Rick Warren - Radical Joy—Part One

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. All right, now, here's part one of

a message called Radical Joy.

We're going to continue in this series We've been doing

on Radicalis and we're looking at deepening spiritual roots. And

today I want us to look at deepening the root

of radical joy. At the very first Christmas, the very

first thing the Angel said was behold, I bring you

good news of great joy. It didn't say great faith,

great love, great peace, great obedience, great joy. Joy is

to characterize our lives in following Jesus Christ from the

very first message at Christmas.

Joy to the world.

The Lord has come, I bring you good news of

great joy. All through scripture, jesus ministry was characterized by joy.

Everywhere he went and healed people and spoke. It says

the people were filled with joy when he sent the

disciples out in the seventy two out it says they

returned with joy. When Jesus was resurrected on the Eastern morning,

it says the disciples and the women who were following

them were filled with joy. The Bible says that the

new Church that was formed in Jerusalem, the first Christian group,

it says they worshiped with great joy. Paul talks about

in the New Testament. He says, whenever I pray for you,

I pray with joy, with great joy. In fact, the

Bible says in Luke fifteen that every time one person

steps across the line spiritually puts their faith in Christ,

gives their life to Jesus, there is joy in heaven.

It says they have a party in heaven. They had

a party in heaven when you gave your life to Christ.

Time anybody does that, there's joy in heaven. Now a

lot of people think that the following Christ is all

about rules and regulations and rituals and things like that,

but actually it's to be about joy. The Bible says

in Romans chapter fourteen, They're on your outline. Verse seventeen.

It says the Kingdom of God is not a matter

of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy

in the Holy Spirit. What's he saying there? The deeper

roots you build into Christ, the more joy you're going

to have in your life. You look around, most people

aren't enjoying life. They're not enjoying it, they're enduring it.

Most of the people on movies, most of the people

on TV shows, they're not joyful people. They're depressed people.

They're sad people, they're cynical people. They're just going through

the motions in life. They don't go through the life

with joy. And yet the Bible says the Kingdom of

God is not about rules and regulations and rituals and

eating and what you drink and all that. He says,

it's about joy in the Holy Spirit. And Paul says

in Philippians chapter one, he says, I will continue with

you so that you will grow and experience the joy

of your faith. Did you know that the more that

you grow in Christ and the deeper roots you get,

the more joyful God will make you in your heart.

When I have not joy in my life, it means

at that point I'm living a shallow relationship with Christ,

because the deeper my relationship is with the Lord the deeper.

My joy will be to be radically joyful means to

be joyful all the time. Anybody can be joyful when

things are going good. Anybody can be happy when things

are going great. But radical joy is what is talked

about in Philippians four, verse four, which says this always

always be full of joy in the Lord. I say

it again, rejoice. Now leave that on the screen. From

it and if you look on your outline, that verse

is there. I want you to circle two things. First,

circle always, because that's rare joy. How is it possible

to always be joyful? I mean, in spite of all

the things that are happening in life. It says, always

be full of joy. And here's the key in the Lord.

Circle that phrase in the Lord. That phrase in the

Lord or in Christ is Paul's favorite description of what

it means to follow Jesus. It's used one hundred and

sixty seven times in the New Testament. In fact, the

word Christian is only used a couple times in the Bible. Instead,

the Bible calls us in Christ and over and over

in the Bible. If you ever do a study on this,

every time it says in Christ it's going to show

you a benefit. There is a benefit for being in Christ,

for putting my faith in Christ, for loving Christ, for

being a part of Christ's family, being a part of

what Jesus meant me to be. Now, it says rejoice

in the Lord. It doesn't say rejoice in your circumstance. Now,

let's just admit it. This last year was a pretty

tough year. Everybody want to agree with that. It's a

tough year, very tough year. He's not saying rejoice over

the tough year. He's not saying rejoice or be joyful

in your circumstance. He's saying, in spite of it, you

rejoice in the Lord. Now, how do we do that? Well, Fortunately,

we have a chapter in the Bible called Romans chapter eight,

And in Romans chapter eight we have the six reasons

for radical joy. Six reasons that we can always be

joyful no matter how hard life gets, no matter how

tough the circumstances are. Know how matter how difficult the problems,

no matter how much life stinks, or whatever God says,

you can be joyfulness because of these six things. Now,

the first reason is in the first verse of Romans

chapter eight and the Bible says that if I'm in Christ,

that's the key. If I'm in Christ, God has completely

forgiven me. God has completely forgiven me no guilt, no shame,

no remorse, no regrets, because God has wiped it out.

That's a good reason for joy.

Romans eight, verse one says this, there is now no condemnation,

no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Now.

I looked up this word no in the original Greek,

and it is the strongest negative possible in Greek. It

means no, no, no, no, no, no in a thousand years,

not in a million years, not a chance in your lifetime, never, never, never,

it ain't gonna happen, not a zero zip. No, it's

not gonna happen. No condemnation, no no, He's saying, don't

even think about it.

Now.

That's so important because the number one reason people lose

their joy is guilt. Guilt and shame are kill joys.

You cannot be happy and guilty at the same time.

You cannot be joyful and living in regret at the

same time. It is a kill joy that robs you

of joy. And God doesn't want you to be robbed

of joy. Now, of course none of us are perfect,

so we've all made mistakes, so we all have legitimate

reasons to feel regrets, to feel guilt, and maybe even

to feel shame. And the result is most people live

their lives in self condemnation, and that's why they're not joyful.

They're going around saying, well, I should be better, I

should be different, I should do this, I should do that,

I must do this, and they're always shoulding themselves, always

shoulding themselves, and they live in this constant sense of guilt, shame, regret, remorse.

You see, the way God wired.

You, because you're a human being, is that when you

violate your conscience, it figures out a way to get even.

You may not like that. You may try to overthrow it,

but it doesn't work. You may try to rationalize it

and tell yourself in your mind what you did was okay,

when in your heart you know it's wrong, and that's

telling yourself rational lies. But it doesn't work. When you

violate your conscience, it figures out a way to get even.

You may get sick, you may have all kinds of

relational conflicts, You may sabotage your success. There are all

kinds of things that people do. They don't even realize

why they keep failing in life, why they keep messing

up things. But it is guilt motivation at a deeper,

subconscious level that's causing them to sabotage themselves. Now, God

doesn't want you doing that, and so he says, come

to me, receive my forgiveness through my son Christ, and

no condemnation in Christ.

Does God ever want you to feel guilty?

Yeah, for about a half a second, long enough to

get to him, and then you say, God, I'm sorry,

Please forgive me. And he wipes it out, and he

forgives it, and he forgets it. He throws it in

the deepest part of the ocean. Now, because I am normal,

it doesn't mean that I'm not gonna sin anymore. It

doesn't say there will be no mistakes. You're gonna make

mistakes the rest of your life. It doesn't say there

are now no more sins. You're gonna sin the rest

of your life. It doesn't say there are now no

more errors. You're gonna have errors the rest of your life.

It says no more condemnation. It means even when you

blow it, you're forgiven.

Is that good news. Oh yeah.

You see, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he

didn't just die for the sins you've already committed. He

died for the ones you haven't even committed yet, they're

all covered in the cross. You say, well, why do

I not feel condemned? Then why am I not condemned?

Because Jesus already took the condemnation. That's what he died

for on the cross, for your sins. And there's the

law of the universe of double jeopardy that you can't

be held accountable twice for the same crime. And either

Jesus dies for your sins or you're going.

To pay for me.

See, somebody is going to pay for the wrong you've done.

We live in the world. God is a just God.

Somebody is going to pay for your sins. You just

don't get away for it. Either you pay for them

or God says, let me pay for them. Now, if

you accept what Christ has paid for you, then you're

scot free. There's no judgment on you. If you reject that,

then you'll pay for him yourselves. But God says there's

no condemnation for those in Christ. So what does that mean?

It means that after you've accepted Christ, what happens when

you sin? When you sin, God doesn't get mad at you.

I mean, I even talk to Christians a lot of times.

They think they've done something wrong in the past, and

I go, now, something's happened to them, and they go,

God's getting even with me. God's getting God does not

get even with you. Why because that would be double jeopardy.

That sin that you just committed has already been paid for.

It's been paid for by Christ, so you don't have

to pay for it. It's already been paid for, So

God doesn't when you blow it, God doesn't. He's not

mad at you. He's mad about you. He's already paid

for all your sins, and he just wants you to

confess it and come to him. The Bible says when

Christ died and across all our sins were pardoned. That

means stamped out, paid in full.

Done for.

You don't resurrect them. How long do you remember a

bill that's been paid You don't you forget it. It's

already been paid for.

Now.

What we're talking about here is called salvation. Salvation means

all my sins have been forgiven when I am in Christ,

when I've trusted Him, and I.

Can live guilt free. Now here's an amazing thing.

Even if there was no such thing as heaven or Hell,

and of course there is, but even if there weren't,

it would be worth it giving my life to Christ

just to have a clear conscience so that I could

be joyful. The Bible calls that salvation, and it is

the first source of joy. You're never gonna have joy,

real joy until you experience salvation, the Bible says, and

Saw I'm thirteen verse five. My heart finds joy in

your salvation. My heart finds joy. It is the joy

of being forgiven. It is the joy of freedom of

a clear conscience. Tom, have you ever experienced that? Of

course you have, yes, But talk to me about Tell me.

When I first became a follower of Christ years ago.

Some of you think a million years ago, but it

was quite a few years ago. I was pretty cynical

before I became a follower of Christ. It's one of

the ways I pushed back against the negative feelings inside

of me. And somebody taught me how to follow Christ

and how to pray a prayer and trust him for

a relationship. And I did that, and I didn't understand

all the benefits when I prayed that prayer. I didn't

understand how deeply he would forgive me. But I began

to learn it, and immediately there was this feeling in

my life of peace that I had never had. It

was just this deep sense of everything's all right with

the world. God has a purpose for my life. There's

a future for me. And a lot of it was

about the fact that I was free from guilt in

my life. I've got to remind myself of that all

the time. I mean, today, yesterday, I got to remind

myself that I'm not condemned. It's not like I prayed

a prayer a lot of years ago and then it stuck.

It's got to be a daily reminder. But I know

that at that point that peace came into my life

and it's changed everything.

You know, that's a good point.

It's just reminding yourself no condemnation, no condemnation. You know

what that does, It makes me want to love God more.

If I feel like I'm living in condemnation, I don't

want to love the judge who's condemning me. But if

I realize that I'm under no condemnation.

It makes me want to love God. You were so gracious.

I'll never forget.

Probably thirty five years ago, I was speaking out in

Barstow at a little church and at the end of

the service, a young woman came up to me, tears

streaming down her face, and she said I could never

be forgiven. And I said, what's the problem? She goes,

I had an abortion, And I said, you don't think

God can't forgive that. You don't think Jesus didn't die

for that on the cross. You think that's the unpardonable sin.

Would you like to be free from that? Would you

like to let it.

Go and close the door on the pass? Yes?

I said, well, let me lead you in a prayer.

So we bowed her head and I said, something.

Lord, you know what I've done. You know I really

messed up.

But I'm sorry, and I thank you for dying for

my sin, and I want to trust you to forgive it.

And I asked you to come into my heart and

forgive me. I remember when we finished that prayer, I

looked up and hurt face was.

Ch I mean, radiant.

I'd never seen this, and I looked at it and she said,

I feel clean for the first time. I thought, that's it.

It's a feeling of clean. Well, you know, when you

feel clean, you can feel joy. When you feel dirty,

you don't feel joy. I remember a long time ago,

I was watching a Colombo episode. Everybody remember Colombo. You're

really old if you remember Columbo. And the guest star

that week was Johnny Cash. He was the bad guy.

And by the way, Doyle, do you know the song

that Johnny Cash played to get out of jail?

You know that, don't you? That's it? You know it?

You do know it, all right, every good guitarist knows

that song. Rick, you know that's all Johnny Cash. If finally,

at the end of Colombo, he gets caught and he

gives his classic line. He says, I'm actually glad I

got caught because the guilt is killing me. And I

thought a lot of people in life are being killed

by their guilt. The first reason for joy is no condemnation,

no condemnation at all. God has completely forgiven me. Second

reason I can always be joyful no matter what's going

on in my life is because if I'm in Christ,

God has given me eternal life. God has given me

eternal life that's at the other end, that's about in

the future. And what that means is that death is

not the end, that this is not all there is.

One day you're gonna die and your heart will stop,

but that's not going to be the end of you.

Now, let's just admit it.

If this life is all there was, all there was,

that would be a reason to not be joyful, because

there's a lot of things in life that are pretty sad.

If you have traveled with me around the world and

seen the people that I've seen around the world in

total despair, life is said. In fact, if this life

is all there is, then there's not a whole lot

of reason for joy because if you haven't figured it out,

life's unfair. Life is unfair. God never said it would

be fair. Because of sin, we live on a broken planet.

This is not heaven, where things are done in all

God's way. Here on earth are done our way, and

life is not fair. It's not fair when people are

born with handicaps, it's not fair when women and little

girls are raped, it's not fair when people are murdered,

and all of the things that happen in society. And

if this life was all there is, that would be

pretty tragedy tragic. But the Bible says, the reason we

have joys because we know we're not gonna be here forever.

You're gonna spend sixty eighty, maybe one hundred years, but

that's all. Then you're going into eternity, spend trullions of

years there. And if you have found faith in Christ,

you are in Christ. The Bible says, you're going to

spend eternity with God in heaven. The Bible says this

in verse eleven of Romans eight. It says, the spirit

of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.

Now that's the key. The God's spirit has to be

living in you.

So just as he raised Christ from the dead, he

will give life to your mortal body by this same spirit.

What's your mortal body? Have you looked at yourself in

the mirror lately? You're not half the man you used

to be. Some of us are a little more than

we used to be, but everything is decaying and declining. Baldness, bulges, bifocals,

and other things.

Wow, thank you so much, Pastor for that amazing message. Now,

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