Rick Warren - Radical Love Part 1

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. And now here's part one of a

message called Radical Love.

This Christmas, I want us to look at the most

famous verse in the Bible. It's not a very long verse,

but it is the most famous and the greatest verse

in the Bible. Billions of people over history have memorized

this verse. And of course that would have to be

John what three sixteen? John three point sixteen is the

most famous verse in the Bible. You can often find

it anywhere in our culture. Maybe you've seen this guy

like a Super Bowl games here on the on the

he ends up in the in the you know, the

end zone. Practically every score. John three sixteen guy. A

lot of athletes have to do with this. Here's Tim Tebow,

Heisman Trophy winner for the Florida Gators. Here's Austin three

sixteen the wrestler. Then maybe you've seen pictures like this.

You know Turner burn, you're gonna go to fry and die,

and you know read John three sixteen. Oh, that very

positive message right there. Did you know at the bottom

of every in and out cup? There is John three

sixteen written on the bottom of every in and out drink,

And of course on the back of Dudfield's back there

is John three sixteen. I took that when he wasn't looking,

but I just had to share it with you, So

don't tell him I had that picture, please. John three

sixteen explains the reason for Christmas. John three sixteen explains

how to get to heaven. John three sixteen explains the

entire Bible. Innocent, let's read it together, John chapter three.

For God so loved the world that he gave his

only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish,

but have everlasting life. If you only got one verse

out of the entire Bible, and you got this one right,

you're gonna make it because this one is the Gospel,

the good News in a nutshell. It is the greatest

verse in the Bible. And I want us to tear

it apart phrase by phrase. Tonight, looking at the greatest love,

the greatest sacrifice, the greatest offer, and the greatest gift,

the whole reason we give gifts at Christmases. God so

loved the world that he gave. Now, first, let's look

at the greatest love. The Bible says God so loved

the world. Now, that little word so isn't a very

big word, but in the original Greek it is what's

called an adverb of intensity, means a whole holy life.

He so loved the world. If you're a single woman

and the guy comes up to you and says I

love you, you might shine that on. If he says I

so love you, you might pay a little bit more attention.

That's an adverb of intensity. God's love for you is intense.

God's love for you is extravagant. God's love for you

is lavish. No one will ever love you as much

as God does. No man will ever love you like

God does. No woman will ever love you like God does. Now,

let me just show you a couple of verses out

of the Bible. There are hundreds of verses on the

love of God. Let me just show you a couple

about how much God loves you. Look at this one.

Ephesians chapter one says, long before he laid down the

earth's foundations, God had us in mind and settled on

us as the focus of his love. It says there

that before God even made the universe, he already had

you in mind, and he made you to love you.

The only reason you exist is you were made to

be loved by God. And God planned the universe so

that you could exist because he wanted a family. And

God made you to love you. Now that's not hard

to understand if you're a parent. I used to tell

my kids, and now I tell my grandkids, I loved

you before you were born, because I did when my

wife was carrying our three children. I didn't know if

it was going to be a boy or girl, but

I still loved him. I loved him in advance. And

God loved you even before he created you. You were

in his mind. He's always loved you, not only that,

he loves you every minute. Look at the next verse.

The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on

all his creation. Now doesn't say he showers compassion just

on this religion, or on just this nation, or on

this kind of people. He says. The Lord is good

to everyone. He showers his compassion on all his creation.

And everything in your life is actually a gift from God.

Now you take it for granted, you probably never even

thank God for it. But for instance, like air is

a gift. You know, you wouldn't last very long without air,

But I doubt you've ever said God, thank you for air.

But you have to have it. The air you breathe,

the water you drink. Your body's over ninety percent water,

the sunshine, the food, all of these things are gifts

of God. Your heart beating is a gift of God.

You wouldn't take your next breath if God hadn't planned

for you to take it. Because He loves you. Everything

in your life is a free gift of God of grace,

whether you ever recognize it or not. And maybe you

need to be a little bit more grateful for all

the things in your life that God has given you,

including your life. So God's love for you is eternal,

and God's love for you is literally everywhere. But the

most important thing is that it's unconditional. And that's different

than human love. Human love wears out, human love doesn't

always work out We know that at Christmas times, when

you try to put fractured families back together, it's kind

of like, well, where we go in this year and

who we're going where to? And there's a lot of

broken relationships that often show up at holiday seasons because

human love wears out, but God's love never wears out.

There is no condition where God will ever stop loving you.

That's called unconditional love. Look at this verse, nothing in

all creation is able to separate us from the love

of God, that is in Christ Jesus. It says nothing,

nothing can separate you from God's love. You can't make

God stop loving you. You can try, but you will fail.

Because God's love is based on who you are. It's

based on who he is. It's not based on what

you do. It's not based on your performance. God isn't

waiting for you to be nice and to act right

for him to love you. His love is based on

who he is. He loves you on his bad days

and on your bad days. He loves you on your

good days. He loves you when you feel it, when

you don't feel it. In fact, a thousand years ago,

in fact, before God even created the universe, God knew

you would be in a saddleback church on Christmas Eve

service so he can get you to be quiet long enough,

just so he could say this to you. You matter

to me, and I love you. I have always loved you.

I loved you before you were born. I thought you up,

I created you, I saw you take your first breath,

I saw you formed in your mother's womb. I've seen

the good, the bad, and the ugly in your life,

and I've never stopped loving you because my love for

you is unconditional. Now, God's love, if you tap into it,

is sufficient to handle any problem in your life. It's

multi dimensional. In fact, look at the next verse. The

Bible says, may you be able to feel and understand

how long, how wide, how deep, and how high God's

love really is, and it experienced this love for yourselves. Notice,

God says, I don't want you to just know that

I love you. I want you to experience it. You see,

if you go, oh, yeah, I know God loves me.

I know that big deal. So what then you've never

You've never experienced it. Because when you experience the unconditional, eternal, lavish,

outrageous love of God, it changes your life and if

you just say, oh, yeah, I know God loves me,

you don't really understand it at all. You may have

a head knowledge, but you don't have a heart knowledge

of it. He says, I want you to experience the

love of God, and that is my prayer for you.

He says, I want you to know how wide and

long and high and deep it is. How long is

God's love long enough to last forever? How wide is

God's love wide enough to be everywhere you're going to be.

How deep is God's love deep enough to handle any problem?

How high is God's love high enough to overcome any barrier.

God can overcome a barrier of a foreclosure. God can

overcome a barrier of a job loss. God can overcome

a barrier of a cancer. God can overcome a barrier

of a loss of a loved one or a death

or divorce. God is saying, I love you so much now.

The second part of John three point sixteen tells us

about the greatest sacrifice. God so loved the world that

he gave his only begotten son. Now, God so loved

that he gave. Love and giving go together. You can

give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Giving

is the essence of love. You spell love, give, and

the Bible says God so loved the world that he

gave his only begotten son to come to earth and

die for us. Now you've heard the expression, if you

want something done right, do it yourself. And that's exactly

what God did. He said, I'm going to go myself

and solve this sin problem on earth. I'm going to

go myself and die for the forgiveness of sins of everybody.

I'm so glad. It doesn't say God so loved the

world that he sent an avatar. God so loved the

world that he sent an angel. God so loved the

world that he sent an ambassador. God so loved the

world that he sent a telegram. Doesn't say God so

loved the world that he sent a nice guy, a prophet,

a poet. That doesn't say God so loved the world

that he sent a great teacher. It says he sent

his son. Who was his son, Who was that baby

in a manger two thousand and nine years ago? He

was God in human form. Notice what the Bible says.

The Bible says Christ is the visible image of the

invisible God. Now, why did God come to Earth in

human form because he wanted to communicate to us, so

he became one of us. If God had wanted to

communicate to Ansik would have become an. If God had

wanted to communicate the cows, he would have become a cow.

God had wanted to communicate to birds, he could have

become a bird. But God wanted to communicate to human beings,

so he became one of us. God with skin on it.

Do you ever want to know what God looks like,

take a long look at Jesus. Jesus said this next verse,

He said, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

He said, if you've seen me, you've seen God. I'm

God coming to Earth in human form. And it split

history into AD and BC. It's the most significant event

because God invaded Earth. And the nice thing about it

is that God didn't meet us halfway. He didn't say

I'll meet you half way. You got a problem. No,

he said, I'll come all the way. I'll come to

Earth and I'll become like one of you. Now, why

did God come to Earth as a baby? I mean you,

figure of all the ways God could have presented himself

to Earth, I can think of a lot more spectacular

ways on a baby in a barn. I mean, that's

a pretty humble, lowly approach for God to enter the world. Well,

I'll tell you why he came as a baby, Because

God came to save us, not to scare us, and

nobody's afraid of a baby. There are a lot of

ways God could have come to Earth that would have

scared us all to death. I mean, if you've ever

seeing you know, any of the movies like Close Encounters

with the Third Kind or V or you know, Independence Day.

God could have come down in a giant spaceship or whatever.

He could have really freaked us all out. But he

came as a baby because nobody's afraid of a baby,

and he didn't come to scare us. He came to

save us. The problem is is that most of us,

in our minds, get stuck in that mentality, and some

people won't let Jesus grow up. Their whole mentality is

the baby Jesus, meek and mild and the major because

he's harmless and he's controllable. They don't want to think

that he grew up and went to the cross and

died and suffered for our sins and then demanded allegiance.

If Jesus had just stayed as a baby, we wouldn't

need to need to worship and have Christmas services because

it would be irrelevant. Christmas without the Cross has no

message at all. Now, Jesus came to earth. God came

to earth in human form, in the form of Jesus,

to do several things. One to show us what God

is really like. Two to tell us the truth, three

to show us the way, four to show us how

to live a model life. But the number one reason

Jesus came to earth the Christmas is he came to die.

He was born to die, to die for our sins.

The Bible says, this look on the screen. God put

his love on the line for us. In other words,

he put his money where his mouth. He just didn't

say I love you, He showed it. God put his

love on the line for us by offering his son

in sacrificial death. This is the sacrifice he did while

we were of no use whatsoever whatever to him. Jesus

didn't have to die for you. He didn't have to

die for me. God wasn't obligated to die on the

cross for us. He did it because he loved us.

God so loved the world that he gave his only

begotten son. Now why did he have to do that? Well,

there's a real simple reason for it. God wants you

to be in heaven with him when you die. But

Heaven is a perfect place and you're not. And by

the way, neither am I. Heaven is a perfect place.

The Bible says, there's no sin in heaven, no suffering

in heaven, no sorrow in heaven, no sickness in heaven,

no sadness in heaven, no trials, temptations, no problems. There's

no greed, there's no envy, there's no anger, there's no lust,

there's no sin in heaven. It is a perfect place.

Now there's a problem. I stopped being perfect about the

fourth or fifth breath of my life, and so did you.

I stopped batting a thousand a long time ago. So

if God lets all of us into Heaven being imperfect,

it's not going to be a perfect place anymore. Unless

we are changed before we get to heaven. Heaven wouldn't

be any different than earthf all of a sudden, we

all go there with our lust, with our judgments, with

our pettiness, with our self sinnedness and with all of

our other sins, Heaven would be no different than earth.

So how do you get in perfect people into an

eternal heaven. Somebody has to do a transformation process. And

Jesus said, I'll go to earth. I'll die for their sins,

pay for them all, so they don't have to pay

for them. They could get in on my ticket. I

read this week about a Christmas letter to Santa Claus

for this little boy. He said, Dear Santa, there are

three little boys who live at our house. There's Jeffrey,

he's two, There's David, he's four, And there's Norman he's seven.

Jeffrey is good some of the time, David is good

some of the time. Norman is good all of the time.

I am Norman. You know that's the problem. The reason

why we need a savior is you ain't Norman, and

neither am I. None of us are Norman. None of

us bat a thousand, none of us are perfect. None

of us have never shoot. I don't measure up to

my own standards, much less God's perfection, and neither do you,

And so we need a savior. The Bible says at

the First Christmas, the Angel said, unto you is born

this day a savior who can get you into heaven.

Who is Christ, the Lord the Friends. Believe me, if

you didn't need a savior to get in heaven, God

sure wouldn't have wasted the time to send one. All

of the suffering, all of the sorrow, all of the

sadness that God went through when he sent his son

to die on the cross. Do you think if there

was any other way God wouldn't have used that way

to pay for your sins? Of course he would have.

When Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross, he

was saying, this is how much I love you. I

love you this much. And when they nailed the nails

into his hands, he was saying, I love you so

much it hurts. I love you so much. I'd rather

die than live without you. I love you. It was

love in the first degree. What was going on there

when Jesus is hanging on the cross, dying for the

sins of man, Well, look at this verse on the screen.

The Bible says it like this. When Jesus served as

a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem

for good. Not only ours, but the whole world. Man,

that's good news. That is the greatest sacrifice. And why

did he do it? Because he loves you and he

wants you in his family and he wants you in heaven.

But it's perfect and you're not. You know, when I

take my kids, our grandkids now to Disneyland, I love

to take them and the two oldest ones a Kaylee

is six years old, and she wants to go on

some of the adult rides at Disneyland. But there's some

of the rides there that says you must be this

tall to ride. Do you know what I'm talking about.

There's a little sign that says you must be this

tall to get on this ride. And no matter how

much he stands on her tiptoes, she's not tall enough.

And no matter how much I can plain sucks. I'm

the grandfather. I will hold her in my lap. She'll

be okay. They won't let her ride because she's not

tall enough. Friend, there's a sign outside of it says

this is a perfect place. You must be this tall

to get in perfect and you're not, and neither am I.

And somebody's got to make up the difference. So this

was God's plan. Look at the verse on the screen.

God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins,

and then in exchange, he poured God's goodness into us.

That's the only chance I have in getting into heaven.

And so if I only make it up this tall

because I'm not perfect, Jesus makes up the difference. His

righteousness takes care of all of us. So what really happens.

He showed his love by dying for our sins. Now

that's the greatest sacrifice. The next is the greatest offer.

Look at the third part of the verse. God so

loved the world greatest love that he gave his only

begotten son. That's the greatest sacrifice. Come to the greatest offer,

that whosoever believes in him should not perish. Now, God

has an incredible offer for you. And of course you've

been getting all kinds of Christmas offers all season. You've

been deluged by Here's how to save this money, here's

how you can save this Here I can say that

I decided, at the beginning of this Christmas season, I

would collect every Christmas catalog I got in my mailbox,

just to add them up. And I got them all

and at the end of the season, I had one

hundred and fourteen catalogs. Here they are right here. It's

over forty pounds of Christmas catalogs that came in my mailbox. Now,

I've always been fascinated by these guys who do this

target marketing, who they can figure out what kind of

catalog you need, and sometimes they're really right on. Now,

it obviously didn't take a mental giant to figure out

the first catalog which I got this season was missus

Field's Cookies, So I didn't take Big Brother to figure

out Sen Warren missus Field's Cookies catalog, so they were

right on that. The second catalog I got was Hickory Farms. Hey,

you right well that that's a pretty good one. The

third one, though, by the time they got to the

third catalog, they were really off base because it was

follow your Innerstar American Girl. I had no need for

that one. And then the really goofy one. For those

of you who don't tend saddle back regularly. I don't

wear socks and somebody sent me a sock catalog. What

a total wasted thing is? I Mean, I can't believe

a sock company, but Anyway, I added up all of

the offers that were made to me and all the

Christmas catalogs in this season, and I discovered that if

I would take advantage of all these offers, I would

save tens of thousands of dollars. Now, I'd have to

spend hundreds of thousands, but I could save tens of

thousands of dollars. But when I decided how much I'd

have to spend in order to get the savings, I

realized I can't afford the saving. On the other hand,

God has an offer for you this Christmas. It's a

Christmas offer that you can't afford not to accept. It

is the offer to save you. You for unto you

is born this day a savior. Whoever believes in him

should not perry.

Such a great message by Rick today and every day.

I sure hope you were just as encouraged as I was.

And now here's Rick with a special message.

I know I tell you this all the time, but

again I want you to know how much I thank

God for you and appreciate your support of daily hope.

We couldn't do this without your prayers, and we can't

do it without your financial gifts and I know that

for many of you this is a real sacrifice in

order to be able to support the ministry of Daily

Hope as we take the message of Christ literally around

the world into places that nobody else is going to.

As you consider your year in giving, I want to

ask you to consider about sending your greatest gift to

Daily Hope that you've ever given. You know, the great

news is that in this month your financial gift will

be doubled because a generous friend is offering one hundred

thousand dollars matching grant and they've challenged all of the

rest of us to give as much as we can

and they will match it up to one hundred thousand dollars.

That means that every dollar you give to Daily Hope

in December, up to one hundred thousand dollars will be doubled.

You give twenty five dollars, it's like giving fifty dollars,

and if you give one hundred dollars, it's like giving

two hundred dollars. And if you're able to give a

thousand dollars or more, it will be doubled. Your generosity,

and of course Christmas is all about the spirited generosity

God so loved the world that he gave. Your generosity

makes this ministry possible. It allows us to reach into

refugee camps, It allows us to reach out around the

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So your donations matter. Let me ask you a personal favor.

Don't forget to pray for us during this season we're

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it helps me realize we truly are partnering together in

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that none of us could do on our own. We

are more effective together, we're better together.

This matching grant is only available until midnight on December

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dot com. That's Pastorick dot com, or you can just

text the word hope to seven oh three oh nine.

That's 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

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