Rick Warren - Radical Freedom—Part One

Hi, this is Rick Warren. Did you know that the

best gift you can give anybody is to bring them

into a relationship with Jesus Christ? And did you know

that the best time to do that is a Christmas

Here's what I want to challenge you to do. I

want you to make a Christmas list of people. Think

of all the people who you know who don't know

Jesus or who might know Jesus but don't go to

church anywhere. And I want you to start praying for them.

And then I want you to invite those people you've

prayed for to come to a Christmas Eve or Christmas

Day service at your church.

Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is

the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, We're so

glad you've joined us. Today. We're continuing a powerful series

called Radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots. And in this series, Rick

will show you how to grow deep in your faith,

stay grounded in God's word, and become everything He created

you to be. Now here's part one of a message

called Radical Freedom.

Now, if I were to ask you, what is America's

first freedom? It's commonly referred to as the first freedom,

and yet many people couldn't name the first freedom of America.

It is in the First Amendment, and it is the

first mentioned in the First Amendment. The first freedom of

America is freedom to worship. Freedom to worship. All the

others come second, third, fourth, and fifth. It's number one

in the Constitution. In fact, in the Bill of Rights,

the First Amendment says this here on the screen, Congress

shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or

prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Now, notice the first phrase

of the First Amendment has two things about worship. First,

it says, government cannot tell us how to worship. Government

cannot establish a religion and say everybody, you all have

to worship that way. It prevents the government from telling

us how we're to worship. They may not establish an

official religion and force us all to worship that way. Second,

it says, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, government cannot

tell us when, where, or how we are to worship. Now,

after that, it says, yeah, you could collap for that.

That's a good thing, and that's what makes America unique. Now,

after that, it gives four others. These are called the

five great freedoms of America. First is freedom of worship.

Then it says or of the press, or the rights

of the people to peaceably assembly and to petition the

government for a redress of grievances, of bridging the freedom

of speech or the press, or these other things. In

other words, there are five great freedoms in America. The

first freedom is the freedom to worship any way we

want to to honor God, when, how where we want

to worship. And then come freedom of speech, freedom of

the press, freedom to assemble, and freedom to petition the

government if we think they're doing something wrong. Now, why

is the freedom of worship the first freedom of America

Because America's first immigrants came here for that reason. The

Pilgrims who came in sixteen twenty, our founding fathers came

in sixteen twenty were evangelicals. They're what you and I

believe about Jesus and about the Bible. They were evangelical Pilgrims,

and they left England because of religious persecution because England

had an official religion, a state church, It had a

Church of England. And they said, we want to have

the right to worship any way. We want to worship.

And so the first people who immigrated to America came

here not for political freedom, not for any other. They

came here for one in one purpose only, freedom to

worship God. And so our founding fathers came here to

set that up. And as a result, when the Constitution

was written, the very first freedom guaranteed is the freedom

to worship. Now, this weekend, I want to look at

something far, far deeper than political freedom or even the

freedom to worship. I want us to look at what

it means to be spiritually free, because most people aren't

spiritually free. They're all bound up inside. They've got stress,

they've got worry, they've got fatigue, boredom, bitterness, guilt, resentment, regrets, fears, anxieties,

and all these kind of things that bind us up.

They're not living lives of freedom. They're in a free country,

but they're not personally free. So I want us to

look at spiritual freedom this weekend. Jesus said it like

this in John chapter eight. He said, if the sun

sets you free, you will be free. Indeed, that's what

Jesus said. If the son, who's the son Jesus Christ,

he's talking about himself. He says, if I set you free,

you're gonna be free. Indeed, what does free indeed mean?

It means really really really really really free. And yet

most people I know, even Christian believers who follow Christ,

aren't really free. So what I want us to do

this week it is two things. What does it mean

to be set free by Jesus? What is radical freedom?

Where you live a free, open life? Jesus Christ did

not come to make your religious. He came to make

you free. What does that mean? And then we're going

to look at how do I get it? Now? What

is radical freedom? If you'll take out your message notes?

Jesus said in John eight, if the sun sets you free,

you will be free. Indeed, you're going to be really

really free. Today, I don't want to talk about the

five freedoms of the First of Men, and I want

to talk about the five freedoms that Jesus gives you

because he is your savior. What really happens to you

when you come to know him? And what is available

to you? Because many of you you've put your faith

in Christ, but you don't realize what He's given you,

and you haven't claimed that free gift What is radical freedom?

Five things? Number one, It is a clear conscience. That's

the first freedom of the Christian life. A clear conscience.

It means all my guilt is wiped out, All my

sins are forgiven. All the things I've ever done wrong

are not only forgiven, they are forgotten. The Bible says,

God puts them in the deepest part of the sea

and then puts up in no fish and sign They're

not just out of sight, they're out of mind. God

wipes the slate cleanness like a sketch. You mess it

all up, and you shake it upside down, and you

can't see anything anymore. God takes a giant eraser and

wipes out everything you've ever done wrong or ever will

do wrong. Now that's good news. Why is that freedom?

Because doctors tell us that guilt and resentment, in other words,

guilt because of the things I've done to you and

resentment over the things you've done to me are the

two most destructive emotions in your life, and they burden

you down. You cannot be guilty and happy at the

same time. It is impossible. Friends, even if there were

no such thing as heaven, and of course there is,

But even if there weren't, it would be a good

thing to give your life to Christ and trusting for forgiveness,

just to get a clear conscience, to be able to

wake up and go, Man, I don't have to worry

about that anymore. It's all over, it's done, it's paid for.

It doesn't mean I'm perfect, you're not and I'm not.

It means I'm forgiven and I have a clear conscience.

I saw a sign on a gas station one time,

and it said a clean engine gives more power. That's

true with a conscience too. The reason so many people

are tired and fatigued all the time is because they're

carrying a garbage bag of guilt over their shoulder through life.

And God said, a long time ago, let it go.

This is the first freedom. The Bible says in Colossians

one fourteen. God has purchased our freedom with his blood

and has forgiven most of our sins. Doesn't say that,

does it. It says all, circle all. He's forgiven all

our sins. Now. I looked up this word in a

Greek lexicon, and the Greek word for all means all

what is not included in that nothing, It's all included

everything you've ever done wrong or ever will do wrong,

is forgiven. That's freedom. That's radical freedom. Radical freedom means

a clear conscience. Now it says God has purchased our freedom.

You know, we know this, but so often we don't

act like it. We take it for granted. How did

Jesus purchase our freedom? Well, he paid for it with

his life. Let me show you some verses. Look up

here on the screen. The Bible says in Ephesians one,

by the death of Christ, we are set free. There's

that phrase again. Jesus came not to make you religious,

but to set you free. We are set free. That is,

in other words, our sins are forgiven. Jesus paid for

all your sins, so you don't have to pay for him.

He was hung up for your hang ups. Look at

this verse. The Bible says no Psalm thirty four, the

Lord redeems his servants. No one will be condemned who

takes refuge in him. It says, the Lord redeems. You

know what the word redeem means. It means to pay

for somebody's freedom. And that's what Jesus Christ did for you.

He paid for your freedom from guilt. He paid for

your freedom from regret. He paid for your freedom from shame,

so you can stop beating yourself up again over and over.

Let me show you another verse. The Bible says in

First Corinthians one to eight. God will keep you free.

There's that word, keep you free. Not just make you free,

but keep you free from all blame on that great

day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. Now, let me

tell you something. A lot of you have a picture

in your mind, and it's an inner, erroneous picture that

when you get to heaven, there's going to be this

imax theater that shows your life to everybody and is

going to reveal every secret evil, could mean, bad, nasty

thing you've ever done, the stuff we don't know about yet,

to be incredibly embarrassed, and you're gonna see feel all

the blame for all the things you've done wrong, thought wrong,

said wrong. But the Bible says there he will keep

you from that blame. That ain't gonna happen. If you

put your trust in Christ, he will keep you from

all blame on that day. He's what's in. It was

wiped out a long time ago. Jesus Christ paid for

it on the cross. Now here's the question, why do

you keep blaming yourself for stuff God's already forgiven? Huh?

Tell me the logic of that one. Why do you

keep beating yourself up over and over for stuff that

God has already forgiven? Do you realize what that is?

When you hold on to your guilt? That is an

insult to Jesus Christ. You are insulting Jesus. You're saying,

Jesus what you did on the cross, and we looked

at that for seven weeks last spring when you died

on the cross, when I said it was enough, I

need to punish myself too. You are insulting Jesus by

holding onto guilt. Should a believer in Christ ever feel guilty? Yeah,

for about a nanosecond. In other words, I say something

evil or wrong to Kay and the moment God's spirit

says that was dumb. I need to confess it and

then not feel guilty about it. God Is will for

your life is not that you carry a load of guilt.

He wants you to be free. Radical freedom is a

clear conscience. Is that good news? Oh? Yeah, that's good news.

Doesn't mean you're perfect, it does mean you're forgiven. Number two.

Radical freedom means personal access to God. This is a

big one, personal access to God. It's the second of

the five Great freedoms God gives us. When Jesus says,

I'll set you free if you'll trust me, I get

personal access to God. You know, some of you know

that sometimes it's kind of hard to get to me

because a lot of people want to meet with me

or call me. But my secretary knows that if my

kids call, they have direct access. My kids don't have

to call up. Our grandkids for that matter, don't have

to call up and say I'd like an appointment with

Pastor Rick, I'd like to have a phone appointment with

my dad. They don't have to do that. They know

that anytime any place, I'm happy to see them. They

can walk into any meeting because they are my kids

and I love them, and so they have direct access.

That's the kind of access you get when you get

into the family of God. A few times in life,

I've had the fun experience of going to like a

major rock concert and they'll give me a badge that

says all access. Yes, those things are worth a lot

of money. I could sell an all access badge to

a rock concert for thousands of dollars. When you get

an all access badge to a concert or something like that,

I mean as you can walk around anywhere, nobody's gonna

stop you. You can hobnob with the Hoi poloi and

you know, and you know, just hang out wherever you

want to do it. When you become a believer, you

put your faith in Jesus Christ. God gives you an

all access pass to Him. You don't have to get

an invitation, you don't have to get an introduction, you

don't have to have a big idea on your mind.

You got all access to God twenty four hours a day. Anytime.

You got an all access badge because now you're a

child of God. Now, let's say you had access to

the President of the United States or the Pope or

some famous person, and you knew at at any time

of the day you could walk into the Oval office

and talk to the President, or you could talk to

somebody about whatever's on your mind. That'd be a big deal.

But this is an even bigger deal. When you accept

Christ into your life, God gives you all access to Heaven.

You get direct personal access to the creator of the universe.

Nothing's bigger than that. And as I said, you don't

need an introduction. You don't have to pray through Mary,

you don't have to pray through saints. You don't need

a priest or pastor to kind of give you an introduction.

Sometimes people will say, Rick, pray for me, like my

prayers are better than yours. They're not. They're not. You

have the same direct access that I do because you're

a child of God. You don't need an introduction, you

don't need an invitation. You can talk to Him anytime,

and you can talk to him for any reason. Look

at these verses. The Bible says, in Christ and through

faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom. There's

the second freedom, with freedom and confidence. Now circle through

faith in Him. Because what I'm telling you right now

is this all access to God. God just doesn't give

that to anybody. The whole world doesn't have direct access

to God. That's a myth. They don't. God gives direct access,

personal access to himself through his son Jesus Christ. Only

those who put their faith in his son, who've trusted

in him, have that direct access. God just doesn't give

out all direct access passes to everybody. Now, the Bible

says this, look here on the screen Hebrews four sixteen.

Let us then feel free. That's the second freedom. Let

us feel free to come before God's thrown. How do

you do that? How do you come before God's thrown?

You pray? You don't have to say any of these

and now, so you don't have to have any fancy words.

You don't have to have any certain ritual. You just

come to Goddess as a father, our father, who are

in heaven, Daddy Abbah. You just come as a child,

our father. Let us feel free to come before God's throne.

Here there is grace, and we can receive mercy and

grace to help us when we need it. Is that

good news? Oh yeah, that's good news. So why am

I free? Because first, everything I've done wrong in the

past is forgiven and forgotten. And second, no matter what

I face today, I can talk to God about it instantly. Lord,

I'm going into Costco right now and I need some help.

I'm tempted to buy everything. You know, you can talk

to God anytime anywhere. You can talk them to stop light.

You don't have to close your eyes. You have personal

access to God. Now here's my question about this one.

Why don't you take advantage of this more often? If

you could talk to anybody in the world anytime of

the day. Well, let's say, you know, you needed help

on something and God says I'm here anytime that. Why

don't you take advantage of that more often? Why don't

you talk to him more often? Jesus said, you have

not because you ask not. Every prayer doesn't have to

end in Jesus's name. Amen, You can keep a running

prayer going throughout the day. You just keep talking to

God all the time. And you know, and you know,

sometimes you're talking with a friend and then you don't

see him for a day, and when you pick up

the conversation, you just pick up where you left off.

You can do that with God all the time. Clear conscience,

personal access to God. Number three, Radical freedom. What Jesus

wants you to be free from is the power to

do what's right. Radical freedom is the power to do

what's right. Now. I need to explain this because most

people have a limited, actually a quite immature view or

definition of freedom. Most people think freedom means no rules,

that's freedom. You know, I've always laughed at kids. Who

who said, you know, I can't wait till I graduate

because then I'm going to be free from my parents

and all their authority. Well that's just fantastic. Okay. Now

what are you going to do after you graduate? Oh?

I'm joining the army? Hello, little hammer, big hammer. Okay, okay.

You will always have authority over you in your life.

Get used to it. It may be a boss, it

may be the government, it may be, but you're gonna

have to serve somebody at some point. Nobody has unlimited life.

There are limitations in every area of life. But a

lot of people think freedom means no borders, no boundaries,

no rules, no regulations, no restrictions, no limits. Now let

me explain this to you very clearly. Freedom is not

the absence of limits. Freedom is the power God graciously

gives you to say yes and no, to say yes

to the right things and to say no to the

things that mess up your life. Freedom is more than

the restriction limitations taken off. Freedom is the power to

do the right thing, the power to do what's good,

the power to stop doing self destructive things that you'd

like to stop but you can't. You see, freedom is

far more positive and far more powerful than simply no limits,

no rules, no regulations. Want you to write this down

on your outline. Freedom is the power to say both

yes and no. Wow.

Thank you Rick for that amazing message. And you know

people are being transformed by these messages every day, but

that's only because of your partnership with us. In fact,

here's Rick to share some important news with you.

Let's be honest about this time of year. At the

end of every year, there are so many ministries that

ask for you to support them in the end of

your giving. And you know what, we believe in every

ministry that proclaims the name of Jesus, and we thank

God for them. And I know it can be difficult

to decide who to give to, So let me just

give you some biblical foundations for giving, some simple guidelines

for end of your giving. You might think of these

three or four things. Number one, give to the ministry

that God tells you to support. Go to God, pray

to him, ask him, say God, who do you want

me to support? And you know what, I support you

giving to whoever God tells you to give to. And

if it's not daily, hope, I still support you to

give to who God tells you to give to, So

pray and ask God. Second, never give when you feel pressured.

The Bible says in Corinthians that we are to never

give under pressure or compulsion or under guilt. So if

you ever feel guilty about giving, don't give because God

tells you in the Word not to give at that time.

Give because you want to give, not out of guilt

or pressure. Number three, give to where you support and

believe in the goals of that particular ministry. Now every

ministry has different goals. But if you believe in and

have a heart for going to the last, the least,

and the loss, this would be a ministry you should

consider supporting and then finally give where your gift will

be multiplied. For instance, at the end of every year,

there is a donor to Daily Hope who offers to

give a matching grant to apply to any donation that

we receive before the end of the year. Now what

this means is that for every dollar you're able to

give this month the Daily Hope, it's going to be

doubled that donor will match it. That multiplies your gift.

Like the little boy who brought his loaves and fishes

to Jesus and Jesus faed the five thousand. If you

give twenty five dollars to Daily Hope this month, the

matching grant will match it at twenty five dollars. If

you're able to give one hundred dollars, the matching grant

will add another one hundred dollars that multiplies your gift.

I would consider that as a factor in where to

give during this month. Now, let me just say this.

If you can't help us financially, that's okay, I understand,

but I would ask that you pray for us. I'm

so great thankful for those of you who are a

financial supporter of this ministry. That monthly giving, month after month.

It means so much to me, it means much to God,

but it means so much for eternity to those who

are hearing the good news for the very first time.

And so you and I are partners together in reaching

people for Christ all around the world. In closing, let

me just ask you to continue to pray pray for

me as I pray for you, and pray that God's

word will be taught clearly with compassion, with clarity, with

simplicity in this New Year, and that it will not

only help you as you listen to these broadcasts, but

it will help us reach people for Christ and disciple

believers and build churches all around the world, especially in

the tribes that have never heard the name of Christ.

Thanks for your generosity, thanks for your prayers, and God

bless you.

All this month. Every dollar you give to help Daily

Hopes share the transforming love of Jesus with people around

the world will be matched up to one hundred thousand dollars.

You can give right now by going to Pastorrick dot com,

or you can just text the word hope to seven

oh three oh nine. Again, that's Pastorick dot com. Or

just text the word hope to seven oh three oh

nine and thank you so much for your support. 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.