Rick Warren - This Is the Sermon on God's Power That You NEED To Hear

Some of you are on the edge of giving up

right now, and if we could put an X ray

to your mind, it would show you're pretty desperate. Don't

give up, Look up, don't give up.

Look up. The answer is not to quit.

The answer is to get connected, find God's purpose, and

get God's power in your life, and you'll have a

new resurrection in your life. The same power that raised

Jesus from the dead a couple millenniago two thousand years

ago is available to you today. If God can raise

the dead Jesus, he can raise a dead marriage. If

God can raise a dead Jesus, he can raise a

dead friendship. He can raise a dead career, he can

raise a dead dream, he can raise a part of

your life that's just dying on the vine. That's the

kind of God we serve. That is a benefit that

was paid for you by Jesus Christ. Let me show

you some verses. This may be a benefit you didn't

know about. And if you don't know about it, you

can't depend on it. Phesians chapter one the Bible says,

I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly

great God's power really is, how incredibly great God's power

really is to help those who believe him. It is

the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead.

Say wait a minute, time out here, Rick, you're telling

me that the same power that brought Jesus back to

life is available to me in my daily life. That's

exactly what I'm saying. That's a benefit you may have

not known about. The resurrection of Jesus comes with a promise.

Look at the next verse. By his power, God's by

his power, God raised the Lord from the dead. And

read this aloud to me, he will also raise Oh,

now we're talking.

The only reason you're going to be raised.

From the dead and have life after death is because

Jesus did it.

That's the reason.

If Jesus doesn't raise you from the dead, you're not

getting raised from the dead. By his power, God raised

the Lord from the dead, and he will also raise us,

so you can have resurrection power in your life. Now,

let me ask you a very personal question. Where do

you need a resurrection in your life? I'm talking about

right now. Let me phrase it another way. What's dying

in your life or is dead and you know it

and you need God's power to bring.

It back to life.

Where do you need a resurrection this year? Where do

you need God's resurrection power?

See?

The truth is, I'm sorry about this, but some of

you are in marriages that dying. They're going south real fast,

or maybe they already have died and you're just still

living together.

You need a resurrection in your marriage.

The key to a long marriage can I've been married

forty two years, is you have to learn how to

fall in love over and over again. You know, fall

in love just one time. You have to have resurrections

in your marriage, in your life. Some of you need

a resurrection in your marriage because it's dying. Some of

you need a resurrection in your career. And you think, man,

I thought i'd be a whole lot further along the

line than I am right now at this stage of

the game, At this point in my life, I expect

to be further down the road, but I'm not. And

that's disappointing. And you need a resurrection in your career.

Some of you need some resurrection in your energy. You say,

you know, I'm just tired all the time. I dragged

through the day, fatigued all the time. I don't have

any energy because you're living it on your power instead

of God's power. God never intended for you to go

through life just on your power. You don't have enough.

Human power runs out, human love runs out, which is

why there's divorce. You need supernatural love and you need

supernatural power in your life to make it.

To the finish line.

Some of you need a resurrection of your dream if

you've had a dream in your past about something you've

always wanted to be. You're always wanted to do a talent,

you wanted to develop, a goal, you wanted.

To go after, and the dreams died.

Some of you need a resurrection in your health. You're

not going in the right direction. Some of you need

a resurrection in your motivation. I'm just not motivated anymore.

I'm just kind of putting in the time and waiting

for the payday, checking the clock. I'm not going to motivate.

Nothing motivates to be anymore. You need a resurrection of motivation.

Some of you have had a split in a friendship

with a dear friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, or just

a good friend, and there's been a rift, there's been

a break, a tear, conflict. You need a resurrection in

your friendship. So I'm just saying that in so many

different areas, some of you have had your heart broken recently,

and as your pastor, I'm sorry, I really am, and

I pray for people in our family that have a

broken heart, and you need to have your heart repaired,

and you need a resurrection in that area of your life.

You see, this is the difference between human beings and God.

God is God and we're not. Human beings can resuscitate.

Only God can resurrect. You know CPR, you know how

to resuscitate somebody, their heart stops, you can resuscitate them

with CPR. If you're a paramedic, you've probably resuscitated hundreds

of people with mouth and mouth or CPR, whatever you

needed to do. Resuscitation happens when they've been dead for

a minute or two or three minutes. But when you've

been dead for three days and buried in the ground,

you don't need resuscitation.

You need resurrection.

And God says, I want to have that kind of power,

not resuscitation power, but resurrection power in the areas youth

like of your life that are dying or have already dead.

They're already dead, and God has not only a purpose

for your life because of the Cross and the resurrection.

But God has a power for your life which is

bigger than the problem you're going through out right now.

Let me show you a couple verses.

First Corinthians, Chapter one, Paul gives a testimony of how

God helps us when we think it is hopeless. Now

Paul says it like this. He tells his own story

of when he was ready to kick the bucket. This

is probably the greatest Christian who ever lived, next to

Jesus Christ. And Paul says, there were times when I

was so depressed. I was readister, throw in the towel,

and he says this. In Second Corinthians, we were really crushed,

and he says, we were overwhelmed, and we feared we

would never live through it. Ever felt like that he crushed, overwhelmed,

filled with fear.

He says, we didn't think we'd live through it.

We saw how powerless we were to help ourselves, and

you just go, Okay, this is not working. I do

not have the power to get done what I need

to get done in my life, I says, don't have it.

I got an energy shortage, I got the energy crisis.

I don't have the power to do what I need

to do. And then Paul says, we realized that we

were powerless to help ourselves.

But that was good.

Huh, How in the world could you feel in crushed, overwhelmed,

fearful and powerless to help yourself.

How in the world is that good?

He says, because then we put everything into the hands

of God, who alone could save us. For he can

even raise the dead. He can even raise the dead.

And he said, and God did help us, and he

saved us, and we expect him to do it again

and again and again.

But you can go all through life totally unplugged.

If you are unplugged from God's power, you will never

know God's purpose. You cannot fulfill your purpose in life

unless you're plugged into the power, the power of the resurrection.

And he says, you know, we got the point. We

were ready to just cash it all in and we

were powerless. But that was good because then we put

it all in the hands of God. And God goes, well,

thank God, you finally did it. I've been waiting for

you to get to the end of your rope so

I could take over. How about you let me have

a try and empowering and guiding your life. Now, just

be honest. Are you sick and tired of being sick

and tired? Here's what the Bible says Isaiah forty. God

gives power to those who.

Are tired and worn out, and he.

Offers strength to the weak. He said, Wait a minute,

I'm tired, I'm worn out, I'm weak. I don't feel

any power. Well, let me explain how you get that power.

You get it through faith. You get it through trust.

You get it through believing in the Son of God,

who died on the cross for you and rose again

to give you that power. You can complain to God

all you want. God is not moved by your complaints.

You can whine all you want. God is not moved

by your whining. You can gripe all you want. God

is not moved by griping. But the moment you put

trust in him, pam, God moves according to your faith.

It will be done unto you.

God honors faith, not griping, not whining, not all these

other things. He says, I'll give you that power. He said,

but Rick, you just don't know what I'm facing right now. Yeah,

you're right, You're right.

I don't.

I don't know what you're facing, but I do know

Luke eighteen twenty seven, which says this, what is impossible

with men is possible with God. What looks like a

dead end, what looks like a death is prime time

for a resurrection and a miracle. What looks like you're

never going to overcome, God can overcome like that. And

God can do more. I have seconds in your life

than you can do in five years. But you've got

to trust him. But here's the promise, and I want

you to have the same promise, the promise of purpose

and the promise of power. First Peter Chapter one. Second

Peter Chapter one. 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 he said, well, Rick,

I don't have everything I need. Well, then you just

need to get to know Jesus better. As you get

to know Jesus better, he's the source of your purpose

and he's the source of your power. Not only does that,

God have a great purpose for your life. And God

has a great power to solve your problems. God has

a great place for me after I die. We learn

that from the resurrection of Jesus.

We learn that.

There is more to life than here. And now we

learn that death is not the end. One day your

heart is gonna stop. That's gonna be the end of

your body.

But that's not gonna be the end of you.

Oh no, no, no, you were made to last forever.

And God says, I have proven that there's life after death.

I'm raising my own son.

I think Jesus knows more about the afterlife than you

do or I do, because he's been there.

And this gives us hope. Death is not the end.

And in John chapter eleven, here's what Jesus said, I

am the one who raises the dead and gives them

life again. If you're gonna come back to life after

your death, it's gonna be Jesus who does it. Nobody

else gonna do it.

It's gonna be Jesus.

He says, I am the one who raises the dead

and gives them life. How do I know that he's

telling you because he did it, nobody else did. It's

one of the most attested to miracles in history. Just

spit forty days in Jerusalem after he didn't just say

by to your friends, go back to heaven. After he

raised himself, he walked around eight meals, talk to people,

one time, train five hundred people, many many white eyewitness

accounts over forty days.

And he says, I am the one. Anyone who believes in.

Me, even though he dies, shall live again, and he

gives He has given eternal life for believing in me,

and shall never perish.

How do you get eternal life?

Not by doing good, not by going to church, not

by promising me perfect, not by.

Giving a whole lot of money to help the poor.

What he says, one thing.

You believe that Jesus can raise you back from the

dead too. You trust him as your savior. He is

the source of hope. Now let me just summarize this.

You're never going to find ultimate hope in anything you

can lose. If you want to have a hope that

gets you through the toughest times of life, you must

put your hope and put your trust.

In something that cannot be taken from you.

If you put your hope in your bank account, you

can lose your bank account. If you put your hope

in your spouse, you can lose your spouse. If you

put your hope in your health, you can lose your health,

you can lose your mind. You must never put your

hope in something that you could lose. If you put

your hope in your good looks, you've already lost them,

so that that shifts sail friend, I'm sorry. If you

put your hope in your job, it's gonna let you down.

If you put your hope in another person, they will

disappoint you.

Why because they're not God.

You have to put your hope in something or someone

that can never be taken away from you. And there's

only one thing because you can lose everything else in life,

and that is your relationship to God. Your relationship to God.

What I'm saying is that hope is not a principle.

Hope is not a product. Hope is not a program.

Hope is not a pill. I'll get this pill, then

I'll have all the hope I need. Hope is a person,

and there's only one person that you can put that

hope in, Jesus Christ. He is the hope of the world.

That's why it's split into AD and BC. That's why

your birthday is dated according to this event.

You need to get to know Jesus.

And since Jesus raised himself from the dead, and we

know that there's life after death. Here's what we have

look at the next verse, first Peter one. Now we

live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ from the dead,

so we know death's not the end. For God has

reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. That's you who've

trusted in him. It is kept in heaven for you,

pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change, in the

clay the kay and God in his mighty power, will

protect you until you receive this salvation because you are

trusting him. What does that verse say, Well, let me

summarize all in this. Once you've trusted God for salvation,

it is not your job to keep yourself saved. It's

the Savior's job to keep you safe. It says he

will protect you. He will make sure you get to heaven.

He will guard what you've given to him. When you

come to Jesus and you go God, I'm giving him

my whole life, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It's not clean up your life and then come to

Jesus like God, here's my greasy hands, my dirty hands,

my filthy hands. God just all a mess in my life.

I put my hand in your hand, and God grabs

your hand. Put your hand in the hand of the

man who's still the water, and he grabs your hand.

And then.

As life goes on, there are going to be some

moments that you don't want to hold onto God's hand. God,

I'm going to a party tonight with a bunch of unbelievers.

I'd like to not be a believer for about an hour, okay,

And I like to pull.

And you may want to let go of God's hand,

but He's not letting.

Go of yours. Once you have been saved, he will

keep you safe. That's the hope you have.

A lot of people think I don't give my life

to God because what happens if I start on it

and then I kind of mess out and screw.

Up and fail, and then I don't feel really stupid,

and then I lose my salvation. No, you won't. That's

not what the Bible says.

It is safe, secure, it's it's done, it's beyond the

reach of change.

In the ky God and his mighty power will keep

you saved. It's not your power.

He does a save it. He didn't he saves you,

He keeps you saved. You don't save yourself. So what

am I saying that the Bible tells us because of

the resurrection, we have hope because there's more to the

story than just here and now. And we have hope

because God protects your salvation and keeps it and you

can't lose it. And that causes you to face the

most difficult times in life with.

The whole new confidence. As a pastor, I have stood at.

I couldn't count the number of grave sites that I've

stood at in forty years. I couldn't count the number

of funerals that I've done. And so I'm a pretty

good expert at knowing the difference between people who have

hope and people who don't, because you can see it

in their eyes. I have been at the funerals of

people when nobody in the family knows God, nobody in

the family has the hope of the resurrection, nobody in

the family knows the hope of heaven. And for them,

they're losing this person, They're never going to see him again,

and it's over. That's it, it's over. And the terror

in their eyes.

Is something you don't want to see. I've seen it

over and over and over, and I.

Compare that to people who know the Lord that when

they use it lose a loved one who knows the Lord.

They grieve, but they're not grieving for them because they

know where they're going. They're grieving for themselves because they're

going to miss them.

And it's a whole different kind of grief. It's aggrieving

with hope.

You know, the older I get, and the more of

my family that's in heaven, and the more of my

friends that are in heaven, some great, great saints who've

been in this church for over thirty years, they're going on,

the more of my friends and family on the other side,

the more Heaven becomes attractive to me. Not to be

honest with you, when I was a young man, heaven

didn't seem very attractive to me in the first place.

No picture of it on earth is correct. I mean

the picture of heaven on earth. Right now that you

hear there's heaven, it's all white. There's no color in heaven.

There's fog up to your feet. You walk around, everybody's

in a white robe with wings playing a harp.

That would be hell.

If that's heaven, no, thanks God. I just soon have

my sunrise of sunsets and.

A cool surf.

That's not heaven. You can't even understand what heaven's going

to be like. It's so cool. Even in the world

that's broken, filled with suffering, sorrow, sadness, sickness, it's still

a pretty cool place. We're enjoying it right now outside.

Most of you know that four years ago, the week

after Easter, our family lost the youngest member, my youngest son, Matthew,

after a lifelong battle.

The mental illness, died.

And it was the worst day of my life, and

his brother and sister's life, and his mom's life, and

everybody else in our family.

Who loved him. Many times over the last four years,

I've been asked.

How did you handle that? How did you handle the

death of a son who struggled his entire life of

mental illness. I want you to listen very carefully, because

you're going to have loss in your life.

I guarantee it.

There is no life without loss, there is no loss

without pain, there is no pain without grief. You're going

to go through this in life. So somebody who loves

you as your pastor, as your spiritual coach, that's my

job to if you get ready for this kind of stuff.

And listen carefully. The way you live with hope in

the middle of pain.

Is to enlarge your perspective, to change your viewpoint, to

get your eyes off of what's happening right here and now,

shift your perspective, change your focus, and begin to live

in light of eternity. As I said, your life on

Earth shore you get maybe one hundred years. That's not

very long compared to the trillions of years you'll spend

in eternity. And so you get your eyes off the

here and now and you get it on eternity, and

you see the hope that's there.

Here's what the Bible says, look on the screen.

So we don't focus on the troubles we see right now.

Instead we look forward to what we don't see yet.

For the troubles that we see now are temporary, but

the joys that will come to last, it will last,

will last forever. I mean, even if you had a

chronic problem your entire life, it's only one hundred years

or eighty or seventy, nothing compared to thousands, tens of thousands, millions,

and trillions of years.

In eternity.

And the truth is what comforts me when I think

about the death of my son is not thinking about

the happy moments in his past, but thinking about the holy.

Moments he's having right now.

That comforts me because my hope is built on nothing

less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And because I know

where he is and if he was able to talk

to me, and he can't, but if he was, he say, Dad,

what are you worried about? This place is so cool,

It's so great. It's far better than any of discermons

you preached about it. And I can't wait for you

to get here.

That is my hope.

We live in a society today, friends, that is filled

with hopelessness. We are an epidemic of hopliness and are

lacking hope. And they're looking for hope and they want

to know where it is and where is it. It's

in God's word. It is in God's word. Look at

this next verse, people, I don't know about heaven. No

eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, no

mind has ever imagined the wonderful things that God has prepared.

For those who love him.

He has a purpose for your life right now. He

has a power to help you solve the problems tomorrow,

and he has a place for you after you die.

The reason why you can't explain heaven is because your

brain power isn't big enough to handle it. It would

be like an aunt trying to understand the Internet. We

live in a three D world, but there are dimensions

that we don't even know about. And if God built

this word world and it's all broken now from sin,

how much cooler is Heaven going to be? And so

how do I get this? How do I get a

new purpose in my life? God's purpose? How do I

get a greater power in my life? And how do

I get a greater place which becomes my ultimate hope

that even when I'm going through tough down, I'm going

this is not the end of the story. I have

read the last chapter of the book.

We Win. It doesn't always look good, but I've read

the last chapter. We Win.

Sometimes you're going through a tough time in your life,

and really what you're feeling is the world is coming

to an end. And that's the way you feel. The

world is coming to an end. No, a season may

be coming to an end, A moment in your life

may be coming to end. But it's not the end

of the world. Why because when the world ends, Jesus

is coming back, and that's our hope, that's bow our heads.

Because of the resurrection, we know for certain that God

has a great purpose for your life, has a greater

power for your problems, and has a wonderful place for

you after you die.

How do you get these benefits?

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised him from

the dead, you will be saved. That's what the Bible says.

So I want the honor and the privilege of leading

you in a very simple prayer. And it doesn't even

matter the word you say. It's that you be humble.

If you're humble for God and say God, I need you,

that's it. So just say, Dear God, say that in

your mind, Dear God, I do not want to go

through life not knowing my purpose.

Thank You that my life is not an accident.

Thank You that you planned me, whether my parents did

or not, and that You've loved me every moment of

my life.

And so today, as much as I know how.

I want to open my life to Jesus Christ who

died on the cross for me and rose again so

that I could have hope. Jesus Christ, I want to

know God's purpose for my life, and I want to

spend the rest of my life learning it and fulfilling it.

In Jesus Christ, I want to put my trust in

your power. I want to plug in starting today. I

want to stop living on my own power and start

living by your power.

I know that you are greater than any problem I face.

In Jesus Christ, I ask you to reserve a place

for me in your heaven and your home. I want

to learn to love you and to know you to

follow you. Thank you for loving me even before I

knew you. Thank you for dying for me before I

even was created, but you knew I would be and

so I humbly ask you to accept me into your family.

Then I may experience all the benefits of what you

did two thousand years ago. And I pray this prayer

in Jesus' name.

Amen.