verse thirteen in today's English version says this,

always listen before you answer. If you don't, you're being

stupid and insulting. If you remember that verse early, we

talked about it says always be ready to share your

hope and always be ready to give an answer to

people ask you about the hope that's in you. Well,

the second part is always listen first before you share it.

Always listen, and that's where you're gonna find the key

to their heart. Proverbs twenty, verse five, today's English version

says this, A person's thoughts are like water in a

deep well, but somebody with insight could draw them out,

can you that's a beautiful picture. A person's thoughts are

like water in a deep well, but someone with insight

could draw them out. How do you draw it out

out of people? How do you find their hidden hurt?

How do you find their deep need, unmet need, their

felt need? By asking questions? The way you draw something

out of people is by asking questions. And then after

they've answered the questions, they will tell me more, and

then ask it again, will tell me more, and what else,

and you just keep letting them talk. You know a

lot of people are worried that I've got to go

out there and prove that God exists. No, you don't

have to do that first place. Most people don't doubt

God's existence. There are arguments out there, theological and teleological

arguments for the existence of God. The cosmological argument, the

teleological argument, the ontological argument, constant moral reproof.

These are all things.

If you go to seminary, you have to learn the

arguments for the existence of God. Do you know what,

most people couldn't care less. Again, they're living at the

emotional level. It's not your job to prove God's exist

It's your job to just show the grace of God

to them. Now that goes in and along with my

fifth suggestion, write this down, share your stories. Share your stories.

You don't have to be going to the Bible for everything.

Just share what's happened to you.

Now.

This is called as you know, your testimony. In class

four oh one, we teach you how to write out

your testimony. But you notice I say share your stories plural,

not share your story?

Why?

Because you have many testimonies. A lot of people think

they only have one testimony, the testimony of how they

came to Christ, how they were saved. But has God

ever helped you with a financial problem? Then you have

a financial testimony. Has God ever helped you with a

relational problem? Then you have a relational testimony? Or marriage testimony?

Has God ever helped you with dating? Then God, You've

got a dating testimony. Has God ever helped you when

you were going through a crisis or grief or you

lost someone, or you were worried, or you were sick.

You have hundreds of testimonyes. You know the power of

a testimony is that you are the authority. You're not

pointing to anybody else's people in today's age, you go, well,

you said it, it's you are the authority on your life.

Nobody's a better authority on your life than you.

Now.

The Bible, of course, is filled the testimonies of people.

One time Jesus healed the bland guy, and the Pharisees

kind of came to him and tried to trap him

with some theological questions and discussion, tried to pin him

down in the identity of Jesus. And the guy was

really smart and he just resorted back to his testimony.

And he did that because when you have a testimony,

you're the authority on it. And in John chapter nine,

verse twenty five, when they come and say who do

you think Jesus is, he goes, well, you know what.

I don't know what you're going to argue about, but

I do know this. I was blind, but now I

can see that's a testimony.

You have lots of.

I was blind, but now I can see testimonies about parenting,

about dieting, about sleeping well, about dealing with stress, about

dealing with pressure, and all the other things in your life.

You have hundreds of testimonies. Finally, let me give you

one more suggestion, number six. Bring them to worship. This

is one of the best ways that you can share

your hope with people. Who are struggling without hope. Did

you know that studies show that people come to Christ

quicker when they do it in the context of a

larger group of people rather than just buy one on one.

So when you talk to your neighbor, your friend, your

coworker about the Lord. But then you bring them to

church and they walk into a service and they see

a lot of other people, hundreds of people or maybe

even thousands, who believe the same thing. That's called a

corporate witness and has enormous emotional and spiritual power. And

when people come and see other people together believing the

same thing, it adds credibility to what you have shared

with your friend. And your frame thinks. He looks around

and he goes, Wow, there are a lot of people here

who believe this. They couldn't all be crazy. I mean,

they might doubt you, but they can't couldn't all be crazy.

This is why Jesus wants us to bring people into

his church family and actually bring him to worship services.

In Luke chapter fourteen, verse twenty three, Jesus said this,

go into the streets and everywhere else and invite anyone

you find to come with you, so that my house

will be full. Notice that God wants a full house.

He wants a full house. He wants everybody saved. When

was the last time you invited somebody to church? Care

enough to bring somebody with you next weekend. You know

when you do that, you're going to watch. You're going

to see church from a whole different perspective when you

sit next to somebody who's never been in the service

before and you see all of the things that going.

Now I get why we do this.

Now, I see why we do this at Saddleback, and

I have seen the reality of Psalm forty verse three

happen thousands and thousands of times at saddle Back Church

when people brought their friends to church. Psalm forty verse

three says this, many people will see this what the

service of worship, and they will worship him. Then they

will trust the Lord. Notice that worship leads to outreach,

worship leads to conversion. Then they will trust the Lord.

When people who don't yet have a friendship with God,

watch believers give thanks to God like in singing. It

is a powerful witness. And this is why the first

Church of Jerusalem actually grewed over one hundred thousand members

in less than twenty years because the worship was there

and everybody was bringing their friends to the temple. Acts two,

verse forty seven says this, as they worshiped God, people

in the community liked what they saw, and as a result,

every day their number grew as God added.

Those who were being saved.

All right, now I've given you, you know, five or

so reasons why you should have confidence, and six or

so steps to just get going. Let me wrap this

up by just concluding with why why do we do this?

Why do we share our hope? Well, let me just

give you three or four reasons real quick. Number one,

everybody needs Jesus. The reason we share our hope is

because everybody needs Jesus. You know, if I had the

cure for cancer or AIDS or dementia and I didn't

share it with everybody, that would be criminal. They should

lock me up and put me in prison. If I

knew how to cure people's cancer or AIDS or dementia

or some other thing, it would be criminal if I

didn't pass it on. We have something even better, how

to have eternal life past forgiven purpose for living home

in heaven, it would be criminal. To not share it

with others. Look at this verse Matthew eleven twenty eight

to thirty. Jesus says in the message para Freeze, are

you tired?

Are you worn out? Are you burned out on religion?

Come to me?

Get away with me and you'll recover your life and

I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk

with me, work with me. Watch how I do it.

Jesus says, learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't

lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company

with me, and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly.

Who doesn't want that. It's not like you're trying to

get people to eat cat food or something. You know,

what most people reject is not true Christianity. What most

people reject is a misconception of it. Jesus says, you

got needs in your life, Come to me and I

will meet that need. I will give you rest. So

we do it because everybody needs Jesus. The second reason

we do it is because Jesus commands us to do it.

We looked at those commands at the very start that

this church Saddleback exists because of his great commission to

go make disciples, Mark chapter eight, verse thirty eight. He said,

Jesus said this very very sobering verse. Look at this

verse Mark eight thirty eight. Jesus says, if you're ashamed

of me and my message in these sick and sinful days,

I will be ashamed of you when I return in glory.

Whoa, whoa.

We do this because God commands us to do it.

Do you care more about what people think than about

what God thinks? Are you more worried about your reputation

than their salvation? Are you ashamed of Jesus?

Why?

I mean, maybe if you're ashamed of Jesus, maybe you

don't really have.

A friendship with him. Yet you need to get to

know him.

Jesus commands us to share our hope. Third reason we

share our hope is because we're grateful to God and

we love people Sewod Corinthians five point fourteen. The Bible

says Christ's love compels us. Christ love compels us because

we know that He died for all. We are motivated

by love. People ask me what motivates you rick year

after year after year at Saddleback Church. I love Jesus

Christ with all my heart, and I love people, and

that compels us. You know, there's a point where Jesus

one time is up on a hill and he looks

out the whole city of Jerusalem, and in passionate cry,

he says, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I would have gathered

you as a hen gathers her chicks under her brood,

but you would not have me.

Can you hear the verse that the passion had, Oh,

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

I have prayed that prayer so many times as I've

been up on a hill, saying, Oh, saddle back Valley,

saddle back Valley, how much I would have gathered you

to bring you the good news? And then as we

expanded Orange County, Southern California, Oh, Southern California, Southern California,

how much I would have gathered you together and shared

with you the good news of Christ if you just listen.

And now I with campuses around the world, I say, oh, world,

how I plead and beg for you to listen to

the good News of Jesus Christ.

We do it out of love.

Finally, the Bible says that you will be rewarded in

heaven that when you share your hope with others, you

will be rewarded in heaven. Proverbs eleven, verse thirty says

this good people give life to others like a fruit

bearing tree, and those who save souls are wise. Do

you want to be wise save souls? You want to

bear fruit, You want to be a tree of life.

You want to leave a legacy. The way you leave

a legacy is by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says, for since we were restored to friendship

with God by the death of his son while we

were still as enemies, we will certainly be delivered from

eternal punishment by his life.

Romans five ten.

What a great promise you will be rewarded in eternity

for the people you brought with you. Is anybody going

to be in heaven because of you? Let me close

in prayer. The Bible says that God wants us to

be witnesses.

But a lot of times.

We're what I call Arctic river Christians. We're frozen at

the mouth and we don't say anything, and we hold back.

But Jesus says, if you're not fishing, you're not following.

So let me encourage you to write now in your mind.

I want everybody to think of one person. Think of

a name of somebody who you love who doesn't know

Jesus yet. Okay, think of a name as somebody who

love it doesn't know Jesus yet. And I'm going to

ask you to ask God to give you the privilege

of bringing that person into the Family of God in

the next year, in the next three hundred and sixty

five days. Would you do that right now? It could

be your greatest legacy that somebody's going to be in

heaven because of you. Let me pray for you, and

then I'll lead you in a prayer. Father, you know

everybody who's watching this video online and at all of

our campuses, and I know that you've called us to

make disciples, to be a witness, to share our hope,

to not hold back, to be ambassadors for Christ and Lord.

If we don't do it, we're disobedient. We're not following

your will. And so I pray that this message today

will motivate each of us to get serious about the

people in our lives that we love who still don't

know you, neighbors, friends, co workers, people we meet in

social settings. Now you pray, say, Dear God, I want

you to use me to bring somebody to you. Just

pray that, say, Dear God, I want you to use

me to bring somebody to you in the next year.

Help me to remember that your Holy Spirit is with

me and I have the truth and they just have excuses.

Help me to remember that everybody has the same longings

and the same questions, and that you are the answer

to those, and that everybody needs Jesus, give me the

love that I need to care enough to share your

good news with those around me, to invite people to church,

to share a word of testimony, to share how You've

changed my life, and maybe even to apologize to someone

that I haven't talked to about it that I've known

for a long time. And I humbly ask for your

help this week in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Wow, Thanks Rick for such an encouraging message. Hey, do

you ever wonder if your life really matters? Or what

on earth you're here for?

Will?

Pastor Rick Warren wants to let you know that God

has a good plan and purpose for your life, and

in his best selling book The Purpose Driven Life, he

lays out a simple, life changing roadmap to help you

discover and live it. This book has transformed millions of

lives and it could transform someone you love. And great

news it's been updated for today's generation. This edition includes

a video introduction from Pastor Rick for each chapter, on

d teaching at the end of every chapter, and two

powerful bonus chapters on the biggest barriers to living a

purpose driven life. As you go through this book, you'll

uncover that your deepest meaning and fulfillment doesn't come from

success or status, but from understanding and living out the

purpose that God created you for. It's an incredible resource

for your own spiritual growth, but it's also one of

the most effective ways to introduce someone you love to Jesus.

In fact, millions have come to faith in Christ through

this book, often just because someone like you gave them

a copy. So we say, don't just get one, get

several copies to share with friends, family, co workers, and

neighbors who need hope. Request your copy today. When you

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