Rick Warren - Being Thankful Even in Bad Times – Part Three

Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible

teaching ministry of Rick Warren. We're pausing our current series

to bring you a special message from Pastor Rick, one

that will help you reflect on God's goodness and grow

a heart of gratitude. And now Rick brings you the

final part of a moving message called being Thankful even

in bad times.

John fourteen says this, Jesus said, I'm going there. He's

talking about heaven. I'm going there to prepare a place

for you. And if I go and prepare a place

for you, I will come back and take you to

be with me that you also may be where I am.

What an incredible promise. Whenever I read that very circle

the phrase prepare a place for you, whenever I read

that I'm going to prepare a place for you. The

Bible says God wanted a family, and the Bible calls

the church the bride of Christ. He's preparing a place

for his bride, those who put their faith in him.

And I always think about how nearly thirty nine years ago,

as a young man, and I fell madly in love

with a woman named Kay Lewis, and I was head

over heels in love with this woman, and we got engaged,

and I lived in La County and she lived up

in Fresno, and I knew I needed to prepare a

place for my bride where we would live together. And

I didn't have a whole lot of money, but I

found the coolest little condo I could find, and of course,

being in the nineteen seventies, that meant had had lime

green shag carpet and burnt orange fixtures. If you remember that,

you're really old. And I remember, over the next several

months of our engagements, scouring because I didn't have any money,

every flea market and every garage sale, trying to find

cool things to put up in that house because I

was preparing that place for my bride, and I wanted

it so badly to be as cool and as beautiful

as I could possibly afford. But it's nothing compared to

the place that Jesus has been preparing for his bride.

You want to know how long God has been preparing

heaven for you, You want to know how long He's

been redecorating Heaven for you. Look at the next verse.

Matthew twenty five, Verse thirty four. Jesus says, then the

King will say, come, you who are blessed by my Father,

take your inheritance. The Kingdom prepared for you. Since the

creation of the world, Holy guacamole, that's a long time

to redecorate. He's been preparing heaven since the creation of

the world. What is heaven going to be? Like? The

Bible says, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither

has entered into the heart of man, the wonderful things

that God has prepared for those who love him. You

can't imagine it. Most people have such a poor idea

of heaven. Who would want to go there? Television always

portrays heaven as completely colorless? Are you kidding me? Who

do you think created color? It's not going to be white.

You're not going to sit in a robe with angels

wings playing a harp on a cloud. That would be hell.

I can't think of anything if that's heaven. I don't

want to go there, honestly, I don't. I don't know

who got that idea. Satan got that idea, that's where

it came from. I mean, think about this. There's a

lot of cool and beautiful things on this planet, and

God created it. I mean, you think about sunrises and

sunsets and beautiful beach landscapes and borah and tall redwood

forests and all the beauty of flowers and colors and green.

The earth is broken and it's still a cool place.

This place is marred by sin. It's why nothing works,

including the environment, and it's still a cool place. Think

about what a place with no sin and no suffering

and no sorrow and no destruction and no global warming

and nothing else, And what's going to be like? We

can't even imagine it. God has been preparing it. In

the CNN interview, Peers asked Kay and I about heaven

and about hope after Matthew's death.

Here's what we said, Is there any sin trick despite

the appolling dispair that you've gone through, isn't any s

of relief as a family that Matthew is now with

God in heaven out of pain.

Yeah. If I didn't have that hope, I would be

in ultimate despair. But we have built our lives, our faith,

our family, our ministry on the belief that because of

Jesus Christ, and because of what He did on the

cross for us, we can have our past forgiven. We

have a purpose for living, and we have a home

in heaven that takes care of my past, my present,

and my future.

How would you like him to be?

Remember?

Oh, my funny, quirky, ridiculously silly, deeply compassioned, had such

a sense of justice. We put on his marker Compassionate Warrior,

and that pretty much sums him up in deep compassion.

You know, we probably received over thirty thousand letters of condolences.

The letters that meant the most to me were the

people that Matthew had led to faith in Christ that

they're gonna be in heaven because of him, And that said,

I know the Lord, I have a relationship with Jesus

because of your son over the years. And I remember

writing in my journal that in God's garden of Grace,

even a broken tree bears fruit. And that was true

in his life. And you know, i'd like you say,

are you happy that it's making a difference? Of course,

to him? I still want my son back. I still

want my son to Dad. But as David said in

Second Samuel, who David lost a son, he said, he

will not come back to me, but I will go

to him. And that is the hope of heaven. That

we have and that has strengthen us even through the

darkest day. You know, David says, when I go through

the valley of the shadow of death, wherever there's a shadow,

there's a light. And so the key to walking through

the valued shadow of death is to turn your back

on the shadow, which is scary, and look at the light.

And that's how you get through it.

Do you feel he's he's here now?

Well, I know that he's in heaven looking down on us.

And we have many loved ones there, my parents, Kay's

mom and dad. And that presence of God is more

important than the presence of Matthew in my life. Is

that I've since the presence of God in my life

very close. That I'm not going through this alone. That's

a comfort.

Ricking Caseby is such an honor and a privilege to

do this interview. Thank you, thanks letting me do it.

And my heart goes out to you. It's a heartbreaking story.

There's hope, but.

There is so important that people know no matter how

desperate they're despair, there is hope. There's and not to

give up.

Thank you both very much. Indeed, thank you, thank you.

No matter what I go through, I know it's not

going to last. And I know that this is not

the end of the story. And I know that God

has prepared a home for me in heaven forever. What

is heaven going to be like? I'll say it again.

The Bible says, I has not seen nor ear heard,

neither hath entered into the heart of man, the wonderful

things that God has prepared for those who love him.

We know that in heaven we will be reunited with

loved once. I have a father in heaven, I have

a mother in heaven, I have a brother in heaven,

I have a son in heaven. I will be reunited

with those who love the Lord and who are there.

I know that we will be released from all pain,

that in heaven there will be no more broken minds

from mental illness. There will be no more broken bodies

that don't work right. There will be no more broken dreams.

There will be no more broken relationships, no more broken communication,

no more broken hearts, no more broken promises.

Who will be released?

The Bible says there will be no more death. There

will be no more pain, no more tears, no sorrow,

no more suffering. We know that we will be rewarded.

The Bible says, according to what you did with what

you were giving. We talked about this last week. Are

you storing up treasure in heaven? Are you spending it

all on yourself? Now? The Bible says, we will be

reassigned that in heaven you're not gonna sit around and

do nothing. There's gonna be things to do. There's gonna

be work projects. Only there's no weeds and no problems

that don't work, and no committees to deal with, no

office politics. That you're gonna enjoy what you do. You're

not gonna sit around just do nothing. The Bible says,

this first Peter, Chapter one, God has reserved for his children. Now,

by the way, let me stop right there. God put

that reservation in a long time ago for you. God

has reserved your place in heaven. God is reserved for

his children, the priceless gift of eternal life. Is everybody

going to be in heaven? Absolutely not. If God let

hitler and axe murders and child molesters and rapists and

genocidal dictators into heaven, it'd be no better than this.

The Bible says, Only his children are going to be

in heaven. Is everybody child of God. No, everybody is

created by God. Everybody is loved by God. God has

never made a person he doesn't want in heaven. God

has never made a person he doesn't have a plan

for their life. But you don't become a child of

God till you choose to join his family. God's not

going to force you to love him. Love only is love.

If I have the choice, then a lot of people

today say, forget you, God, I don't need a savior.

I don't need God. I'm God. I'm gonna be my

own God. I could get to Heaven on my own.

You don't stand a snowball's chance of hell of getting

into Heaven on your own, because it's perfect and you're not,

and neither am I. And the height of ultimate arrogance

is to say that I get to decide how I

go to God's house. Really, you can't earn it, you

can't deserve it, you can't work for it, you can't

be good enough, you can't be religious enough. The only

way you're getting into heaven, friend, is by grace, by

God forgiving you. And you would you saying God, I

need your forgiveness, I need your grace I need you

to save me. That's what Jesus came at Christmas to

do for unto you is born as savior. If you

didn't need a savior, God wouldn't have sent one. There's

no way you're getting into Heaven on your own. You

have to go the way you only get in, and

that is through the grace of God and the Mishaven.

You have to do the almost impossible. You have to

reject the love of God out of pride. I don't

need forgiveness. I don't need a savior. God is reserved

for his children, the priceless gift of eternal life. Now

look at this. It's kept in Heaven for you, pure

and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And

God in his mighty power, will make sure circle that,

make sure that you get there safely. It is the

job of the captain of the cruise line to make

sure you get there safely. It's not your job. It's

not my job to make sure I get to Heaven.

It's God's job. Once I've put my hand in his,

He's not letting go. He will make sure you get

there safely. You see, if I could work my way

to heaven. Then the moment I stopped working, it would

stop working. My salvation would stop working. But since I

don't earn or work for my salvation, since it's simply

a gift, God's not going to take it back. That

is called eternal security. He will make sure that you

get there safely to receive it. It's not based on

my ability, because you are trusting Him. So be truly glad.

I can be grateful even in pain, because I know

I'm going to heaven no matter what happens, and no

matter what I do or what happens. Ever since I

am getting there by God's grace, because I put my

trust in what Jesus did for me. You know, my

greatest comfort has been this fact right here, because I

know that Matthew was not in heaven one second when

all of his questions were answered, and all of his

mental illness and all the struggle and all the stigma,

and all of the pain and all the rejection that

he faced in school was all wiped out, and it

all made sense. And I know that if my son

could talk to me right now from heaven, he would

say this, Dad, you were so wrong. You tried to

explain heaven to me, but it is so much better

than we ever imagined. Dad, you can't believe it. You

have no idea how cool it is here. And I

can't wait for you to get here too and spend

eternity in the loving presence of God. That's why I

can be thankful this Thanksgiving. Two Corinthians for says this.

We often suffer, but we're never crushed. Even when we

don't know what to do. We never give up in

times of trouble. God is with us, and when we're

knocked down, we get up again. We know that God

raised the Lord Jesus back to life, and just as

he raised Jesus, he will also raise us back to

life and will bring us into His presence together. 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 we see now are temporary, but the joys

to come will last forever. If you have not settled

this issue, need to do so right now, because you're

not guaranteed tomorrow, much less next week or next year.

If you were to die tonight and Jesus were to

say to you, why should I let you into my heaven.

What would you say? Do you know the right answer?

It's not Oh, I was trying to be a good person.

I had more good than bad. Sorry, wrong answer. You

need to accept the grace and forgiveness of God in

your life, and you need to turn your life over

to the God who made you. Let's bow our heads.

If you haven't settled that issue. I'm going to lead

a prayer right now and I want you to pray it.

It's the most important words you'll ever say in your life.

It determines eternal destiny. It is the height of arrogance

to think that you can come to God on your

own terms. God has done everything for you. You don't

have to do anything, You just receive it by faith.

So would you pray this prayer? Dear God, First, I

want to thank you for my ungratefulness. Everything I have

is a gift from you, and I don't express that

gratitude very often. I thank you that you have a

good plan for my life. I thank you that you've

promised to never leave me. I thank you that when

people are working against me, you want to work in me.

I thank you that there is a hope of heaven

in eternity and you preparing a home that you want

me to be a part of. Dear God, there's no

way I can get into heaven on my own effort.

I need a savior, and so I humbly ask you, Jesus,

to forgive all my sins, to show me your grace

and to accept me into your family. I want to

be your child, and as best I know how, I

want to learn to love you and trust you the

rest of my life. And I want you to take

me safely to heaven. And I pray this in your name. Amen.

You know if you just prayed that prayer for the

very first time, or you just recommitted your life to

Jesus again today, would you let me know about it.

There's something real about sharing your commitment. So write me

Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick, I

prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ.

And I'll send you some material that will help you

on your journey with Jesus. And I'll also pray for you.

God bless you.

What life giving message from Pastor Reg. Now let's join

Reg with one last closing thought.

Hi, this is Pastor Rick. You know there's so much

we can be grateful for during Thanksgiving. No matter how

things go wrong in your life, there's still something you

can thank God for. But let's remember those who are

less fortunate. Reach out to somebody with the love of

God this Thanksgiving, maybe with a meal or a blanket,

or invite them to church. Think about what you can

do to let them know they're not forgotten during this

season of giving. Thanks God bless you all and have

a great Thanksgiving.

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.